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As Roman Abramovich and Roman Calderon talk about the importance of playing beautiful football and winning at the same time, I wonder whether it is the right philosophy:
I mean do the record books mention who played the best kind of football? History won't talk about the beautiful football that Real Madrid played in the Gallacticos era; the records will only show that it was a trophy less and largely disappointing period in the history of Real Madrid.
I have been a Chelsea fan ever since I first saw Gianfranco Zola and Co. produce some dazzling displays in the Premiership. The team that had Zola, Gianluca Vialli, Tore Andre Flo, Frank Lebeouf, and Marco di Matteo among others played "beautiful football."
But that squad never won the Premiership. While Jose Mourinho's men, the likes of Petr Cech, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Claude Makelele, Ricardo Carvalho, John Terry, and Arjen Robben, will forever be remembered as champions.
For two seasons, Chelsea cruised to the Premiership title. They were simply unstoppable in the league and reached a Champions League semifinal. The 4-3-3 formation enabled Chelsea to have an excellent, almost goal-resistable defensive line, with the two wingers producing some good touches and nice dribbling.
During Mourinho's reign at Chelsea, he showed the world that possession football is the winning formula; it is simply because when a team has the ball, it can score and will never concede.
Surely as a football fan, I will always love to watch beautiful football, but why would a club owner care about the kind of football his team is playing when he is winning trophies?
So, enough about beautiful football, the most beautiful thing in football is winning!
8 comments Last one added 6 months ago — Leave a Comment
Dakota Rubin 11 months ago
For the most part I agree with what you are saying. I think it is a very important point to make and while watching Chelsea matches as a unbiased spectator was skull numbing, I cannot deny that it worked.
But this summer at the Euros, in Spain, we saw a team that played beautiful football—with their one-touch passing and precision runs—but what made them so good was their relentless position. This was most obvious during the final against Germany when, with 10 minutes remaining, Spain controlled all the possession and looked to be the team down by a goal looking for an equalizer.
To a certain extent, teams that possess the ball for much of the game like Chelsea usually don't play beautiful football but I think Spain was a real exception and that is part of what made their run so fantastic.
Really good article.
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Shyam Parthasarathi 11 months ago
You're right - but only in parts.. in football there is a winner and a loser, but unfortunately, I don't know how many of us really admired what Chelsea did in those two seasons - no disrespect meant, they played functional football and gained respect for their discipline, but nothing more.. so I think winning while playing good football is always better - and that's what teams should try to strive for.
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Brad Simkulet 11 months ago
Winning while playing beautiful football is certainly better than winning while playing ugly football, but winning while playing ugly football is also undeniably better than losing playing beautiful football. If you can play beautiful and win, it's good. If you play beautiful and lose, not so good. If you play beautiful and lose forever you must play for Spurs.
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illya mclellan 11 months ago
bollocks.
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Maire Ofeire 9 months ago
You won't be shocked when I say I disagree. Manchester United and Spain both won playing really good football so it can be done and it will again by ARSENAL UNDER WENGER :-)
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Tahira Adams 9 months ago
Ok that's your view Zahi...but I think there are teams that won playing beautifully. I do agree that the teams that rough it out win most of the time, but, trust me attractive teams have won as well. I personally a love teams that play creative and unpredictable football.
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Zahi Sahli 9 months ago
Yeah I know. You're right. Milan, Real and Barcelona (Ronaldinho, Etoo, deco and messi produced some of the best displays ever) have won playing beautiful football. And I don't mind if teams play well and win, that would be great (perfect actually).
However, playing beautiful football has to be not the priority. The priority is for winning. If you have a team that can play attacking football and arent excellent in defense and win (like Barca did before), then you should play attacking football. But, winning is always the priority.
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xavi gonzalez 6 months ago
People dont talk about liverpool winning the cl. Because they played ugly. Everyone talks about barca 2006. Its a matter of philosophy and to what extent you will go to win. The purpose of this sport is to entertain. So if you think that the priority is to only win then, you are missing a big part of it. This sport was made with the ideal of who could win at the beautiful game.
But fouling and playing with brute force and aerial balls and to then see who can run the fastest and hit the other guy the hardest is not what this game is about. When English teams play there is no expression of talent. This is not a game of who is strongest or who is fastest. This is a game of backheels, of touches of delicate passes. Your philosophy of winning at any cost is making all the youngsters concentrate on running faster or lifting more weights and is sucking the joy from the game. No more Ronaldinhos will be produced if this mentality of win at all cost continues. I am glad that in Catalunya we rather lose than play ugly football. Play beautiful - Joga Bonito
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