Bassett decries snail-paced football, VAR drama and xG culture

Veteran English football figure Dave Bassett says his love for the game is fading as he watches what he calls snail-paced modern football. In an interview with Daily Mail Sport, the 81-year-old former Wimbledon, Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest manager described his growing sense that the sport has changed beyond his liking. He also conducted a straw poll among friends and former colleagues, some still active in football, and found broad alignment with his concerns. He noted that long-standing season-ticket holders at Premier League clubs are increasingly choosing grassroots, women's football, or even rugby union over top-flight matches.

Bassett cited a suite of changes he says have dulled the spectacle: an unrelenting emphasis on possession and snail-paced build-up; passing the ball around for its own sake; and a fixation on data and performance metrics. He argued that when a team is praised for hundreds of completed passes but sits bottom of the table, while defenders and goalkeepers touch the ball more often than players in attacking areas, something is wrong. 'The game has changed and I’m not sure in a good way,' he told Daily Mail Sport. 'The unrelenting emphasis on possession for a start. Snail-paced build-up. Passing the ball around for the sake of it, coupled with the obsession with data and invented measures of performance. It makes the game fundamentally dull to watch.' He added: 'When a team gets praised for hundreds of completed passes but is bottom of the league; when centre halves and goalkeepers have the most touches of the ball, and usually in areas where you’re unlikely to score from, something is just wrong.' He also pointed to divers, time-wasters and penalty-box grapplers, along with VAR and the academy system, as elements dragging the sport down. 'I watched Newcastle against Barcelona and they’re all telling us how it’s been amazing to be there and eulogising about the most basic stuff,' he said. 'A lot of the commentators and pundits are like that, building the game up.'

But Bassett's dismay isn't limited to the present; he recalled his own era of innovation. He was among the first managers to embrace video technology, recording games to study opponents and splice tapes for players while devising plans to topple bigger rivals. Now he says those tools are used to measure and over-analyze, rather than to sharpen edge and tempo. 'Data is useful to coaches because you want to know where you’re strong and where you’re losing the ball and where teams are punishing you. But pressing? That’s what we used to call winning the ball back as quick as possible.'

Time in football matches has shrunk; Bassett notes that this Premier League season has seen the ball in play for the lowest time since 2010-11. He argues that time-wasting, feigning injuries, and slow play are widespread. 'Feigning head injuries to stop a counter-attack' he said, adding that opponents often delay at throw-ins, free kicks and corners, with the goalkeeper lingering with the ball at his feet. 'That’s slow play, that’s not entertainment. That’s boring. Entertainment is tackles, crosses and shots on goal. Teams looking to score. Fans are paying more money than ever to watch football.'

Bassett laments that his teams were known for tackles and crosses and for being dangerous at set-pieces. He criticizes the current habit of players and managers “being the officials” by delaying actions and wasting time. 'Spurs take an age over a free-kick, but they all do,' he said, before pointing to other teams. 'Newcastle — there’s nothing wrong with the right back going to the left wing to take a corner because he’s got the best delivery, but he doesn’t run across, he walks. They’re all as bad as each other.' He described the ritual after goals as teams massing in a corner and then slowly returning to the halfway line, a pause he timed at three or four minutes on one occasion. He notes that such delays persist even while VAR officials verify goals upstairs.

'What we were told was a system to correct clear and obvious errors is now two referees at Stockley Park trying desperately to find some minor or technical infringement of the rules, often going back a long time before a goal was actually scored,' Bassett continued. 'Why does it take more than one VAR? Why do they need an assistant VAR? It leads to yet more discussion, slowing the game even more. In cricket, the third umpire calmly comes to his own conclusion.' He added that referees should address the wrestling in the penalty area with tougher discipline. 'They never seem to do anything about the wrestling in the penalty area. The players will carry on doing it as long as they can get away with it. If the referee booked five or six for pushing, that would stop. Zero tolerance.'

For so many people, VAR has been a joy-sapping innovation. New Nottingham Forest boss Ange Postecoglou raged against it while at Spurs. Eberechi Eze, then of Crystal Palace, scored a wonderful free-kick against Chelsea earlier this season only for the goal to be disallowed by VAR. Earlier this month, Burnley manager Scott Parker bemoaned technological advances removing ‘raw emotion’ from football and making it too ‘sterile.’ VAR is one of the last safe areas where managers can still say what they feel and have a good grumble. More often, they are wary of causing offense to their players, board or supporters. 'Post-match interviews are bland,' says Bassett. 'I sympathise with managers. Society has changed. They have to be careful not to say the wrong thing at a time when they’re under stress and haven’t had time to analyse the game properly. 'Half-time interviews are a joke. I realise TV companies have invested a lot of money and expect more access, but I feel sorry for the managers on that one. They’re frightened to make a mistake. You can’t come out and say some of the things I used to say. You can’t show too much personality. It’s safer to be technical. As viewers you don’t learn anything. You can’t really blame them for playing it safe. They don’t want a call in the morning from HR or anyone accusing them of damaging the brand. It’s all quite boring.'

This sanitisation process permeates throughout modern coaching, especially in the academies. 'The academy system doesn’t allow for the creation of maverick players,' says Bassett. 'Coaches are not encouraged to raise their voices in case it’s classed as bullying and young players can’t handle criticism, they take it all so personally, so you can’t test their character. 'I hear of coaches with less than 18 months' experience, university graduates who should still be playing the game, not coaching it, in important academy roles. They can learn to put on drills but there’s a hell of a lot more to coaching than that.' Burnley boss Scott Parker has bemoaned technological advances removing ‘raw emotion’ from football and making it too ‘sterile.’

Bassett isn’t out of touch. He is out at games most weekends. On Saturday he was at QPR as they beat Stoke. He tunes into televised games regularly and hasn’t lost his sense of humour. He predicts his scathing critique of the modern game will be met with replies about sending him off to the Natural History Museum but he is no longer in the mood to stay silent while watching a game he has loved for so long change beyond recognition.