Argentina manager, Lionel Scaloni has come out to use Lionel Messi as an example to prove his claim that modern football tactics are damaging the game. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.
According to him, the reason there are not enough dribblers in the game anymore is because coaches teach footballers to pass the ball as quickly as possible from a very young age.
Lionel Messi
Scaloni added that telling a 8 year old kid to focus on making diagonal passes will ruin the child’s creativity on the pitch, unlike young Messi who was always allowed to express himself.
His words, “Of course, there are no dribblers. There are no dribblers because as soon as they receive the ball you say ‘Pass it!’. Imagine if Messi when he was eight years old had been told all the time ‘Pass it!’ by his coaches, we wouldn’t have him today. It’s impressive. Because football has become such a big thing, everyone reads, studies, and thinks that with that they can manage. You tell a child of 7 or 8 years old to make the diagonal, to cover…. He’s seven years old! Let him play ball, let him make mistakes, and when he’s 14 or 15 we’ll start correcting him. It’s a message for the future. This is a sport and the beauty of football should not be lost.