1950's Football Not Very Good

[Highlandwolf2]

I have watched a lot of 50s and 60s football on YouTube recently (mainly via subscriber:- the heavyroller) and what is clear is that tactics were rudimentary, goalkeeping generally poor and some legends was not as good as I expected. Although accepting that camera positioning was poor and often struggled to keep up with play. Commentary usually awful. Sad disappointment.

 

[WW1963]

I have watched a lot of 50s and 60s football on YouTube recently (mainly via subscriber:- the heavyroller) and what is clear is that tactics were rudimentary, goalkeeping generally poor and some legends was not as good as I expected. Although accepting that camera positioning was poor and often struggled to keep up with play. Commentary usually awful. Sad disappointment.

It was great for those that were there watching. Today's game will look like rubbish in 70 years time.

 

[chignalwolf]

I have watched a lot of 50s and 60s football on YouTube recently (mainly via subscriber:- the heavyroller) and what is clear is that tactics were rudimentary, goalkeeping generally poor and some legends was not as good as I expected. Although accepting that camera positioning was poor and often struggled to keep up with play. Commentary usually awful. Sad disappointment.

Know where your coming from but try wearing those heavy leather boots with nailed in studs .a football that weighed a ton when wet, a pitch like a ploughed up field,
I would love to see how these modern day cheating poser's would get on,
and i would like to see the players from that era playing on these billiard table pitches,
plus our goalkeepers were the best in the World in those days,.
Unless of course your talking Scottish football back in the day LOL.

 

[cowshed]

It was great to be there and witness the games, when 5 goals were scored on a regular basis, wonder when the present team will, if ever, score 5 goals again?

 

[Supadavewolf]

Was it the 50s or the 60s when they replaced jumpers with goalposts?

 

[Frank Lincoln]

It is very difficult to make comparisons. The game has changed a lot in the last 20 years, never mind 60. The teams and players around then in the top division were the best in the country, and given modern day training, diets and technology and they would be as good as today's players. As has been mentioned, they wore heavy boots, not carpet slippers, and I would like to see a player bend it like Beckham with the cannonballs that were footballs back then.

 

[Golden Moth]

As others have said conditions were very different in those days so comparisons don't work well.
The whole feel of going to the football was different too. Difficult to put into words........... "more earthy" is perhaps an appropriate generalisation.
Little details that come to mind.......... the crisps weren't salted, the salt came in a little twist of blue paper inside the bag; kids (including me) sat on the wall right next to the pitch waiting to get knocked unconscious, or worse, by the ball or an off balance player (amazingly can't recall any serious incident of this nature though); chips were wraped in old editions of the E&S and of course at half time Molineux looked like a gigantic chimney.

 

[rincewind]

Many modern players would struggle with 50s football and vice versa. Given the way modern footballers react to tackles today, the trainer would need a fully kitted out ICU department if players still tackled as they did even in the 80s!

 

[Jamwolf]

Can't speak for the 50's but the pitches in the 70's were atrocious. No wonder we took route one.

 

[rincewind]

Can't speak for the 50's but the pitches in the 70's were atrocious. No wonder we took route one.

Try and find pictures of the old Baseball ground in Derby!

 

[Supadavewolf]

Try and find pictures of the old Baseball ground in Derby!

Here you go

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

Here you go

got it to perfection,could almost be there!

 

[Highlandwolf2]

Baseball Ground after a light shower.......

 

[clivewolves]

One thing that should be taken into consideration when looking at football in the 1950s, particularly the early '50s, is the impact world war two had on the sport. A generation of potential was lost. I read Stan Cullis' autobiography a few months ago, and he talks about it in there. So many young men who could have played or coached the next generation of footballers were busy fighting a war. Plus the financial cost of the war impacted football.

I sometimes wonder if covid will have a similar impact, although not as substantial. Many young children have lost a year of their development.

 

[Burton Wolf]

It was great for those that were there watching. Today's game will look like rubbish in 70 years time.

No worries there then. None of us will be here to see it.

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

No worries there then. None of us will be here to see it.

cryogenics?

 

[Black Country Wanderer]

Your talking of a different generation, and possibly a different game in all but name
I was bought up in the 50s and started playing with old case balls and boots,believe me Neves would be complaining about those lol
It was far more of a contact sport,and half time was a glass of beer and 3 Woodbines
If you could kick the ball 20 yards on a wet day you would be in the England squad next day
Any injury was treated with a wet sponge and "gerron with it lad" from the bucket man
Of course todays game is far faster and the players are athletes compared to then,but there were skillful players around ,and dont be fooled that todays game is better,its just vastly different

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

Your talking of a different generation, and possibly a different game in all but name
I was bought up in the 50s and started playing with old case balls and boots,believe me Neves would be complaining about those lol
It was far more of a contact sport,and half time was a glass of beer and 3 Woodbines
If you could kick the ball 20 yards on a wet day you would be in the England squad next day
Any injury was treated with a wet sponge and "gerron with it lad" from the bucket man
Of course todays game is far faster and the players are athletes compared to then,but there were skillful players around ,and dont be fooled that todays game is better,its just vastly different

hancocks when he tried could hit the bar from the half way line(not during the game but just to show he could do it)
I for one miss a 5 man forward line and scoring 100 goals a season

 

[Ian]

It was great for those that were there watching. Today's game will look like rubbish in 70 years time.

Todays games look like rubbish now...... Var, time wasting, diving, rolling around feigning injury, lack of tackling.

 

[Dr Wolfenstein]

I remember the first organised adult game I saw between two works teams at Elwells ground in Wednesbury-late 50s or early 60s. The penalty area was like a war zone. Opposing forwards hitting the goalkeeper either in mid air or on the ground, with retribution sure to follow the next time the action moved to the box, with keepers taking no prisoners. Not for the faint-hearted.

 

[WV10Wolf]

Absolutely pointless comparing different eras. The way the game was played 50/60 years ago was a product of the heavy pitches that had no grass on them come November, the heavy ball, that just got heavier, heavyweight kits that again go heavier when you sweated or it rained, the fact that players were allowed to tackle harder, primitive training techniques and virtually no special diets.

If the wolves teams of the 50s/60s/70s played with today’s rules, with today’s equipment, on today’s pitches, with today’s training techniques and today’s diets, don’t think for a second the class of 2021 would win convincingly.

 

[Guzeppi]

Nostalgia. The last hurrah of old age.

 

[pacamac]

Todays games look like rubbish now...... Var, time wasting, diving, rolling around feigning injury, lack of tackling.

This! I genuinely don’t even like football anymore, just love Wolves and because of that can’t bring myself to break away from a game/business that 90% of the time I despise.

 

[The Professional]

cryogenics?

Don’t see what the droid from Red Dwarf has to do with anything .

 

[Coffs Wolf]

I have watched a lot of 50s and 60s football on YouTube recently (mainly via subscriber:- the heavyroller) and what is clear is that tactics were rudimentary, goalkeeping generally poor and some legends was not as good as I expected. Although accepting that camera positioning was poor and often struggled to keep up with play. Commentary usually awful. Sad disappointment.

If you'd been barged into the back of your own net by Nat Lofthouse and his ilk you'd be "generally poor" as well.

 

[Darren M (Dazza)]

It was great for those that were there watching. Today's game will look like rubbish in 70 years time.

Yep agree. Have you tried watching 90’s football. It’s a right laugh. They pretended to be pro footballers more like a field full of donkeys. Try crap 90s football on Twitter

 

[Big Nosed Wolf]

I think if any period is watched then most games would be considered poor. Many think our football at times this season has been poor. It's the way football always is. Watching past recordings also depends which games were recorded. Many more games have been lost than recorded especially from 60 or 70 years ago.

Rules have changed and will continue to do so, altering the way football is played. Mainly today to prevent serious injury and few could argue that this isn't a good thing. Playing surfaces are one of the better developments and if past players played on them today they would seem even better. Often on recorded images back then didn't show up the divots and uneven surfaces even on the 'better' playing surfaces.

The type of ball used had changed by the sixties any way. As a six year old in 1959 we used an old lace up playing on 'the patch' (a field used as a mulit-purpose recreation facility near our homes) but by the time I was playing for school and district in 1966 the ball was the 'new' kind without a 'bladder' and laces.

As with the general population as the decades pass most become fitter and more healthy post war as social changes created better diet, less real poverty and better access to healthcare for all. This is reflected in the way footballers fitness developed.

Outstanding skills with a football remain the same though whichever period you choose. In 1958 a 17year old Pele made his entrance on the World Stage for example. He continued to astound throughout the sixties culminating in the 1970 World Cup. A player who took the game to new heights. He was the first to try and score from the half way line, something that was achieved by several players later. Watching Pele and Brazil in those years was a joy. Pele remains as one of the greatest ever. if not the greatest and he played his ;ast game for Brazil in 1971. Still holds the record for goals scored and still the only player to win the World Cup three times. There's footage of him which shows he. and other Brazilian players would be perfectly at home today. The 'nutmeg' was used by Pele as a 'normal way to beat players.

He wasn't the only from those two decades. George Best started out in 1963 and produced breathtaking ability in that decade. Another who on today's surfaces would look even more scary when playing against.

In Wolverhampton meanwhile Peter Broadbent was inspiring the latter mentioned, while a young Peter Knowles remembers watching Broadbent as Knowles swept the South Bank as youngster and thought it looked like he was 'floating' above the pitch with ball at feet. Knowles then went on to do things with a football (not recorded but I saw them) I have still to see a player in a Wolves shirt emulate. Neves being the closest. particularly 'that' goal he scored in his first season here.

Dave Wagstaffe. Anyone watching in the sixties would see a player who was often doubled upon, often hacked, but always on some terrible surfaces, able to turn players inside out and get in crosses of uncanny accuracy, He also managed to score a few, usually of the 'wow' kind.What he would do on today's surfaces is mouth watering.

Like every season there were awful games and if they were the ones recorded then it would look poor.

 

[Kebab Warrior]

Yep agree. Have you tried watching 90’s football. It’s a right laugh. They pretended to be pro footballers more like a field full of donkeys. Try crap 90s football on Twitter

This is very true. I was watching Real v Athletico with Beckham and the galacticos on YouTube recently. Christ it was crap football. Nearly every pass Beckham hit went to the opposition or was in the air so long it ended up a hospital ball despite looking flash. Obviously Zidane, Carlos etc had amazing ability, but the overall standard of football and fitness looked garbage - not how I fondly recall that era at all.
Most of all the players looked far too big and heavy.
I couldn’t believe how antiquated it all looked. Or how old I now am...

 

[Black Country Wanderer]

This is very true. I was watching Real v Athletico with Beckham and the galacticos on YouTube recently. Christ it was crap football. Nearly every pass Beckham hit went to the opposition or was in the air so long it ended up a hospital ball despite looking flash. Obviously Zidane, Carlos etc had amazing ability, but the overall standard of football and fitness looked garbage - not how I fondly recall that era at all.
Most of all the players looked far too big and heavy.
I couldn’t believe how antiquated it all looked. Or how old I now am...

If you feel old remembering Beckham play imagine how i feel having Ferenc Puskas as my boyhood hero,(Gooogle him if you must lol)

 

[Mugwump]

Different game then. Its a vastly different game even from the 70's. A lot of those old superstars i dont think would look as good today. Tactically the game is a lot sharper and they wouldnt get the time and space. I know we will get the argument that a good player would be a good player in any era, but we just dont know. Some of these blokes might not have it in them to adapt.

 

[clivewolves]

I wish Fabio Silva could head the ball like a striker from the 1950s.

The clip below is probably a good example of the good and bad of 50s football. The the build-up play for the second goal at 1 minute 35 seconds is as good as any in the modern game, but then Lofthouse basically assaults the goalkeeper.

I would say off the field the coaches were just as innovative as any modern coach.

 

[Big Nosed Wolf]

I wish Fabio Silva could head the ball like a striker from the 1950s.

The clip below is probably a good example of the good and bad of 50s football. The the build-up play for the second goal at 1 minute 35 seconds is as good as any in the modern game, but then Lofthouse basically assaults the goalkeeper.

I would say off the field the coaches were just as innovative as any modern coach.

A very good example of the good, bad and ugly and I agree. The build up was as good as anything today, The complaints today that 'you can't touch the goalkeeper' are null and void when you see what the rules allowed back then. Those sort of challenges were dangerous and the rules needed changing for the safety of all playing.

 

[clivewolves]

If any has the chance to read Stan Cullis' autobiography you might be surprised about how little football has changed since the 1950s. Of course, the odd thing has changed such as what is and isn't offside and the back-pass rule, but many of the things that were talked about then are still discussed today.

 

[paulhick]

The trouble with watching the old games is the fact that it’s not the same game anymore. Yes it’s football but the tactics,speed of play and player skills are totally different to each era. Modern day football is light years ahead of what was being played even in the 80’s/early 90’s. Look at when cruyff pulled off that dummy,the whole world sat up in awe as it had never been seen before whereas nowadays if a winger doesn’t do a step over,drag back and some form of trick every time they burst forward people don’t rate them.

 

[Highlandwolf2]

If you'd been barged into the back of your own net by Nat Lofthouse and his ilk you'd be "generally poor" as well.

I think you are correct. The likes of Lofthouse, Milburn, Dixie Dean, Lawton, Bobby Smith etc put themselves about and at a time when the goalkeepers got pretty much no protection. They often came from tough backgrounds (at least three of those named worked in mines before coming footballers) and so playing hard was nothing to them.

 

[OLDGOLD]

Nostalgia. The last hurrah of old age.

Nostalgia.?..ain't what it used to be.
But then it never was....

 

[Contrarian]

I wish Fabio Silva could head the ball like a striker from the 1950s.

The clip below is probably a good example of the good and bad of 50s football. The the build-up play for the second goal at 1 minute 35 seconds is as good as any in the modern game, but then Lofthouse basically assaults the goalkeeper.


I would say off the field the coaches were just as innovative as any modern coach.

Good clip! Dead right on that goal. I didn't realise the "dummy" was a move back then. But yes, no way should that goal have stood. Wouldn't even need VAR to disallow it.

On coaches and tactics, from what I've read from earlier years (and experienced from the 70's), you'd have to differentiate English/British football from Continental. It's a generalisation, but there is truth in the idea that the British game was based around strength and mroe direct play. The tactical innovations and more skillful players were happening abroad, in Italy, Spain and Brazil and so on. They would filter gradually into the British game, of course.

Our heavy defeat to Barcelona in the late 50's is also on Youtube. Barcelona ran rings round us and from those clips, it looks like there really is something to the stereotypes and generalisations. Not to say we didn't produce *some* skillful players, it's the matter of degree, And as has been pointed out, by the 60's we were producing more of them, though still 10 to 20 years behind the major foreign footballing nations. That Cruyff turn, it had not been seen in England, but was not so surprising on the continent.

British football improved in quality as the European influence filtered through in the late 70's and 80's. Though whether that makes for a better spectacle, is subjective. There were tons of goals scored in the 50's and I bet there were far more really entertaining 5-4 type blood'n'thunder matches then , that would be better to watch than 2 typical Premier League teams nullifying each other today, and basically just diving for penalties and free kicks to snatch a 1-0. (the irony being that that was how we viewed Italian football in the 80's - and hated it!)

 

[chignalwolf]

If any has the chance to read Stan Cullis' autobiography you might be surprised about how little football has changed since the 1950s. Of course, the odd thing has changed such as what is and isn't offside and the back-pass rule, but many of the things that were talked about then are still discussed today.

i remember Sir Stan Cullis telling his players not to celebrate when scoring as it left the opposition thinking Wolves found it easy to score against them, in the following 5 seasons we scored over a 100 goals in 4 of them, genius. or was it 3 season out of 4..?

 

[Olivergoldblack]

To be fair 50s football was probably super futuristic compared to 1890s football

 

[Kebab Warrior]

If you feel old remembering Beckham play imagine how i feel having Ferenc Puskas as my boyhood hero,(Gooogle him if you must lol)

Oh I’m a lot older than that (Beckham era). I remember being *******ed by Dad for pretending to be Maradona in the garden in the 86 World Cup and I have vague memories of 82 as well.
But sadly no, not old enough for Puskas.