For a long time long ball tactics were the baseline coaching model for up and coming British coaches and managers getting their coaching badges. It made sense given that the majority of coaches were never going to coach at a level higher than sunday league so they were taught to set up their teams in a way that wasn’t reliant on high technical skill from the players. Essentially just teach players how to play a long pass and put a couple of big strong players up front to pressure the defenders.

However, even the top level managers all started their coaching badges at the same point so this style of football filtered right through to the top levels in Britain. It’s been said that had Messi been born in England he probably would never have made it as a top level player due to his size. As a small player he likely would have flown under the radar (no pun intended) in his youth academy days and not been given the opportunities and game time to develop that a bigger player would have. He didn’t fit the mould of what English coaches were trained to look out for at the time and therefore would probably have been ignored until it was too late to turn him into the player he had the potential to become.