Quote Originally Posted by Tuerto View Post
In my opinion,i don't think that many footballers study the game or actually care about it, it's a job The few i know or knew have little interest in football after playing.

One thing i will say is that an ex pro can see what a player is trying to do, or when a team mate doesn't do something to help the person in possession. A situation where us as fans may blame the player with the ball, but in fact, his team mate didn't make the run needed or didn't pull a defender away etc I suppose that any one of us who do a job for a long period of time will understand it better than those that don't.
The players drill a lot on the training pitch these days and they are given tactical charts to study, etc. A simple pass may baffle some people, but it's usually part of a more complex move.