Laptop football is ruining the game – Gavin Hunt

Hunt was speaking after their 1-1 Betway Premiership draw against TS Galaxy at the Danie Craven stadium last night, stretching their unbeaten record in the league to six games since his arrival at the club in January.  

The experienced coach blasted how modern football is data-driven and went as far as saying it has ruined the game. 

"So I never came out and said, 'Well, I play modern football now,' which is some guy sitting with a laptop and he's a modern footballer – and these people are ruining the game," said Hunt.

"They ruin the game because a lot of judgement's being made from laptops, and there's no feel and smell and eye to see what it needs, because that laptop is not going to tell you to make a change now with five minutes to go, do we stick or do we go with two strikers?

"And there's too much of that going on in football, and it's destroying the game because – a famous coach always told me , 'Go watch a man work on the training ground and then tell me if he's a coach or not. How he prepares his team from Monday to Friday.'

"So if you want to come to my team, how are we preparing from Monday to Friday, what scenarios are we doing? What situations [are being simulated], not just generic stuff.

"So the game and modern football has got lost – football's got to lead data, data can't lead football."

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He continued his rant about the lack of goalmouth action due to most coaches opting to deploy only one out-and-out striker in the name of modern football. 

"There's nothing better than seeing the ball inside the box, and there's goal mouth action – because otherwise you're sitting at home and your colleagues are mouthing off about how many games they've played.

"[They talk about] they did this five years ago and they talk, and then there's a shot at goal – that's the [television] commentary you hear in South Africa because there's not enough goal mouth action, and I like goal mouth action, I'm from that [school].

"Modern football is that, don't tell me modern football isn't that – so I agree with you totally, once we went two strikers, it was a different game, and we had more penetrations, there was more thrust, but it also leaves us a bit short in midfield sometimes."