Is the game becoming too much about team collective and passing patterns while individual brilliance is slowly dying?

These are my answers to a thread on Twitter, which you can find here: https://twitter.com/_COACHlife/status/1350819792530321409

I don't think individual brilliance is dying. The game has evolved, and thus what individual brilliance is displayed has evolved too.

For instance, there are now tons of top level keepers who play like this. Sweeper keepers, who dribble out of pressure, who can ping balls, that's a level of individual brilliance that has far surpassed what went before it. 

There are plenty of top level keepers with passing ability that can rival that of outfield players. This is a massive improvement in individual brilliance. 

Some of the passes by De Bruyne are a work of art.

But because humans are complex adaptive systems working in a very dynamic ever changing environment, the brilliance now is much more about the reading of time and space than the skill or flair. Defences are tighter, space is limited, the fame is faster.

Compare these pictures taken in modern football...

...to old football, and there is clearly way more space. Doesn't help that the TV camera is zoomed in. Players have to cover more grass, and be able to execute more skills. There's not many specialists anymore. Players have to be a high level in many areas.

When Pele was playing, the players didn't have analysis, S&C etc. They were not human machines that were pushed to their peak physically in the same way they are now. Pele had a couple more inches of space and a few milliseconds more time. Makes a huge difference at that level.

When you see goals like this from Arsenal, the individual brilliance of several players combines. Each one had to have exceptional timing, vision, awareness, anticipation, and technique. They come together like a dance or a symphony.

Go back only a few years to see how goal of the month competitions have become less bangers and more team moves. Because time and space has reduced, so players are less able to have the time for long shots and volleys.

And also because the analysis now shows that long shots are high risk, and crosses even worse. The turnovers produced lead to more goals conceded from their failed attempts than goals scored from successful attempts. So teams get closer to the goal to score.

This means defences defend deeper and more compact to deny that space. This primes defending teams better for counters. Likewise, teams need to make a lot of passes to move these deep defences to create the necessary space to score.

Due to the defending team being so ready to counter, and the attacking team needing to spread out more to create chances, the attacking team is seriously vulnerable. That leads them to playing more low risk passes to avoid turnovers and counters. 

When the layman watches a genius like Xavi, and I have this problem with soccer parents in the US, they just see a guy make a relatively short pass. They perceive what he does as easy. 

It's easy because he makes it easy. Before the ball arrives, he's gone to a space to receive, he's identified his next movement, he's got his body ready, he's positioned himself ready to perceive and deceive, and this is all before he even takes a touch. 

When he takes a touch, it prepares the ball so well for what he wants to do next. And that touch can even be to bait an opponent, thus creating more space for himself or a teammate. Then he plays a simple pass with the side of the foot to a teammate. Easy, right?

But that pass comes from having analysed space, positioning of teammates and defenders, the movement of everyone around him, and then it is executed to perfection. With each pass, he transmits to his teammate what to do next, with the weight, dip, spin, angle.

 It's all so subtly brilliant. But not always recognised or appreciated. So did Ronaldinho decline or did football evolve around him?