The Premier League’s intensity arms race is killing the art of football

Manchester United away at Leeds, the red rose against the white, a classic fixture of English football. Such a game is a big attraction even before you consider the circumstances – the morbid spectacle of the latest out-of-his-depth Manchester United manager crumbling under the pressure of bad results, while struggling to manage the fallout of Lisandro Martinez’s attack on the club’s malfunctioning hierarchy.The game ended in a draw that did little to improve Michael Carrick’s position. The only thing that really stood out about the match was how bad it was. All the players were running around too fast – at least, the pace at which they were trying to play appeared to be beyond their technical ability. Neither team could string five passes together. The game was just an endless sequence of scraps and tussles all over the pitch, with both teams’ main attacking idea being to get the break from a lucky bounce and flood forward into the unexpected gaps. It wasn’t just the two Uniteds at Elland Road that produced absolutely appalling football. Brentford’s game against Liverpool was similar. Arsenal’s trip to Nottingham Forest was grimmer still. READ MOREThe demands of the current generation of Premier League coaches for ceaseless physical competition all over the pitch have created an absolute wasteland for imagination, creativity and skill. Liam Delap’s performance for Forest against Arsenal should be studied in this context. He spent much of the game battling under high balls against Gabriel and Ezri Konsa. Often he won these duels, whereupon he would turn and blast a cross into the stands, or dribble a 20-yard shot at David Raya. He never looked like scoring, but he kept battling as fiercely in the closing minutes as he had in the beginning. He had the energy to run in behind Konsa in injury time, but not the technique to get his shot off early enough to beat Konsa’s recovery challenge. This is the profile of a £50 million centre forward in today’s Premier League.Liam Delap of Nottingham Forest is challenged by Gabriel of Arsenal. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images Player of the Match was Noni Madueke, another technically limited powerhouse, as he had scored the winning goal past Mats Sels with a deflected shot. This is what the Premier League is now. An ultraphysical league that ruthlessly selects for ultraphysical footballers no matter their other shortcomings. This is good news for players like Delap and Madueke. Other types of players are taking notice. Think back to Lisandro Martinez. When he chose to open fire on United’s directors, it was plainly because he resents his own situation – a fed-up senior player at a team that stubbornly refuses to improve, now old enough, at 29, to worry he might never get the chance to go somewhere better. It was probably the sight of his international centre back partner Cristian Romero enjoying his new life at Atlético Madrid that pushed him over the edge. [ As chatter around Troy Parrott lulls, everyone’s talking about Jack MoylanOpens in new window ]Martinez does not want United to trigger their option to extend his contract by one year; otherwise it expires in summer 2027. United would like to replace him with someone better, but it seems unlikely they will want him walking away on a free transfer, so the unhappy embrace will probably continue until 2028. He has at least made a lot of money from his association with United, so his time there hasn’t been a complete waste. But considering his attributes as a footballer, it would have been a much better decision to avoid the Premier League altogether. It’s clear that at the football level, moving to the Premier League has been a disaster for Martinez. Erik ten Hag brought him to Manchester from Ajax because he believed at that time that he was the best defender in the world in build-up play. How often have we seen these qualities in the Premier League? Being a centre back in England is much more about fighting duels than playing nice passes. The demands of the league have been too much for Martinez’s body. He has suffered a succession of serious injuries and has missed nearly as many matches as he has played. Lisandro Martinez and Harry Amass of Manchester United applaud fans after the match against Leeds. Photograph: Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images What might have happened if he had gone to Atleti or Inter rather than United? He might have stayed fit enough to play 200 matches and built a reputation as one of the world’s top defensive playmakers. In the Premier League he is just an undersized defender who is liable to be bullied, as he was by Tottenham’s Dominic Solanke last week. Against Leeds, he took a knock in a duel with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and was subbed at half-time, another multi-week lay-off in prospect.The main criticism of Carrick has been that his team consistently fails to match the intensity they are faced with every week in the Premier League. He was not an “intensity” player, and it appears he is not an “intensity” coach either. In the current Premier League context, his long-term prospects look dim. [ ‘Like being a s**t celebrity’: Inside the world of top-level football refereesOpens in new window ]But the issue is much bigger than Carrick. Last Wednesday, PSG continued their multiyear project of making a show of all the top Premier League teams by shredding England’s best technical side, Manchester City. Much has been made of PSG’s ability to rest key players so they are fresh for Europe, while the squad players take care of the relatively undemanding French League program. Ousmane Dembele joked that he had played so well against City he must be due another vacation. Ousmane Dembele of Paris Saint-Germain celebrates with teammates Desire Doue and Nuno Mendes after scoring during the Champions League match against Manchester City. Photograph: Aurelien Meunier/PSG via Getty Images Underlying that is a serious point. Could Dembele have won the Ballon d’Or if he had joined Arsenal and had to fight duels for 4,000 minutes a season? Would PSG be able to slice up the City midfield the way they did last Wednesday night if every weekend they were involved in attritional battles like Leeds v Man United or Forest v Arsenal? Unlikely. We hear a lot about the Premier League’s incomparable financial advantages, but the clubs have become trapped in the logic of an intensity arms race, and the only solution anyone ever proposes is to add more intensity. The outcome is that clubs like PSG, Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid can make a more compelling offer to top players than their counterparts in England. That’s why they have footballers like Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Lamine Yamal and Michael Olise, while viewers of the world’s richest league are watching Delap and Madueke. For the powerhouses, the Premier League remains the place to be. For the best players, the real football is elsewhere.