Ryan Giggs: Premier League has become more ‘robotic’

Speaking at TGG Live 2025 at Old Trafford last month, on a panel alongside Tony Strudwick and Tom Heaton, Giggs said he would like to see current players afforded the same kind of freedom he was by Sir Alex Ferguson.

“There is a tendency, probably from when I was first starting, that is a little bit more robotic and more of patterns of play and more defensive-minded,” said Giggs, in a session that is available to watch in full for TGG Members.

“You don’t like to go back into your time, but it does look a bit strangled, with certain players – and quality players. I’ve been a coach and you have to have structure, you have to have that defensive mindset, of course. 

“But Sir Alex used to say to good players, to Roy Keane, Paul Ince, ‘No, you give it the players who can make things happen. Give it to (Eric) Cantona, give it to (Andrei) Kanchelskis, give it to the forward players as quickly as possible, because they’re the players who can make things happen.’

“Sir Alex used to say, ‘Give the guy who works in the factory on a Monday morning something to smile about that he’s seen on that Saturday afternoon.’

“You have to do the basics, you have to work hard. But that was how I liked to play – with risk. If I saw a forward player running, I would try a difficult ball with the outside of my foot, knowing that the manager wasn’t necessarily going to have a go at me if I did it.

“I’m a bit biased, because I’m a wide person who liked to not only make goals and score goals, but to make things happen, to excite the fans.

“There are players that get me excited at the moment as well – the young lad at Fulham, Josh King, (Martin) Odegaard at Arsenal – but there is a tendency for teams to be a little bit more robotic.”

When an audience member asked what modern football could learn from his time as a player, Giggs said: “That freedom to go out and express yourself, especially forward players.

“The facilities now, the pitches, are so much better than when I started. But you want to see that excitement as well, getting fans off their seats.

“Touching on Jack Grealish, you can see it now. He’s free, he’s having fun, and you see the results. You have to have that sort of tough love, but also that manager, that coach, that gives you the freedom to go and make mistakes.

“Brian Kidd (former Manchester United Assistant) said to me, ’Ten dribbles in a game – nine might be unsuccessful, the 10th you win the game.’ And that was sort of the mentality that I had. 

“Now, if I lost the ball nine times out of 10 with Sir Alex, he’s gonna go mad. But it was the culture of being prepared to lose the ball, to risk, to keep going, because he (the Manager) believes in you and you will win the game, you will create a goal, you will score a goal.”

Stats from this season’s Premier League back up Giggs’ assertion that creative players are taking less risks and being given less freedom by their Managers.

Michael Cox wrote an excellent article about this for The Athletic last week. Taking a sample size of the first 100 games of the Premier League season, Cox revealed that take-ons – beating a player with the ball at your feet – were down to an average of 13.7 per 90 minutes, compared to 20.8 in 2019/20.

xG from build-up attacks – phases of 10 or more passes leading to a touch in the opposition box or a shot – was down from 0.26 in 2023/24 to 0.18 this season. 

One reason for the dwindling of dribbling could be the prevalence of the positional approach, in which teams attack zonally and the ball tends to move to the players rather than the players moving with the ball.

The reluctance to take risks in attack could be because, in the words of Jamie Hamilton, teams ‘kill’ you on the counter-attack if you lose the ball.

Jeremy Doku could be a beacon of hope for fans of direct running and off-the-cuff dribbling though, as evidenced by his recent performance, especially in Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Liverpool last weekend.