Doesn't matter. At the end of the day, this is the best international side of all time. They can easily rival the greatest club teams of all time too.
My comment is more about people who say that today's teams can't hold a candle to teams of the past. Head to head that is simply not true. Football is always evolving to superior tactics and performance
I don't know about the players becoming better. A better performance and a better player are not equal. We are not monkeys. While total90s and synthetic balls will make the performance better, we can consider this while looking at past players and stop short of calling them better players.
I think what people are saying, is the overall player quality is less now than 10-15 years ago. What is different though, is that the top quality players that do exist, are highly concentrated in the number of teams they represent. That's the crux of the matter IMO.
I.E. "Iniesta's through ball there was better than Garrincha's back then, but wow, Garrincha was doing that on such a poor pitch, using such poor boots, with such a poor ball." This is something that we must be able to rationlise, eventually reaching the conclusion that while they are both great, great players, we cannot come to a conslusion as to who is better.
Typical Torres finish. A Cl and Euro medal for his worst season ever. Xavi man of the match. Who will be player of the tournament? Probably Xavi now.
They are getting fitter and better physically but also a lot more institutionalized. Actually all things considered, this is a weaker era compared to the late 90s.
It is about the tail of the distribution. More players does not imply higher quality/fatter tail. The more talented young players are institutionalized, the more unlikely it is that they will develop into an outlier.
One thing about players is that they are becoming less flexible and more tied down to specific systems. Much like the scientific argument of fields becoming much more specific and the possibility of the renaissance man reappearing being nill. It all comes down to whether you prefer a person who knows alot about one thing over a person who knows less about more things.
Credit to Spain. Italy tried their best and had a great tournament just Spain is too hard to handle. Just so many good players, arguably 5 of the most technical midfielders in the world, all in one midfield...just too good. Still proud of the azzurri, though.