Mwenza I believe you are dead wrong. Ruthless brutality is far more effective than an organized defence because for one thing, it scares strikers or it has a psychological impact.

At the 1962, world cup, Portugal kicked Pele literally every time he touched the ball. He got so angry that he lost his cool and played poorly. In the end he left injured and Portugal won.

In 1982, Maradona was being kicked so much. He lost his cool, retaliated and was red carded. Argentina lost that game.

The easiest way to silence a dangerous striker in those days was to just brutalize him. It often rendered players inneffective because they would be scared or they would leave the match injured.

This was applied especially in Africa including on the local scene. The best defenders were the likes of kina Mickey Weche who became known as "T9" because of how he kicked strikers.

Back then, cynical fouls and professional fouls were acceptable to referees. Messi would struggle to survive.

Officiating was a bit lenient to defenders in the past. Some of the defenders like Spain's Andoni Goikoetxea were thugs looking for legs to kick.
Weche was actually a clean player,the real dirty ones were the Gor duo of Isaiah Omondi and Swaleh Ochieng.

Very difficult to compare players in different generations. Some defenders of yore like Oscar Ruggeri were very tactical.

Hapo sawa Kabisa!

I agree with you on Martin Ochieng. Arieno Papa was another rough one

AFC of that era were not into passing at all. It was all long balls. So Arieno fit right in.