Just read a comment on a Guardian article that struck me with its simplicity.

The game has got faster and faster, and then players have got stronger and fitter.

But the recommended dimensions of the pitch have never changed.

Taking a player away from each team would create 9% more space. The game's probably speeded up by at least 20% in the last 30 years anyway.

Excellent idea, especially if you believe (as I do) that football is reaching saturation point in all sorts of ways.

But what do most coaches do when their team's reduced to ten men? They take off an attacker. I don't think it would necessarily be any different even if both sides started equal but a man down. Formations would be 4-4-1 or 3-5-1. It's possible that everyone would play the way Man United and Rangers did in Europe this week, when both teams won magnificently by nil goals to nil.

It's not 11-a-side that's made football more negative, it's the absolutely all-important imperative of repeating Champions League qualification to mainatain projected revenue streams, and the overall dominant philosophy that results matter more than style.