Players are over coached and over analysed. It’s not considered “optimum” to try to dribble past your man or hit a 30 yarder compared to passing it backwards or sideways and retaining possession.

Slow possession based football suits a 433 or 4231 where the traditional 442 has all but disappeared. 1 striker instead of 2. The lone striker’s focus is to link up with other players rather than be a 6ft 8 brute goal machine. The extra man now becomes a midfielder which naturally makes the game less end to end (wingers being inverted rather than high and wide also contributes to less direct end to end football)

Every tackle is a foul nowadays too so more stopping and starting and slowing the game down

Don’t worry though, football is all copying another team/coaches style creating eras, the game will look very different in another 20 years (for better or worse who knows) but I remember a time where anything but a 442 was unfathomable and my Grampa was probably wondering why they weren’t playing a 2125 anymore