Yeah. Teams couldn't defend back then. So much space you could land a fucking jumbo jet between the lines.
But, look:
If teams are playing so defensive right now, then ALL Barca's players would have problems with forward passing, right?
Messi has 10s of forward passes.
Dembele also.
Busquets also.
Vidal had lots of them.
Coutinho... wow, no need to comment.
Disclaimer: I am NOT comparing Coutinho and Arthur, since they play in different roles (even though both are some version of CMs).
I am posting this just because of your comment how teams are defending differently today (which is true).
But the point is: even today, players who WANT to pass and who have skills can find 10s of spaces to do that.
This is what Coutinho has been doing against the same opponent as Arthur.
And Coutinho was doing this when we played 10 vs 11, so we even had a man down (and less options to pass the ball to).
Look how Coutinho is able to find space for a forward pass in probably 2 out of 3 actions when he has the ball.
Arthur is doing the same 1 in 10 times, against the same opponent:
** One more thing, look at how Coutinho is NOT passing the ball every time to the closest possible player.
Coutinho could have passed to free Busquets a few times but he rather passed to Semedo or other players FURTHER away from him=to speed up the play.