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One thing that's also interesting from a historical perspective (at least to me) is the decline in nation/league-specific styles, in Europe especially. About 20 years ago you could summarize the predominant style of each league, but with the growth of cross-European competition, and the freer flow of players and managers, it's more homogeneous. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Just interesting.
European League Play Circa 1995:
England: Run like hell for 90 minutes. Fitter team wins.
Germany: Play cautiously until you score, then take off a striker. If you're scored upon, just play more cautiously.
Spain: Everyone's an attacker. Numerous solo runs into clumps of "defenders". Frequent amazing goal action.
France: Like Spain until you score, then like Germany.
Holland: A hedonistic pursuit of pure, flowing and artistic football. Scoring is a happy accident, but placing any importance on it is somewhat, you know, vulgar.
Italy: One guy gets to do whatever the hell he wants, while the other 10 rigidly follow "the system", and if you don't want to follow "the system" remember it's the #1 league in the world and I've got 20 guys who want your spot. Because of this, the real action in Serie A is in paying off the referees (with Pierluigi Collina being the exception to the rule).
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