The only things in football that has ‘moved on’ as you put it is fitness, strength and conditioning and the pace of the game. Forwards just being forwards stopped in the 50’s. As for players tracking back or not, you are coached through the age groups your responsibilities which in turn brings match and positional awareness so players understand patterns of play, off the ball runs etc. To dismiss NML lack of foresight and effort as tactical negligence from Moore I feel is a cheap shot again at the manager. We lost the game to a far better team, the holes at the back were caused by us chasing an equaliser late in the game not by some tactical error.
In short NML should have been aware of the run and done more to prevent the danger.