Same as was doing on the first goal, being a poor indecisive goalkeeper?
Bale vs Neymar
- Thread starter Lynk
- Start date
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Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
Same as was doing on the first goal, being a poor indecisive goalkeeper?
Neymar looks like he's wearing a syrup. Even Clattenburg's barnet looks more kosher.
Yes unfortunately for us.
We were all over them after the Bartra goal, and looked to be the winners, and then Pinto happened for the 2nd time.
Yeah Pinto is awful. Was at fault for both goals but credit to Bale for an excellent individual goal.
He's a player who does his best to exploit his abilities.
He knows he can beat any defender in the world in a sprint, and seeks to use it when he can. Knock it into the space and get after it. Football snobs might groan at that style but the results are there for all to see. At the end of a game like that he is pure dynamite to have running against a tired defence.
The balance may well change in the coming seasons, but so far I think I've called this right. There was so much weird Bale hate and Neymar rating when this thread started for a player that had just destroyed the PL vs one who'd never played in Europe.
I think it's a matter of situation, when he uses his pace like he did for the winning goal only a truly biased person would hold that against him.The criticism is valid when he tries to use when the space is restricted and his lack of ball skills is more obvious. However the way he carried the ball when inside the box at a high speed was impressive.
Admit it, it's all about Neymar's hair what makes you really hate him.
He's become a much more effective player in Madrid due to playing with much better individuals and not taking it upon himself to win any match with a strike from 30 yards.
Will never be a world record fee-worthy player but he's an efficient performer.
Worth about a third of the fee they paid I'd say.
Will never be a world record fee-worthy player but he's an efficient performer.
Worth about a third of the fee they paid I'd say.
All these stupid versus threads and comparisons annoy me as some people take them to literally. At the end of the day it is all about the team and bale was better than neymar today because his team provided the platform for him to do so on. It seems as if the game is all about individuals and fanboys these days.
He definitely wasn't worth the money and neither was neymar, but at this stage money has nothing to do with quality it seems. Nobody is worth millions imo
Obviously - but I'm comparing him to the "going rate" in the market, if such exists.
Bale has really, really shit hair too.
I just found it odd how when these two transfers went through, everyone was quick to get on Bale's back about not deserving the price tag, whilst Neymar was this prodigal bundle of sure fire potential. I don't really hate Neymar, it's mainly this kind of lazy school of hype. People were saying things like Bale was overrated because he played in England, whilst happily talking up someone they'd seen far less, and probably largely on youtube or fleeting internationals, due to his profile.
Both are excellent players. Neither are worth their money. But for me Bale deserved to be more expensive than Neymar, and I thought he'd have the better season. Thus far it's proved so.
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£28m would've been a steal. Can't go along with that.
In ten years it is scary to think how much our and barcas (and maybe citys and chelseas and psgs) record signings will be worth
It is basically just that, he's Brazilian, he's been hailed ridiculously high over there by Brazilian legends of the game. He tore teams in the Confederations Cup.
Bale was seen as a diver and a wannabe Ronaldo by the people who hated him.
He should have gone for about £60m I reckon when you consider his potential. £85m was crazy.
Neither of them were worth a world record fee, but at least Bale had proven himself at the highest level. Neymar on the other hand.... I mean when you think of it again it's crazy. 100 million for a 22 year old Brazilian who has never played in a major league.
No way, considering his world class form of last season. Easily at £50m when you look at his age
I'm not having the "world class-form" of last season.
He played for himself all season and hammered in a lot of wonder strikes. Did he play consistantly well? No way.
He's having a better season this time around in my opinion and I still wouldn't pay £50 million for him, not a chance in hell.
As I said though: Very efficient player in Ancelotti's setup. Carlo knows how to get the best out of people I.E. Di Maria who's looking a world beater.
I wonder what would have happened to these two had Mourinho and Pep still been around at these two clubs. I fully believe Neymar would have shone more, would Bale have?
I think a few are being a bit harsh on Neymar. If that shot an inch or so to the left, and Barca go on to extra time and win, we all say he saved Barca tonight and proved himself just as much as Bale did. Such fine margins.
I wonder what Bale's 100m sprint time is? Is there a faster player?
Aubemayang is ridonculous
I hate judging people by their price tags tbf, and that goes for anyone. Bale, Neymar, Fellaini or Andy Carroll. No fees are an accurate valuation, they're just the price they've needed to pay at that particular time to satisfy the seller.
Certainly at this level of the game where everyone's on silly money it's much of a muchness. If Stoke were paying well beyond their means for people like Bale then you could use the fee as a viable part of the argument, but at Madrid of all places (who have something like 70% off all the record transfers) all you can fairly judge is if they've been good signings or not. If they haven't then you can use the fee as a stick to flog the dead horse. So far Bale's been good so it doesn't matter. Whether he'll ever completely justify that specific amount of money just isn't worth arguing.
Certainly at this level of the game where everyone's on silly money it's much of a muchness. If Stoke were paying well beyond their means for people like Bale then you could use the fee as a viable part of the argument, but at Madrid of all places (who have something like 70% off all the record transfers) all you can fairly judge is if they've been good signings or not. If they haven't then you can use the fee as a stick to flog the dead horse. So far Bale's been good so it doesn't matter. Whether he'll ever completely justify that specific amount of money just isn't worth arguing.
Aside from age and experience, I think you have to factor in all this stuff about his contract. That's got to weigh on his mind heavily. In saying that, there's no excuse for missing 6 yards out one on one with the keeper in the dying minutes of a cup final.
Although I agree with the main point of your post, I'm not sure I agree it's pointless to take the price into account when discussing the Fellaini's and Carroll's.
How many better footballers could you have bought for the Carroll fee? When you opt to pay silly money for someone like Fellaini, making him your sole midfield signing for a year when that part of the team desperately calls for reinforcements - wouldn't it be a better signing for United if he cost £15 million and you could get another player in as well?
Surely Bale is more of a 200m runner.
Yes, tbf, there are degrees. Obviously paying hugely over the odds for a crap player is different to paying nothing for a crap player. However Carroll wasn't a poor signing because of the money. He was a poor signing full stop. He did nothing and then was shipped on. He'd still have been judged a crap signing for 10 bob, but he wouldn't have been such a notable failure. Fellaini has so far also fit that bill. People didn't want him to begin with. Few changed their expectations because of the money. The act of signing them was the problem, the money just a stick to beat them with.
Even expensive flops like Veron or Shevchenko weren't flops because they were expensive, they were flops because they performed well under what we'd expect from them. Some people even say Owen was a flop here, and he cost nothing.
With Bale you've got someone who quite clearly is proving a good signing. So saying things like "he can only be a success if he's the greatest player ever in the history of the sport" is just an exercise in semantics more than anything.
If Neymar's a flop, it wont be because he was £100m. It'll be because he was expected to be such a huge and exciting talent.
Okay, I get you know, I'm on the same page.
The Fellaini thing is something I've argued myself in his thread.
The mistake wasn't paying those £4 million extra for him, it was signing him full stop.
Indeed. Absolutely no one who wanted to sign him suddenly changed their expectations of him because of that £4m.
He has improved immensely over the past 3 years or so. His strength / pace are his main attritibutes and he has worked hard on the other aspects of his game; dribbling, finishing, passing.
By all accounts, he trains extremely hard and is the ultimate pro off the field. He stays away from the celeb lifestyle and focuses 100% on his career and improving as a player.
I think the term 'exploiting his abilities' is doing him a disservice. He has build his game around his strongest attritibutes and worked hard to improve in other areas of his game.
Like others in here, I have never got some of the Bale hate. Yes, he was quite fond of diving at times but that is all that annoyed me about him. He deserves huge credit for the instant impact he has made in Madrid. It certainly isn't easy for British players going abroad, especially to a club of Madrids magnitude and the pressure that comes with it.
Bale is a beast.
Never meant in a negative way, to exploit your ability is not given to anybody. There are handful of players who play at 100% of their capacities. The only thing that is really lacking from his game is a the ability to dribble in close spaces and to link up better but he's improved on those already since playing at Madrid.
True, very few players seem to have this ability. Iniesta and pedro come to mind, but they aren't as explosive in space like bale or Ronaldo. It seems you can only have one ability or the other, not both. Perhaps ribery is the closest you will get as he is good in tight areas and fast n space
I think Bale is an exceptional player, who have proved people wrong over and over again as they at various times over his career have ridiculed and mocked him for his injuries, winning record, record against big teams, record against small teams, ability to win his team a game, consistency, being a one trick pony, trying to 'copy' Ronaldo and being worse than both Valencia and Nani apparently.
I think it is fair to say he has already reached a level that most of the fans who continue to rip into him never imagined that he would reach. His desire to improve and ability to add bits to his game and make that happen is incredible.
I can't predict where Bale will go or what he will do because he's already surprised me so many times. I have a lot of respect for how he approaches football. He went to La Liga injured, at the final moment, with no pre season and as the most expensive footballer ever and is the only player to have double figures in both goals and assists in la liga I believe. Has just scored the winning goal in a final as well.
He'll do just fine at Madrid.
I think it is fair to say he has already reached a level that most of the fans who continue to rip into him never imagined that he would reach. His desire to improve and ability to add bits to his game and make that happen is incredible.
I can't predict where Bale will go or what he will do because he's already surprised me so many times. I have a lot of respect for how he approaches football. He went to La Liga injured, at the final moment, with no pre season and as the most expensive footballer ever and is the only player to have double figures in both goals and assists in la liga I believe. Has just scored the winning goal in a final as well.
He'll do just fine at Madrid.
Neymar was better in the first half of the season, Bale in the second. Normally I don't care for the Copa del Rey but the manner in which it was won just makes it so much more memorable. The goal doesn't remove the idea that Bale isn't great in big matches, IMO. But when I look at Bale, I can't help but see a natural kick-and-rush footballer.
His goal clearly came from the lack of Bartra's (RIP his career) experience, I'm sure Puyol/Masch/Piqué would have done the tactical foul...he reached an insane top speed there. He was close with a couple other efforts too.
I think I'm going to wait until the end of the season to say who's had the better one, but I do think Neymar is the better footballer than Bale.
His goal clearly came from the lack of Bartra's (RIP his career) experience, I'm sure Puyol/Masch/Piqué would have done the tactical foul...he reached an insane top speed there. He was close with a couple other efforts too.
I think I'm going to wait until the end of the season to say who's had the better one, but I do think Neymar is the better footballer than Bale.
Bartra has simply been blown away. He would've had to absolutely wipe Bale out with some force to stop him.
People can carry on the myth of "kick and rush", but if the player has to composure to slot in the perfect pass or perfect shot after he's left someone for dead because he happens to be incredibly fast...so what? It's not like he doesn't have other qualities too.
If they managed to get an upgrade on Benzema, that front three would simply be ridiculous.
People can carry on the myth of "kick and rush", but if the player has to composure to slot in the perfect pass or perfect shot after he's left someone for dead because he happens to be incredibly fast...so what? It's not like he doesn't have other qualities too.
If they managed to get an upgrade on Benzema, that front three would simply be ridiculous.