Classy defender. Cool, calm and collected. Always sniffed danger before it got to him. Nesta was the only defender who I consider out-rightly better than him during his prime but Rio was definitely better than Terry, Carvalho, Thiago Silva and the other names. I really can't choose between him and Vidic though. Complemented each other wonderfully.
How good was Rio Ferdinand? | …….
- Thread starter Paxi
- Start date
Terry was good, but his partnership with Rio for England was a no-no. I'd go as far to say Rio and Sol complemented each other far more as a centre-back pairing.
Maybe they did, but Terry played 7-odd games a year for England, I won’t base my opinion on him on the strength of his international partnership.
Judged only by their centerback career:
1. Nesta
2. Maldini, Thuram, Cannavaro
3. Ferdinand, Stam, Terry, Puyol
4. Pepe, Chiellini, Lucio, Campbell, Samuel, Godin, Silva
That’s how I roughly rate them in tiers.
Ramos, Pique, Bonucci, Barzagli, Boateng, Hummels, etc... are all honourable mentions. Probably forgot a few.
1. Nesta
2. Maldini, Thuram, Cannavaro
3. Ferdinand, Stam, Terry, Puyol
4. Pepe, Chiellini, Lucio, Campbell, Samuel, Godin, Silva
That’s how I roughly rate them in tiers.
Ramos, Pique, Bonucci, Barzagli, Boateng, Hummels, etc... are all honourable mentions. Probably forgot a few.
Judging by their peak, Nesta only one better for me. That good.
Without a foul. Now, that's insane.
Rio had no glaring weaknesses in his game, like most defenders have. He was ridiculously fast, both in terms of top speed and acceleration, and he was surprisingly agile for his size. He was strong as well, and the being bullied by Drogba is re-writing history a little bit. He was also solid in the air, although not as dominating as Vidic, but who was? Where he excelled over players like Vidic and Terry was that he almost never beaten one on one, never in a footrace, and was rarely dribbled past. I also felt his positioning was better, and when he was dragged out, he did really well.
Rio was brilliant but he made far too many glaring individual mistakes leading to goal but to be an all time great
Vidic and Terry were both better imo
Vidic and Terry were both better imo
most overrated center back of this century. Granted he had a monsterous World Cup, but that will always impact all time rankings but ability wise and also overall career, not really in the region of Maldini or Thuram.
yes you forgot Vida, shame on you.
Put him in Tier 3yes you forgot Vida, shame on you.
I don't agree with Cannavaro being overrated btw. He was the best CB in the world from 2004-2006.
Certainly not better than Ferdinand.
Peak Rio before age and injury set in was as good as any centre back I've seen in the top division, and that goes all the way back to Bobby Moore. It's telling how few fouls he gave away and how few yellow cards he got.
And that's why you only have 15 posts, the other 100 were rejected. Rio has been our best defender for years. People love the way Vidic put his body on the line, tackled hard etc., we all loved Evra's pashion etc his runs..but without Rio, Vidic would just another Jones (but a feck times better and I love the fecker) and Evra would be would not have had the cover he had.
Best I've ever seen.... by quite some distance
Would put him up there with Paul McGrath as the best i've ever seen @ Old Trafford, made defending look laughably easy at times.
Vidic was fantastic, but a different type of player to Ferdinand.
Both offered different things to the defence, together they were fantastic.
But if I had to choose one, it would be Ferdinand.
Wow. No Baresi.
To judge by that list I'd guess Baresi was before his/her time. It's missing all the other great CBs from that era as well.
You are really underrating Vidic
I think Vidic complemented Ferdinand. But I preferred the Serbian's no-nonsense approach.
As amazing as he was, and for my money he's the best I've seen, I'll still never understand how he let Messi score a fecking header against us!
He was absolutely brilliant. It pains me that they are a number of United fans that rate Vidic higher which I think is ludicrous. Vidic made so many stupid mistakes that you would never ever see Ferdinand make. I say that as a neutral.
Completely the opposite. Rio was a more talented defender but Vidic was incredibly consistent. Rio always had a mistake in him. The way things are reported in the media influences people's memories, especially over time.
When Rio passed the ball straight to Bellamy in the 4-3 OT game it was a Karius level howler. It quickly got forgotten about but watching him regularly, I always felt he had that in his game.
Vidic made one mistake against Torres at OT and it's almost accepted that Torres regularly destroyed him (which really isn't true).
X2. I thought Rio was better when he was younger, but his injury prone situation and lapse of concentration, rank him a good CB but not the best.
Probably my favorite ever United player. This thread gives me the feels for days of the past.
Rio is one of the best I've seen. What I liked most about him, is he hardly ever played the ball back to the keeper, always tried to keep the ball moving forward which I think is underrated in the game. Quick as well, great technique, intelligent, reads the game well, and he really stood up and became a man, a leader, after his ban. It's sad we've got no one on his level today.
Says a lot as well that I think only got one red card in his professional career, and I remember he didn't even get a booking till like his 150th game for us, or something crazy like that. Surprised really people think he was error prone, maybe made one or two mistakes near the end, but other than that a Rio Ferdinand mistake was an exceptionally rare event. Vidic was great as well, a colossus in the air (and he think he got better in the air as the years went by), but let's be real here, he wasn't quite on Rio's level, he got sent off against Liverpool alone 4 times, and seemed to be more prone to giving away fouls and penalties.
Says a lot as well that I think only got one red card in his professional career, and I remember he didn't even get a booking till like his 150th game for us, or something crazy like that. Surprised really people think he was error prone, maybe made one or two mistakes near the end, but other than that a Rio Ferdinand mistake was an exceptionally rare event. Vidic was great as well, a colossus in the air (and he think he got better in the air as the years went by), but let's be real here, he wasn't quite on Rio's level, he got sent off against Liverpool alone 4 times, and seemed to be more prone to giving away fouls and penalties.
In fairness Ferdinand had been playing with a back problem during the first few months of the 2009/10 season. You can debate whether it affected his decision making of course, but I remember thinking he wasn't his usual self in the early months of that campaign.
I think it impacted his pace alot. No chance Bellamy beats him for pace if Rio is 100%.
One of the best of all time and his generation. If there ever was a footballer that best fit the cliched rolls Royce description it was him
Rio and Vidic were two of the best CBs I've ever seen.
On Rio, he'd walk into Barcelona, Madrid and PSG and look a few levels above Pique, Ramos and Thiago. They'd learn a thing or two about defending, that's for sure. At his best he was one of the best footballers I've seen at United let alone defenders right up there with Scholes in midfield, Ronaldo out wide or Ruud up top.
On Rio, he'd walk into Barcelona, Madrid and PSG and look a few levels above Pique, Ramos and Thiago. They'd learn a thing or two about defending, that's for sure. At his best he was one of the best footballers I've seen at United let alone defenders right up there with Scholes in midfield, Ronaldo out wide or Ruud up top.
Bellamy was rapid so he may still have done so. He may of course been able to use his body and strength had been younger. But it was just bad defending. Rio has easily dealt with strikers faster than him before.
This has more to do with how we perceive a mistake more than anything. The aggressive defender tends to attack the ball with far greater frequency, partly because of his role in the team, and as a result he has to put himself on the line more and take more risks. Any misstep in this regard is highlighted and made an example without fail. Whereas the defender who sits back more doesn't get reprimanded for his inaction or poor positioning because he is, largely, playing is safer and hence the missteps are less noticeable and also leave more room for recovery. For every time the aggressor would be left in the wake of a speedy attacker, the more cautious defender possibly wouldn't make that mad diving header to defend a cross.
Regardless, even taking that into consideration, Vidic was incredibly consistent and his mistakes were paultry. His few mistakes do tend to get highlighted as some sort of example of what he regularly could be.
Maybe it did but he made that type of error in judgement quite often in his career, back injury or not.
When comparing Rio and Vidic, I think the best way to judge who was best is to see how the defence performed when only one was available. Vidic's injury in Basel was a massive turning point in that season. The clean sheet record in 2008/09 had Vidic as the ever present. Vidic/Evans were a solid combination. Rio/Evans were a heart attack waiting to happen.
From that era I remember how much more confident I was in the defence when Vidic was in the team. My heart sank when I saw a starting line up without him. When he was in the team I even worried less about the likes of Kuszczak.
Post Ronaldo, Vidic was the best and most important player in the team.
I think Evans was more Rio than Vidic and that's why the partnerships panned out that way.
I personally think it's impossible to separate them but I prefer Ferdinand.
The best English CB at his peak. Of all time, so far.
Sad to see that defending arts has gone stale.
Defenders in football now are inferior to that era. I think Rio said himself that defending is becoming stale these days.
I tend to agree as no top quality cb in this era is even half as good as them.
Rio was the best CB I've ever seen.
Defenders in football now are inferior to that era. I think Rio said himself that defending is becoming stale these days.
I tend to agree as no top quality cb in this era is even half as good as them.
Rio was the best CB I've ever seen.
That's where I thought that injury caught up to him more than the pure pace. He didn't have that little bit extra to put him off.
Only Stam in our recent past was any where close. Rolls Royce of a defender
At his peak, he was the best in the world.
I would argue he is in the conversation for best of all time.
He had everything, pace, strength, good reading of the game, good in the air, good distribution, no weakness.
I would argue he is in the conversation for best of all time.
He had everything, pace, strength, good reading of the game, good in the air, good distribution, no weakness.
Rio was the best CB in SAF's reign. He had everything, inches, strength, pace, technique, leadership etc. When we signed him he single handedly made the defence credibly again following SAF's stupid decision of letting our only top quality CB leave.
In Vidic, Rio found the perfect partner in a defence that kept improving thanks to Evra. At one point United had the best defence in the world and the second best defence I've ever seen in football with 3 absolute world class players in it and of course Gary Neville.
In Vidic, Rio found the perfect partner in a defence that kept improving thanks to Evra. At one point United had the best defence in the world and the second best defence I've ever seen in football with 3 absolute world class players in it and of course Gary Neville.
Easily the best CB I've seen in the PL. As others have said Nesta is the only comparable CB in my time.
Gained a reputation for silly mistakes as a young player which led him to be underrated by many casual observers at his peak. He also made the game look almost too easy for his own good. He never needed to make the type of vital tackles that enhanced the reputations of the likes of Carragher, Terry, Vidic etc. He made the difficult look basic and as such he was often underpraised
Gained a reputation for silly mistakes as a young player which led him to be underrated by many casual observers at his peak. He also made the game look almost too easy for his own good. He never needed to make the type of vital tackles that enhanced the reputations of the likes of Carragher, Terry, Vidic etc. He made the difficult look basic and as such he was often underpraised