Can we have that talk? Beckham vs. De Bruyne for the greatest crosser of a football, perhaps ever?

Who is a better crosser?


  • Total voters
    147

NewGlory

United make me feel dirty. And not in a sexy way.
Joined
Jul 13, 2019
Messages
4,239
What are you talking about? He's already on 12 goals and 15 assists and it's still January. He's undoubtedly the best midfielder in the world this season and quite possibly the best player in the league (I'd certainly say so, although there's also a few great choices). Henry's assist record is only 6 passes away, and he's not going to crumble like Özil did.
Stats are impressive, no doubt, but I was talking more about my subjective impression of his game. He is playing for a very different team than Henry was. City has a habit of going wild on weaker teams and banging enormous number of balls in single games like that (as they did with Villa this weekend), instead of resting players and calming down once they clearly won, as other teams would usually do. I think that gives them bloated stats that doesn't always necessarily reflect the quality of game for individual players.

Again - he is good, but I am not sure if his current season is really as good as some of the GOATs. Just my opinion, not trying to prove anything
 
Last edited:

Kamprad

Full Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2016
Messages
445
Easiest question ever. Silly how such a huge part of Uniteds goals came from Beckhams crosses. Best crosser of all time by far. His crosses was so good he could use the same technique when shooting free kicks on goal. He didn’t actually shoot, he crossed the free kick into goal. Maybe de bruyne is a little faster crosser. Beckham was better when he had time to look up and cross. But still levels above.
 

Class of 63

Sourness
Joined
Aug 15, 2017
Messages
9,028
Location
Going through the Desert on a Horse with no Name
Becks never mastered the in-stride cross like Steve Coppell, but overall he was the finest crosser of the ball i've seen in 50 years of watching English football, can't pay him more of a compliment than that - De Bruyne just shades it as a better footballer though.
 

AneRu

Full Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
3,065
Beckham but de Bruyne is the better individual and more influential player.
 

tenpoless

Full Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2014
Messages
16,176
Location
Fabinho's forehead
Beckham vs De Bruyne stats :
Cross : 99 vs 97
Curve : 99 vs 86
Free kick : 99 vs 89
Weaker foot : 88 vs 82
Body balance : 77 vs 69
Wanting to talk : 2 vs 99
 

Demyanenko_square_jaw

Full Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2017
Messages
1,043
Beckham was the best and most consistent i've seen at delivering a pinpoint cross from anywhere without having to beat or one-two around whoever was on his flank, freakish power and accuracy. De Bruyne i think is more a generically great crosser in the way excellent 8/10/ slower wingers usually are, but with a penchant for the low driven cross.

I don't know about narrowing things down to only 2 players of all-time though, maybe just for modern English game, but you start digging through different strong leagues and decades you'll probably find a crossing monster or two in most, especially as it's not something you need to be a great overall player to be great at. Thinking quickly of some less well known names, Ljubinko Drulovic in the Portuguese league of 90s was an impecabble crosser that had a deadly partnership with Mario Jardel, large amount of Porto's goals for years came from a pinpoint Drulovic cross then header from Jardel. Or sticking to Belgians, watch Belgian NT game from the 80s and you'll see Franky Vercauteren whipping in a variety of great crosses from the left, he'd be an assists machine if he were around today too. Scifo had similar delivery technical quality to De Bruyne, though he usually was more central, through ball focused.