To be fair, I admit you can argue Zidane for best midfielder ever. I wouldn't find that nonsensical and depending on the construction of your team, he might be the best midfielder ever.
Respectfully, the 5 best players you've seen play please. No one that had their career before you started watching football.
I agree on Zidane but the Ronaldinho Brazil comment is well off of failing to perform.
I've seen full games of those players, but if that doesn't count for you
He won the WC with them at 22, but outshone by R9 and Rivaldo. I wouldn't consider his overall tournament excellent(think that goal vs England elevates the general standing of his performances), and there wasn't any pressure on him compared to Ronaldo.
Modric moved to Real in 2012 and in the 10 seasons since then he has won 5 CL's. You don't win 50% of the available CL's over the course of a decade by having a midfield that gets dominated.
You’re a lunatic. One player doesn’t get dominated. A midfield gets dominated and no team has dominated Madrids midfield in the recent future. They have have come out on top but certainly not dominated.He is simply sublime and trustworthy with the ball more than any other player since Xavi and that’s an amazing compliment.
This is absolutely laughable. I'm actually amazed people are making this claim.
No way, Xavi had 20 assists in 08/09, many of them defence splitting passes, proper assists through passing in the middle of the pitch. It’s pretty much the opposite of what you said. Modric is more ball retention, outside of a few exceptional eye catching passes. Xavi has twice as many assists as Modric.
No one player doesn't get dominated, but if people are making the claim that Modric is the best controlling midfielder ever, then it'll get some push-back.
Wasn't even 20, I think it was actually 30 assists.
Ok so Zidane is among the top 5 players you've seen but not top 15 all time?
I think this is one of those 'missing the forest for the trees' situations.
Top 15, I don't know. I wouldn't put him top 10 though
Xavi was actually weak against man marking too, he just never faced much of it because man marking that barcelona team was a recipe for mega-super-duper-death by Messi
Ok that doesn't make any sense with all due respect.
I mean you're deliberately trying to antagonize at this point as you did earlier. You can disagree without coming off so antagonizing.
Insane nitpicking. Ronaldinho at his peak displayed a level of genius that has been matched by a vanishingly small number of players in the entire history of the game. Yes his peak was short but 99.99999 percent of footballers are simply not capable of doing what he did. Probably the most gifted and artistic footballer ever outside of Maradona.
There's always a lot of nitpicking when the argument shifts into 'best ever players'.
No one said they were. The poster asked for my general top 5.
Xavi's not though. And I'm not trying to do anything, what you are saying is not logical. How exactly does having Xavi in a team lead to greater success than having Ronaldinho, a guy who was acknowledged as clearly the best player in the world, which Xavi never was considered?
I never argued Xavi was more gifted than Ronaldinho.
I wasn't aiming at you sweetcheeks
yeah I'm bowing out from this thread. Yeah I’m willing to hear an argument for Modric over Xavi but if it’s going to start with “he’s a better passer” then the entire argument falls apart.
Yeah, I would say Madrid midfield got dominated in last year's CL. But not in la décima nor in the threepeat.
To me Modric is slightly better than Xavi but I would say Xavi is the better passer.
The problem with this argument is that Xavi and Ronaldinho are the same age, both born 1980. So Xavi didn’t take his opportunity to become the best player in the world before Messi exploded, while Dinho did.
I don't think that's a fair comparison, first xavi was never going to be a subject of man marking as he played with a much superior player and there was no point in doing it either, they had an equally capable player in Iniesta and the teams he played in were filled to the brim with players intimate with the passing game.
or watch modric Vs Ajax
Also Madrid prior to Modric hadn't won a UCL in 12 years, and got past final 16 round just once in 9 years. With Modric they won 5 UCLs in 8 years. Croatia went from not getting past group stages since 1998 to being 2nd in 2018 and 3rd in 2022.
Honestly Keane is my favourite player of all time. But there were games he was untouchable against United.
Modric vs Ajax is a horrible example as he was one of the very few players at Madrid performing in that game.
Give me Scholes over the pair of them.
