Recent content by totaalvoetbal

I wouldn't say Guardiola's teams are boring per say, but they play in such a way that leaves no jeopardy, which is what a lot people find boring. His teams don't play on the transition which slows the game down. Guardiola is in his Louis van Gaal phase now. This reminds me of our Ajax team that...

He has done a fairly decent job, but with how well coached the England squad players are at club level, there is a sense that they are wasted with him as the manager. Guardiola, Klopp, Tuchel, Arteta e.tc. the England players have all had positional based coaches, and that is the kind of...

Kovacic interview with a Croatian Newspaper. Translated by @pajdo (Bluemoon) So, Kovacic - Manchester City, nine months later? - What can I say but that I am completely delighted! From the first contact, from the first day at the club, I felt that I had entered a special football reality. I...

He could potentially win the Ballon D'Or. For me he is currently the best striker in the world. If Bayern win the Cl, England win the Euros and Harry Kane plays a big part in both, he will win it.

Without Pep Guardiola, Busquets and Pedro would have stayed in Segunda. The reason they slotted into Pep's system was because they had one whole year training under Pep when he took over Barcelona B. They were not some great youth systems talents that were coming through. If I remember...

Yes they were. Kubala back then was actually rated higher before the European Cup emerged and Barcelona foolishly turned down representing Spain in it before Real Madrid took their place. It's weird talking to younger people that have no clue of some of these older players circumstances. The...

I didn't want to include Gatti because a lot of people still feel that he was bitter against Maradona's success. He called Maradona a "fatty" that could never score against him if I remember correctly. This was a long time ago. As I've said before, I kicked about the ball in Stadion De Meer in...

That's why I use GOTE [Greatest of the Era]. I put Pele Messi, Maradona, Cruijff, Di Stefano, and Beckenbauer in the same tier, but I have always said if I was forced to pick just one, Pele would stand above them all. It's a true shame that some of the tapes he had when he was in his prime were...

Pelé Eterno

I would put Messi, Maradona and Pele in the same tier. The undisputed GOTEs (Greatest of their Eras). Ronaldo falls short and would be in the second tier for me.

Pele, Johan Cruijff and Platini stand out in that department. Pele and Johan Cruijff are the two most complete attacking players and Cruijff was as good of a passer as Messi, especially in his later years when he was a playmaker and was definitely more creative with his passes. I saw him...

Valverde is a very good coach. The issue is that he had to adapt to Messi too much which was one of the achilles heels of Barcelona in Messi's last few seaosns. You simply could not play a functional positional play system with Messi anymore because he did not occupy space correctly, he did not...

The King of Football. The only player that was close to being this complete was Johan Cruijff.

Easily one of the best players I've ever seen and the best French player I have ever seen. Before 1986, no one would have laughed at you if you compared Platini to Diego Maradona. Great final ball player, fantastic all round passer, great finisher, great playmaker, good dribbler and his football...

Before, I said there were 5 Emperors in football. Now there are 6. In no order: Alfredo Di Stefano, Pele, Johan Cruijff, Franz Beckenbauer, Diego Armando Maradona and now Lionel Messi. That for me is the Tier 1 table of football. Then after that you have Puskas, Platini, Gerd Muller...