Berbatov's Appreciation Thread

phonics_tid

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Just watched his episode of Soccerbox with Gary Neville and was reminded how incredible a player he was. I know he could be frustrating at times but for me, he was undoubtedly world class at his best.

To this day, I still don’t think I’ve seen a player with a better first touch than this man. How the hell did we go from him to Lukaku?

I remember seeing that overhead kick against Liverpool live and could’ve torn my vocal chords with my screams. So let’s share the love for Berba...
 
Great player and most definitely was world class. That assist v west ham I think at OT was sublime.

He never really disappointed me at united as he performed exactly how I thought he would when we bought him, I think most expected more from him but i was never sure what that was based on.

Fergie gave him the cold shoulder after the cup semi final v city and his subsequent omission from the champions league squad must still hurt him......it hurts me still!

He has only gone up in my estimation since he retired.
 
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Berba is that kind of a player that you would admire and love to watch because of his beautiful touches and elegance in his game when he is playing for another team. But when he is playing for your own team, you would find him frustrating because he can look lazy and slow then.

Still remember his transfer saga back in summer 2008 that went right through the last minute. I was virtually refreshing the news tab every 5 minutes to know whats happening. The fact that he rejected Man City there and then shows how high he thinks of Man United and Sir Alex.
 
One of my absolute favourite players of all time. He was the David Gower of football. Sublimely skilful but looked nonchalant at times.

People say Berba should have worked harder and got more from his talent but, like Gower, when you look at his record it is pretty damn good and that takes no account of the genius embodied in the way he played.
 
He did actually work hard, he tracked back and blocked passing lanes. He was just being compared to Rooney and Tevez, given his languid style that was never going to work out in his favour. He was actually fantastic at defending corners and freekicks too, he won an awful lot of headers at the near post.

He was brilliant to watch too, not the quickest, but that first touch was possibly the best I've ever seen. He was world class, just very different to Tevez who a lot of people wanted instead. He was worth the transfer saga and fee.
 
tumblr_n1f0kj4Sc61sdfgzpo1_400.gifv
 
He was born ten years too late, and we should never have bought him, but feck me I loved watching him play football for us.
 
Always wanted to see him given a shot as a number 10. His passing was underrated, had that ability to just weight the ball perfectly. And obviously he had the best first touch of just about anyone we've seen at OT.

Love all the stories about how hard his upbringing was too, you'd just never guess it from how he matured.
 
Good player but world class? Was he any where near top 10 forwards in the world nevermind top 20 players?
 
Falcow said:
Great player and most definitely was world class. That assist v west ham I think at OT was sublime.

He never really disappointed me at united as he performed exactly how I thought he would when we bought him, I think most expected more from him but i was never sure what that was based on.

Fergie gave him the cold shoulder after the cup semi final v city and his subsequent omission from the champions league squad must still hurt him......it hurts me still!

He has only gone up in my estimation since he retired.
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I thought it was a bad decision to leave him out of that final in 2011. He won the PL Golden boot for the 2010-11 season too, so he deserved to at least make the bench.
 
I love watching him play, so easy on the eyes. Still talk so highly about United, and about his teammates back then.

Shame we didn't get him earlier.
 
Depends on what you mean by world class. He wasn't absolutely in the top drawer. For example he was no RVN, RVP or Rooney level striker, which so why at the time he was a mature of delightful and underwhelming.
 
phonics_tid said:
Just watched his episode of Soccerbox with Gary Neville and was reminded how incredible a player he was. I know he could be frustrating at times but for me, he was undoubtedly world class at his best.

To this day, I still don’t think I’ve seen a player with a better first touch than this man. How the hell did we go from him to Lukaku?

I remember seeing that overhead kick against Liverpool live and could’ve torn my vocal chords with my screams. So let’s share the love for Berba...
Click to expand...

Yeah I watched this too....found it strange how much Neville went on about getting back and defending, then remembered the Rooney one where the pair of them were going on about Ronaldo too. Think it’s a very English mentality.

also on Berba Soccerbox, did they show that piece of skill vs West Ham ? Glaring omission if not.
Anyway it inspired me to watch the Blackburn game where he scored five. Some of the link play was awesome, also Nani, who Neville and Rooney kept having digs at, was awesome that game.
 
When he was in the mood he was something else. I think the year he won the golden boot with 20 goals, 5 goals or 25% of his total were scored in that one match against Blackburn which about sums him up as a player, both being capable of absolutely ridiculous things and being very patchy/moody.

Rene Meulensteen would always give these nice interviews to the Dutch press about United and working with particular players. I remember one where he said he truly believed Berbatov could've been one of the best in the game if he had a different type of personality. But then again his particular personality also made him the moody genius he was so there's nothing you could do.

That hattrick against Liverpool was so fecking nice, also from the year we won the league and he won the golden boot. So I guess he scored 40% (or 8/20) of his league goals in two matches that year. That overhead kick for the second goal still makes me wild ten years later :drool:

https://www.manutd.com/en/videos/detail/dimitar-berbatov-hattrick-against-liverpool-on-this-day
 
Elegant and entertaining. Always fun watching him play. A word to describe would be "cool". Element of intelligence in his game. That said, often I want him to do more, similar with Ozil in a way.
 
thepolice123 said:
Good player but world class? Was he any where near top 10 forwards in the world nevermind top 20 players?
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At his very peak I think you could've put him somewhere around 9th or 10th in the forwards list. Not definitively though.
 
Not quite world class and often frustrating but an absolutely delightful player to watch.

My dad and I used to talk about the 'bubble of tranquillity' he played in, where time would seem to slow down when he received the ball. Eventually we just used to shout 'the bubble!' every time he pulled off something filthy.
 
Never liked him, couldn't enjoy him in a utd shirt, he wasn't a good fit. I could have played well in that team.
 
harms said:
At his very peak I think you could've put him somewhere around 9th or 10th in the forwards list. Not definitively though.
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Berbatov had a peak for us? If we are talking about the period from 09-11, he is coming up against:

Rooney
Drogba
Tevez
Forlan
Aguero
Ibrahimovic
Villa
Eto'o
Benzema/Higuain
Milito

After that you have gatekeepers like:
Falcao
Di Natale
Cavani
Muller
Van Persie

Top 15 at a stretch if you ask me. But I don't think he was ever world class.
 
Here is the video btw.. saw it a couple of days ago too..
 
His technique was on another planet. He could do things with the ball that even then no one else in our team could do. But his problem, if you could call it that, was always his attitude. Not that he had a bad one, he was the type of player (and has said this himself) that would rather create a beautiful goal then score one himself. By god, his touch and ability was definitely world class but he perhaps lacked that instinct or desire to score 30 goals a season that would have put him in the world class category as a striker. A little bit like Hazard in that respect, they both do things with the ball that few others can but don't have that drive to be truly ridiculous players. Still one of my fav players to watch.
 
Beachryan said:
Always wanted to see him given a shot as a number 10. His passing was underrated, had that ability to just weight the ball perfectly. And obviously he had the best first touch of just about anyone we've seen at OT.

Love all the stories about how hard his upbringing was too, you'd just never guess it from how he matured.
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This. He passing was sublime. I would love to have seen him in the number 10 slot. However, for those saying he was a world class striker, come on! He was never one of the top 3 or 4 strikers in the world. He was even top 10. He wasn't even the best striker at United at the time. That said, I loved to watch him play. He could be a wonderful player to watch on his day.
 
Started supporting United because of him (same for a lot of Bulgarians probably). Had been watching United with my grandfather for a few years but that was what did it. Luckily I didn't get into the prem two years earlier or I'd be a Spurs fan ffs
 
Berbatov was a fabulous player to watch in his day, I was so excited when we finally got him. Over the course of his career at United, he did really well and had some stand out moments but can't help feel a little underwhelmed at the same time. He had a god given talent to play the game, not many players had his control, guile, vision and eye for the spectacular but a lot of time I felt that he could have been so much more if there was more application and drive to his game. He was a great goalscorer but I don't think he had the same hunger for goals as some of the world class strikers of his generation. The team at the time was built to play quick aggressive attacking football with the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo and while it was sound logic to bring in a player who could hold up the ball and was comfortable with his back to goal, his languidity was at odds with the intent of the players around him.
 
prateik said:
Here is the video btw.. saw it a couple of days ago too..
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Great watch, I love the way he talks about his goals. He sees the game differently, like a series of calculations.

He exudes confidence and he's a funny guy. I'd have a pint with him.
 
siw2007 said:
Berbatov was a fabulous player to watch in his day, I was so excited when we finally got him. Over the course of his career at United, he did really well and had some stand out moments but can't help feel a little underwhelmed at the same time. He had a god given talent to play the game, not many players had his control, guile, vision and eye for the spectacular but a lot of time I felt that he could have been so much more if there was more application and drive to his game. He was a great goalscorer but I don't think he had the same hunger for goals as some of the world class strikers of his generation. The team at the time was built to play quick aggressive attacking football with the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo and while it was sound logic to bring in a player who could hold up the ball and was comfortable with his back to goal, his languidity was at odds with the intent of the players around him.
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I feel the same. I find the praise he gets nowadays for his United career to be quite OTT. Not a flop by any means but struggled a fair amount in his debut season, wasn't great in his second season either, much better 3rd season but replaced by Hernandez towards the end of that campaign and I don't really remember that much about him from then on. Again, a very good player but to be honest he wasn't a fantastic signing.
 
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