In fairness any 2 of Ferdinand, Stam, Vidic, Adams, Terry would be a fair choice. Comes down to opinion at the end of the day.
Best ever XI of PL players at their very best...
- Thread starter Rozay
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
..........................Cudicini......................
Petrescu...Terry.....Luiz ....Cole
Laudrup...Gullit..Deschamps..Robben
...................Etoo..Sheva...............
Didn't say their peak had to be in the premier league...
Petrescu...Terry.....Luiz ....Cole
Laudrup...Gullit..Deschamps..Robben
...................Etoo..Sheva...............
Didn't say their peak had to be in the premier league...
Terry and Adams were never world class players like Vidic and Stam were. Only a biased English pundit whos friends with the two geezers would tell you otherwise.
Terry is a Chelsea legend. Stam is a football legend.
Im a big Stam fan but Terry was better. Imagine how much better he would have been if he was juiced to the tits like Stam was.
Ronny Johnsen was an excellent defender. Certainly better than Jonny Evans who was a regular next to Vidic in a number of title winning campaigns. Henning Berg was better than Evans too.
As a defender, Stam was incredible. He was unbeatable one on one. Vidic was a better organiser and defended more as part of a unit. Both amazing defenders. It's just a shame they never got to play in the same team.
No Cech, Desailly, Ballack, Ferrer or Zola?
Cech was a better goalie than Carlo but I was going for some less obvious but possibly arguable picks. At his very best, Cuducini was amazing.
As for the rest, I was going for a "great but not necessarily great for Chelsea" feel.
Ronny Johnsen was a good defender, not an excellent one. Henning Berg was fine, not as good as Johnsen but not bad. Without Stam there, those two weren't winning a trophy, let alone a treble. I wouldn't have either of them ahead of Jonny Evans who despite being the pantomime villain of the month before he left, was a fine defender. And let's not forget, he was never a first choice CB during those title winning campaigns.
Dont get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Vidic, but it's easy to say he was better at organising a defence when he had Rio beside him. Stam was the complete defender. Every bit as tough and dominant as Vida, possibly even more so, but also superb with the ball at his feet and capable of driving forwards with it.
At his peak, there is no premier league CB who comes close to his dominance in the role.
_______ Schmeichel 92- 96_____
Neville 03-06 - Ferdinand 06-09 - Stam 98-00 - Cole 03-07
Beckham 97-00 - Keane 99-01 - Vieira 98-02 - Ronaldo 06-08
________ Henry 01-05 - Shearer 92-96 _______
Subs:
Scholes, Silva, Pires, Ruud, Terry, De Gea, Irwin
Tough one between Vieira and Scholes. Coin flip. Same with Silva and Becks. Think De Gea has done enough by now to edge out Cech and van der Sar. Not been too many high class RBs over time.
Neville 03-06 - Ferdinand 06-09 - Stam 98-00 - Cole 03-07
Beckham 97-00 - Keane 99-01 - Vieira 98-02 - Ronaldo 06-08
________ Henry 01-05 - Shearer 92-96 _______
Subs:
Scholes, Silva, Pires, Ruud, Terry, De Gea, Irwin
Tough one between Vieira and Scholes. Coin flip. Same with Silva and Becks. Think De Gea has done enough by now to edge out Cech and van der Sar. Not been too many high class RBs over time.
That's an insane comment on every level.
Schmeichel
G Nev Ferdinand Carvallho A Cole
Ronaldo Keane Scholes Henry
Nistelerooy Sherear
G Nev Ferdinand Carvallho A Cole
Ronaldo Keane Scholes Henry
Nistelerooy Sherear
Unpopular but as good as DDG has been I don't think his best season has been as good as Big Pete, Cech, VDS in their best season. I'd probably get lynched for adding Lehmann in there but he probably had a year that good too.
Stam wasn't a fish out of water when taken out of a deep af backline and no protection. Terry is the very definition of a system baby.
Big Pete
Neville
Ferdinand
Stam
Cole
Beckham
Keane
Fabregas
Bale
Henry
Ronaldo
No idea what formation they'd play but they'd win.
Neville
Ferdinand
Stam
Cole
Beckham
Keane
Fabregas
Bale
Henry
Ronaldo
No idea what formation they'd play but they'd win.
Schmeichel
Irwin
Ferdinand
Stam
Cole
Keane
Fabregas
Ronaldo
Bale
Henry
Suarez
Best of the best IMO.
Irwin
Ferdinand
Stam
Cole
Keane
Fabregas
Ronaldo
Bale
Henry
Suarez
Best of the best IMO.
Your second paragraph makes my point. Rio missed a lot of football during a very successful era for United. Vidic with Evans next to him were a formidable pairing. Evans with anyone else was an utter liability. In fact, Rio next to anyone else was error prone and susceptible to terrible lapses in concentration.
As an individual one on one defender Stam was immense. He was better suited to that team than Vidic would have been because it was a very attacking team with Keane almost on his own in midfield and Stam was regularly left exposed to players running at him. He was amazing in that scenario.
Vidic was better at organising the defence and the best defender in the air I've seen at United. He seemed to win every header he competed for.
I agree that Stam was amazing and carried that defence but it's disrespectful to Vidic to suggest he didn't do the same. Do you remember United's defence before he joined and in the seasons he was injured? The quality of United's defence with and without Vidic in that era was like night and day. In fact, the season he had the serious injury in Basel, United conceded one goal in the games he played (a disgracefully awarded penalty) and were a rabble without him.
He played at the back, in midfield and upfront.
I watched him play in midfield quite a few times for Chelsea.
Not at Milan he didn't.
Maybe so lol.
Just in my view Gullit was never world class for Chelsea, only Milan. At Milan he played as a roving 10/wide forward whereas you have him in a position which kinda looks like Central Midfield
He was certainly in his prime at Milan. I'm not gonna get into the whole "what is world class" issue but he was still fantastic for us, despite being old and slower.
My team is pretty much all players who were better at other clubs (sheva, laudrup), that was the whole point of picking most of them!
In that case fair dues.
--------------- Schmeichel
Neville - Vidic -------- Stam - Evra
Scholes --- Essien
Schweinsteiger
Ronaldo -- Shevchenko -- Suarez
Shocked I'm the first to include Bastian. Likewise, no Falcao, Blanc, Salgado, Veron etc.
Neville - Vidic -------- Stam - Evra
Scholes --- Essien
Schweinsteiger
Ronaldo -- Shevchenko -- Suarez
Shocked I'm the first to include Bastian. Likewise, no Falcao, Blanc, Salgado, Veron etc.
I'm assuming its their best form while in the premier league, so none of those would count.
Any team that has Hazard or doesn't have Henry is just wrong for me.
Schmeichel
Neville
Vidic
Stam
Cole
Scholes
Keane
Gerrard
Ronaldo
Suarez
Henry
That would be my team
I think the central defence has to be Vidic 08/09 and Terry 04/05. Each the key defenders and ever-present in backlines that broke records which have yet to be equaled. I don't think any defenders in the PL era have had better single seasons than those mentioned. Henry and Suarez would be my choice up front but you could make a case for Shearer, RvP and a few others. Ronaldo 07/08 on the right is a no brainer. Scholes shouldn't be anywhere near a team like this.
EDIT: By the way I'm just going for players who in my view had the best single seasons, otherwise it just becomes like any other EPL Best XI thread.
EDIT: By the way I'm just going for players who in my view had the best single seasons, otherwise it just becomes like any other EPL Best XI thread.
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He played centrally for Sampdoria in Serie A if I remember rightly. The thing is I'd buy Gullit in any position on the park, he has all the tools to play anywhere and operated up front, at sweeper and on the right of the attack to a top level.
It seems like you have Cashley Cole on the right?
This is not true at all. We barely conceded any goals when we had Vidic and Ferdinand in their primes, they are easily our best pairing we've had in the EPL era, maybe the best in our history. We conceded a shit number of goals in the treble season.
Yea decided to mix it up a bit.
Going with the single year peak rule:
Schmeichel
Neville Vidic Stam Cole
Beckham Toure Keane Bale
Cantona
Vardy
Schmeichel
Neville Vidic Stam Cole
Beckham Toure Keane Bale
Cantona
Vardy
Henry was better in 2002-2003 24 goals 20 assists
Schmeichel
Irwin Stam Rio Cole
Keane
Scholes Bergkamp
Ronaldo Henry Robben
Schmeichel
Zabaleta Terry Vidic Cole
Keane Lampard Vieira
Ronaldo Henry Bale
Zabaleta Terry Vidic Cole
Keane Lampard Vieira
Ronaldo Henry Bale
As I'm not allowed to put pictures yet, I have to make my formation using letters.
-----------------Schmeichel---------------
G. Neville------Rio--------Stam----------
---------------------------------------Irwin
----------------Carrick---------------------
Beckham----------------Scholes---------
------------Bergkamp------------Ronaldo
---------------------Henry-----------------
The right hand side of my team is a bit more defensive than the left hand side. The strength of the likes of Gary Neville and David Beckham is providing defensive discipline and perfect crosses, which is suits the likes of Ronaldo who likes to drift in from the left side. Irwin is also a bit more attacking than Gary Neville and he is better in attacking sense than either Evra or Cole while also being as good defensively.
Scholes is also naturally a bit more adventurous than Carrick, which is why he is a bit higher up the pitch. I prefer Carrick to Keane because I would like to have a deep lying play-maker who is also defensively solid. I could have picked Xabi Alonso too, but I think we Carrick was better than Alonso when they were both in the league, Alonso's best came when he was at Real.
Finally Bergkamp is my number 10 providing assists for Ronaldo and Henry.
EDIT: Felt Stam was better at the end, he replaces Vidic.
-----------------Schmeichel---------------
G. Neville------Rio--------Stam----------
---------------------------------------Irwin
----------------Carrick---------------------
Beckham----------------Scholes---------
------------Bergkamp------------Ronaldo
---------------------Henry-----------------
The right hand side of my team is a bit more defensive than the left hand side. The strength of the likes of Gary Neville and David Beckham is providing defensive discipline and perfect crosses, which is suits the likes of Ronaldo who likes to drift in from the left side. Irwin is also a bit more attacking than Gary Neville and he is better in attacking sense than either Evra or Cole while also being as good defensively.
Scholes is also naturally a bit more adventurous than Carrick, which is why he is a bit higher up the pitch. I prefer Carrick to Keane because I would like to have a deep lying play-maker who is also defensively solid. I could have picked Xabi Alonso too, but I think we Carrick was better than Alonso when they were both in the league, Alonso's best came when he was at Real.
Finally Bergkamp is my number 10 providing assists for Ronaldo and Henry.
EDIT: Felt Stam was better at the end, he replaces Vidic.
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In terms of just one season wonders Kevin Phillips had one heck of a season as well similar to Vardy. 30 goals for a pretty poor Sunderland in one season which only Suarez, Shearer, Cole and Ronaldo has topped. Nani and Valencia also had great peaks and were nearly unplayable at times even if they fell far after that point. Not deserving to be in an all time peak XI but worth a shout for the bench maybe.
I'm surprised majority have gone for Neville and Giggs. Neville, for me, is the very definition of 'good multiplied by time equals great'. He was never as good as Zabaleta at his best, or even Wes Brown in 2008, and that's if people can't remember Petrescu. He wasn't even as good as Bellerin last year for me.
As for Giggs, I can't see it fair to say he's had a better season than Pires when he won POTY, or Ginola when he did (surprised no mention of him), or probably a fair few others too. Maybe back in Giggs' first few years which I struggle to remember as well, but not since then, he's never really been close to being the best player in the league like the others.
As for Giggs, I can't see it fair to say he's had a better season than Pires when he won POTY, or Ginola when he did (surprised no mention of him), or probably a fair few others too. Maybe back in Giggs' first few years which I struggle to remember as well, but not since then, he's never really been close to being the best player in the league like the others.
Near enough a United best XI lol
Well what else can I do about it?
I mean, after all, United won 13 titles out of 23(?), so even if you are trying your hardest to pick the best XI, you are kinda forced to pick United players. I tried to apply the thoughts of tactical analysis, longevity, suitability between players etc. when picking the team and ended up selecting this crop.