Has there been a player with a better first touch than Berbatov?

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Henrik Larsson

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Blimey. I find the outpouring of man love in this thread very strange. I think he got a lot of unfair stick during his time at United but was watching last night thinking he was showcasing all the more frustrating aspects of what we saw at United. Taking too many touches, slowing play down, pointless show-boating and a lack of physical strength. Was not an impressive performance at all IMO. Then he scored. After that he seemed to enjoy himself and the pattern of the game suited him a lot better. He's a joy to watch when he's on his game but he's proven himself to be a tier below the very best and his United career will also go down as disappointing.
Really can't agree with this. He always made himself available yesterday and mostly did something well with the ball after that. He added so much to Monaco's general play, thanks to him they kept more of the ball and he helped relieving them of some of Arsenal's pressure. Only risk with this is that you'd want your #9 to be in the box to be on the end of an attack. But since he scored it's fair game to him, very well played.

And talking about his lack of physical strength is laughable, you clearly missed the part where Mertesacker wanted to outmuscle him, yet Dimitar still won the header? He's no Zlatan or Drogba, but I always felt he used his body or strength very well, even though he plays mostly on technique.

But then again I must be honest and admit that my man love for Berba is deep, so maybe I'm biased and he was having a frustrating game after all.
 

Nighteyes

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And talking about his lack of physical strength is laughable, you clearly missed the part where Mertesacker wanted to outmuscle him, yet Dimitar still won the header? He's no Zlatan or Drogba, but I always felt he used his body or strength very well, even though he plays mostly on technique.
Very true. I always felt he was a incredibly difficult player to dispossess.
 

Adam-Utd

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Yep he's very strong, he shields the ball so well.
 

Bob Loblaw

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Would have been interesting to see him in 2011 Barca:​

Valdes
Alves Pique Puyol Abidal
Iniesta Busquets Xavi
Messi Berbatov Villa​
He'd have completely wrecked them. There's no way he'd have fit into Guardiola's pressing, and having him there takes Messi out of what was a brilliant role for him at the time.
 

legball

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His languid style makes it come out more, there are a load of other players with a better first touch.
 

Minkaro

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His languid style makes it come out more, there are a load of other players with a better first touch.
I see what you mean, because he's so laid back everything looks "too easy" or like he's not that fussed. I think that might also be why people accused him of being lazy, despite him tracking back plenty of times.

Aside from his first touch, one thing I used to love about Berbatov when he was here was how strong he was. Very rarely saw him muscled off the ball by a defender.
 

legball

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I see what you mean, because he's so laid back everything looks "too easy" or like he's not that fussed. I think that might also be why people accused him of being lazy, despite him tracking back plenty of times.

Aside from his first touch, one thing I used to love about Berbatov when he was here was how strong he was. Very rarely saw him muscled off the ball by a defender.
Yeah, that's exactly what am talking about.
 

Cheesy

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He'd have completely wrecked them. There's no way he'd have fit into Guardiola's pressing, and having him there takes Messi out of what was a brilliant role for him at the time.
Yep, while that Barca team was obviously incredible on the ball, people often forget how good they were at pressing while off it. He wouldn't have fit in at all.
 

Laphroaig

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Blimey. I find the outpouring of man love in this thread very strange. I think he got a lot of unfair stick during his time at United but was watching last night thinking he was showcasing all the more frustrating aspects of what we saw at United. Taking too many touches, slowing play down, pointless show-boating and a lack of physical strength. Was not an impressive performance at all IMO. Then he scored. After that he seemed to enjoy himself and the pattern of the game suited him a lot better. He's a joy to watch when he's on his game but he's proven himself to be a tier below the very best and his United career will also go down as disappointing.
Football's not just about being the best though. I love Berbatov, but it's obviously a matter of taste and highly subjective, yet I reckon it's quite easy to see his appeal. I don't see how the love he gets is strange. (I too thought he looked a bit slow and lazy yesterday, but I'm more than happy with a goal at Emirates and some classic Berba stuff. He's 34 btw.)
 

Pogue Mahone

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Football's not just about being the best though. I love Berbatov, but it's obviously a matter of taste and highly subjective, yet I reckon it's quite easy to see his appeal. I don't see how the love he gets is strange. (I too thought he looked a bit slow and lazy yesterday, but I'm more than happy with a goal at Emirates and some classic Berba stuff. He's 34 btw.)
I've a reputation on these boards as being a massive Berbafan, rightly or wrongly. I just love the way he plays the game. I'd always prefer to watch him pluck a ball out of the air with a gossamer touch then watch Tevez tackling people with his face.

I did occasionally find him a frustrating presence though. And was reminded of that last night. In the first half anyway.

Re his age. Barney Ronay put it very well:

The Bulgarian looked like the same old Berbatov here, although this was perhaps unsurprising given he has resembled a hugely skilful slow motion 34-year-old for most of his career.
 

Laphroaig

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I've a reputation on these boards as being a massive Berbafan, rightly or wrongly. I just love the way he plays the game. I'd always prefer to watch him pluck a ball out of the air with a gossamer touch then watch Tevez tackling people with his face.

I did occasionally find him a frustrating presence though. And was reminded of that last night. In the first half anyway.
Ah, right. I'd agree with all of that.

And Ronay's right too. I reckon he can play at the second highest level (a la Monaco) till he's 50.
 

berbatrick

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Blimey. I find the outpouring of man love in this thread very strange. I think he got a lot of unfair stick during his time at United but was watching last night thinking he was showcasing all the more frustrating aspects of what we saw at United. Taking too many touches, slowing play down, pointless show-boating and a lack of physical strength. Was not an impressive performance at all IMO. Then he scored. After that he seemed to enjoy himself and the pattern of the game suited him a lot better. He's a joy to watch when he's on his game but he's proven himself to be a tier below the very best and his United career will also go down as disappointing.
Well, with a username like mine you can probably predict my outpouring :angel:

But lack of strength? He was battling with Mertersacker and Koscielny and won a few headers and I don't recall him losing the ball once on the floor. And pointless show-boating? I really am struggling to think of a single flashy thing he did, apart from a touch, but that was, well, a touch to control and then pass a high ball, not a useless stepover. Stats show he didn't attempt a single dribble.
He finished as the third highest passer with 43 passes at 84% for Monaco despite being the lone forward for a counter-attacking away team.

Having said that, it was a competent away game from him - battled well for headers, even 2 successful tackles! As usual, almost faultless passing; putting him in your team means you are guaranteed to see a decent amount of the ball in the opponents' half of the pitch - he's always been hard to dispossess and showed that yesterday. A couple of nice touches. A great finish to top it all.

Yet, in the end I sort of agree with you - he is capable of more.


2 goals and an assist at the Emirates. More than that, the strength at 2:36 and 5:47 (twice). And still I don't think this is his best game. Better finishing vs Liverpool/Blackburn, and better holdup + linkup play a bunch of times (I can remember the 4-2 comeback at West Ham near the end of his 20 goal season, and a CL game vs Wolfsburg)
 

Enigma_87

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Ronaldinho is out of this world when it comes to first touch and pure talent. It's like the ball is glued to his feet.

Zidane, Bergkamp from who I've seen share the 2nd place.
 

berbatrick

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He'd have completely wrecked them. There's no way he'd have fit into Guardiola's pressing, and having him there takes Messi out of what was a brilliant role for him at the time.
As a plan B, NOT a starter, he would've fit much better than Ibra. Not that big an ego and no selfishness- he would be happy to defer to Messi. And against deep defences he could hold up the ball and lay off for Messi, which probably would mean a goal. Also his vision to spot a through-ball is a little underrated - he nowadays exclusively takes the safe option but he's capable of incision too.
To start him would surely be a mistake, but as a specialised weapon for certain cases, Barca would've been well served.

At his best, he was quite excellent
 
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Amar__

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I watched him for the first time since Fulham last night, and he was excellent. That's probably one of rare games I saw him that he was excellent as a lone striker. Probably put better performance last night than Falcao and van Persie did in whole season so far. Shame he wasn't more suited to United, such a class player to watch.
 

ZDwyr

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Love watching him. You could say that his demeanor makes his first touch look more impressive than it probably is, and that there are others who are better, but it just makes me enjoy him more. Even though his time with us didn't work out I loved watching him play. Elegance personified.
 

Paolo Di Canio

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I put more effort in to scratching my arse than Berby did controling that and chipping the Nice keeper, love it :lol::lol:
 

Cantona'sCollar

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If you actually look at his goal record for us, he never actually had a bad season in his time here. He had a solid, unspectacular first season where he scored 14 goals, a few of which turned out to be quite important. His second season had better numbers, 17 goals I believe, though he did disappoint when asked to step in for Rooney post-April - he was the lone striker and didn't really make an impact. Before that, he was still consistently good. He was brilliant in 10/11 - he and Nani won us so many points that season, they even had a great combination between themselves, despite a (stupid) belief that they disliked each other. He also connected with Hernandez extremely well, before Rooney hit form in March and took it from there. In his final season, he actually had a very, very good goals to minute ratio, if I remember correctly. He was never afforded a run in the team.

He was not excellent by any means, he also didn't fit the team. I understand why we sold him. That said, I think he is severely underrated by people on here. He has the best first touch I have ever seen at this club, too. :drool:
 

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Is this supposed to be a trick question ?! :confused: Cause it's very funny. :rolleyes:

Bergkamp is miles in front of anyone else.
 
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lsd

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Nani's ability to control a high ball (as in when it's like 4ft off the gound when it gets to him) is particularly impressive.

Had to be , I remember Rooney in particular used to just thump the ball at him no matter how close he was
 

MyOnlySolskjaer

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In our club Nani for sure, much better first touch. Would effortlessly control pings from Paul Scholes on a regular basis. It’s what he did after which is where he got some criticism.
 

TwoSheds

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Cafu, Redondo, Isco, all pretty exceptional as I remember it.
 

Niall

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Don’t bump 4 year old threads please.
 
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