"He was/is clearly the best player in the league"

[Annihilate Now!]

Dunno if this will go anywhere as a thread but lets see.

I was thinking the other day - how many players in your lifetime/whatever could you safely say the above line about and most people would generally agree? I don't think you could say it right now, because if as many people would say KDB for Mane or Salah, so what about historically?

For me I only came up with 2 definites and a few possibles

- Definitely Ronaldo around 2008
- Definitely Thierry Henry around 2004
- Probably Robin Van Persie in 2012 (Though Bale was doing his thing at that time too)
- Probably Cantona around 96 (or maybe 94) was probably it, though could have competition from other members of our team.
- Hazard also probably could fit the bill a few years ago

So what does the Caf think? and what about for other leagues? I know for example that everyone said it for Bruno in the Portuguese league.

 

[RUCK4444]

Before the Premier League Era?

If so Best stands more than any really.

I would say between Peak Ronaldo and Best, they are by far better than anybody else we can list, IMO anyway.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Before the Premier League Era?

If so Best stands more than any really.

From whenever you want, though I imagine people will recall the thought/conversation for players during their time watching football.

 

[RUCK4444]

Also I would say Rooney in his best season after Ronnie left. For me he was the best player in the league that year.

 

[Lay]

Controversial perhaps but I never thought Bale was the best in the league.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Roy Keane around 99-2000

Lampard in Jose's first couple of seasons.

 

[DWelbz19]

Lewandowski - for the last however many years in the Bundesliga

Neymar - since his arrival at Ligue 1 (Probably Ibrahimovic before that)

Ziyech(?) for the last few seasons in Eredivisie

No idea who you’d say has been comprehensively the best player in Italy over the last few years. Pretty difficult, actually.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Roy Keane around 99-2000

Lampard in Jose's first couple of seasons.

Problem with Keane is I think you'd get a lot of people suggesting other United players... and there was always Viera too.

Same with Lampard, he was in a team with Terry and Makelele, and Henry was still around and being brilliant around that time too.

 

[BigDunc9]

Suarez in the season that Liverpool nearly won the league.

Zlatan in plenty of seasons in France and Italy.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Cantona 92-97
Henry 01-06
Ronaldo 06-09
Bale 12-13
Suarez 13-14

Those are clearly head and shoulders above everyone else in the league during their peak years.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Suarez in the season that Liverpool nearly won the league.

Zlatan in plenty of seasons in France and Italy.

Cantona 92-97
Henry 01-06
Ronaldo 06-09
Bale 12-13
Suarez 13-14

Those are clearly head and shoulders above everyone else in the league during their peak years.

Suarez is probably right... City did have Aguero and Silva but yeah, Suarez was probably clearly above them at that time.

No way Bale was head and shoulders above RVP though!

 

[11101]

Ronaldo was the only truly clear cut one, also Shearer in 95 and begrudgingly Suarez for a season.

Henry was brilliant but Van Nistelrooy pushed him close in every season. Same as Cole with Shearer in the mid 90s.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

Roy Keane around 99-2000

Lampard in Jose's first couple of seasons.

Lampard wasn’t even the best player in his team.

 

[Champagne Football]

In recent times -
Mo Salah for 1 season.
N'Golo Kante for a couple of seasons.
Bale and Suarez for a few seasons.

Then before that Cristiano for a few seasons, Henry, Roy Keane, Shearer, Cantona and Paul McGrath spring to mind

 

[Champagne Football]

Problem with Keane is I think you'd get a lot of people suggesting other United players... and there was always Viera too.

For a few seasons he was head and shoulders above anyone at Utd and slightly above Viera too. He should have won the POTY more than once. Gary Neville says he was the best player on the pitch in almost every game back then.

 

[Cascarino]

Ronaldo was the only truly clear cut one, also Shearer in 95 and begrudgingly Suarez for a season.

Henry was brilliant but Van Nistelrooy pushed him close in every season. Same as Cole with Shearer in the mid 90s.

Henry was still clear cut (so was Shearer) Van Nistelrooy was WC but if you were to ask people who was the better player over that time period, 90+ will be saying Henry.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Lampard wasn’t even the best player in his team.

Yes he was.

 

[DanClancy]

Henry was still clear cut (so was Shearer) Van Nistelrooy was WC but if you were to ask people who was the better player over that time period, 90+ will be saying Henry.

RVN in his first 2 seasons at United wasn't that far off Henry but after that RVN got injured and was never the same player. Shearer was twice the player Cole was until Shearer got injured at Newcastle.

 

[Dozer]

Hazard certainly doesn't fall into that category.

Ridicule what he has become all you like, but around 2015 Alexis Sanchez was at a similarly high level. I'd probably have just opted for Sanchez at the time due to having all of the same excitement and talent, but more tenacity and work rate.

Aguero would have also been in the conversation.

This millenium it's been Henry, Ronaldo, Bale, Suarez. That's it.

 

[mshnsh]

Ronaldo was the only truly clear cut one, also Shearer in 95 and begrudgingly Suarez for a season.

Henry was brilliant but Van Nistelrooy pushed him close in every season. Same as Cole with Shearer in the mid 90s.

For me ronaldo was clear cut in 06/07. 07/08 he was fantastic interms of goalscoring but his allround play was not as good, similar to his first 3 years in madrid (other than his debut season).The likes of torres and fabregas ran him close in season 07/08

Henry was clear cut circa 2002 to 2004. ruud was great at the time but henry easily brought more to the table.

Suarez in season 2013/14.

Bale in the season before he left for madrid

Salah in season 2017/18

 

[11101]

Henry was still clear cut (so was Shearer) Van Nistelrooy was WC but if you were to ask people who was the better player over that time period, 90+ will be saying Henry.

Henry's reputation is slightly elevated by his overall body of work in the way Giggs' is, the first two or three seasons there was nothing between Henry and Van Nistelrooy. Arsenal fans would choose Henry, we would choose RVN. It was only when he got injured and fell out with SAF that Henry pulled ahead.

 

[El Jefe]

Hazard certainly doesn't fall into that category.

Ridicule what he has become all you like, but around 2015 Alexis Sanchez was at a similarly high level. I'd probably have just opted for Sanchez at the time due to having all of the same excitement and talent, but more tenacity and work rate.

Aguero would have also been in the conversation.

This millenium it's been Henry, Ronaldo, Bale, Suarez. That's it.

Nail on head.

 

[El Jefe]

Henry's reputation is slightly elevated by his overall body of work in the way Giggs' is, the first two or three seasons there was nothing between Henry and Van Nistelrooy. Arsenal fans would choose Henry, we would choose RVN. It was only when he got injured and fell out with SAF that Henry pulled ahead.

There was a lot of this at the height of the rivalry mainly due to loyalty and bias. Deep down most United fans know Henry was clearly better than Ruud.

You could possibly say Ruud was a better striker (still not true IMO) but there was no doubt Henry was the better player.

 

[Cascarino]

RVN in his first 2 seasons at United wasn't that far off Henry but after that RVN got injured and was never the same player. Shearer was twice the player Cole was until Shearer got injured at Newcastle.

Shearer was phenomenal, I like Cole but that’s an easy one for ke

Henry's reputation is slightly elevated by his overall body of work in the way Giggs' is, the first two or three seasons there was nothing between Henry and Van Nistelrooy. Arsenal fans would choose Henry, we would choose RVN. It was only when he got injured and fell out with SAF that Henry pulled ahead.

It’s hard for to remember the individual seasons from so long ago, so it might be the case that for the first couple years they were rated fairly evenly. For myself though it was always the case that I thought Henry was better. I remember when Ruud joined the league it was like Henry then upped his game as well. I remember at the time the two were always spoken about as being in competition, but I can remember at the time that while RVN could match Henry for goals, Henry was clearly superior in other aspects. Henry was a brilliant team player and very creative, I remember him getting shit tons of assists around this period.

 

[SATA]

Yaya Toure was pretty close to it at his peak for City

 

[Invictus]

For the Premier League era, only four anomalies spring to mind...

• Shearer circa 1995: 34 goals (9 more than 2nd placed Robbie Fowler) and 13 assists (only 2 fewer than 1st placed Le Tissier), the chasing pack was a ways off him.
• Henry circa 2004: breached the awe-inspiring 1.20 goals + assists per 90 minutes mark twice, and the only forward with at least 20 goals + 20 assists in a season.
• Cristiano circa 2007: best player in the league and one of the Top 2 players in the world — probably the least controversial mention because of the wider recognition he received.
• Suárez circa 2014: established the new All-Time Premier League benchmark for goals + assists per 90 minutes with 1.31 and was a cut above the likes of Agüero.

The rest, like Keane circa 2000 or Salah circa 2017, are a bit more contentious.

Plenty of examples in small(er) pond type leagues, though — like Gabriel Barbosa in the Brasileirão, Henrik Larsson in the Scottish Premier League or Mário Jardel in the Primeira Liga.

 

[DanClancy]

Shearer was phenomenal, I like Cole but that’s an easy one for ke


It’s hard for to remember the individual seasons from so long ago, so it might be the case that for the first couple years they were rated fairly evenly. For myself though it was always the case that I thought Henry was better. I remember when Ruud joined the league it was like Henry then upped his game as well. I remember at the time the two were always spoken about as being in competition, but I can remember at the time that while RVN could match Henry for goals, Henry was clearly superior in other aspects. Henry was a brilliant team player and very creative, I remember him getting shit tons of assists around this period.

RVN scored 80 goals in 101 games in his first 2 seasons at United Henry scored 64 goals in 104 games so Ruud's goal record was far superior during that time. Clearly there's no doubt Henry was the far better all round player but RVN was one hell of a goal scorer, never looked like he was going to miss. During those first 2 years he produced better form than Aguero has ever produced.

 

[Righteous Steps]

For the Premier League era, only four anomalies spring to mind...

• Shearer circa 1995: 34 goals (9 more than 2nd placed Robbie Fowler) and 13 assists (only 2 fewer than 1st placed Le Tissier), the chasing pack was a ways off him.
• Henry circa 2004: breached the awe-inspiring 1.20 goals + assists per 90 minutes mark twice, and the only forward with at least 20 goals + 20 assists in a season.
• Cristiano circa 2007: best player in the league and one of the Top 2 players in the world — probably the least controversial mention because of the wider recognition he received.
• Suárez circa 2014: established the new All-Time Premier League benchmark for goals + assists per 90 minutes with 1.31 and was a cut above the likes of Agüero.

The rest, like Keane circa 2000 or Salah circa 2017, are a bit more contentious.

Plenty of examples in small(er) pond type leagues, though — like Gabriel Barbosa in the Brasileirão, Henrik Larsson in the Scottish Premier League or Mário Jardel in the Primeira Liga.

Salah was far from contentious 32 goals the premier league record and 10 assists in 36 games,

 

[Righteous Steps]

RVN scored 80 goals in 101 games in his first 2 seasons at United Henry scored 64 goals in 104 games so Ruud's goal record was far superior during that time. Clearly there's no doubt Henry was the far better all round player but RVN was one hell of a goal scorer, never looked like he was going to miss. During those first 2 years he produced better form than Aguero has ever produced.

At times I thought RVN was better but maybe that’s the contrarian in me, looking back on it though Henry and Ronaldos performances in their periods were the best the league has seen.

 

[Dancfc]

Drogba in the Ancelotti double season.

Hit 37 goals despite not being the designated penalty taker and missing 2 months of the season (one ACON and the other culmination of injury's/suspensions).

He would have hit figures in the 50's had he took penalties and/or played the whole season.

 

[P-Ro]

Drogba in the Ancelotti double season.

Hit 37 goals despite not being the designated penalty taker and missing 2 months of the season (one ACON and the other culmination of injury's/suspensions).

He would have hit figures in the 50's had he took penalties and/or played the whole season.

Saying an opposition player from the 09/10 season on a United forum is going to attract just a bit of disagreement.

 

[Brightonian]

It's basically always going to be a forward because it's such a subjective question you'll only get agreement when opinion is also backed up by some convincing numbers.

 

[RooneyLegend]

For a few seasons he was head and shoulders above anyone at Utd and slightly above Viera too. He should have won the POTY more than once. Gary Neville says he was the best player on the pitch in almost every game back then.

Not true, most likely wasn't even our best player.

 

[RooneyLegend]

Drogba in the Ancelotti double season.

Hit 37 goals despite not being the designated penalty taker and missing 2 months of the season (one ACON and the other culmination of injury's/suspensions).

He would have hit figures in the 50's had he took penalties and/or played the whole season.

Rooney was the best player for most of that season. He was dragging our team to the title kicking and screaming. Without his Injury Chelsea wouldn't have won anything.

 

[Champagne Football]

Not true, most likely wasn't even our best player.

For a few seasons, in his prime, maybe 1996 to 99, he was clearly 2 times better than everyone else in the team, and the best player in the league along with Shearer, and in the top 5 players in Europe.

 

[adexkola]

May I suggest that there was not a significant gap between Ronaldo and Ferdinand in 2007-08?

 

[anant]

I'd say Rooney in around 2010 was the best player. IIRChe got 80% of the votes in Football writers awards or PFA awards (not sure which one)

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Premier League years 2000+, just Henry then Ronaldo.

The others are more one-offs.

 

[Skills]

Ronaldo 06 - 09 was pretty clear cut

Debatable since then : Rooney & Drogba fought it after Ronaldo left, then Suarez, RVP, Bale & Yaya Toure and then it's been a bit of a toss up since (Hazard/Aguero/Kane/De Bruyne/Salah/Van Djik/De Gea all probably held the WWE best player in the PL title at some point).

 

[JakeTheRed]

Ronaldo and Henry.

/thread