City, aside from DeBruyne and Haaland.
Players considered World Class who you don't think are World Class
- Thread starter LawCharltonBest
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Rooney was just a much better player. Striker or not.
This thread is great for fishing out absolutely awful takes, with a smattering of denounciations of players no one ever considered world class.
The only one I find agreeable is Gattuso, and I am still not entirely sure if anyone actually thought he was world class.
The only one I find agreeable is Gattuso, and I am still not entirely sure if anyone actually thought he was world class.
I did say Stam was and Schmeichel was, but earlier in his career.
The other players you listed I consider very good but just short of being world class.
I know it is an United forum but come on guys, I would have caught less replies refuting me had I called Bojan Djordjic world class.
Kimmich is a good call, he looked like he was going to be elite a few years back but now just looks a decent player.
Steven Gerrard.
Immediately springs to mind. He was very good at dribbling and drawing fouls but he didn’t have the mentality of a great. That move to Real Madrid should’ve been the springboard to greatness but he flopped massively and let himself go physically. He will never be world class for me.
Gareth Bale was twice the player even though he was more interested in golf.
No, they absolutely were World Class.
Completely agree about the 99 team. That team was on an individual level very underrated. The players you mentioned were world class.I know it’s all about opinions and at times you have to take a deep breath and accept people have a different viewbut
Not a single player in the 99 team was world class? Irwin, Schmeichel, Stam, Becks, Scholes, Keane, Giggs were all world class players.
Rooney, not world class? I agree that when people start saying he was only behind Ronaldo and Messi, that is way overrating him…Xavi, Iniesta we’re far better, Scholes was better…but he was easily world class.
Carrick and world class don’t belong in the same sentence. I don’t think it’s ever been a mainstream opinion that Pogba was world class? Don’t know why he’s in the conversation. He’d have games where he was, he was capable in terms of talent but he never got close to it in terms of overall performance over a season or more. Still a good player though.
Rooney is an odd one for me. I certainly don't think he was easily world class, but I can understand those that disagree.
Do you mean the guy who played 24 seasons in Serie A for the same club (age 16-40), who Captained Roma 500+ times, who scored Serie A goals in 22 seasons in a row (double digits 13 times), 5 times Italy player of the year between 2000-2007 despite winning only one scudetto (When the likes of Zidane, Del Piero, Maldini, Zlatan, Nedved, Kaka, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Rui Costa, Crespo, Batistuta etc. also played and peaked in the same period) and world champion Totti?
That guy?
Yeah, why would he be highly thought of?
Absolutely, but Rooney's problem for me is that he was never the best in any position, but he was still a great player.
Raul, De Rossi, Del Piero, Casillas, Gerrard, Lampard
Don’t tell me how to live my life!
Michael Owen was a pure No.9 IMO yet never managed to score more than 20 goals in any of his active seasons as a player. As far as metrics go to judge a striker, I'd say goals is one of them. He wasn't particularly outstanding at assisting either. Good player on his day, absolutely but world class? Not for me.
@mods, this is tantamount to bullying. nicknames are bad names.
He was one who came to mind for me
I didn't watch him regularly enough to be completely sure of it, but it seemed to me like he was a decent player with a few outstanding qualities to paper over the cracks.
Someone said Neymar?
I hate that fecker with a hot fiery passion but come on now…
I hate that fecker with a hot fiery passion but come on now…
Casillas, Vidic, Thiago come to my mind
Definitely World Class. I can't possibly understand why anyone would think he wasn't.
Think you would need to define world class?
Do we class it as people that play for their international team or people that would be picked in the worlds best 11. Because we do throw buzz words and phrases about very loosely now. “generational talent” for example.
Anyway there is one obvious one in our own team.
Do we class it as people that play for their international team or people that would be picked in the worlds best 11. Because we do throw buzz words and phrases about very loosely now. “generational talent” for example.
Anyway there is one obvious one in our own team.
Well, if it was what made him famous, he's really bad, because his FKs were shitty in 95% of attempts; a bit like Ronaldo's, but with even less consistency and accuracy.
Daily reminder that it's pointless to just throw out names without declaring where you draw the line for world class.
Because he was a limited footballer that had 3 or 4 good seasons in his entire career. Depended exclusively on his physique, when it declined he was absolutely bad.
No, can't get behind this at all. He was arguably the best centre back in the world.
Only in the league though, which was affected by his patchy record with injuries and feeding off scraps for a defensive Houllier side. For example, he scored 36 goals for club and country in 2001/02, and 32 goals in 2002/03. Even later at Real he scored every 140 minutes, which in a more defensive era than today, was good going. He also reached 40 England goals by the age of 27 (younger than anyone else bar Greaves).
He is also one of the few strikers who maintained a high scoring rate in big games. He made his World Cup debut with 15 minutes to go when England were up shitcreek against Romania, and scored an equaliser within 10 minutes. He has played in two World Cup knockout games against Argentina and Brazil and scored in both. He has played in one Euros knockout game against Portugal and scored there too. He scored a hat-trick against Germany in a World Cup play-off. For Liverpool he played in 5 cup finals against Manchester United, Arsenal and Bayern Munich and scored 5 goals.
There were certainly gaps in his game. In his earlier years his left foot and back-to-goal hold-up play were not up to the standard of the other great strikers of the era. But unlike so many domestically great strikers who either cannot influence games by lack of involvement or by passing up chances, Owen had balls of steel on the big occasion. The bigger the stakes, the better he played. The higher quality the opposition, the more he relished the challenge.
Ibrahimović, but I am not sure if he is truly considered world class by anyone but him. Great player sure, easy on the eye and charmingly arrogant, but only made it to one World XI in 2013 and never made it to top3 Ballon d'Or. There's been at least 5 other as good, if not better, strikers in his generation.
Diego Maradona. He was beyond that.
His tentatives to brag are some of the most pathetic things I've ever seen in football(which isn't exactly a universo known for its wit), even Griezmann is less embarassing.
Vidic was definitely world class IMO. You’d have to be unbelievable to be a tier or two above him as a CB.
I also find it embarrassing, but I think it was all just a public persona and a popularity stunt, a successful one too.
Yeah, I agree with your point. Somehow this kind of thing is popular and makes the player look bold and cool in the eyes of the general public(the same happens here with Romário).
At least Romário is a politician so I can understand his hunger for the clout, and he achieved stuff Ibra can only dream of
A lot will depend on the definition of WC, and how long a period someone needs to be performing at that level to be called WC
If we use top 3 players in their position, Ibra may not make it - Ronaldo, Benz, Messi, Aguero, Lewandowski, Suarez, Van Persie, Rooney, etc. were better than him at various points in time and I dont think he truly sneaked into top 3 at any moment, but if we use this definition, which strikers would you even have as WC, and how many would you truly choose over Ibra?
If we use top 3 players in their position, Ibra may not make it - Ronaldo, Benz, Messi, Aguero, Lewandowski, Suarez, Van Persie, Rooney, etc. were better than him at various points in time and I dont think he truly sneaked into top 3 at any moment, but if we use this definition, which strikers would you even have as WC, and how many would you truly choose over Ibra?
Declan Rice.
Kind of overrated by the media of late. Good player but nowhere near world class. Cas at his prime was the definition of world class.
Kind of overrated by the media of late. Good player but nowhere near world class. Cas at his prime was the definition of world class.
I'm a bit baffled by any of your arguments that he is world class? Everything you have said has painted him to be a top player. Not in the tier of being in the class of the best though.
I'm not sure having two/three decent seasons is enough to earn him a world class title. Again, not even managing 20 leauge goals in any single season is clear to me he wasn't world class. Domestically, he was being outscored by the likes of James Beattie, Michael Bridges, Kevin Phillips and Marcus Stewart during those periods in much lesser teams than Houlliers Liverpool. Domestically how many world class strikers have we ever had anyway?
His Real Madrid stint isnt anything to be impressed by either. Couldn't displace Ronaldo in the starting line-up, who himself was world class bt the way.
Can't deny he scored in games against big teams but ultimately none of his contributions has dragged England to any actual trophies.
Wow. What a strange comment.
Vidic was literally the best central defender on the planet for at least two (probably three) seasons, and was one of the best for a few other years. His first half of the 08/09 season is probably the best any defender has had in PL history, albeit he did fall away slightly in the second half of the season (personally I'd say it was still in the top three seasons any defender has had in the league though).
He only started struggling after he basically missed 18 months of football when he ruptured his cruciate then right after returning had to have surgery on the knee again. It's an obvious career changer and he retired two seasons later.
I can understand thinking he's a bit overrated, and even not thinking he's world class (I'd definitely disagree with the latter), but saying he only had 3 or 4 good seasons in his entire career is literally rewriting history.
Absolute bollocks, it was the knee injury that forced his decline.
Kimmich is meh every time I watch him, which isn’t very often.
Did you watch RM regularly in the late 90's and early 00's?
Roberto Carlos easily goes down as one of the top 5 LBs in history. I don't think young people today realize how good he was.
The only other LB worthy of being compared to him in my lifetime is Maldini (who was more defensive).
Had one of the best left foots in history.
- World champion and 2 x Copa America winner with 127 games for Brazil (11 goals from his LB) (Maldini - 126 games/7 goals for Italy)
- 4 x CL champion with 16 goals and 26 assists from his LB position in the CL. (Maldini 3 goals and 7 assists - 5 CL titles)
- 4 times LaLiga titles with 48 goals and 64 assists in 370 games (Maldini 29 goals and 28 assists in 647 Serie A games - 7 titles)
In the 11 seasons he played for Real Madrid he started every game he played for them but 2 games.
+ he scored that impossible half volley from a dead angle.
There was a guy in here who claimed Roberto Carlos wasn't WC, where does that leave Luke Shaw?