Players who had/have incredible off the (ball?) movement.

[Lord SInister]

Who do you think had the best off the movement?
I know off the ball movement are of different kinds, as every position has different positional sense and movement.

Xavi and Iniesta were god like in their tactical awareness, same with Scholes.

Among forwards, Cristiano is something else.

Lahm while he was a suspect early on, also developed incredible off the ball movement.

 

[Jim Beam]

Thomas Müller, first that crossed my mind.

 

[Ajr]

Romelu lukaku

 

[Lord SInister]

Thomas Müller, first that crossed my mind.

Oh yeah how the hell I forgot the Raumdeuter.

 

[HTG]

Thiago.
I miss him.

 

[VivaObertan]

Cavani

 

[Lord SInister]

Cavani

Talking about Uruguayan, Forlan was always so good in this respect.

 

[TwoSheds]

Michael Owen was terrific.

 

[Pace Abuser]

Lingard. World class movement to pull defenders away to make space for others.

 

[do.ob]

Haaland always seems to pick the perfect moment to separate himself from his marker, so he's just a step away the very second the ball is played towards him. It's probably a big reason why his conversion rate is so exceptional.

 

[JPRouve]

Luis Suarez. I love how he walks laterally behind the defense and then pops up onside when defenders forgot about him.

 

[hasanejaz88]

Mario Gomez. Most underrated striker of his time because he wasn't aesthetically pleasing , his movement of the ball was the best in the world though. Scored a ton of goals through that.

 

[kouroux]

David Trezeguet

 

[Cathy Ferguson]

Andy Cole.

 

[Remember the geese]

Javier Hernandez

 

[Irrational.]

Chicharito was pretty good for a while.

 

[harms]

Out of the players whose off-the-ball movement was their most outstanding feature I'd certainly name Thomas Müller and Zbigniew Boniek. Jari Litmanen joins the list as well. Rummenigge was an absolute menace, always roaming around looking for weak points, but he was too good on the ball to say that it was his best skill.

Gerd Müller often gets an unfair representation because of how good he was in his movement (he was an insanely talented player as well), but his movement in the box and his speed of thought was second to none. Cristiano probably runs him close in terms of being able to find himself in goalscoring/shooting positions over and over again.

The likes of Scholes & Xavi were obviously awesome at this, but personally I make distinctions between off-the-ball movement and reading of the game, even though I'm not sure that it's right to name them like that. Attacking movement and defensive movement would probably fit better. Attackers look for free space or lure defenders away to free the space for others; midfielders mostly move to try to make themselves available for a pass; defenders (Baresi would be the best example, but literally every all-time great center back was known for that) try to intercept the ball & keep the defensive shape intact. Those are quite different skills.

 

[thatsme]

Makalele would have been doing something else for a living withouut his exceptional ability to always be moving into exactly the right place.

 

[giorno]

Among active players i have to say Halaand. Scary stuff. Opponents basically have two options: A) park the bus, man mark him with 2 defenders and don't let him touch the ball or B) accept the fact that he will score

 

[Sylar]

Off the ball?

 

[SATA]

Inzaghi was pretty good at it too

 

[Khalif_20]

CR7, Mbappé, Salah, Mané and Son have the best off the ball movement/anticipation currently. Historically, I believe Inzaghi had pub player technique but scored loads because of his offensive positioning?

 

[SadlerMUFC]

Guys like RVN, Inzaghi, and Owen spring to mind, but nobody comes close to Cristiano Ronaldo. I have never seen a smarter player without the ball. Oh, and he's not too shabby with the ball either...

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Off the ball?

I, too, was surprised by @Lord SInister's decision to leave out the word ball until the third reference.

 

[GhastlyHun]

Thomas Müller, first that crossed my mind.

Absolutely. He's the complete package of off the ball movement. Anticipating openings to create attacks and chances, blocking opponents' pathways, pressing opponent players. Doing this for 90+ minutes once or twice a week with his work rate to put most teens and twentysomethings to shame.

 

[Chief123]

Inzaghi. Probably one of the very few attributes he was amazing at.

The most valuable rubbish footballer I’ve seen.

 

[acnumber9]

Andy Cole.

Was going to mention him. I remember watching highlights of a game he played in years ago and the difference to what we’ve had over the last five or six years was stark.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Inzaghi. Probably one of the very few attributes he was amazing at.

The most valuable rubbish footballer I’ve seen.

VAR would take about half his goals off him if he played today.

 

[diarm]

I, too, was surprised by @Lord SInister's decision to leave out the word ball until the third reference.

Noticed it in the title. Saw it again in the first sentence and assumed that was just how he thought it was said, only to have my assumption flipped upside down in the second sentence when there it is!

 

[Jibbs]

Christiano Ronaldo, Lampard, RVN, Muller etc

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

David Silva

 

[pawanraj]

David Villa. I remember being in awe of his movement in the 2010 World Cup

 

[golden_blunder]

Messi Lingard

 

[Sylar]

I, too, was surprised by @Lord SInister's decision to leave out the word ball until the third reference.

Noticed it in the title. Saw it again in the first sentence and assumed that was just how he thought it was said, only to have my assumption flipped upside down in the second sentence when there it is!

Exact same process I went through and it confuses the heck outta me


Anyway for this thread i thought iniesta was great at it

 

[harms]

Among active players i have to say Halaand. Scary stuff. Opponents basically have two options: A) park the bus, man mark him with 2 defenders and don't let him touch the ball or B) accept the fact that he will score

Definitely. He doesn't possess any eye-catching technical ability but his positional awareness, movement (as well as composure & finishing) are pretty much at the maximum level already, it's just insane. It looks like his runs are coordinated in real time by a top-grade AI with full aerial view of the pitch.

 

[harms]

Inzaghi was pretty good at it too

Inzaghi. Probably one of the very few attributes he was amazing at.

The most valuable rubbish footballer I’ve seen.

I wouldn't call him truly outstanding in that particular aspect — yes, most of his goals came from smart positioning & perfectly timed runs, but he would also receive 2 out of 3 passes sent to him in an off-side position.

 

[GDaly95]

Thomas Müller, first that crossed my mind.

Same.

Jonny Evans said he was the most difficult player to play against, because while most players know when to make a move, Muller vitally knew when not to move. Thought that was interesting.

 

[ManRed]

Park ji sung was excellent on off the ball movement.

 

[JPRouve]

Definitely. He doesn't possess any eye-catching technical ability but his positional awareness, movement (as well as composure & finishing) are pretty much at the maximum level already, it's just insane. It looks like his runs are coordinated in real time by a top-grade AI with full aerial view of the pitch.

What do you think about the likes of Djorkaeff, Del Piero and Totti neither of them was particulary fast but they seemed to find themselves in great positions all the time and always free.

 

[United58]

Paul Scholes and Raul were very intelligent - even today, I bet Scholes would do a job for us

Robbie Keane was a very clever player, too - well into his 30s he did a reasonable scoring job for us, didn't have height, pace or strength to abuse. I sadly can't see our country producing the likes of the Keanes, Duff or Dunne again - hope I'm wrong!