Players you admired in rival teams

[Maluco]

I hated all of Arsenal’s players at the peak of the rivalry, so I can’t say Henry. I thought he was arrogant and the rivalry was so heated.

I think the best answer for me from teams who were our direct rivals would be Drogba. I loved older number 9’s like Shearer and Batistuta growing up and Drogba felt like a modern version of that role.

He was a target man and could hold the ball up, but he was more dynamic than that. He had great ability with his feet and so much power. He was a leader too in a team of leaders. On top of all that, he stopped a civil war! Not many strikers have that claim!

There were accusations that he didn’t score enough at times, but anyone who watched Chelsea could see how important he was to the team and how he often shone in big games. That roll of Carragher and smashed finish is one of my favourite PL goals of all time.

I live in Brazil and such was my admiration for the man that I travelled to the North of the country when the World Cup was here to watch Ivory Coast vs Japan.

I got to hear the roar when he came off the bench and saw a great cameo from him, 1-0 down, but lifting the side and changing the game to win 2-1.

A PL legend for me and the one player I would take from that great Chelsea side to get into our eleven today.

 

[SoCross]

Arjen Robben. What a player.

 

[.mica]

Loved the way Mehmet Scholl was playing. Unfortunately for the wrong team.

 

[paulscholes18]

Marc Overmars would have loved him at United

 

[Redcy]

Juninho at boro

 

[Andy_Cole]

Not many as I usually despise rivals. But I usually admire the classy forwards:
Henry
Zola
Drogba
Aguero
Berkamp

Not sure why but I really dislike English rival players. Shearer, Kane, Gerard, Lampard, Terry, Keown to name a few.

 

[Dante]

Henry. He's my favourite non-United player, the fecking cnut.

Best player in the world for about 2 or 3 seasons. He had absolutely everything, and should have finished his career with a few Ballon d'Ors.

 

[spaceboyRSA]

Based on teams with a real rivalry with United at a point in time...or at least were title challengers against us.

Shearer
Henry
Overmars
Bergkamp
Pires
Robben
Essien
Aguero
Yaya Toure
David Silva

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

I have plenty however, the one I would like to see us to sign is Lampard. A goal scoring midfielder, we never had that type of midfielder in our squad. Could imagine that he can make us into CL title winner again and of course win us 09/10 league title if we managed to use the Ronaldo money to sign him and playing him behind Rooney. Scholes or Carrick dictating tempo behind him and Fletcher as the engine.

I thought I must say England is very dumb that they never try to utilise his goal scoring threat more often and instead they prefer to play Heskey or Crouch next to Rooney instead to play with 2 strikers.

 

[Canagel]

Surprised at how many said Drogba. Guy was a actor and his playing style was ugly. Also overrated

 

[Mars91]

Arjen Robben and Henry

 

[King7Eric]

I really hated Drogba and Henry so perhaps that itself is a form of admiration. Of the current lot, gotta say I really enjoy Kevin De Bruyne play, even though I really dislike most of the other City players and especially their manager.

 

[SAFMUTD]

From the old ones Henry and Bergkamp at Arsenal, Drogba with Chelsea, KDB with City, Kane at spurs.
I have no trouble recognizing greatness from rivals.

 

[Wulfric]

Henry, Sanchez at Arsenal, KDB and Aguero.
Juan Mata has been generally poor at united but there was a spell, around 2015, when he used to turn into prime messi in the matches against us.

 

[diarm]

Arsenal
Bergkamp, Henry, Vieira, Pires, Overmars, Van Persie, Adams

Chelsea
Lampard, Carvalho, Essien, Drogba

Liverpool
Alonso, Torres

City
Kompany, Zabaleta, Aguero, Silva, De Bruyne

Spurs
Kane, Eriksen, Alderweireld, Son

 

[Karel Podolsky]

City have had some annoyingly good players in the last decade, a lot of which didn't tend to come with the baggage of the footballer lifestyle (mouthy agents, contract standoffs etc) which makes them easier to admire for me. You don't tend to hear much about De Bruyne, Silva and Aguero in the press. Kompany was also in that bracket, who came across as a great guy generally. There's never been a whiff of them leaving at their peaks.

Separate from the above (because his agent was a total boob and he was kicking up a stink to leave every summer) Yaya Toure was stupidly good in 2011/2012. At his peak in those first few years at City, he looked like he could have played anywhere on the pitch. His stats weren't anything to shout about, but he was such a huge presence on the pitch.

I am glad someone mentions Yaya. I admired Henry and Pires, then Yaya Toure and now KdB.
For me Yaya lacked the drive to be best player (like Hazard?). His free kick was very good but he was never the main free kick taker and never seemed to bother about it. So as his penalty kick (100% convertion rate), he never was the main taker bar one or two seasons.
And he seemed not give a feck about what his agent said.
Don't forget the cake gate when his agent moaning he only got BIRTHDAY CAKE while the like Eto'o (or R. Carlos?) got Lamborghini. (I am sure most people remembering it he moaned the club didn't give him birthday cake).

 

[Redcy]

Lampard for his goal scoring

in hindsight we should have been playing 433 for England with lampard and scholes, a DM and Gerrard as a winger

 

[saintquin]

Zola. I liked that he always seem to have a smile on his face.
Alan Ball. Think he was a little underrated by some.
Peter Osgood. Just very skilful.
Allan Clarke. Made it look very easy.
Lee Sharpe. A very smooth and silky player.
There are more to be added but, have other things to do right now.

 

[tenpoless]

Some of these weren't in a team considered 'rival' but I admired them greatly:

1. Falcao at Atletico Madrid
2. Di Maria at Real Madrid
3. Scweinsteiger at Bayern
4. Pogba at Juventus
5. Sanchez at Arsenal

 

[NotoriousISSY]

David Silva for me. I remember when we were heavily linked and it looked odds on, but even after he went to City he remained very likeable.

 

[RooneyLegend]

I'll talk about players I've seen play against us and immediately felt, man, we could use a player like that.

Zidane, in 03 at the Bernabeu it just looked like we had nothing in the team to combat what he brings to the table. Made our midfield players look very ordinary.

Viera. Just the way he was pivotal to his side both sides of the ball. Demanding it off his defenders in tight spaces and then give our players no room to breath.

Aguero. Always seemed to have a stormer against us back in his physical prime. It always felt like our defenders had no answer.

Torres. People talk about Vidic having bad games against him, but the truth is our whole defence used to crap themselves when he had the ball. So fast and direct, watching him against us consisted of me always shaking my head.

Owen. We simply couldn't and didn't stop him. There was a period where his goal against us felt inevitable.

Batistuta. Talk about a force of nature. There was a game our side faced him and Everytime he took a shot, I held my breath.

Kompany. A brute of a defender who also had the ability to play the game.

Kaka. I mean all we had to deal with in that tie was him, and yet we made a total mess of it.

Jay Jay Okocha. His games against us were like highlight packages.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Jay Jay Okocha.

What a player used to love watching Showboat on Soccer AM for him, Ronaldinho and Lee Trundle

 

[Full bodied red]

Just rival teams.

City - David Silva and Aguero​

​

How on earth did we let them go to Citeh ??

 

[Dr Foo]

I take rivals to mean our Premier League rivals. I think we take it for granted that many of our United players have dominated so many positions in the past, am surprised that not so many come naturally to my mind.

Out of all, Arsenal spring up most for their technical ability: Bergkamp, Pires, Viera, Fabregas (even though I used to dislike these two at the peak of rivalry). Henry was too arrogant for my liking

Liv:
Xabi Alonso, Mascherano (thought they were pretty solid and balanced)

Chelsea:
Michael Essien, Claude Makelele - self explanatory midfield dynamo & engines
Arjen Robben & Damien Duff - they reminded me of the wingers we so value, back in 2005 when new Chelsea were tearing it up.
Eden Hazard - one of the few true game changers
Ashley Cole - best LB going forward and back at that time. Admirable if his shithouse antics are ignored

Modern day:

Kevin De Bruyne - the most technically gifted one around the PL, their version of Beckham plus more, and as earlier posters pointed out, doesn't have off field antics. David Silva in similar vein

Virgil Van Dijk - best all round defender around at the moment. Classy on and off the ball

Son Heung Min - Direct, pacy, skillful, both footed and so crucial for Spurs

 

[SATA]

Asprilla. The guy was a brilliant magician of the ball. Ginola was great too. That Newcastle team in the 90s was exhilarating to watch at times

 

[UpWithRivers]

Viera. His battles with Keane are legendary and I couldnt help hate him but secretly respect him and dream of a Viera/Keane midfield. That would have been something. Gascoign was

 

[TheLord]

For the sake of simplicity, I will stick to the Premier League era and English clubs only.

In descending order, my top-ten:

• Henry
• Lampard
• Ashley Cole
• Aguero
• Terry
• Zola
• Shearer
• Viera
• De Bryune
• Hazard

 

[BehemothTerror]

Henry easily at 1 - Hated that Arsenal side as a kid but have to admit Henry was pure class

 

[redshaw]

Dennis Bergkamp
Pires
Shearer
Robben
Gascoigne
Rush
Beardsley
Chris Woods
Waddle
Saunders
Defoe
Le Tissier
Campball
Hasslebaink
Clive Allen
Viduka
Kewell

Not really rivals but admired players
Siniša Mihajlović
Nedved
Baggio
Recoba
Maldini
Shevchenko
Van Bastan
Vialli
Pirlo
Baresi
Batistuta
Montella
Totti
Ronaldo
Zola

I don't think anything can beat Serie A from the late 80s to early 2000s or ever will. I'm lucky to watch it in the UK from late 80s with Satellite TV as a young lad. Goal of the week and month were mind bending.

 

[Jaxa]

I remember when Drogba announced he was leaving Chelsea i was actually a bit gutted, which is weird because the guy had some shithousery moments in him but i always admired his talent and drive and ability to carry Chelsea at times and just make them win with his sheer brilliance, also Chelsea were our biggest rivals in that period of 04-10 so there were some brilliant battles,

I've always had a bitter feeling with regards to Aguero, i remember we were in for him at the time he went to City and we could of had him had Sir Alex not thought the 32m pound quoted was too high, he never made much mistakes Sir Alex but this was definitely one of them, Aguero would have been a legend for us, such a fantastic player and PL legend.

 

[edcunited1878]

Going against the grain a little bit, but a couple of players that I admired weren't exactly the stars of the team like many people have already pointed out.

I'd go for James Milner and Dirk Kuyt. Unsung players who did whatever was asked of them and at a consistent and really good level. Didn't feck about and allowed their teammates to be better.

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

I didn't mention Henry in the OP but the more I'm thinking about it I should have. He was an absolute monster of a player.

Henry is mine too. He was a phenomenal talent. The mixture of sublime grace with a deadly clinical approach was a joy to watch. Definitely one who miss out on a Balon D’or. 20+ goals 20+ assists a season is something else.

I still always said that Ruud was better even though secretly everyone knew he wasn't.

 

[Eurotrash]

Thierry Henry. I hated that Arsenal team but he was just too good to hate.

 

[Davicho]

I think Kompany at his peak was the best CB in the world by some distance. Would have loved him at United.

 

[Schweigaard]

I was really afraid of Drogba in those seasons we kept playing them in the CL. In later years, Hazard.

As for Utd, definitely Roy Keane. Cantona too was annoyingly good.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Owen?

 

[Champagne Football]

Robben at Chelsea is the best I've seen at a premier league rival.
Shearer second.
Bale, Henry and Sadio Mane 3rd.

I've huge respect for Lampard too. He was phenomenal in his prime. Gerrard and Essien great too.

 

[Icemav]

Henry.

KDB.

Kompany.

Salah.

Bale.

VVD.

Drogba.

Essien.

 

[Icemav]

Robben at Chelsea is the best I've seen at a premier league rival.
Shearer second.
Bale and Henry 3rd.

I've huge respect for Lampard too. He was phenomenal in his prime.

ah Robben yes. fantastic.

 

[diarm]

Lampard for his goal scoring

I still have PTSD from Lampard (pen, 88') updates on teletext.