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Absolutely. I also feel that Rio was only fully appreciated live, rather than on tv.
Exactly. Varane was considered good on the ball when he was at Lens. He still is ok on the ball, if not necessarily the best. I think if he stays fit there’ll be more of that as the season goes on.
It will be your fault if it happens now.
Agreed, brillaint defender. Someone posted the Amldini quote in another thread:
Agree with you about everything but pace. Peak Varane was quicker than peak Ferdinand.
I seem to remember that Rio was ridiculously fast to the point where he would put himself in ridiculous bad positions and still have the ability to recover due to his pace. Varane is/was also fast but his fast recovery was also due to the fact that he has almost always been a more disciplined and anticipation-based defender.
Yeah you probably watched more of Varane than me so can't argue.
Rio has mentioned this many times that he would deliberately put himself in those positions when he was young so could make himself look good, he'd also dribble a lot more and try to take on forwards. His mentality was as long as he had a good game then it didn't matter if he lost. Think when he came to united and partnered with vidic evra etc that he developed more of a mindset of playing for the team and more importantly playing for your defensive unit. The back 4 we have now is not as good as the 08 one, but what they definitely seem to have in common is that togetherness and sense of being a unit rather than just individuals.
Ferdinand won titles without Vidic......
Which titles?
The Premier League in his first season.
I saw Vidic have more shockers than Rio, easily. Vidic was brilliant but Rio was a different gravy.
This quote always makes me laugh. The stuff that people eat up, man
Fans are not subjective, especially Arsenal ones. I remember how they used to say their young players would dominate English football till we proceeded to spank them with a team that had a lower age average.
It was a throwaway quote that people lap up. I'd go as far as saying its a bullshit quote seeing as some of the best defenders and DM's of all time were known for tackling. Nesta and Lahm tackled all the time and they were some of the most gracious defenders around. Maldini too funny enough.
We were top the season when Arsenal went unbeaten then Ferdinand got banned
I'm not sure on that personally, but it's not really relevant. Shockers made up a tiny portion of both players careers.
Yes, he did. He was a very good defender playing for a very good team.
It seems like he always comes back injured right?
I always remember that season for how ridiculously good Silvestre was in the first half of the season. Most of us on here considered him to have been our best player and probably the second best in the league behind Henry. But then Rio got banned and Silvestre fell apart, and never got close to that level of form in his career again.
2nd best behind Henry in the whole league? what about the other Arsenal players? Campbell etc? they went unbeaten
Talking purely in the first half of the season. Until early January we were ahead of them, so it's not surprising that our most in-form player (that many/most felt had been Silvestre) was probably the second best in the league. Like I said he collapsed after Rio's ban though, so obviously didn't finish anywhere near the top.
When was Vidic not in a very good team? in fact Vidic during his time for the most part played with Rio.
He was playing REALLY well though. Like, abnormally well it seems ridiculous to say but we looked really good in that opening part of the season. The ban changed the whole dynamic.
I remember Wes Brown looked decent next to Rio. Starting to notice a pattern
When did I say Vidic didn't play in a good team?
Agree with this. Rio was absolutely rapid, but United didn't use a high line as much as RM did, so rarely did Rio have to compete in a 40 yard foot race, but there are some memorable moments. When Torres played his first game against United, the commentator raved about his speed, and then he came up against Rio, "And Torres puts on his afterburners... oh, Rio intercepts..." and then Rio eclipsed him and proceeded to brush him off the ball. He also kept up with R9 (who was stupidly quick) and even outpaced Eto'o in his prime who was one of the fastest players I've seen. On the first few yards, I think Rio was definitely quicker than Varane, but Varane has an impressive top speed for sure.
Varane is Rio MK II so this is good thread to talk about Rio. Sort of..
Any update on his injury? City only got going after his injury. He’s so important to us.
City got going from the first minute…
He got injured because he rolled his ankle after blocking a ball. Completely different to any kind of muscle injury that he had previously.
