The biggest contrast between a player and a team
- Thread starter Bastian
- Start date
Actually true
we've got one of the greats in terms of ability playing for us at the moment.Alan Shearer and Newcastle
Le Tissier and Southampton
George Best played for a whole array of terrible teams including Nuneaton and Tobermore.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Poland?
Piszczek, Blaszczykowski, Szczesny, Krychowiak, Milik, Glik, Zielinski.. They had a string of solid/good players in Lewandowski's generation.
Russell Latapy and Shaka Hislop.We’ve produced stars like Kenwyne Jones since then. World class
i was thinking for moment and few comes to my mind, mostly from national teams, tried pickup less mainstream NT's
Mohamad Kallon - Siera Leone - in his days, he was playing in Inter and monaco
Gareth Bale - Wales ( not saying others wales players are bad, just he is so much above most of their squad )
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang - Gabon ( also few decent players around )
Ali Al-Habsi - Oman - at his time, was one of better asian keepers, and premierleague for Omanian is unbelievable
Ali Daei - Iran
Dely Valdes - Panama - 15 years ago, profilic scorer for Celta i think
Alexander Hleb - Belarus
Jovetic / Vucinic - Montenegro
and for clubs its hard, cos loyalty of much better player on club scene is in past. But most star players in chinese superleage could be mentioned
Mohamad Kallon - Siera Leone - in his days, he was playing in Inter and monaco
Gareth Bale - Wales ( not saying others wales players are bad, just he is so much above most of their squad )
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang - Gabon ( also few decent players around )
Ali Al-Habsi - Oman - at his time, was one of better asian keepers, and premierleague for Omanian is unbelievable
Ali Daei - Iran
Dely Valdes - Panama - 15 years ago, profilic scorer for Celta i think
Alexander Hleb - Belarus
Jovetic / Vucinic - Montenegro
and for clubs its hard, cos loyalty of much better player on club scene is in past. But most star players in chinese superleage could be mentioned
Messi and Argentina
Di Maria and Argentina
Aguero and Argentina
Rojo and Argentina
Dybala and Argentina
Di Maria and Argentina
Aguero and Argentina
Rojo and Argentina
Dybala and Argentina
Jari Litmanen and Finland.
Towards the end of his career they actually had some decent players come through but for much of it, he was a diamond surrounded by rocks.
Towards the end of his career they actually had some decent players come through but for much of it, he was a diamond surrounded by rocks.
Scholes and England.
You know that Dynamo team went to the semi-finals of the CL and were close to beating Bayern to play us in the CL final, right? And they also went to QF on a couple of occasions. They had some great players there - Rebrov, Luzhniy, Khaladze.
Ronaldo and Portugal
Yes i know that. I watched at this time (supporting Bayern) and i was so impressed of how Shevchenko had carried this team almost on his own up to the CL semi-finals. At least i remember it like that, i never followed Kiev much though.
Hleb overlapped with Valentin Belkevich for a good few years for Belarus. He was the playmaker\midfield general of the Sheva\Rebrov Kiev team that piled up a number of good CL wins over 2\3 campaigns and imo the most talented player of that side other than Shevchenko, however he didn't move abroad when the initial interest was there and became very injury prone by 2002-03 or so. He ended up just staying at Dynamo Kiev as they declined and were overtaken by Shakhtar. An excellent passer of the ball, he's still the best midfielder i've seen play in the Ukraine league. His outside of the boot assist through the Bayern midfield and defence for Shevchenko in the 98\99 semi-final is a classic.
I wouldn't put in Arshavin with Russia, he was definitely the talisman for the NT from 2006 to 12, but those teams had various solid to very good players like Zhirkov, Anyukov(Very good RB that was about level with Ivanovic when he played in RPL), Semshov, Zyrianov(two technical metronomes that were very good at keeping possession) Semak, Shirokov and Dzagoev when he still had legs and potential. That was a good creative side on the ball that was unlucky to have Germany in the 2010 qualifiers who they lost to in two very close, high quality games. Slovenia played a very defensive away-goals win smash and grab in the playoffs that exposed the lack of a high quality forward and Greece did a similar well against the run of play job at 2012 against a defence that was now too old and slow, they definitely had their flaws and blew two very winnable key games that makes them look a bit of a one tournament wonder, but i'd love to have them right now for this domestic World Cup instead of the dire football we've had to put up with since then.
I wouldn't put in Arshavin with Russia, he was definitely the talisman for the NT from 2006 to 12, but those teams had various solid to very good players like Zhirkov, Anyukov(Very good RB that was about level with Ivanovic when he played in RPL), Semshov, Zyrianov(two technical metronomes that were very good at keeping possession) Semak, Shirokov and Dzagoev when he still had legs and potential. That was a good creative side on the ball that was unlucky to have Germany in the 2010 qualifiers who they lost to in two very close, high quality games. Slovenia played a very defensive away-goals win smash and grab in the playoffs that exposed the lack of a high quality forward and Greece did a similar well against the run of play job at 2012 against a defence that was now too old and slow, they definitely had their flaws and blew two very winnable key games that makes them look a bit of a one tournament wonder, but i'd love to have them right now for this domestic World Cup instead of the dire football we've had to put up with since then.
Paul McGrath was world class without a doubt and probably a better player than Keane, Duff in 2001/2 was unplayable at times and got into the World Cup team of the tournament, Robbie Keane has one of the best all time international scoring records(around no.20 on the list)The others were probably the best players in their positions in the league at some stage of their careers. That’s without mentioning the likes of John Aldridge, Ray Houghton, John o Shea, Jason McAteer, Stephen Carr, Ronnie Whelan, Ian Harte and Richard Dunne to name a few who weren’t too shabby either.
No it was a very well organised team effort with Lobanovsky's tactics to the fore. Shevchenko, Belkevich and some would have argued Rebrov at the time were your potentially elite players, the rest were good solid players other than keeper Shovkovsky who was a liability that repeatedly cost them key games. The same side was basically the Ukraine national team at the time and despite some impressive qualifying results against Germany, France and Portugal you can see how much they missed the Belarussian's passing as they lost back to back playoffs.
DDG and Spain
Zlatan and Sheva don’t belong here. For most of their careers, those were pretty solid national teams, especially Sweden. They are more comparable to Ronaldo and the Portugal of the past few years. If you would go with them, you could also go with Ballack - Germany. Keane and Ireland also have no place, that 2002 team was pretty close to reaching a World Cup final and deservedly so.
Salah, Weah, Best, those are the names you are looking for.
Salah, Weah, Best, those are the names you are looking for.
Manucho and Man Utd
Couldn't make the Utd team
African Cup of Nations
Literally 40 teams trying to sign him on loan
Couldn't make the Utd team
African Cup of Nations
Literally 40 teams trying to sign him on loan
Harry Kane
How good was Schmeichel's Denmark?
Good enough to win Euro 92
Okocha Bolton?
Berbatov and Bulgaria
Niklas Bendtner and Denmark
Zlatan spent most of his Sweden career playing alongside the likes of Ljungberg, Larsson, Mellberg so he certainly doesn't belong here.
Hugo Sanchez and Mexico
But McGrath's peak was a few years before Keane's peak, which was for me from 1995 till 2001. I agree about Duff but as you mention only for a year and in general 2002 was the year that many decent players were at their peak, like Harte, but post 94sh until 2001 Ireland,even though she had one of the best midfielders in the world, was not good.
Edit: I do believe that Keane regrets only one thing; his attitude in the 2002 world cup.
I've never seen quotes that suggest that. But I've seen his quotes on Ruud, where he was thinking at the time that Ruud was being overly sensitive by not playing an FA Cup semi because he felt something in his knee (Keane had a hamstring at the time, but played through the pain barrier). He said in hindsight he probably should have taken better care of his body and been a bit more like the foreign players.
@Demyanenko_square_jaw
Very informative!
Bale is the one that immediately springs to mind.
Gigi Riva for Cagliari if you look how good the club is historically
They actually won the Serie A with him
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cagliari_Calcio
Played there from'63 - '76
They actually won the Serie A with him
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cagliari_Calcio
Played there from'63 - '76
Schmeichel wasn't even the best player in Danish side for much of his international career.
Bebe and Manchester United /thread
You literally can't get a bigger gap than the richest most successful club (in England) at the time managed by SAF, and a tramp....!
You literally can't get a bigger gap than the richest most successful club (in England) at the time managed by SAF, and a tramp....!
Mkhitaryan and Manchester United
Naby Keita
Maradonna napoli
Roy Race and Melchester Rovers