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Zidane.
When has Lingard ever been a guaranteed starter???Jesse Lingard
Managed to fraudulently earn himself a guaranteed starting spot at one of the worlds biggest club despite not being able to do anything well that a player in his position should.
Never known the like before.
Pelé (even more complete — two-footed and a fantastic header), Maradona (yeah, he is an inferior goalscorer, but he was his league's top scorer in 6 seasons, and also Napoli's all-time leading goalscorer until 2017) and Zico had the same skill-set. Perhaps some were 9/10 and not 10/10, but it's not really a huge difference.Messi. He is incredible goal scorer, final passes, play making/ general passing, dribbling. I have seen players excelling in 1 areas while sort of lacking in others, but this guy is near 10/10 in almost all areas except physicality. Even the free tacking ability is just amazing.
So scores like a striker, assists like a #10, pings long passes to wings like a proper midfielder, dribbles like a winger.
I didn't watch any of them, so went with the players I watched.Pelé (even more complete — two-footed and a fantastic header), Maradona (yeah, he is an inferior goalscorer, but he was his league's top scorer in 6 seasons, and also Napoli's all-time leading goalscorer until 2017) and Zico had the same skill-set. Perhaps some were 9/10 and not 10/10, but it's not really a huge difference.
Only Pelé matches him in consistency though.
Good shout but I feel since Ramos there has been a wave of defenders coming through who are firstly ball players and then defenders.In a way, Sergio Ramos.
If you list his virtues (scoring prowess, good passer and shooter, phisicality, leadership) he should''ve been a midfielder, and if you list his defects (too impulsive, not really good at a tactical level, too prone to join the attack) he shouldn't have any business being a centreback, let alone one of the bests in the world.
But there he is, he has the skillset of a fullback, a DMC or even a CM and he's made it in the position that should've been harder for him to shine on.
I don't really think he's good enough to be considered amongst the best defenders ever by pure defensive arguments, but he's there because everything else he does on the pitch, find that extremely weird, and difficult to say another CB with his same style.
Last season - season before!When has Lingard ever been a guaranteed starter???
You may have a point here.Zidane.
I hate it when people say ‘This’... but Gullit is probably the answer.Probably Ruud Gullit for me. He was built like a proper number 9, but played on the wings/in attacking midfield, was a fantastic dribbler and possessed incredible workrate. His stamina levels were insane, if you consider how much additional weight he had to carry on him, compared to your usual winger/midfielder. Look at how Lukaku runs — and they are very much comparable in terms of their built.
Not to mention that he moved deeper and deeper as his career progressed, and played in central and defensive midfield before moving to the sweeper position. There are stories of ridiculous all-rounders, but most of them played in a pre-TV era — Sarosi, Valentino Mazzola, Zizinho... the only one we've seen (and not that much anyway) was Di Stefano, who also has a claim in this thread. But Gullit did all that in the late 80's/early 90's, when football was so different!
That's true. I'd not thought of it like that before. An odd playerI would say Lukaku is pretty unique. The guy is absolutely huge but doesn’t play like a target man at all. He can’t really hold up the ball either but he’s a fantastic poacher and gets you a ton of goals if given the service. He’s like the body type of Drogba but more the style of someone like Chicharito weirdly
*philosopherSocrates: doctor, heavy drinker, heavy smoker, footballer, political activist
Johnny played goal-keeper too.Ashley Young. The only player to play right back, centre back, left back, right winger, left winger and striker