Wes Brown

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Read some comments from him in the Off the ball podcast today and it got me thinking about him as a player. Did you rate him? How good do you reckon he was? I remember Fergie saying he was the best natural defender in England back in 2001. Injuries didn't help with his 12 or was it 18 month out around 2000?
 

poleglass red

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Fergie made a lot of outlandish statements like this, I wouldn't read too much into them. He said them to build players up etc at different times. Wes was good, just seem very unlucky not just with injuries but bad bounces, own goals etc. I loved his aggression, I recall him absolultely drilling Robben in one game. Robben after that tackle barley even looked at the ball, think he was taken off shortly afterwards. wes was good, kind of defender, every top squad needs or seems to have.
 

El Zoido

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He was brilliant in the 2008 season, assisted Ronaldo in the CL final and had a great season all around. Really good player in his prime, injuries held him back.
 

prateik

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Really good .. Just had some brilliant players taking his spot and wasnt fit enough to nail a regular spot down
 

United58

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He was brilliant in the 2008 season, assisted Ronaldo in the CL final and had a great season all around. Really good player in his prime, injuries held him back.
He played more than any other player for us that season
 

Yagami

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I loved him. One of my favourite United players ever.

Back during the 07/08 season, he was just behind Ronaldo as my favourite player in the squad, which says a lot considering how good that squad was!
 

UnitedChampionsAgain

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Yet another of our CB's who couldn't win a header. Comically liked to let a high ball bounce in the box. Strange when he moved to Sunderland he became a warrior, flying in for headers, tackles, the lot.
 
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TrustInJanuzaj

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I’m gonna go against the grain a little bit and say I don’t think he was particularly brilliant. Never really warmed to his overly aggressive style of defending that could sometimes appear rash. Injuries certainly didn’t help him either but on the whole his Utd career isn’t that stand out.
 

Offsideagain

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Unsung hero type of player. Effective without being showy. I liked him and he would have got better but for all the injuries.
 

devilish

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Potential wise he was a fantastic player. I remember his debut at age 17 and he literally humiliated Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink until the latter ended up seeing red. Unfortunately his injuries took most of his shine. He was still a decent CB who was way better to what we currently got bar Maguire. However he never really reached the Rio/Vidic level.
 

sincher

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dev's assessment seems fair, yes. Had injury problems and with Rio and Vidic often had to play at right back but he was very good if not quite at their level. Considerably better than O'Shea, Silvestre and Heinze though IMO, especially when free of injuries and given a run in the team.
 

Oldyella

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As others have said, never reached his full potential due to injuries, but he was a great squad player, and was also unlucky to have a couple of the premier leagues best ever defenders in front of him when he was fit and in his prime. Loved his aggression and no nonsense defending though. Also had a brilliant song.
 

choiboyx012

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Wes brown was a natural aggressive defender similar in style to Vidic but had a career more similar to Ledley King with the injuries. When fit he actually did surprisingly well at RB after Gary Neville declined and before Rafael/valencia broke into the team.
 

Yagami

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His best moment of the 07/08 season was his beautiful cross for Ronaldo's goal in the final, but close to that was his performance at CB in the home leg against Barca.

With Vidic out of that game he slotted in effortlessly, and contributed to an excellent defensive team performance.
 

MrBrightside1989

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Very good player who thrived in an excellent team. Probably always a bit underrated but an honest, physical presence who could play at full back and through the middle- Ferguson loved a few adaptable boys in the squad.
Unfortunate that he was always injured and I thought he deserved a better club than Sunderland when he left...although they probably chucked him lots of cash
 

sevenxl

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One of my favourite players and everything came so natural to him.

Local lad as well. I can remember seeing him in his Subaru loads of times and incredibly in the chippy the day after playing in the 3-3 draw with Barcelona in 98?
 

Skills

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He was great when he could stay fit for a run of games.

Sadly that rarely happened, and towards the end he suffered a bit from being rusty on his returns.
 

GifLord

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I remember in his early days he made quite a lot of feck ups. Him, Barthez and later Carroll looked like the Keystone Kopps at times.
 

AFC NimbleThumb

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He was brilliant in the 2008 season, assisted Ronaldo in the CL final and had a great season all around. Really good player in his prime, injuries held him back.
His performances that season are vastly underrated, he was in the form of his life & we won a Champions League - sorry but that constitutes a player I will always remember fondly.

Some of the comments when threads like this come up really do make me hang my head; we penalise a lot of our players for not being Ronaldo, Cantona et al.

Simply put, to be a regular squad player in that era of success you couldn’t just be “ok”. At that time we were operating at the top of the world’s toughest league & competing in europe, players like Brown more than played their part.
 

edcunited1878

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His performances that season are vastly underrated, he was in the form of his life & we won a Champions League - sorry but that constitutes a player I will always remember fondly.

Some of the comments when threads like this come up really do make me hang my head; we penalise a lot of our players for not being Ronaldo, Cantona et al.

Simply put, to be a regular squad player in that era of success you couldn’t just be “ok”. At that time we were operating at the top of the world’s toughest league & competing in europe, players like Brown more than played their part.
The CL season with Evra, Vidic, Rio and Brown...arguably the best back four United has ever had if you consider players at their absolute peak for just one season. That season was magical and Brown was class that season....what a season to be at your best and then some, that was Big Bad Wesley Brown.
 

Solius

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He was absolutely collosal in the second leg against Barcelona in 2008.
 

Acole9

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I rated him but outside of United the general consensus isn't that great.
 

Sir Scott McToMinay

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He would be currently our best CB.

He was our best CB back-up.
Not a chance, I never ever ever trusted him in CB.
He was very good in 2007-2008 as a RB and as a CB in that match vs Barca, but he was never a better CB than Maguire or even Smalling, that’s just revisionism.
He was bang average for us in the early to mid 00’s, cost us many times with serious blunders.
Him and Silvestre / Blanc in CB was the stuff of nightmares.

But despite all of that I really really liked him and he was tough as nails and I would have liked if he was playing for us nowadays.
 

Gazza

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It probably wasn't easy for Wes that he had his first poor run of form personally at the same time that Fergie sold Stam and replaced him with Blanc. That 01/02 season with Barthez in goal and Blanc-Brown in central defence had some great moments, comedy wise, but was not a good one defensively. After that Brown's rep and probably his confidence took a bit of a hit. He recovered well to be a part of the 2008 CL team as a full-back. Fantastic cross in the final for Ronaldo's goal, with his left foot too.
 

VeevaVee

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I liked him a lot.

He's one of those that falls into the 'you can't have a world class player in every position' category, when it actually meant something because most of the others were, but was still very good at getting a job done properly.
 

AFC NimbleThumb

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Not a chance, I never ever ever trusted him in CB.
He was very good in 2007-2008 as a RB and as a CB in that match vs Barca, but he was never a better CB than Maguire or even Smalling, that’s just revisionism.
He was bang average for us in the early to mid 00’s, cost us many times with serious blunders.
Him and Silvestre / Blanc in CB was the stuff of nightmares.

But despite all of that I really really liked him and he was tough as nails and I would have liked if he was playing for us nowadays.
:lol:
 

SadlerMUFC

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Never rated him. If the team was healthy and we were starting our best 11 he would be on the bench. Handy to have around because he could fill in in two positions but he was nothing more than a squad player that people seem to romanticize about and remember him being better than he really was...
 

Castia

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He was really good at one point

Always seemed to have trouble with injuries which ultimately held him back.
 

Castia

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Never rated him. If the team was healthy and we were starting our best 11 he would be on the bench. Handy to have around because he could fill in in two positions but he was nothing more than a squad player that people seem to romanticize about and remember him being better than he really was...

He was up against prime Vidic and Rio be fair for a lot if his career then at RB he had G.Neville to dislodge...was a very good squad player though.
 

AFC NimbleThumb

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I rated him but outside of United the general consensus isn't that great.
Outside of United the general consensus is that most of our players were crap.

VvD having finished 3rd & 2nd is apparently the best ever PL CB.

Ronaldo with 3 prems & 1 champs league in 6 seasons & not even near his peak is never [I can’t remember hearing] spoken about as the EPL legend he was.

RvN goalscoring record for us was sensational, again no accolades.

People will look you in the eye with a straight face & try to debate the merits of Scholes coming 3rd in a debate between Gerrard & Lampard.

The list goes on. Other clubs celebrate their mediocre ‘legends’ whilst we degrade anyone beyond the universal fan favourites.

If Wes Brown played for Liverpool he is Jamie Carragher & some.
 

noodlehair

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Never consistent enough whether it was due to injuries or general fitness or something else, but when he was on his game he was very good and bvery orange as well. When he wasn't, he would probably slip over and let Alan Shearer score at some point.

I also had a dream last night about the Leicester game. Wes Brown was playing in it for some reason, and we conceded a goal because a cross came in and Wes Brown accidentally headed Maguire out of the way. With the game eventually somehow ending 5-0 to Watford. Wes Brown.
 

SadlerMUFC

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He was up against prime Vidic and Rio be fair for a lot if his career then at RB he had G.Neville to dislodge...was a very good squad player though.
Yup...and I remember people bitching about how shit he was whenver he played. Like I said, many like to romantacize about how good players were. He wasn't as bad as people made him out to be then, but nowhere near as good as many seem to remember him as being. He was a squad player and handy to have around. I can only imagine in another 10-15 years a Lingard appreciation thread being started and people talking about how good he was...:lol::lol::lol:
 

Red4Life_#7

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I liked him a lot. He had balls, no non-sense and rarely allowed players to make him look stupid. Injuries messed up his career, he could have had even more recognition. Also having a world class players like Stam, Rio and Vidic, really puts you in the shadow.