Where does Seedorf rank in top midfielders in the last 30 years?

[littleman]

Really oft-forgotten in most conversations about great midfielders, he was a big part of Milan's 2 CL wins in his 10-year tenure there. He played all sorts of roles in midfield. Won 4 CL total, won a couple of leagues in Eredivisie, La Liga and Serie A.

How do you figure where Seedorf sits in the pantheon of greats?

 

[GueRed]

Top 5 for me

in the 90's was overshadowed by Edgar Davids

but over the long stretch had a better career than him imo

Technically gifted and as strong as an ox.

 

[Pughnichi]

Shame the Dutch couldn’t sort their in house issues out at a time when they had some great players.

VDS, Stam, DeBoer, Seedorf, Davids, Overmars, Kluivert, Bergkamp is pretty special

Agree with GueRed. Perhaps overlooked because of Davids hair, shades and tenacity. I loved that guy. Desperately wanted him here...but seedorf was brilliant well into his 30s. Just didn’t ever seem to regress

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Wonderful player. One of the best.

 

[RooneyLegend]

Shame the Dutch couldn’t sort their in house issues out at a time when they had some great players.

VDS, Stam, DeBoer, Seedorf, Davids, Overmars, Kluivert, Bergkamp is pretty special

Agree with GueRed. Perhaps overlooked because of Davids hair, shades and tenacity. I loved that guy. Desperately wanted him here...but seedorf was brilliant well into his 30s. Just didn’t ever seem to regress

Every one had a batch of special players. Didn't mean jack that they had all those guys.

 

[andersj]

No idea. But some of the videos of Caicedo made me think of him. No sure if they are similar at all.

 

[RooneyLegend]

The guy was quality, plain and simple. He was world class without being special or talismanic. Just like our Scholes in that sense.

 

[edcunited1878]

One of the best. Think there's a huge group of midfielders that can be categorized as top players because of the abundance of them.

 

[paulscholes18]

Wouldn’t make top 10, but definitely top 20

 

[B20]

Top class, not an all time great.

 

[Lay]

Was on the Milan forum in the 00s and he would get so much stick from the fans. They'd complain he only turned up for English audiences and was shit in the league

 

[Lynty]

In comparison to United players:

Better than Keane and Carrick

Almost as good as Scholes

 

[VorZakone]

Was on the Milan forum in the 00s and he would get so much stick from the fans. They'd complain he only turned up for English audiences and was shit in the league

If I'm correct that Milan side actually didn't perform that well domestically in the late 2000s. They turned up in the CL though.

 

[GifLord]

Way too inconsistent to be considered an all time great

 

[Invictus]

Wouldn’t make top 10, but definitely top 20

Would echo this opinion, if we make the Top 20 bit more flexible. Very good player but not close to the top, especially if we use a broad term like ‟midfielders”. Even if we reduce the time-frame to 1995—2020 so that the likes of Matthäus, Rijkaard and co. are non-factors, there are quite a few that would rank ahead of him (doubly so if there's an emphasis on distilled performance rather than vague sense of achievement/longevity)...

• Offensive midfielders: Zidane, Laudrup, Ronaldinho, Kaká, Nedvěd
• Box-to-box midfielders: Keane, Davids, Schweinsteiger, Vieira
• Intermediate playmakers: Iniesta, Modrić
• Central or deep playmakers: Xavi, Redondo, Scholes, Pirlo
• Defensive midfielders: Busquets, Makelélé

Those 17 are unarguably ahead of him, IMO — as they were incredibly good at what they did whereas Seedorf was more jack-of-all-trades and often tended to drift in and out of games (especially with Milan where he was indulged as an offensive midfielder). And that's without even classing the likes of Figo or Beckham in a wide midfielder section. Though he should be close to the head of the queue for the best of the rest — which is not a slight because the initial list didn't include Deco, Lampard, Alonso, Ballack, Gerrard, Kanté, Rui Costa, Vidal, Kroos, De Bruyne and other fantastic performers.

 

[ryadmahrez]

I feel he gets a bit overrated due to his 4 CL trophies internationally. I was a big follower of him at Milan. Because we share the same herritage, i followed him closely visited the milan forum regurarly.

Seedorf always had a lot critisism from milan fans, he was like their guy who everyone would complain about. He was a player that very much went hot and cold and didnt like to run. When he was bad, he was very bad, but when he was good he was excellent. For example the home fixture for Milan against man utd, he was excellent and i think people here remember that.

He was quality, but he was a complimentary player i feel looking back at it. Not like a great midfielder, who is consistent and is the heartbeat of your team. He was too much of a passenger and inconsistent most of the time. Not someone you build around. Imo he is far from the absolute top of midfielder like Xavi, Modric, Iniesta, Pirlo etc.

 

[el_loco_bielsa]

Really oft-forgotten in most conversations about great midfielders, he was a big part of Milan's 2 CL wins in his 10-year tenure there. He played all sorts of roles in midfield. Won 4 CL total, won a couple of leagues in Eredivisie, La Liga and Serie A.

How do you figure where Seedorf sits in the pantheon of greats?

One of the finest midfielders of his generation but he probably would be outside the top 10 of his time for me.

If you’re broadly speaking referring to his career as spanning from the mid 90s for a decade or a bit more his peers would’ve included a number of midfielders I’d put above him - off the top of my head I’d say davids, zidane, pirlo, rivaldo, figo, scholes, viera, boban, kaka, Ronaldinho, deco, riijkaard, redondo, gerrard, Rui Costa, Keane, lampard.

But by any stretch he would make the top 20 and was very influential in those Ajax, Madrid and Milan sides though definitely underrated because of the presence of superior players beside him - rijkaard at Ajax, redondo at Madrid, pirlo at Milan, Davids for the oranje.

That Milan midfield of gattuso-pirlo-seedorf was such a beautifully balanced midfield, though.

 

[uwotm8]

If he swapped haircuts with Davids it would be a very different conversation

 

[Josh 76]

I feel he gets a bit overrated due to his 4 CL trophies internationally. I was a big follower of him at Milan. Because we share the same herritage, i followed him closely visited the milan forum regurarly.

Seedorf always had a lot critisism from milan fans, he was like their guy who everyone would complain about. He was a player that very much went hot and cold and didnt like to run. When he was bad, he was very bad, but when he was good he was excellent. For example the home fixture for Milan against man utd, he was excellent and i think people here remember that.

He was quality, but he was a complimentary player i feel looking back at it. Not like a great midfielder, who is consistent and is the heartbeat of your team. He was too much of a passenger and inconsistent most of the time. Not someone you build around. Imo he is far from the absolute top of midfielder like Xavi, Modric, Iniesta, Pirlo etc.

Summed up well.

 

[Lord SInister]

A highly talented midfielder who had a great career with club, but was very inconsistent in terms of actual onfield performances.
last 30 years? Achievement wise he ranks really high, ridiculous career, but actual performance wise, nah wouldn't be in my top 10.

 

[2cents]

Have to admit I never really saw it with him. I couldn’t even really tell you what type of CM he was. Obviously a long line of great managers valued him, and his trophy haul speaks for itself, so probably just me being dumb.

 

[Ranie]

Probably on the top 10-15 for me. After the likes of Iniesta, Zidane, Xavi, Scholes and Pirlo. Somewhere along Schweinsteiger, Vieira, Busquets and Makelele probably.

 

[Stacks]

The guy was quality, plain and simple. He was world class without being special or talismanic. Just like our Scholes in that sense.

bingo. I would say he was closer to Scholes than the Zidane's Xavi's or Pirlo's.

 

[Stacks]

Probably on the top 10-15 for me. After the likes of Iniesta, Zidane, Xavi, Scholes and Pirlo. Somewhere along Schweinsteiger, Vieira, Busquets and Makelele probably.

Vieira was better than Scholes and recognised as such whilst they played in England.

 

[Lay]

I feel he gets a bit overrated due to his 4 CL trophies internationally. I was a big follower of him at Milan. Because we share the same herritage, i followed him closely visited the milan forum regurarly.

Seedorf always had a lot critisism from milan fans, he was like their guy who everyone would complain about. He was a player that very much went hot and cold and didnt like to run. When he was bad, he was very bad, but when he was good he was excellent. For example the home fixture for Milan against man utd, he was excellent and i think people here remember that.

He was quality, but he was a complimentary player i feel looking back at it. Not like a great midfielder, who is consistent and is the heartbeat of your team. He was too much of a passenger and inconsistent most of the time. Not someone you build around. Imo he is far from the absolute top of midfielder like Xavi, Modric, Iniesta, Pirlo etc.

good post and summed up well. Before the United game that forum was saying at least he will turn up for this game. He did unfortunately but back to being average and a passenger in their next game I bet

 

[tjb]

i'm sorry but so overrated. I thought he was the least significant in the Milan front 6. There's a reason he was bounced around from team to team during his prime. 30 years means from the 90's till now. He's a great player, but not really one i'd expect us to make a thread about....let me put it like this, i think Pogba for us has been better and more impactful that seedorf ever was, and I want Pogba gone.

 

[TrustInOle]

In my life time he is top 10 for sure, I'd even go as far as top 5 with Scholes and Zidane. I remember being awe struck by a 50 yard (?) Screamer from the right hand side, for Milan if I'm not mistaken?

Shows his class even now in soccer aid.

 

[TwoSheds]

Have to admit I never really saw it with him. I couldn’t even really tell you what type of CM he was. Obviously a long line of great managers valued him, and his trophy haul speaks for itself, so probably just me being dumb.

He was just a quality all round midfielder. Great feet, cannon of a shot off both feet, good passer, strong, quick, decent in the air, tactically astute. IMO he was world class as box to box or AM and pretty decent out wide or even at DM too. Any manager would have loved to have a player as versatile, physical and technically gifted as him in any era. I don't think he was ever the best midfielder in the world at any point in his career though.

 

[Lord SInister]

In my life time he is top 10 for sure, I'd even go as far as top 5 with Scholes and Zidane. I remember being awe struck by a 50 yard (?) Screamer from the right hand side, for Milan if I'm not mistaken?

Shows his class even now in soccer aid.

for Madrid, not Milan.

 

[bp19992]

In comparison to United players:

Better than Keane and Carrick

Almost as good as Scholes

Let's stay realistic here. Keane was better than Scholesy.

 

[RUCK4444]

Absolute quality, brilliant brilliant player. No real weakness.

One of my favourite players, would have absolutely loved him to have played for United.

 

[TrustInOle]

for Madrid, not Milan.

Thank you. I remember the ball looked as if it kept on gaining speed. Was it further our that Ronaldo's against sporting?

 

[tjb]

good post and summed up well. Before the United game that forum was saying at least he will turn up for this game. He did unfortunately but back to being average and a passenger in their next game I bet

People forget how big the pool of great midfielders is. I'd have him with Deco, Guti and De Rossi. Players like Xabi Alonso, Gerrard, Lampard, Fabregas, Essien, Effenberg, Ballack, Sneijder etc are above him in addition to players Keane, Scholes, Xavi, Iniesta, Modric, Kroos, Schweinsteiger, Matthaus, Viera etc that people already had above him

 

[Lord SInister]

Thank you. I remember the ball looked as if it kept on gaining speed. Was it further our that Ronaldo's against sporting?

Looks further by margin to naked eyes, and according to stats too about 3-4 yards further.

 

[TrustInOle]

Looks further by margin to naked eyes, and according to stats too about 3-4 yards further.

Brilliant, thank you. Not seen it in a while.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

Vieira was better than Scholes and recognised as such whilst they played in England.

Totally different players, with very different strengths and weaknesses, I don't think you can compare them. Maybe Veira vs Keane would make a bit more sense.

Their primes also didn't coincide, Scholes position changed after Keane left (and Veira left England). He played deeper role. These was probably the best years of his career, right up until 2012 when he came out of retirement to have a phenomenal season.

For what it's worth, Scholes is probably 2 tiers above.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Those thighs.

 

[littleman]

Very contentious so far.. perfect discussion

 

[Stacks]

Totally different players, with very different strengths and weaknesses, I don't think you can compare them. Maybe Veira vs Keane would make a bit more sense.

Their primes also didn't coincide, Scholes position changed after Keane left (and Veira left England). He played deeper role. These was probably the best years of his career, right up until 2012 when he came out of retirement to have a phenomenal season.

For what it's worth, Scholes is probably 2 tiers above.

Well no. He was great in that role 2007, injured for most of 2008 and had became a heavily managed and rotated player by 2009 onwards. Didn't start the CL final in 2009 nor 2011. That period was never imperious like Vieira's reign. Guys like Gerrard and Lampard had taken over during this era. No way was that version of Scholes comparable to prime Vieira and certainly not 2 levels above. strange opinion.

 

[Stacks]

Those thighs.

Had a phatty too.