Come one now. He was joint top scorer in the Premier League in a season, where we won the title. Certainly not of our best ever strikers, but not one of our worst either.
Berbatov's Appreciation Thread
- Thread starter phonics_tid
- Start date
Come one now. He was joint top scorer in the Premier League in a season, where we won the title. Certainly not of our best ever strikers, but not one of our worst either.
Like Nani (another player who gets better the further we get from his actual career) the Caf would have slagged the feck out of him if he was in the current squad.
Gifted but went missing a lot and didn't really fit in.
Gifted but went missing a lot and didn't really fit in.
Not a United clip, but probably sums him up in the best way possible
If you look up berbatov in the dictionary, the definition is simply 
Rubbish. For about a season and a half Nani was legitimately world class and one of the best wingers in the world. Outside of that patch post-ronaldo he would frustrate but he'd run rings around premier league defenders for fun.
Glad you got in there first.
A 20/21 year old Nani today (i.e the age he joined Utd) would be easily worth £50m+ in terms of talent. In today's formations where the wingers are expected to be playing further forward and contributing more, he'd be a frightening prospect in a 4-3-3 playing in a competently coached team.
I'm biased of course but for me his peak form was some of the best times to watch as a Utd player. Proper majestic at times.
He was a terrible signing. Should have got Tevez signed up instead
Only 4 negative comments in the newest bump of an appreciation thread... either the football forum is in a good mood (no) or they're focusing their energy on other targets (probably).
...
I've been looking for a video of an assist by him at Spurs for years, it's at 5:26-5:30 in this video, a bicycle kick through ball to robbie keane in 06/07
does anyone know which game this was?? @balaks
...
I've been looking for a video of an assist by him at Spurs for years, it's at 5:26-5:30 in this video, a bicycle kick through ball to robbie keane in 06/07
does anyone know which game this was?? @balaks
It's funny, I was just watching a Nani highlights video yesterday. Its funny (yet sad) in a way how players who were slagged off and considered a bit crap, like Nani and Berbatov, would be some of the best players in the team today. Hell, Nani would probably be the best winger in the league, he's the kind of right winger we've been crying out for during the last decade. I find it hilarious that people say things like "he gets better the further we get from his career" yet will bow down and worship Sancho at the feet. Nani could playmake like the wingers of today whilst also being one of the best 1v1 dribblers of the era, was quick, decently strong, and most importantly extremely two footed. I reckon he'd be the 120+ million winger of today.
Nani's biggest problem is that he was very inconsistent, one week he'd play like the world's best and the following week at league 1 level
Best first touch United has ever had
Nani whenn on form was our and perhaps the league's best player and but as others have pointed out he lacked in consistency.
I always reminisce about him for whatever reason, what could have been.
His ball control is yummy.
I never thought he was needed and I think his inclusion and having to incorporate him made our play regress from what it had been the last couple of seasons to that point.
Not saying he wasn't a top player but he didn't improve us. The opposite happened in my opinion.
Not saying he wasn't a top player but he didn't improve us. The opposite happened in my opinion.
But thinking about it, how Manchester United have fallen in the sense of having a number of top level strikers in the squad now.
Back then we used to always have more than one elite strikers in the squad.
Absolute feckin’ geezer. His touch is just incredible.
I remember that piece of skill he did on the touch line against… I think it was against West Ham, but it was a long time ago so I might be wrong.
But whoever it was against, it was fecking majestic, very Bergkamp-esque.
At times he looked like he was Neo in the Matrix - slower and yet faster than everyone else, just dealing in a different currency to the others around him.
But he didn’t fit that Utd side really and slowed down the play so much as has been stated above.
He was a great player, but he was a bad signing for us.
Pretty sure if we had Tevez for the 09-10 season instead of Berbatov, we win the league again.
Pretty sure if we had Tevez for the 09-10 season instead of Berbatov, we win the league again.
The best first touch of any Utd player in the PL era. Fight me
Classic! The thread that made the Caf a regular stop for me.
Fixed it for you.
Yeah it's brilliant!
His best season came when he was consistently played on the right (2010-2011). That season he was very consistent, and was probably our best player especially in the first half of the season where Valencia was injured and Rooney was AWOL. For whatever reason when he was on the left he was more inconsistent, and more predictable as he would cut inside more. When he was on the right he would switch it up more. It's more of a massive indictment of where football is today that we can look at someone like Nani, who was considered by many to be inconsistent, and think he would be the best player in our team today, and quite possibly one of the best in the league. It's the same with strikers like Berbatov. In today's game he would have played as a false 9 and be considered similar to Ibrahimovic, whereas 10 years ago he was considered to have a phenomenal touch but not much more.
I love Berba man.
Agreed. History has really been rewritten with this guy, as he was silky as feck, and we’ve had so many shit flops since - so a great highlight reel looking back.
You can only compare Nani in his own era, the game has completely changed, today a lot of coaches would think him a liability in a possession based team, I don't subscribe to that view because I think possession based football his overstated, Berbatov would possibly be a 10 today, I actually watched the Neville Soccerbox on YouTube yesterday and his skill and touch is incredible, his languid style makes you think there's not much else but there is a lot more than you think
Didn't suit our football, would fit in perfectly with City today. More so than maybe any other player we have had.
This. Really overrated, but I still loved him but he never really settled.
Players who do not run do not play for City.
Berba could run when he wanted to and if you watched his highlight reel you'd see it, but he didn't need to often because his vision and awareness was so good, he could see the play ahead and position himself where he needed to be
I think Berbatov was a phenomenal player. I think he and Rooney were hampered playing together as they were both more second striker/10 than they were proper 9's. His link up play, passing, ability to control anything lend themselves to being a great 10/second striker. As far as Nani goes, I think he would be more valued today as their is a real dearth of top class wingers who can take players on. Look at City, they paid 100 million for Grealish who is not as good as Nani was. The game also hasn't changed as much as you may think in the last 10 years. I can't even say teams press more because 10 years ago you had Klopp's Dortmund, and before that you had Pep's Barcelona who used to press a lot. The average team presses more nowadays however, specifically in England.
Yes matey, that’s the one!
Utterly majestic.
Oh man, what a feckin dude - see how cool he is afterwards as well, just walks off like, ‘what?’.
feck me, those were the days.
Pretty sure you are right, long pass from Ando, then Berba with the spin (think they named it even Berba Spin in FIFA didn't they) who then assists Ronaldo in one of they earlier games together.
Not many forwards I can think of who’d be a worse fit for today’s City. Pep would never go near him IMO.
It was also the days when Ronaldo and Berbatov had a competition between them on how to look more depressed than the other when scoring. Would have been perfect for the VAR era.
Pep would never go near Berbatov.
He went for a better player in Ibrahimovic and it didn't even work out.
He went for a better player in Ibrahimovic and it didn't even work out.
I could see the thinking behind why we signed him. A player of his mercurial brilliance with runners, goal scorers and hard workers around him, was theoretically a match made in heaven. It didn’t work out as well as I would have hoped, but I appreciated him as a player enormously. And he gave us some wonderful memories.
To think, we already had Rooney, Ronaldo and Tévez and we added Berbatov. Magical times.
Half a Marseille's turn (Roulette) with a dink to beat your man. Pure Joy. He played in slow motion amongst a hail of bullets.