I somehow missed this. My father's name (which is used next to my first name in a more official conversation) is the same as his, so this comparison is used quite often.
'Classics' Podcast - New Article on Denis Law
- Thread starter Raees
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Just listened to the latest episode, really good podcast. Got to listen to a few older ones.
Thanks, did you agree with the overall conclusion?
With Beckenbauer at #1 certainly
Otherwise I mostly listened to you guys, because I don't know much about some of those players. Good to see Koeman getting a lot more appreciation than he usually gets in drafts.What I'd find fascinating to know more about is the evolution of the libero role, 60s defenders who may have been a link between the defensive sweeper and Beckenbauer. Especially Moore, who probably wasn't an outright attacking CB in the sense of that episode, but whose playmaking from the back must have been a real sensation in his time. I also read that Beckenbauer named Facchetti as a major influence on his interpretation of the attacking defender role. Perhaps guys like Schulz, Schnellinger, pre-Ajax Vasovic have to be considered as well?
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It had been a very interesting process indeed. I was rushing a little bit at the beginning as we wanted to focus more on the latter part of the podcast.
Picchi was probably the first historically significant libero and I'd say that his offensive contribution was minimal. At the time, the system favoured Facchetti, who was comfortably the best on the ball out of that whole defensive unit. His offensive style was very different from today's attacking fullbacks though and was more reminiscent of the likes of Scirea and, indeed, Beckenbauer. When he got older and Picchi left, he had often played as a libero – without changing much of his playing style.
Schnellinger always demanded the ball but, frankly, his use of it was quite erratic – usually he kicked it as hard as he could and saw what happened. His passes matched Koeman's in speed but, sadly, not in accuracy.
Schulz is someone who is obviously underrated from the playmaking aspect under the shadow of Beckenbauer, which had only got bigger as the time went by. Hardly any player can perform at the level that wouldn't look out of place when compared to the elegance and efficiency of peak Kaiser Franz. Still, while for Germany he was usually more conservative in his attacking contribution, some games of his Hamburg side that I've seen positively surprised me – he didn't run forward all that much, but his involvement in the build-up was top-notch, even by today's standards, so it's fair to include him as one of the "hybrid" liberos, not yet a truly attacking one, but someone who knows how to use his relative freedom to his advantage.
I have only seen glimpses of early Vasović though, so it's hard for me to assess him.