Aye, on the first point he's often (and fairly to an extent) criticised for his lacklustre crossing, but then watching older matches I've seen plenty of other highly-regarded full backs lumping their share of aimless balls into the box too. His flaws are defintely clearer in our minds as most of us will have watched loads of his matches.
I think that Cole was somewhat fortunate in terms of reutation that he was simply dropped when he began to dip, for Azpilicueta at the tail end of his Chelsea career, then at Roma where he barely got a game. I'm not sure about this but I vaguely recall hearing that he looked very ropey in the MLS too. Evra by contrast was worked into the ground for us long after it became clear that his legs were going, and to his credit he did experience a bit of late-career revival after leaving us.
Good post, although I don't think there was that much between them defensively, and to give Cole his due credit I remember him being a bit less boring going forwards when he played for Arsenal.
Aye, he was as consistent as it gets in terms of providing width, and before decline set in he was brilliant at recovering his position too when we lost the ball.
Since both are now picked, my .02 on the matter. Evra was better going forward, providing support but to me not by much. Ashley Cole was a real asset in attack when at Arsenal as you mentioned, even played as a wing back sometimes.
@Raees assessment is pretty fair and accurate and I agree with most of it.
At Chelsea he was more defensive definitely, but still played as a modern fullback(overlapping, supporting the attack, etc). He will not man the whole flank as Carlos/Facchetti would, nor Evra for that matter, but being better defensively than Evra, makes him a tad better overall at their respective peaks, especially in a back 4.
Love Evra as a personality and not so much Cole frankly, but as a professional I've always respected him, not only for his work on Ronaldo, but his overall contribution.
It's certainly true that his reputation didn't get hurt as he was practically done after he moved away from Chelsea, considering how solid he was for more than 10 years in Prem. Evra was pretty solid defensively and excellent, balanced left back, one of the best we've had and seen in Prem, but to me Cole was notch above.
Having said that if I was playing back 5 like
@Moby I'd also pick Evra as his attacking contribution is tad better and he'd be more fluent in that back 5 role as a wing back.
Both deserve to be in an all time draft tho and it's always nice to see Evra there as he's certainly underrated around here.