Fastest player to ever play for United

ThanksBoss26 said:
Fantastic. Still my favourite ever United team. I think they would have done well in the Champions League too but for that ridiculous 'foreigners' rule that was around at the time.
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It would be a bloody reserve league competition if that rule was still in place.
 
Fastest without the ball: Kanchelski, Valencia, Ronaldo

Fastest with the ball:
Ronaldo, Giggs

Fastest with agility and skill:
Giggs, Best
 
Those who played with him often mentioned Silvestre being the fastest at the club.
 
Valencia is the fastest I've seen without the ball. He used to be absolutely rapid a few years back.

With the ball - Ronaldo. Maybe Evra as well? He was very quick will the ball at feet.
 
Valencia is officially the fastest player in the world right now. FIFA says so
 
Steven Seagull said:
Rossa you are absolutely obsessed with players pace. Admit it. It's all you think about!
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I do find the time to think about one or two other things, but I do find players with pace generally more interesting to watch than sluggish players, which is why I find today's team a bit boring - we'll have to wait and see with the new signings though. Of course, players like Zidane, Scholes, Cantona were all exciting too watch also, but that was because they had extreme qualities. I value that, which is why I've always felt that Carrick has been a little bit boring, even though he is/has been a great player.
 
Henrik Larsson said:
You're confusing good timing with raw acceleration.

Robben has to have one of the most insane accelerations ever, Evra or Alba sureley don't even come close to Robben in terms of that, although they are/were very fast accelerators. Some graphics show Robbens acceleration > Ronaldo's acceleration, measured over the first 5-10 metres or so.

For United it's between Valencia and Giggs and Ronaldo without the ball, but if Pallister had the record for 100 meters, it obviously depends on what distance you're looking.

Ronaldo and Giggs with the ball in recent times. Shame it'll probably be impossible to know how George Best would compare to them.
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Lennon has the most insane acceleration from a standstill I have ever seen, and he was always able to get past Evra on raw acceleration, unlike Robben who would struggle with the same. Anyways, not sure how Robben came into this as it's a discussion on United...

Football fast is always different than 100m fast, which Ronaldo also explained when tested against the 100m Spanish sprinter.
 
Fastest with the ball: Ronaldo
Fastest with great agility and skill: Giggs (early days)

As for fastest without the ball, there is so many variants that can apply here.

Consistent fast pace throughout 90 minutes - Evra (pre 2011) and Valencia would be blisteringly quick from 1st minute to last. A side note, probably through sheer fitness alone but I'd wager that Beckham, even with his limited speed, would be the player who's quickness stayed the most consistent through a game (ie his fastest sprint and slowest had less between them than any other over 90 minutes).

Fastest to get from one end of the pitch to the other - Smalling, Welbeck, Giggs (early), Ferdinand (early).

Fastest over 10 yards without anticipation - Ronaldo, Saha.

Fastest over short distance with anticipation - Ruud, Hernandez.
 
Rossa said:
Lennon has the most insane acceleration from a standstill I have ever seen, and he was always able to get past Evra on raw acceleration, unlike Robben who would struggle with the same. Anyways, not sure how Robben came into this as it's a discussion on United...

Football fast is always different than 100m fast, which Ronaldo also explained when tested against the 100m Spanish sprinter.
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Still not sure how Robben would struggle with that. Because you saw it happen once? You can't sprint/accelerate at full speed every time during a match. And it's almost impossible to draw conclusions from seeing something a couple of times. If Evra had started 0.3 seconds earlier than Robben, impossible to see, but that already could make a huge difference. Hence the comments about confusing good timing with raw acceleration.

From the graphics on this site, the conclusion would be that Robben has a better acceleration than both Lennon and Ronaldo by the way, but Ronaldo having the highest top speed, if I interpret those statstics correctly?

http://ask4sports.eu/2011/02/speed-analysis-aaron-lennon-sprinting/
vs.
http://ask4sports.eu/2011/01/speed-analysis-robben-and-ronaldo/

But I'd rather see real scientists or something come up with graphics like that.

To keep it to Manchester United, I've posted some graphs that compare Ronaldo with Robben. Could anyone come up with a comparison between Giggs and Robben? Don't matter if it's just gut feeling or 'real facts', rather have real facts obviously.
 
I'd say that Charlton was the fastest player before the Fergie era. His ability to go past a player with acceleration and body swerve were breathtaking. Best was rapid too. Agree that players with pace are more interesting to watch, provided they do something useful with the ball.
 
Fastest player I've seen live would be a young Giggs. That Fergie quote about his feet harldy touching the ground is so true.
 
Didn't Hernandez record some crazy speed in the 2010 world cup?
 
Hernandez was quoted as the fastest player at the world cup in 2010. Looking it up, that speed was 32.2km/h.

Now the stats for the last world cup show at least 6 players not just beating that pace, but absolutely blowing it out of the water?

I suspect that their measuring methodology has changed. Unless there's something about the location that makes a difference.
 
Robben himself clocked up only 30.9 in the WC2010. Yet now, 4 years later and into his 30's, he can manage 37?

I call shenanigans!

I suspect that the 2010 figures were for the entire sprint, while 2014 figures are for only the fastest part.
 
Henrik Larsson said:
Still not sure how Robben would struggle with that. Because you saw it happen once? You can't sprint/accelerate at full speed every time during a match. And it's almost impossible to draw conclusions from seeing something a couple of times. If Evra had started 0.3 seconds earlier than Robben, impossible to see, but that already could make a huge difference. Hence the comments about confusing good timing with raw acceleration.

From the graphics on this site, the conclusion would be that Robben has a better acceleration than both Lennon and Ronaldo by the way, but Ronaldo having the highest top speed, if I interpret those statstics correctly?

http://ask4sports.eu/2011/02/speed-analysis-aaron-lennon-sprinting/
vs.
http://ask4sports.eu/2011/01/speed-analysis-robben-and-ronaldo/

But I'd rather see real scientists or something come up with graphics like that.

To keep it to Manchester United, I've posted some graphs that compare Ronaldo with Robben. Could anyone come up with a comparison between Giggs and Robben? Don't matter if it's just gut feeling or 'real facts', rather have real facts obviously.
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I don't have scientific evidence. The only real scientific evidence would be to have them sprint against each other and see what happens. Looking at them play several times, I would say that Robben is a tier below the very fastest in the game. Lennon has the most explosive acceleration I've seen, even more so than a young Giggs or Ronaldo, which enables him to go past the fastest defenders with relative ease - there was a game where Walker struggled to accelerate past his fullback but Lennon did it with ease minutes afterwards in a more or less identical situation.

The fact that Evra had Robben in his pocket for pace, and I've seen other fast defenders outpace Robben as well tells me that he isn't unbeatable there, but he's also immensely good at carrying the ball at pace and twisting and turning. I think he's a brilliant player and probably the best out and out winger in the world at the moment, but just like with Hernandez, I think his pace is a little overrated after the world cup. Great player to watch and has real pace to burn, no doubt.

I would argue that a young Giggs would be both faster off the mark and for top speed than Robben. Robben obviously having the better long range shot.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Valencia is the fastest I've seen without the ball. He used to be absolutely rapid a few years back.

With the ball - Ronaldo. Maybe Evra as well? He was very quick will the ball at feet.
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Agreed with this. Valencia was absolutely rapid but seems to have spent too much time in the gym. If you compare his body to that of 2009-11 you can see a real difference.

Would add Giggs to quickest with the ball at his feet too.
 
btw apparently Shaw broke all speed records at Southampton, so would be interesting to see who are our fastest players now
 
bishblaize said:
This is from 2013 and robben has since beat the record, but still interesting

fastest-players.jpg
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I'm pretty sure that this was a list about speeds when players had the ball as well.
 
It's Kanchelskis, all day.

Just look at how fast he ran towards his sell-on fee.
 
I heard Sylvestre used to win all the sprints for the French team. That included beating Henry.
 
If were talking without the ball it is Valencia he is insanely quick but the second the ball is at his feet he runs like he is 7 foot and weights about 30 stone. He has the pace just no dribbling ability.Ronaldo is the quickest with the ball he is as fast with it as he is without it. Di Maria is also quite fast with the ball at his feet.
 
Sorry, it's Ronaldo all the way.

Weaving through defenders, then Best. But for pure speed on and off the ball, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Is it possible we got ripped off by letting him go for only 80m?
 
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