None of those things would have been any good unless he was able to avoid alcoholism, which is essentially what truncated his career and life. And you can become an alcoholic in the present day just as easily as you could in 1970.
George Best At His Brilliant Best
- Thread starter harms
- Start date
None of those things would have been any good unless he was able to avoid alcoholism, which is essentially what truncated his career and life. And you can become an alcoholic in the present day just as easily as you could in 1970.
Nice video @harms. You got a subscriber in me.
Is he the greatest dribbler we’ve had the club? Also if he were to wear the #7 throughout his career and if we are judging the best #7s at the club, I think he is the best #7 followed by Cantona and then Ronaldo. Agree or disagree?
Is he the greatest dribbler we’ve had the club? Also if he were to wear the #7 throughout his career and if we are judging the best #7s at the club, I think he is the best #7 followed by Cantona and then Ronaldo. Agree or disagree?
ah brilliant. finally a compilation with a clip or 2 that seem new. or at least longer than I've seen before. cheers
thanks @harms... any chance of doing the same for Denis Law? (see you in about 12 months)
I know this will be unpopular but I actually worshipped him more than George!
I know this will be unpopular but I actually worshipped him more than George!
The plan is to do both Charlton and Law as well, as I obviously saved some of their highlights while researching Best. But it’s a long-term plan, it takes some time to do those!
I actually heard guys my age saying they were not Manchester United fans but went to games just to see Bestie.
They used to talk about him next day in work.
They used to talk about him next day in work.
Some say he’s the greatest player to ever put on a Utd shirt.
Would go
Best
Giggs
then quite a large gap to the next. Could be Ronaldo but I prefer the more natural dribbling style of the first 2 over his, all the tricks and stepovers draw attention but for me are more ostentatious than they are effective.
I agree, Giggs would have been the closest to Bestie, but still a way apart.
Only 'good'? That was a brilliant strike. Almost ripped the net off.
An absolute phenomenon, just imagine the absolute level he could have got to if his illness hadn't cut his career so short so soon.
I think he scored at least two different goals at Anfield from Best’s passes, both brilliant ones though — the first one was a thunderous strike from the right after Best dribbled past a couple of players, the second one was a slightly less powerful, but beautifully curved shot from the left after Best’s wonderfully cheeky no-look pass between defenders legs.
Fantastic dribbler of the ball, comfortably one of the best (boom, boom) but his acceleration and agility was ridiculous.
Also, something that has been bugging me, any reason behind why we had a yellow and blue third kit in the early 70's ?
Also, something that has been bugging me, any reason behind why we had a yellow and blue third kit in the early 70's ?
I remember one game against West Ham at home in early 1967. We were 1-0 up as I recall, and the Hammers were getting back into the game. Best got the ball on the left and was crowded out by a couple of defenders, he did a quick shimmy, and lobbed a pass through the gap that Bobby caught in his stride and hit like a rocket past the goalie. It was sublime.
Dunno, but the vendors outside did a roaring trade in yellow and blue scarves. A few teams had that combo back then and I always assumed it was just the club following a trend.
I see, just a style choice then.
I always need to do a double take ,when seeing clips of that particular era, and not get United mixed up with Arsenal.
Charlton’s rockets
He has to have one of the most impressive collection of long/mid ranged goals in history. From both feet as well.There was a game against Liverpool where in the space of a few minutes he scored an outstanding goal with his right (3:40) only to follow with an equally incredible volley with his left (4:20) that was incredibly unlucky not to go in:
From watching that video in the OP, he looks like Adama with end product
Some say ee's a legend.
Charlton’s rockets
My abiding memory of Bobby was the Charity Shield game against Spurs at the start of the 1967-68 season. There was a fair old galaxy of stars on display that day. Although it wasn't played with the intensity of a league match, it had everything including two Charlton rockets and a goal by Pat Jennings of all people.
I hate to agree with the dolt Piers Morgan but Ronaldo is the GOAT
He is not the GOAT dribbler though, which my list was about.
Unreal.
Is there any footage available on Duncan Edwards ? Just to have a little glimpse of what kind of player he was like.
Well Best had a 5 out of a 6 season sequence as Utds top goal scorer while mostly playing out wide. He was also with us for 11 seasons. Myself and most others who got to watch him live will respectfully disagree with Piers. Disrespectfully Piers is a clueless feckwit.
Just imagine him playing in today’s era. His stats would be unreal.
Almost nothing. There's one full game — the FA Cup final against Villa where United played with 10 men for most of the match, so Edwards had to drop back to centre back. Plus some decent highlights from the international games, but no full ones
Almost nothing. There's one full game — the FA Cup final against Villa where United played with 10 men for most of the match, so Edwards had to drop back to centre back. Plus some decent highlights from the international games, but no full ones
Well... the fact that Bobby Charlton played with both Best and Law and still always said that Duncan was the greatest... must say something.
By the stories i've read, Duncan seemed to be obsessed with football, having a C.Ronaldo-like mentality.
Brilliant @harms! Especially liked the string of assists around 10 mins in. Naturally all the highlights videos focus on his ridiculous balance, and he obviously had no problems hogging the ball, but in watching the full games back I was surprised by how often he played those cute, clever passes - it's really not part of his image.
Question for anyone here...was he incredibly one-footed?!
I'm sure I remember some talk about him training with his left as a kid, strapping weights around his right and all the usual stuff eulogising the hard bastards from the good ol' days and all the graft they had to put in, but watching that it seems kind of striking how much he prefers his right. You're used to it with the lefties like Maradona and Messi but I'm sure most of the great right-footed attackers were pretty handy with their left too!
EDIT: Reading back, seems I'm on my own on that one!
Question for anyone here...was he incredibly one-footed?!
I'm sure I remember some talk about him training with his left as a kid, strapping weights around his right and all the usual stuff eulogising the hard bastards from the good ol' days and all the graft they had to put in, but watching that it seems kind of striking how much he prefers his right. You're used to it with the lefties like Maradona and Messi but I'm sure most of the great right-footed attackers were pretty handy with their left too!
EDIT: Reading back, seems I'm on my own on that one!
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He'd got a lot of assists from wider positions earlier on, but from 1970 or 1971, I think, he really upped his passing game — naturally, as he began to lose fitness. When you watch out of form Best from mid to late 70's playing passing is probably something that stands out the most, since his dribbling isn't quite as effective when he can't run away from a defender that he had already beaten.
I've had to cut out most of the general passing from the video as it got way too long as it is, but his outside of the boot passing was just sublime and it was something that I only noticed while doing this compilation — before that I simply thought that he did them from time to time but those were really his trademark ones, I even think tat he was more comfortable making incisive/threatening passes with an outside of his boot rather than with an inside.
He even scores a free kick with his left in this video! So no, I don't quite get that impression, although he clearly had a preference.
Extreme close control was impossible on those pitches and with those balls. All the best dribblers of that era would knock the ball quite far ahead when they went past a player.
Yeah which is sort of what Adama does, using his unreal pace and balance to just knock it past players and run with the ball between players. Quite fascinating to see that video from Best, haven’t really seen any football from before ~2004.
Noticed he didn’t use any skills, but I guess that didn’t exist back then? Can imagine it not being very effective with the state of those pitches.
Me too, Denis was my hero!
There are several clips and things re Denis on youtube.
The great Jimmy Murphy always said Duncan was the most complete player he ever saw, and he saw Pele, Di Stefano, Eusabio, Cruyff, Maradona and of course Bestie. With Bobby Charlton I think sentiment plays a large part in his preference for Duncan, they were best friends until Munich.
Yes, one of my favourite United goals, Denis Laws shimmy and shoulder drop as he left a defender standing was incredible and then the pass to Bobby who lets fly from about 25 yards leaving big Pat Jennings standing! Awesome!
Were the ''Busby Babies'' pretty much the first time a coach dared to play with teenagers at this club ? It appears to me that Busby put out a blueprint and the managers that followed, specially Ferguson, used it to the best of their abilities
The babies and the class of 92 simply set a standard of performance nearly impossible for future generations to emulate.
It's such fun reading about that time.
Was lucky enough to see George play a few times. Incomparable in my opinion. A genius. Also a tragedy that we didn't protect him and ensure he played for us as long as he could. Still my favourite United play.