How good was David Beckham?

The aim of football is to score goals

Beckham was so good with what simple thing he does he doesnt need to dribble half the way line to make an assist.

He could do it from almost everywhere on the pitch. That's why we're so unplayable during the 1999.
 
As I remember it up until 01/02 he was genuinely world class, but he was a player who made himself great through his work ethic and willing to put in more hours than anyone else on the training pitch. After 01/02 the outside world became more of a distraction and he stopped putting in the same amount of effort into training and this showed in his game. The Beckham of 98/99 would get into any Premier League side before or since.
 
The third no.7 of Manchester United I could think of after Best and Cantona
 
Very difficult to compare eras but De Bruyne and Beckham aren't a million miles apart. Both of them have that bit of magic, doesn't need much to whip a beauty of a cross. Beckham was world class between 99-01. A joy to watch
 
Beckham is one of the reasons I've started supporting United in the 90'.
One of the best ball kickers I've ever seen in my lifetime. Free-kicks, crosses and long passes were pinpoint every time. Also, he had an incredible first touch and game awareness.
He will probably remain my favorite United player.
 
As much as I love SAF there’s no need to buy into his rhetoric when he sells players. Becks was the ultimate professional and was world class throughout his time with us and continued that way in Madrid. Unbelievable footballer.
 
fergiewherearethou said:
Beckham is one of the reasons I've started supporting United in the 90'.
One of the best ball kickers I've ever seen in my lifetime. Free-kicks, crosses and long passes were pinpoint every time. Also, he had an incredible first touch and game awareness.
He will probably remain my favorite United player.
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Same here. I used to practice freekicks 1,5 hours a day when I was a kid simply because thats what Becks did.
He didnt do step overs or act like a mad man, but was extremely efficient and his passing and shooting was delicious.
 
Lyng said:
Same here. I used to practice freekicks 1,5 hours a day when I was a kid simply because thats what Becks did.
He didnt do step overs or act like a mad man, but was extremely efficient and his passing and shooting was delicious.
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Me too, I tried to replicate his free kicks and ended up kicking the ball 3 streets away.
Also I had a t-shirt with the no 7 and I wore it until bits came out of it. Didn't want my mom to wash it very often, so imagine the smell it had. It was a turkish poliester copy obviously not an authentic one but I loved that t-shirt with my life.
 
ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
good attempt at a wind up.
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I think some people have the old rose tinted nostalgia goggles on. Beckham was inconsistent in my memory. No doubt he was very talented, but there were many games he would hide away from when he should have been absolutely up for. Compared to what we have today however, he's a God. Shows you how poor we are now.
 
fergiewherearethou said:
Me too, I tried to replicate his free kicks and ended up kicking the ball 3 streets away.
Also I had a t-shirt with the no 7 and I wore it until bits came out of it. Didn't want my mom to wash it very often, so imagine the smell it had. It was a turkish poliester copy obviously not an authentic one but I loved that t-shirt with my life.
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I actually became quite decent with my kicks. Was free kick taker in all the teams I played in until I quit football 10 years ago. (decent for my level mind you)

Oh same here. Loved my Becks shirt.
 
An undeniably talented player, his worldwide fame and subsequent transformation from a person into a brand has completely clouded people’s ability to impartially judge him purely for what he did on the field. He is very tough to assess, because he had areas of brilliance, and then areas where he made you want to tear your hair out.
 
Kinky Melinky said:
An undeniably talented player, his worldwide fame and subsequent transformation from a person into a brand has completely clouded people’s ability to impartially judge him purely for what he did on the field. He is very tough to assess, because he had areas of brilliance, and then areas where he made you want to tear your hair out.
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Eh? That’s the last thing in the World I’d think about Becks. Ronaldo, Nani, Antony, Giggs, Bruno, absolutely, but tearing your hair out at Becks?
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
Eh? That’s the last thing in the World I’d think about Becks. Ronaldo, Nani, Antony, Giggs, Bruno, absolutely, but tearing your hair out at Becks?
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Yeah makes zero sense to me either. If anything he was the definition of a model pro and tidy player on the pitch.
 
I remember having arguments with a bloke about work about Beckham as he would always say that he wasn’t very good as he couldn’t dribble past players. My argument was that he didn’t need to as he could beat 3 players with a pass and put it spot on for a player up front. I remember driving home from the match when the radio commentators said he had come back out into the stadium on his own after the match, not sure if that was his last match at OT , or that was before we found out that he was leaving.

You always knew when he thought he should have had a free kick as he would get up and chase the ball and clatter the next player!! :)
 
It was a completely different era. Players back in the days were asked to do one job only (keepers making saves, defenders flying in tackles, strikers banging in goals), and Beckham certainly excelled at his job in crossing the ball. Modern football requires players to be much more all-rounded and the intensity has certainly raised over the years. I doubt Beckham can produce the same magic nowadays but this doesn't make him any less than a world class player at that time.
 
He was a highly specialised player, even for the time, who excelled at crossing and long passing, and of course free kicks. Younger fans who are used to today’s era of football dominated by more generalist players, who are expected to do a bit of everything, may therefore find it difficult to appreciate just how good, and how important to United, Beckham was at the time.

But saying that, Beckham was a model professional who was always the first to arrive for training and the last to leave, who, from a very young age, was dedicated to becoming the very best version of himself. So I have no doubt that he would have adapted and become a top player in the current era as well.
 
Beckham had very good technique on the ball and could dribble from time to time, but it wasn't really necessary as we played mostly with 2 strikers and he preferred the cross instead of doing step overs and spins around the ball.
In the 90's and 2000's wingers did not score as much as they do today the service and assisting were the ones that mattered the most and what was asked of them.
 
hmchan said:
It was a completely different era. Players back in the days were asked to do one job only (keepers making saves, defenders flying in tackles, strikers banging in goals), and Beckham certainly excelled at his job in crossing the ball. Modern football requires players to be much more all-rounded and the intensity has certainly raised over the years. I doubt Beckham can produce the same magic nowadays but this doesn't make him any less than a world class player at that time.
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why? What’s your reasoning?
we’ve seen the success TAAs crossing has had and besides Beckhams was all based on hard work, from hours practicing to running up and down the pitch putting the hard yards in. No reason he couldn’t do it in the ‘modern’ game
 
Imagine David in the midfield coached by Pep, jesus christ.

He could place a ball on your head from anywhere on the field, could shoot, could press and could also dribble when needed.
 
Kinky Melinky said:
I think some people have the old rose tinted nostalgia goggles on. Beckham was inconsistent in my memory. No doubt he was very talented, but there were many games he would hide away from when he should have been absolutely up for. Compared to what we have today however, he's a God. Shows you how poor we are now.
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He was at his best for about a 3 year period in my opinion (99-'01), afterwhich he was a shadow of himself.

By 2003, as we were attempting to reel Arsenal in, I did think he was extremely inconsistent and its not surprise he wasn't benched in the run-in.
 
Seen stuff the last few days about Salah and Saka being better than Beckham, find it funny when people are talking about ex-United players being shit/overrated but they're using them as the barometer to compare current players with to prove how great they are
 
golden_blunder said:
why? What’s your reasoning?
we’ve seen the success TAAs crossing has had and besides Beckhams was all based on hard work, from hours practicing to running up and down the pitch putting the hard yards in. No reason he couldn’t do it in the ‘modern’ game
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It's because people buy into Sky's shite about football currently being the best it's ever been :boring::boring:
 
hmchan said:
It was a completely different era. Players back in the days were asked to do one job only (keepers making saves, defenders flying in tackles, strikers banging in goals), and Beckham certainly excelled at his job in crossing the ball. Modern football requires players to be much more all-rounded and the intensity has certainly raised over the years. I doubt Beckham can produce the same magic nowadays but this doesn't make him any less than a world class player at that time.
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Without a doubt Beckham now would excel in the role KDB plays at City.

I think he'd actually be better at it than KDB.
 
Edwards6 said:
Seen stuff the last few days about Salah and Saka being better than Beckham, find it funny when people are talking about ex-United players being shit/overrated but they're using them as the barometer to compare current players with to prove how great they are
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Salah is at least a fair comparison given the consistent output. Comparing him to Saka is just a joke right now.
 
It's always Beckham and Giggs for these comparisons, guess it's so they can disingenuously use unfair metrics to compare them (cos 442 touch line wingers are the same as 433 inside forwards).
 
I love all of those "How good was Scholes/Giggs/Beckham?" threads. I'm sure if any of them were about 27 years old now they'd be in the 150ml range. And that City/Real/PSG will be all over 'em.

Everything else is just the oppo fans trying to downplay how ridiculously good those guys were.
 
Dan_F said:
Salah is at least a fair comparison given the consistent output. Comparing him to Saka is just a joke right now.
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Salah and Beckham don't even play the same position, if Beckham was playing now he'd be a CM. My point is if Beckham wasn't a great player why are they talking about him there's loads of other RM from the past they could compare Salah with
 
Edwards6 said:
Salah and Beckham don't even play the same position, if Beckham was playing now he'd be a CM. My point is if Beckham wasn't a great player why are they talking about him there's loads of other RM from the past they could compare Salah with
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It’s a lazy comparison because a right forward in a 433 is obviously different to a right sided mid in a 442. Football has changed so much that it’s definitely only people under the age of 25 making these comparisons.
 
He was bloody brilliant. The best set piece taker/crosser I have seen even to this date, incredible fitness, passing as good as Scholes (perhaps better).

The ever praised Trent Alexander Arnold gets on his knees every night and fecking prays he is half as good as David Beckham.

I have no idea why people think Becks is overrated.
 
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The best crosser, one of the best set piece specialists and long passers I have seen. He could create a goal from anywhere as long as there was someone to make a run.

His weakness was his relative lack of pace and ability to beat his man. But he didn't really need those.
 
golden_blunder said:
why? What’s your reasoning?
we’ve seen the success TAAs crossing has had and besides Beckhams was all based on hard work, from hours practicing to running up and down the pitch putting the hard yards in. No reason he couldn’t do it in the ‘modern’ game
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I would hardly call Arnold's career a success. Crossing is all he's got and let's not look away from the criticism he's received over the past few seasons. He's never a guaranteed starter for England either. This is the ceiling if Beckham plays in the modern game, and this is barely comparable to the actual career he's achieved back in the days.
 
Ridiculously fecking good.

The cretins trying to make tangible comparisons with the likes of Saka and Salah are pathetic. Beckham wouldn’t be anywhere near the right side of a front three in today’s game. He’d be a sensation more centrally, though.
 
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