That’s a good point. He fecking committed a foul with his hands against Ghana in the 2010 World Cup and carried out his first of three bites later that year. He’s an absolute cnut, an awful person.
Is Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez the Premier League’s best ever front three
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Nani wasn't even a regular starter when Ronaldo was here. He only really nailed down a starting spot in 2010.
Roon-Ron is the best front two in the premiership. Not sure about Tevez in a front three.
My memory might be failing me here but I'm sure the fluidity was in moments rather than a consistent basis. The defence and Cristiano were the big reasons that the team was so successful.
All great players though, I remember a few comments of how Tevez and Cristiano don't link up enough or how they tend to ignore each other.
All great players though, I remember a few comments of how Tevez and Cristiano don't link up enough or how they tend to ignore each other.
Probably in terms of the individual talent but overall it has to be the Liverpool trio. They elevated each other massively and performed as a unit for much longer.
Don't know about being the best, but imo they are the most unlikeable.
Yeah that 99 season team, and especially those two, don’t get the credit they deserve for the beautiful stuff they played. Even history has misremembered us as a team that fluked the final. Reality is we were a better than Bayern throughout the season but on the day we had several key players injured or suspended.
I loved watching them and that lot should have won another treble... Fecking pompy .. FA cup
Rooney was amazing with those 2 Tevez scored some realy import goals in Europe in 2008 If I remember as well ...
Rooney was amazing with those 2 Tevez scored some realy import goals in Europe in 2008 If I remember as well ...
Just watching that video is vaguely dispiriting. I can't imagine our front three ever, EVER scoring a goal anywhere near the level of any of those, in part because they simply don't pass the ball, and their technique is about 2-3 notches below any of them.
But what a three they were. Absolutely disgusting the level of ability they had.
@harms which three, Salah Firmino and Sane? I know what you mean about them elevating each other but I'd still have Ronaldo over Salah, Tevez over Firmino and Rooney over Sane to this day, and we were the best team in Europe then, no doubt in my mind, it was mainly the insane competition back then that makes it a bit more of a question mark. Be interesting to pit the sides against one another. The United of 2007 would beat our current side by 5 or 6 goals I think. Just shows just how far our star has fallen that we aren't anywhere -near- that level nowadays, but there's been signs there's something about Garnacho at least.
But what a three they were. Absolutely disgusting the level of ability they had.
@harms which three, Salah Firmino and Sane? I know what you mean about them elevating each other but I'd still have Ronaldo over Salah, Tevez over Firmino and Rooney over Sane to this day, and we were the best team in Europe then, no doubt in my mind, it was mainly the insane competition back then that makes it a bit more of a question mark. Be interesting to pit the sides against one another. The United of 2007 would beat our current side by 5 or 6 goals I think. Just shows just how far our star has fallen that we aren't anywhere -near- that level nowadays, but there's been signs there's something about Garnacho at least.
Yes, Salah, Firmino & Mane. As I've said, we've certainly had better individuals but they've had a better unit — Tevez, Rooney & Ronaldo didn't even play that many games as a front three together while the Liverpudlian trio was a staple of the most successful era in modern history of Liverpool. And while we laugh a lot about them underperforming in terms of the titles won, they were undoubtedly one of the best teams in the world for a prolonged period of time, even if never clearly the best.
Just like Cole & Yorke is a better duo than Rooney & van Persie even though I rate Rooney and van Persie higher individually. They're still easily the second greatest attacking trio in PL history (and probably the most devastating on their good day).
My two cents on Tevez, knowing him since his debut, I was at the field...
On contrair to what many think, Tevez it's not a level below Rooney, nor he was just a workhorse, nor he never before played as the main man in a team (he did it in Corinthians in an excellent way and close to that role in Boca).
Tevez went to United accepting being loaned and not bought.
He accepeted to play second fiddle to Rooney and CR (he respected the already established major figures), in such style, he therefore played with more focus on intensity and pressing than his best atributes.
At doing so, United found one of the more cohesive frontlines ever, to this day Rooney says Tevez was his best partner, precisly because both could interchange and played each others role while pressing like mad men.
Tevez in such situation, should have been instantly bought.
Yet...
It didn't happen, Fergie played the card of trying to diminish his stature to in consequence play less money for him, in the meantime he even bought Berva that perhaps was more akin to him as a player. So Tevez read that situation as not being respected and he doesn't care if he is Fergie, Lennon, Ghandi or whomever, he always was that way, he comes from very very rough origins to care about that when he feels he it's not respected. This last thing of how Fergie tried to lower his price and took to long to offer him a contract, it's even to this day support from Rooney, Rio, Evra and cia. There are several situations in tevez carreer that today his mates support his view, but Tevez being Tevez in the day didn't even bothered to clarify or protest (like Mancini's bench affair).
All in all, he still it's Tevez, it doesn't warrant that he wouldn't anyway one day get bored and leave the Club, or clash with fergie or whomever, but at that point in his carreer, he certainly lower his profile, his expectations, his style of play and demands in the field and he didn't received what HE thought was deserving.
Between all this stuff, he was managed by crooks and like I've said he still is Tevez, so even if Fergie didn't tried that approach, he might have done sthg. else in time that would have end with him out of United.
That whole situation is the reason why United didn't had Corinthians, Juve, City one man army Tevez version for at least some period.
Remarking this last thing, because Tevez being Tevez left Boca in a rush while being loved, the same in Corinthians and even in Juve where he did almost everything right (from training, fitness, perfomances, leadership) he left saying he was heading Boca and ended in China...Carlitos way.
The sad thing it's that United still won after these "three amigos", but also was pretty obvious that Fergie was in the peak of his powers and that he was starting to shift that United tradition of flair and steel to sthg different and even if at first with Berva and Persie he still got lots of talent, the soul was starting to be left aside.
He even started to have problems with Rooney because of him questioning the course of United after the trio was dismantle.
I absolutely get Tevez being hate as hell. But this hatred must not coverred that he was a lot better player than many give credit for and that even all those shyte situations regarding United, the banner, the RIP and such also showed the character of the fella perfoming even better under such pressure.
He even ended being the catalyst that made City believe and get bigger, at periods he even did such thing within City with his coach against him and the squad demanding Mancini to call him back to win the title, the motherfecker always did what he wanted, he didn't had finesse, but he was a hell of a player in terms of abilty and personality. It could have been sthg if United could kept those three for many seasons, a pitty, a real pitty.
On contrair to what many think, Tevez it's not a level below Rooney, nor he was just a workhorse, nor he never before played as the main man in a team (he did it in Corinthians in an excellent way and close to that role in Boca).
Tevez went to United accepting being loaned and not bought.
He accepeted to play second fiddle to Rooney and CR (he respected the already established major figures), in such style, he therefore played with more focus on intensity and pressing than his best atributes.
At doing so, United found one of the more cohesive frontlines ever, to this day Rooney says Tevez was his best partner, precisly because both could interchange and played each others role while pressing like mad men.
Tevez in such situation, should have been instantly bought.
Yet...
It didn't happen, Fergie played the card of trying to diminish his stature to in consequence play less money for him, in the meantime he even bought Berva that perhaps was more akin to him as a player. So Tevez read that situation as not being respected and he doesn't care if he is Fergie, Lennon, Ghandi or whomever, he always was that way, he comes from very very rough origins to care about that when he feels he it's not respected. This last thing of how Fergie tried to lower his price and took to long to offer him a contract, it's even to this day support from Rooney, Rio, Evra and cia. There are several situations in tevez carreer that today his mates support his view, but Tevez being Tevez in the day didn't even bothered to clarify or protest (like Mancini's bench affair).
All in all, he still it's Tevez, it doesn't warrant that he wouldn't anyway one day get bored and leave the Club, or clash with fergie or whomever, but at that point in his carreer, he certainly lower his profile, his expectations, his style of play and demands in the field and he didn't received what HE thought was deserving.
Between all this stuff, he was managed by crooks and like I've said he still is Tevez, so even if Fergie didn't tried that approach, he might have done sthg. else in time that would have end with him out of United.
That whole situation is the reason why United didn't had Corinthians, Juve, City one man army Tevez version for at least some period.
Remarking this last thing, because Tevez being Tevez left Boca in a rush while being loved, the same in Corinthians and even in Juve where he did almost everything right (from training, fitness, perfomances, leadership) he left saying he was heading Boca and ended in China...Carlitos way.
The sad thing it's that United still won after these "three amigos", but also was pretty obvious that Fergie was in the peak of his powers and that he was starting to shift that United tradition of flair and steel to sthg different and even if at first with Berva and Persie he still got lots of talent, the soul was starting to be left aside.
He even started to have problems with Rooney because of him questioning the course of United after the trio was dismantle.
I absolutely get Tevez being hate as hell. But this hatred must not coverred that he was a lot better player than many give credit for and that even all those shyte situations regarding United, the banner, the RIP and such also showed the character of the fella perfoming even better under such pressure.
He even ended being the catalyst that made City believe and get bigger, at periods he even did such thing within City with his coach against him and the squad demanding Mancini to call him back to win the title, the motherfecker always did what he wanted, he didn't had finesse, but he was a hell of a player in terms of abilty and personality. It could have been sthg if United could kept those three for many seasons, a pitty, a real pitty.
Nah, Sterling, Sturridge and Suarez were more unplayable than Mane, Firminho, Salah. Though the latter were obviously better players and achieved more.
Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez didn’t play as often as a three as either of the Liverpool triptych’s. But they were far better.
Duff, Drogba and Robben were better than the Liverpool trios too. As were Pires, Henry, Ljunberg. They were massively overrated by the press.
In terms of pure talent and explosiveness yes. In terms of stats Pool fans would argue it's Salah, Mane, Firmino.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on all of them, I’m afraid. Especially since the Arsenal guys weren’t even really a trio.
I don’t really rate Rodgers’ guys (on that level) aside from Suarez, who carried that team. As for Duff, Drogba & Robben? What are the criteria that you’re judging them on that suddenly make them a better attacking unit than Salah, Firmino & Mane?
The Arsenal 3 are comparable imo.
That Rodger’s season was really exceptional from those three. More threatening than the best Klopp front 3’s. Though they shone bright for such a brief period, the Klopp 3 were the better bet of course.
They were never a front three.
Of course they were. Bergkamp operated in the same space that Coutinho, Bruno, KdB do. Hell; Giggs-Hughes-Kanchelskis were a 3 as Eric played so deep.
We just lay those positions out differently on a graphic now.
Robben was a very talented and injury prone winger at Chelsea, he didn’t even become The Arjen Robben we know until about 5 years later when he joined Bayern.
Duff was very good but not in the same stratosphere as Mane or Salah.
The Chelsea of Ancelotti in 2009/2010 was much more attack oriented than the Mourinho one, with Drogba and Anelka + Malouda/Kalou and scored significantly more goals than the 2004-2006 did in a season.
2013/2014 Liverpool wasn’t really a trio, it was more like Suarez and two other guys, he was that good.
One player occasionally dropping doesn’t make a front 4 a front 3. On that basis, Yorke was a midfielder and Cole a forward.
Bergkamp and Cantona played nothing like Bruno or KdB do and nowhere near the same regular position… just because Cantona started the Sunderland goal near the halfway line doesn’t make that United lineup 433
I liked the sparkey-choccy partnership upfront in the early 90s
Not all Tevez, CR7, & Rooney, but they play a large part in this clip...
Beautiful...daring but at the same time compose and not in a silly rush, great fecking football
Saha should be mentioned. Biggest what if we've had in ages.
Its crazy how you see them passing the ball around and then they play it wide. You thought ok thats it every top players have touched the ball theres no way anyone good is going to be on the ball now then suddenly its Bryan Giggs who is a legend himself and at the time he was more of a decoration lets not kid ourselves but he is a lagend though so it shows just how good the squad was.
Some United fans have this weird need to act "objectively" even when it's clear that the answer is Tevez-Rooney-Ronaldo. Just as individuals alone they are three of the best fwds to ever play in the league. As a trio they were terrifying. They switched all around the front line from left to right and all had serious work rate. Even Ronaldo was putting in a shift then. Some have conveniently forgotten how frightening our attack was that season. You can bring up other trios but it's clear these three together in every metric beat that. One of them won the Balon D'or playing in that front three. In fact we had two of the best 5 players in the world that season in that trio in Rooney and Ronaldo.
Some bollocks in there about why United didn’t sign Tévez. There was one reason and one reasons alone why United didn’t sign Tévez and it was his agent, and the influence he had over his client. His agent owned a portion of his rights. United had a deal in place for him but behind the scenes his agent negotiated a much higher fee for him from City and their new found billionaire owners. Tévez and his agent reneged on the deal, and worked the media to try and lay it at United’s feet but at the end of the day, by going to City his agent pocketed an extra 10m. United wanted him to stay, and followed through with the agreed transfer fee and contract, Tévez and his agent rejected it in favour of the extra money at City.
Tévez was a very good player, with a phenomenal work rate but he wasn’t of the calibre of Rooney, and definitely not close to Ronaldo. His performances during his second season at OT were good but not great, and he was always an unreliable finisher. United would’ve put Chelsea to bed in the first half of the 2008 CL final had Tévez been more clinical.
All in all I would’ve liked him to have stayed for longer, but it wasn’t the end of the world when he left; and at that time, under the greatest British Manager ever, there was really no place at the club for a mercenary like him, irrespective of his quality.
I don't think I (and hopefully nobody else) consider them as underperformers. Mane was a genuinely 10/10 footballer on his day and absolutely world class as is Salah. But they weren't as magical as Ronaldo
There was a thread the other day though about the current Manchester City side too and how many of them would get into Pep Guardiola's best XI of all time and I thought "none", but it is such an insanely well oiled unit (as is the Liverpool side of their time) that they would probably beat a few of the ones containing the 'better' players.
This goal was also good.
Who's the daddy?
Drogba / Duff / Robben don't belong in this conversation; whilst I of course loved him there is some revisionist history regarding Robben where his productivity at Bayern colours the perception of his time at Chelsea. Also arguably the most important attacking player at Chelsea during this time was Lampard.
Hazard / Costa / Pedro was a far more cohesive and effective front three under Conte in 2016/17 individually and as a unit. Still wouldn't pick them over Mane / Firmino / Salah if I'm trying to be objective.
I'm a fan of Mane/Salah/Firmino, I think they were great and they helped Liverpool to reach multiple CL finals and winning 1, and reaching very high point tallies in the PL resulting in 1 PL. Don't forget, they had 97 points in 2018/19 and both Mane/Salah scored 22 goals in the PL.
Were they ever as good as 07/08 Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez? I don't know, I guess not.
Were they ever as good as 07/08 Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez? I don't know, I guess not.
Damn I loved that brand of football. Ao fast, direct and with the perfect blend of individual brilliance and team effort.
Also, this from Rooney and Ronaldo. What happened to their relationship?
Actually I've said and I agree that his Agents were crooks, but it was much more of a grey area than you think. Fergie buying Berva and trying to pay him less of what he demanded and in the meantime taking his time, was clear too and confirmed by former ex players like Rio.
At the end of the day, I think it's pretty much reduce to a single factor, Fergie like you didn't think that Carlos deserved a more or less similar treatment like Rooney and Carlos to the very least wanted sthg around that region. Later every part played their cards (wrongly it seems after witnessing the result), but I trully think that Fergie misread the situation regarding Carlos personality, so everything ended badly.
I trully believe that Carlos wasn't a level below Rooney, very similar, some traits better in one than the other and a more consolidated and easier to like path taken by Wayne...but at the same time carreer wise? stats? challenges they faced? there is not such gap.
Indeed Carlos never had his best version in United, due to things I've said in my prior post and his second season was already viced with bad communication and internal conflicts associated to his desire to be bought and how that was managed by his crook agents and Alex and cia.
Regarding the Chelsea Final, Carlos never was a true striker, he was an allrounder, a mix of second forward with off mid (similar to Rooney even if both at moments were used as classic number 9s at some point in their carreers) and he was the main reason of Drogba being sent off and scoring the first penalty, so I won't put his perfomance in the negative side in that final at all.
BTW I'm not trying to impose my view on the subject, that's why I've started with my two cents.
Nah, they won fu*k all
Well it's pretty much the only time we had a front 3, so by default it's probably our best.
We played 442 for years before that, with some tinkering with 4231/451/4421, but none of those sides could be described as having a front 3 until Ronaldo was given a free role. Post-Ronaldo we have mostly played variations of 442/4411/4231.
Obviously it was a formidable trio, even though Tevez is vastly overrated by his association with the other two. Ronaldo was the best player in the world 06-08 and Rooney was at his peak. Tevez was there too, sometimes, but in the biggest matches he usually found himself on the bench. Even the two clips posted on this page, one was a genius assist from Rooney, the other Ronaldo rescued an overhit pass from Tevez. Tevez was a prick, and annoyingly got into decent shape for a while at City and stepped up a level, but even at his best for City he was some distance from Rooney or Ronaldo. Based on his United form alone, he's maybe top 15-20 United forwards in the PL era.
As a trio it's hard to compare it to the quartet of Giggs-Yorke-Cole-Beckham, or the duo of Scholes-Ruud when Scholes played as a #10 ('02?).
We played 442 for years before that, with some tinkering with 4231/451/4421, but none of those sides could be described as having a front 3 until Ronaldo was given a free role. Post-Ronaldo we have mostly played variations of 442/4411/4231.
Obviously it was a formidable trio, even though Tevez is vastly overrated by his association with the other two. Ronaldo was the best player in the world 06-08 and Rooney was at his peak. Tevez was there too, sometimes, but in the biggest matches he usually found himself on the bench. Even the two clips posted on this page, one was a genius assist from Rooney, the other Ronaldo rescued an overhit pass from Tevez. Tevez was a prick, and annoyingly got into decent shape for a while at City and stepped up a level, but even at his best for City he was some distance from Rooney or Ronaldo. Based on his United form alone, he's maybe top 15-20 United forwards in the PL era.
As a trio it's hard to compare it to the quartet of Giggs-Yorke-Cole-Beckham, or the duo of Scholes-Ruud when Scholes played as a #10 ('02?).
I know I won't convice you and I get lads here hate the guy, yet...some distance? of course from Cris, but Wayne? nope, even if it's more than fine to preffer Wayne, there is not such distance between them. Not in characteristics, not in stats, not in titles, not in importance for their respective teams during their carreers.
I remember in other threads people mentioning that Tevez wasn't World Class (let's recognize is kind of a very silly term and hard for everyone to agree what really means) but at the same time if it means performing under any circumstance anywhere, Carlos is the definition of it, so its quite bizarre being objective not considering him World Class, but at the same time not that bizarre in a Man Utd forum. I agree that he was behind Wayne during United, but it was more related for what you've precisly pointed out, playing second fiddle, than talent.
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Would add Saha to that frontline
For 06/07 yeah (pre Tevez) although Saha was missing for a good bit again in 07/08 onwards, only thing I can remember offhand is scoring a penalty against Chelsea at Old Trafford in a 2-0 win and him being injured for Moscow.
Saha/Rooney/Ronaldo was magic when they were in sync as well.