Indeed. Like, outside of the PL, Adebayo Akinfenwa is comfortably the most marketable player in the land. More than anyone in the league above him (Championship). And he’s probably more marketable than half the PL players too. As a footballer, he’s floated between League One and Two his whole career. His legend comes from being built like a wrestler.
Is Rory Delap a Premier League legend?!...
- Thread starter Rozay
- Start date
Indeed. Like, outside of the PL, Adebayo Akinfenwa is comfortably the most marketable player in the land. More than anyone in the league above him (Championship). And he’s probably more marketable than half the PL players too. As a footballer, he’s floated between League One and Two his whole career. His legend comes from being built like a wrestler.
Of cause he’s a legend
Yashin
Cafu Beckenbauer Moore Carols
Delap Matthaus
Best Messi C.Ronaldo
Eusebio
Rory Delap doesn’t look out of place at all
Yashin
Cafu Beckenbauer Moore Carols
Delap Matthaus
Best Messi C.Ronaldo
Eusebio
Rory Delap doesn’t look out of place at all
When I played youth football, I played at left-back and they guy who played left wing would just take off springting down the line and I'd launch it to him, knowing there was no offside.
Real legend of the game especially in December.
Saw the thread title and immediately thought of his through ins. Legendary throw ins.
We coped with them well aswell, never conceded from one but we did let him actually score with his feet instead
Yeah Chelsea had the physicality to cope unlike Arsenal. Terry, Ballack, Drogba etc so plenty of height to cope with the long balls and also Essien a beast in midfield around that time.
Do remember Jon Walters destroying David Luiz for a goal around that time though.
Most long throwers loop the ball into the box so really if you have your CBs at the near post, most can head it away. With those throw ins you need a player to win the first flick on and then someone else can head it in from six yard box.
With Delap he'd hurl them in at a ridiculous and flat pace. Look at the goals in the video, all it requires is a slight flick off a Stoke head and the keeper has little chance of reacting in time.
Our Phil used to have a decent throw too. Actually so did his brother
I remember Walters scoring two own goals and missing a pen in one game!
Surely not necessary? I'm sure I remember back at the time that it was generally agreed United's advantage against Delap's throws was the massive slope and then brickwork cliff which surrounds the pitch. No run-ups possible.
As a side note, amazing that has never been changed somehow, and amazing it hasn't yet caused a genuine injury.
Aye I've winced seeing some of our players glide down that slope.
Crazy to think someone could be a pro footballer in one of the world's top leagues and he is famous entirely for having big triceps.
The Irish set up knew all about his long throws but he wasn't allowed use them due to out total football philosophy.
In all honesty I was wondering why I didn't remember him doing this for Ireland and just found out he only has 11 caps. I thought he was closer to 40 for some reason.
To be fair, that sort of stuff has no place in international football!
Cult hero for Stoke fans probably. Legend? Hell no.
His long throw-ins aren't special in and of themselves. A lot of players can do them, it's just not something PL clubs were used to utilizing because it's only something you'd do if you are unlikely to create anything from open play. Stoke being a PL club could create something from open play but Pulis focused entirely on set pieces such as this and it somewhat worked, mostly because teams were unprepared to defend against it. I've grown up watching these kind of throw-ins as football in Iceland isn't always the best and there people really take advantage of every situation, plus a lot of players grew up also playing handball and/or basketball so throwing a ball is second nature.
13 seasons in the PL for 4 different clubs should put him in legend status aside from the throw-ins. He was a decent player when he was younger, seemed to recall him being good against us when he was playing for Derby.
13 seasons in the PL for 4 different clubs should put him in legend status aside from the throw-ins. He was a decent player when he was younger, seemed to recall him being good against us when he was playing for Derby.
Forgot who it was against but Stoke were playing and the keeper found himself getting closed down outside the box.
You could see him stutter as he didn’t know whether to kick it out for a corner or thrown in.
He eventually kicked it for a corner as he’d assumed it was the lesser of two evils with Delap on the pitch!
You could see him stutter as he didn’t know whether to kick it out for a corner or thrown in.
He eventually kicked it for a corner as he’d assumed it was the lesser of two evils with Delap on the pitch!
Forgot who it was against but Stoke were playing and the keeper found himself getting closed down outside the box.
You could see him stutter as he didn’t know whether to kick it out for a corner or thrown in.
He eventually kicked it for a corner as he’d assumed it was the lesser of two evils with Delap on the pitch!
Boaz Myhill I think.
His throw-ins are World Class level.
Thanks! You're right.
1 minute in!
Go to 3:20 - Dean Windass gets a yellow (from the bench) for warming up in front of Delap
He certainly could do it on a cold wet night in stoke. That makes him a football legend not just a premier league legend.
I seem to remember him as a completely different player for Southampton than he was for Stoke. During his time there, especially when they were doing pretty well under Strachan, I seem to remember him as a talented midfielder who scored the stunning goal in that video and also produced nice pieces of skill, passes, linked up well with Anders Svensson in midfield etc. I seem to recall him nearly scoring from an amazing solo run during that period. I thought he was unlucky not to be named in Ireland's 2002 World Cup squad. The number of goals that Southampton scored from this throw-ins could probably be counted on one hand.
That was the thing of Wenger in his later years. He'd cry about going to Stoke pre match, often lose and then would cry about it post match. Likes of SAF and Ancelotti would just get on with things and pick up a result.
Arsenal were also very lightweight in key areas. No way would Stoke have bullied an Arsenal team with Keown, Adams, Vieria and Petit in it because they'd have been up for the scrap.
Yeah Pulis claims in that podcast they only realised Delap could throw it javelin style when they were practising throw ins in training so he wasn't signed for it nor was it ever really deployed when he played for likes of Southampton and Derby.
From Wikipedia:
'On 27 March 2010, West Ham United erected an extra set of hoardings considerably close to the touchline to hamper Delap's run-up, but he was still capable of reaching the penalty box in spite of the limited space.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Delap#Throw-ins
'On 27 March 2010, West Ham United erected an extra set of hoardings considerably close to the touchline to hamper Delap's run-up, but he was still capable of reaching the penalty box in spite of the limited space.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Delap#Throw-ins
Yes, and Redknapp said that he had no idea that Delap could throw the ball that far when he was Southampton manager, otherwise he surely would have used that tactic during the crazy relegation battle in 2005. I don't know if these stats are accurate, but apparently Derby only scored 1 goal from a Delap throw in, and Southampton just 3.
During his period at Southampton, he was considered to be almost a flair player especially during the latter part of the 2001/2002 season (when he was in impressive form) and during the 2002/2003 season before his injury problems surfaced, and quite a few people wanted McCarthy to pick him in Ireland's World Cup squad as he would offer them something different along those lines.
So he’s basically a legend right?
Throw in GOAT? Legend for sure.
No wonder we didn't select him for the World Cup, we're allergic to those players
Well pretty much ! He actually demonstrated pretty good versatility and was able to adapt to completely different playing styles between his Southampton and Stoke playing days, which is quite a noteworthy achievement.
Southampton under Strachan were a better team than Stoke were under Pulis (not a by a huge margin or anything but still I think this it was quite clear). It's an interesting scenario that because of Pulis stumbling across his throw-in abilities, he is mainly remembered for and associated with the time he spent at the second best team that he played for (I'm not sure how Jim Smith's Derby compare but I think they declined noticeably during his last couple of seasons there), rather than at the best team that he played for.
Think I said earlier I was amazed he played so little for ROI when you thought how tight international games are and over half the goals come from set pieces. Trap never called him up even though he was calling up club mates like Liam Lawrence and Glenn Whelan although perhaps given he was in his 30s he wasn't interested any longer.
No wonder we didn't select him for the World Cup, we're allergic to those players
Haha yeah it has often seemed like it.
Thankfully McCarthy was sensible enough to realise the talent of Duff though (he was routinely terrorising right-backs in the Premier League), and he did very well at that 2002 World Cup sandwiched in-between 2 excellent seasons for Blackburn (I remember them fondly) in the Premier League.
Derby had a really good team of Wanchope, Baiano and Stefano Eranio in the late 90s so were good to watch going forward and finished in the top half a couple of times. Can't remember if Delap was playing then though.
Yes plus the likes of Dean Sturridge and Deon Burton. After their promotion in 1996, they were a good team and enjoyable to watch during their first 3 years in the Premier League, and often gave good account of themselves the likes of United (notably Wanchope's debut at Old Trafford) and Arsenal (thumping them at Pride Park during their 1997/1998 double winning season). Then they declined noticeably and battled against relegation in 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 before it was third time unlucky in 2001/2002. I know Delap was part of the team that struggled more in 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 before leaving for Southampton, but I don't know if he was part of the earlier more successful team.
Rory's Zinedine Zidane for throw-ins ability. Legend? arguable. I read somewhere that he was a former javelin thrower athlete for olympic, no?