John Terry or Tony Adams: Who was the better defender?

Better defender?

  • Total voters
    117

Fortitude

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Things to consider:

- longevity
- peak
- calibre of opposition
- leadership*
- greatest performances

I know the Terry bias is strong, with him being an odious cnut of a man, but I'd like some objectivity and full consideration of him as a player on the pitch and not the man he is.
 
Fortitude said:
Things to consider:

- longevity
- peak
- calibre of opposition
- leadership*
- greatest performances

I know the Terry bias is strong, with him being an odious cnut of a man, but I'd like some objectivity and full consideration of him as a player on the pitch and not the man he is.
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Kinda biased considerations, Adams would have shit all over Terry for the above consider, while skillwise I don't think there's that much difference.
 
Terry is better at racism, loutish behaviour, adultery, donning full kit for trophy celebrations and underhandedness.


Adams is better at all other aspects of life
 
Both great players, and similar in style too. I know it's been a while now but I honestly can't remember Adams ever making a mistake, he was incredibly consistent over his career. Terry is similar in that regard, but overall I'd give it to Adams, just.
 
Fortitude said:
Things to consider:

- longevity
- peak
- calibre of opposition
- leadership*
- greatest performances

I know the Terry bias is strong, with him being an odious cnut of a man, but I'd like some objectivity and full consideration of him as a player on the pitch and not the man he is.
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Different era's so hard to compare....or perhaps even pointless.
I know you said only take consideration as a player but yet you called him an odious cnut of a man....objection m'lud....leading the witness
 
Very good question
Crustanoid said:
Terry is better at racism, loutish behaviour, adultery, donning full kit for trophy celebrations and underhandedness.


Adams is better at all other aspects of life
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Didn't Tony Adams get Four months in jail for crashing his car into a wall whilst drunk?. That's worse than anything John Terry has done outside of his playing career. He's still a cnut though. I'd have to choose Adams. He was flawless in his day.
 
It's a good question as they're quite similar in their strengths and weaknesses and even to the same extent they received a lot of the glory when their central defensive partners were often more efficient centre-halves.
 
Hard to call, both defenders of the highest order.

Terry enters his 20th year at Chelsea this season, something not many players can say these days other than Adams, Giggs etc,and last season he still showed he is a top player.

As a leader I would say Terry, and rather than one off amazing performances he is more known for amazing consistency over a season.

Also Terry offers more of a goal threat.
 
Both are similar in their style of play. Both were hard-man defenders who made the opposition attackers' lives difficult with their aggressive, tough defending. Both were very strong in the air and capable of scoring goals in the box with their head.

One of the things I had to think about was the teams both played in. Terry played under Mourinho and Ancelotti, both managers who were very good at keeping their teams defensively solid and organised. Plus, Terry had good protection from midfield in Makelele, Essien, Ballack, etc. in a 3-man midfield setup with 1 anchor man and 2 box-to-box midfielders. Terry also had a very good, consistent partner in Ricardo Carvalho alongside him. Adams didn't have the luxury of an extra midfielder supporting him, with Wenger playing a 2-man-midfield system during that time along with managers before opting for this as well.

Both defenders faced good-quality attacks at their times as well, domestically and in Europe as well as internationally. In terms of success, Terry only stands out because he won the Champions League; otherwise, both had similar amounts of success.

Given all of this, I'll probably say Adams because he didn't have an extra midfielder supporting him defensively along with the fact that he won trophies with a manager like Wenger who wasn't good at keeping his teams defensively solid.
 
Very, very close either way. Both incredible leaders, both ridiculously consistent and talented. I'd probably go with Terry purely because of his willingness to put absolutely everything on the line for the team. Still remember him heading a waist high ball out from in front of an incoming kick and taking the kick straight to the head. Actually thought he'd died that day.:(
 
ItsEssexRob said:
Hard to call, both defenders of the highest order.

Terry enters his 20th year at Chelsea this season, something not many players can say these days other than Adams, Giggs etc,and last season he still showed he is a top player.

As a leader I would say Terry, and rather than one off amazing performances he is more known for amazing consistency over a season.

Also Terry offers more of a goal threat.
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Hard to separate them as players but as leaders Adams was miles ahead!!
 
TheMuffer said:
Different era's so hard to compare....or perhaps even pointless.
I know you said only take consideration as a player but yet you called him an odious cnut of a man....objection m'lud....leading the witness
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:lol: overruled!

I can separate the player I see on the pitch from the stories and what not about him off the field - I don't think I've thought less of a footballer as a player because of anything they've done. I know it's not the same for some.
Sky1981 said:
because that's selective, and based on that I'd say Adams wins comfortably. That guy is a rock even when he's 35. Leadership? Adams.

You should mentioned contribution, skill wise, etc.
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You do realise Terry has been around for over a decade, right? And when I say decade, I'm talking about as the leader of one of the strongest clubs in England. That's no small feat.

If anything, the criteria may even be seen as biased against Adams as Terry benefitted from playing in an era where so many sides from one nation could play in the CL.
 
Fortitude said:
:lol: overruled!

I can separate the player I see on the pitch from the stories and what not about him off the field - I don't think I've thought less of a footballer as a player because of anything they've done. I know it's not the same for some.


You do realise Terry has been around for over a decade, right? And when I say decade, I'm talking about as the leader of one of the strongest clubs in England. That's no small feat.

If anything, the criteria may even be seen as biased against Adams as Terry benefitted from playing in an era where so many sides from one nation could play in the CL.
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Least not forget that Adams played in the fabled back 4 of Arsenal, terry played against a chop and change defence as the most senior figure, hence he stood out. It took some captaining to lead that back 4 of bould, winterburn, keown and adam, let alone Arsenal.

Probably I'm biased against Terry, but I don't think chosing adam over Terry on leadership is that much weird
 
It is tough, Terry has played at the highest level and never looked out of place i.e. Champions League finals.. and you could argue he's been playing with injury for alot of that time so hasn't been quite at his best. Nor have England ever looked poor in defence with him at the helm, it has been other positions which have been to blame for international failures.
 
On the leadership question, they were both tremendously influential both on the park and in the dressing room. As far as the role model and values aspect of leadership, they both fell short. It's going to be difficult to choose one over the other on that factor unless you've played with both.
 
Poll's as tight as thought it would be.

Find it incredibly difficult to choose between them myself.
 
Its like choosing between having to drink a pint of tramp juice or being sexually assaulted by a silver back gorilla.
 
Most Arsenal fans I know rate Sol higher than both, I'm too young to properly remember TA's peak but Sol was far better than Terry for England.
 
Terry, but saying that makes me want to vomit.

I'd prefer Adams in my team though.
 
ThierryHenry said:
Most Arsenal fans I know rate Sol higher than both, I'm too young to properly remember TA's peak but Sol was far better than Terry for England.
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Sol was a giant. And someone who didn't need to sit deep or protection in front of him to excel.
 
ThierryHenry said:
Most Arsenal fans I know rate Sol higher than both, I'm too young to properly remember TA's peak but Sol was far better than Terry for England.
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In terms of talent, Sol Campbell is as complete a defender as you will find in international football, he had pace to go with physical strength, positioning and elegance. Just watch his performance in France 98 for example and the guy is a monster. A modern defender comfortable in any type of set-up.. i.e. play with a high line.

I read somewhere that Martin Keown in response to Jamie Redknapp saying 'Adams is the best defender i played with/against' and Keown responded.. 'at Arsenal we always though Sol was the most talented/best defender played with but Adams was the greater leader'.

To be honest, England has produced such a great list of centre-backs, only the Italians can better us in my opinion.
 
I voted Adams, but it's too close to call.

Terry's gone on and achieved more in his career but he's also had the benefit of playing in one of the most expensively assembled squads ever and under some great managers.

Can't fault him for that though, there's no doubting his been immense. Whether he's a massive twat in his private life, is irrelevant when it comes to evaluating him as a footballer and he will rightly go down as a legend.

Adams is one of my favourite ex-non United players though. :D
 
ThierryHenry said:
Most Arsenal fans I know rate Sol higher than both, I'm too young to properly remember TA's peak but Sol was far better than Terry for England.
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There's a reason why I've pitted the two defenders against each other that I have.

Campbell is a different kind of defender as he had no specific weaknesses to target so didn't have to compensate for a lack of pace etc.

I rate Campbell over either of these.
 
Really hard to say. However Terry played in an era when there were far more skilful attackers in the league. Adams will have faced a lot of players who played direct and physical, ie to his strengths.

That said, Adams gets extra points for adapting so well under Wenger.
 
Adams would never have gone full-kit wanker so he wins.

His screechy protests at Elleray take him down a point though.

 
Terry has been a superb player (watching Cahill and Luiz playing for their national teams brings home how good he is, even now). As footballers, it's very hard to separate them but I think Adams gets the nod for his ability to adapt from the low skill, heavy drinking late 80s (when he was subjected to fairly vicious donkey chanting after being skinned by van Basten at Euro 88) to his late 90s elder statesman, renaissance man persona.
 
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