You can gleam a lot about when a poster started watching football by their opinions on Beckham. Modern football fans seem to think he was a glorified free kick merchant.
Kevin De Bruyne
- Thread starter Robbie Boy
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The re-writing of David Beckham's career, and the underrating of his peak, is something that will never cease to amaze me.
Maybe, but I didn't see it at the time. If I re-watch all the games from his Chelsea period with a more informed eye, I might end up with a different perspective but I was happy to sell him at the time and I wasn't even particularly upset or scared when he rocked up at Liverpool. KDB on the hand, I was devastated when we sold him and I was horrified when City signed him not long after that.
Agree Beckham is very special, in my opinion, no one ever cross the ball better than Beckham, he is a cheat code in football at times, with his pin point perfect crossing. I’ve simply never seen anything like that, before and after.
But I also think KDB is very special too, with his “weight of pass”, in my opinion, is second to none.
Indeed, Beckham was an exquisite player, a magisterial footballer. He didn't become one of football's biggest icons purely by taking good free kicks, he was so much more than that, but over the years his game seems to have been diluted down (I blame the 5 million Liverpool fans working for Sky). I suspect if you showed some people any of our season reviews from 94-99 they'd be blown away by how talented he was.
I think there's always an interesting discussion to be had regarding recency bias vs nostalgia goggles. To me a lot of the discussion surrounding de Bruyne being miles better than Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard and Beckham etc is due to them not playing in the same era and maybe some actually forgetting just how good these players were, had de Bruyne played in the noughties then he'd have been considered their peer, not some next level playmaking savant by comparison. Scholes and Beckham played in some of the greatest sides ever and accomplished feats that even de Bruyne has yet to achieve, conversely de Bruyne also has feats that Scholes and Beckham didn't have but to me that shows their similarity in level more so than a huge gulf in quality we're seeing portrayed in this thread.
It's a similar discussion to people calling van Dijk the greatest PL CB ever, I find that to be another instance of recency bias, had he played in Terry and Ferdinand's era I think he'd have been considered on par with them rather than this player who was a million miles above them.
Yes, but as a player he was so much more than crossing and set pieces. People who never really watched him play seem to forget that. It's like people who think Keane was a faux hardman and a thug on the pitch. When in fact he was an incredible footballer and probably twice the player Kante is or ever was at his peak.
I agree, I do like the way KDB passes, it reminds me of Beckham's style. Having the right weight in the pass is something that is not appreciated as much as it should be. Both hit the ball in such a way that the receiver doesn't even have to think about what way to connect with it, the pass makes their mind up for them.
Yeah agree on all counts. Recency bias + Liverpool mouthpieces all over the place have led to this.
I maintain Liverpool got lucky with Salah, Mane's improvement is much more realistic. If you asked Liverpool to do that again, they wouldn't be able to.
Agree with this take. Nobody bullies the weak teams like KDB. Against the likes of Newcastles and Burnleys of this world he is exceptional and there is probably nobody better. But his big game record in Europe is terrible which has to be held against him when talking about the greats of football.
2016 Euros Quarter. 2018 WC semi, 2020 CL quarter, 2021 CL final, 2021 Euro Quarters, 2022 CL semi, even the nation's league semi. All Legacy defining games that KDB went missing in. When he was needed to turn up in the biggest CL, WC and Euros games he served up disasters in nearly every one of them.
He is a very good player though and United fans that compared Bruno to him should be cancelled.
Of course he is much more than just crossing. He was also great in freekicks/long pass, good in work rate/technique etc. I particularly enjoyed watching him switching side with his glorious long ball, or his linking up play with Gary on the right. He is intelligent footballer too, who always pass the ball with a purpose.
But I feel people don’t fully understand how good was his crossing. He is not just another brilliant crosser of ball, in fact, I rate him as “cheat code” in crossing, because his pin point perfect cross alone, would easily won 10-15 points for his team in a season. I don’t think people necessarily fully appreciate how good he was in that. I’ve watch football for nearly 30 years. No one ever come close.
Not to the best of my recollection. Others may recall it differently. United had a lot of good players at that time obviously and I don't have a clear memory of Becks being viewed as even the undisputed best player in the team, let alone the league or the world.
Every PES player knew Salah's potential even when he was still at Roma. Could beat any defender easily even then.
Angry because his traps at home failed to catch the burglars.
But you can also argue there was no “undisputed” best player in the team too, as many of them are brilliant - doesn’t mean they would not become the best in todays standard.
He wasn't a glorified free kick merchant. I'd rate him as one of the best midfielders of his generation, but I would say that the iconic level of fame he attained was totally beyond his actual footballing ability. Usually that kind of status is reserved for the likes of Pele, Maradona, Messi and Ronaldo.
In what team?
All part of why I think Beckham was a better player. He just had more to his game. Sure he didn't use his left foot much but he did use it to destroy Germany that one time.
From 99 treble winning team (no undisputed best player), to any team of today (best player)
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Personally I’d rate them both similar actually. I do rate Beckham very high, but I also rate KDB very high too - he is clearly the best midfielder in the world today. However if we bring back KDB in Beckham’s era, I’d probably rate him similar as Beckham, but maybe a tier lower than the likes of Zidane, Figo, Rivaldo during their peak.
Unlike today, Beckham was playing in the golden era of midfielders, with many Ballon D’or contenders/winners playing as midfielders.
Zidane was less consistent than De Bruyne in the league and Europe for what it's worth
This is spot on and something people are scared to mention. I think he’s one of the most overrated footballers in history and he’s remembered a lot more fondly because he was superb in big games. In terms of on a week to week basis he was very inconsistent.
Imagine how good he'd be if he wasn't chubby
Surely will go down as one of the best players in Premier League history. I'd have him up there, anyway. Think he's exceptional.
Well I think most people would say that KDB is the best player in City's recent team, even though they have lots of great players. DB doesn't stand out in United's side in the same way IMO.
How do Chelsea fans feel about the situation?
I think part of the reason Beckham is now highly underrated is that the four-man midfield is a rarity, and so it becomes less common for you to make positive direct comparisons to current players. I know he played central midfield too, but his prime position/role (as a wide midfielder) is as much as anachronism to the modern game as someone like Duncan Edwards's was.
It was De Bruyne vs the USA in 2014, the first time in their history they reached the quarter finals.
"Prime Hazard" in 2018 did nothing in the KOs.
The Generation disappointed, yes but Messi and Ronaldo are still better than all of them.
That’s where you don’t get - the United side Beckham played back then has peak Keane, Scholes and Giggs etc. when they won the treble. Which current player from City side (apart from KDB) do you think is comparable to peak Keane, Scholes and Giggs? They are literally all time best PL players.
This is just revisionist. At no point during their playing careers were either of Scholes or Giggs considered our best player.
Keane, yes.
Wrong again on two counts. De Bruyne scored the 1-0, it ended 2-1, so Lukaku's second goal is the "winning goal". It wasn't the first time we reached the QFs as we played a semifinal in Mexico 1986. Get your facts straight mate.
See you are just running back in circles
Your question is basically "at no point during their careers of "Scholes" or "Giggs" or "Beckham" being considered our best player"
Because they are all among our best, and among all time PL best, hence its really hard to pinpoint one clearly over the other, do you get it?
KDB doesn't have any player in current City side comparable to Scholes, Giggs or Beckham. They are brilliant as a team, but none, except KDB, would be consider PL all time best.
And thank God for that
That goal was just amazing though
This iteration maybe, but the previous bunch that KDB also played with e.g. Aguero, Silva, Kompany etc are very comparable to the players that you named.
Maybe Maradona's best ever performance. I used to like Enzo Scifo's game a lot.
Yeah I was mistaken.
The caf...The only place on the Internet which will calmly explain to you that Peak Rooney is superior to peak Benzema or that Beckham was somehow a better than De Bruyne.
There are two aspects of the game in which Beckham was better than KDB. Those are Long balls and Free kicks. It's true he also was an amazing crosser, but so is De bruyne. On two occasions he had 9 assists from crosses alone! And that's considering the fact that he played the last two seasons with basically no striker...
Those attributes aside, De Bruyne is the much better player. He is better at getting assists, a better goalscorer, the better defender and is the more athletic of the two. His superior athletic abilities also give him a huge advantage over Beckham since it makes him much more threatening when running into space...
Anyway, i dont expect people to get convinced by arguments over here since the majority has an emotionaal attachment to Becks, but still pretty funny to see people argue about it.
There are two aspects of the game in which Beckham was better than KDB. Those are Long balls and Free kicks. It's true he also was an amazing crosser, but so is De bruyne. On two occasions he had 9 assists from crosses alone! And that's considering the fact that he played the last two seasons with basically no striker...
Those attributes aside, De Bruyne is the much better player. He is better at getting assists, a better goalscorer, the better defender and is the more athletic of the two. His superior athletic abilities also give him a huge advantage over Beckham since it makes him much more threatening when running into space...
Anyway, i dont expect people to get convinced by arguments over here since the majority has an emotionaal attachment to Becks, but still pretty funny to see people argue about it.