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Scholes was never even voted into the PFA team of the year by the players he was supposedly running games against.
He was in PFA team of the year twice.
Scholes was never even voted into the PFA team of the year by the players he was supposedly running games against.
I'll start
Didier Drogba- He scored a few cup final goals and people compare him to the best premier league strikers at all times. Not a chance. He never had the technique or goal scoring record to hang up there with Aguero, Henry & Shearer, even Rooney was better.
Go.
People will probably have big issues with all 3 of these picks but here it goes:
Zlatan: The classic no pressure magician. Always disappeared in the knockout stages of the UCL. Also seems more of a big fish in a small pond type, relatively speaking. He leaves Inter to join a treble winning Barca. Inter win the treble that year knocking Barca out. He then leaves Barca. Right after that, they win the CL again. He stops playing for Swdden. They have their best World Cup run in years in 2018. There's no doubt that Zlatan has scored some amazing goals and is playing for a long, long time(although he has been very injury prone for nearly a decade now). Doesn't help that he went and spent many years of his Prime in France at a time when the league was in shambles. Good player but always fell short at the very elite level. Not nearly as good as he or his PR team believes. About his personality, he was probably a bit funny 15 years back. Now, he's just cringe, immature and a cartoon basically. A mental midget like Lukaku challenging him face to face in a game and comfortably outplaying him was embarrassing, as is his behavior for a 40 year old veteran.
Karim Benzema: We all rate him really highly and acknowledge what a complete striker he is and how much he's willing to do for his team. But when are his acolytes gonna stop pretending that he has always been this player? One of the biggest examples of pure revisionism is saying he has always been at this level. It's a joke really. He was always a good all round Footballer but his finishing was patchy and at times abysmal for a Real Madrid level striker. He ended a league campaign(17/18?) with 5 goals I think. That's embarrassing. There's no 2 ways about it. His fanboys seem to be lapping up the narrative that it was Ronaldo who was his problem. Well, Ronaldo has assisted Benzema more than the other way round. His national team career has been poor due to a lot of reasons. There was a time when he was considered a laughing stock by Football fans. No amounts of revisionism can erase those years. Having said that, he's been terrific lately. Credit where it's due.
Paul Scholes: He has become comically overrated since retiring. It's Giggs who has become a tad underrated(largely because of how vile he's as a person) while it's Scholes who has become severely overrated. Some quotes from famous players seems to be his biggest individual accomplishment. In his playing days, he was never known as a candidate for the best midfielder in the world nor was he indispensable for United throughout as some people pretend(he was very vital in some seasons no doubt). Gerrard and Lampard had way more impact at their respective clubs whilst also being in conversations for best midfielders in the world in their pomp consistently. Lampard and Gerrard had so many great individual match winning moments; Scholes simply falls short. No wonder these 2 were preferred over Scholes in the national team. Also below players like Pirlo. I really doubt he was ever a top 3 player in the United squad. There were always players way more important than Scholes at United. I can appreciate his longevity. Tremendous Technical Ability no doubt. Definitely a United legend. Scholes is a player people would appreciate as an artist of the game. Instead, he has become overrated to the point that it's annoying to non-United fans. I vividly remember Carragher and Keane having one of those agree-to-disagree videos, and in the Gerrard Scholes debate you can obviously tell that Keane rates Gerrard much higher and he basically admits that he has no arguments and is just siding with Scholes for "loyalty".
I'm gonna throw Mason Mount in there. Every time I see him play he runs around a lot, but doesn't actually deliver anything, yet some people talk about him as the second coming of Fat Frank. Not fit to shine Foden's boots.
That’s a hot take and I disagree completely. Drogba was a monster, unplayable at times.I'll start
Didier Drogba- He scored a few cup final goals and people compare him to the best premier league strikers at all times. Not a chance. He never had the technique or goal scoring record to hang up there with Aguero, Henry & Shearer, even Rooney was better.
Go.
Few people has ever said Drogba was better than Aguero, Henry or Shearer. So Drogba is right where he is at: Around top 10 premier league forward.I'll start
Didier Drogba- He scored a few cup final goals and people compare him to the best premier league strikers at all times. Not a chance. He never had the technique or goal scoring record to hang up there with Aguero, Henry & Shearer, even Rooney was better.
Go.
Agree on Firmino now, it would have been a good move to take the money this summer (and maybe tried harder to keep Mane?). Havertz: I can’t see how so much fuss was made about him 3-4 years ago, he was made out to be “generational” or whatever at the time.
People mentioning Rice: Definitely agree there. To be going well over £100 million for him would be madness. Kalvin Phillips was better than him at Euro 21, and midfield was the weakest department. Rice was a big part of that.
I'm gonna throw Mason Mount in there. Every time I see him play he runs around a lot, but doesn't actually deliver anything, yet some people talk about him as the second coming of Fat Frank. Not fit to shine Foden's boots.
Mmmm. Ronaldo, Suarez, Henry and Benzema I agree. The others, I think it's a floor raiser vs ceiling raiser issue. Zlatan way better at making teams better than Bati, Sheva, Villa, etc, but those guys were simply more portable on great teams. Eto'o I'm not sure. Better as a ceiling raiser, almost as good as a floor raiser maybe, which would make him the better player?
- Zlatan Ibrahimović, depending on who you're speaking to. Exceptionally talented, had a good career — but some consider him to be one of the best of all time, when he's just not. For the last 30 years alone, you would have to rank center forwards like Ronaldo Luís, Luis Suárez, Robert Lewandowski, Andriy Shevchenko, Thierry Henry, Gabriel Batistuta, Karim Benzema, David Villa, Samuel Eto'o, Alan Shearer and co. ahead of him. Though on the other hand, he's also harshly underrated by some. Can't please everyone, I guess?
I'll start
Didier Drogba- He scored a few cup final goals and people compare him to the best premier league strikers at all times. Not a chance. He never had the technique or goal scoring record to hang up there with Aguero, Henry & Shearer, even Rooney was better.
Go.
I'll throw a Liverpool one in and say that Firmino is massively overrated now. He's become fairly useless since we moved away from playing a false 9. Pundits still talk about him like he's a massive goal threat.
Kai Havertz is another one. I don't really get it with him and he's been fairly underwhelming considering the price tag.
Many of these choices are terrible imo.
I'll go with Ruben Dias. Solid defender that is protected by the system Pep has built around suffocating the opposition in their own half and fouling them if they play out of it. But I don't think he's world class like many rate him. Honestly I think there are a fair few CB's that would look fantastic in that system if they are comfortable with the ball at their feet, because defensively it eliminates all decision making.
Michael Carrick is massively overrated by United fanbase (not so much on the continent). I saw Carrick being put on the same level as Busquets, what is borderline crazy.
A good player in a good team, but his impact on the actual play has been massively overrated and he has some big weak points. He played simple passes and people think he was some kind of metronome. He was not, he was reliable and simply effective player in progressing the ball forward - unless pressed of course. We stayed with him too long.
Eden Hazard. Somewhat underwhelming for Belgium relative to his status, and his CL career is completely forgettable.
Yaya Toure: Was the dominant midfielder in the EPL in an era where there weren't any great midfielders and tactically the EPL was behind the rest of Europe, quiet easily the lowest level in the EPL since the 90s. Was constantly overrun in Europe while at City. Not as good as the other great midfielders in Europe during that time.
Yeah! I mean who was Gerrard, Lampard, Ozil, Eriksen, Mata or David Silva anyway? Easily dominated all of them.Yaya Toure: Was the dominant midfielder in the EPL in an era where there weren't any great midfielders and tactically the EPL was behind the rest of Europe, quiet easily the lowest level in the EPL since the 90s. Was constantly overrun in Europe while at City. Not as good as the other great midfielders in Europe during that time.
Don't think it's a stretch to say that Trent is the best right-back the Premier League has seen given, as you say, the league pre or post 1992 has never had a world-beater in that position. The Premier League's best right-backs before Trent are the likes of Neville, Ivanovic, Azpilicueta, Walker - all solid players but not quite Thuram/Bergomi defensively and some distance from Alves/Cafu etc going forward.
- Zlatan Ibrahimović, depending on who you're speaking to. Exceptionally talented, had a good career — but some consider him to be one of the best of all time, when he's just not. For the last 30 years alone, you would have to rank center forwards like Ronaldo Luís, Luis Suárez, Robert Lewandowski, Andriy Shevchenko, Thierry Henry, Gabriel Batistuta, Karim Benzema, David Villa, Samuel Eto'o, Alan Shearer and co. ahead of him. Though on the other hand, he's also harshly underrated by some. Can't please everyone, I guess?
- Trent Alexander-Arnold for the contemporary game; again, depending on who you're speaking to. The Premier League has never had a truly outstanding, world-beater right back (like Marcos Cafú and Javier Zanetti, or even Dani Alves and Philipp Lahm), so he has been hurriedly catapulted to a level that's evaded him. Very good playmaker on the right flank — there's no contesting that, but has glaring shortcoming in an all-round sense. Robertson has unquestionably been the better fullback for Liverpool (53 assists since 2017, superb work rate and a gritter defender).
Eden Hazard. Somewhat underwhelming for Belgium relative to his status, and his CL career is completely forgettable.
100% agree - sort of has Donny's skillset (a fair bit more character though) of well times runs into the box and his career could easily have gone the same wayLampard. He had a very cosy spot in that Chelsea team where he could drift in and out of midfield and take potshots on goal from around the area. He had others doing the hard work in front and behind him and he capitalised on that. He never really excelled at anything in particular, and it's only because he scored goals as a "midfielder" that he's held in such high regard (as well as being friends with many in the media). He greatly benefitted from the players and setup he had around him, if you dropped him in any other team he would've struggled IMO. Decent player, but not one of the greatest midfielders as is often stated.
I think the one guy with that kind of profile & world class potential is Reece James, who has everything on a high level (diverse skillset, physique & athleticism, football brain). To the point he can be played as RB, RWB, RCB and even occasional CM. If things go well for him, I'm convinced he'll at least rival TAA for the #1 spot, perhaps more.Don't think it's a stretch to say that Trent is the best right-back the Premier League has seen given, as you say, the league pre or post 1992 has never had a world-beater in that position. The Premier League's best right-backs before Trent are the likes of Neville, Ivanovic, Azpilicueta, Walker - all solid players but not quite Thuram/Bergomi defensively and some distance from Alves/Cafu etc going forward.
But it depends what you're looking for on the spectrum between a solid defender like Azpi or a silky wing-back like Petrescu. If we want balance, then it's hard to identify many who were great at both ends of the park (unless we include Irwin as a RB). Looking at the old credit/debit balance for creating/preventing goals, he's arguably the most in credit - for servicing his attack, minus whatever defensive shortcomings he has - than any of the other contenders.
My memory of the world cup was Hazard not having a goal, an assist nor a shot on target vs Brazil and France Several takeons and runs which amounted to nothing
Vincent Kompany.
Always injured, made several errors leading to goals that people seemed to forget. The way he used to charge out like a buffoon sometimes, reckless.