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They couldn’t handle today’s brand of football.
Virgil van Dijk | Performances
- Thread starter Samid
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Don’t be so ridiculous.
My eye test tells me defending in general is poorer than it used to be, personally I’d say football in general is worse than it used to be. In all areas.
Even if you don't consider him top 3 he has to at least be fairly close to top 3. He's much too good to not be.
Not even close to top 3.
Defenders aren't as good either.
He’s a very complete defender, if it wasn’t for City he’d have a few more PL winner medals as well. I wish we had someone half as good.
Ferdinand could easy. Probably vidic too. They played in a setup not too different from modern attacking teams.
Terry less so. His weakness on the turn and defending large space behind him is why I don't rate him as high as others do. He relied a lot on Carvalho being the best recovery defender around to compensate for that.
Well, it is fine to think so, but it's not really true (about football in general being worse). Defending overall is harder today because how football has changed which makes it seem to be worse.
Terry in a high line was comedic value though.
I think we're slowly approaching peak "old man yells at cloud" territory, whereby it's concluded that modern attackers and defenders are both shit and literally everything was better back in the day.
completely agree. they would weep for what football had become; assuming it was purgatory.
everyone is better on the ball these days and could play in midfield. but that’s all they’re good at. even the goalkeepers. the rest is just poofing around on the ball and cutbacks.
It's true though. Pretty obvious too.
Football is 100% worse for me personally, if you think it’s better that’s great for you.
I loved the old United/Arsenal rivalry, so much aggression from both teams but still full of world class quality all over the pitch. Teams like Middlesbrough, Bolton etc bringing in players I’d never heard of and really making a difference to their teams. Being able to actually make a tackle before it was pretty much ruled out. Not watching defenders pass it between themselves constantly (a la the classic Simpsons clip). The exciting European nights, like Norwich beating Bayern Munich with a team of players you’d never have heard off. Champions League not being dominated by Madrid.
It’s all a lot more boring and un entertaining now.
There are so many more distractions in today's society that after practice they go to their normal lives. Which is perfectly fine and normal.
If you listen to stories of some of the greats, the story all ways seems to be the same. Grown up in poverty, football was all thier was.
That's just not the case anymore. Do you ever here stories of the players getting together after practice to practice?
Players like Beckham and scholes used the time after practice to perfect their passing. There is no player that I know of today that has the range of passing like scholes. That can cross like Beckham. Does anyone ever get excited over corners or free kicks any more? I don't.
While the general physicality has improved and the players are good at 10 foot passes the rest has declined. I don't know if we will ever see anyone as talented as Messi ever again. Players now are system players. They need to know exactly what to do and how. Robots.
Have to agree with this.
Yeah, sure, but it's one thing to personally think it's less entertaining and another thing to say that it's worse in actual quality. I don't get a lot of enjoyment of watching United anymore, but there are great matches just about every week.
I’d still say the quality is worse. Just my opinion.
Far less creative, flair players around these days. Team are too structured. Players are too pally with each other. Too much money involved. Social media is playing a part in it's demise as well. Yes you will still get good games etc. Enjoyed Klopp's approach to the game. And as far as VVD is concerned, he is slightly overrated and lauded too much at times, but he is still a great defender, and in the PL all time top 5.
Ok
Gotcha.
If you think all Terry, Vidic, Rio etc did was sit deep then that tells me you probably didnt watch much of that era OR you’ve intentionally contrived a false point to sell the VVD bold claims
Makes A lot of sense. So defending isn’t as important but he’s the best defender we’ve ever seen.
Gotcha.
If you think all Terry, Vidic, Rio etc did was sit deep then that tells me you probably didnt watch much of that era OR you’ve intentionally contrived a false point to sell the VVD bold claims
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This is patently false.
I don’t even like Terry but pretending he was some ball in the Air defender is just false. He was surprisingly mobile for his size. You don’t concede 15 goals a season by only clearing headers and corners.
I dunno about the English greats, but Van Dijk is easily better than Jaap Stam.
Not nearly as awesome though.
Not nearly as awesome though.
not as good as Rio
Not completely disagreeing but when was he exposed playing under the high line, under Villas Boas right? He was 31 then and lost quite a bit of pace, wasn't really the same level of defender in the 2010s in general. I think he had quite a young peak as a centre back actually, around 2004 when he was 24. So I wonder could 24 year old Terry play a high line, we don't know but he would have had a better chance.
Nah. Stam is underrated (or more forgotten about) as he wasn't here that long.
The thing that always baffles me is we had the ex Dutch manager when Van Dijk was available for £15m from Celtic. And he went for Rojo that summer (and Blind) instead.
Stam isn't underrated at all over here. He's very highly rated. I just think Van Dijk is better or rather, more complete than him.
Rio would be worth north of £150m these days. Pep would have paid whatever it took to get a 23 year old Ferdinand.
Van Gaal was very much a coach, he had little interest in the transfer market, left that to the scouts and board and worked with that he had in the squad and academy.
Except when it came to vetoing players like Kroos.
Yet sometiems it looks like he doesn't get into such affairs as much as others and later he is stubborn as hell to deal with some adquisitions made by someone else without his supervision or seal of approval.
Khedira another one who said a couple of days ago he could have come but LVG didn't want him.
van Dijk was far from a household name and hadn’t even been called up for the NT at the time van Gaal became manager here.
Do you feel he is as comitted in such affairs as someone like Mou? never looked to me like that, I might be very wrong.
He is quite a weirdo, like his Lego version Bielsa.
Also I always felt that when he wasn't involve for whatever reason in some incorporation, he was the most blunt Dutch ever and that is sthg., like that Riquelme saga in Barca. Also like sometimes happens with Pep, when he gets involve in some buys, he in some cases expects to change the main characteristics of the player he asked for and later he crashes with such player.
That's why I guess Pexbo thinks of him as more of a training guy, a tactical fella, a coach.
Getting Van Dijk from Celtic is some top 20/20 hindsight.
I guess we missed the same trick as the other dozens of European football clubs that are bigger than Southampton.
I guess we missed the same trick as the other dozens of European football clubs that are bigger than Southampton.
I think he was just very stubborn, might have been a good coach but didn't have a good eye for a player recruitment wise.
In no particular order
Tony adams
Jaap stam
Sol Campbel
Rio Ferdinand
Nemanja Vidic
John Terry
Vincent Company
Virgil Van dijk
Now ranking who is number one is a different issue..it is more of a preference and we will have different repsonses..the stats people can help too.
Tony adams
Jaap stam
Sol Campbel
Rio Ferdinand
Nemanja Vidic
John Terry
Vincent Company
Virgil Van dijk
Now ranking who is number one is a different issue..it is more of a preference and we will have different repsonses..the stats people can help too.
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Stam wouldn't make my top 5 but he's still above Van Dijk for me. 3 PL titles in his 3 seasons where he was almost faultless. Van Dijk had a disappointing 22/23 season, so I'd say he's had the same number of excellent PL seasons as Stam but with fewer trophies.