SEE YOU! A brand spanking new modern fitba thread 2021/22

I think part of the issue is looking at a highlight reel of great defensive plays isn't exactly as enthralling as one of great goals and passes. Plus there's so much subtlety to great defending such as positioning and anticpiation that can't really be made into video for entertainment purposes.

 

Oh yeah, that's absolutely the reason. I mean, there are probably a thousand great goals that most football fans can remember watching over and over, but I doubt most people could make/recall five great defensive tackles.

Just thought worth pointing it out to a football newcomer.

MTF

 

Yeah everybody has to be at a minimum physically fit enough to run a lot over the course of 90 minutes or more. The required skillset between the different positions varies but you can't have someone who's a specialist in only one very narrow aspect of the game. They will just be a liability. Unlike in American football you can have some guy who's 6'4, 300 pounds and his entire job is basically that of a roadblock.

Two entirely different sports though and you may as well compare being a chef to a carpenter.

 

And yet LFC success of recent built on Allisson and Van Dijk.

Offence wins fans. DEFENCE wins games.

In fact Allison goal vs West Bromwich .... Is largely why/how Liverpool made top 4.

 

In adding to Whiskey's point, @Xplosive , this is probably the best visual illustration of just how far ahead Messi and Ronaldo have been from everyone else. Bear in mind that these are all great players, it's just they've been on a different plain to all of them. Check out the speed they pop up and how much they take over.

Also worth noting this is a couple of years out of date and they've added more to their tallies since.

 

Currently watching SV Babelsberg vs RB Leipzig in the German Cup.

 

That Terry Henry could play fitba, mind.

MTF

 

One of my favourite ever players, insanely good.

 

Baggio was a great striker. Incredible finisher but he’s unfortunately most remembered for that missed penalty in 1994 World Cup agaisnt Brazil.

 

Yuppp! Watched Henry yesterday. He was class.

Also watched a doc on Alan Shearer.

Was Ryan Giggs a great player?

 

What did you make of Shearer?

MTF

 

Quality striker. Isn't he regarded as one of the better strikers of the 90s?

 

He the all-time leading scorer in the EPL. World class striker.

MTF

 

How would you rate Eric Cantona?

 

Oh yeah, no question. There's this weird retrospective criticism I've seen surfacing recently suggesting that Giggs was overrated because he didn't score as many goals as he perhaps should have done, or because he never quite produced the goods for Wales at international level, but at the end of the day you don't keep your place in one of the most dominant sides in English football history for 20+ years without being a great player. His longevity alone is remarkable, in his early years and prime he was an amazing dribbler who could go past players for fun, as he got older he adapted into more of a crafty midfielder and he could still hold his own with the best around.

Shitty human being, but an undoubtedly great footballer.

 

AgREED

MTF

 

The monster from my teenage nightmares. He's the reason why my team didn't with the EPL at least once. Fucking great player.

MTF

 

Was Beckham any good? Only asking because he's the only name most casual Americans would know in recent times.

I'm guessing he was just a "good" player and nothing more.

 

Correct. He was excellent with a deadball, good at everything else. He scored one worldy goal which gave him the chance to fuck a Spice Girl and become a model.

MTF

 

Beckham is a tricky one to rate. He was basically one of the very best in the world at one aspect of the game, namely dead balls (free kicks, corners) and crosses, and he could generate an absurd amount of curve on the ball which made it very difficult for defenders and goalkeepers to read the trajectory of the ball. He wasn't the most talented guy, wasn't a great dribbler, but then I guess he didn't need to be when he could pick someone out with a pin-perfect cross or pass from the other side of the pitch. His manager Alex Ferguson said Beckham practiced over and over again, many hours after everyone else had left, every single day, to hone a level of accuracy that the vast majority of footballers wouldn't give a shit about, as it was such a seemingly small aspect of the game. He found his "thing" and worked overtime to become the best in the world at it. It also has to be said that he was extremely dedicated and to use a cliche "gave 110%" each game, and would run that bit further than most of his more talented contemporaries were willing to. His looks were a large part of his popularity outside of football but he put the work in so I can't really begrudge him his success.

 

This is a much more detailed explanation than I could be arsed with, but it's right on the money.

MTF

 

Interesting to know. You wouldn't think a pretty boy would be willing to get hands dirty, so nice to know he was.

 

He was a fat cunt who wouldn't be anything today. He got away with murder 92-97.

 

Beckham was overrated. He as Slice said could do one thing well- hit the ball.

He wasn't fast, he wasn't clever, he couldn't jump and he had shit hairstyles.

He tried hard and could hit a ball.

That United side of 92-99.......... inferior to the Liverpool and City sides of the past few years. Way inferior.

People were afraid of them, they had the financial dominance and were well positioned for the burgeoning changes that were about to hit football.

They were protected too- by the establishment and by the media.

 

Sorry like, but the Man Utd side which won the treble in 1999 was not 'way inferior' to either of the current best two sides or indeed many sides. Not a chance.

MTF

 

Ah yes, old Frozen Face herself.

See that fucking goal he scored yeah? Xabi Alonso used to knock in a few of them per season, never mind that twat Beckham.




And the knob sucking that ensued. The "Oh my mates were telling me to rush home and watch it", knobbery.

Robs the attacker. Beats the referee who was doing his best to fuck it up. Then blasts it. From further out. Even mugs Harper off.

Further out than fuck-face Beckham who was almost on the center line.


SKY even went and produced videos about the "STORY" of Beckhams goal.

There was no story.

2nd Alonso one was even harder. Beats the keeper and then...........beats him again.

 

Ferguson would shit hisself.

 

They weren't even the same side. The earlier Man Utd side, with Ince/Kanchelskis/Sharpe/Bruce etc? Aye, they weren't much to write home about. The second team Fergie built with Giggs/Keane/Scholes/Stam/Schmeichel/Neville etc? That side was a fucking good side. That side was too good for an Arsenal side with Viera/Petit/Bergkamp/Henry/Overmars/Adams/Cole etc in it. No weak side beats that Arsenal side to all the marbles.

MTF

 

Henry and the Brazilian Ronaldo were out of this world.

Also check out David Villa and Samuel Eto’o.

 

The fuck he would. He'd have that overrated cunt Pep doing handstands.

MTF