SEE YOU! A brand spanking new modern fitba thread 2022/23

I think Essien and even Gyan were better than anyone on the 1990 Cameroon side but I will concede that the Argentina win is obviously better than any of the wins the 2010 Ghana team achieved, they had a fairly comfortable run to the quarters.

Milla is perhaps THE most overrated player ever. Don't get me wrong he had a fantastic tournament and deserves credit for it but he was bang average outside of that World Cup. It is essentially parallel to Diouf's career, who was also brilliant in 2002 and reached the same stage of the tournament. Again though, I concede that losing a thriller with England and being 2-1 up speaks a lot louder than going out meekly 1-0 or whatever it was to Turkey.

Agreed also on the kits.

 

I've been saying it for a while now but the North African sides are the ones that focus on technique and skill, whilst the rest of Africa seems to have placed far more emphasis on physicality, much to their detriment. Gone are the days of sublimely skilled maestros like Okocha.

 

You could actually argue the 90's Nigeria team which won Olympic gold were the most talented, but they didn't produce on the big stage (barring their upset of Spain in '98).

 

Knocked out by eventual finalists Italy in 1994

 

JayJay? Seriously....

Yeboah was the business

 

Okocha was seriously skilled, a phenomenal talent. Under-achiever, sure, but undeniable ability. Yeboah was fantastic and EVERYBODY tried to replicate the goals against Liverpool and Wimbledon in the playground, but he burnt out FAST.

 

I'm already frustrated about the QF with France. Player for player I genuinely don't think there is much in it, we absolutely can beat them. It's just I KNOW Southgate is going to shit himself and play his usual safety-first bollocks, and we will lose.

 

He had injuries, lots of explosive players do.

This cracks me up .... Everything about it.

The Allahubakhbar, the guy being treated on the pitch, the state of the stadium, mark bright, all of it....


https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/watch/1h7mvAC9APDzVBEMKsfu3G

 

Okocha was a ridiculous dribbler.

Who's top 5 all time in dribbling ability in yalls opinion? Obviously Messi and Maradona. Who else? R9? Best?

 

Yeah Maradona and Messi have to be right up there, original Ronaldo (especially at Barcelona as PR will attest to) was on a different plane to most. Best for sure was a sublime dribbler. I'd maybe give the 5th spot to Cruyff or Pele. It has to be said though there are phenomenal dribblers like Kinkladze who were just unfortunate to hail from countries like Georgia where they're never going to qualify for major international tournaments and get the recognition their talents deserve.

 

IMO Messi and Best were similar dribblers. No flashy stepovers or tricks. Just the ball on an absolute string.

 

Yeah agreed. I've never really seen Messi do anything "flash" or showboaty, it's always simple close control stuff in stupidly tight spaces, but just so precise and well-timed.

 

Messi was the type who usually beat his opponents on one quick touch and his burst of pace did the rest.

Ronaldo in his Barcelona days as mentioned by Slice is up there as far as the best I’ve seen.

Iniesta and Zidane had insane dribbling skills too.

 

Man, why do I keep forgetting Iniesta? He was my favourite player from that great Barca team. A wonderful dribbler and all-round footballer.

 

One thing I noticed about Maradona, for a guy built like a redwood tree stump, he sure did have an amazing first step burst of pace. Just dropped that shoulder and gone. Incredible acceleration. I guess it could be said he was a better athlete than Messi.

 

Pele is probably the best I've seen on film at maintaining sublime control at full speed.

Eusebio was phenomenal at that as well.

 

Yeah he had a ton of pace, off the mark to boot, like you say, and if you couple that with the extra second or so he bought with his feints and changes of direction it just made him so difficult to stop.

 

Cristiano Ronaldo was actually an exceptional dribbler in his early days at Sporting Lisbon and Man U. It was a friendly pre-season game between Sporting and Man U where he turned the United defenders inside out that made them buy him in the first place. The problem was at that time there was no end product, so he developed more into a goalscorer and left the dribbling behind.

 

Is longevity the only thing Piers Morgan's boyfriend had over Brazilian Ronaldo? Because just on peak R9 sure as Hell looked more unstoppable.

 

Cristiano Ronaldo's longevity is one reason, and his goalscoring stats (along with Messi) are absolutely insane and unprecedented. He was at Real Madrid for 10 years and scored more goals than he had games, which is pretty much unheard of. I think he became the club's all time top goalscorer in something like 5 years which is mental. Original Ronaldo was maybe more talented and a phenomenon in his own right, but injuries robbed us of seeing him at his apex, which is actually crazy when you consider the heights he still managed to reach and his impact on the game.

 

To go on from this, I need to point out that the game and tactics changed somewhat inbetween the two Ronaldos. CR7 had a free role and was made the focal point in that Real Madrid side. Everything was set up for him to be on the end of, which wasn't the case for original Ronaldo, who was one of a number of "galacticos" at the time. The numbers are still crazy for CR7 but I don't doubt a fit R9 in the same setup could at least get reasonably close to those figures.

 

For the English folk here - did Scholes and Gascoigne ever play together or did their paths just miss each other? Maybe in that Tournoi de France tournament or something? What a pairing that could have been if Gazza hadn't been such a raging pisshead.

 

And Ronaldo during his Galáctico days wasn’t even at his best, which is crazy to think about how he was able to maintain that level of play considering all the injuries plagued him. He was playing in a lot of pain for all those years with those bad knees and still killing teams.

 

Ok I better see some shoot outs soon..

 

Sounds like a midfield which would get you more yellow cards than successful tackles, mind

 

Dribbling footballers?



MTF

 

Scholes essentially replaced him. There was hell on in 1998 when Gazza was left out of the squad. Scholars played instead and that was that.

MTF

 

Probably the right decision: Gazza did nothing for Rangers in the season preceeding france 98...he'd really declined in the 12-18 months prior

 

Quite astonishing how rapid Gazza's decline was when you think about it. One of the best midfielders in the world in 1996 and essentially finished by 1998.

 

I bet the hotel barmen and taxi drivers of glesga were less astonished by it