European Football - who's best?

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OK, our team.

GK - Robinson - OK, one of the few non-'World Class' players in our side, but still solid as a rock. Improving all the time.

RB - Neville - Solid, dependable, no mistakes, good support to the winger and a good understanding with Beckham, just what the doctor ordered for a right back.

CB - Rio / Campbell - Absolute World Class and the best central defensive partnership in the World. We also have the likes of Terry and King waiting in the wings.

LB - Cole - Name me a better left back in Europe than him. 'Nuff said.

LW - The only position I hate in the English side. We usually have to play a diamond, or play a central midfielder out of position. Hopefully Stewart Downing will change that soon.

CM - This is bee-a-yoootiful. Usually Gerrard and Lampard (absolute pure quality). But you have Butt who is a great defensive mid, Rooney who can play in the hole. We have an embarassment of riches in the middle of the park.

RW - Beckham obviously. No-one can doubt his talent. Should be dropped from time to time to keep him on his toes though. We have the likes of SWP and Jenas as more than capable deputees.

FW - Owen - When his country needs him, he is there. On form, he is as dangerous as any striker in the World. A little too injury prone for my liking, but a big game player who has a fantastic scoring record at all levels.

FW - Rooney - Power. Awareness. Knowledge of the game. Fire. Passion. One of the most dangerous players I have seen from 25 yards. He can carry the ball. He is a predator. He is 18 years of age.

We also have a pool of youngers and up and coming talent from the Prem who we can dip into if we need. I don't think there are many teams in Europe who can claim to have a better side than that.

 

The second best team at this moment is Barcelone I my opinion. AC milan or Juventus in first and third, not sure which takes what place.

 

Not many teams can claim to have won all three important trophies, the CL, the UEFA cup, and the no longer existing European cupwinners cup.

To my knowledge there's only two sides, Ajax and Juventus, but maybe i'm overlooking one or two. That makes them the most unique clubs in Europe imo. Not that i'm fond of praising Ajax though, there's not much in football i hate more than them.

 

No....because FC Utrecht plays brilliantly this year

Not the best comment today after Ajax lost from PSV

 

Barmy, of those I would only say that Cole and Rooney are really top players. The centre backs are generic good centre backs of which there are a dime a dozen in the world. The centre midfield is great but not spectacular and Beckham has gone from being good but overrated to being mediocre and overrated. Owen seems to be over the top at the ripe age of 25...

It is not the roster which holds England back though, it is good enough to atleast fight among the best it is the attitude of the entire English football nation of England being the best nation in the world and home and birthplace of football. You expresses this same attitude and it puts an enourmous pressure on the players, making them fear losing more than they want to win. The entire English football nation suffers and have always done so from an extreme case of hubris and until you have dealt with that you wont win anything.

Atleast that is what it looks like for football fans outside of England.

 

I think that Lampard showed on EURO2004 that he is also a top player.

There aren't many defenders that are better than Campbell either, it's because of players like him that Arsenal has that long long long row (like 40 games in a row in compitition?) of unbeaten games.

I also think that England has the best players at their disposal.


Players who are worldclass:

England:
Rooney, Campbell, Lampard, Gerrard, Owen, Cole.

Holland:
v. Nistelrooij, Makaay, Davids.

Sweden:
Ljungberg, Larsson, Ibrahimovich.

Italy:
Del Piero, Nesta, Pirlo.

France:
Vieira, Henry, Giuly.

Portugal:
Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Maniche.

Germany:
Ballack.

Chech:
Nedved.


I think that that are the top-country's and that England had the most worldclass players, which doesn't make them the best team.

[ October 24, 2004, 15:49: Message edited by: Nightal ]

 

How on Earth can you call Beckham mediocre? I love all these people who jump on that bandwagon.

He has one of the best strike rates for any midfielder in the World (and thats from the right wing I might add). He had more assists than any other player at Man Utd. Has more assists than any other player at Real and has more assists than any other player for England. He tops nearly every stat table for Real and in the Spanish leagues. Always gives 110% for England and leads from the front. He didn't have a great Euros, but thats because he was unfit. To call him mediocre is just ridiculous.

How cal you call the 2 centre backs 'generic'? Thats stupid. Rio Ferdinand is the best centre back in World football. As recognised by top pundits, players and ex-pros. He has no weaknesses, if we had him at the Euros, who knows what might have happened. Campbell is as strong and commanding as anybody. Generic, please...

Lampard is one of the best in the World at what he does. He has a brilliant strike rate at club and international level, he has no weaknesses. The same goes for Gerrard, Gerrard carries the Liverpool team almost single handedly and England badly miss him when he's not available. And Owen is not over-the-hill (I assumed that's what you meant?). He is in terrific form at the minute. Getting a goal and 3 assists in his last 2 games for England and is now keeping Raul and Morientes out of the Real Madrid side and opening up his scoring account well. He's a brilliant centre forward and he plays well Rooney for England.

Think about what you say.

 

Apeman, just because i happen to live in Utrecht, doesn't mean i'm connected to that club. I've been a Feyenoord seasonticketholder all my life, that automatically explains my disgust for Ajax.

 

Beckham is mediocre, he has a great heart, I will give you that and he has saved the English butt on several occasions. I am not one of those Beckham bashers which seems to litter the English press and attacks him at every oppurtunity. He has a place in the England team but he is nothing special. He has an awesome touch on the ball and his crosses and free kicks are or atleast were of world class. Beyond that he runs and fights a lot, not much more in my opinion. Owen scored his first goal for Real last week and have been benched for the most part. You should also keep in mind when viewing Owen and Beckham as world class players that Real have been *really* bad this season.

I dont think it is stupid to call them generic, great centre backs like Rio and Sol litters the football world, heck there are centre backs in the Swedish league who are pretty much that good. Every single team tends to have awesome centrebacks. I am not saying that Rio and Sol are bad, I am just saying that there are plenty of great centre backs and no team can get anywhere if they dont have them.

Lampard and Gerrard are good but I wouldnt call them awesome. For some reason any player who plays decently in the Premier League are hailed as world class players.

Pray tell me Barmy, why if the England team is so awesome do they dont deliver any results? Why do they struggle horrendously in every qualifier round? Having severe problems with teams like Albania and Moldova or something.

Why are most of the top players in the Premier League foreigners? Why have there been so few succesful Englishmen in foreign leagues? There have been plenty of horrendous failures.

I think it is you who should tihnk of what you say and if you dont want to spend the rest of your football life being horrible disapointed in a team you view as unbeatable and which should beat every team easily when they just dont deliver and cant deliver cause they just arent better.

 

Well, for starters, English footballplayers get homesick pretty fast, that might be the reason they don't play all that much in different European leagues, but rather stay in Albion. I'm not making this up, this is what i've read in interviews with players who DID play in other leagues outside of England.

I do agree that there's too much foreigners in the Premiership, and funny enough, the English teams never won anything important with all these legal aliens on their roster, Man U being the only exception. Look at Arsenal, they are on an incredible streak in England, but on European level, they fail miserably time and time again, there's something very vital missing in that team, and i think it's a fighters mentality.

Look at the results of the English topteams in the last two decades, and then look at the results before the English European banning because of the Heizeldrama. There were mostly English players on the teams back then, and they played their own typical kick and rush type of play, and the trophies kept rolling in. Teams like Aston Villa, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Ipswich Town, Tottenham Hotspurs, and even Norwich City were all considered European topteams. Then the foreign stars arrived, and the English teams stopped winning.

 

@joacqin

Quote:
***I dont think it is stupid to call them generic, great centre backs like Rio and Sol litters the football world, heck there are centre backs in the Swedish league who are pretty much that good. ***


Hahaha, are you serious.....
that really funny, you thinking that.

 

I am serious, centre backs are a dime a dozen. I was perhaps exaggerating but if so only slightly. How many bad centre backs can you name of the top of your head? I cant really come up with any.

 

Whow...you are serious...

I think WorldClass centrebacks are quite rare..

Strikers and Playmakers tend to be common...

 

OK, Joaquin, you are full of **** and I think it's quite obvious that you know very little about proper football.

You have surely just proved yourself wrong with that statement? "He is crap! he is the best set piece player in the World, has saved the national team on countless occasions, has an awesome cross, has one of the biggest assist counts in World football, but he is mediocre!". Listen to yourself.

That is such a load of bollocks. World class centre backs are very hard to come by. To argue that fact is ridiculous. There are 'good' or 'decent' centre backs elsewhere, but very few World Class centre backs.

Lampard and Gerrard don't just play 'decently', they carry their teams through the league and are, arguably, the best 2 central midfielders in the Prem. You talk garbage to be honest.

Errmmm... England have not lost a qualifier in the last 4 or 5 years. That cannot be said for many other teams in the World.

Please back this statement up. The top English players don't leave England, simply because they don't want to. Why leave? They are playing in the best league in the World, on more money than they can get elsewhere. Only very few leave, simply because they want a new challenge. Namely Beckham and Owen recently. who are doing very well for Real at the moment.

When did I say England are unbeatable? I said England have the best side in World football. There is a big difference. England DO deliver results. We have lost 3 games in the last 5 years. And none of them were down to poor performance.

Look at yourself.

 

Bull****. Nesta? Cannavaro? Hell, even Maldini is better even though he is quite old.

 

Nesta, maybe as good. Cannavaro, no. Maldini? Your having a laugh. In his prime maybe.

 

Well, all I can say is that it is impossible to argue football with a blind fan. Especially since you are saying that you are delivering results, the best side in the world getting kicked out in the quarter finals or at best the semi finals consistently? Oh, but that isnt the teams fault, it is other things, like the ref or one player doing a single mistake or or or or. Excuses excuses excuses. If now England is so good how come a single little incident is enough to make them fall?

Oh, and Sweden had a wicked run in the qualifiers to the great tournaments, even now I think they have lost two-three of the last 50 games or something in qualifing. I still dont think we are a world team because we manage to get ahead of Azerbadjan or Luxembourg.

 

lol, you haven't got a clue.

 

Maybe because they have more chances to put their hands to a european cup playing for a spanish, an italian or even a german club than for an english one.

Premier league isn't the best league, it is just the league with the most successful marketing. If premier league is the best league in the world why are the english clubs kicked out of Champions League and UEFA Cup by other european clubs the most of the times?

 

When it comes to football Morsarmy is unable to think clear. Sadly this afflict the entire English football nation which is why they will never win anything until they get rid of that attitude.