Furball
Evil Scotsman
It's not filled with quality forwards. There's a good standard, but Kompany doesn't play against some of the top forwards in the league.
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*Official* English Football Season 2012-13
- Thread starter marc71178
- Start date
Ikki
Hall of Fame Member
Kompany hasn't been at his best this season but last season he was imperious...I don't know what you've been watching.
I guess these things kind of invite these debates but the criteria seems to shift. I think Messi is better than Ronaldo but you can see his point when he says that last year the criteria was winning trophies, this year it isn't. It's telling that the CL winners/finalists don't have one player between them in that XI.
I guess these things kind of invite these debates but the criteria seems to shift. I think Messi is better than Ronaldo but you can see his point when he says that last year the criteria was winning trophies, this year it isn't. It's telling that the CL winners/finalists don't have one player between them in that XI.
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Pup Clarke
Cricketer Of The Year
Casillas is balls. His reflexes and shot stopping earn him alot of brownie points that put him above more qualified contenders in the eyes of journalists/media imo. His decision making is just shocking.
GIMH
Norwood's on Fire
He plays against Van Persie, Suarez, Mata, Hazard, Ricky Lambert
Uppercut
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Who said he wasn't? Don't think there any Kompany-deniers left tbh. Everyone in England knows he's quality but you don't get international recognition by only performing on a domestic stage.
Was looking at some comments on the team on the BBC website earlier and I think people haven't really adjusted to how much poorer the standard of English football is compared to what it was five years ago.
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Ikki
Hall of Fame Member
Well, GF is making it out as if he wasn't very good and was being made to look good by sunday leaguers.
Let's be frank, the international stage, bar the latter parts of the WC/EC, are filled with teams that would be beaten by most EPL teams. Being the best defender in the EPL, for the champions, IMO, automatically makes you a contender.
I take your point, but Pique has been basically picked for the converse - only doing well in a handful of games at the Euros, as he was not present for most of the season for Barca. Even then, he plays in a team where for 70% of the game his teammates have the ball. Pique was picked off repute more than anything.
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Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Created it ?
Almost all of the players were their already when he became manager and the signings he made like Chygrynsky and Ibra were ****. Yeah, he helped bring some players in and did a good job there but he hardly created the team. The same core was quite successful under Rijkaard too who created the team more than Guardiola.
Hummels for Dortmund and Germany should have been a contender certainly for the CB squad, probably ahead of Pique.
While Pirlo had a better year, Alonso gives the team better balance for me. Pirlo and Xavi would be quite similar.
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Meridio
International Regular
BBC Sport - QPR defender Ryan Nelsen named new manager of Toronto
Ryan Nelsen retiring - gutted about this. He's a big loss for QPR - though it looks like he might play out the rest of the season - but he's an enormous loss for NZ. Second-best player NZ have ever produced (you have to give Wynton Rufer top spot), but in terms of influence on the game there's no one bigger. Absolute colossus at the last World Cup, and it's hard to see us qualifying for the next one without him. Winston Reid's playing brilliantly at West Ham, but Nelsen's influence on the NZ team is enormous.
And, in an era of footballing ****s like Luis Suarez, he comes across as an absolutely top guy. Best leader in NZ sport imo.
Ryan Nelsen retiring - gutted about this. He's a big loss for QPR - though it looks like he might play out the rest of the season - but he's an enormous loss for NZ. Second-best player NZ have ever produced (you have to give Wynton Rufer top spot), but in terms of influence on the game there's no one bigger. Absolute colossus at the last World Cup, and it's hard to see us qualifying for the next one without him. Winston Reid's playing brilliantly at West Ham, but Nelsen's influence on the NZ team is enormous.
And, in an era of footballing ****s like Luis Suarez, he comes across as an absolutely top guy. Best leader in NZ sport imo.
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Really ?
I mean yeah the top teams have declined, but think people stretch that too far. The bottom teams in the PL have more pulling power and better squads than anywhere in the world still.
Teams in La liga are even struggling to stay afloat for the large part and a league is made up of 20 teams, not 4. QPR, the bottom team just beat the European Champions from last season not in a hit and run last week.
While the mid to bottom teams have the ability talents like Cabaye, Diame, Granero, Michu, Ramirez, Benteke, Ben Arfa, Johnson, Santon, Berbatov etc.. to England from abroad or for big money/wages it's not quite the same in Spain.
However, Spanish National team and their top teams have the best players at the moment, so there's no surprise they get more attention in these awards.but at the same time, just because the top teams have dropped off in England doesn't mean for Kompany the league as a whole has become a lot easier to play in. Need to differentiate that.
Furball
Evil Scotsman
Alves wasn't. Villa wasn't. Pique wasn't. Busquets and Pedro were B team players. Xavi, Iniesta and Messi had never played as well as they would do under Guardiola. And the core team was nowhere near as successful under Rijkaard. They finished 3rd the season before.
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Messi and Iniesta were established in the team, and Xavi was playing equally well. You can hardly credit him for these 3. They were already on the upward curve and were the core of the team along with Puyol.
He then also got a fair bit of financial backing, which he didn't spend very well in the likes of Henrique, Ibra, Chygrynksy, Caceres, Hleb, Mascherano etc.. Alves has been good, while Villa and Sanchez have been OK and are hardly integral to the team.
Pedro, Busquets and Pique he deserves credit for, especially Busquets but that's not taking the credit for the whole team.
They were going through a transition period when he came there, he took that forward decently well with good financial backing but that's hardly creating the team for scratch. Players like Pique and Fabregas would have moved back there anyway, irrespective of manager too.
On the other hand when Rijkaard took over they were in complete mess, and not even that big of a draw. The whole team needed renovation with no youth products coming up either.
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Ikki
Hall of Fame Member
Saying that Pep had the squad already is just a facile understanding of what he did and why Barca are so good. Pep was totally different to Rijkaard and his players were different under him too. There is a famous story where before taking over Barca he went to see Bielsa and where he got a lot of his ideas from. The intense pressing - from the front - and the incessant passing is all from that, and Pep. Rijkaard's team did not dominate sides like that - they were a great side for a time but they were not like that. A player like Ronaldinho may not even get into a Pep Guardiola side, but Rijkaard's was built around him.
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Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
@Sledger
Yeah, for Barca which is why he's being linked with a move away for a while now. Had one good season for them but has not been essential to the team since.
Has 36 goals in 88 appearances. Granted he played wide for maybe half of those appearances but he had a better record at Valencia and they paid a big price for him (40 million euros).
Yeah, for Barca which is why he's being linked with a move away for a while now. Had one good season for them but has not been essential to the team since.
Has 36 goals in 88 appearances. Granted he played wide for maybe half of those appearances but he had a better record at Valencia and they paid a big price for him (40 million euros).
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
I wasn't comparing the 2 teams tbh. But Rijkaard's team was very very good too.
And when he took over they were in a much bigger mess. They had finished 2nd, 4th, 4th and 6th the 4 seasons before it and had a old aging squad with many non performers. There weren't immediate youth products ready for first team action, and they were out of CL and not such a big draw.
Rijkard had to turn that around and build the structure upon which then Guardiola has build. And he had much less money and pulling power than Pep Guardiola too.
Pep has done a very good job, but he hasn't build this team like uppercut was saying either. The truth is somehwere between that and those saying "i could manage" those players.
So you are not comparing the two sides and yet Guardiola just inherited Rijkard's side?
Rijkard got plenty of investment, he was part of the whole Laporta thing which saw the arrival of Ronaldinho and others.
For Guardiola to get rid of Ronalhinho and Deco straight from the off signaled an imediate change which was not at all easy to pull off, look at what hapened to AVB at Chelsea.
Rijkard got plenty of investment, he was part of the whole Laporta thing which saw the arrival of Ronaldinho and others.
For Guardiola to get rid of Ronalhinho and Deco straight from the off signaled an imediate change which was not at all easy to pull off, look at what hapened to AVB at Chelsea.
Neil Pickup
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Lolvilla.