He was never used wisely by France after that either. Despite having him available France's coaches always seemed to find a reason not to pick him. Santini I think favoured Jerome Rothen and Wiltord on the flanks (for reasons I have never, ever, understood). And then Domenech refused to pick him based on his star sign.
If both players were playing now, McManaman would be far better suited to playing in a modern team than Beckham tbh. Much more versatile, skillful and creative. But at the time, when there was still a spot in most sides for a traditional right-sided midfielder, there was nobody better than Beckham in that role for mine.
Wiki says Adams was installed as full-time skipper prior to Euro 96 because Platt was no longer considered a regular.
Yeah McManaman suits a 4-2-3-1, Beckham suits a 4-4-2. Hence my comment on McManaman being born 10 years too soon.
Maybe my memory's playing tricks on me. I definitely remeber Platt scoring ****loads of goals in friendlies when Shearer was going through his 'can't hit a barn door when in an England jersey' phase.
Blackburn was definitely his peak. He was still very good afterwards but became a bit more one-dimensional, didn't have the same pace.
Yeah, fair enough. I think it is to his credit though that despite his injuries, and the limitations they imposed on him, he remained really prolific, even in the very last few seasons of his career. Bloke was a mega troll too, excellent at winding up opposition defenders and crowds. Must have been horrible to play against, and seemed to get a rise off the stick he got from the crowd. I remember seeing him play against Chelsea in the 02/03 season with Pothas; he wound up Desailly a treat to the point I thought he was about to blow a gasket, and had the crowd in his pocket too - could get a reaction from them whenever he wanted one. Too bad for him Newcastle got beat 3-0, but still.
Makes you wonder how good he could have been given his Blackburn peak came in the aftermath of a major cruciate injury. Still managed to bag almost 100 goals in the 3 seasons after it.
Haha yeah remember he scored two stupid goals in one game but was awful for the rest of it.After thinking about Shearer I somehow ended up watching a YouTube video of all of Laurent Robert's goals for Newcastle. Such a funny player. Loved how the only things he seemed to be capable of doing were hitting the ball extremely hard on the volley and taking freekicks.
The first part of this sentence may go some way to explaining the latter part, tbh.
