***Official*** English Football Season 2020-21

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Robbie Keane, Yorke, Les Ferdinand and Andy Cole other obligatory mentions.

Would have Drogba, Cantona, Bergkamp, Wright at or above those guy's levels I think.

Childhood RIS revered Tony Yeboah for that season or two at Leeds where it seemed he scored the goal of the month most months.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah probably am tbf. However, Owen's best goals (imo) were the ones where he picked up the ball and blew past several defenders before poking the ball into an unreachable corner of the goal. Walcott never quite did this in the same way, but the plenty of his goals could described in a similarish way. The reason why I compared Owen to him was mainly because Walcott is/was another player who is/was basically completely reliant on pace, movement and finishing. Granted Owen was better than Walcott at all of these, but it's not the worst comparison imo.

I think Walcott was underrated tbf. The coverage of him was very strange. He was a quality player but for some reason everyone just constantly complained that he wasn't even better. Giroud at Arsenal was the same. I guess it comes with not winning anything.

 

[sledger]

I think Walcott was underrated tbf. The coverage of him was very strange. He was a quality player but for some reason everyone just constantly complained that he wasn't even better. Giroud at Arsenal was the same. I guess it comes with not winning anything.

I go one way and then the other on this.

I remember being at the Emirates in 2008 and seeing him come on as sub against Everton at half time, and him completely changing the match. He seemed unplayable. I was blown away by how fast he was - rapid in a way that never came across on TV. Everton could not live with him at all. And there were plenty of other games over the years when he had a similar impact. Was a great finisher and scored some really important goals. The game in 2012 where Arsenal were 2-0 down at home to Spurs but went on to win 5-2 being a particularly good example of this.

But also so often, especially in big games, he regularly seemed to completely go missing. Against a well-coached defence that defended deep he was completely ineffectual. Without space to run into he literally had nothing to contribute. A great player to have when it's 0-0 against a team that will allow opportunities on the counter attack, but a really unhelpful player to have in your side when you're 1-0 down against a Mourinho sort of team (which Arsenal regularly were). Really inversatile as well. Wenger's repeated attempts to experiment with him anywhere other than on the right wing were always very short-lived after yielding poor results. It also meant that as soon as any sort of system change was attempted he would have to be dropped, which eventually culminated in him being sold after Wenger decided he wanted to play with wingbacks (before then abandoning that plan a short while later lol).

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Has Jamie Vardy been mentioned? (I know I could take more time and read the thread more carefully, but life is short).
Maybe not as great as one or two others, but must be a git to play against.

 

[sledger]

Vardy definitely belongs imo.

 

[sledger]

I remember being at the Emirates in 2008 and seeing him come on as sub against Everton at half time, and him completely changing the match.

Just remembered Arsenal lined up with Mikael Silvestre at centre back this day, and how for the first time, but certainly not the last time, I realised how absolutely appalling he was.

 

[Uppercut]

I go one way and then the other on this.

I remember being at the Emirates in 2008 and seeing him come on as sub against Everton at half time, and him completely changing the match. He seemed unplayable. I was blown away by how fast he was - rapid in a way that never came across on TV. Everton could not live with him at all. And there were plenty of other games over the years when he had a similar impact. Was a great finisher and scored some really important goals. The game in 2012 where Arsenal were 2-0 down at home to Spurs but went on to win 5-2 being a particularly good example of this.

But also so often, especially in big games, he regularly seemed to completely go missing. Against a well-coached defence that defended deep he was completely ineffectual. Without space to run into he literally had nothing to contribute. A great player to have when it's 0-0 against a team that will allow opportunities on the counter attack, but a really unhelpful player to have in your side when you're 1-0 down against a Mourinho sort of team (which Arsenal regularly were). Really inversatile as well. Wenger's repeated attempts to experiment with him anywhere other than on the right wing were always very short-lived after yielding poor results. It also meant that as soon as any sort of system change was attempted he would have to be dropped, which eventually culminated in him being sold after Wenger decided he wanted to play with wingbacks (before then abandoning that plan a short while later lol).

Yeah I don't think that's an unfair summary of him as a player, but it adds up to someone who has a lot to contribute without being absolutely top-class. If you start listing players that he was roughly as good as, none of them will have been anywhere near as heavily criticised as Walcott was. Something about him must have really wound people up.

 

[sledger]

Yeah I don't think that's an unfair summary of him as a player, but it adds up to someone who has a lot to contribute without being absolutely top-class. If you start listing players that he was roughly as good as, none of them will have been anywhere near as heavily criticised as Walcott was. Something about him must have really wound people up.

Yeah agree with all of this actually. Some of the criticism he received at various points of his Arsenal career was totally unjustified and out of line. Not really sure what the basis for all this was, but he never came across as the most likeable of characters off the pitch. Had a definite smugness to him. If I was being less charitable I'd probably question whether his er...less than pale complexion may have had something to do with it.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

**** Suarez, you muppets. ****ing Jamie Vardy and Andy Cole. Shameful posting.

Sergio ****ing Aguero.

 

[Pothas]

Suarez a better player tbh.

Aguero obviously around for much longer and has never bitten anyone.

Henry, Aguero and Shearer probably would be the generally agreed top 3 wouldn't they?

 

[duffer]

Feo's storming runs down the wing before he miscontrolled the ball out for a goal kick, tended to overshadow his positive contributions. His goals and assist contributions were generally excellent but the feeling is that he could've been more. He was/is an instinctive player but we thought a bit more composure and better decisions when he had time to think could've made him genuinely unplayable. Wasn't to be and in hindsight was still an excellent player.

 

[sledger]

Speaking of Henry, rumours doing the rounds that he might be taking the Celtic job haha.

 

[wpdavid]

Nah you're not remembering peak Owen right. He'd regularly get on the ball and run at defenders and they'd absolutely **** themselves. Walcott never had the same level of agility or close control.

or finishing ability.

fwiw I reckon that late 1990s/early 2000s Owen would do fine nowadays. Being brought up in the current environment, his game would have been tweaked enough to cope with current playing patterns. And his undoubted strengths from 20 years ago should be enough to compensate for aspects of the game where he's lacking.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Michael Owen is absolute class in any era in his prime, although it could have done with being a bit longer. I’d be more worried about Brian Deane.

 

[wpdavid]

It got me thinking about the most genuinely thrilling England goals since I've been watching the game. Obviously Owen against Argentina in 1998. Platt against Belgium in 1990, Gascoigne against Scotland in 1996 and Beckham against Greece in 2001. Those are the ones that had me on my feet.

 

[Furball]

Speaking of Henry, rumours doing the rounds that he might be taking the Celtic job haha.

I really ****ing hope not.

 

[andruid]

Maybe but getting injured at 24/25 then never getting back to pre-injury level is almost the norm for the best PL strikers. Shearer, Owen, Fowler, Torres, Kane. Shearer and Kane stand out for having still contributed a lot after their peaks, whereas the others quite quickly became very mediocre.

Have you ever heard the tragedy of Michael Bridges, the young prodigy?

 

[Furball]

Maybe but getting injured at 24/25 then never getting back to pre-injury level is almost the norm for the best PL strikers. Shearer, Owen, Fowler, Torres, Kane. Shearer and Kane stand out for having still contributed a lot after their peaks, whereas the others quite quickly became very mediocre.

Shearer's peak at Blackburn came after he'd had a cruciate injury at 22.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Bit of a turn up in Germany.

Löw's credit must be exhausted soon, surely?

 

[grecian]

Shearer's peak at Blackburn came after he'd had a cruciate injury at 22.

It's his ankle injuries after perhaps rushing back from that injury which saw the decrease in speed, which meant he became more one-dimensional. I don't yet see Kane down the predictable route yet, as Uppercut clearly does, I think it's possible for him to be a different but just as effective player, he's talking himself about longevity, not something many of those others had.

That Germany result though