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*Official* English Football Season 2007-08
- Thread starter GIMH
- Start date
Pup Clarke
Cricketer Of The Year
The England team should be built around Richards, Terry, Ferdinand, Hargreaves, Gerrard and Rooney simply.
bugssy
Cricketer Of The Year
agree boys! definately
grecian
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Blimey an argument all based on what that muppet Lovejoy said. Next we'll be debating Helen Chamberlains claim that Phil Taylor is the greatest sportsman ever.
Still, I'll join in because I'm nothing but a hypocrite.
Gerrard isn't in the top 40 of best players of the last 20 years, he is the best player in this English team, but I'm not particularly a fan of this lot.
Gullit and Van Basten, were about 10 times the player of little Stevie, imho.
Still, I'll join in because I'm nothing but a hypocrite.
Gerrard isn't in the top 40 of best players of the last 20 years, he is the best player in this English team, but I'm not particularly a fan of this lot.
Gullit and Van Basten, were about 10 times the player of little Stevie, imho.
roseboy64
Cricket Web Content Updater
Poor.
roseboy64
Cricket Web Content Updater
Agreed.
Tom Halsey
International Coach
Let's go through this lot one by one.
Buffon is just generally over-rated, he is not particularly poor in any one particular area, but I've never seen him do anything spectacular (don't watch the Italian league tbf, only CL), and I've seen him make a few mistakes.
Cech has to be the worst top-flight keeper, when it comes to crosses (or any loose ball in the box, as he showed against Reading), that I've ever seen. I've lost count of the amount of crosses he has missed and got lucky with either the striker missing or a defender bailing him out. Makes the odd good save, but misses the odd easy one too - West Ham last year CIP.
Casillas is over-rated basically on the back of trying to make every save he makes look spectacular. He'll make a meal of an easy save, and because it looked good, pundits will bang on about how many times he's bailey Real out. Er, no.
Reina isn't particularly over-rated really, he's not rated highly enough. Very good penalty saver (despite cheating at it), not great apart from that, and he isn't really rated as such - just a reasonably solid keeper, wouldn't have been close to top 10 in the world (which is what I assume your list is an attempt of) 10-20 years ago.
Khan was an exceptional keeper in his prime, no doubt about that whatsoever, haven't seen him too much in action lately, but given his age I would be surprised if he is still that good.
Lehmann is a keeper I have a grudging respect for, because as a person he is an absolute ****bag. When he first came to England he was very unreliable, however mistakes have grown less common recently, and incidents like the one against Fulham are now the exception, not the rule. That said, wouldn't be in a top 10 list 10-20 years ago.
Ricardo - my best look at him was in the 2006 World Cup, impressed me somewhat against England, not against other sides.
van der Sar - see Khan. At 38, he is not getting any younger, and proved to be an extremely untrustworthy keeper at the back end of last season.
Coupet - not going to comment too much on him, but I emphatically do not rate Barthez and up until his retirement he was still keeping Coupet out of the French side, albeit in controversial circumstances.
Given is a good, solid keeper, but really, is he that good? Arguable, but not top 10 material IMO.
Tom Halsey
International Coach
Top ten list that I've seen contains pretty much no current keepers, currently they're all much of a muchness, and not very good. Infact I'm struggling to remember 10 that I really remember watching and rating highly (don't remember back to the early 90s unfortunately), so I'll name 5.
Top 5 since I've been watching football, I'll try and put it in a reasonable order:
1) Schmeichel - the best, rarely beaten from outside the box, unparalleled in one-on-one situations, communication second to none, not afraid to get out and claim a cross or two either.
2) Khan - as I said, an exeptional keeper in his prime, was a soure of constant frustration back when we were playing Bayern regularly around the turn of the century.
3) Seaman - basically got a very raw deal from the British press, and had his reputation harmed somewhat by playing on a bit too long. In his prime was one of the best there was.
4) Chilavert - there was more to him than free-kick taking and whatnot, he was a superb shotstopper, and I don't think I saw him make a mistake (admittedly only watching him at World Cups and the like) although from what I've read he's a bit of a **** as a person.
5) Taffarel - see Chilavert, minus the being a **** bit.
Really, as far as the English game goes, keepers like Nigel Martyn and Tim Flowers were very good keepers, stuck behind Seaman. I'd have either of those in my side over Cech anyday tbh.
Tom Halsey
International Coach
Toldo borderline, would be in a top 10, if due to lack of competition, however Taffarel > Toldo.
roseboy64
Cricket Web Content Updater
Would have to disagree with Given and Casillas. Sure he might make the easy saves look good but that's pretty much his only bad mark. Not sure about crosses but apart from that he's awesome. Way better than Cech and Buffon. Given would be the best in england if it weren't for his height. His height also works for him in some of the saves he can make and actually shows inspiration to shorter keepers. Amazing reflexes and shot stopping.
Pup Clarke
Cricketer Of The Year
Now we've discussed keepers what about the best central defenders in the past 10 years. 
I'd say...
Fabio Cannavaro
Carlos Puyol
Paolo Maldini
Marcel Desially
Alessandro Nesta
Roberto Ayala
Jamie Carragher
Javier Zanetti
John Terry
Lillian Thuram
Have probably missed a few though.
I'd say...
Fabio Cannavaro
Carlos Puyol
Paolo Maldini
Marcel Desially
Alessandro Nesta
Roberto Ayala
Jamie Carragher
Javier Zanetti
John Terry
Lillian Thuram
Have probably missed a few though.
Pup Clarke
Cricketer Of The Year
Haha, yeah forgot Hierro, was a truly fantastic player.
Magrat Garlick
Rather Mad Witch
Matteh
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
He's the second name on the list. Did you just stop at Gullit?
