The College Dropout

Does that make sense to you? He doesn't stand out because he's not the most talented. He's a functional player and a great leader apparently. He hasn't stood out for England and he doesn't standout for Liverpool. Rightfully so, nobody thinks he's better than KDB and nobody really talks about his supposed top performances for Liverpool in the CL or England at the World Cup (I do remember people comparing his ET performance to Modric ) Like I said. KDB has graced the latter stages of the CL and performed brilliantly so that's not an argument. The Belgium critcism is fair enough but in all a small one. Someone brought up C.Ronaldo's WC record. But what does that mean? He doesn't perform in the big occassion? Nope - we've seen him be the difference in major KO matches many times. He doesn't perform for his country on the big stage? Nope - he was a key man in Portugal getting to 2 Euro finals and winning 1. You look at the whole.

When has Henderson been a standout performer in the CL or for England? These are bad examples. You have to look at things in full. Is CL performances (of which KDB has had many great nights, he was brilliant in that defeat to Spurs). League form. Consistency. Big matches. International record. Entirely discounting international football doesn’t make sense. But it’s not the be all and end all. before Messi won the Copa I found it weird that he didn’t get any credit to taking his national side to 3 Copa Finals and a World Cup final. That’s more than enough to say he performed for Argentina.

James Rodriguez has said he wants Liverpool to win the CL final because of his pal Luis Diaz. Not going down well with supporters of former clubs Everton and Real Madrid.

When did Crouch really perform in an international tournament? I agree Hazard has typically been the star for Belgium. I remember him being brilliant in defeat to France. I think KDB scored but he was also the man against Brazil too.

This good form has blinded people. A lot of it is down to good will, impetus, momentum etc. If we dont't get European football in the next couple of seasons, I would expect Bruno to want to move on if he's the real deal.

Would rather Tamaraebi.

Don't like signing players with bad fitness records. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Sign players who have been fit. Please.

Didn't dominate Serie A did they? That's the one criticism of Carlo. Not enough league titles. Only (I know) the 5 league titles across about 15 seasons at elite clubs. I know all the lads had fun playing for him though.

Nesta is one of those players that's in everyone's list. For me he's one of those I only ever saw on those big CL nights or in International competitions and he was every bit as good as his reputation suggested. I remember thinking "what's all this noise about this Seedorf fella?" And he just had everything. You never really saw such a clean technician in the PL at CM those days. Looked like he was built of granite. Controllling balls dead that came at him at weird angles. Silkiness on the ball like a 10. Pass it short, one touch, long, all there. I love a skilful, powerful, quick central midfielder. Very rare. I always thought Pogba was a spiritual successor, Camavinga too.

Nesta is one of those players that's in everyone's list. For me he's one of those I only ever saw on those big CL nights or in International competitions and he was every bit as good as his reputation suggested. I remember thinking "what's all this noise about this Seedorf fella?" And he just had everything. You never really saw such a clean technician in the PL at CM those days. Looked like he was built of granite. Controllling balls dead that came at him at weird angles. Silkiness on the ball like a 10. Pass it short, one touch, long, all there. I love a skilful, powerful, quick central midfielder. Very rare. I always thought Pogba was a spiritual successor, Camavinga too.

England are also fortunate he didn't make the Nigeria move. Tuchel didn't rate him at all which I think put a few clubs off. They should have secured Christensen & Rudiger contracts before letting Zouma and Tomori go. Shocking moves. I think he'll leave Roma this year. Clubs know Chelsea can activate a buy-back clause in 2023 so will need to act fast.

What else are they meant to say? IMO if we sign a 40-60m attacker they will be our highest earner around the 120-175k mark. I definitely believe we’ve enquired for Coutinho and Nunez and that’s what they would expect.

I'd like to see him at PSG too. He's a brand name manager which suits. He doesn't play attractive football which doesn't suit. His team play with intensity which doesnt suit the personnel. He'll have money to spend which suits. Has a poor European competition record which doesn't suit.

For a long-time we struggled against physical players. Fast or strong. Lukaku Walcott Long Anichebe Ate very well.

I rate how barefaced Conte is about the money. 1. I need to be the top earner at the club 2. And I need a massive net spend 3. And i'm playing 5 at the back 4. The second i'm not happy with 1-2, i'm gone

Terry's weaknesses were often exposed when not in a deep block. But his reading of the game was great. When you're a deep block defender, inevitably you're going to have to make a lot of last ditch challenges and blocks because the danger is so imminent. You don't see VVD in those situations often because he's marching his team back up the pitch at the first opportunity. But with Terry, that low-block was often a lockdown of the game. He & Jose were so good at it. You weren't going over or through that low-block.... unless you did something special.

You can't have watched the Ronaldinho era in real-time and say he was over-rated. For about 3 years, he was the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. I've never seen a player that good and that entertaining. He was such much fun and so entertaining that people forget that he scored more freekicks than Beckham, Messi, Ronaldo etc... pretty much everyone except Juninho. At his best he was everything the sport should be. Stepped up in big moments, entertaining, physical, technical, seemed a good sport and looked like he enjoyed himself.

We weren't a bad side for a lot of that era too. I'm just saying Shearer's memories are likely shaped by Sol's earlier days at Tottenham. It's not like he consistently had Sol's number.

This is not true. Terry was never particularly impressive for England (less so than Ferdinand & Campbell). He didn't look good for good spells under AVB, RDM & Rafa because of his weakness on the turn. Terry was a fantastic player and maybe under-rated by some football hipsters. But he had too many glaring weaknesses in his game to be considered the best anything. There's a very good argument Carvalho was better than Terry. His exploits in Porto and in Madrid.

Shearer scored 1 goal in 8 apps against Campbell's Arsenal team in the PL. I think Shearer had a much better record against a young Sol in a Spurs shirt which is leading his judgement.

Who?

Van Dijk's arguably the best CB i've ever seen tbf. A lot of it is tactical because the plan involves leaving him 1v1. Fast, trickery opposition players don't want to see him 1v1 on the half way line. That's crazy. His intimidation to the opposition is crazy. Deep defending is a piece of cake. Leadership. On the ball. Everything.

Always played in medium to low block teams that protected him. Always had a partner alongside him that greatly benefitted his style of play. But he was a top, top player and under-rated by fans on the ball. I think Rio & Sol could play for Guardiola and Klopp. So I have them above Terry. Sol Campbell was slightly under-rated too. He could really play on the ball too. Was a leader on the pitch, Massive weirdo though.

John Terry was behind Desailly too long as well.

West Ham pay Zouma 125k and hav offered Rice 200k. Rice won't sign for anything though unless there's a reasonable release clause if he's smart. He can stay another year, get another season of Europa football under his belt and move on for a more reasonable 50-70m fee at the end of next season. I would be all over that. I think they have to take the money next season. They may even offer him a Delph type deal at some point. Anyways point is West Ham can afford to pay Lingard the 100-150k he'll be after. He might be worth the 6 additional points or the odd win in Europe that might get them into CL the following season.