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Football's greatest - where does Lionel Messi rank?


Dave

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Still maintain Nesta is the finest CB the game has ever seen.

 

Him and Baresi are the two best that I've ever seen.

 

Also it's a bit of a bold statement saying Zidane wasn't even in the same league as Xavi. I will say Zidane was nowhere near as consistent as Xavi, as he often saved his best form for the big occasions and went through the motions against the lesser teams.

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"He shows no signs of slowing down either. Stats show Messi has just got better and better as the years progress. His goals in all competitions stand at 38 in 2008-09, 47 in 09-10, 53 in 10-11, and 54 already this season. There’s still potentially two months of the season remaining."

 

:lol: FM form, tbh.

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Saying Xavi is a different league to Zidane is a complete joke. Perhaps Xavi can pick out a pass marginally better than Zidane, but Zidane's ball control is beyond what Xavi is able to do. His execution of the roulette was the best I've seen. I also fail to see why excelling in the big games is somehow taken against Zidane. That's one of the characteristic of a world class midfielder. To be able to lead your team to victory when the pressure is highest and when the quality of the opponent is theoretically supposed to be the best. I'd also argue that the teams Zidane led to victories were not as good collectively as the current Barcelona/Spanish teams that Xavi is playing in. Overall they are probably very similar in terms of standard (although my vote goes to Zidane) but as always in thread comparing players, it boils down to personal preference and this is another one of those that will likely be divided along the Barcelona vs Madrid lines. There is no real objective way to compare players.

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Saying Xavi is a different league to Zidane is a complete joke. Perhaps Xavi can pick out a pass marginally better than Zidane, but Zidane's ball control is beyond what Xavi is able to do. His execution of the roulette was the best I've seen. I also fail to see why excelling in the big games is somehow taken against Zidane. That's one of the characteristic of a world class midfielder. To be able to lead your team to victory when the pressure is highest and when the quality of the opponent is theoretically supposed to be the best. I'd also argue that the teams Zidane led to victories were not as good collectively as the current Barcelona/Spanish teams that Xavi is playing in. Overall they are probably very similar in terms of standard (although my vote goes to Zidane) but as always in thread comparing players, it boils down to personal preference and this is another one of those that will likely be divided along the Barcelona vs Madrid lines. There is no real objective way to compare players.

 

hm, zidane while good at juventus really came to prominence at real madrid, which was the galacticos lest we forget so i don't think you should be crying foul about the standard of player he had alongside him there

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He didn't much leading the team to victory with the Galacticos, they won one title and one CL in 5 years. When he joined they'd just won the league and had 2 Champions Leagues in 3 years, they started to dominate the league again after he left.

 

Same thing happened at Juventus.

 

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he's referring to both clearly...the france team 1998 - 2000 was quality but this spain team is superior in my opinion, italy should have beaten france in euro 2000

 

not really sure what the point is suppose to prove anyway; messi & xavi have won and achieved more than zidane did amid better overall setups, so fucking what?

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It also had one of the all time great back 4's and Henry and Trezeguet upfront at Euro 2000, where Zidane really shone unlike 98 where he only turned up in the final.

 

I don't think it was worse than the Spain team that 1-niled (a.e.t) their way to the World Cup against some fairly ordinary teams.

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He didn't much leading the team to victory with the Galacticos, they won one title and one CL in 5 years. When he joined they'd just won the league and had 2 Champions Leagues in 3 years, they started to dominate the league again after he left.

 

Same thing happened at Juventus.

 

 

The CL was far more competitive then than it is now IMO. Barca and Real Madrid are light years ahead of anyone else in the competition.

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The Liverpool and Porto teams who won it in that era weren't anything special at all, neither were finalists like Monaco and Arsenal.

 

It was much more competitive when Real won it in 2000.

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Saying Zidane was in an inferior team at Madrid than what Barcelona are now is sort of ruining on his own point anyway.

 

The Galacticos was bought with unlimited bank rolled funds, signing the worlds great players trying to create some sort of super team.  If Zidane was more consistent and could dictate games throughout an entire season Madrid should have easily won more than they did during that time, but he wasn't.

 

This Barcelona team has eclipsed anything Madrid ever done during that era by a some fucking distance because of players who cost nothing coming through the ranks like Xavi.  He's won twice as many league titles and 3 times as many Champions Leagues as Zidane.  He's also been named player of a major international tournament and has assists in his last 2 CL Finals.  He's shown up in big games just as much as Zidane did but has also done it consistently season after season for the last 7 years.

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Saying Zidane was in an inferior team at Madrid than what Barcelona are now is sort of ruining on his own point anyway.

 

The Galacticos was bought with unlimited bank rolled funds, signing the worlds great players trying to create some sort of super team.  If Zidane was more consistent and could dictate games throughout an entire season Madrid should have easily won more than they did during that time, but he wasn't.

 

This Barcelona team has eclipsed anything Madrid ever done during that era by a some f***ing distance because of players who cost nothing coming through the ranks like Xavi.  He's won twice as many league titles and 3 times as many Champions Leagues as Zidane.  He's also been named player of a major international tournament and has assists in his last 2 CL Finals.  He's shown up in big games just as much as Zidane did but has also done it consistently season after season for the last 7 years.

 

Titles are won by team. How many world player of the year has Xavi won? That surely is the epitome of individual achievement in football.

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Guest firetotheworks

Saying Zidane was in an inferior team at Madrid than what Barcelona are now is sort of ruining on his own point anyway.

 

The Galacticos was bought with unlimited bank rolled funds, signing the worlds great players trying to create some sort of super team.  If Zidane was more consistent and could dictate games throughout an entire season Madrid should have easily won more than they did during that time, but he wasn't.

 

This Barcelona team has eclipsed anything Madrid ever done during that era by a some f***ing distance because of players who cost nothing coming through the ranks like Xavi.  He's won twice as many league titles and 3 times as many Champions Leagues as Zidane.  He's also been named player of a major international tournament and has assists in his last 2 CL Finals.  He's shown up in big games just as much as Zidane did but has also done it consistently season after season for the last 7 years.

 

Titles are won by team. How many world player of the year has Xavi won? That surely is the epitome of individual achievement in football.

He'd have had one if he wasn't up against the player of our generation.

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