How highly do you rate... Robert Pires?

[Cronky]

Of his type, as good as I've ever seen.

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

I'm not sure you can pigeonhole Shearer like that. In his prime he was almost the complete forward.

 

As for Adams, I remember him being great.

 

Perhaps, but he hardly had the same technical ability as modern day forwards - Tevez, Aguerro, Messi, etc. He was more like Drogba in that he was about determination and battling up alongside the defenders, using his strength and body to create space and gaps, rather than dropping into the pockets.

[Tooj]

Loved how in the latter years of Adams' career he bought into Wenger's philosophies and showed everybody what a good footballer he was.

 

Although as my mate once said to me he's lost the plot now, you felt you understood what he was about more when he was drunk and driving cars through walls rather than reading poetry.

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

 

Is he still out coaching in Azerbaijan?

[Tooj]

I'm not sure. Wasn't there a film being made about it?

 

Fair play to him mind as the work he has done out there hasn't just been about football but he's also been trying to bring education to the local community.

 

Could actually imagine him doing a tour of spoken word evenings with Tony Adams around the Azərbaycan Respublikası.

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

2 Good videos on the Tube on Tony Adams. 

 

'The art of the leadership'

 

and the full 30 minutes of ESPN's Legends of the Premiership.

[ponsaelius]

Nah he's not out there anymore

 

 

[Dinho lad]

Caprice. 

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

In my mind Swelley has just phoned him up to check. 

[Beren]

In my mind Swelley has just phoned him up to check. 

 

This.

[Ronaldo]

I'm not sure you can pigeonhole Shearer like that. In his prime he was almost the complete forward.

 

As for Adams, I remember him being great.

 

Perhaps, but he hardly had the same technical ability as modern day forwards - Tevez, Aguerro, Messi, etc. He was more like Drogba in that he was about determination and battling up alongside the defenders, using his strength and body to create space and gaps, rather than dropping into the pockets.

 

They're hardly 'modern day forwards' like. They're 3 of the very best attacking players in the world - and their types were around during Shearer's peak.

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

I'm not sure you can pigeonhole Shearer like that. In his prime he was almost the complete forward.

 

As for Adams, I remember him being great.

 

Perhaps, but he hardly had the same technical ability as modern day forwards - Tevez, Aguerro, Messi, etc. He was more like Drogba in that he was about determination and battling up alongside the defenders, using his strength and body to create space and gaps, rather than dropping into the pockets.

 

They're hardly 'modern day forwards' like. They're 3 of the very best attacking players in the world - and their types were around during Shearer's peak.

 

Well, I'll be happy to read your explanation in detail.

[Minhosa]

Best centre back I've seen live. An unbelievable player. Seemed to know what was happening minutes before it did, marshalled an unreal back line and was sensational in the air.

 

There's nobody I can think of who can touch him in recent years.

[Ronaldo]

I'm not sure you can pigeonhole Shearer like that. In his prime he was almost the complete forward.

 

As for Adams, I remember him being great.

 

Perhaps, but he hardly had the same technical ability as modern day forwards - Tevez, Aguerro, Messi, etc. He was more like Drogba in that he was about determination and battling up alongside the defenders, using his strength and body to create space and gaps, rather than dropping into the pockets.

 

They're hardly 'modern day forwards' like. They're 3 of the very best attacking players in the world - and their types were around during Shearer's peak.

 

Well, I'll be happy to read your explanation in detail.

 

Nowt to explain, really. We've seen an influx of more technical players in the last 15 years or so. Forwards aren't changing, we're just seeing a far more diverse sample in the PL.

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

Ronaldo, I want to think you're a good poster, but you far too often say something and then never give any details.

 

Neymar

Messi

Aguerro

Tevez

Suarez

Ronaldo

Rooney

Van Persia

David Villa

 

Score goals, technically very good, agile, balance, link up play, no 'fixed' position/don't square up against the centrebacks ala Shearer/Drogba/Ferguson/Ferdinand - the old style centreforwards. Yes, football has changed, which is why I said 'modern forwards'.

[Beren]

Ronaldo, I want to think you're a good poster, but...

 

Teacher, by any chance?

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

Close enough. 

[Ronaldo]

Ronaldo, I want to think you're a good poster, but you far too often say something and then never give any details.

 

Neymar

Messi

Aguerro

Tevez

Suarez

Ronaldo

Rooney

Van Persia

David Villa

 

Score goals, technically very good, agile, balance, link up play, no 'fixed' position/don't square up against the centrebacks ala Shearer/Drogba/Ferguson/Ferdinand - the old style centreforwards. Yes, football has changed, which is why I said 'modern forwards'.

 

You're having a laugh, right?

 

As I said, we're seeing a more diverse sample. Nowt's really changed; it's just changed places.

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

Again, you're just typing but not really proving a point. Also by nature if a sample is becoming more diverse there must have been a change?

[Ronaldo]

Yes. It's called increased foreign presence.

 

Not trying to sound dismissive, dude. I just can't be bothered to go into too much depth with this. But there were forwards of Tevez and Aguero's type in Shearer's day - they were just outside the PL. Messi is a force of nature that can't really compared to anyone, ever in terms of ability as far as I can see.

[Tiresias]

I remember when the guardian went round and asked all the defenders in spain how to deal with Messi before the Man U Barca final and they pretty much all said 'how the fuck should i know he scored 4 past me'

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

Well, then I shall be dismissive - if you can't be bothered to debate, don't expect people to put much credit into your posts. You're saying there were players of Tevez and Aguerro's ability in Shearer's day - who? Romario? Hagi? Are they not just precursors of the shift towards the modern forward, which is a combination of the atypical #10 (European) and #9?

 

If there is an increased foreign presence in the Premiership, and these are the forwards they choose to sign, does that not suggest that these are 'modern forwards', and the days of the back to goal, elbows out, forwards are slowly diminishing at the top flight? Grant Holt is a 'surprise' as he's a throwback to that style of forward. Look at the centrebacks people are buying, are they taller bruisers who will battle mainly in the air, or are they players that are composed with the ball, and can compete in the air and the ground? The change is mainly due to managers wanting to build out from the back, but also the change in where the threat is coming from.

 

Attacks don't down the wings as much now, and that's mainly because teams have a forward that wants the ball into feet as they work through the middle.

[Ronaldo]

I don't expect any credit. Actually that's a lie, I most certainly do.

 

I think it's a little lazy of you to use players like Aguero and Duncan Ferguson as examples of strikers at certain points in time. They represent two extremes, both of which have always and will always exist.

[Tooj]

Now I've just had a random flashback to Ruben Sosa. Lovely centre forward.

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

Sure, but there are more Aguero type players than their are Duncan Fergusons in top flight football now, compared to say in Duncan Ferguson's hayday. Even the players of similar physical stature of Ferguson are more technical advanced now within top flight football, which is only a natural progression of the advancing game... and the modern forward (think Ibrahimovic/Klose/Falcao, etc).