How highly do you rate... Robert Pires?

[Froggy]

The fucking man.

 

It fiercely angers me now when people say he was shit based on his time at Man U.

 

Wasn't even shit. Just underwhelming considering his reputation and the fee. He was phenomenal in Europe for us. I wouldn't have minded him being given another season.

[Guest Tyson]

Didn't have the engine & legs to cope with the high-pace tempo (and end-to-end nature) of the PL. Read the same for Deco, Viana and Riquelme & Ortega (had the latter two made the switch).

 

Brilliant playmaker, wrong league.

[Keefaz]

Was also hopeless at Chelsea. Don't think it was Ferguson's mismanagement of him. Just didn't seem suited to the PL.

[Disco]

Find it odd he never played in Spain, could/would have been perfect for him. Love how he went back to his (and his fathers) home town club and promptly won the league and Copa Libertadores with them. The stuff dreams are made of.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Claude Makélélé next please.

[Tooj]

Claude Makélélé next please.

 

One of my football pet hates is the way people go on about the "Makélélé role". It's as if there was never a defensive midfielder prior to him. Redondo is still the standard barer for that role.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Didn't have the engine & legs to cope with the high-pace tempo (and end-to-end nature) of the PL. Read the same for Deco, Viana and Riquelme & Ortega (had the latter two made the switch).

 

Brilliant playmaker, wrong league.

 

Tbf Viana played out of position and Deco was passed it when he came to PL.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Veron? Not very highly tbh. Even when he was at Lazio. He's just not my type of player.

[Lotus]

Thought he was great at Lazio. Was the kind of player that someone like Robbie Savage could completely take out of the game though

[Guest Tyson]

Didn't have the engine & legs to cope with the high-pace tempo (and end-to-end nature) of the PL. Read the same for Deco, Viana and Riquelme & Ortega (had the latter two made the switch).

 

Brilliant playmaker, wrong league.

 

Tbf Viana played out of position and Deco was passed it when he came to PL.

 

Fair point re: Viana, and it was Robson's (while he was here) great misjudgement (in a players attributes) when he earmarked Viana as Speed' s successor.

 

At lisbon and within the portugese youth teams the kid used to stroll around the centre (with Valderrama's sense of urgency) protected by two defensive mids through the middle.

 

He may have possessed the passing range and a playmaker's vision to spot a passing lane without the need to twist & jink all over the place first, but he never showed the aerobic capacity and urgency needed to cover sideline-to-sideline as Speed did. Although Speed's cardio ceiling was enormous, and he covered  acres of grass in defense , and that complimented his football smarts. Not many midfielders can make that great of an adjustment as Speed did ( Hamman at Liverpool is another)and his boots were too big a set to fill.  Nonetheless, and i'm just hypothesising here, but SBR's emphasis on quickstrike counterattacking footy ( coupled with the PL's characeristics) would have knocked the stuffing out of him tbh, irrespective of his position in a midfield central two.

 

Out on the left was the best bet ( where he was deployed early, with Bernard doing the running) but we already had that attack dynamic on the right with Solano aided by Hughes' legwork & Bellamy's moonlighting on the wing. We needed at least one winger that could press on the break, as a ball-carrier - and we already had Robert filling that role.

[Mole_Toonfan]

 

Viana was always one of those who i think what kind of been, would have been class in the 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 we have dabbled with under Pardew. ( as long as their is no hoofing)

 

Was always a quality footballer but a case of not fitting into what we need, shame really.

[ponsaelius]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_UEFA_Super_Cup

 

That Lazio team is the season they won the scudetto too. Sven couldn't really have failed.

[Disco]

http://football-picture.org/data/media/41/Raul_19298t.jpg

Super striker or lucky because he cemented a place at a big team?

[Village Idiot]

I'll sit this one out.

[Fenham Mag]

He was fucking class.

[Beren]

He was fucking class.

[Disco]

For me at the turn of the century he had claim to be the #1 striker in the world despite never being a true striker IMO. Perhaps that speaks volumes about who was about then but either way he was always predominately a joy to watch.

[ponsaelius]

Mint in the early 00s from what I remember. In his latter years lived off his reputation a lot, before a very commendable swansong with Schalke.

 

Bet it absolutely sickens him how long he was the flag bearer for an underperforming national team and that they've had so much success since he packed it in.

[Disco]

Mint in the early 00s from what I remember. In his latter years lived off his reputation a lot, before a very commendable swansong with Schalke.

 

Bet it absolutely sickens him how long he was the flag bearer for an underperforming national team and that they've had so much success since he packed it in.

 

Player whose role in that team became outmoded perhaps? Bit like at RM. Saying that he worked a treat at Schalke.

[Jordan]

Would have been my favourite non nufc player if it wasn't for Del Piero. Great to watch.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Brilliant footballer and his goals don't even tell half the story, ridiculous movement and touch and he was a good passer to boot. I think he could have achieved more also ( on an individual level at least) and was somewhat held back by Madrid's appetite to buy anyone and everyone.

 

He had a great partnership with Morientes and Madrid broke it up for Ronaldo and honestly as mouth-watering as it seems on paper it never really worked IMO.

 

As mentioned in the 90s and early 00s he was f*cking class and how Owen beat him to the Balon D'or in 2001 is just

 

I always seem to remember him then having a few years off the boil and then coming back again when Madrid signed Van Nistelrooy, who like Morientes he seemed to have a great rapport with before eventually having his swansong with Schalke where he did a lot better than i expected and huge respect for that.

 

I should mention though while Spain always underperformed with him i don't think Spain would have been as successful as they have been with Raul in the side....

 

Raul liked to drop deep a lot and that would have limited the midfields influence in my book, Spain's initial success was due to the runs of Villa and Torres and i don't think Raul replacing one of them would have led to similar results.

 

With that said though, a legend of the game and one of Spain's best ever players.

 

[Guest firetotheworks]

Good, but immensely overrated imo.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Good, but immensely overrated imo.

 

Despite my lavish praise of him just now, i agree with that in some aspects maybe not immensely but i can definitely see where you're coming from.

[Tooj]

One of the most intelligent centre forwards I've ever seen. Fantastic finishing ability too. I'd actually compare a young pre-injury Robbie Fowler to him. Similar type of finishing ability even if Fowler never achieved that potential.

 

Although I must say I absolutely detest Rául due to the way he and Guti often went on behind the scenes at Madrid.

[Beren]

One of the most intelligent centre forwards I've ever seen. Fantastic finishing ability too. I'd actually compare a young pre-injury Robbie Fowler to him. Similar type of finishing ability even if Fowler never achieved that potential.

 

Although I must say I absolutely detest Rául due to the way he and Guti often went on behind the scenes at Madrid.

 

Don't know much about this - presumably using his 'Golden Boy of Real' status to get his own way on things he ought not to have authority on?

 

Anyway, I think he was fantastic with great natural instincts, finesse and incredible finishing. I think he's miles better than David Villa, for example, who I do think is a touch overrated. [/tin hat]