How highly do you rate... Robert Pires?

[Tooj]

In my honest opinion Michael Essien in his prime was truly a world class box to box midfielder.

 

The problem was that prime coincided with a move to Chelsea who used him incorrectly and never played to his strengths. At Lyon I used to love watching him play going up and down, constantly running for 90 minutes and scoring some fantastic goals to boot. At Chelsea he was often played out of position due to his versatility and they often used him as some sort of replacement for Makelele which was such a waste of his engine and ability to get up and down the pitch. Chelsea should've allowed him and Lampard to get up and down, yet there were often over cautious in their approach which meant Essien suffered.

[Ketsbaia]

For a while, he was amazing - the best of his type. Absolutely world class but then injuries began

[Mole_Toonfan]

I never rated him nearly as highly as most people, he was a good player but nothing like he was hyped to be.

 

Yaya has surpassed him.

[The College Dropout]

Aye for awhile, maybe just a 2 year spell where he was often played in defence. He was pound for pound the best central midfielder in the world or at least in the top 10. Had it all. Long and short passing, could play it quick, terrific engine, high work rate, great in the tackle, could score a few goals. The injuries took it out of him unfortunately but he contributed strongly for a period when British teams had the best central midfields outside of Barca.

 

Prime Lampard/Essien/Makelele vs. Prime Alonso/Mascherano/Gerrard

[Beren]

In my honest opinion Michael Essien in his prime was truly a world class box to box midfielder.

 

The problem was that prime coincided with a move to Chelsea who used him incorrectly and never played to his strengths. At Lyon I used to love watching him play going up and down, constantly running for 90 minutes and scoring some fantastic goals to boot. At Chelsea he was often played out of position due to his versatility and they often used him as some sort of replacement for Makelele which was such a waste of his engine and ability to get up and down the pitch. Chelsea should've allowed him and Lampard to get up and down, yet there were often over cautious in their approach which meant Essien suffered.

 

That's sort of driving at part of the reason he will go underrated IMO. He did sacrifice his full complement of abilities for the system, for the team, and the team was successful as a result. I don't think Lampard had the engine to do both as effectively with the same endurance. Would be interesting to know if he preferred/enjoyed being a DM more than an authentic box-to-box player. Their system was ultimately built around Lampard, really - and as you say he was bought to fill the Makelele void.

 

Injuries properly knacked him - as I guess they do for most high intensity players. Don't like seeing post-injury great players.

 

Oh, and as an aside, just to re-ignite this for no reason: Anita is not a DM!

[The College Dropout]

I never rated him nearly as highly as most people, he was a good player but nothing like he was hyped to be.

 

Yaya has surpassed him.

 

 

Nope. Yaya scores more goals but he's nowhere near the total package Essien was at central midfield. Yaya's best performances pretty much come as a #10 behind a striker with little defensive responsibilities like the way Fellaini now plays for Everton.

 

If you're talking Central midfield, box-to-box Essien takes it comfortably. Yay's a bgf powerful lad but his game is played at a slower tempo than Essien and Essien has a far better engine and work rate. Yaya's almost lazy at CM, definitely in comparison to Essien.

[Guest palnese]

Essien in his prime is possibly the most complete midfielder I've ever seen.

[Village Idiot]

I never rated him nearly as highly as most people, he was a good player but nothing like he was hyped to be.

 

Yaya has surpassed him.

 

 

Nope. Yaya scores more goals but he's nowhere near the total package Essien was at central midfield. Yaya's best performances pretty much come as a #10 behind a striker with little defensive responsibilities like the way Fellaini now plays for Everton.

 

If you're talking Central midfield, box-to-box Essien takes it comfortably. Yay's a bgf powerful lad but his game is played at a slower tempo than Essien and Essien has a far better engine and work rate. Yaya's almost lazy at CM, definitely in comparison to Essien.

 

Yaya's tactical discipline and positioning has always been poor. He's a player that you have to accommodate in order to enjoy his strengths; you didn't need to do that with Essien.

 

Essien's decline has been pretty tragic, and he cuts a rather poor figure playing fullback at Real Madrid, but I agree that in his prime he was the most complete midfielder there was.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

In my honest opinion Michael Essien in his prime was truly a world class box to box midfielder.

 

The problem was that prime coincided with a move to Chelsea who used him incorrectly and never played to his strengths. At Lyon I used to love watching him play going up and down, constantly running for 90 minutes and scoring some fantastic goals to boot. At Chelsea he was often played out of position due to his versatility and they often used him as some sort of replacement for Makelele which was such a waste of his engine and ability to get up and down the pitch. Chelsea should've allowed him and Lampard to get up and down, yet there were often over cautious in their approach which meant Essien suffered.

 

Spot on. Essien made jizz trickle out of my Japs eye. He had literally everything I'd want to see in a midfielder coming from Lyon, Chelsea didn't see the best of him and it was often their own fault.

 

 

 

Essien's decline has been pretty tragic, and he cuts a rather poor figure playing fullback at Real Madrid, but I agree that in his prime he was the most complete midfielder there was.

 

So glad I haven't seen this. was hard enough watching him trudge around the field at Chelsea.

 

 

[Mole_Toonfan]

I never rated him nearly as highly as most people, he was a good player but nothing like he was hyped to be.

 

Yaya has surpassed him.

 

 

Nope. Yaya scores more goals but he's nowhere near the total package Essien was at central midfield. Yaya's best performances pretty much come as a #10 behind a striker with little defensive responsibilities like the way Fellaini now plays for Everton.

 

If you're talking Central midfield, box-to-box Essien takes it comfortably. Yay's a bgf powerful lad but his game is played at a slower tempo than Essien and Essien has a far better engine and work rate. Yaya's almost lazy at CM, definitely in comparison to Essien.

 

Better passer, better dribbler, better close control, much higher football intelligence. and more creative..... Yeah his engine and work rate is a lot higher but that doesn't make him a better player.

 

Some of the passes Yaya has picked out playing as a CM Essien can only dream of.

 

Anyway i realise my opinion is extremely unpopular but its how i feel....

 

 

Essien in his prime is possibly the most complete midfielder I've ever seen.

 

Essien couldn't lace Vieira's boots in regards to being complete, Ballack was more complete also, what i'm talking about in regards to his hype.

 

Essien was fantastic defensively and as mentioned had a ridiculous engine but when you talk about being complete you must consider creativity and goalscoring threat and quite frankly Essien isn't in the league of some of these players in regards to that.

[Tooj]

Ballack was another one wasted by Chelsea. Lampard has been a great servant to Chelsea don't get me wrong but in their respective primes Ballack was better player than Lampard and he never looked the player at Chelsea either due to playing a more restricted role at Chelsea. It worked for them so you could say they've done the right thing it's just frustrating for us non fans who want to watch great players play and we never saw any of that from Ballack whilst at Chelsea.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Ballack was another one wasted by Chelsea. Lampard has been a great servant to Chelsea don't get me wrong but in their respective primes Ballack was better player than Lampard and he never looked the player at Chelsea either due to playing a more restricted role at Chelsea. It worked for them so you could say they've done the right thing it's just frustrating for us non fans who want to watch great players play and we never saw any of that from Ballack whilst at Chelsea.

 

Agree completely, Ballack was probably the best midfielder in the world at Leverkusen and Bayern or one of them at least.

 

So unlucky though, so many runners up medals 

[Ronaldo]

Ballack was another one wasted by Chelsea. Lampard has been a great servant to Chelsea don't get me wrong but in their respective primes Ballack was better player than Lampard and he never looked the player at Chelsea either due to playing a more restricted role at Chelsea. It worked for them so you could say they've done the right thing it's just frustrating for us non fans who want to watch great players play and we never saw any of that from Ballack whilst at Chelsea.

 

Do you watch enough German football to make that call, by the way?

 

For whatever reason Ballack looked awful during his last 2 seasons at Chelsea.

[The College Dropout]

I never rated him nearly as highly as most people, he was a good player but nothing like he was hyped to be.

 

Yaya has surpassed him.

 

 

Nope. Yaya scores more goals but he's nowhere near the total package Essien was at central midfield. Yaya's best performances pretty much come as a #10 behind a striker with little defensive responsibilities like the way Fellaini now plays for Everton.

 

If you're talking Central midfield, box-to-box Essien takes it comfortably. Yay's a bgf powerful lad but his game is played at a slower tempo than Essien and Essien has a far better engine and work rate. Yaya's almost lazy at CM, definitely in comparison to Essien.

 

Yaya's tactical discipline and positioning has always been poor. He's a player that you have to accommodate in order to enjoy his strengths; you didn't need to do that with Essien.

 

Essien's decline has been pretty tragic, and he cuts a rather poor figure playing fullback at Real Madrid, but I agree that in his prime he was the most complete midfielder there was.

 

 

Very true on both counts. 20 years ago he would have been forced to retire by now. He's been spliced up to shreds and he's a shadow now unfortunately.

[The College Dropout]

I never rated him nearly as highly as most people, he was a good player but nothing like he was hyped to be.

 

Yaya has surpassed him.

 

 

Nope. Yaya scores more goals but he's nowhere near the total package Essien was at central midfield. Yaya's best performances pretty much come as a #10 behind a striker with little defensive responsibilities like the way Fellaini now plays for Everton.

 

If you're talking Central midfield, box-to-box Essien takes it comfortably. Yay's a bgf powerful lad but his game is played at a slower tempo than Essien and Essien has a far better engine and work rate. Yaya's almost lazy at CM, definitely in comparison to Essien.

 

Better passer, better dribbler, better close control, much higher football intelligence. and more creative..... Yeah his engine and work rate is a lot higher but that doesn't make him a better player.

 

Some of the passes Yaya has picked out playing as a CM Essien can only dream of.

 

Anyway i realise my opinion is extremely unpopular but its how i feel....

 

 

Essien in his prime is possibly the most complete midfielder I've ever seen.

 

Essien couldn't lace Vieira's boots in regards to being complete, Ballack was more complete also, what i'm talking about in regards to his hype.

 

Essien was fantastic defensively and as mentioned had a ridiculous engine but when you talk about being complete you must consider creativity and goalscoring threat and quite frankly Essien isn't in the league of some of these players in regards to that.

 

Yaya is a better at making powerful runs, that's all you've said that's true. Better passing? Nope. Yaya can do more with the ball when given time and space (see his assist against us) but Essien thought a lot quicker as well as playing a lot quicker.

 

At the end of the day, Yaya Toure's best position isn't even as a box-to-box player so I don't get your point. I know people (going to include VI here) who all say the same thing about Yaya. So I have to question how much you've watched him and your overall football knowledge. Vieira/Essien is a far better comparison and too close to call imo. Essien's scoring record is better than Vieira's at every level too despite playing at least 1/5 of games in defence.

[The College Dropout]

Ballack looked very good whenever Lampard was injured tbf.

[Guest firetotheworks]

At on point I thought he was the best player in the league. Declined pretty rapidly since then though.

[Village Idiot]

At on point I thought he was the best player in the league. Declined pretty rapidly since then though.

 

Aye, his first major injury occurred on the back of what I thought was his best season at Chelsea. And it was downhill from there.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Yaya is a better at making powerful runs, that's all you've said that's true. Better passing? Nope. Yaya can do more with the ball when given time and space (see his assist against us) but Essien thought a lot quicker as well as playing a lot quicker.

 

At the end of the day, Yaya Toure's best position isn't even as a box-to-box player so I don't get your point. I know people (going to include VI here) who all say the same thing about Yaya. So I have to question how much you've watched him and your overall football knowledge. Vieira/Essien is a far better comparison and too close to call imo. Essien's scoring record is better than Vieira's at every level too despite playing at least 1/5 of games in defence.

 

I never said he's the same i just said he's a better player IMO, i agree Vieira and Essien is a better comparison and tbh Vieira is comfortably above him.

 

To say anything else is overhyping Essien, Vieira is one of the most complete midfielders of the last 20 years while Essien might have been the most complete midfielder at the time he was never as good as Vieira in his prime.

 

Its not even a debate for me, Essien was a very good player but he's not on the level of someone who is probably the best box-to-box midfielder in the history of the Premier League.

 

Fair enough if you see it differently but i can't see any comparison to Vieira in terms of quality and what he achieved.

[Disco]

 

Edit: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1lwd5VmVW1qfs0m2o1_400.jpg

[The College Dropout]

Vieira did it for a much longer period so I would agree. Vieira would make my Prem XI Essien wouldn't. We are talking at least a 5 year Prime to 3 years max. Vieira defines a whole Premiership era pretty much.

 

 

But P4P i've never seen a more complete central midfielder than Essien, as a "role player" for much of his prime too. Could score beauties, excellent range of passing long or short, warrior etc.

 

Yaya comparison is African apples and oranges.

[TRC]

Essien was immense, shame about the injuries

[Beren]

http://i.imgur.com/j7GKF4I.jpg

[Sifu]

Rock.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Very good one

 

One of the most underrated CBs of his generation IMO and honestly getting rid was one of Fergie's biggest mistakes.

 

Was fantastic towards the end of his career at Milan too alongside Cafu, Maldini and Nesta ( what a f*cking defense btw  )