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How highly do you rate... Robert Pires?


Beren

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But, but, he was a left mid on CM 97/98!

 

Played his best football for Lazio in the middle. Slightly higher up but would also get back and help in the final third every now and then.

 

Can't say I really saw a great deal of him tbh, he was just class on CM :lol:

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He was a great playmaker, Argentina could use someone like him now tbh.

 

SAF couldn't use him properly but that isn't a surprise practically every attacking midfielder has failed under SAF.

 

But my god what a team they would have had if Veron had adapted.

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The fucking man.

 

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

 

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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:thup:

 

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.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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.

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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.

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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.

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