Sven Botman

[Kid Icarus]

5 minutes ago, joeyt said:

How do people rate him compared to Woodgate in terms of our best centre backs in the PL?

 

Not quite there yet, but the argument can be made on his availability alone. Schar on the other hand is already there for me as the best CB I've seen at the club. Not only that he's probably the most criminally underrated player I can think of both inside and outside of our fanbase. 

[Yorkie]

He isn't even the best CB in the team currently for me.  

 

Tbh at this point I can't remember enough about Woodgate to directly and fairly compare him to someone I've recently seen play ~50 times. Woodgate was obviously brilliant because we were a different team with him in it and he ended up moving to Real Madrid, but Sven has the potential to be one of the best in the business. 

[The College Dropout]

"The best ability is availability"

[MrRaspberryJam]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

"The best ability is availability"

 

You're quite the philosopher. 

[Kid Icarus]

These things can't help but bring out the habitual lister in me

 

1. Schar

2. Woodgate

3. Albert

4. Botman

5. Coloccini

 

Something like that

[dcmk]

I think we are under selling Woodgate a fair bit, let's not forget the players he had to play alongside at the time.

[joeyt]

I'm convinced Lejeune could have been great if he had more luck with injuries and not had Bruce

[jackyboy]

He just goes about his business without any fuss. Great defender and will only get better.

[The Prophet]

I love Schar as much as the next man and he was as good as, if not better than Botman last season. Botman is a more intelligent defender though. His positioning and footballing brain are superb.

 

Great partnership though. It'll be tough finding a replacement for Schar.

[joeyt]

I think we had a few games under Rafa where we had Schar, Fede and Lejeune in a back 3/5 and it was dreamy

[jack j]

Already played 13 more games than Woodgate did for us

 

[Lush Vlad]

Run out of ways to describe how good he is.  Arguably our most important player now and along with the rest of the back 5.  Keeping him fit, the same as last season, is going to have a massive bearing on our season.  As alexf rightly pointed out.

 

Ando doing his maniacal laughing again when he scored  

 

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Lush Vlad

[TheBrownBottle]

He reminds me of Vidic more than anyone else I’ve seen.  Just oozes competence and class. 

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

12 hours ago, Kid Icarus said:

These things can't help but bring out the habitual lister in me

 

1. Schar

2. Woodgate

3. Albert

4. Botman

5. Coloccini

 

Something like that

Think I'd have been too young to understand the art of defending around the Albert era. 

[LionOfGosforth]

Albert was great, so classy and different to what we'd had before. I also have a bit of a soft spot for Howey. He came into the side early in the 92/93 season and I recall being amazed at how easily he transitioned from a modest Forward the season before to a dominant CB.

 

Think it was Luton at home around the third or fourth game of that season and he just bossed Mick Harford around like he'd been a CB all his career. Not gonna try to compare him to Botman or Woodgate like but I found him infinitely preferable as a basic defender to someone like Colo.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said:

Albert was great, so classy and different to what we'd had before. I also have a bit of a soft spot for Howey. He came into the side early in the 92/93 season and I recall being amazed at how easily he transitioned from a modest Forward the season before to a dominant CB.

 

Think it was Luton at home around the third or fourth game of that season and he just bossed Mick Harford around like he'd been a CB all his career. Not gonna try to compare him to Botman or Woodgate like but I found him infinitely preferable as a basic defender to someone like Colo.

Aye, if howey had stayed fit I think he would have excelled. Great era that was of local lads with clark, watson, and Elliott. Even alan Thompson was a canny player 

[LionOfGosforth]

8 minutes ago, Pancrate1892 said:

Aye, if howey had stayed fit I think he would have excelled. Great era that was of local lads with clark, watson, and Elliott. Even alan Thompson was a canny player 

 

All top notch local talent. Alan Thompson was a cracking player, hated that he had to leave to excel at places like Bolton and Villa. 

[samptime29]

Be class if Botman can get a few goals now after scoring. 

[chapdelaine]

Botman is class and hopefully bomb proof but if woodgate wasn’t made of glass he could’ve been the best ever,Thierry Henry never got the better of him a he was world class at that time

 

[TheBrownBottle]

Woodgate is my generation’s Tony Green (ask your granddad, young’uns).  Anyone who didn’t see him looks at the number of games he played and raises an eyebrow.  Those who did see him, know.  

[r0cafella]

As others have said, Woodgate had it all bar the body and the rumoured professionalism.
 

It speaks volumes that even being a crock Real Madrid still coughed up 15+m for him.  

[Myleftboot]

20 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

As others have said, Woodgate had it all bar the body and the rumoured professionalism.
 

It speaks volumes that even being a crock Real Madrid still coughed up 15+m for him.  

He had a debut to forget anarl. ??

[Nucasol]

38 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

As others have said, Woodgate had it all bar the body and the rumoured professionalism.
 

It speaks volumes that even being a crock Real Madrid still coughed up 15+m for him.  

Great player but between the body, booze and bugle he was never destined to have the career of a Terry, Ferdinand or Campbell despite being more talented than any of them.

[The College Dropout]

I don't think he was more talented than them all like.

 

Over time, I've had less respect for Woodgate as a player due to the lack of professionalism. I can be more forgiving of a forward with a lack of professionalism than a defender. You need that little something as an attacker. As a defender. Being orderly is part of your job. If it's to the point it's impacting your fitness, it's down to you.

[Nucasol]

Just now, The College Dropout said:

I don't think he was more talented than them all like.

 

Over time, I've had less respect for Woodgate as a player due to the lack of professionalism. I can be more forgiving of a forward with a lack of professionalism than a defender. You need that little something as an attacker. As a defender. Being orderly is part of your job. If it's to the point it's impacting your fitness, it's down to you.

All great defenders but personally think Woodgate had uncanny ability. His marshalling of Drogba in the 0-0 at SJP in the UEFA Cup semi final was unreal. Compare that to the shitshow at the Velodrome once we had to rely on Hughsie, AO’B and Bumble.

 

Agree that his off field antics mean he was potentially the architect of his own downfall but was it chicken or egg around injuries causing indiscretions or indiscretions causing injuries?