Best Central Midfielder In The World?

eirebhoy

Pirlo's an odd one. He plays the holding role but is poor defensively. He does generally need Gattuso and Ambrosini or equivalent players beside him. I still love him though because tactically he's a bloody genius.

Vokes

Those folks at that Milan Lab should try work out a way of splicing dna from Pirlo, Gattuso, Kaka together - there's your complete CM :cool:

KdjaCL

SofaKing wrote:

Those folks at that Milan Lab should try work out a way of splicing dna from Pirlo, Gattuso, Kaka together - there's your complete CM :cool:

or getting ronaldo fit.


kdjac

An Citeog

KdjaCL wrote:

or getting ronaldo fit.


kdjac

I think the other would be easier!

LuckyLloyd

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Theres a scale from 1-100 you see.

1 Absolutely God awful
2 Woeful
3 Crap
4 Poor
5 Mediocre
6 Average
7 Above Average
8 Good
9 Very Good
10 Great
11 Exceptional
100 Le Tissier

@Pighead: I'm 23.

As I said earlier in this thread, I thought Le Tiss was wonderful...when he was interested. Overall he was a chronic underachiever, who was a liabillity on a bad day. And he had more bad days than good days in his career. And in terms of mental characteristics and qualities that define great athletes (determination, application, ambition, etc) - he was sorely lacking. He could have been a "great" player. But he didn't seem to be bothered.

Peyton Manning

KdjaCL wrote:

or getting ronaldo fit.


kdjac

Ridiculous comment, have you seen Ronaldo lately?

Xavi6

LuckyLloyd wrote:

Kinkladze and Le Tessier weren't "great" players. lol. Shearer is an exception that helps to prove the rule.

Kinkladze was a God, as was Le Tiss. If either of them played for one of the 'top' clubs I think you'd have a different opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud7FLTne6Mg

iloveireland

Ye i never put the name in.

I was obviously talking about Pirlo though and not Kaka. How could Pirlo not be in the polls???????? If Italy didnt have Pirlo, they wouldnt have won the world cup. If Milan didnt have Pirlo, they wouldnt have won the champions league. He is about as close to a perfect center midfielder that you will get around europe so it is rediculous not to include him.

Pighead

LuckyLloyd wrote:

@Pighead: I'm 23.

As I said earlier in this thread, I thought Le Tiss was wonderful...when he was interested. Overall he was a chronic underachiever, who was a liabillity on a bad day. And he had more bad days than good days in his career. And in terms of mental characteristics and qualities that define great athletes (determination, application, ambition, etc) - he was sorely lacking. He could have been a "great" player. But he didn't seem to be bothered.

No offence buddy but you were 10 years old when he was at his peak. I think you're just spouting off other peoples opinions here.

LuckyLloyd

Xavi6 wrote:

Kinkladze was a God, as was Le Tiss. If either of them played for one of the 'top' clubs I think you'd have a different opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud7FLTne6Mg

Individual moments of brilliance do not a great career make. Ya sure - if they had gone and tested themselves at big clubs I probably would have had a different opinion.

Nice link though.

LuckyLloyd

Pighead wrote:

No offence buddy but you were 10 years old when he was at his peak. I think you're just spouting off other peoples opinions here.

You will tend to have some memory of football games that you watched when you were 10+. But not a very refined one.

However, as you will no doubt be aware, sky do re - runs of old seasons and games from time to time - and one can see him in action!!

Also though, it is inevitable that people's viewpoints are formed in some way by what they read and hear. That is true of most things.

Pighead

LuckyLloyd wrote:

You will tend to have some memory of football games that you watched when you were 10+. But not a very refined one.

However, as you will no doubt be aware, sky do re - runs of old seasons and games from time to time - and one can see him in action!!

Also though, it is inevitable that people's viewpoints are formed in some way by what they read and hear. That is true of most things.

Yep, Sky do indeed do re-runs of old seasons. Thing is though that they tend to pick out the best bits from that particular season ie Le Tiss etc best bits. They're not going to show a 0-0 game with Southampton away to Norwich where Le Tiss has a stinker of a game.

So if anything those Sky re-runs should have made you form a very positive opinion of old Matt.

raven136

i voted for xavi,just doesnt lose the ball but am very surprised to see Gattuso in there.Very limited player in my opinion,poor passer,great tackler no doubt and fantastic work ethic but far away from world class

herbieflowers

Gattuso is probably the best in the world at the job he does...in terms of central midfielders though, it takes a lot more to be a midfielder of, let's say, Scholes' ilk, than someone akin to Gattuso...tenacity, energy, defending - in a way they're skills / attributes which can be learned and honed

eirebhoy

Quote from Gattuso last week:
"I'd love to score more goals than I do but I often look down at my feet and say to them 'You buggers! You never bring me any joy'. I was born with square feet.

"I often say to Carlo Ancelotti that if I'd been born with talent in my feet then Milan wouldn't know where to store all the trophies we'd have won."

Seaneh

Andrea Prilo.

That is all.

from that list, Cesc.

GuanYin

millersangel wrote:

Apologies for the false assumption

I'm beginning to think your problem is that you make an awful lot of false assumptions.

Fabregas has been an exceptional player for 2 seasons as everyone has suggested.

To say that he doesn't perform on big occasions or against big teams if absolutely laughable and an incredible big arrow pointing to your ignorance on the topic that you are so heavily embroiled in.

Apart from his form against the big 4 last season, his displays in the CL? The display against Juve 2 years ago??!?

Mr Alan

Christ psi, I said at the outset of this thread that i do not watch Arsenal week in week out, leave it out on the false assumption remark.

My point boils down to this, how many of the 46 people who have voted for Fabregas at this point, who have done so at the end of last season?

Obviously, it is an impossible question to answer, but i think everyone knows that the figure would have been drastically less. At the moment his form is incredible, but i do not think he is the best midfielder in the world, simple as.

An Citeog

millersangel wrote:

Christ psi, I said at the outset of this thread that i do not watch Arsenal week in week out, leave it out on the false assumption remark.

My point boils down to this, how many of the 46 people who have voted for Fabregas at this point, who have done so at the end of last season?

Obviously, it is an impossible question to answer, but i think everyone knows that the figure would have been drastically less. At the moment his form is incredible, but i do not think he is the best midfielder in the world, simple as.

I agree with millersangel here! :eek:

Fabregas is on fire at the moment but there's a hell of a long way to go this season. Calling Fabregas the best central midfielder in the world is doing a disservice to players like Pirlo, Xavi and even Paul Scholes who have been performing at that level and above for years.

For the record, Fabregas is only going to get better and he will most likely become the best central midfielder in the world, he's just not quite there yet.

GuanYin

Well I think the OP asked about current form. It's early to talk about anything else but current form so on that alone, it's fair to make a case that he's playing better than anyone else.

and millersangel, you have a tendency to make comments such as the Fabregas one where you make a generalised sweeping statement about something you don't know about and then complain when people react badly to you.

Perhaps if you stopped such things you'd get less grief.

An Citeog

I don't think 8 games into the season is enough time to judge. The OP also included Xabi Alonso and Lampard in the poll who certainly wouldn't be up there at the moment.

Mr Alan

psi wrote:

and millersangel, you have a tendency to make comments such as the Fabregas one where you make a generalised sweeping statement about something you don't know about and then complain when people react badly to you.

Perhaps if you stopped such things you'd get less grief.

People who use the forum a lot are always gonna say somethings without totally thinking them through...i did that in this instance (although to honest,i am hard pressed to think of another example when i've done it )

wat i said about Cesc, is the same as people saying crap about Gerrard,Lampard,Ronaldo or anyone, they are entitled to say watever they want, if people think they are wrong, all they need to do is explain their point, like was done with me-then i admitted i was wrong.

When i made my point btw, the only game i could rememember of Arsenal playing against the top 4 the league game in Anfield, i presume he was playing in that, his impact??? Didn't think so. Also Arsenals Champions League campaign hardly set the world on fire.

PS: the only people who gimme grief on this board are utd fans who dont like me posting in "their" thread.

Woohoo new name

_blank_

How did you get a new name?

I had to pay for that.:mad:

Mr Alan

Had to pay for it too, figured i use the site enough bit of a financial contribution may be due! especially considering all i do is **** talk

eirebhoy

An Citeog wrote:

I don't think 8 games into the season is enough time to judge.

As I said earlier, I thought he was the best central midfielder in the world alongside Pirlo 6 months ago. His current form just puts him in a league of his own. If he goes back to last seasons form he's still one of the best.

Andrew 83

Deco or Pirlo for me

Fuzzy_Dunlop

eirebhoy wrote:

As I said earlier, I thought he was the best central midfielder in the world alongside Pirlo 6 months ago. His current form just puts him in a league of his own. If he goes back to last seasons form he's still one of the best.

Precisely.

Mr Alan wrote:

When i made my point btw, the only game i could rememember of Arsenal playing against the top 4 the league game in Anfield, i presume he was playing in that, his impact??? Didn't think so.

And what about the league game at the Emirates, or the Carling Cup game at Anfield? He played in both of those as far as i can remember and things went pretty well:)

MrJoeSoap

playa3 wrote:

And what about the league game at the Emirates, or the Carling Cup game at Anfield? He played in both of those as far as i can remember and things went pretty well:)

You don't get it do you? It's called "selective memory loss"!

Mr Alan

I'll plead nothing but permanent memory loss when it comes to those games

tdv

Why is Gerrard on this list? And why is he second place? A bunch of muppets voting for an other muppet. With all due respect to the people who voted for him.

KdjaCL

Archimedes wrote:

Ridiculous comment, have you seen Ronaldo lately?

Ehh no, have you seen him playing if so let MIlan know where as he sure as hell isnt playing for them.

kdjac

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Seaneh

KdjaCL wrote:

or getting ronaldo fit.


kdjac

They've dont that, he's back for the next round of CL games I think.
He's lost ANOTHER 1.7k aswell.
He must look like a ****ing model now.

An Citeog

Seaneh wrote:

They've dont that, he's back for the next round of CL games I think.
He's lost ANOTHER 1.7k aswell.
He must look like a ****ing model now.

He may be physically fit now but Ronaldo hasn't been mentally fit in a long time. I hope we get to see the Ronaldo of old again but I'll reserve judgement until that happens.

herbieflowers

He may not be the same player but he's still a poacher when fit, as good an anyone in and around the box imo

Seaneh

I don't buy all this Ronaldo is past it bollox, the man has never failed to score goals when he is played.

he is a genius.

Mr Alan

Worth noting that Cesc said after the game yesterday that he rates Steven Gerrard as the best around, up there with Kaka

MrJoeSoap

Of course he would say that though. Gerrard said that the world is Cesc's oyster as well.

The world keeps-a-spinning.

Xavi6

Mr Alan wrote: »

Worth noting that Cesc said after the game yesterday that he rates Steven Gerrard as the best around, up there with Kaka

Meh none of the mentioned will ever be Xavi.

Mr Alan

The world is Cescs oyster though, Gerrard is right. Still no Gerrard though

MrJoeSoap

No bias there I'm sure. I know which one I'd rather watch.

Mr Alan

and i'm sure there is no bias with you either?

fact is Fabregas was quiet yesterday when Alonso was on.

MrJoeSoap

No bias here, I'm a Southampton fan.

Mr Alan

with a hint of an anti-liverpool vibe

kinaldo

I've been wrongly accused many a time of being a Liverpool fan...

But Cesc all the way for me.

Melion

How can anyone say Fabregas is the best midfielder in the world? He's had a good season so far and will no doubt be one of the best in a few years, but he's not there yet.

Royale with Cheese

How can you say he will be no doubt one of the best in a few years then?

Melion

Because he has potential and is starting to fulfill it. He's not on the same level as Kaka, Pirlo, Xavi or Gerrard just yet

Nunu

Melion wrote: »

Because he has potential and is starting to fulfill it. He's not on the same level as Kaka, Pirlo, Xavi or Gerrard just yet

You were going so well until you included that:p

Pepe LeFrits

Melion wrote: »

Because he has potential and is starting to fulfill it. He's not on the same level as Kaka, Pirlo, Xavi or Gerrard just yet

Indeed, the hype machine hasn't had enough time to spin its web with Cesc yet.