Best Central Midfielder In The World?

Mr Alan

a look at the above poll would beg to differ!

Smegball

Would have to be Pirlo, although Fabregas will definitely become the best in a few years if he keeps up his consistency.
Would love to see Fabregas replace Scholes :P

aidan24326

I can't remember who I voted for at the time, Kaka I'd imagine. But Fabregas has been superb lately, I can't imagine Arsenal would sell him now at any price.

kryogen

i probably go with essien to be honest out of that list, followed by cesc and then xavi i think........ some glaring omissions have already been pointed out so i wont bother re hashing those or even throwing in any more omissions, but i think there are much better players out there that arent on the list, especially on current form, ahh dammit i have to say it, fernando gago should be there, this kid is special!!!!!!!!!

cson

kryogen wrote: »

but i think there are much better players out there that arent on the list, especially on current form, ahh dammit i have to say it, fernando gago should be there, this kid is special!!!!!!!!!

Gago is a winger afaik. The list is Centre Mids only, hence no Kaka as he's a predominantly attacking mid.

Xavi6

cson wrote: »

Gago is a winger afaik.

I coulda sworn Gago was a defensive midfielder at Boca.

Melion

Gago is a defensive midfielder, not a winger and i dont has ever played there for Real

ButcherOfNog

I'm a pool fan, and how 21 people have so far voted for Gerrard I just do not know. Alonso is a far more complete midfielder if they wanted to show a Liverpool bias.

Melion

Alonso is not a more complete midfielder than Gerrard

eirebhoy

Alonso isn't more complete but he's a lot more tactically aware and a better decision maker than Gerrard.

Mitch Connor

eirebhoy wrote: »

Alonso isn't more complete but he's a lot more tactically aware and a better decision maker than Gerrard.

I'd argue he is.

Better passing, better control, better tackling, better defensive awareness.

He doesn't have Gerrards shot, but he has a damn good one.

The only thing gerrard is better at is shooting, so for me Alonso is the better all round midfielder, in that we are not talking just AM traits.

cson

I stand corrected, Gago is a defensive midfielder. Having said that he still doesn't deserve a place on the list just yet.

And I'd agree with Tauren re Gerrard. The Andy Gray hype machine more than anything.

kryogen

lol @ Diarra getting a place and not Gago so!!!

you said you wanted it based on current form? he has been a huge difference to Real Madrid this year, he has changed alot of games, his passing success is unbelievable aswell as his tackling, and although he doesnt chip in many goals he does get a few assists as he does get forward alot too. he is playing great at the moment. unlike gerrard, who did get a place on the list....hmmm

cson

I'll admit as much that I don't catch too much of La Liga and mostly its the Barca matches that seem to be on when I watch. He's only played 18 games for Madrid all the same though.

Xavi6

cson wrote: »

I'll admit as much that I don't catch too much of La Liga and mostly its the Barca matches that seem to be on when I watch. He's only played 18 games for Madrid all the same though.

And a fair few for Boca too. That's the problem with this poll, it's only geared towards European based players. Gago has been quality for a good while now but it's only when he moves to Europe that people begin to recognise him. I know it's because La Liga gets more exposure but it's the fundamental flaw in these kinda threads.

cson

I'd argue that Europe has the best teams and leagues in the world and to be considered one of the best, you must test yourself against the best and therefore Europe is the place to go to do that. Thats only imo though.

Xavi6

cson wrote: »

I'd argue that Europe has the best teams and leagues in the world and to be considered one of the best, you must test yourself against the best and therefore Europe is the place to go to do that. Thats only imo though.

Europe is a bit vague though so I'm guessing you mean the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundeliga and maybe the French league. I'd say the leagues in Brazil and Argentina have enough talent to rival the latter two at least.

kryogen

he has only played 18 games for madrid cause its his first season!!!! how many games has anybody played for their new club in october? he made his international debut in 2004 afaik, can check it. he has been around for a while now and is a central midfielder of the highest quality! he played a fair few games for Boca Juniors before he went to Spain you know! wasnt born in a madrid jersey, much like Diego wasnt born in a Bremen jersey! there are some fantastic footballers playing in south america

lordgoat

Gago. top player. I voted for scholes, he won't be around for much longer and he's still a master at what he does. I also think it's a bit hard to pick one player from centre of midfield, it's always the parternership i look at how two players bring out the best in each other. Gattuso and Pirlo for example.

cson

Xavi6 wrote: »

Europe is a bit vague though so I'm guessing you mean the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundeliga and maybe the French league. I'd say the leagues in Brazil and Argentina have enough talent to rival the latter two at least.

Basically the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue Un have the monopoly over all the best players in the world. Those leagues are where the exposure and money is. You rarely see a European player at the top of their game move to the Brazilian/Argentinian leagues.

Doodee

Gareth Barry

Galvasean

Wow, Cesc is running away with it here. Last season he was great, but needed to score more goals to be considered properly. Now that he is scoring very frequently I would consider him the complete central midfielder.

odonnell

*cough*[barry ferguson]*cough*!!

cson

odonnell wrote: »

*cough*[barry ferguson]*cough*!!

The same Barry Ferguson that ran off home cos he couldn't hack it at Blackburn?

odonnell

yup...same one that got MotM 1 in 3 games for same blackburn

edit: incidentally i didnt vote just then as i cant actually decide. I think say gattuso does a far better job being his sort of player than fabregas, and so on... just no way to say whos the 'best'.

Melion

kryogen wrote: »

he has only played 18 games for madrid cause its his first season!!!! how many games has anybody played for their new club in october? he made his international debut in 2004 afaik, can check it. he has been around for a while now and is a central midfielder of the highest quality! he played a fair few games for Boca Juniors before he went to Spain you know! wasnt born in a madrid jersey, much like Diego wasnt born in a Bremen jersey! there are some fantastic footballers playing in south america

You know so much about him but you dont seem to know its his second season for Real

kryogen

i would bet good money your a liverpool fan melion, he has not completed a full season at Madrid, The transfer was agreed in December, 2006 for 20.4 million euro. he played for madrid the first time on the 7th of January 2007 i think, have to check that. so he then played most of the remaining league games that season, and he has played most of them this season too. check things out before you post, it doesnt make you look smart... maybe i should have said it was his first year at the club? or maybe i should PM you explaining every detail of what i post? let me know anyway

Melion

kryogen wrote: »

i would bet good money your a liverpool fan melion, he has not completed a full season at Madrid, The transfer was agreed in December, 2006 for 20.4 million euro. he played for madrid the first time on the 7th of January 2007 i think, have to check that. so he then played most of the remaining league games that season, and he has played most of them this season too. check things out before you post, it doesnt make you look smart... maybe i should have said it was his first year at the club? or maybe i should PM you explaining every detail of what i post? let me know anyway

Google is a great thing.

Ah but you didnt say that, you said he has played so few games cause its his
first season!!!!(And yes you put that many exclamation points).

And im not disputing what you said either, i think he will be one of the best midfielders to ever kick a ball. He has the look of a young redondo(is even the image of him), plays like him and hopefully he has the kind of career Redondo should have had.

eirebhoy

This Fabregas video was voted Best Compilation of the Year on the excellent soccerpulse forums:
http://www.dailymotion.com/oneshot1/video/x1u494_cesc-fabregas-by-oneshot/1

kinaldo

eirebhoy wrote: »

This Fabregas video was voted Best Compilation of the Year on the excellent soccerpulse forums:
http://www.dailymotion.com/oneshot1/video/x1u494_cesc-fabregas-by-oneshot/1

above compilation = end of discussion.

barely 20 years old ffs!!!

MrJoeSoap

Best compilation I've ever seen, best midfielder I've seen in a long, long time. Destined to be the best ever. Anyone who argues with that after watching that video better have a very good counter-argument.

Unearthly

Normally I'd say it's easy to make any player impressive with highlights but there is an awful lot of magical stuff in there in just over 3 years to say this player is worth the hype

Xavi6

Crazy thing about that video is that it features no footage from this season. He's unreal.

~Rebel~

Watching a video like that makes me really lament that Liverpool dont get the best out of Alonso. Those players are the ones to build teams around. Gerrard is an excellent player, but i think a team would be better served with him in a position to be receiving those pinpoint passes etc rather then trying to make them.

Alonso and Fabregas style players automatically make everyone else in the team better because they just make everything so much damn easier! That inch perfect ball means the receiver doesn't even need to beat a man, the pass has already done the work putting the received into the perfect position when they receive the ball.

Fabregas, for all his genius on the ball, i find the scariest thing about him is he's just so consistent! Anything he's been poor at in the past he's not only already worked on, but gotten exceptional at. To buy now, he's probably already one of the most expensive players in the world. With a player like him, you dont even necessarily need people like Ronaldinho or Messi.

Mr Alan

said it the other day, i'll say it again, Alonso had fabregas in his pocket at the weekend, the master dishing out lessons to the young up and comer!

Mitch Connor

you could argue it the other way too - what did alonso do before going off injured? Nothing. So you could say they cancelled each other out.

Mr Alan

true enough, but Alonso was more of a threat to Arsenal than Fabregas was to Liverpool. But i agree that they did kind of cancel eachother out, which is great to know that we have a midfielder who is so good that he can make the best central midfielder in the world (by friggin miles according to this poll!) fade out of a game

just a shame he is injured

PHB

I wouldn't really use that game as a test, at the start of most games good midfielders can cancel each other out, but as the game goes on, the better player takes charge. Alonso went off too early.

I think Fabregas will have an interesting test against Hargreaves this weekend, who will pretty much be solely focusing on him, and who is quite a bit faster than him. It should be quite interesting.

jank

said it the other day, i'll say it again, Alonso had fabregas in his pocket at the weekend, the master dishing out lessons to the young up and comer!

To be honest i find Alonso waaaaaaay over rated. You always hear about him from liverpool fans but any time i see him he is anonimous.
Had a good first season with Liverpool, since they he has been average at best

Cesc is already a better player then Alonso and with time will become one of the greats...

The sad thing is though he will probably leave Arsenal to another club in 4 or 5 years but id expect a world record ish fee for him then.
Hopefully he will have a few CL and PL medals in the bag before then:)

jank

said it the other day, i'll say it again, Alonso had fabregas in his pocket at the weekend, the master dishing out lessons to the young up and comer!
__________________

Had to take a double take on this..

What game were you watching Pro EVO??

This the game arsenal more or less domianted after liverpool scored? Hit the post twice and missed 2 open goals? Even your hero Jamie "im too good for england" Carragher admited that arsenal dominated the match and were unlucky not win and were deserved at the very least to pick up a point.

Cesc didnt have one of his best games but he could have had a hat trick.
If anyone was keeping tabs on him it would have been Mascherano. Alonso i actually cant remember one thing he did apart from get injured.

cson

At the start of the thread;

Mr Alan wrote: »

Fabregas is the best at the moment alright, but if in the morning i had a choice between him and Monsieur Gerrard, it'd be Gerrard all the way to be honest....the man is a force of nature

Today;

Mr Alan wrote:

true enough, but Alonso was more of a threat to Arsenal than Fabregas was to Liverpool. But i agree that they did kind of cancel eachother out, which is great to know that we have a midfielder who is so good that he can make the best central midfielder in the world (by friggin miles according to this poll!) fade out of a game

Which begs the question; Why didn't you vote for Alonso so? A little consistency would be nice. Then again the Liverpool blinkers are fairly well strapped on. +1 to what Jank said.

AnCapaillMor

+2 to what Jank said.

Mr Alan

i havent contradicted myself at all, in my post from the start of this thread i said i though Fabregas was the best in the world at the minute, but that Gerrard was better over all, and Fabregas had to continue his good form (well this is wat i meant), hence i said I'd vote for Gerrard.

Then today i said, that Fabregas did nothing at the game on the weekend until Alonso went off injured, this is true. Fabregas had very little impact in the game up until that point.

So its fairly obvious that i think Gerrard is better than both Alonso and Fabregas. Hence why i voted for Gerrard in the poll.

I understand this could well be viewed as red-tinted glasses, but then again, Fabregas also thinks Gerrard is the best in the world so maybe i am in good company with my views

Mitch Connor

Didn't Gerrard say that Cesc was the best in the world though?

PHB

It's a sad time when I'm agreeing with jank.

kaisersose77

The Sun gave Fabregas 6 out of 10 at the weekend! Must be still trying their best to please Liverpool fans.

yahoo_moe

Mr Alan wrote: »

IFabregas also thinks Gerrard is the best in the world so maybe i am in good company with my views

He said "one of": http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/7066789.stm

And it doesn't mean he was right

FatherTed

I would wait until the end of this season before annointing Fabregas the best. He's done great so far this season but get back to me in February-March. He went missing in a lot of games in that period last season.

lordgoat

Alonso had him in his pocket? Is that the large pocket in the centre of midfield?

I do like alonso but he wasn't fully fit, and would have tired more as the game went on. I'd have voted for Alonso ahead of gerrard though. If liverpool had a consistent central midfielder or two for the last few years they'd probably have mounted more of a title challenge.

Melion

http://youtube.com/watch?v=US7eiFGiCG4

Whats the big deal with that Fabregas video? When he plays a match like the one ive linked to above then he can be considered one of the best in the world