Most adaptable players

pickarooney

On thing about footballers that seems to be a bit underrated is adaptability. It's a huge bonus when buying a player to know that he'll fit in immediately, get on with the other players, absorb the local culture if applicable and most of all hit the ground running on the pitch. Most players require some sort of bedding in period or only do well in a particular formation or league, but what players, past and present, could you confidently say would slot into a team anywhere in the world?

The likes of Hasselbaink and Vieri are about the only ones that come to mind - I suppose clubs are reluctant to let go the kind of player I'm on about so that would limit options. What players would you pick if your team needed a ringer for a three-day tournament?

Rekop dog

Jesus Navas, Reyes, Tevez. These are the ones that spring to mind

iregk

Ian Rush. Showed tremendous adaptability in noticing that Italy was in fact a foreign country.

Mitch Connor

Ronaldo.

He would play the same no matter where he was.

pickarooney

Rekop dog wrote: »

Jesus Navas, Reyes, Tevez. These are the ones that spring to mind

Obviously Navas and Reyes are a joke, but Tevez, for all his bitching, does seem tend to at least play well wherever he goes.

_blank_

John O'Shea, can play anywhere across the back 4, in goal and would be a passable midfielder if my team (Boardeaux) needed a ringer for a three day tournament

markesmith

Van der Vaart's a good example.

Ush1

pickarooney wrote: »

Obviously Navas and Reyes are a joke, but Tevez, for all his bitching, does seem tend to at least play well wherever he goes.

I read that Navas gets home sick when Sevilla are playing away matches.:pac:

That_Guy

David Silva has been brilliant for City this year. Slotted in very well and playing some lovely stuff.

pickarooney

markesmith wrote: »

Van der Vaart's a good example.

I'm not so sure. He was never the easiest player to manage at Ajax and there was friction with Zlatan, Sneijder and the managment over his playing position amongst other things. Similar things happened with Ramos at Real. On the other hand he has shown he can play at a high level in four leagues without needing too much time to find his feet.

eagle eye

Phil Jagielka has played every position hasn't he?

Keith Andrews is one of those guys. He has played right back, centre half, defensive midfield, right midfield, left midfield and attacking midfield in his short time at Rovers. Really great to have a player like that who can slot in pretty much anywhere when injuries mount up.

Altintop at Bayern is another.

pickarooney

I wouldn't be convinced Andrews would do a job at Napoli.

yahoo_moe

pickarooney wrote: »

there was friction with Zlatan, Sneijder and the managment over his playing position amongst other things.

In fairness, Ibra and Sneijder are both fairly prickly themselves. Sure Sneijder hardly passed to RVP in the World Cup as they don't really get on.

If you've ever played for a big Dutch team, you've probably had a disagreement with someone, seems to be how they do things there!

yahoo_moe

Also, is the original question not more about class, temperament and fitting into systems and cultures, rather than being able to play in both defence and midfield or whatever?

pickarooney

It's about transferability, not being a utility player. Ibrahimovic would be a great example but he has that tendency to piss people off all right. I know nothing about Sneijder's personality, but he's pretty adaptable by all accounts. It's kind of funny how a lot of Dutch players (van nistelrooy being another) can slot quickly into a team but will always have personality clashes, although that would be my general impression of the Dutch as a whole, from experience.

Warper

Tevez is the main one, wherever he has went he has been brilliant and voted player of the season more often than not.

Dolph Starbeam

eagle eye wrote: »

Phil Jagielka has played every position hasn't he?

Keith Andrews is one of those guys. He has played right back, centre half, defensive midfield, right midfield, left midfield and attacking midfield in his short time at Rovers. Really great to have a player like that who can slot in pretty much anywhere when injuries mount up.

Altintop at Bayern is another.

Steven Reid afaik can play anywhere on the pitch and would do a decent job, i'd feel pretty confident playin Yaya Toure andywhere on the pitch too, good on the ball and very a clever player.

OP when you say most adaptable do you mean position wise or like a lot of people are naming players who can adapt better in a new league than others?

Warper

If we are talking about positions then YaYa Toure is your man

pickarooney

I'm really not sure how it's not clear from posts 1 and 15 that I'm talking about a player's ability to fit into a new club and not a players ability to play several positions

Devil08

Javier Hernandez has settled very well in England and has hit the ground running. Id pick him anyday!

CR 7

I think Mesut Ozil is the winner here. The way he fitted straight into the Real team is amazing, after only a few months it's at the stage where he should be starting ahead of Kaka, and it was shown that Mourinho might be thinking the same way at the weekend. You could count on one hand the amount of times he's picked the wrong pass, or given the ball away. He's been Real's most important attacking player after Ronaldo this season.

Ronaldo also did very well to settle in, but it was almost expected of him, moving from another big club, and being the best player in the world at the time.

Turtyturd

Robbie Keane...always seems to slot right into his latest boyhood team no matter where he is. Even heard rumours the Konami will rename the journeyman achievement the Robbie Keane achievement.

kryogen

Off the top of my head

Ronaldo
Ibrahimovic
Phil Neville
Teddy Sheringham
Figo
Van Nistlerooy


I may come back to this after a bit of thought

kryogen

Warper wrote: »

Tevez is the main one, wherever he has went he has been brilliant and voted player of the season more often than not.

You would call his start at West Ham, hitting the ground running would you?

odd that

your on a bit of a Tevez jerk today arent you? did you have a nice dream last night?

noodler

Will I get away with saying Kuyt?

Kiwi_knock

Johnson and Dann adapted well to their first season in the Premier League. Always a hard move for a player to move up to a higher level but these two seemed to have cope reasonably well to the demands of Premier League football.

Eto

Henrick Larsson

pickarooney

Larsson's not a bad call. Hard to be certain as he spent so long with one club, but seemed to fit in well in 4 countries.

steo87

Des wrote: »

John O'Shea, can play anywhere across the back 4, in goal and would be a passable midfielder if my team (Boardeaux) needed a ringer for a three day tournament

He can play in goal?

CorkMan

Ronaldo Luiz Nazario De Lima (aka Real Ronaldo) moved from Brazil to PSV Eindhoven, then Barca, Inter, Real Madrid now back in Brazil with Corinthians. He has hit the ground running everytime.

Robinho on the other end of the scale then.

pickarooney

CorkMan wrote: »

Ronaldo Luiz Nazario De Lima (aka Real Ronaldo) moved from Brazil to PSV Eindhoven, then Barca, Inter, Real Madrid now back in Brazil with Corinthians. He has hit the ground running everytime.

Robinho on the other end of the scale then.

A most painful experience for the poor chap at Inter. Hard to argue with Ronaldo (or his namesake) really.

token56

John O Shea

tommyhaas

What about Marcus Bent, he's played for 13 or 14 clubs, and seems to be consistantly average every where ever he goes. No need for a settling in period with him

In terms of quality players, I would say people like Xabi Alonso or Mikel Arteta, players who started in their native leagues before moving to england and playing at a high level. Both seem to be quite level headed and adapted well to the EPL. Alonso has, and Im sure Arteta could move back to spain, or indeed any of the big European leagues and adapt

I think any player coming to England from the Contenent and succeding could adapt to any other European league, as the culture in England is further removed from that in any of the other European leagues

Warper

kryogen wrote: »

You would call his start at West Ham, hitting the ground running would you?

odd that

your on a bit of a Tevez jerk today arent you? did you have a nice dream last night?

Eh, he was the reason they stayed up that season he played there scoring at OT the last game of the season. He was also voted player of the season by the Hammer fans, what the hell are you on about?

redzerdrog

iregk wrote: »

Ian Rush. Showed tremendous adaptability in noticing that Italy was in fact a foreign country.

just on this quote from rush. He never actually said that or anything like it for that matter.

a jounalist asked kenny dalglish what rush had said about playing in italy and kenny taking the piss said he told me it was like playing in a foreign country:pac:

funny the way over 20 years later that quote gets brought up regularly when he never even said it

Duckytech

Zinedine Zidane. Bordeaux - Juventus - Real. Left his mark of class at all three.

parker kent

Warper wrote: »

Eh, he was the reason they stayed up that season he played there scoring at OT the last game of the season. He was also voted player of the season by the Hammer fans, what the hell are you on about?

He is probably on about how long it took Tevez to settle in that season. I think he got his first goal in a televised game against Spurs and took off from that moment. But up until then he was not playing well.

Edit: I checked and his first goal was against Spurs in March of that season. For the sake of handiness, here is the Wikipedia entry:

Tévez made his West Ham debut coming on as a second-half substitute in the 1–1 home draw with Aston Villa on 10 September 2006.[28] After this game though, West Ham went on a nine-game winless streak (one draw and eight defeats), which included seven consecutive matches without scoring. This winless run also included going out of both the UEFA Cup and Carling Cup. In November of the same season, Tévez left the ground early after being substituted and throwing a mini tantrum during a league match against Sheffield United, and as punishment, his teammates decided that Tévez had to donate half of a week's wages to charity and train in a Brazil jersey. Tévez refused to wear the shirt, saying, "I played in Brazil and have a great respect for Brazil and Brazilians but I'm Argentine and won't wear that shirt."[29]
On 6 January 2007, Tévez made his first start for West Ham under the new management of Alan Curbishley in a 3–0 FA Cup third round victory over Brighton & Hove Albion. He scored his first West Ham goal and assisted two others on 4 March 2007 in a 4–3 home defeat to Tottenham.[30] In April, after West Ham were fined a record £5.5 million for breaching Premier League rules over the signings of Tévez and Mascherano, Tévez was cleared to play for West Ham by the Premier League after changes were made to a third party agreement related to him.[31] That same month, Tévez was named the club's Hammer of the Year.

tdv123

Luiz Ronaldo is probably the best example.

Seedorf is another who springs to mind. Won the Champions League with 3 different clubs in 3 different countries & was a pivotal figure in each of those teams.

Johan Cruyff.

pickarooney

Duckytech wrote: »

Zinedine Zidane. Bordeaux - Juventus - Real. Left his mark of class at all three.

He spent a lot of his time in Turin moaning about how much better life in Spain would be.

IvySlayer

Some people are confusing adaptable with versatile!

Tevez can slot into any team and bang in goals for fun - Adaptable

John O'Shea can play a lot positions LB, RB, CD, CM - Versatile. (Gary Breen would've been better choice :P)