1. People didn’t dislike Pepe for beeing bad, but for beeing unsporting.
2. I truly belive that GK vs. fieldplayers are so different that GK shouldn’t be in the same balloon price.
3. Obv. Xavi was more complete. The most utilized 3-man midfield in modern football is (besides them all beeing more fluid and complete than "old days) one more defensive then the others, one more attacking/free role/creative than the others and one all-round. Xavi was the all-round and Iniesta the (more)creative. So obv. Xavi was more complete. Kroos is also more complete than Modric, exactly with the same setup/reason. Often those that favor Xavi or Iniesta is simply their preference for that type. I know that I favor Xavi>Inista and Kroos>Modric simply for that reason. That doesn’t mean the others aren’t fantastic.
4. Yes? No one would say otherwise?
5. Yes? Like most creative/AMs of the era?
6. I think few non-Liverpool fans remember their whole campaign, but most neutral fans remember the final. So it makes sense…
7. So far the points have mainly been true, but not unpopular as stated. This I guess is unpopular and I for one also totally disagree. Besides the skills (where I also feel Puyol have a slight advantage) Puyol was a great leader and personality while Pique on and off the pitch acts like spoiled brat. In terms of “better defender” the skill Puyol had in making his teammates better was unparalled and as much worth as the pure defending skill, which in total makes him at least one class above Pique.
8. Also stats-wise pretty obv. imo. Another reason Eto’o was more impactfull is that Messi + Neymar + [insert anybody above average] would work, while the barca Eto’o joined did not have that level of attack around him (yet).
9. Might be thin. But dive? I don’t think VAR would overrule it today, so lets just call it thin.
10. You might be on to something here. He for certain isn’t among my first 10 or 20 defenders I think of when thinking great defender, but maybe he should be acknowledeged more?
11. Amongst which three???

Throw ins should be allowed to be taken one handed

I think Ashley Cole is the same level as Maldini when it comes to full backs.

Ramos was a marginally better pure defender than Pepe and a far better footballer. Every CB partner he has had since Pepe is a player that has left and been much worse off for it (Varane.) And every time Ramos wasn’t on the field for Madrid, the entire defense looked shaky as fuck and they usually ended up conceding goals/losing games that they wouldn’t normally concede or lose to.

A lot of these aren’t unpopular takes bud

Courtois wasn’t top 3 in 2022 ballon d’or because everyone who would have voted for him voted for benzema instead

Van Dijk absolutely deserved 2019 ballon d’or, the bar set for defenders to win the ballon d’or is just unfair

1- No one will ever argue against that. Pepe was a far better central defender and arguably the best of his generation. In fact, he is NOT a violent player as he has a very low red card tally in his career. Yes, he completely lost his mind once. Ad did not score iconic goals or made part of a dominating Spain. But individually, as a central defender, it’s night and day. There’s a reason why Mourinho would play him Defensive mid to chase Messi around,

2- Highly subjetive. No one ass themselves this question,

3- Xavi and Iniesta had different roles. This is why they were ale to play together. Xavi was a pure central mid. Iniesta was more offensive and sometimes even fell to a wing. Obviously Xavi would control the game better. It was his job. But he couldn’t do what Iniesta did up front. There’s no way to argue one above the other,

4- Who on earth would ever say Zidane had a better career with Real than those 2? Zidane was the best player out of the 3 but he obviously wasn’t as successful nor played so many seasons,

5- Comparing Zidane and Ronaldinho is absolute and utter nonsense. They were nothing alike. Zidane was the one who made things simple. Not Ronnie. Ronnie was the exact opposite. I can’t even fathom how you could processo this argument,

6- No. Just no. Gerrard was the star. Again, totally rubbish,

7- Highly debatable. Puyol was a great right back in his day and did great facing the best wingers on earth. 2 different players with different attributes,

8- Agree. Etoo is immensely underrated. He was a magistral striker and did it outside of Barça Golden Age. His Barcelona was great but wasn’t as good as the following era with Messi–Xavi-Iniesta running the show. Suarez was excecional but the MSN trio would have done great if you had him switched with someone else. Now Etoo was an absolute key factor and by far the top scorer in his team,

9- No one cares. Milan deserves everything they got. You can’t be 3 up at half time and let yourself crumble like that. The penalty was close enough to be “acceptable”,

10- Carvalho was for Terry what Pepe was to Ramos. In other words, the best defender of the 2. To me he was top 3 of his generation as a CB. Pure class. It’s sad that he got banned from the Portuguese national team and as such spent much of his prime out of the team while Pepe was there. Pepe-Carvalho at their prime are unmatched in quality since early 00s Italy,

11- Bellingham is doing it X2.

The offside rule needs to be abolished and replaced by a new rule that addresses the same problem with a different approach. VAR might fix it for the top leagues, but for the remaining 99.999% of football matches played around the world, offside calls are still a coin flip decision. All the proposed rule changes that just move the line don’t solve anything AT ALL.

My main one is people massively overrate Vidic. Not in terms of his peak ability, but his longevity at the top.

I remember people used to say Vidic was class for longer than a decade when people used to have these discussions all the time when comparing Vidic with the likes of VVD, Carvalho etc but this isn’t true.

He was only in Man Utd’s starting XI for 5 years, of which he was also awful in his last season in the clubs starting XI at the club and then became a benchwarmer under Moyes, aged 29. He was a finished player by 31. He was also nothing special before his move to Man Utd.

1. UCL is a higher level of football than the Euros or World Cup.

2. Michael Carrick is one of the best holding midfielders of his generation.

3. “Tap in merchants” get waaaay too much hate.

100% agree

1. Countinho wouldn’t have necessarily avoided a mid-peak flop had he stayed at Liverpool. He’s a world class player victim to transitional periods at Barcelona and Bayern, sure. But his role at Liverpool was only perfect for that time only and the eventual evolution of Klopp’s game would have exposed the same defending weaknesses he couldn’t improve upon in Spain. The man is a playmaker, but lacks versatility and actually thrives in very confined roles.

2. Teams like Porto and Benfica absolutely Could shell out the money and compete for more international domination but choose not to because they figured that operating in the green is sometimes more important than winning - selling their players for huge profits is the priority and they’re happy with that

3. Had Pep used Ibra the way that Ibra wanted to play, he would have still won the UCL.

4. R9 peaked at Barcelona (idk if “unpopular” but I feel like a lot of revisionism sees R9 being the best version of himself at Madrid and not before)

5. Beckham deserves far more recognition as a player than he actually gets. People - sometimes rightfully so - remember him as a caricature of a hot, celebrity footballer for than as an actual player and that should change.

6. Madrid could have done without some mediocre performances should they’ve used Fernando Gago more. The dude had a great football IQ and was the sort of playmaker that could’ve exposed weaknesses in Pep’s Barcelona sooner than later.

7. Van Gaal is, overall, a highly overrated coach who has overstayed his welcome. His refusal to adapt to changes in the game and player profiles goes beyond the stubbornness necessary to successfully play total footy.

Iniesta in my opinion is just a tad bit better than Xavi ,watch the Euros 2012 he had zero goals and assists by far the best player in the tournament,he was basically given role of Leo Messi for that Spanish team. We give you the ball you create something, amount of times he glided pass and set up through ball for Jordi Alba to run in behind a defender to create something was staggering.

Even after Xavi declined or retired Iniesta took that mantle of Xavi role and excelled in it .

There is a reason he was the man of the match in two UCL finals a world cup final and a euros ,big games there is less space ,most of the time them games are won in midfield he was always the point of difference.

Only messi and Neymar can rival his dribbling skills and the madness about his dribbling or being press resistant it’s pure technique he doesn’t have speed or acceleration to get away.

Both Messi and Ronaldo didn’t deserve half of their ballon d’ors