These are some of mine:

  1. Pepe was actually a better defender than Ramos, but Ramos’ knack for important goals (not a defender’s job) and what he won with Spain made him the better player in people’s eyes.

  2. Courtois should have been in the top 3 of the ballon D’or ranking in 2022.

  3. Xavi was a more complete midfielder than Iniesta. He pressed better, controlled games better, gave better weighted passes, and was also a good dribbler when pressed (Iniesta was the better dribbler overall). I’d say he was the better one.

  4. Modric and Kroos have far bigger careers with Madrid than Zidane did.

  5. Zidane and Ronaldinho were great players but were sometimes frustrating to watch and ineffective even in their primes. Their convoluted style of doing simple things made them highlight champions.

  6. Luis Garcia generally played the biggest role in taking Liverpool to the UCL final in 2005, but his name is hardly mentioned when that UCL win is mentioned (Gerrard, the Scouse, vs Garcia, the foreigner)

  7. Pique was a better defender than Puyol. The latter was prone to mistakes and making rash decisions, while Pique was far more intelligent.

  8. Eto’o had a bigger impact in Barca than Suarez did. The former came in 2004 when Barca hadn’t won the league since ‘99. He became the league top scorer for two straight seasons as Barca won the league, then the league and UCL double. He also won the treble in 2008/09. Suarez, on the other hand, came when Barca were already dominant, but just having a bad spell.

  9. Gerrard dived for the penalty which led to Liverpool’s equalizer in 2005 UCL final.

  10. Carvalho is the most underrated defender in his generation. He was basically Mourinho’s wingman.

  11. If Lampard played in this age, with those same stats, he’d be recognized as the best amongst the three.

What are yours?

  • GallaeciRegnum@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    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.