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?

  • True_Contribution_19@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    I just can’t see why people rate Messi so far clear as the best player of all time. Especially when his career post 2015 is just not that good. There are so many gaping holes but people just seem content that he’s basically been a flat track bully for 8 years with 0 CL success.

    Messi 2009-12 and 2015 was unbelievable and arguably the best player of all time. Messi from 2016 to 2022 was just nothing compared to the greats and consistently failed in big games, despite having a much better attacking cast than Ronaldo, Ronaldo dominated football for 3 years like nothing we’ve ever seen but people pretend that it didn’t happen.

    Messi might be the best passer, dribbler, playmaker, goal scorer, free kick taker and all those things, just so long as it’s not world class opposition and it’s not a big game. So how does that end with him being this unanimous goat? In 2018 he went out of the CL to Roma, Roma then played Liverpool and were 4-0 down in the first half.

    2019 was the perfect example, a brilliant first leg and then he needs one goal to basically win the Champions League and he turns up with nothing against Liverpool. He still won the Balon Dor? Ahead of VVD, who was on the pitch in the biggest game of the season and kept a clean sheet against Messi, then did it again in the final while Messi watched on TV.

    A couple of years ago he won’t the Balon Dor for a glorified friendly against Brazil where he didn’t even do anything?

    This year he won despite being the 3rd best player in the world (at best) and not even close to the treble winning goal machine who didn’t move to play in America after struggling in France all year.

    Messi vs Bayern in 2015 might be the best player ever, nothing after that ever even came close but people pretend he had this insane longevity as the best player in the world. He was closer to the 3rd best player in the world than he was to Ronaldo during 2016-19.

    • FlexeFelux@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      i do think he is the goat.

      after 2015 he has won 3 ballon d’ors! look at his performance against Tottenham at Wembley in 2019, that rivales the Bayern game i think. As for the Liverpool away game, he actually played a very good match individually. he was let down by Barca’s deffense. as for the ballon d’ors. i think it’s only 2021 that can be argued it should have gone to Levy. Look at his WC campaign performance! He was going at it in the biggest game of all against an almost prime Mbappe. And he was effective for all of the 120 mins.

      i will end with asking you 2 questions.

      1. What’s the feeling you get when you watch Messi play?

      2. Have you ever seen another player that could do more with a football than Messi?

    • Striking_Material696@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      People forget that after neymar left Barcelona, the management absolutely piss griefed the transfer market, yet Barcelona was still able to win a lot in spain (over real Madrid, whose weak spell came after Ronaldo left later)

      In that time Messi and Suarez carried Barcelona, and made a bunch of disfunctional players win actual games.

      Although i think the Ballon dor is a fake trophy, messi and ronaldo were by far the best players in the past 10-15 years with their dedication, team and individual achievements with a rarely seen longevity, BUT outside of benzema and modric there were definately other players who had a better season than messi and ronaldo