He was quite good with the exception of ONE error. But if you want to play the "let's trash him because of one mistake" game, then I guess we might as well get rid of half of the English national team right now.
Please tell me the last time you've seen Maicon fully committed to defending. Ashley Cole has done both, defense and attack.
I've watched, at the very least, 1/3 of the games Maicon played over his career. I'm a cruzeiro supporter, and I usually catch all of Inter's matches. Maicon can be superb defensively, don't let the brazilian fullback stereotype blind you. Maicon does fine, if not great, defensively in almost every game he plays for Inter. The Brazil 3 x Argentina 0 Copa America game is another good example of a flawless defensive performance by Maicon.
The halfway line was basically an electric fence for Ashley Cole when Mourinho was here.....what I'm saying is, Maicon has never, never been restricted.
I'd like to say no coach would ever be that dumb, but in fact Dunga did this is the second half of the game against Argentina in the CA. If you don't see Maicon being restricted too often, that should only be because he's too good offensively, it doesn't have a thing to do with his defensive prowesses.
Maicon is good defensevely and offensively, just because his attack overshines his defense doesn't mean his not "good at defending"..
Last I checked, Maicon plays on the right, and as such is irrelevant to a discussion of the best left-back.
Actually he's played both I believe, but since he's primarily a right back, you are correct, he is irrelevant.