http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2017/09/19/phil-neville-compares-son-heung-min-to-park-ji-sung/ I can't think of two more polar opposite players. PJS's attitude was 1st class and he was a selfless servant to the club. His success for club/country is well deserved and he was earned his career. PJS made the absolute most of his talent, Son has left a lot of people frustrated. I never got that feeling for PJS, he was always the type of player anyone could root for easily.
for me, he was and is a good gauge to filter out plastics. plastics would always talk up CRon, Ruud or Rooney, Giggs or Scholes. but a real footie fan would always acknowledge Park. even when he didn't score (which was more often than not). in the post Fergie Era, i've met so many ManUre fans who now say, "What this team needs is a Ji-Sung Park."
Fergie has consistently said his biggest regret was leaving PJS out of '08 CL Final. I think that's a testament to how he felt for him personally as well as professionally. Even if a Tevez/Berbatov missed out I don't think SAF would feel as heartfelt for that type of player. To be honest I miss SAF, he really represented British values/football. He always valued players like Park and gave roles to guys like Fletcher/Hargreaves/Brown/Cleverly to ensure a strong British core that gave MUFC a real identity. Now it's so emotionally detached, the game is filled with mercenaries, the teams are all pan-national, and the managers are all unlikeable pricks except Klopp.
It's interesting. I've visited my fair share of united forums during pjs days. Some fans underestimated the team balance that park brought as well. Always wanted to see Nani instead of Park. That would have left a gaping hole behind Evra. Now they appreciate Park so much more. Fletcher was also key in maintaining balance. So underestimated. His red card in the semis ruined United's chances against Barca
I don't really care if you quote my posts. Always open to have a discussion in fact. I'm just taking issue with you thinking that players in the good old days weren't any less "mercenary" than players now.
Oh stop. Where did you get this? I think most of you expecting Son to be a model professional and a team-first player like PJS have ridiculous standards. There aren't many footballers like PJS to begin with. And Park Ji Sung never had the scoring prowess that Son has. Son is a goal-scorer first, and I'm a firm believer that goal-scorers need to be selfish to have success at the top level. To expect Son to play and act like PJS is ridiculous and y'all have ridiculous expectations. They aren't same and their abilities are different. This isn't FIFA video game where you can create a footballer and have him how you like him to be.
LOL. Because you are Sir Alex Ferguson and know how SAF thinks, right? This is some legit biased sh*t I'm reading this morning. Too much Korean fanboyism for me to handle this morning.
BSK use to always criticize Fletcher starting over PJS. Don't get me wrong, I disliked the move too, but Fletcher was still a very solid player to have to go out there, run around, press the opposition, man mark well, and was even decent enough of a passer. But if you just listened to BSK opinions, Fletcher was completely useless of a footballer which I always disagreed with.
It's not even hindsight. It didn't take a friggin football genius during those days to realize SAF played Fletcher a lot because Fletcher brought stability and defense to that mid-field.
that was the whole point of SAF's 'components' to his line-up. play the thoroughbred Ferraris but make sure you have the right Bulldogs to go with them and back them up. these days, a lot of "bought" line-ups are mostly Ferraris. i don't remember the board being too overly harsh on Fletcher but O'Shea otoh... but even he became a Fergie player. SAF used O'Shea all over the pitch. backline, mf, he even subbed in at striker and if i recall, played in goal when VdS was sent off. but long story short, it's a pleasure to see the love being given to PJS now by United fans. more so, it's been consolidated by the never ending praise he's given by his former teammates. back when he started it was, "Ji Sung Park is not a United player." "Ji is serviceable but will never be a Man United Legend." Now - whether it's in print, media, YouTube comments, time and time again I see, "Ji Sung Park - unsung hero and true United Legend." all the credit goes to the man himself. and now, back to Sonny. i think he's going to score for sure this weekend. whether starting or super-subbing...
About PJS: There's a very interesting book called The Captain Class, which argues that once a team reaches a baseline level of great talent, the most important thing to sustain a run of excellence is leadership. But not superstar rahrah type of leadership. Instead, it's always a quieter, leader-by-example, leave-everything-on-field communicator type. Obviously, PJS wasn't someone like Roy Keane (whom the book recognizes as Man Utd's captain). But he brought many of those of qualities to Man Utd. And even more so to KNT.
#THFC: Lloris (C), Trippier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Davies, Aurier, Dier, Winks, Sissoko, Son, Kane. #COYS pic.twitter.com/9Z7zYmqt7n— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 26, 2017 Interesting selection with Eriksen out, but as I suspected Son is starting. Wondering if it'll be a 3-2-2-2? If Rose were fit I think he'd be out there for Poch to see how many FBs he can squeeze onto the pitch lol
If you're gonna miss guys due to suspension and illness, I guess todays the best day. No choice besides starting Son lol. I wonder if Poch is testing Davies at LCB as he does for wales as he used Son at LWB vs Swansea. Weaker opponent to test out backup variations on 3-5-2 shape.
exactly. perfect timing for their suspensions and illnesses. plus Eriksen either has food poisoning or some sort of flu bug. nothing you can do about that. either way, there was no way Sonny wasn't going to start today. plus, he's not really done anything to not warrant a start.