I agree, actually I don't remember Zidane particularly great in long passes like Pirlo(just an example). Then, honestly for me is quite ridiculous to say that Zidane was a top 10 passes if he has 0 assists in the world Cup. How is possible that a top 10 passer has 0 assist in the world cup, this is at least singular. Messi, for example, showed, definitely a better quality in passes than Zidane in any world cup. Zidane had a great shot, a good dribbling, but never a top 10 passer for me, if you really want to do this kind of rankings, that I personally find stupid.
Because as a playmaker he wasactually very limited and covered that with some nice touches and a very pointless step Iver's for the fan boys to frap over.....mean while a broken Totti finished top assist at his last world cup.....
I do not think this is a good question, fans of Juventus are very fanatical towards their players and even former. Pogba for example to them, worth more than Bale has more potential than Messi, and his the best young player in world . I think we will have many arguments against Pogba in future, his hype, is already huge.
however, these rankings on who is the best passer, they are really bullshit, it's impossible to establish a top 10 passers ever is something completely subjective. I don't agree with those who argue that Platini was the best passer of all time, Platini had much time to think and to pass, Pirlo, Xavi and the players of the modern game, after a second already have the mastiff on. Football has changed a lot, also the rankings of who is the best dribbler ever are bullishit, for example Garrincha is considered one of the best dribblers of all time, or the best dribbler of all time, but movies about him personally are not impressed, but this is due to the fact that today, any player as Marcelo does awesome things with the ball. What for me is not impressive, for people of 50 years ago was impressive, has changed the way of seeing things, football has changed a lot.
None of them could play like him either though. A player who has invented himself in multiple positions and systems and even invented a position. Whole I agree Totti never had explosive pace the younger player was not slow by any means. You can see that in his earlier footage
Platinis reputation is well deserved honestly. Saying he needed time or something is rubbish, his quick passes were rapid. Btw pirlo is the polar opposite of a modern midfielder, he is exactly the kind of midfielder you would nullify be taking away his time and space. He's not xavi who would create space for himself under pressure.
What characterises a great pass? I look at these things: -Time on the ball -Margin for error -Difficulty of the technique itself - Vision, to be specific speed of thought and disguise. Messi every week makes passes that don't tick any/most of these boxes and the same people every time dress them all up as genius. He is capable of great passes, but my gosh it is annoying to see the on going charade to build up every action he does
I haven't got a clue what your point is or why you're talking about maradona. Whatever it is it probably isn't relevant, he did not receive the ball in central areas in front of juves defence in much space, he was closely marked nearly every time. I don't care if he had space 70 yards away from goal or 40 yards positioned on a flank, you would have to do something damn special to create a chance from there. Unlike with a random match you will see with messi, where there will be several times that he just stands and receives the ball right in front the defence in space like they just forgot about him.
Two different playing styles. For the current era, parking the bus seems to be the most favorite tactic, so, attacking players can comfortably have more time with the ball. The defense is pretty crowded though. In Maradona time, the most favorite tactic is parking Maradona, so, he had less time and was likely to get tackled if he hold the ball too long.
rightly so .. each era had different tactics and strategy ... and it's not easy to compare directly. However, the rule of thumb is that a great player would make difference and RISE up over the rest to defy the tactics in their time = that's counted.
Zidane has an assist to Henry against Brazil. He would have a couple more but Guivarach and Dugarry were donkeys with the goal in front of them.
riquelme always got "donkey" type of strikers in his whole career like in villarreal & boca juniors yet still had high quantity of assist that should tell something
Maradona had buttloads of space in the game vs. juventus, a top side. Especially in the second half. Furthermore when he did have the ball on the attack the defensive formation of juventus was pretty poor and he had maybe 2 players to beat by passing the ball to the open man running in front. Also many stupid mistakes you rarely see nowadays by both juventus and Napoli players..shots so off target they hit the corner flag, shots from half field that go hit Neptune. No mistakes by Maradona and he played very good-great imo but he still had loads of space, especially in the second half. Same space as Messi gets by ordinary teams but not as heavily marshalled as Messi is during el classico or against other top sides. To me this makes sense being that it was 1985 and although Maradona was the main guy he didn't have any trophies. Platini did not impress. Scirea also stood out as did Giordano and Bagni from Napoli. It was a great game but Maradona had tons of space. The formations of both teams was very poor compared to teams nowadays. Tackling very much harder compared to now, with the ref letting play to continue which is refreshing and I wish the same rules still applied.
Is it the Juventus home game mate? Cos I've seen a Laudrup/Maradona/Platini video for that game and that makes it seem like Laudrup plays a lot better than Maradona (I say without favouritism lol - ofc he was the least impressive of the 3 generally over their time in Serie A and peaked later at Barcelona really anyway). Maybe not all of Maradona's plays were on that video though, I dunno. Platini wasn't having a great game indeed I felt, but that isn't in line with his form generally at that time I believe (I've read that he said he felt himself he was in great form at the time of the Intercontinental Cup Final in late 1985 before tailing off partly due to injury before the 1986 World Cup).
Hmm, this was the one I'd seen. Maybe not completely representative (if indeed it's the same Juventus home game)?
@PDG1978 We talked about this idea over PM. 80-90% of the scenes below come from European Cup games or national team games (unfortunately a great amount of NT highlights isn't available ). I didn't want to only show the 'best' assists and passes but also included some mundane ones, for that provides a better impression. When I was finished with the video some more ideas popped up, but anyway. See it as a first attempt
I'll look forward to viewing that but will save the rep for when I have. I see the assist to Rep vs Argentina in the World Cup is included then (I guess several I mentioned too, including the one you established for me was for Ajax in 1972 - the flip over the defenders to a team-mate that I remembered but didn't have the context of which game it was in in my mind!). I'm sure there will be some good rare ones included. I could perhaps put it on Youtube too if you think that would be a good idea? (At one stage I was thinking of doing one more for Cruyff on there of course, but I think this would be better than the few clips I might have selected - what I've put on already for him is pretty good though I think and now I have some publically viewable player game highlights from 1966 World Cup to compliment the Cruyff videos).
Actually Messi has less time with the ball in any game nowadays, even against low level opposition. Opposition players are instructed all in any position when closest to Messi keep eye on, anticipate the pass to, and be on the skin of him as soon before he receives the ball. Never seen player been so concentrated on than Messi is by opposition, Maradona certainly had more time on the ball.
Example of space and time advantage creating a goal scoring situation from 6th round game in World Cup Golden Ball performance: Maradona vs Belgium Cruyff vs Brazil Messi vs Netherlands Still can't believe the Maradona one.
Random examples I'm sure You're nitpicking Messi's only very good play in that match against standard plays by Cruyff and Maradona in theirs.
IMHO that was brilliant play by Cruyff, and really very good by Maradona (to deliberately hold back then play a very nicely weighted pass to a team-mate). But I agree that in a game a player will have some times where he is close to an opposition player and sometimes when he is not. Those defenders were as close to Cruyff, as Iran's to Messi when he scored his goal in the last minute I would say. If they came closer to him, he would try to dribble or squeeze a pass to Neeskens anyway I guess.