I was wondering how people would rank George Best vs Pele vs Maradona regarding specific attributes. Many regard Best as the most gifted player they have ever seen, especially in the British Isles and Ireland where I reside. I was wondering how people wud rank the trio in the specific attributes listed below compared to each other. Agility Dribbling Passing Crossing shooting/finishing reading of the game anticipation heading defending
Agility Best >Maradona >Pele Dribbling Best > Maradona > Pele Passing Maradona > Pelé > Best Crossing Maradona > Best > Pele shooting/finishing Pelé > Best > maradona reading of the game Pelé > Maradona > Best heading Pelé > Best > Maradona defending Best >Pele > Maradona
To be honest my impression might even match Carlito's exactly. Maybe putting numbers to it, with 10 being 'as good as any player': Agility: Best 9.25, Maradona 9, Pele 8.5 Dribbling: Best 10, Maradona 9.75 (or 10), Pele 9.5 Passing: Maradona 9.25, Pele 8.75. Best 7.25 Crossing: Maradona 9.25, Best 8.5, Pele 8 Shooting/finishing: Pele 10, Best 8.5, Maradona 8 Reading of the game: Pele 9.5, Maradona 9.25, Best 7.75 Heading: Pele 9.5, Best 8.25, Maradona 7 Defending: Best 7.5, Pele 7.25, Maradona 6.5 Adding Anticipation as per the OP (meaning more instinctive than reading of the game which would be to do with awareness, vision etc): Pele 9.75, Best 9.25, Maradona 8.75 That's a rough attempt off the top of my head based on the impressions I formed I guess anyway.
Agility .... Maradona 99 or 96 ..... Pelé == George Best .........90 or 94 Dribbling...... Maradona ....99 or 97 ........ Pelé == Georege Bets ....95 or 98 .. Passing Pelé ... 96 ............ Maradona .... 95 ......George Best .... 87 or 89 Crossing George Best .... == Maradona ..... 90 or 95 ....... Pelé .... 90-92 ... shooting/finishing Pelé .......... 96 or 98 ..... George Best ...85;........ Maradona 84 ... reading of the game Pelé 99 or 95 .......... Maradona ....86 or 93 .....George Best ....79 anticipation... Pelé 99 .....or 96 ..........Maradona .... 85-87...... George Best 83 ..84 heading.....Pelé ..... 96 or 93 ............. ..George Best .... 79 or 83... Maradona ..... 74 or 83 .. defending.......... Pelé ..... 69 or 73 .....Maradona ..... 59 or 55 ....... George Best .... 45 or 48 ..
Interesting responses, I thought Pele was at least as good as Best in regards to defending. I would be interested in hearing @PuckVanHeel thoughts on the comparisons between the trio.
Agility - Pele, Maradona, Best Dribbling - Pele, Maradona, Best Passing - Maradona, Pele, Best Crossing - Best, Maradona, Pele shooting/finishing - Pele, Best, Maradona reading of the game - Pele, Maradona, Best anticipation - Pele, Maradona, Best heading - Pele, Best, Maradona defending - Pele, Maradona, Best overall impact and goodness - Pele>Maradona>Best
Adding Cruyff to the equation along with the trio on the attributes listed Id be interested to see how people wud rank the Dutchman in comparison
Agility: GOAT - Maradona, Best / Legendary - Pelé Dribbling: GOAT - Maradona, Best / Legendary - Pelé Passing: GOAT - Maradona / Legendary - Pelé / Very Good - Best Crossing: GOAT - Maradona / Legendary - Best/ Very Good - Pelé shooting/finishing: GOAT - Pelé / Legendary - Maradona / Good - Best reading of the game: GOAT - Maradona, Pelé / Legendary - / Good - Best anticipation: GOAT - / Legendary - Pelé, Maradona / Good - Best heading: GOAT - Pelé/ Legendary - / Good - Best, Maradona defending: GOAT - / Legendary - / Very Good - Pelé / Good - Best, Maradona
Agility George Best > Diego Maradona > Johan Cruyff > Pele Dribbling George Best > Diego Maradona > Pele > Johan Cruyff Passing Johan Cruyff > Diego Maradona > Pele > George Best Crossing Johan Cruyff > Diego Maradona > George Best > Pele Shooting Pelé > George Best > Johan Cruyff > Diego Maradona Reading of the game Pelé > Johan Cruyff > Diego Maradona > George Best Heading Pelé > George Best > Johan Cruyff > Diego Maradona Defending Johan Cruyff > George Best > Pele > Diego maradona
I wud rank Cruyff higher than the others in terms of crossing with his phenomenal outside the boot and awkward angled crosses. His passing was awesome also and he was excellent defensively with his positioning, interceptions and tackling.
I think as it happens I'm going to be quite close at least with Carlito again on this particular topic at first glance. Anyway Cruyff I'll add with 8.75 agility (minimum, when fully fit), 9.75 dribbling (maximum), 9.5 passing (minimum), 9.75 crossing (maximum), 8.25 shooting/finishing (maybe the maximum, with edge possibly in consistency over Maradona, or just being a bit more two-sided including with shooting - Maradona maybe with an edge for spectacularly effective shots although Cruyff had his moments in that area too with placed shots from outside the area, and volleys), 9.5 give or take for reading of the game, 7.25 to 7.5 heading, 7.75 defending, and at least 8.5 for anticipation I think. So for these categories overall a clear-ish win over Maradona probably for me, but it can become more in the balance if taking account of the extra elusiveness combined with low centre of gravity, and the elaborate ball control Maradona could show on his best days for example I guess (however those things would be defined - I don't totally put the first one down under dribbling, but anyway I feel like Cruyff would be at least 9.5 for dribbling, or 9.75 like I suggested).
Here is an interesting fact about George Best Between 1967/68 and 1971/72 he scored 126 goals in 266 club games Almost 1 in 2 for a winger For 5 consecutive seasons he averaged 25 goals. Manchester United’s league position in those seasons was 2nd place 11th place 8th place 8th place 8th place Manchester United’s league positions during this spell was a lot closer to Napoli with Diego Maradona(actually even worse)then it was to Ajax with Johan Cruyff George best ‘played with’ Bobby Charlton and Denis law but we seem to forget that he was also significantly younger than those players(probably because he passed away 20 years ago while those players passed away in the last 5 years) His peak did not directly coincide with Charlton’s and Laws yet his peak stats were extremely impressive for a player in his position. And he is not a player that could purely be defined by G/A either as many have attested to and as the limited footage we have of him suggests aswell
He was a brilliant dribbler but I believe his close control was not at the level of Best, Maradona or Pele although he made the kind of long slaloming runs that Pele didnt do so much. Id agree with most of your ratings for Cruyff, he was a phenomenal crosser and passer in addition to his reading of the game. His could shoot from some very acute angles and positions even with the outside of his boot and was perhaps equal to Best overall in the category of finishing and he scored some very good headers thoughout his career, and perhaps deserves an 8 for that. He excelled at defending with his positioning and tackling.
If you weigh in athleticism then i think Diego Maradona might actually take top spot for dribbling. With extra emphasis on skills/repertoire then I think Maradona is ahead by a healthy margin I only had close control and balance in mind when evaluating them as dribblers because that is what I thought the OP had in mind In my opinion there were potentially quite a few players with superior close control to Maradona From the last era I would say definitely Messi and I would also say Andres iniesta strangely enough if you know about my less than praiseworthy views about this player lol but his close control(Iniestas)was actually GOAT tier Nobody had superior balance to Best which is quite evident from his ability to literally glide on the pitch and evade tackles even on the worst of pitches But I don’t think he was a devastating athlete that took on several defenders(4+ ) in one single run (at least not routinely) I haven’t seen Johan Cruyff in Europe doing anything like this nor George Best Especially the change of direction at full speed towards the end of the run From what I can ‘remember’ (watching footage of course)Johan Cruyff attempted runs like this against inter Milan 1972 but either lost control or was dispossessed His dribbling scenes/goals vs multiple players in the NASL definitely don’t count for me(nor for george best or even Pele)
Messi’s style of dribbling was actually a lot more reminiscent of George Best (except that he was a far superior athlete pre 2012) then it was to Diego Maradona I would probably say the player who most closely resembled Diego Maradona(his skills and ball retention in particular) was Ronaldinho gaucho except that Ronaldinho did not quite have the close control of Diego Maradona nor was he as direct as him From all the players I have mentioned(also adding Ronaldo nazario,Neymar and hazard since they are fan favourites of this generation)i would rank them as follows in terms of dribbling Revised list Close control Lionel Messi George best Diego Maradona/Andres iniesta Eden hazard Ronaldinho Neymar Jr Johan Cruyff Ronaldo nazario Pelé Agility Lionel Messi George Best/Neymar Diego Maradona Eden hazard Ronaldinho Andres iniesta Johan Cruyff Ronaldo nazario Pelé Balance George Best Lionel Messi/Diego Maradona Eden hazard Pelé Ronaldo nazario Ronaldinho Andres iniesta Johan Cruyff Neymar Dribbling with the ball at speed Lionel Messi Ronaldo nazario Diego maradona Johan Cruyff Neymar Jr Eden hazard Pelé Ronaldinho George best Andres iniesta Functional Skills Diego Maradona Neymar Jr Ronaldinho Ronaldo nazario Pelé Lionel Messi George best Johan Cruyff Eden hazard Andres iniesta Overall Lionel Messi Diego Maradona George Best Neymar Jr Eden hazard Johan Cruyff Ronaldinho Ronaldo nazario Pelé Andres iniesta These are not necessarily my top 10 dribblers ever just how I would rank these ten players
Johan Cruyff vs Hercules 1976-77 - YouTube (1:12) (8:53 - I guess the fact I didn't put that Maradona assist in the 1981 friendly with Uruguay on there can indicate I don't think quite so highly of it although it's marginal choices on stuff like that and I can even wonder if I change my mind on some things afterwards of course) There are some indications vs Sweden that he could have produced a run as incisive and extensive as Maradona vs Uruguay I'd think, like at 2:51 before he's fouled or at 3:15 (but in general that game was when he was in the best shape of his World Cup maybe I'd say, so closest to 'fully fit' I mentioned before, which also helps the agility - I guess btw agility is another category that can be extended to factor in things like acrobatic attempts at goal etc and then Cruyff even would benefit a little more if emphasising that but I was thinking the category was meant to be mostly about fluidity of direction changes, body movements with the ball etc): Those are the ones that have come to mind right now anyway.
Best at his peak level probably wins it in agility and dribbling just like Garrincha would win it, but lost the rest in a big margin to Pelé and Maradona.
@Isaías Silva Serafim @SayWhatIWant when the 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 shattered the Benfica defense with the finest dribbling display of all time📽️ 1968 European Cup Final pic.twitter.com/aRyrcBtoiH— Fußballkönig (@GyurkaSarosi) June 29, 2024 Johan Cruyff vs. Benfica - 1971/72 EC SF (H)17 unsuccessful crosses pic.twitter.com/5PBmfvr1Hd— Fußballkönig (@GyurkaSarosi) June 21, 2024