Ronaldo 9’s technical ability was overrated as hell. Why is his talent considered above Cruijff’s and Best’s for example? I also prefer Romario over Ronaldo 9. The only thing young Ronaldo 9 had over young Cruijff was goalscoring ability. Cruijff was already exceptionally intelligent footballer at a very young age and was already technically perfect by the age of 20. George Best was another genius who was exceptional as a teenager. Ronaldo Nazario was indeed the better goalscorer at similar age, which is probably why he was rated so highly. But, I must say, Zidane being compared to someone like Cruijff, Pele, Maradona and Messi is the biggest disgrace in football history. It’s like comparing Kevin Durant to Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron.
I completely agree with you on Baggio. He was my favorite player after Maradona, until Messi arrived.
Great post, except that I disagree on R9’s technical ability. I rate it very highly. I don’t rate Zidane at all - because I saw full games of all his Serie A and La Liga career. I don’t rate Zidane in the top 15 all time. The following video is just clips, which makes any player look better - but some clips show R9 dribbling past multiple players in very short spaces. Agree with you on Cruyff.
I saw Zidane and Rivaldo actually quite different. Zidane more of a midfielder who organized plays while Rivaldo was more of a goal scoring attacking mid. Which brings me to a question I've had for the pre-2004 Barca fans here .... how did you guys view Rivaldo ? I might have asked this question before. For Brazil he delivered many times but very often he was incredibly annoying to watch and often criticized by the press. My friend who had access to La Liga said he used to kill it at Barca.
Interesting table, combines all 'big five' leagues but ranks on points per game so games played is out of the equation:
I was actually recently watching many post era Cruijff games that I haven’t watched, Rivaldo was definitely great, but like you said he wasn’t actually pretty to watch. I despise Figo for what he did, but I gotta say, he was amazing. Robben actually reminds me of Figo a lot. I think Rivaldo being a very annoying player to watch is precisely why he was considered inferior to Zidane, despite outperforming him in the same era.
Amazing with all Barca's low points this season they are still #8. And really within a hair of 5th (just beat Osasuna and Huesca to pass Lille). Man City will probably be the only team to reach 90 points. Will likely be the third season in a row that no La Liga team hits 90 points (after numerous consecutive years where at least 1 and often 2 teams would surpass 90).
Hold on, you think R9 wasn't technically better than Best??? Even as a teenager, R9 already was better. His days in Barca are better than everything of Best.
Only problem with Rivaldo was he hold the ball too long for sometime, also a little selfish. Zidane also was a number 10, an attacking midfielder, not a central midfielder and had nothing to do with defending ability.
Zidane was never really in GOAT converstion until he reached WC final again 2006 despite having only 2-3 solid games. His great performance against Brazil particularly stoodout and lifted him alot among the media if not the foootball fans. Brazil was one of hot fav , still had R9, Ronnie (at his peak), R Carlos, plus Kaka and Adriano. After that tournament in all sudden these European journalist seems trying to push him to be in same patheon as Maradona and Pele , since those two are South Americans and they wanna have at least a European to stand alongside those 2. I agree R9 is highly skilled. He might not be as complete as Ronaldinho but he dont have too, since he's a "9" / goalscorer and he's definetely one of best "9" ever despite not really good at header.
Best was a superior dribbler, had superior ball retention and was superior playmaker compared to R9. The only thing R9 had like I’ve said was being a better goalscorer. Best was a similar dribbler like Maradona, Messi and Baggio who had ball glued to their feet. R9 never had ball glued to his feet and wasn’t very good in tight spaces. He was a speedster dribbler that relied a lot on tricks and you can see how his dribbling declined after injury. In comparison, Ronaldinho was the better technical player. What R9 did, Dinho did better and was also superior in tight spaces. I’m not saying Nazario’s technical ability isn’t great, but there are others who are better. The reason why he was unique is due to the fact, he had the physicality of your typical traditional number 9 that should be strong, but he was also technically great like a number 10 and was also top class scorer. Usually there are many number nines with technical ability of a donkey and poach many goals, but that’s it. So R9 was a big thing back then considering he was a new breed of striker.
Best was better playmaker for sure but R9 was never a playmaker. R9 also glued the ball to his feet. Well, maybe not on Messi's level but obviously on the same level of Best, plus he was much faster with the ball than Best. R9 declined as a dribbler after major injuries, because he lost his pace and his weight problem. You always need a healthy body to dribble at high level, not just technical ability alone. Look at Ronaldinho post 2007, for example. I also think Ronaldinho was better dribbler than R9, also the best trickster ever.
Only in FIFA, Mbappe is similar to R9. I don’t understand the comparison besides the pace. R9 was a better dribbler, had better ball control, had better ball retention, was also a better passer and he was also a better physical specimen than Mbappe. I see more of Thierry Henry and CR7 in Mbappe tbh. Mbappe performs similar stepovers and the dribbling style is very similar to young CR7.
Talent wise he’s very overrated. Scored against weak defenses and then his Gareth Bale type of dribbling is considered great dribbling lol. Dude gets pocketed by good defenses. He needs a lot of space to do the things he need. There’s a reason why he struggled against good teams like Bayern.
I mean sure, he’s a good goalscorer, but even in that area he goes missing against big opponents. Dribbling ability is key in football. I rate dribbling and passing ability much higher than goalscoring because you actually need innate talent to be great at those things. Finishing is something that could be improved within time. Usually when people talk about talent, it’s related to technical ability that is dribbling, ball retention and passing ability. I mean no one in their right mind could say that Gerd Muller was more talented than Cruijff because he scored more goals. Besides football is first and foremost entertainment. Dribbling and executing passes are more entertaining than poaching goals. That’s why best player of a particular era were also technically perfect besides just being good goalscorers. The aesthetic value matters a lot.
Goalscoring ability is also talent. Mbappe maybe not the best techinically gifted footballer in recent years base on passing, dribbling but there are more things he can do. Even he failed badly vs Bayern last year, he also was a key part to PSG firsr UCL final. And his UCL performances with Monaco.
Goalscoring is something that could be improved within time. Dribbling and passing can’t be significantly improved during your 20s for example. Dribbling and passing ability are better talents than finishing ability. To do things like Messi, Cruijff Maradona, Baggio, Pele, Ronaldinho etc you have to be god gifted. Messi for example wasn’t an elite finisher when he was a teenager, but he was able to significantly improve on that and eventually became an elite finisher. Technical ability is always rated as better talent than goalscoring because the latter could be improved upon significantly. For example, Salah wasn’t a great finisher until he joined Liverpool. He definitely worked on that aspect a lot and now is a very good goalscorer. I’m not saying Mbappe isn’t talented, but his talent is very similar to players like CR7, but not like Michel Platini, Zidane, Cruijff, Messi, Maradona, Laudrup and other genius type of players. Even as a goalscorer, I find Haaland more gifted than Mbappe. This statistical era of football have fooled people that players like Mbappe and Haaland are comparable talents to previous generation. There’s a particular reason why Messi is considered to be superior player compared to CR7. It’s very similar to how people in the 70s viewed Cruijff superior to Gerd Muller. The thing that’s common between them are the fact they’re technical geniuses on the ball besides just scoring goals. They can create chances out of thin air with their dribbles and passing and also score goals. That’s obviously a better talent to have than just poach goals. Besides, Mbappe doesn’t seem to be the guy that can win games by himself when situation gets tough. This is something he seems to lack compared to CR7 and Messi as well. I just feel that both Mbappe and Haaland are just gonna be one of the best player of their generation. Not GOAT tier players.
Mbappe has scored against Man City twice (R16), Juventus (SF), Bayern, Liverpool, Madrid, and Barca so far. Also scored in a WC R16 and Final. I think you're overly harsh saying he hasn't scored against big opponents. Playing in the French league, he only has chance to play those big opponents in CL and he is still young. This is only his 5th season.
Mbappe scored against an overrated City team that is known for choking in CL games. They choked against Lyon for goodness sake and also that was Pep’s first season. Juventus still won the tie and he really didn’t go clutch. He played well against Kovac’s Bayern that was in pathetic form considering how Flick took the same team to CL final and Mbappe failed to play well against a better version of the team. Neymar was the star against Liverpool and outperformed Mbappe. He didn’t score against Madrid iirc and he played well against a Barcelona that had poor defense with Pique and Dest who weren’t fully fit starting. My complaint about this player is that his ability on the ball despite being good, isn’t very impressive compared to the previous legendary players. If Mbappe doesn’t score goals, how can he influence the game? His dribbling nor playmaking is that impressive enough for me to consider he’s a vital threat besides being a poacher. Like his dribbling only is very effective against poor defense which we’ve seen against Argentina and Barca. I think he’s pretty limited as a player and do not buy the hype anymore. I can say that Mbappe is GOAT tier on FIFA, but his talent is not near that in reality. I feel he’s not the player I can depend upon like Messi, Ronaldo, Maradona, Cruijff etc.
Lets separate the goalscoring argument with the "technical ability" (which I do agree with). I think you're looking too much into reasons as to why those goals don't qualify as being against strong or big teams. I can Remember that when he scored vs some of those teams, he was playing with Monaco. If we are going to do that, I can find a lot of fault with goals scored by Messi, Ronaldo, etc ... against big teams when they were not at their best. I think you're really nitpicking here. Lastly, it seem like you don't value speed much, but I'd say this ... for a few years now, Barca could have benefited from a fast player with good technical ability and finishing skills to make us a threat on the counter or even with more open spaces when needed. That guy was supposed to be Dembele. It's a valuable type of player to have.