his got be out there with the best, he brings stability to the portuguese defence, he saved a goal, before the CL his pass was worth 5 million euros, after the CL was over 7.5, before the Euro 04 was 15 million euros, after yesterday's game got be around 20 million euros. still don't know why Scolari use Fernando Couto on his place at the starter of the Euro
I'm with Frank, I never understood why Scolari kept insisting with Couto when Carvalho has shown all year long he is a rock in defence. Once again against Spain, he did his job extremely well and even saved a goal. World class defending.
he is great... but come on! even if he was as good as chivu or nesta, he needs to play at this level for a longer period of time to be considered even near the best
He as been playing at higher level since 2002, FC Porto won the uefa cup and this year we won champios league, the problem was tah he had no press, like many pretty kids have.
Carvalho wasn't even the best defender on the field. Campbell was the best today. Don't get me wrong, he is a good defender but let's not go overboard with the superlatives.
Yes. At least in the game I watched. The reason. Campbell had to organized a backline that was being bombarded with attacks the entire night. Carvalho only had to sustain a few long balls every 5 minutes from the England attack. Carvalho was really impressive this year with Porto and will probably become better than Campbell. But I just feel Campbell was better overall last night and in Euro 2004 as a whole.
PEACE Let's give credit where it is due. Campbell is a fine defender! Campbell is excellent in terms of commanding the area. He's imposing, very strong, intimidating and tidy, but he is'nt very quick of the mark and was very, very lucky that Ronaldo didn't do better with that header. Campbell just couldn't react quick enough. It was almost a repeat of the Joao Pinto goal in 2000. Campbell is quite effective on set pieces because of size but he lacks an offense or creative game so in my mind he is really only 50% of a footballer. The same way Phillip Neville is only 50% of a midfielder, defends well but has no offence! Nobody can say who is best, because anyone can have the game of their life on any given day or bomb the next. If we had seen Ashley Cole for the first time today, we would be singing the praises of "the greatest leftback in the world"! Carvalho is a complete footballer, who marks like a shadow, aerially strong, has out of this world anticipation, positionally is excellent, has no discomfort with a ball at his feet, rushes up the pitch well, distributes well and best of all is gentleman like Bobby Moore and Carles Puyol! As for this reoccuring theme that OUR players must move up to a stronger league before their "mickey mouse" credentials can be given any merit...that's tired and we don't play that! Frank is absolutely correct in suggesting that the Portuguese Superliga is treated like a third class citizen when the vastly inferior Dutch league gets undue attention and respect. I'm not going to say that Carvalho is better than Cannavaro, Stam, Puyol, Nesta or your choice of high profile centre back, but I would ask any of you in what way is any centreback in the world better than Carvalho? Romantic soccer/football is played out and the fantasy/dream world fixations with Dutch, Italian, Spanish and English players has been proven to be the entertainment of fools. Of the "ghetto dwelling leagues", Portuguese, Greek and Turk, the Portuguese are the most maligned and the favorite target for ridicule and marginalization. Our players are "old" when they reach 26! Our players are "unproven" irrespective of their acheivements! Our players are "overrated"! Our players are desptined to "flop"! Our players are the only ones that dive in the entire world! Our players would get eaten up in the so-called "physical" leagues! Our players are "cheats"! Our players have "attitude" problems! Our players are "show offs, fancy dans, one trick ponys and excessive"! Our players are ____________(you fill in the blank)! Why we even bother to discuss our players with others is beyond me, for it is more than painfully evident that the "love-to hate'em" attitude is pervasive in the media and is perpetuated by those with a natural inclination to dislike the "black sheep" of Europe! Y'all can love Carvalho, Deco, Ronaldo etc, or you can despise them, it makes no difference to us. We no longer need external validation of our footballing qualities and we make no apologies for expressing and promoting our footballing philosophy, as strange as it may seem, in this era of cynical football. We beleive in football as entertainment. We beleive in spectacle. We don't talk "beautiful game", we live it! We do not beleive in the easy way out, one must work their way out of problems WITH THE BALL! We beleive that football is an art and must be expressed in the most beautiful of fashions. We beleive in visonary creativity as a pre-requisite for all of our players. We beleive in an attacking philosophy in the form of complex, onetouch circulation of the ball and we value and hold dearest of all, the rare and fine art of the dribble. These qualities and attributes we hold dear and will not comprimise, the world can learn to appreciate them or leave them alone! Enough is enough! PEACE
fine... i'll step up ummm how much offense does carvalho add beside the odd long shot off target? fair enough the only people saying that are you guys vastly inferior? pffft besides... how much attention do you think is lavished on the dutch league? cannavaro - he isn't better than carvalho... at all stam - well... he has been doing it at the top level for 10 years, but he's no longer batter than carvalho puyol - crossing nesta - they are pretty similar players actually, but big al's been doing it at the top level for 5 or 6 years chivu - best offensive skills of any CB on the planet huh?!? "ghetto dwelling leagues"? find me somebody who said any of this about ALL of your players uh-huh, i see that's a little better, but geez dude! sounds like you are WAY too sensitive
PEACE Bluedaddy19, thank you for responding to my comments, but really I didn't write it in order to spark debate. These were merely things that we have wanted to say for a long time, things that others may be oblivious to but things that are clear as day to us. Bluedaddy, I can understand that you may be upset with my comments with respect to the Dutch Eredivisie, but you shoudn't let emotion cloud your judgement for some of you rebuttals are poorly conceived. No disrespect intended! Bluedaddy, anyone remotely familiar with Carvalho knows that he rarely gets into shooting positions, but he very often rushes up the centre of the park with the ball and makes give-n-gos. He initiates many of these "fast breaks". Don't get me wrong I like Campbell, but I was just using Sol as an example. Sol and Rio are the same for me in that they defend exceptionally well but if you ask them to rush up to centre with ball, they always have to stop and you can see the panic and uncertainty as to what they should do with the ball, especially Rio. Carvalho is as comfortable as any player in the Portuguese midfield! Please don't say that Bluedaddy, a cursory glance at any transfer forum discussion involving Portuguese players on the move, will bring up numerous refrences to the Portuguese Superliga being a "mickey mouse league." You may not have noticed it because that insulting language doesn't effect you in particular, but don't think we are blind my man, we see it all the time. Sorry if that offended you Bluedaddy. In our estimation there is a marked difference between the Dutch league and the Portuguese league in terms of balanced competition, general quality of players, and the quality of it's defenders. The Dutch league like the Portuguese has it's few "Big" clubs, but the difference is in our mid table and bottom clubs. Rarely if ever do you find the top clubs in Portugal smashing their "lesser" competition, but in the Netherlands scorelines of 4-0, 5-0, and even 6-0 are all to common. Take into consideration where the Portuguese and Dutch leagues have ranked over the last two decades in UEFAs ranking of goals per match ratios. As it goes for attention. I have no problem with the Dutch league getting attention at our expense, you guys deserve you credit too, but it is pretty disrespectful when a guy searches a newspaper, football magazine or internet webpage and you find subsections designated as "Premiership", "La Liga", "Seria A", "Bundesliga", "Ligue 1", "Eredivisie","Scottish Premier", and "REST OF EUROPE". We Portuguese, Greeks and Turks have the ignominious distinction of being lumped into the Rest of Europe, with the Maltese, Andorran and Cypriot leagues. Beautiful! This one I won't touch, but merely to point out why I didn't want to start a debate. This thing about "doing it at the top level" for me only reinforces my original premise. Dennis Wise and Luigi diBiaggio played their whole lives at the "Top level" but that still doesn't make them any better than someone playing in the Greek, Portuguse or Turkish second division! That's how we exactly how we are regarded! The bigger leagues are full of "champagne wishes and caviar dreams", but we are "the permanent underclass". We lived in low income housing (stadiums), we have difficulty getting an interview because our resume isn't strong enough, when we are finally given a promotion at the job we are always looked at with the utmost scepticism, our youth are beleived to be "unruly" with attitude problems, and so and so on. Thats' Portuguese footballing reality 101! Nah bruh, not sensitive....just sick and tired! Ya feel me? PEACE
actually i wasn't including that in "offense" - i was considering that as more of a transition aspect, which is really part of defense - you are right that carvalho is among the finest CBs at starting the break i think you are underestimating the middle teams in the eredivisie - most of those blowout scores come against the bottom 3 or 4, who are pretty bad and often made up of extremely young players - besides, dutch football is very attacking by nature - AJAX and feyenoord play 4 to 3 matches sometimes too to my knowledge, the only websites that do this are planetfootball (cant say why exactly) and soccer365 (which puts all of europe together) ummmmm yes it does this is not the best analogy ever, but i think you'll get my meaning here - if you were scouting players, a guy who scored in serie A would be a lot more impressive than guy who scores in the saudi league oh and i doubt anyone is confusing the league in portugal with the second flight in turkey as it pertains to carvalho, i believe he has sufficiently proved that he can play at the top level - that was never my contention - i just like to wait a little longer to call someone the best anything - i mean what did zidane do before the age of 25? not all that much - however, i doubt many people would argue too intensely that he is the best attack mid - even those who disagree he is #1 would find it difficult to put up much of a fight well i dont come into this forum as much as you guys, to be sure, but i have never seen any poster worth a damn look down on the portuguese league - the national team? ummmm yeah, all the time - some of it is deserved, some of it is unfair - that's basically how stereotypes work really though i dont understand why you would perpetuate that stereotype because, as we all know, it's completely stupid yeah i feel ya, please don't sense any hard feelings - you haven't offended me in the slightest BUT in all honesty, to be called the best _____ in the world takes more than two huge seasons - carvalho is splendid, no question - deserves to get consideration for the best XI of the season, absolutely - the best defender in the world? maybe in a couple of years, sure - today? nah
RC is an absolute stud. Real Madrid are moving heaven and earth to get him signed. Can you imagine a partnership with Samuel and Carvalho? That is scary.