The best players of the season 1998-9

AC Milan has three players with three stars. What were the honours/recognition that they received this season?

 

Giggs his DBScalcio rating is actually quite poor. Compared to his other seasons and peers.

 

I honestly and confidently disagree with this assessment but you obviously like players as Welshmen Southall, Giggs and defender Sol Campbell (who got a free pass in 1998) to name a just a few and I don't want to start an emotional debate with vested emotional stakes in it. I feel other occasional 'big game players' with sub-standard seasons and sub-standard production aren't watched with the same eyes, which is also inevitable. The case for Maldini is also not as strong as in some of his other seasons/years (earlier and later).

Arsenal and Chelsea finished 2nd and 3rd on close distance to Manchester United and have zero 'world class' players (whatever that might mean). Tottenham Hotspur have no less than two 'world class' stars and finished 11th. To me that's amazing, with previously used and applied reasoning in mind.


Meanwhile, this list is also another ultimate proof for one of my repeat-tracks (not aimed at you, but 'in general'): that Dutchmen have to overcome a double handicap (even compared to the Uruguayans and other smaller countries within big language families). A handicap at the time itself, and then a handicap with the passage of time.

Surinam raised Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (a terrible person, but that doesn't matter) is one of two and the last one who led the Premier League in both goals and assists.

"The last player to do it was Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in 1998/99, who scored 18 goals [with 0 penalties] and was joint top scorer alongside Dwight Yorke and Michael Owen. He also provided 13 assists, which was the joint highest tally in the Premier League that season along with Dennis Bergkamp.

Only one other player has achieved the feat in the Premier League era - and that was Andy Cole. In 1993/94 he was the top flight's top scorer with 34 goals for Newcastle and he also provided 13 assists, which was more than any other player - and some people dared to suggest he never did anything but score goals!"
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12038/9206088/chart-toppers

Now, it will be for the bigger picture of little effect and consequence how many stars or non-stars JFH receives. So it is easy to vary between one star (the mark above) and whatever other option there might be. It is once again clear proof, incredibly clear in fact. Unthinkable that the same would happen - one star above, but generally speaking - with other backgrounds if they would happen to lead a major league in both goals and assists. Double handicap.

 

I see him more in terms of Iniesta in some of his lesser seasons (while stepping up in a couple of 'big' matches - not true for every season). Or Zidane in some of his later Real Madrid years. Or him (Zidane) and Bergkamp in the 1999-00 club seasons - Zidane's 1999 FIFA ranking (not Ballon d'Or; or his 1997 ranking) is probably overinflated.

See this:
http://www.bdfutbol.com/es/p/j93827.html?cat=CHA&temp=1998-99&equip=-&rival=-&noj=1

I don't think Ginola is overall of the same pedigree as Giggs (difficult seasons can actually speak in favor of the player) but I can post the OPTA yearbook excerpts.




Will respond to the rest later.

 

Yes, I understand that. He's also the best rated defender by OPTA (the book and newspaper align) although it doesn't work as well for defenders I feel.

Just noticed the interesting write up for Scholes too (aligning with what I recently said, he had 9 assists in the league with 0 from dead balls). I agree he became a 'retainer' late in his career but they already note his competence for accuracy and few poor touches ('unsuccessful touches' in WhoScored, unforced errors)

To be fair you also seem to underrate Owen a little bit for 1997-98 and 1998-99 - although he was actually in the spotlights a lot for obvious reasons, and didn't receive 'belated recognition' either. 18 goals (without penalties) don't seem a lot but take Aguero for Man City on steroids as comparison.

 

Possibly Manchester United has already enough 'world class' rated players (even compared to previous great club teams?) but this was the write up for Schmeichel and Scholes

 

I found this (not that I agree on all places, including the high/low placing of some fellow countrymen):

I'd like to know the origin of the voters, but if I have to make a guess, I bet it is roughly similar to the overall vote, although there are some players high in there (Matthaus for example) who aren't represented here:

http://www.rsssf.com/rssbest/rsspoy99.html
(with a heavy Brazil, UK and USA representation)

It's highly subjective of course, and when searching back I was puzzled with this one too for example with too many defenders/goalkeepers high up (although I have the feeling that for the KO stages only they show better overlap with kicker and gazzetta grades).

 

So here for clarity my own ideas

With for example Dida at #5, not that I have a specific idea about him, you can see the origin of some of the voters.

VdS at #2 is too high, even though his Juventus spell wasn't as bad as remembered (clean sheets, goals conceded, save percentage, saves made, GI rating next to other goalkeepers of 95-05). It took Buffon ten years (2012) to equal these clean sheets and goals conceded numbers and therefore it just can't be so bad. His last Ajax season (1998-99) was also below the level of the previous one I believe.

I'd have Carlos among the top two I think, even though Real Madrid had an underwhelming season.

There is even a case that he was a year before, 1997-98, their best player in the CL campaign (although none of the ratings I've seen reflect this). He had assists in the quarter final, semi final and the final itself.

Stam as #1 for sure. His impact, as then most expensive defender, was considerable. Schmeichel didn't have his best season, Irwin was past his best and his partner in defense (Johnsen/Berg) was also quite unheralded and showed overall not the same level elsewhere.

Nesta likely the best defender of his generation, although (as mentioned before) never a protagonist in a club or country tournament in the way other defenders were (euro 2000 aside, but against good opponents their low block defense was actually conceding a high amount of chances).

Beyond Thuram I'm not sure. Also not sure about where Reiziger should sit (one or two places higher, or lower), although I can see the recent VI take that he's the most overlooked international of the past 50 years...



Maybe Thuram wasn't 'enough footballer' to be really seen as the best in the world overall.

Top two looks okay. After that it's more random.

Maybe some of these like Mendieta, Stankovic have a case to be #2.

McManaman could be top five.

Looks roughly okay. Don't agree with the comment though that Davids didn't score or create crucial goals. Think of the Yugoslavia winner at WC98. He also had a nice assist through Scholes's legs in the CL semi final of 1999, against Manchester United. Probably Keane merits it to be ahead for this year, however.

Redondo is a possible omission; the same applies here as for R. Carlos (plus, even for his position he had in some seasons like 1998-99 literally zero end product, literally zero in all games, and don't think he was great in protecting the defense).

The reason Luis Enrique didn't always play for a while is this, as said March 2019, it wasn't because of his football:

Luis Enrique is known as a person of character and this has already led to the necessary conflicts during his active career. In an extensive interview with Catalunya Radio , the current national coach of Spain acknowledges that he had a falling out with Louis van Gaal in his time as a Barcelona player . In the end he could do nothing but apologize to the Dutchman. “As a football player I was already quite honest”, the former midfielder admits.

“But one day I made a mistake. I replied to the trainer. After dinner, in Santander, Van Gaal said: “Luis Enrique will remain seated, I have to talk to him”. Everyone was there: footballers, board members ”, Luis Enrique recalls in conversation with the Catalan radio station. “But I made it worse, got up and said, 'Okay, but I don't want to talk to you'. I left. A stupid answer from a stupid person. ”

It was not without consequences for Luis Enrique. “I was not in the match selection for weeks. What I am proud of is that during those weeks I helped my replacement, Gabri. He needed that at the time. In the end I apologized to Van Gaal and played again. ”

Normally he was the sort of player Van Gaal liked a lot, and LvG could also appreciate it when players talked in a direct manner to him.

With Giovanni of Olympiakos so high... you can again sense the voter pool... and Seedorf imho (as mentioned on the other thread) wasn't coming from his best 1.5 years (in the first two seasons certainly the best and most important RM midfielder for me).

Interesting that the top three are all called 'overrated'.

Indeed, Veron did all on one tempo (and shares some of the strengths and weaknesses of Fabregas). I'm puzzled a bit about what the beef with Rui Costa can be... his (non-penalty) goalscoring maybe?

Maybe Zidane can be further down since 1998-99 and the beginning of the next season was one of the weaker phases of his club career (between 1996 and 2004 at least).

Don't think Del Piero should be number one for 1998-99 and first half of 1999-00. Italian forums overwhelmingly see the years around the millennium (roughly 1998 to 2002) as the 'dark ages' of his career. See also his numbers.

Who I certainly miss here is Bergkamp; I think his 1998-99 was roughly as good as 1997-98 (and the earlier seasons), and things like the OPTA index show that too.

1999-00 was overall not of that level but started the CL strong against Barcelona and Fiorentina (4 goals and 6 assists in Europe; against Deportivo, Bremen, Barcelona, Fiorentina) and against Manchester United with an assist.

On Italian forums I also read a few can recall he nearly scored a wonder goal again in the euro 2000 semi final... (a tournament where he was also strong despite not scoring, per OPTA index, but assisting three/four goals).

This is a very nice one for a later season (2001-02)

Tough to argue against this.

Maybe Ginola should be one or two places higher. Giggs didn't have his best 1.5 years despite the team success....


Menotti was also a fan of him... (but I wouldn't have him among the top 50 players of the country all-time; never the same player after his 1995-96 injury and always hampered by it)

Think Vieri his placement is a bit generous here, for his form after 1997-98.

Don Balon had Raul and Kluivert as the two best CF of La Liga as well (Kluivert 16 goals but as many assists for this season).

Hasselbaink was great in the way he was PL topscorer for Leeds, then almost topscorer for Atletico Madrid (while his team got relegated) but undone by Salva scoring way more penalties.

RvN was not only league top-scorer, shared domestic cup topscorer but already scoring very well in the Champions League (including teams as champions Kaiserslautern, Benfica, Valencia and Bayern). Can see him higher up than Jardel, but possibly (in part) handicapped by him not having a sure place in the national team yet.

Morientes had a weak 1998-99 but started 1999-00 enormously strong I believe. Halfway the season many thought he'd finish the season as CL topscorer.

 

I wonder how Zidane would’ve been revered if it wasn’t for those 2 goals against Brazil in 1998 WC.

 

I think he'd still be (almost certainly) higher regarded as Veron and Rui Costa (although it's forgotten how good Rui Costa was in the 2003 CL, in comparison to Zidane in the 2002CL - maybe, as example).

He played after all three national team tournament finals, which is unparalleled in his era.

Furthermore, he played and started in three Champions League finals (and UEFA Cup final). Only a few players of his and overlapping generations played in more, let alone starting in them.

Interesting that the top three are all called 'overrated'.

It might be his goalscoring indeed.

He was maybe also not as forcefully built as Zidane and Veron, which resulted in him struggling within certain circumstances. Was relatively slow in acceleration and top speed.

Has only one goal and one/two assists against Juventus, the team to beat in his league, in 20+ games for example.

Needless to say others with the #10 shirt did better (and before that you had cases as DB10 that did consistently well against the AC Milan defense in their pomp).

He could be magical as well against teams like Zidane's Real Madrid, great in the small spaces (if direct contact could be evaded), and was generally seen among the best playmakers of his time.

I saw an extract of Wenger's autobiography was published in The Times (@PDG1978). There's a slant of self-justification to it - the same/better productivity as Cantona, from open play as well, on a much better team and double winners is a difficult first season? - but okay.

Since it's all about then active players for Arsenal I post it here below in spoilers.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

Tony Adams was a legendary captain. He was coming off alcohol and required attention. He had authority over the team and even over his opponents. He had an incredible understanding of the defensive game, he was always ahead, intelligent, a fighter, with a combination of confidence and huge doubt.

Tony was battered and physically damaged, and he didn’t like training. I never knew whether he was going to be able to play on the Saturday, like an actor who doesn’t rehearse his part, but on match day he was always there.

Dennis Bergkamp, a perfectionist whom I never saw make a careless technical move, had arrived a year before me, bought from Inter Milan. He had had a difficult first season but I knew he was a fantastic player, that he needed to be given the ball and to control the game to show all he was capable of. Dennis saw things fast, moved fast, decided fast and executed with perfection and elegance.

There was Ian Wright, who those around him sometimes found hard to control, his opponents especially. He was an extrovert, hyperactive and had endured an extremely hard life. His playing style was instinctive and he had the killer instinct, a player like no other.

Then there was Martin Keown, a man who harboured a huge desire to push himself. He was constantly dissatisfied with his performance, and he was always trying to learn how to be better. He listened to others, because he knew that would enable him to progress. He was often caught up in an intense rivalry with Adams, who was born the same year — 1966 — but it was a positive rivalry.

We bought Patrick Vieira from AC Milan just as he was about to sign for Ajax in Amsterdam. I managed to convince him and his agents that he should come to Arsenal. He had made a huge impression on me as a young player in Cannes when I was the Monaco coach.

Right from his very first match, when he was as yet unknown to the English public, he showed how talented he was. No one disputed his ability, and he gave me the credibility and the hold over the club that I needed in order to take it in the direction I wanted. He and Emmanuel Petit became a duo that would remain for ever etched in the memories of Arsenal supporters.

I was very interested in anything that could improve performance, beyond standard training, and one area I was particularly interested in was diet. I knew little about it myself but brought in a doctor, Yann Rougier, to advise me. Yann was one of the pioneers in the field of nutrition and the best at talking to the players.

He had started to create menus at the club. There was a joke doing the rounds: I supposedly made the players eat broccoli morning, noon and night. It was not true, especially as I’m not all that keen on broccoli.

However, it is true that Yann helped to drastically change the players’ eating habits. For example, instead of the famous chocolate bars and fizzy drinks at half-time, we gave them caffeine drops on a sugar lump. Of course, they were hungry at first but they soon got over that.

We were eight points behind Manchester United in the 1997-98 season, my first full one as Arsenal manager, but on 14 March, 1998, at Old Trafford, we won 1-0 with a goal from Marc Overmars, an outstanding player. I had always been an admirer of Overmars’s playing style. When I bought him he was coming out of recovery from a lengthy injury. I went to see him play in Amsterdam and I could see he wasn’t 100 per cent himself. But I was convinced that he was going to return to being the player he was. In terms of his style he was a decisive player, notably in his ability to call for the ball, and he analysed the game very well

 

Yeah, I think Bergkamp/Wenger was a good match playing style wise, but indeed probably a 'difficult start to his first season' might be a more reasonable comment I think, as by the end (well before the end in fact) I seem to recall he was playing very well and an integral part of the team, already largely with his assisting and vision etc. He had a notable game goalscoring wise right at the end vs Bolton to seal European qualification that was mentioned in that interview in the Netherlands at his home, with Ian Wright, that you posted I remember (Wright mentioned it first I think).

I feel like the 2000/01 season of Robert Pires is a bit similar to an extent, in that sometimes the overall season is thrown in with the 'difficult start' but by the end he was also doing very well indeed.

I think you're right that 1998/99 was still a largely good to very good one for Bergkamp, and there were also some good moments/games (like vs Barcelona indeed, individually, despite the result) at the start of 1999/2000. I don't really remember clearly but maybe by the end of the calendar year he wasn't necessarily in great form (not for his standards anyway) and I think his stats had dropped off (I had paid quite a bit for him in my Fantasy League team lol, but luckily my other attackers Pahars and Bridges were proving suprisingly good value even...but yeah I seem to think Dennis had dropped off a bit even in terms of assists compared to the previous season).

One other name that came to mind as a 9 and a half at that moment would be Rebrov, although I had a go previously at a top 100 as at the end of 1999 (showing it by PM to comme) and didn't actually put him in that either, without actually forgetting as such. He didn't get recognition in the Ballon d'Or either did he, but was doing very well in strictly Eastern European Player of the Year voting (as shown by Dearman not long ago). I wonder whether the vagueness of 'best players going into the year 2000' (i.e is it meant to be 'on form' of late or can people look further back and pick based on best form from a few years ago?) helps Del Piero because people can still say well inherently he's my choice and there's no reason he can't find that form again soon. Why that wouldn't apply to Bergkamp I'm not sure though, other than age being considered perhaps. Maybe Rebrov, and even Yorke, are opposite cases, that would/did fare better in a more specific vote about best players of 1999 itself or (as per the lists of FourFourTwo/comme indeed) the last couple of years or so.

 

Yes, agreed with all of that.

Think in 1998-99 he was still in his best shape at the age of 29-30, maybe starting slow in the first few games because of returning from the summer injury.

In actual end-product (with and without penalties) only Yorke and, more clearly, Hasselbaink finished ahead of him in the league. He was one I missed in above vote - don't think this would happen with a sizable chunk of compatriots in the voter pool - but obviously overall not anywhere near as ignorant of the Oranje players as elsewhere (for these surrounding years, 20 years later, within the 23 best players).

Hasselbaink was shared topscorer and - with Bergkamp - shared top assister as well, thus he was ahead of the rest. In the OPTA Index Bergkamp finished ahead of both Yorke and Hasselbaink as the #1 attacker in the ranking, was on the shortlist for PFA player of the year, was nominated for the BdO in 1999 and 2000. It was roughly the same player he was for Arsenal in the previous years, including his first when he matched Cantona for productivity (not even counting the pre-assists).

I've said it before but 2000-01 was evidently his worst Arsenal season (notwithstanding some bright moments against highly rated defenses), aided by injuries.

Then subsequently he re-emerged as a very good and important facilitating/enabling player between 2002 and 2005 (but had to be carefully managed and couldn't play every minutes), as the Arsenal record in Europe kind of shows (unbeaten in the six away games he did play), with also defensively playing his part when Henry, Pires, Wiltord/Ljungberg, Vieira had steamed ahead in attack/counter and making something like 2-3 tackles per match (as some dissections on youtube and elsewhere point out). Making use of his positioning and anticipation and with a range in abilities not many players had (my favorite is the Middlesbrough comeback in 2004 continuing the unbeaten run), and sporadically still deceptive pace*

As posted previously (he was then 35.5 years old):
https://arsenal-mania.com/forum/threads/youre-roobish.6599/

* Vialli writes in his 2006 book, page 57: "Take pace, for example. There are different kinds of pace over different distances and this is immensely relevant to the game. Some players are very fast over sixty yards but sluggish over five. I was recently told the result of tests that Arsenal ran over sixty yards in the 2003-04 season. Guess who the three fastest Gunners were. OK, one's dead easy: Thierry Henry. No prizes there. You probably won't be surprised to hear that Jermaine Pennant was another. But it ought to astound you the third Arsenal speedster was none other than Dennis Bergkamp.
Obviously Bergkamp is a phenomenal footballer, but few would list pace among his assets. That's because you would hardly ever see him going on a sixty-yard sprint [good highlights!] during a match. Most of his runs are short, no more than ten yards. And over that distance he is not the quickest. Again, this makes sense, given his size and body type.
One of the quickest men I've played with was Gianfranco Zola. What we in Italy call 'explosive force' - quickness off the mark - he had in abundance. For a striker of Zola's characteristics, that 'explosive force' was far more important than his pace over sixty yards, because it enabled him to pounce on loose balls and accelerate away from defenders. Now, over sixty yards a number of players might beat Zola, including yours truly, if only because I have longer legs. Yet with Zola, it didn't matter because he hardly ever had to make such a long run during a match."

 

What I forgot to mention was his outside the box goal against Brazil (#1 in the Elo ranking, NED #4) at the start of 1999-00, while lined up as a right winger with #7. It was a friendly of course, yet the lazy reply would be: how many non-penalty goals have Messi and Ronaldo against senior level Brazil? He has them.

Had an outside the box goal as well against Manchester United (and a missed penalty...), against table leaders Chelsea (outpacing the 'famous' defenders), one for the points against a very strong Dynamo Kiev (losing 3-1 away) and against CL qualifiers Leeds too.


(01:30 - not the best defending)

 

Sorry to come back to this but think he really merits this and is a glaring overlook.

Only a few Premier League players have topped both the goals and assists chart (in the same or in different seasons like RvP and Henry did in different seasons), as shown on their website.



In Europe only one goal though (Leeds only European goal in four matches...), did a lot better in other seasons (7 in 7 games for Atletico in the next, no pens).

Arguably the league was stronger however in the mid-00s; as some domestic critics of DB10 have argued; but how to explain then his 8 non-penalty goals and 14 assists in 38 games for 2004-05 at diminished powers? (incl. Manchester United from a hard angle, and inflicting the record defeat against 4th placed Everton when just turned 36 years old), or doing fine in Europe from time to time, and against the Italian defenses.

For the national team there were limited chances because there was a lot of competition then. Makaay had 22 goals and 16 assists in 1999-00 when Depor won the league (57% direct involvement); Kluivert 39 goals, ~15 assists within 58 matches in all competitions in 1999-00 (click above link to see why); Van Nistelrooij getting started etc.

Even the goalkeepers made it to clubs as Liverpool and Barcelona (Hesp in the team of the season by Don Balon)... as mentioned before, the changes around the Bosman ruling, and how the domestic/international authorities dealt with it, did clearly a great amount of damage in many subtle and less subtle respects... can't agree with the dominant idea e.g. England had three/four times (!!) as many elite players among the 23 around 2000.

I guess it's because he didn't play for either of the Dutch big two and his international chances were limited by that golden generation of players in the 95-05 period.

— Beyond The Last Man (@BeyondTLM) September 28, 2020

Think he's one of the better players to never get an ESM team of the month recognition (certain 'hole players' as post-1995 Baggio and defensive midfielders as Makelele are other obvious candidates; even Modric has only four monthly selections, six times less as Xavi and less than half of Clarence). Or never making the PFA team of the year (how's that possible with these peak numbers and averages?), although he was nominated by France Football for the BdO in 2001.

One of the positive factors was arguably, despite an already declined under-18 population since ~1980, that the things they did in Amsterdam, and some other cities as Rotterdam, had now spread to other places, to the small villages people as Van Nistelrooij or Robben grew up, and later on beyond the borders (as noted on wikipedia with multiple references: "Cruyff's footballing ideas also influenced considerably Belgian football's coaching revolution leading by the former national technical director Michel Sablon in the early 2000s,[255][256] with the introduction of the Barçajax-inspired youth system that developed the talents of Belgium's new golden generation.[257][258][259]").

 

See here for the 'evidence' on league strength and the most productive players:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-best-players-of-the-season-2004-5.2109610/page-2#post-38665030
https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-best-players-of-the-season-2004-5.2109610/page-2#post-38665131

10 - Based on the day of their 10th assist, David Silva is the third oldest player in Premier League history to reach 10 assists in a single campaign (34 years 189 days), after Dennis Bergkamp in 2004-05 (35 days 263 days) and Paolo Di Canio in 2003-04 (35 years 262 days). Grace. pic.twitter.com/uGbbjwhyZI

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) July 15, 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arsenal_F.C._seasons