That might be true, but Mario is much better than Neymar in those 3 areas (although I don't know if taller matters). Meanwhile, with other things like dribbling, yes, Neymar is better but Mario is still technically very good.
taller will be helpful in the air (of which Balotelli is still in doubt) Bigger ... errr... only if Neymar could be as near big as Balotelli then he would be like a "new Ronaldo9" in term of explosive dribble run over defense. Balotellli hardly run to pass any good DF even 1 on 1 ... Please! Shooting powerful is probably due to his size (?) eventhough Roberto carlos would have a big claim for that! Look how many goals+assists he did acomplish til now despite of playing with 6,7 other worldclass players at Mancity? Neymar was like ONE MAN show for Santos (with Ganso was subpart for last 1,2 seasons) - even for Brazil team, he is still easily the best player in most games! Anyway, in all aspects tking in to consideration on the pitch: Balotelli got like 7/10 while Neymar now is 8.5./10 and have potential to be 9 or higher (like Messi, or R9)
But remember playing for Man City means a lot of the time Mario is just coming off the bench. So if you look at his total games versus goals scored its a bit unfair. He started only 22 times for Man City last year and scored 18 times. Plus 3 goals in 5 starts at the Euros playing against competition much tougher than anything Neymar has ever had any success against.
maybe so .. (but not me) I did say I can forsee great things from few players in years to come; Hazard, Neymar ... other promising great form would be Falcao, Hulk, Aguero (as they are getting older 25) - to some extent, Gotze, Lucas, Oscar are all decent players as well
Fascinating to look at the thread title and date when this was created. Basically the peak of Messi vs CR, Pep's Barca, Barca vs Real, Spanish domination.... I feel like if this thread is still around in a few decades, people will be very confused why anyone would have suggest it's a 'weak era'.
With the advantage of time I think many (myself included) would agree 'unbalanced' and 'stratified' development covers this better.
Club football is still as unbalanced as it was back then and it really doesn't look like it will get any better.
If you have to believe the Brazil brigade then Aldair and Jorginho are all-timers, lol http://otaviopinto.com/index.php/2016/07/29/best-xi-each-era/ (typical revisionist list and commentary, by the region where fraud, fact-free and deceit is a virtue)
Extract taken from a 2015 interview with Marco van Basten Technique and dynamics “Johan(Cruyff) said in his latest columns that we run too much. I do agree, but not fully. Football is much tougher now than when I played. Some teams park 10 men in the box. What you need is dynamics. You can’t dribble amongst them anymore. Movement is key. Defences are well organised, much better than 15 years ago. All defenders developed skills now as well. The space is getting more limited by the year. So, you do need to run more and smart to find the space and open up defences. A couple of years ago, Barcelona was playing the ball around while standing still. Nothing happened. 80% possession but no chances. You need the Messi’s and Neymar’s to be making runs to allow for something to happen. Johan says he doesn’t see players like Ronald Koeman anymore who can open up a game with a long ball. But these players do still exist, but there is simply no more space for them. That deep opportunity to pass the ball is getting rare. It is all about the turnaround moment and the killer pass. Ajax is playing the ball ad infinitum as they can’t find the killer pass. It’s not about what you can do with the ball, but knowing where and when to run when you don’t have it. You need a surplus of technical skills these days,as a forward, but also the vision to find the space. Some players have it, some need to learn it. You need to recognise the one-two or the third man situation. And that starts at the back. Johan(Cruyff) says: we still play eleven vs eleven and the pitch is still the same size -but it’s not that simple. In the 1970s you’d have 7 seconds to decide what to do, in my time maybe 5 or 4 seconds and now you have 2 seconds. You need to decide within 2 seconds what you are going to do and a lot of players have skills up the gazoo but lack the intelligence and insights to do something useful.” http://dutchsoccersite.org/marco-van-basten-assistant-coach-interview/
Alexis Sanchez 2014/15 Would’ve been perceived as being otherworldly had he done this in 2023 Finished 10th in the 2015 ballon dor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_Ballon_d'Or Alexis Sanchez and Eden hazard in 2014/15 Premier league 2022/23 standout players Is Van dijk,KDB and Haaland all standing out as ‘rare talents’ in a new weak era???
I think every sport gets a little better over time. As training methods improve, the talent pool grows as higher salaries attract more athletes, field conditions improve. It's not a break, but small improvements from year to year. What happens is that the sport has phases more oriented towards defense or attack. In the 80s, football was more defensive. FIFA implemented a series of changes (don't allow a goalkeeper to catch a deliberate back pass, wetting the pitch) to make the game freer Now we have other changes in implementation. Increased the number of substitutions from 5 to 3 and with Var, the game can be with more or less penalties assigned. We will see in the future whether these changes will result in favoring defense or offense.
What's the reason behind 22/23 City is being rated lower than 09/10 Birmingham? https://1xbet.whoscored.com/Regions...amStatistics/England-Premier-League-2009-2010 https://1xbet.whoscored.com/Regions...amStatistics/England-Premier-League-2022-2023