Champions League 12/13: Page 84 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Champions League 12/13

Alfonso

Rex wrote:
The one thing you can criticize Zidane for is that he often lacked end product. He was a glorious player to watch no doubt, but there is no getting around this - for all his wonderful attributes he quite often failed to help his team by either scoring or assisting.

What? Apart from World Cup and CL finals. Flat track bully.

Please re-watch Euro 2000. Best performance by a player in a tournament since Maradona.

Zidane IS the best player since Diego.

Klaus

y va marquer wrote:
It wasn't any coincidence that France without Zidane failed to win a single game in WC 02 whereas France with Zidane won WC 98 (where he scored twice in the final!) and got to the final in WC 06.

To be fair, France were bailed out several times by defenders like Blanc and Thuram in -98 who scored half of their career goals in that tournament. The most impressive thing about them was the team. Zidane was the crown jewel perhaps but everything about them smacked of collective effort.

lorddulaarsenal

I felt zidane was better at juve than Madrid. Odd as that sounds

Biggus

Klaus wrote:
Where did I overrate technique?

Klaus wrote:
Laudrup strikes me as a better player than Zidane too. Technically second to none and in possession of the best final pass I've ever seen.

As Y va pointed out, Zidane drove France on to win the 98 world cup (I was at 4 of France's games there) and Maradona did the same for Argentina in 86 and almost in 90 too, these were special players.

Klaus

Right, so I didn't overrate technique then. You just pointed it out anyway. Twice.

banduan

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
I felt zidane was better at juve than Madrid. Odd as that sounds

it's not cos he was

JazzG

Some would argue Zidane isn't even the best French player of all time, let alone up there with Diego Maradona.

Rex

He is not up there with Maradona for me.

Timbob

Some would argue that Tim Sherwood was better than Zidane...

JazzG

That would be Jack Walker back in 1996.

The player I'm referring to is Platini, imo very underrated when it comes to these list. Driving force behind Frances 1984 European championship win and I think he finished top scorer in Italy three times in a row and won the Balon D'Or three times in a row, this was when Italian defences were rock solid and the league was very strong.

Irishgunner

Would anyone throw Henry into Zidane vs Platini debate as best french player?

I would.

The only thing is that he wasn't that great in finals or international tournaments.

Vieira was probably the greatest two way midfielder of his generation too.

JazzG

Henry was a fine player but like you said yourself unlike Zidane and Platini did not drive his team onto international success. He was very inconsistent in the CL like Arsenal and that will always be held against him. In the International tournaments he chipped in but was never the driving force, when playing under Zidane for France it was quite clear who was running the show and it wasn't Henry.

Timbob

Yeah, but how many of us ever saw Platini, let alone week in week out?

lorddulaarsenal

Not me. Way before my time. My time started with Anelka

Alfonso

Its all about Jean-Pierre Papin. Not best ever French player but def up there.

Speaking about legends, whose the bigger one, Totti or Del Piero?

Shady

The burning question here is where does Gareth Bale fit into all this?

Klaus

Basically he's what Zidane could have been with better hair.

y va marquer

😆

JazzG

Timothy wrote:
Yeah, but how many of us ever saw Platini, let alone week in week out?

This whole discussion is void if we can only base opinions on whom we saw week in week out. Then unless someone has watched football since the very beginning only they can talk about who the greatest is.

Alfonso wrote:
Its all about Jean-Pierre Papin. Not best ever French player but def up there.

Speaking about legends, whose the bigger one, Totti or Del Piero?

Del Piero for me, suffered a lot of injuries which is why he didn't reach a higher level but when he was younger I reckon he had the potential to be up there with the likes of Baggio. In terms of Serie a I think the argument can be made for Totti but Del Piero put in some wonderful performances in the CL and national side, I don't think Totti excelled there.

Timbob

Could be wrong but didn't seem like the discussion was about who is/was the greatest ever. Most people were talking about players they have seen regularly-Zidane, Rivaldo, Fat Ronaldo, Henry, Baggio etc.

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