Now you are wrong again there, Jones; Dani Alves is a world class twat, and I have no idea how you can come to the conclusion that Marcelo is a cunt to begin with.

You can't be serious. Dani Alves dives a lot but so does Marcelo who's one of the dirtiest players in world football to boot. Lost count of how many times he deliberately tried to injure the opposition, Messi and Fabregas in that infamous Supercopa game, Müller in the CL, against Osasuna's Nekounam I think it was there was also a pretty high profile flying kick into the player's nuts, just off the top of my head.

Dead serious.

Rex wrote:

Marcelo is a top class defender too, and has been for at least the last 4 years. He is better than Roberto Carlos ever was. Now that was a guy who couldn't defend to save his life.

Marcelo hasn't even consistently been Madrid's best LB over the past 5 years, let alone being better than Roberto Carlos was. His competition with Contrao is similar to the one we currently have between Gibbs and Monreal. Contrao is the more reliable LB IMO but Marcelo has got more magic going forward. They have both gone through periods when they were the preferred choice; last season Contrao was generally Ancelotti's 1st choice but Marcelo was usually brought on when they wanted to take more risk going forward (see CL final for example). Marcelo is currently their 1st choice LB though, dunno how much is that down to Contrao's constant injuries. I remember Mourinho playing Contrao in a lot of big games/CL with Marcelo getting the nod in majority of the other games.

Roberto was around the late ninenties widely ragarded as one of the top 5 footballers on the planet. That is right, I'm not only talking aboutLBs here, but that includes forwards, #10s, CMs etc Marcelo is unlikely to ever reach that level IMO.

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Edit: These randon numbers keep on appearing at the end of my posts, would a mod please sort it out for me?

I generally think they go very well with your random posts.

Rex wrote:

Dani Alves is a world class twat,

Well, he has world class twattery traits......

Marcelo better than Dani Alves at his best? What's going on here?

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Marcelo better than Dani Alves at his best? What's going on here?

Apparently, Roberto Carlos wasn't all that, either. :doh:

I must admit that I didn't watch football regularly when Carlos was at his peak, but I sincerely doubt that Marcelo is better than that, as much as I doubt that many Real Madrid supporters prefer Marcelo to Carlos.

Carlos was the biggest sham in defending. He was good going forward and famous for his low percentage thunder all free kicks, but often left large gaps on defense. Even a young Cashley was better

You tell them the truth, Claude!

Most of Roberto Carlos defending was last ditch lunges and mad dashes back which made him look 'spectacular' sometimes. Plus he was exciting going forward.
Playing with a bunch of galacticos helps too.

Claudius wrote:

Carlos was the biggest sham in defending. He was good going forward and famous for his low percentage thunder all free kicks, but often left large gaps on defense. Even a young Cashley was better

I look at the runners-up for Player of the Year from 2000 until now. Henry, Deco, Lampard, Buffon, Ronaldo, Messi and Iniesta. It has never happened that a not-world class player manages to become runner-up for Ballon D'or. A young Cashley better? So it would be like Carvajal just getting 2nd place in next years' Ballon D'or. I don't actually believe that people are stupid.

When a player is generally overrated, those who notice that have a tendency to instead underrate said player. I think that's what's going on here, tbh.

Carlos was excellent going forward, had a monster of a left peg, and had a big personality. He was, however, never a very good defender. His fame was 100 percent down to his attacking contributions.

Which games are on tonight?

Juve/Dortmund and Shitty/Barshit.

What do we want, a Man City win?

I think City would be easier to beat than Barca, so yes. City win.

Thanks, Gus. Will certainly watch City v Barcelona. Could be an excellent game.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

I think City would be easier to beat than Barca, so yes. City win.

Yeah I don't think we'd have any feelings of inferiority against them.