The Premier League campaign - 2011/12: Page 34 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

The Premier League campaign - 2011/12

Gazza M

the league is low on real flair, but there are more effective, lethal players now than there ever has been. our unbeaten side was the last proper flair team in england. everyone has simply been efficient since then

Klaus

Cristiano Ronaldo is so not a better player than Henry was.

Gazza M

he is one of the efficient payers that mancs claim was a flair player, despite being far from it after his teenage years. you could argue all day about who is the better footballer

Lukazan

Klaus wrote:
Cristiano Ronaldo is so not a better player than Henry was.

Indeed. When someone makes a statement like that you can only conclude they've forgotten just how good Henry was. It's sad really.

Mirth

Caligula wrote:
What are you on about Ricky?
Aguero, Toure, RvP, Rooney and Silva are all fantastic players. This is a great league with great players. No Messi or Ronaldo (but both are better than Henry was anyway).

Aguero, Toure, RvP, Rooney and Silva have nothing on Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, Gerrard and Scholes.

And Ronaldo is not better than Henry. Not in his contribution to this league anyway.

IBL

Henry was the greatest foreign player ever to grace the premier league. Was the world's best player for about 2 years on the trot. Cronaldo in the Classico matches has shown just how he can struggle against quality opposition, Henry scored plenty of goals in the big occassions

Ricky1985

I'm not saying there aren't some very good players in the League now, but not as good as Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Vieira, Gerrard, Scholes, Keane, Pires, Ronaldo, Zola, Bergkamp, Shearer, van Nistelrooy (can't believe I typed that), Henry.

We (as in Arsenal) don't have one player who belongs on that list, Chelsea certainly don't any more, United have a couple that are not far off, and City, for me, certainly don't.

IBL

Had RvP not been injured so much I'm sure he'd be in that list, hell if he can miraculously stay fit and keep his form going I'm sure he could make it there some day

Klaus

Tony Montana wrote:
It's better than any other league in the world.

Great competition compared to La Liga and just better football/more excitement compared to Bundesliga.

It's tougher than the rest but it's the least exciting of the top five European leagues in my opinion. It's also the least technical and tactical league. Not really sure the competition is that great compared to Spain or Italy either. I think it's extremely boring to watch most Premier League teams apart from Arsenal at the moment. I'm concerned over the lack of talent coming through too. England has survived as a top league mainly because of heavy investment for the past decade but other teams are emerging all over Europe with similar means. With new financial restrictions the EPL feels a bit like a catastrophy waiting to happen.

Claudius

Ronaldo played on 2 star-spangled teams at United and Real Madrid and he has been the outstanding player on both, scoring at a remarkable rate. The type of rate that van Persie's enjoying this year - Ronaldo's been doing that for about 4 years. I don't Thierry ever did that. I don't doubt Thierry's prowess. I'm excited to have him back, he's been a remarkable servant and ambassador, and should really have been European/World player in place of Sheva or someone else at some point, but I think he's a notch behind Ronaldo. As for this claim that Ronaldo doesn't do it in the big games, ahem, that was a popular refrain about Henry, and what I think is a very misguided criticism in football.

Klaus

Thierry did that (and not for four years but six or seven at that), but it's beside the point. He's just plainly a better footballer than Ronaldo ever will be. It's revisionistic to claim otherwise. Anyone who had the benefit of watching Henry under his peak years should know better.

Ricky1985

Henry is the best player the Premier League has seen by a mile. Ronaldo doesn't even come close, neither does Shearer, or Giggs, or Gerrard, or any of the other crazy suggestions I've seen in the last few years.

People forget so quickly. Henry was the incredible for 5+ years, every week, every season.

Gurgen

I don't care if Ronaldo scores 120 goals in one season, he's a poor footballer who relies completely on his superior physique. Not fit to lace Henry's boots.

Mirth

Caligula wrote:
Ronaldo played on 2 star-spangled teams at United and Real Madrid and he has been the outstanding player on both, scoring at a remarkable rate. The type of rate that van Persie's enjoying this year - Ronaldo's been doing that for about 4 years. I don't Thierry ever did that. I don't doubt Thierry's prowess. I'm excited to have him back, he's been a remarkable servant and ambassador, and should really have been European/World player in place of Sheva or someone else at some point, but I think he's a notch behind Ronaldo. As for this claim that Ronaldo doesn't do it in the big games, ahem, that was a popular refrain about Henry, and what I think is a very misguided criticism in football.

That's like saying Rooney (or even van Persie!) is a better player than Bergkamp because he scores more goals.

Claudius

Klaus wrote:
Thierry did that (and not for four years but six or seven at that), but it's beside the point. He's just plainly a better footballer than Ronaldo ever will be. It's revisionistic to claim otherwise. Anyone who had the benefit of watching Henry under his peak years should know better.

Was he really scoring at a similar rate to Ronaldo in the last 3-4 years, Klaus? I don't have the data on hand, but I'm highly doubtful of that. If I was starting a team today and had a choice between a peak Henry and a peak Ronaldo, I'd take the latter. You know what, I still love Henry more because he did it for my team, but I still think both Ronaldo and Messi are better.

Klaus

Roughtly, yeah. Henry averaged about a thirty goals per season and 10-15 assists for his entire career here, and at least one of his seasons in Spain. Think it's futile to base a comparison on pure statistics in any case. Ronaldo is blatantly not a better player than Bergkamp either despite the fact that Dennis never scored more than 16 league goals for us in a full season.

YounGunner

Premier League is the most exciting league in the world and one of the most competitive too.

La Liga is just the SPL on steroids and the Italian League is in decline. The Bundesliga is a quality league thats on the way up and i would say pound for pound its the best league in the world.

I also dont buy that quality is declining. Silva and Modric are as gifted as Scholes was, Nani can be compared to Pires, Van Persie and Rooney are comparable to Bergkamp and then you have great players like VDV, Mata, Aguero, Yaya, Vermaelen, Vidic etc etc.

I think Nostalgia is clouding the judgement a bit.

Ricky1985

I don't think Messi and Ronaldo should be put in the same category. Mario Gomez would score 50 goals a season playing for Real Madrid in that embarrassment of a League. So would Ruud van Nistelrooy - neither would be fit to lace Messi's boots, or indeed, Henry's.

Tony Montana

Gurgen wrote:
I don't care if Ronaldo scores 120 goals in one season, he's a poor footballer who relies completely on his superior physique. Not fit to lace Henry's boots.

Henry also had superior physique to so many players and his decline is mostly due to the lack of pace over the last 5 years.

I prefer Henry too though.

Klaus

YounGunner wrote:
I think Nostalgia is clouding the judgement a bit.

People just have a short memory. Nani is not any more comparable to Pires than Mario Gomez is to Alan Shearer.

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