Best striker/forward you've ever seen
- Thread starter My_Blood_Bleeds_Red
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Status
One game I'll always remember was the hattrick Ronaldo scored against Man Utd in a CL match.
Completely made a fool out of Rio and Barthez.
When have you ever seen an opposition player received a standing ovation from almost everyone in Old Trafford when he left the field ?
He was supposedly finished yet even a half-strength Ronaldo was so good that @2.25, he made Ferguson spit.
Now i'd have paid top sterling just to see that alone.
Romario was a fucking hero when I was a kid, he just seemed to be the most ice cold finisher in the world, one on one you just knew he was going to score. No matter how big or imposing the keeper he didnt care, it was real matador stuff, all in his head.
Henry was a really classy player to watch in his prime too, phenomenal acceleration and composure on the ball.
I would take Messi over either Ronaldo though, its frightening how much he has done by age 27. Hes got the most incredible balance Ive ever seen, it seems that at any point on a run he can change direction with no indication hes about to do so, it makes defenders look like theyve missed him by miles when in fact his timing is just so precise that they haven't really done anything wrong, trying to tackle him at his best is like trying to land a punch on Floyd Mayweather he makes you miss before you realise it.
Henry was a really classy player to watch in his prime too, phenomenal acceleration and composure on the ball.
I would take Messi over either Ronaldo though, its frightening how much he has done by age 27. Hes got the most incredible balance Ive ever seen, it seems that at any point on a run he can change direction with no indication hes about to do so, it makes defenders look like theyve missed him by miles when in fact his timing is just so precise that they haven't really done anything wrong, trying to tackle him at his best is like trying to land a punch on Floyd Mayweather he makes you miss before you realise it.
Dalglish
George Best...then cruyff
maradonna was a push and run merchant in comparison to those two. not even close.
Diegos probably the most highly overrated player and scored the most highly overrated goal.
(still waiting for terry fenwick to get a challenge in or actually TRY to keep up)
plus he cheated with stimulants...best handicapped himself with ale 😉
Henry,Barnes,suarez,fat Ronaldo,king Kenny,van basten,rush,bergkamp all
maradonna was a push and run merchant in comparison to those two. not even close.
Diegos probably the most highly overrated player and scored the most highly overrated goal.
(still waiting for terry fenwick to get a challenge in or actually TRY to keep up)
plus he cheated with stimulants...best handicapped himself with ale 😉
Henry,Barnes,suarez,fat Ronaldo,king Kenny,van basten,rush,bergkamp all
Ronaldo - The fat one
Ronaldo - The other one
Ronaldo - The other one
Romario was pretty fucking awesome..
Yeahhh..........no he wasn't.
Messi, as a teenager and Ronie in his pomp - no comparison. Messi was a danger and clearly a great player at the time but every defense in the world went up against Barca at that point wetting themselves about Ronaldinho. Everyone else got loads of room. He really only had about 3 years at his best but Ronie was seemingly double jointed in the knees, had an extraordinary change of pace, genius like dribbling skills and a shot with no back-lift. That goal he scored against the Chavs in the CL semi remains etched in the memory of any who saw it.
Messi now - better than Ronaldinho at his best but, sorry, not when he was a teenager.
As for the best forward/striker I've seen;
I saw Pele a few times - never live but probably somewhere between a dozen and 20 times on TV. He was very different to Ronaldo, Kenny or Henry; I'd almost call him functional in comparison. His close control was mind blowing but he was rarely running full pelt at defenders and tearing them to pieces. He had all the skills and probably could have done much of what others did but he didn't care; all that was in his mind was putting the ball in the back of the net. In the air, on the ground; volleys, half-volleys; behind him, in front of him or on the side; it just didn't matter - he'd put the thing in the back of the net.
What has always stood out to me in watching him and backed up by interviews with opponents since was his physicality. Pele was no Suarez, Henry or Robben. He was more Souness than Bergkamp - defenders were as afraid of him as any other player on the pitch. I heard one of the Dutch defenders (can't remember his name) in an interview many years later. He described Pele as being "able to look after himself as well as few other players he'd ever seen". That was Pele; 3 parts footballer, 2 parts thug and 100% goal scoring genius.
Right, so Maradonna etc are being clustered as forwards/strikers here are they?
In that case Best is number one. I wouldn't class him as a forward - he was more a roving winger/midfielder who nobody could get the ball off so he kept finding himself in front of goal with the ball still at his feet.
Pele, Maradonna, Cruyff, Van Basten were sensational players. I've said previously that I think Pele was the best forward/striker I've ever seen. He rarely if ever provided the unbelievable strike; nothing like the Van Basten goal which looked like it defied the laws of physics; never the Zidane goal in the CL at Glasgow but he never stopped putting the ball in the net and he could hold the ball, pass and create like few others.
Rush, as a pure goal scorer and little else, has always been close to my favourite ever player. Again, never the style of player like Van Basten but he just wouldn't stop scoring - at least pre his transfer and return.
Wow thanks @Wizardry.
Really enjoyed reading that firsthand recollection.
I guess I'll never know how great Pele was. Most of the youtube clips of him seem to show an era where games were played at half the pace of the modern game today and that he just made everyone looked like fools while bossing them around. Either that was really true or that it was just really bad video editing. And most of them only show the goals he scored and not the whole works - eg his movement off the ball, etc. Which was why I'll never know how amazing he was.
Really enjoyed reading that firsthand recollection.
I guess I'll never know how great Pele was. Most of the youtube clips of him seem to show an era where games were played at half the pace of the modern game today and that he just made everyone looked like fools while bossing them around. Either that was really true or that it was just really bad video editing. And most of them only show the goals he scored and not the whole works - eg his movement off the ball, etc. Which was why I'll never know how amazing he was.
Geoff Hurst
At no point did I say better player I talked about effectiveness on purpose, there was definitely a stage when Messi was 19/20 where he was pretty much having the same effect on a game as Ronaldinho, he was also a match winner and imo more of a team player. That stage may well have coincided with Ronaldinhos decline though, around 2006/7/8, when Messi started competing then taking over with goals and assists.
Hmmm, fair enough. Perhaps I mis-interpreted "effective". I remember Messi playing well against the Chavs a couple of times and was clearly a special talent. But they also afforded him more room while the buck-toothed one was watched incredibly closely.
A terrible shame, in my opinion, that Ronnie let himself go so early. His vision was exceptional.
Sent from my HTC One XL
A terrible shame, in my opinion, that Ronnie let himself go so early. His vision was exceptional.
Sent from my HTC One XL
yes batigol was a very special modern goalscorer. highly prolific.
Geoff Hurst 😉 good player but in his day not as good as to greaves or hunt IMHO.
Not that many shouts for Messi in here despite a ridiculous goal record. Do people consider him more of a deeper lying player rather than a striker?
Plays in the hole, it's why I haven't considered him
Also, even if he was a striker, I wouldn't consider him. Ronaldo was beasty
Yea maybe effective is a bit of an ambiguous term for a player. I just remember barca being a bit like us with and without Suarez if Ronaldinho was in and out of the team, they seemed to not suffer with young Messi in particular excelling.
Ronaldinho was great. That goal against Chelsea was fantastic. I wonder if the letting himself go thing is a Brazilian trait, a lot of Brazilian forwards seem to have aged really badly. Rivaldo, Ronaldo, kaka, that other guy at Milan
Suarez for me. At least in the flesh. On the telly I would say Ronaldo (the greasy one) He is a wonderful player.
Its got to be ronaldo, i just cant visualize how any human can play that number 9 role better....
Probably Ronaldo.
Aside from the players already mentioned, honourable mentions to Shevchenko (tends to be overlooked as he was shit at Chelsea, but he was unplayable elsewhere) and Rivaldo (tends to be overlooked because he wasn't a conventional striker, his horrible dive and a shit spell at Milan).
Aside from the players already mentioned, honourable mentions to Shevchenko (tends to be overlooked as he was shit at Chelsea, but he was unplayable elsewhere) and Rivaldo (tends to be overlooked because he wasn't a conventional striker, his horrible dive and a shit spell at Milan).
The only goal I vividly remember from when channel 4 had the Italian football:
Didn't Weah score the first goal that was missed because the tv people were showing a replay of a previous incident? I feel like thats true but Google didn't give me anything.
Best I've ever seen live was Ronaldinho.
He played at the Velodrome for PSG about a dozen years ago and tore l'OM apart on his own. I think PSG won 3-0 and he scored all three, but even the goals were a sideshow to the absolute exhibition he put on.
For the uninitiated, Marseille & PSG fucking hate each other and in the years prior to this match there'd be serious violence between the two sets of supporters before and after the matches between the two - resulting in some deaths from memory. Anyway, Ronaldinho put on such a show that even the l'OM fans clapped him off the ground at the end - something my fellow l'OM supporters told me had never happened in their history.
It was truly mesmerising.
He played at the Velodrome for PSG about a dozen years ago and tore l'OM apart on his own. I think PSG won 3-0 and he scored all three, but even the goals were a sideshow to the absolute exhibition he put on.
For the uninitiated, Marseille & PSG fucking hate each other and in the years prior to this match there'd be serious violence between the two sets of supporters before and after the matches between the two - resulting in some deaths from memory. Anyway, Ronaldinho put on such a show that even the l'OM fans clapped him off the ground at the end - something my fellow l'OM supporters told me had never happened in their history.
It was truly mesmerising.
- Status
Similar threads
