[quote author=gareth_thomas link=topic=43084.msg1230869#msg1230869 date=1291885056]
I hate him.. Everytime i watch him i want to punch things..
he slows the game down and 70% of what he does is pointless showing off. I remember for Barcelona he would sometimes receive the ball about 20 times within a minute and do fuck all with it..
[/quote]
I don't agree with that at all.
He's one of the players I'd watch who'd actually do something genuine to influence the game with his skill, rather than doing it for showboating sake. His back-heels, flik-flakes, Marseille roulette, looking in the opposite direction to a pass etc, amongst everything else, more often than most players I can think of resulted in something penetrating attacking wise.
He didn't become world player of the year for being a showboater, he was genuinely magnificent at everything for a couple of seasons at least, that season where Barca clawed back the title from Real under Rijkaard was in a good part due to outrageously consistent match-winning performances from him.
As for slowing the game down, the Barca side he was initially part of, although free-flowing, was nowhere near as even as it is now in terms of passing ability and movement all over the pitch. He'd sometimes pick the ball up very deep, keep the ball with his dribbling, before finding the ideal pass and then moving. He had the intelligence not to just run at the opposition everytime he had the ball, knowing when to probe and pick out a pass and when to go on a mazy dribble.