Barclays Premier League 13/14 Thread

[NickisBHAFC]

First topic message reminder :

Lamela is the biggest waste of money ever

[NickisBHAFC]

Partying doesn't bother me, he's only young and everyone loves a beer!

But turning your back on you're country for having a strop and huge arrogance, is just disgraceful and for that i wouldn't want to see him represent my country.

[Ent]

So why does he deserve 50 + caps and to be an England legend if he isn't better than a decent fullback in zabaleta.

[GSC]

He isn't better than the best RB in the PL so he's obviously bad.

[Ent]

Does he deserve 50+ caps and to be an England legend when he can't get past a decent fullback in his side and be first choice?


He has started 60 games in 3 years- he's lucky people Ben remember him.

[GSC]

You can keep calling Zabaleta decent all you like, it doesn't make it true. Best RB in the PL

[Ent]

Compared to his contemporaries -
Decent is all he is in the grand scheme of things, an international legend should have no problems surpassing him.

[Guest]

Thanks for debating Richards after our enquiry. Christ, Debuchy must of heard, he's only gone and banged in a screamer for France tonight.

[NickisBHAFC]

I think that Zabaleta is the best RB in the prem says it all about the standard of that position.

[Guest]

Zabaleta is a good FB...however i wouldnt say he is the best in the prem

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Russell Martin trumps all RB's in the Prem

[Ent]

Russell Martin trumps all RB's in the Prem

As the most useless?

I kid. But for discussion sake is rb the weakest position both in terms of quality and depth in the pl currently?

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

I'm struggling to think of another position that does Ent

Arsenal - Sagna
Aston Villa - Lowton/Bacuna
Cardiff - ????
Crystal Palace - Joel Ward
Chelsea - Ivanovic
Everton - Coleman
Fulham - Riether
Hull - Elmohamady
Liverpool - Johnson
Man Utd - Rafael
Man City - Zabaleta
Newcastle - Debuchy
Norwich - Martin/Whittaker
Stoke - Cameron
Saints - Clyne
Swansea - Rangel
Spurs - Walker
Sunderland - ????
West Brom - Billy Jones
West Ham - Demel?

Not a great bunch (off top of me head)

[Guest]

It's fair to say that our league is not blessed with great right backs.

Zab is the best of that bunch, granted.

[Guest]

So why does he deserve 50 + caps and to be an England legend if he isn't better than a decent fullback in zabaleta.

Had Richards not had the injuries he did, City would never have needed to sign Zabaleta. Or play him. Richards looked like a world beater for a season when he was 18/19, had he been able to continue that, he'd be sitting pretty at more than 50 caps with future legend status sewn up. Like Ashley Cole was at his age.

[GSC]

If only there was a tier between terrible and England legend.

[Guest]

If only there was a tier between terrible and England legend.

Ent is working on it I'm sure...

[Ent]

To be fair no one argued that. Someone said he would be an England legend but for injury, I disagree because he can't get pasta solid player at club level.

[NickisBHAFC]

Zabaleta is a good FB...however i wouldnt say he is the best in the prem

Who's better then?

[Guest]

To be fair no one argued that. Someone said he would be an England legend but for injury, I disagree because he can't get pasta solid player at club level.

To be fair no-one said that, I said he could have been. Not would. He'd have had to have kept up his form from that great 12-18 months. But then, this whole thread is about not bothering to read what people are actually saying

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Zabaleta is now only solid? Jesus, the standards of you people. Clichy is solid, and Clichy isnt half the player Zabaleta is. Its not a glamorous position, although for some reason it hasnt got the lustre of left back, probably because being left footed is obviously less common.

To be fair, I always thought Richards would come a cropper cos his positioning was never good enough and his technique questionable. There is no shame in being a right back, but it was always like a stop gap for him until he moved centrally, something he never looked good enough to do.

His problem has been staying at a club that has evolved beyond tutoring such a player. Some players need to note that you can take a step back to benefit yourself in the long run.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Also,

[compelling and rich]

i think coleman has come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of seasons and has to be up there as one of the best rights backs in the league currently

[Stella]

Sagna, Johnson and Zabaletta are the three best for me.

Richards is a man mountain of a guy but with no first touch. For that reason he would never make a world class full back.

[Guest]

Zabaleta is the best RB in the PL by some distance imo. Coleman is fantastic too, and if you'd asked me a year ago I'd have put Sagna in there as well. But there are precious few quality RBs these days. Just look at the England squads, when was the last time we had a good RB? Gary Neville? And he never got past the halfway line!

[compelling and rich]

sagna has really dropped off, looks like evra did a couple of seasons ago where he just lost his hunger and become lazy.

to be fair to coleman, zab had a lot of help defensively under mancini and could get forward a lot looking great doing so. you put coleman in that city team and i think he looks even better than his does for everton

[compelling and rich]

also not sure about neville never getting past the half way line!! he was always overlapping Beckham to create that little bit of space so Beckham could whip one in. Beckham wouldn't have been half as successful without neville as he was pretty predictable

[Guest]

I musn't remember Neville very well then, I used to scream at him to get forward.

[compelling and rich]

think as he got older he didnt get forward as much and when the likes of ronaldo was there there wasnt much point as you didnt get a pass of him anyway. but round the 99 season him and becks were a massive weapon on the right

[Guest]

Well that's true, there were no bigger weapons in world football than Gary Neville and David Beckham

[compelling and rich]

laugh all you want but there the best right back and right mid's ever to play for england. people seem to forget how good a RB neville was.

[Stella]

IMO, Neville was better at going forward than he was defending, especially during the Beckham era. Ball watcher, that he was.

[mystiroakey]

Well that's true, there were no bigger weapons in world football than Gary Neville and David Beckham

pfft. decent players mate! very decent

[Guest]

I'm not forgetting how good Neville was at RB, he's the best England have had in my 31 years - I was laughing at you calling him a weapon

I have no real recollection of Neville getting forward a la Johnson or Walker. Maybe because those two are wannabe ARWs, but Nev was never a man to burst through into the box, as even Ashley Cole does still.

[Stella]

One for you azzy  

[Guest]

Thanks Stella, I think I can find a video of men walking on the moon, that's happened about 3 times in history too

Poor cross btw. Great skipping past the defender, but woeful cross.

[Stella]

To be fair, it was a little behind Scholes but not a bad cross. Yes, fine skill on the wing.

[compelling and rich]

i can assure you he did do it a lot when he was younger azzy, im old enough to have followed both there whole careers at united.

the fact was beckham couldn't beat a man, so the only option we had was get it out to him quickly so he had time to get the cross in, something which scholes was ideal for. or give him a over lapping run which takes the defender away from him which neville did for him. we all knew including the defenders what beckhams game was but he was still so successful, for me because of having such talented team mates. becks was the weakest of the 99 midfield (thats not saying he was a bad player though!)

[Guest]

To be the weakest of the whole team wouldn't be a knock to him, that was one of the finest club sides ever created.

[mystiroakey]

he was certainly not the weakest IMO..

[compelling and rich]

To be the weakest of the whole team wouldn't be a knock to him, that was one of the finest club sides ever created.

im not he was a great player! just not as good as scholes giggs and keane!

[Guest]

Hey, I never said you did

Even the great Bayern side of today - Schweinsteiger, Kroos, Martinez, Shaqiri, Thiago, Ribery, Robben, Gotze and Muller - can't put four players out that are as good as those four in 99. Nor can Barca's current side. I think if I live to 100 I won't see a better midfield than that.

Shame Fergie had to go and ruin it.

[mystiroakey]

You see you are basing your opinion of beckham based on all round footballing skills over effectiveness.

Beckham was just as effective as all of them and there would be a case for more effective

[Guest]

Dead balls. He might not have been able to beat a man, but he could put in a world-class dead ball. Every time.

[Stella]

Beckham was arguably better for England than he was for Utd, from about 200-2002 anyway. Most are better for their clubs, or seem to be.

[mystiroakey]

Dead balls. He might not have been able to beat a man, but he could put in a world-class dead ball. Every time.

not just dead balls, I can't think of one player out there in football that has ever been so effective at long/medium range passing and crossing.

[mystiroakey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KiAWVbW4U8

[mystiroakey]

the pass on 1:51 is the best pass i have ever seen in my life!

[Stella]

the pass on 1:51 is the best pass i have ever seen in my life!

Not bad was it.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

the pass on 1:51 is the best pass i have ever seen in my life!

Foxy baby   

[Stella]

Good but no cigar.

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