***Official*** Road to World Cup 2014

[Jarquis]

Santi "50 caps" Cazorla - doesn't make the Spain squad often..

Agree in premise. Is why I find John Terry one of the most overrated defenders ever, is lauded for 'commitment' and 'bravery'.. now I'm not doubting either of these characteristics but they wouldn't be spoken of half as often if he wasn't slower than erosion and had a better positional sense so he didn't have to make an abundance of last ditch tackles.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Much as it pains me to admit it, because he really is without any redeeming features as a human being, but we missed Captain Racist last night. For all his lack of pace he does command the defence and knows his job is, first and foremost, defending.

Considering they're all ex or current Toffees Lescott, Jagielka & Baines played like strangers.

 

[sledger]

I think the three of them just aren't very good tbh. Especially Lescott.

 

[Uppercut]

Santi "50 caps" Cazorla - doesn't make the Spain squad often..

Agree in premise. Is why I find John Terry one of the most overrated defenders ever, is lauded for 'commitment' and 'bravery'.. now I'm not doubting either of these characteristics but they wouldn't be spoken of half as often if he wasn't slower than erosion and had a better positional sense so he didn't have to make an abundance of last ditch tackles.

Hmm, I don't know if I'd say he's overrated. He definitely benefited from playing behind Makelele for years and Carvalho never got the credit from the English media that Terry did. But his distribution is actually excellent and he's always scored **** tons of goals for a centre-half.

He drags the whole team back towards their own goal, so he could never do the job for Barca or Arsenal, but then that was never a problem in Chelsea's system. In the context of the Mourinho team he was as good a defender as they could have had.

 

[Jarquis]

No, he's overrated. Should never have been spoken of in the same breath as some of the great centre halves we've had in the past decade... but he often is.

I've seen him rated above Adams ffs.

 

[sledger]

A fairly typical British player of old, really. Extremely limited in terms of technical ability or athleticism, but has aggression, strength and determination in abundance. The fact that he's an utterly loathsome individual means I'll never be able to judge him completely objectively, but I wouldn't rate him particularly highly, even at his supposed peak.

Edit: That said, as has been alluded to above, his lack of skill is somewhat offset by the fact that he's undeniably a good leader and can organise a backline very well. I suspect that may well be why he has lasted as long as he has. Plus the fact that he's got a god-like status at Chelsea, and is basically guaranteed a gig there until he decides to retire.

 

[Uppercut]

Extremely limited in terms of technical ability

Thing is, this just isn't really true. Not exactly twinkle toes but he still finished with the third highest pass completion (groan) in the division last season.

 

[sledger]

(groan)

Precisely.

 

[Uppercut]

Irritating but it's just illustrating what everyone who watched Chelsea at all last season knows: Terry has excellent distribution. The "Lionheart JT" persona is just a bit of a parody that doesn't reflect the type of player he actually is very well.

 

[sledger]

Irritating but it's just illustrating what everyone who watched Chelsea at all last season knows: Terry has excellent distribution. The "Lionheart JT" persona is just a bit of a parody that doesn't reflect the type of player he actually is very well.

Is it though? Without watching back footage of all his passes last season, I don't think anything can really be gleaned from this statistic. A semi-pro player might come out with a high pass completion rate at the end of a season if all he did was routinely play 5 yard lay-offs to his full-backs, after all.

 

[Pup Clarke]

At his peak (04-08) Terry was actually pretty swift across the ground if memory serves me well -
certainly no Rio, but he could more than hold his own in a sprint with most forwards.

 

[Uppercut]

Is it though? Without watching back footage of all his passes last season, I don't think anything can really be gleaned from this statistic. A semi-pro player might come out with a high pass completion rate at the end of a season if all he did was routinely play 5 yard lay-offs to his full-backs, after all.

Yeah, but clearly that's not what he did. And you couldn't even, there isn't always an easy out-ball.

In part it shows how unwilling the team were to go long and how good the midfield were at picking the ball up off the defence. But he's also a very good passer. I guarantee you'll start to notice now that it's been pointed out.

 

[Ikki]

I think the 'braveness' and 'self-sacrificing' compliments which get re-run in every commentary hide the fact that he's generally pretty good at reading the game, and is decent with the ball at his feet too. His high work-rate and his ability take responsibility in his team's 3rd has meant he has been one of the best defenders in the world during his peak. He won the UEFA club defender of the year award 3 times - more than anyone. Unpopular guy, but great defender.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Not sure if he's best in the Prem, but having said that I can't really think of any others I'd say were conclusively better than he is.

I'd say Krul, Chesney and Friedel are the closest to him in terms of ability. After that I'm really struggling.

 

[Jarquis]

Yeah, but clearly that's not what he did. And you couldn't even, there isn't always an easy out-ball.

In part it shows how unwilling the team were to go long and how good the midfield were at picking the ball up off the defence. But he's also a very good passer. I guarantee you'll start to notice now that it's been pointed out.

He's got a decent left foot and can knock a long one.. but for each one of those there's a time he's been hopelessly slow or out of position and cost Chelsea. If one-piece-skull-Cech wasn't basically God with gloves on when he first game to Chelsea then he'd have cost them a lot more.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, but clearly that's not what he did. And you couldn't even, there isn't always an easy out-ball.

In part it shows how unwilling the team were to go long and how good the midfield were at picking the ball up off the defence. But he's also a very good passer. I guarantee you'll start to notice now that it's been pointed out.

I don't think it's clear at all actually. And maybe there isn't, but I didn't claim there was. In any event, I remember a few seasons back Eboue had one of the highest pass completion rates in the Champions League. Then someone actually looked into this in more detail, and found that something like 75% of his passes were made backwards to Kolo Toure, which rather demonstrates how this statistic can often be of limited value.

But very well, I'll make sure to pay closer attention to his general play in the near future.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Jeez. San Marino keeper just Schumachered Feo.

Walcott looks out for the count.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Yea, wondering how that wasn't a foul, for starters.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Oh and **** off Townsend, obviously. I'm wondering whether the number of times Rooney ****s something relatively simple up will be more or less than the number of excuses Townsend will make for Rooney after he ****s something relatively simple up.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Two average sides out there today, tbh.

England playing like strangers.