These are some of mine:
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Pepe was actually a better defender than Ramos, but Ramos’ knack for important goals (not a defender’s job) and what he won with Spain made him the better player in people’s eyes.
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Courtois should have been in the top 3 of the ballon D’or ranking in 2022.
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Xavi was a more complete midfielder than Iniesta. He pressed better, controlled games better, gave better weighted passes, and was also a good dribbler when pressed (Iniesta was the better dribbler overall). I’d say he was the better one.
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Modric and Kroos have far bigger careers with Madrid than Zidane did.
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Zidane and Ronaldinho were great players but were sometimes frustrating to watch and ineffective even in their primes. Their convoluted style of doing simple things made them highlight champions.
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Luis Garcia generally played the biggest role in taking Liverpool to the UCL final in 2005, but his name is hardly mentioned when that UCL win is mentioned (Gerrard, the Scouse, vs Garcia, the foreigner)
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Pique was a better defender than Puyol. The latter was prone to mistakes and making rash decisions, while Pique was far more intelligent.
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Eto’o had a bigger impact in Barca than Suarez did. The former came in 2004 when Barca hadn’t won the league since ‘99. He became the league top scorer for two straight seasons as Barca won the league, then the league and UCL double. He also won the treble in 2008/09. Suarez, on the other hand, came when Barca were already dominant, but just having a bad spell.
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Gerrard dived for the penalty which led to Liverpool’s equalizer in 2005 UCL final.
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Carvalho is the most underrated defender in his generation. He was basically Mourinho’s wingman.
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If Lampard played in this age, with those same stats, he’d be recognized as the best amongst the three.
What are yours?
You have to remember that Argentina had an average “okay” team and Napoli were nearly relegated the season before he came. Dragging a mid or poorly performing team to trophies when you arrive? With multiple teams? That’s the epitome of greatness.
Messi and Ronaldo played with loaded teams and in fact, Messi was not the team-carrier/dragger Maradona was. Ronaldo is ahead of Messi on that category but still behind Maradona by a pretty large margin in my eyes simply because he played for such great teams.
Argentina was not mid. That’s a myth but yeah he was the architect of that WC win it’s true. He was amazing but I feel like his peak was not that long compared to the other’s. He has way less goals than the other, has way less titles and I feel the truth about him was the he only played for small teams, but it is absolutely not. Look he was outstanding, not denying. I just feel the others have accomplished wayy more. Pele has 3 WC wins and has over 700 goals in his career. Messi has won everything and he did carry his teams, but it’s true he played in great teams as well. He carried Argentina to WC win tbh. CR7 won 5 UCL and was the main man in all of them, won two titles with Portugal which is historic and is the highest goalscorer of all time. Cruyff was revolutionary on the pitch, scored more goals than Maradona, won 3 UCL.