so by definition pele says a great player cannot come from a nation that is not equipped to do well in the wc finals. players such as george best. total twaddle, mr pele.
This thread actually pleases me because I thought most people would be agreeing with him based on meaningless sentimentality. Loads of people in football seem obsessed by the players they grew up with, and I'm sure there are certain people who will never be convinced by a modern footballer no matter what he achieves. At the moment, Messi is probably the best player there has been. In the next 20 years there will probably be a better one. The fact is the standard of the game is increasing all the time. When you watch old clips of top players like Pele and Maradona, the player in question is good without doubt but the thing that always jumps out at me is that the defenders, and particularly goalkeepers are absolute gash. From what I can see from these clips, goalies only figured out it was easier to save shots with their hands in the mid-80s and defenders all seemed to behave like Kamil Zayatte (i.e steam into every tackle and go flying the past the attacker looking completely silly). I watch the way James Chester defends now and I think if he played 40 years ago he would be thought of as a legend, the composure in tackling he shows which isn't so special in the modern game, seemed to be so rare in times of old that attackers could just do what they want. I think this has a lot to do with why so many fans think every striker should score 20 goals, because that genuinely was the case in years gone by. One thing I would grant to the oldern days of football though, it was more entertaining.
This was always better though [video=youtube;fgrjRA7djeQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgrjRA7djeQ[/video]
Could have a point there. But then there was always this... [video=youtube;fbOB6MklvtU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbOB6MklvtU&feature=related[/video]
