Southampton fan in peace, glad to see bales doing well for you guys! On our board we had a thread asking us to name the best 5 players in the world baring barca and madrid players. And one of our posters is adamant that your left back assou ekotto (sp) is one of them? Rates him as joint best left back in the world with lahm. Obviously none of our board agree but I was just wondering if you guys rate him and if so do you rate him as highly as our odd poster (adam bananna) Best of luck for the season!
for us he has been a gem....formed a great partnership with Bale on the left...can overlap well..can even defend well..but has a habit of doing Cruyff turns and stepovers in our own penalty area ...but if he didnt..then he wouldnt be half as exciting to watch as he is...i wouldnt say technically and tactically he is the best left back footballer im afraid.
We all love him and he's very underrated by a lot of English football fans, largely because they saw MOTD when Hansen had a go at him about 3 years ago after a bad game. I haven't seen Lahm play for awhile but from what I'd seen in the past I'd say he's better than our Benny. Marcelo's definitely the best in the World for me but you've said your not allowed to pick him. Evra's still very good too, even if he's not quite up to where he was 2/3 seasons ago.
I think he's been superb for us for most of the season and he's played a hell of a lot of games over the past couple. He's probably a little underrated, generally speaking, but is he one of the top 5 players in the world? No. I'm not sure that he's one of the top 5 players at Spurs, to be honest.
I misread and thought he was on about top 5 in each position! No he is definitely not one of the top 5 in the World, even excluding Real and Barca Great player but he's also a bit of a cult hero for us for his 'fro, relaxed style on the ball and always entertaining interviews, which probably means we rate him a bit higher than he is. Modric should have a shout at being in that list, though. I'd go for: Thiago Silva, RVP, Modric, Silva and Cavani.
If we're talking Premier League nominations, then Yaya Toure, Hart and Kompany would definitely get a look in, for me. Consistently superb. Mata, Modric, van Persie and Rooney are probably the other obvious ones.
Clichy, Evra, Cashley & Gibbs the LB's of the other top clubs are all superior to BEA Not really a criticism - just reality, in my humble opinion.
Ask Chelsea fans what they think about Cole. Other than a handful of games, including the Spurs game, he has been very poor this season. Gibbs has had one or two good games since Arsenal got back on their feet but he too is poor and not even first choice for Arsenal.
Clichy and Gibbs? Not for me, I'm afraid. The former's in and out of the City side, often looking like the weakest link when he starts and the latter's often injured, showing defensive frailties when he isn't. I think that Cole, Evra and Baines are better than Assou-Ekotto and Enrique's better than him defensively, but on a par overall. Kolarov's on a similar level and the rest of the left-backs in the division are worse.
