I don't disagree, but how can those awful assist stats be explained away? For a 'creative' midfielder I'd expect A LOT better.
They can be explained away very simply. We have two of the most incompetent strikers in the entire Division. Defoe started off brightly enough, but he's since reverted back to the kind of form he displace in the 18 months prior to that, when he couldn't buy a goal. Don't get me started on Adebayor. If our strikers are not scoring goals, how the hell can Bale rack up an "assists" stats? Give us Suarez or RVP, and he'd easily have the best "assist" stats in the Europe.
Bale's job isn't to create, it's to drive forward and score goals, a bit like Ronaldo. Of course Ronaldo is a vastly superior player in every way so I don't wish to draw comparison, but Bale's playing style is akin to his. You don't learn to play 4/5 key positions at the top level if you are a bad player. Personally, Bale's performance against us 3 seasons ago (roughly) was the best individual performance I've seen from any player against us in the last decade (Ronaldinho aside). Not at Messi or Ronaldo's level by any means (but who is?!?) but comfortably better than Rooney, Walcott and that bracket of player, also a good head on his shoulders as well.
Please, tell me you were laughing when you wrote that bollocks! "Technique is nothing special..." Do you know absolutely nothing about football? Have you never actually seen Bale play? Several of his goals have display outstanding technique (and I'm not talking about his Ronaldo-esque free-kicks), and if they had been scored by Rooney, the media would have rubbed themselves raw talking about them. Only a complete and utterly bitter, twisted, and jealous muppet would try to argue that Bale's technique is "nothing special."
Bale is not great technically. Good technically yes, but more power and pace. For Great technically: see Spanish players and cliff jones
Technically he is average to good, it is his speed and power coupled with his clinical finishing that make him special. I would have him in my team because to be blunt he is a match winner.
Why do you constantly harp on about pundits and media like they are the pinnacle and importance of all opinion? Their opinions are as valid as the man in the local pub's, fact.
Also he seems to ignore them when they praise other players not playing for Spurs Maybe he wasn't listening at the time cos he was playing Lego Lawyers.
Indicative of modern football fans. Word of Pundit = Gospel I'd much rather listen to a Chelsea Season Ticket Holder's opinion on Luiz than someone like Hansen.
These pundits also seem to judge a player on the whole of his career past present and future on his current form over a few games HIAG buys into this because, and to cement the point, Bale, was nothing, has gotten better and all of a sudden he's being compared to the best two players in the world even though his international, league and European contributions overall are ****e or non existent I mean, for such a great player to play in the CL once, and have 1 good game v inter, must be a terrible tragedy to football
Hair splitting, he was born in what is now Turkey and lived in Palestine. The Greeks will tell you he is Greek but it's far from certain. You'll be telling me he fought a dragon next.