Hi all. Wrote this and talked a little about Ryan Shawcross and other defenders. http://thepenaltyking.blogspot.com/2015/03/is-british-better.html Hope you enjoy.
For me the detail is in the position name - Defender! That is the player role, nothing more and nothing less. You have named a couple of players who have achieved relative success but I will throw another in who has an honours list longer than most - Terry! For the record I cant stand the man, but as a player who does what it says on the tin - he is it. He has very little pace or athleticism and not the greates touch, but his role is to defend and break up play - something which he has made a career out of. As you state - intelligence is key here - and player position and being prepared to put your body on the line are the true real attributes of an out and out central defender in one of the most agressive leagues in the world. We have disccussed on here the ins and outs of Shawx and I have no doubt that if he played for Chelsea etc he would look even better than he does for Stoke - purely because he is surrounded by better players who will retain possession and make themselevs available, something that gets more limited the further down the league/leagues you go.
Well put is that Smithers. For me there are a lot of British defenders that can do just as good a job as any foreign defender. I'm not a massive fan of Mangala for Man City (I didn't like Nastasic either for that matter). Why couldn't they sign someone who is established in the Premier League before taking a pount on some foreign player? Also I forgot to say, good luck with the rest of your season. Mark Hughes seems to be doing a good job with your lot
I agree and I also think that John Terry is the best defender in the league (even though he is a tool), I like Shawcross but if he was as good as some people are saying on here then surely one of the top 4 would have come in for him by now. Hes a brilliant player for us Stokies to have but in my opinion if youre thinking about champions league then he isnt quite there
I agree with this now but I thought that 2-3 years ago Shawcross could have taken that step up. If one of the top four signed him then I think he'd be up there playing every game for England and be dominating around Europe. Sadly at 27 it seems a little too late for him to take such a huge step up. By the time he'd be up to speed with Europe's elite he'd be around 29/30 and would be seen as a wasted effort by some fans. Shame really, I think he really could've done it. Could've been just as good as Terry (in my opinion of course haha)
