Strikers are the best paid and the most famous names. But what about the other end. Defenders are often over looked. If i said Paolo Maldini was the greatest defender ever, would anyone disagree? But who have been the best defenders at safc and elsewhere? Steve Bould. Sadly only for a very short period. Fatheed Bruce was also very good at Utd.
Paolo Maldini is the greatest everything ever mate. Think a lot would say Bobby Moore, Ronald Koeman, Franz Beckembauer and Franco Baresi. Other names would crop up too but Paolo all day long for me. Best defender I've seen in the premier league was Jaap Stam. Best defender I've seen for Sunderland... A bit of a depressing one that. Maybe Julio Arca.
Don't know why i was thinking about defenders, maybe it was the turning down 18m for Kone. But Maldini was a smooth ****er. Made it look easy. Stam was excellent
It's hard to make a case, at my age for anybody other than Maldini as the greatest defender. He may not have coped well with the pace of the PL but that's really all I've got, what he had was worth more than pace, he was always two seconds ahead of the play. Stam was incredible here, but you have to look at partnerships as CB in my opinion. Rio and Vidic were a record breaking team in front of record breaking Van Der Sar, guided us to three CL finals in quick succession. Terry and Carvalho were also a top PL defensive partnership.
At SAFC I remember Shaun Elliott, Jeff Clark, and Joe Bolton all good defenders with not a single England cap between them. Maldini and Baresi are possibly the best I remember on the international stage although much as I hated him I have to admit the Puyol was awesome for both Spain and Barca - neither team were the same without him in it.
Stan Varga, anyone....possibly the best defensive debut, ever. Adams and Keown were good, in fact that Arsenal back 4 with Lee & Winterburn must have one of the best prem defensive records.
Moore and Baresi I'm right with you but I don't really class Ronald and Frank as great defenders I see them as playmakers who start at the back in very strong teams but just my opinion mate. John Terry is a cock but you can't argue he was a top defender, Paul McGrath was a top defender when he wasn't injured. Tony Adams was another top defender for me. It's a bit more tricky when talking about fullbacks as they have to be more attacking as a trade so do you go for the solid Irwin type or the attacking Roberto Carlos type who was a great player but not exactly a great defender?
I don't think Roberto Carlos had any place on a pitch to be honest. He should have been playing on a beach. Skillful, a few wonder goals, but an absolute dogshit player for me. Irwin is a great shout. He was an unbelievable player. If he'd been Brazilian people would give him far more credit.
Puyol and Ramos are incredibly overrated for me. Ramos is better out of the two but outside of Spain they'd have been useless.
Thats the common denominator - not many (England) caps for our players - Defoe and SKP are obvious examples. How Jeff Clarke and Colin Todd were not capped while at Sunderland is a travesty -
I saw Charlie as a kid, an icon on the pitch and adored, always gave 100%.. Dave Watson was a sound Centre Half but when we sold him to Man City we got Jeff Clarke off them as part of the deal, he was a superb player for us and imo as good as Watson..
John Mensa was one of our best defenders I've ever seen, problem was keeping him fit and injury free.
