Elbowing and kicking is an unfortunate part of tge game. Its not even close to the disturbing naturr of suarez last season. And yes hes cut it out but you are doing well. He thrives when his club are on fire. Its when things are not going well tgat issues come up. They have done so this season as well. Lets say he stays and next season you fall back to a 5th/6th place battle. Would you be confident that he wouldnt revert to type or would you need to see it to believe it? Make no mistake, hes had a stunningly world class season but its just the one.... So far.
Agree with that. I often say ots players that would make a world squad but then that suggests you can only have a limited amount of top quality players. Maybe it should be a player that wouldn't look out of place at any team in the world? Thats not saying a player is better than every other club has, but nobody would think WTF if they did play for them.
Part of the game? Rooney does it deliberately when pissed off. Same as your (rightly) tagging Suarez. However, what your pointing out about Suarez makes no difference when discussing his abilities. Even Zidane showed the top players lose it at times.
A side made up of the best 11 players would be very unbalanced as the best 11 players are mainly midfielders and strikers.
Its not what you woyld consider weird. Wrong yes but weird? Nah, elbows are chucked about in every game. How many people get bitten off fellow people? If all suarez did was a few nasty tackles and an elbow it wouldnt be an issue. He doesnt though. He goes too far too often.
As does Rooney! Elbow near off way line and no where near the ball for example. Yes, Suarez has done things that you shouldn't see in the game but its not really that much different to someone punching, headbutting or making a deliberate bad tackle, all actions not being acceptable. One will get more attention via morality. Other players try to disguise they acts, Luis didn't. Still think he'd have been better off punching Evra & Ivanovic lol
We wouldnt be talking about it if he had just thrown an elbow or kicked a player. These are unfortunate, but common place parts of the game. Tyson aside, in any sport, who bites another person? Thats why its different.
Not in the slightest. Not arsed at all. Tells me about him as a player though. Anyway, round and round. Agree to disagree on this one.
I think the point about Suarez is being missed. As I said about this remark in the opening post... He may very well be world class, but that should be open to debate. It certainly isn't "locked in", otherwise Ibrahimovic (and possibly Diego Costa) should also be locked in, and clearly that's just getting ridiculous. For me, Messi, Ronaldo and Iniesta are a given. The rest (including Suarez) are debatable. BTW I like Gerrez's comment about not necessarily looking at it as the world's best 11 in each position, but rather seeing it as players who wouldn't look out of place in a world 11. The best definition I've come across for the term "world class"
What if we had to first pick the manager for the side? If you pick Pep then you pick players who are comfortable on the ball, not always the quickest but technically brilliant. For Jose its power and stamina. Klopp woyld be pace, power and technical ability And so on. If we are picking a team then it has to work together. In theory at least because we will never know for certain. Every world class side would also need a few surprise additions. Ones which might not be so obvious. The grafters who allow the team to do its thing. Thats why rooney has to be considered world class. I dont think I am wrong in saying most top clubs would love rooney and that a world 11 would improved by him.
If a player can't hack it, or can't be imagined by the majority to hack it, in the PL - then that player is NOT World Class. Why? Because, for starters, the PL is a big part of the football WORLD. Secondly, the demands of the PL call for a distinct set of attributes, which imo a World Class player must have.
My argument here is that we're not picking a world class "team". We're picking world class players and using the positions as some sort of reference. I also think that even if I take into account your considerations, would a world class player really find it difficult in ANY world 11? For example, if my selection of world class players was... Ronaldo, Messi, Lahm, Marcello, Suarez, Busquets, Vidal, Thiago Silva, Mata for the sake of argument. Now just pick ONE only, in their preferred position, and using ANY world 11 you care to think of UIR, would that ONE player be any less of a player in that side??? I believe the answer would be No. Hence why I don't think the rest of the team matters PROVIDED the rest of the team is considered to be among the best themselves. Regarding the manager that's more a shortcoming of the manager than the players. Scolari at Chelsea didn't mean that the likes of Drogba or Carvalho suddenly weren't world class, it just showed that he wasn't as good in his range of managerial ability. Agree totally about the grafters. I think I've made my views on Rooney already, but I believe Busquets and Vidal are world class.
Well, we already are in the business of abstract thinking, speculations and opinions... The chief reason Ozil is getting so few votes is his form in England, right? How many other Ozils could there be out there, playing very well in France, Italy, Spain or Germany?
Bad season? Put mata in that list right now and I bet he doesn't get the votes...... put the mata from last year in there and I bet he has more than Silva of last year! I just dont buy the whole British tested thing. "We will never really know how good Messi was as he never played Stoke on a cold rainy night in January!" Rickie Lambert scores a good amount of goals in the prem so must be better than Cavani then by that type of thinking? Tried and tested in the prem! I do agree that the prem is a big test of the variety of skills and the four pillars of the game are tested but in a different order- Physical- Psychological-tactical-technical probably. Maybe switch the tech and the tac depending on the team ( mid-table and below). Upper teams can switch this around a slight bit with more technical at the top.
