Second best player in the world

One of these things is not like the others.

VdV hardly undisputed now tbf

i've suprised myself and gone with sneijder

assuming it's an official list hence no robben

or kaka, who may well have been my choice

kaka replaced at great and unnecassry expense on list by c ronaldo tbh

Can't decide between Villa and Xavi.

Don't really think Villa is the "right" answer but I love him anyway.

The conductor xavi hernandez.

xp

i was there so i went for neither, but certainly don't think either of them would be the 'wrong' answer.

again, i'm assuming this is an official list hence rooney and torres being there.

the thing is, who else from the epl ought to be there instead?

not allowing for injury last year, essien

darren bent, if rooney's there.

king, if torres is

Cashley maybe, but that's a pretty poor showing for the best league in the world.

it's not a list of left backs though- admittedly he'd be up there if it was

Went for Casillas. His record is extraordinary, and he might be only halfway through his career.

Might have voted for Messi here?

hence we're only voting for the 2nd best, bcz i think we all agree messi's untouchable

Nakh's made this a long poll though, that could all change if Andy Carroll or someone hits form again.

how far off this list is tevez?

Man City not helping to showcase Tevez's abilities at the moment imo

Good question. My immediate instinct is that he obviously doesn't belong on this list though I can't really say why. But he'd be near the top of the list below this one, maybe behind a few Germans.

i can't answer this question obv, just wondering cuz i'd say that my favorite players in the world after messi are tevez & müller

Tevez maybe suffers from trying so hard, you kind of mentally associate him with workrate rather than ability. The guys on this list could mostly glide through a game, doing extraordinary things like it ain't no thing.

yeah i see that -- that's sort of why i dig tevez -- bulldog and all that

n00b question but: is there a sense that rooney is gonna have a down year? like, world cup disappointment hangover + all the shit w/ his personal life or is he still balling it up

this isn't quite a list of the best players, so much as a list of players for a whom a plausible/sophistic argument could be advanced for being sbpitw

jordan

common feeling about rooney is that he's still feeling the aftereffects of an injury he's prob not recovered from going back at least 6 months, hence his poor world cup. he's not really been great this season, but hasn't played much.

my own personal view is that rooney had an 'up year' last year and that he isn't as good as carlos tevez at doing much the same thing.

tevez shouldn't be on this list because this list is the best player in the world, not the trying littlest bighearted dude in the world.

there's no arguing with his goal record and i like the dude, but cmon

maybe kaká but he hasn't played yet this season w/ bad injury, long slump in form....

yeah imo kaka, vand c ronaldo are the closest pair irl, but i don't like them as much as i do the likes of drogba, robben or sneijder, dudes that make you go 'wtf was that as opposed to kaka's geometrically perfectly boring runs/passing and c ronaldo being faster, stronger and having a better strike than everyone else in the world.

voted xavi

always maybe feel that xavi's only one half of the world's best pair of players

kaká at his best is obv better than rooney tho

wtf

fact that you'd even hint at hesitance is wtf

rooney is the poorest 'talismanic' player england have had in my memory (ie since before gazza, so before robson i guess)

kaka's geometrically perfectly boring runs

this is the best case i've read for kaká's understated greatness

voted lúcio btw

i've thought about it!

dude was pretty much undeniable for a while there, before ronaldo ascended. but he never made me love him. you couldn't cheer a surgeon, but messi's a magician- in it to try out new stuff, the result is secondary to the exuberance, the show.

rooney's i dunno a busted down saloon pianist- he's got talent, maybe on hard times atm, but the only reason the crowd are singing along so rowdily is that they're pissed and he's the only act in town atm

my mate's brother once went into a pub in leeds, put on "the fog on the tyne" by lindisfarne - the version with gazza - ten times, then fucked off sharpish. shame, really, because i'd have loved to know how that went down.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:03 (5 years ago)

is there a gazza/leeds negative connection i've missed?

no other footballer is so engrained in the popular imagination

pfft mcgrath keane and gary doherty at first thought

tbh atm i'd pick drogba over messi.

yeah i said it.

Drogba
Messi
Ronaldo
Sneijder
Pique
Xavi
Lucio
Milito
Fabregas
Ibra

in order.

Essien wld be top 5 if he played more than 5 games in a row.

same with Kaka i guess.

surely u jest

arsenal fan in bogeyman psychological disorder shocka

it is ok dude he won't score implausible backheels every week you can come out from behind the sofa

http://i.imgur.com/UxIMy.jpg

a hoy hoy, yesterday

:D

hahaha

i just like seeing nakh and lj riffing

― a hoy hoy, Tuesday, 5 October 2010 19:12 (5 days ago)

this was always gonna come back to haunt him

:)

Well Messi hasn't been playing THAT great since April so...?

Apps Goals Assists

7 7 3

don't think he's done too badly this season

yeah but how many goals has he scored against arsenal in the last year? just the three? pathetic

four....

haha fuck for some reason I thought it was just a hat-trick, ruined my own rhetoric

I do base all my opinions on Arsenal football club.

hey guys do you think Arsenal might need their own ILX board

featuring Sgt Biscuits' Thread Of Pretending Other Football Clubs Don't Exist

ew screw that - goldberg's just about to face hogan for the wcw title (108th match unbeaten iirc?)

hey you know who else went ages unbeaten?!

that's right, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Drogba their gleaming champion

lol

torres - No
lúcio - Great defender, but no
eto'o - No
iniesta - Very possibly
drogba - Very possibly
sneijder - maybe
rooney - No
villa - Maybe
casillas - No
cristiano ronaldo - Once upon a time
maicon - No
xavi - Maybe

Tempted to go for Iniesta though - La Liga four times, two Spanish cups, Champions League twice, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, European Championship, World Cup. The dude has just completed football on 'Hard'.

OTOH Drogba is the one I can imagine being amazing in pretty much any team in the world.

cristiano ronaldo - Once upon a time

That's interesting - I didn't realise he was meant to have dropped off that much at Madrid - is it just based on his World Cup, or has he really struggled in La Liga?

i wouldn't say he's gotten worse but real haven't won anything.

and he's been frequently injured

I've seen Ronaldo in the flesh for Real (two goals + red card against Malaga in February) and most recently for Portugal on telly on Friday. I'd say he's still as good as he was, but looks much less effective in those teams probably because of how they play. You don't get so much of the devastating breaks at speed that tore teams apart at United.

maybe because real have more than him that are allowed to have the ball?

but tbh my watching of spanish football has dropped way off the past while, so i've not been following him at real.

He scored two in Real's last match fyi.

He's still fucking amazing but I think the problem is he's gone missing in big matches (v. Lyon in the CL defeats, el clasico, the World Cup).

Ronaldo has always gone missing in big games.

like that time he scored in a champions league final amirite

yeah i don't really buy that. he can be marked out of games by extremely good opponents, but at utd he was surrounded by enough dross that double marking him didn't hurt you.

the 'correct' answer to this is ronaldo but he is such a graceless, almost joyless choad that it would be wrong to vote for him (or drogba)

i've decided that drogba and bellamy are great, tbh. not taking things seriously on the pitch is a bonus, not taking others footballers seriously is a bonus. charity work etc off the field is a bonus. being pretty great footballers is a bonus.

either of them any day of the week over a dude who's paying god hush money and a guy that has cloned himself tbh

not taking things seriously on the pitch is a bonus

re: this- i'm now taking the view that drogba's and bellamy's incessant push-it-to-the-limit moaning and ridiculous behaviour in general are elaborate and subtly hilarious ruses.

the 'correct' answer to this is ronaldo but he is such a graceless, almost joyless choad that it would be wrong to vote for him (or drogba)

― journey to the end of nyt (nakhchivan), Monday, 11 October 2010 14:40 (2 minutes ago)

if personality had anything to do with it this would be between arshavin and those icelandic celebration guys?

arshavin on talent should be on this shortlist, but he doesn't have the metronomic consistency of the best players

which is why he was still playing in russia at 27, and barcelona wouldn't pay the asking price

but he's still a fantastic player and a worthy character

he was so shitty for large parts of ireland russia, and so genius in flashes, that it's a sin he's at arsenal and not spurs tbh

oh and a hoy hoy u shd probably edit out my ip address! not that i'm ashamed of the terrific service of 'pay for 24mbit, get 11mbit' be unlimited but all the same....

too late lj is on dat ting imo

leave the house, walk away, dont look back. when it's safe we'll call you. buy a new belt.

do something with that hair ffs

Ha, sorry! I don't know how to turn that off and keep forgetting its there.

wow the internet really is an amazing resource

nah just bluffing (this guy is a cool customer imo)

damn it, I feel like James Beattie after hitting the crossbar vs Luxembourg or whatever it was

my mate's brother once went into a pub in leeds, put on "the fog on the tyne" by lindisfarne - the version with gazza - ten times, then fucked off sharpish. shame, really, because i'd have loved to know how that went down.

my friends and i used to do this in this skanky early house full of fishermen and alcos/junkies near the four courts in dublin...they had a jukebox with one or two Now compilations and we'd pick the most incongruous awful pop music, so solid crew and the venga boys and the like, and put so much money in that nothing else played for an hour or two.

back on topic, it feels like these things are loaded against certain players. like can a full back ever be called the second best player in the world? maicon has more of a wow factor than many of the players on that list but he is a full back at the end of the day, he's not going to boss a game or score a hat trick.

i'm leaning towards villa...but this season will be a good time to judge him properly.

shit hang on...this list doesn't have marlon harewood on it

like can a full back ever be called the second best player in the world?

depends on the full back and the talent around that year?

maicon isn't the second best player in that milan team (sneijder & lucio, poss milito on form) - so no. But Dani Alves or Cashley a couple seasons ago? Maybe.

i don't mean that i don't rate full backs, more that they tend to lose out in this sort of discussion.

thuram, lizarazu, cafu... might have had claims at one point.

yeah i don't think ashley cole has ever been the second best full back in the world, let alone the second best player

Dunno, was thinking of that pre-Messi, post-Zizou time when the only real superstar was Ronnie?

eto'o, shevchenko, luiz ronaldo, henry, riquelme, van nistelrooy, valeron, villa, deco, pirlo, pires, adriano, scholes, totti....there were plenty of other players to choose before cole

i think you could theoretically make an argument for a full-back as a ballon d'or player - i don't think he's ever reached these rarified levels but alves at sevilla was arguably the side's main playmaker

like this, which i wouldn't agree with, but in a limited field full-backs can shine, and maicon was probably brazil's most important player at the world cup....

often tend to think of great full backs as pairs (thuram/lizarazu, carlos/cafu, jorginho/branco)

if you are arguing alves is a better full-back than ashley cole

http://www.geraldpeary.com/reviews/def/fallen_idol_lg.jpg

no i wasn't arguing that, and i'm not sure if it's true...alves is a better player but their roles aren't directly comparable

hypothetically tho, if a player could run a team like barcelona in the way alves ran things at sevilla, they could be a legit ballon d'or contender

at barca, he plays more as winger in a 442 might play in england, he attacks a lot but stays wide and doesn't tend to force difficult passes or take up shooting positions (cuz unlike sevilla they have better players for those tasks)

i posted the wrong thing on the wrong thread. ;_;

dont know that a cole hasnt always been better than alves, who's never convinced me of his 'great player' status tbh

― i dont love everything, i love football (darraghmac), Monday, 11 October 2010 19:54 (5 minutes ago)

hmmn still wrong but on the right thread at least

guys we all need to stop sb'in each other over this shit

Dunno, was thinking of that pre-Messi, post-Zizou time when the only real superstar was Ronnie?

The Kaka era you mean? He's getting a raw deal from this thread. (PS Ronnie = Ronaldo or Ronaldinho?)

yeah kaká shd have been on here anyway

if he gets back to his 07 level then he's a sure #2, but i'm not sure he will

there was a long time post zizou pre kaka/ronaldo but ronaldinho was untouchable 03-05 iirc

http://barcelona.theoffside.com/files/2008/07/alves.jpg
http://cdn.epltalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/ashley_cole-v-sign2.jpg

left-handed v sign is all wrong....sinister indeed

ronnie = dinho
i didnt sb u darragh
i dunno i was just thinking of that time when figo, pires, vieira, henry, raul, shevchenko and inzaghi really started to drop and when ronaldo, messi, kaka weren't at their best yet. tings got so bad that gerrard and lampard entered the conversation and a centre half who played for cheating scum won ballon d'or for christs sake

forgetting dinho, mayne.

i sb'd averyone tbh. evryone.

and nedved had one great season in the interim too i think

oh yeah. nedved is always seemingly the forgotten man.

i thought it was pretty clear messi was a worthy successor to zidane and ronaldinho from 2006 onwards, but he took a couple of years to prove it

nedved was ballon d'or in 2003....he was an awesome player

btw i can see sneijder beating messi to wpoty/bd'o via winning the triple/taking his country to wc final

they've combined those two into the fifa ballon d'or....so to emphasize pre-eminence of fifa compeitions it will have to go to xavi, inesta, villa, or sneijder i guess

Iniesta was injured a lot of last season, so not him. Sneijder mibbes.

World Player of the Year nominees:

Xabi Alonso (Spain), Daniel Alves (Brazil), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Julio Cesar (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Maicon (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Muller (Germany), Mesut Ozil (Germany), Carles Puyol (Spain), Arjen Robben (Holland), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Holland), David Villa (Spain) and Xavi (Spain).

(or ppl who had a good world cup + messi + drogba + eto'o + ronaldo. wtf wheres that whole inter team? srs no milito or lucio? gtfo!)

I know Asamoah Gyan had a great World Cup but the dude is currently sitting on the bench at Sunderland.

Total agreement on Milito and Lucio. Milito still just ridiculously underrated all things considered, can't help being in the shadow of Messi and Tevez.

fuck fifa

france football should never have let them despoil the ballon d'or

wassup

absence of lúcio/milito = fifa determined to hype every second-rater who did something blogworthy in the world cup

lucio, certainly.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I don't rate Milito that highly but leading scorer for treble winners (inc CL final goal) is pretty obviously within the top twenty achievements of any given year.

he scores important goals. i dunno, i gotta have more myself tbh.

stephen gerrard has just said 'important goals' to the nanosec of my typing, chills.

drogba

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

No Lampard? Madness.

no ramsay either

lúcio
eto'o
iniesta
villa
casillas
xavi

no other answers acceptable

drogba very acceptable indeed, you aloof wanker

are u riffing on lj's 'episode' posts?

lj has too many episodes to single one out like that tbf

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

torres 1

anyone want to own up?

i'll own up for chris!

i think ilx prob got this right in the end

wp pallid one, long may u destroy defences in apparent slow-motion

underwater, he plays like he's underwater, with the pallor and the slowmotion

Ha yes, sorry! Couldn't decide between Xavi and Iniesta. So Fernando was the, er, obvious choice.

sheepish in wolf's clothing

not lyin tho, i'd have voted modric if he were on this like he should have been

try and sublimate yr culchie prejudice all u like but u can't spoil a ballot being cap'n save a drog and THEN genuflect to san andeas

cant remember who i voted for, it's probably up there somewhere

sneijder, apparently

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Andr%C3%A9s_Iniesta_-_001.jpg

terrible shop job on the legs

yr still a damn bigot

http://i.imgur.com/KQOz8.jpg

i dont know where this has come from, yet i'm not moved to issue a full denial. telling, that.

http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/2712/iniesta1kg.jpg

he looks a bit 'pied' in that pic alright

that's R. Federer, is it not?