How do you define world class ?

[maz]

Exactly. Like someone else said, what if all the best in one position are average? Or poor, even. Is the least poor player the one labelled as "world class".

 

[G.J]

Its imposible to be the best in your position and not be WC. The fact that you can get into any team in the world (since you're the best) defines the term world class.

 

[Metaphysical]

Its imposible to be the best in your position and not be WC. The fact that you can get into any team in the world (since you're the best) defines the term world class.

exactly.

also: evra and cashley are world-class LB's. they're outstanding footballers in both attack and defence and in both cases are largely both LB and LW for their team.

just because our LB sucks, doesn't mean there are no world-class players in that position.

 

[antonnn]

Most people wouldn't define Cashley as world class though, too many of them let their hate blind them, common practice as football fans really.

 

[zanela]

Most people wouldn't define Cashley as world class though, too many of them let their hate blind them, common practice as football fans really.

Actually, i do rate him as the best LB in the world.

Evra is gr8 but cole edges it for me. I feel he is a better tackler, better defensively & is more of a goal-threat than Evra.
Cole has managed to keep the ladyboy quiet while Evra has got owned by some1 like Aaron Lennon.

Meta, what do ya think?

 

[Metaphysical]

I rate evra more than cashley.

he's much more explosive in attack, and especially with the ball at his feet.

he can also be magnificent in defence if he has to be. in the past two years in the CL he's faced up to messi and maicon over two legs and neither player had any great impact and both are more difficult to deal with as a FB than CR, who can be dealt with by simply following him down the line (benoit assou-ekotto has owned him ffs).

lennon gave evra a torrid time in the carling cup final, sure, but that was on that horrible wembley pitch 4 days after he'd spent 90 minutes dealing with maicon by himself (no help from park) and lennon had a week's rest to build for the game. in the matches since then evra's dealt with lennon fairly comfortably.

cashley is also brilliant, and definitely underrated because he's a complete fuckface, but he's not as explosive in attack even though he has more goals (which are usually the result of him getting on the end of chelsea attacks, something evra doesn't really do that often as he creates more).

 

[Cal-FCB]

Cashley is up there but I actually think world LB's are pretty poor currently. He's very solid defensively and he'll support the attack, but if you watch him with the ball at his feet he's really clueless at times. He'll panic and just play it backwards quite often. He's much more tentative compared with his Arsenal days.
Evra is very comfortable going forward and always looks comfortable when he has the ball. He is a bit dodgy defensively though, I think you're overrating him in that department Meta. The CL semi in 2008 Messi gave him plenty of problems and was easily our best player in both games, whereas CR did very little past hitting the bar. I'd personally take Evra over Cole as he's a better all round footballer, but neither are great compared with previous generations.

 

[zanela]

hhmm...

So, Cole is better defensively & Evra better with the ball at his feet & going forward is what i gather from the above 2 posts.
From what i've seen of both players, Cole has always managed to impress me with his performances. He just looks solid & reliable...But i dont follow them regularly so perhaps u guys know better.

 

[antonnn]

Yeah I agree, Cole is the better defender. He's a wicked marker, he's kept the best relatively quiet, he's played against Messi 2 or 3 times and Messi didn't do anything significant in any of those games. Ronaldo is easily marked by a decent fullback but Cole's murdered him pretty much every time, to the point Ronaldo goes to the other side of the field cause he can't hack him.

Evra is better at attacking definately, like Meta says he's much better at making things happen when he attacks and is good with the ball at his feet. One thing I'll say about Cole though is that he makes BRILLIANT attacking runs and if whoever has the ball can make the right pass he'll be in a great position to either score or cut the ball back to somebody in the box.

I'd say that maybe Cole is a TINY bit better than Evra in that he's as good defensively as Evra is attacking, but he's better at attacking than Evra is defensively, though while I do think Evra is relatively solid in defence, a good wide player will cause him a fair bit of problems while Cole is pretty damn good at marking.

 

[Metaphysical]

Cashley is up there but I actually think world LB's are pretty poor currently. He's very solid defensively and he'll support the attack, but if you watch him with the ball at his feet he's really clueless at times. He'll panic and just play it backwards quite often. He's much more tentative compared with his Arsenal days.
Evra is very comfortable going forward and always looks comfortable when he has the ball. He is a bit dodgy defensively though, I think you're overrating him in that department Meta. The CL semi in 2008 Messi gave him plenty of problems and was easily our best player in both games, whereas CR did very little past hitting the bar. I'd personally take Evra over Cole as he's a better all round footballer, but neither are great compared with previous generations.

messi was our best player?

yaya was our best player as he cut off SOOOOOOOOO many man utd counterattacks. xavi was second best. both enabled us to dominate the tie. everyone else was a way below them. messi only had 2/3 dribbles and shots on goal over the course of both legs, only created a few chances for others (couple for eto'o in camp nou, one for deco at OT) and stood there doing nothing as scholes scored the winner. he wasn't fully fit, sure, but he was never our star performer. he tried several times to beat evra with a dribble and only really managed it with that one legendary flick.

and what previous generations? roberto carlos? you are aware he couldn't defend for shit, right? I mean, that's an exaggeration; as he could make good cover runs and tackle, but he was caught out of position so often. certainly worse than evra in defence. and about as effective in attack (although more spectacular).

maldini, I'll grant you, was a class apart. but maldini is an all-time great. he'd stand out in any team in any era except il grande inter as they had the original maldini (facchetti).

 

[VivaBarca]

This poll has went much better than I thought it would. Cheers guys.

 

[Cule Angles]

"World class" is like porn, you know it when you see it. (Actually a lot of people don't know, but heh)

 

[VivaBarca]

"World class" is like body odour you know it when you smell it.

 

[Cal-FCB]

messi was our best player?

yaya was our best player as he cut off SOOOOOOOOO many man utd counterattacks. xavi was second best. both enabled us to dominate the tie. everyone else was a way below them. messi only had 2/3 dribbles and shots on goal over the course of both legs, only created a few chances for others (couple for eto'o in camp nou, one for deco at OT) and stood there doing nothing as scholes scored the winner. he wasn't fully fit, sure, but he was never our star performer. he tried several times to beat evra with a dribble and only really managed it with that one legendary flick.

and what previous generations? roberto carlos? you are aware he couldn't defend for shit, right? I mean, that's an exaggeration; as he could make good cover runs and tackle, but he was caught out of position so often. certainly worse than evra in defence. and about as effective in attack (although more spectacular).

maldini, I'll grant you, was a class apart. but maldini is an all-time great. he'd stand out in any team in any era except il grande inter as they had the original maldini (facchetti).

He was easily our most dangerous player (which is what I meant by best), Evra never looked comfortable with him or in control and it was the quality of others such as Ferdinand who limited what Messi could achieve. Remember this was a shambolic Barca side at the time with players like Eto'o and Deco well out of form. Even Xavi wasn't that effective against them. In last years final again Evra didn't look brilliant. And of course Messi stood there gawping when they scored, seen as he's a forward I imagine he does that everytime we concede a goal.

If you go back just a few years to Zambrotta in his prime he was far superior to Evra and Cole, excellent defensively and really good going forward. Compare Evra and Cole to the current best RB's in world football (Maicon, Alves, Ramos etc) I wouldn't class any of them as all time greats but they're still much better players for me. The current quality of LB's ain't brilliant.

 

[jamrock]

for me a player is world class, when he can walk into any team in the world, that's playing currently, so no Ronaldo isn't world class, but he is a legend of the game.

world class player is a player, that any manager no matter how good his team is, would take that player and try to figure out a way to get him into is starting XI
WC

Iker,Buffon,Cesar-they would walk into any team bar the team of,the other in the list

Defenders are a bit more difficult, as their is a nesta are maldini level defender playing right now in my opinion

FB-Maicon & alves

Mid

Iniesta
Xavi
Essien
Yaya?/Masch?

and that's probably it, the likes of Gerrard and lampard wouldn't start for Barca or real, maybe they would change around a few things to fit in Gerrard

Messi
Ronaldo
Eto'o
Drogba

and that's probably it, kaka would be their, but he has been shit for two years now.