Oranges to Oranges… or maybe not. A Comparison smile topic for the Off Season Only

[chara]

An offering for the Faithfull to help get us past the Media rinse repeat transfer and rumour mill.

Just for the Off season...

The point of the topic is simple....with all the long term real football wisdom and memories across the Forum… Every week, with a cut off you are asked to comment on straight comparisons between two players, in addition you are asked to,,if so inclined, to send in requests that will be entered every week… Form provided below.

Rough guide lines… not including current players,,that happens all the time… not including Chelsea v Chelsea player comparisons… again a natural recurring theme over the season.

Try to avoid such obvious done to death comparisions, such as JT/Rio..Lamps/Slippy. Inspired couplings would be appreciated. I already have next weeks very interesting match up from one of our very top posters… watch this space.

First offering....

Compare....SFL and Beckham...not too inspired but a gentle starter

 

If you have any problems accessing the form above, please click here to open the form in a new window.

[chara]

Quick follow up,,,,,, don't go back too far... not everyone is an OG!..... any nationality and although I may be stating the obvious not exclusively Chelsea v A N OTHER,,

[chara]

I guess I had better get the ball rolling....⚽

I chose SFL/Beckham after some idle musing ...both players whilst top top players  maximised their skill sets through application and hard work...neither..or if fact hardly anyone.. had  ..to my mind ..the almost super human attributes of Messi in his prime.

Frank as a player had far more sheer home club (deserved)adoration than DB to my mind who had the approval of the fans wherever he played rather than the loyalty and regard from the Chelsea faithful afforded Frank...I don't think DB had the same sort of continued fan interest in his career once he moved on as opposed to Frank.

Skill set?....Bend It Like Beckham ?....but Score Like Lampard?.....again both players maximised what they had,,unlike many skilled players who took the easy way.

[JaneB]

Interesting food for thought @chara 

I'm thinking!! 

[My Blood Is Blue]

Lampard and Beckham… and interesting one. The first thing that springs to mind is how they ‘arrived’. Beckham ‘burst’ onto the scene following that goal vs Wimbledon and very quickly went from unknown kid to household name, helped of course by dating and then marrying one of the biggest popstars at the time. Lampard however, was known largely as Harry Rednknapps nephew and not much rated by many and it took him years of hard work to get recognition, and not really until Roman arrived did people start to see the Lampard he became, the greatest goal scoring midfielder the league has ever seen. 

Im bias obviously, but if I had to pick it one of the two for my team, it’s Lampard every day.

[Mark Kelly]

Beckham was a decent player , a brilliant exponent of the dead ball situation but Lampard was in my opinion the best midfield player of his generation , he could do everything that all the others were feted to do he could pass like scholes , tackle and lead like Gerrard but he was doing this whilst scoring twenty goals a season for what was it five seasons?  The media never gave him the dues as they remain obsessed by United and in thrall to Liverpool but he's the greatest and one of our best ever players  and to be honest I'm sick of seeing Beckhams face these days his greatest gift seems to have been for self promotion .

[jasonb]

On 11/06/2024 at 21:10, chara said:

I guess I had better get the ball rolling....⚽

I chose SFL/Beckham after some idle musing ...both players whilst top top players  maximised their skill sets through application and hard work...neither..or if fact hardly anyone.. had  ..to my mind ..the almost super human attributes of Messi in his prime.

Frank as a player had far more sheer home club (deserved)adoration than DB to my mind who had the approval of the fans wherever he played rather than the loyalty and regard from the Chelsea faithful afforded Frank...I don't think DB had the same sort of continued fan interest in his career once he moved on as opposed to Frank.

Skill set?....Bend It Like Beckham ?....but Score Like Lampard?.....again both players maximised what they had,,unlike many skilled players who took the easy way.

Beckham became a media icon in his latter time at UTD, wearing some very odd fashion outfits and having multiple hair styles. 

So Beckham had a certain media exposure as a celebrity Lampard can never reach. 

[JaneB]

17 minutes ago, jasonb said:

Beckham became a media icon in his latter time at UTD, wearing some very odd fashion outfits and having multiple hair styles. 

So Beckham had a certain media exposure as a celebrity Lampard can never reach. 

Thank god!!!

And I'd have more time for Beckham if he'd instilled any sort of work ethic into his children (bit off topic I know)

[chara]

@JaneB...took the words out of my mouth,,or rather typing finger!...not off fopic at all...of field behavour is part of a comparision..Pele/Maraddona...one an Ambassador of the game,,the other a disgrace..for me.

[Blue Moon]

There was a petulance about Beckham - flash git - that Lamps never showed. 

[JaneB]

There must be lots of comparisons to make but the only completely unoriginal one I can think of is Messi vs Ronaldo.

The word 'great' is thrown around a lot but these two really were/are.

Maybe you can only be called a real 'great' if you did it for club and country.

[Mark Kelly]

I just requested Ronaldo V Messi 

Should be a good one. 

[chara]

Ok ..Monday so a change of comparisions...in strict order of suggestions'

Jermain Defoe v Matt Le Tissier.

We await the reasons from the esteemed "suggestee"

[My Blood Is Blue]

That was me!

I picked these two, because I feel like they have similarities in their career and also an obvious difference in that Defoe moved about a fair bit and Le Tissier stayed at one club.

Where I feel they’re similar is that neither got/went to a top club in their career, but in my mind we’re good enough to do so and also neither had the international career their talent probably deserved. Le Tissier more so than Defoe, but from memory Defoe’s England appearances were more often from the bench than starting (mainly due to him playing at a time when we had Owen and Rooney).

Which one was better? Should either of them have moved to a top club in Europe?

[Mark Kelly]

For me it has to be Le Tissier , he was always his own man , staying at Southampton despite being wanted by many clubs ours included , where Defoe was a very good striker and could probably have moved to a bigger side , Le Tissier was a mercurial talent for whom football seemed to flow through him in an innate gift , Defoe demands our respect as a man after the way he treated the little boy Bradley which was a beautiful thing and Le Tissier has his "mad" side which I find endlessly interesting .  Football though , Le Tissier every time.

[chara]

OK..CHANGE OVER DAY,

Thanks for the contributions so far,,bit slow but it is that time of year plus the Euros.

TWO Comparisions this week....and Mark your suggestion will be up next week!

#1,,Jay-Jay Okocha v Adel Taarbot,

#2 John Terry v Jamie Carragher

I would ak the members who made the choices to kick off with their reasons and views,,,,,

[chara]

OK..Last Hurrah.....seems the Euros ..for the wrong reasons..and the somewhat iffy Transfer topics are garnering enough attention to make an "Off Season" filler topic like this superfluous.

Not quite retired players except in the sense just earning some (big) late pre retirement pocket money but this last effort from Mark if I remember correctly,

RONALDO V MESSI...

Can you start @Mark Kelly?

[Mark Kelly]

Two giants of the game , one a strapping self made man and the other an elfen chemically enhanced hobbit .

Ronaldo has hewn himself from base material into one of the greatest players of all time , he can shoot , he can head , he can take free kicks , he can pass , he can leap like a salmon , watching him in his prime was akin to watching a powerful stallion in full stride as he swept all aside him on the football pitch.

Messi a tiny tricksy hobbit with the  abilities of a football wizard , he can shoot , he can head .  he can take free kicks , he can twist and turn and bamboozle the best defenders watching him in his price was akin to watching liquid mercury as it slithers and is impossible to capture.
 

For me the difference between the two can be summed up that Messi did all his best work at Barcelona in a mainly two team league with a side built around him and put together to get the best out of him , when he went to PSG he was never as good and when he played against Chelsea in the Champions league he was mediocre , he simply couldn't do it when the competition was high .

Ronaldo can do it everywhere , United , Madrid , wherever , he earned his place in history as he did most of his best work in the most competitive league in the World before cementing his reputation at the world's' biggest club. and he's still striving to do so for Portugal in the Euro's where he's learned to put the team before Ronaldo which brings a tear to the eye , he has finally found humility , late in life.

Ronaldo edges it for me  

[My Blood Is Blue]

1 hour ago, Mark Kelly said:

Two giants of the game , one a strapping self made man and the other an elfen chemically enhanced hobbit .

Ronaldo has hewn himself from base material into one of the greatest players of all time , he can shoot , he can head , he can take free kicks , he can pass , he can leap like a salmon , watching him in his prime was akin to watching a powerful stallion in full stride as he swept all aside him on the football pitch.

Messi a tiny tricksy hobbit with the  abilities of a football wizard , he can shoot , he can head .  he can take free kicks , he can twist and turn and bamboozle the best defenders watching him in his price was akin to watching liquid mercury as it slithers and is impossible to capture.
 

For me the difference between the two can be summed up that Messi did all his best work at Barcelona in a mainly two team league with a side built around him and put together to get the best out of him , when he went to PSG he was never as good and when he played against Chelsea in the Champions league he was mediocre , he simply couldn't do it when the competition was high .

Ronaldo can do it everywhere , United , Madrid , wherever , he earned his place in history as he did most of his best work in the most competitive league in the World before cementing his reputation at the world's' biggest club. and he's still striving to do so for Portugal in the Euro's where he's learned to put the team before Ronaldo which brings a tear to the eye , he has finally found humility , late in life.

Ronaldo edges it for me  

A stallion and a Wizard, quite well summed up!

It's so hard to separate these two in terms of one being better than the other, but I've always said that I think Messi is the better footballer, but I would rather have Ronaldo in my team. From a pure skill point of view, Messi is the better player and possibly the best ever in that sense, but Ronaldo is just a pure athlete, a winner, and someone who can single-handedly take a team from being good to great.

[JaneB]

What about my one?  Hazard vs Robben?

[Mark Kelly]

1 hour ago, JaneB said:

What about my one?  Hazard vs Robben?

Thats giving me twisted blood just thinking about it . Hazard lol.

[Sciatika]

I'd take Hazard over Robben. Robben was faster, but that led to him spending huge amounts of time at the treatment table. Hazard, whilst slower, was more skilled and scored more goals. Robben scored 1 in 4 vs Hazard 1 in 3. Hazard was always a game-changer. Robben scared defenders - Hazard scared the whole opposition team. And Hazard stayed longer. It's pure emotion, but I always believed Hazard loved playing for us, whereas Robben saw us as a stepping stone on the way to somewhere else. I would place Hazard up with the likes of Zola and Lampard whereas Robben was a really good player who played for us for a while.

Edited July 1 by Sciatika

[My Blood Is Blue]

Robben: The promise of what could have been.

Hazard: The realisation of what was.

I also just think Hazard was the better player. Robben was very good, but Hazard was just a different level to him, especially in a Chelsea shirt.

[Mark Kelly]

Robben suffered from not wanting to push himself and Mourinho not liking that he was always injured especially when we had a big game on the horizon , when he didn't play we had a good enough side to carry on regardless but for most of his Chelsea time , Hazard "was" Chelsea , no Hazard , no party , he carried the Sarri side particularly ,

Hazard for me all day long 

[chara]

@JaneB,,sorry Jane,,,huge apology...communication glitch with Sam..my error...didn't get your pick...we sort of got trampled by the other real time topics !

The guys have come through though..as they always do