View Full Version : Top 10 Central Midfielders
Stezagud
04-03-2006, 12:26
I've made this thread because i wanted to test a theory :)
It would be interesting to know how people decide what a good central midfielder is as different skills tend to hold different values from league to league. Ideally by central midfielders i am not neccesarily focussing on forwards such as Ronaldinho, Totti and Messi, they make pick the ball up from deep positions on the field but ultimately they operate in the final third. To start things off i'll list my own 10 (not in any particular order)
Gerrard
Lampard
Vieira
Xavi
Emerson
Ballack
Gattuso
Alonso
Pirlo
Makelele
Id have included Riquelme but he is very much on the dividing line between attacking midfielder and forward so i left him to out to avoid dispute.
Vieira
Seedorf
Gattuso
Pirlo
Gilberto Silva
Lampard
Gerrard
Xavi
Veron
Mascherano
Gago
Milan_Mad
04-03-2006, 13:07
Pirlo
Gattuso
Ballack
Vieira
Seedorf
Juninho Pernambucano
Deco
Lampard
Guti
De Rossi : :devf:
Who the hell is Gaygo
If you r asking about Fernando Gago he is Boca Juniors CM. Only 18 years old, he is on the first team since last year and he became the leader of Boca's midfield. He was very important in the 2 titles Boca won last semester (Argentina's Apertura tournament and Sudamericana Cup). He is called to be the new Fernando Redondo, he is classy, technical and has a very good marking.
GRE-NO-LI
04-03-2006, 15:14
Pirlo
Sneijder
Gerrard
Ballack
Vieira
Juninho Pernambucano
Lampard
De Rossi
Xavi
Mascherano
GRE-NO-LI
04-03-2006, 15:14
He is called to be the new Fernando Redondo, he is classy, technical and has a very good marking.
LET'S BRING HIM TO US!
LET'S BRING HIM TO US!
well we should hurry because Real Madrid has allready put an eye on him.
GRE-NO-LI
04-03-2006, 16:00
well we should hurry because Real Madrid has allready put an eye on him.
To loose a player to Real ****drid is terrible.
Gerrard
Alonso,
Xavi,
Juninho P,
Lampard,
Pirlo,
Ballack,
Makelelelelelele (as much as i dislike him)
Mascherano,
Vieira
Vieira,Emerson,Gerrard,Lampard,Alonso,kaka,ronaldinho,camoranesi,makelele,diarra...order is not important.
GRE-NO-LI
05-03-2006, 19:01
Well, I didn't list any attacking midfielder, only 'pure' midfielders.
Lampard
Gerrard
Emerson
Pirlo
Juninho P.
Gattuso
Vieira
Seedorf
Ballack
Diarra
I only included deep lying midfielders and defensive midfielders. I cant believe I put Xavi so low, but its been ages since Iv seen him. I think Cambiasso is the best DM in the world right now, he amazing. Id love to see him destroying in our midfield on the right hand side of Pirlo.
1. Pirlo
2. Cambiasso
3. Essien
4. Juninho Pernambucano
5. Gerrard
6. Emerson
7. Ballack
8. Diarra
9. Xavi
10.Alonso
1. Lampard
2. Pirlo
3. Mascerano
4. Juninho
5. Gerrard
6. Kaka
7. Emerson
8. Viera
9. Claude Mak
10. Xavi
I can't believe someone put in Guti, or Deco for that matter. They are both rubbish!
Interista
09-03-2006, 13:26
Cambiasso
Veron
Lampard
Gerrard
Emerson
Xavi
Ballack
Keane
Gattusso
Baraja
Milan_Mad
09-03-2006, 13:36
1. Lampard
2. Pirlo
3. Mascerano
4. Juninho
5. Gerrard
6. Kaka
7. Emerson
8. Viera
9. Claude Mak
10. Xavi
I can't believe someone put in Guti, or Deco for that matter. They are both rubbish!I can't believe you rate Mascerano 3 places above Kaka but there u go, Gerrard i am not even going to start on.
pirlo
juninho
lampard
ballack
gerrard
xavi
emerson
alonso
riquelme
veron
kaka is an attacking midfielder, makelele is a defensive mid... not central
Pirlo
Gerrard
Emerson
Seedorf
Lampard
Xavi
Ballack
Diarra
Cambiasso
Alonso
I can't believe you rate Mascerano 3 places above Kaka but there u go, Gerrard i am not even going to start on.
Obviously you have never seen Mascerano play and to be fair its top 10 midfielders in the world there is hardly any daylight between them.
Well, now Steza, can u please tell us waht is your theory about?
(By the way, do my votes count?because i cheated and rated 11 players, nobody noticed?)
Stezagud
30-03-2006, 15:53
Well, now Steza, can u please tell us waht is your theory about?
I cant actually remember properly :D
it was something about how to define 'world class' players, i'd argued in another thread that Lampard and Gerrard are world class and i figured a good way of defining a world class midfielder was to let people draw up their top 10's and the more often a player appears the more likely they are to be genuinely world class.
It seems to have worked out as the results so far are as follows:
1) Gerrard 11/12 (12 lists so far)
2) Lampard 11/12
3) Pirlo 10/12 :sagrin:
4) Ballack 9/12
5) Xavi 9/12
6) Vieira 8/12
7) Emerson 7/12
8) Juninho 7/12
9) Alonso 6/12
10 Gattuso 5/12 :5schal:
(By the way, do my votes count?because i cheated and rated 11 players, nobody noticed?)
i did count them all, but if you want to go through them and find the guy you would put at no.11 i can take a vote away from him :cool:
I don't rate Lampard so high, I think he is overrated. Deco should be in that list, even though I don't like the guy... and what about Fabregas???
Stezagud
31-03-2006, 06:16
I don't rate Lampard so high, I think he is overrated. Deco should be in that list, even though I don't like the guy... and what about Fabregas???
As i said, the list isnt made by anyone individually, it is based purely on the frequency of the players appearing in everyones lists. If enough people wanted Deco in he would be in, he isnt the most high profile Barca player but im sure everyone here knows who he is and what he can do.
As for Fabregas, i can only speak for myself and why i didnt include him. He may have played well in the Champions League but i have watched him weekly in the Premiership and seen him outplayed plenty of times. One of the reasons (probably the main reason) Arsenal are down fighting in the UEFA cup places is that they lost too many midfield battles to the likes of Bolton, Blackburn, West Ham etc
Also, i think Gilberto has been at least as responsible as Fabregas for their CL form. Fabregas may get the plaudits because he is more of a flair player but Gilberto is playing in front of a very inexperienced back four and is guiding them to the cleansheets record. Remember that Juve didnt manage a single shot on target and Real could score over 2 legs....
As i said though, because of their domestic form this season i didnt include either :D
well i would take out Gago, because he is too young. Consider him as a bonus track of my list because i think he is on of the future's best midfielders in the world. So far, being 19 years old he is on top 3 players of Argentinian First Division, and i think he has great future ahead. Anyway, this doesnt affect the general list, but i wanted to have this clear.
so who would be the better option for Milan between Mascherano and Poulsen ? I don't know anything about Mascherano, i've never seen him play. Likewise about Poulsen, all i know about both is what i've read in reports or other people's point of view.
The reason i include Poulsen is that it seems he's going to Milan and all i know of him is that he's a very aggressive player that can wind up the opposition. I personally think (and have done for a few seasons) that Milan need more strenght/steel in their midfield, as it is, our midfield is quite soft no matter how talented. Would Mascherano be able to do the same job as Poulsen ? How does his passing, pace, skills compare to the man from Schalke ?
i think on his day julio baptista should be there
Would he be available though ?
could we have a midfield of;
Baptista - Pirlo - Diarra
Would that work ? Bearing in mind that Diarra plays in the middle for Lyon, like Pirlo does for us.
Well if you wanna know about Mascherano, let me tell you that he has strength, he has a voice of command, he has will, and becise he has skills, he has much playmaking, and a very good long distance shot. And he is good at attacking as at defending, but having born in Argentinian football, where midfield is a battle field, gave him the better weapons to know how to defend and mark. I think he would have no problem in marking Ronaldinho, for instance. And in fact in the qualifying match vs Brazil in Bs As, he did it great against Dinho, who had no space for his play.
Would he be available though ?
could we have a midfield of;
Baptista - Pirlo - Diarra
Would that work ? Bearing in mind that Diarra plays in the middle for Lyon, like Pirlo does for us.
no i just forgot to put him in my list, id rather have seedorf instead in that lineup... it would work wonders, or ballack maybe :rock3:
So who would be the better value for money out of Mascherano, Baptista and Poulsen ? Not just in terms of initial transfer fee (Poulsen would win that hands down) but in terms of what they would bring to the club in future years ?
Would Mascherano-Pirlo-Diarra be better than the other line up ?
Baptista before he went to Madrid was pretty much all we could wish for to challenge/take Seedorf's place. Fast, aggressive (from his Brazil days), free scoring ...
I just think it all needs freshening up.
Well, Mascherano shouldn't be that expensive, but the problem is that he belongs to Kia Joorabchian( owner of Corinthians), who is conected to Roman Abramovich, so it would be really hard to get him i think, because Chelsea would be in first place in their negotiations. But i think he is the best option right now as a defensive midfielder, and he could be Milan's future leader.
out of the 3 id go for baptista, but theyre all kinda different, poulsen is a DM, baptista plays in the center and is a bit more attacking than the other 2, mascherano ive seen a few times tbh, but hes a bit more defensive than offensive.
u should add diarra to that list, id take him with ease.
Stezagud
31-03-2006, 16:33
well i would take out Gago, because he is too young. Consider him as a bonus track of my list because i think he is on of the future's best midfielders in the world. So far, being 19 years old he is on top 3 players of Argentinian First Division, and i think he has great future ahead. Anyway, this doesnt affect the general list, but i wanted to have this clear.
we'll have to keep an eye on him then, i'd heard of him before but i cant remember where it was, in fact it may even have been on Champ Manager ;)
u should add diarra to that list, id take him with ease.
He would be my first choice too, though he'd probably cost about £15m :eek:
of the others, Mascherano i've only seen twice, he was impressive both times but i still wouldnt like to rate him on the little i've seen. What is certain is when he does move to Europe he will be expensive, Chelsea do have links (Abramovich's wealth is supposedly behind both his and Tevez' moves and if that is the case then technically they own him already) Utd are definately interested too, so there could be a price war....
Baptista is a great player but its too hard to work out his value/availability until Real get a new manager in. Its possible the new manager would want to build his team around him which would make him near impossible to get. I dont think Poulsen would actually force his way into the team and im not sure we need a new Vogel :cool:
First of all: Michael Ballck.
then comes:
Lampard
Gerrard
Xavi
Emerson
Cambiasso
Camoranesi
Essien
Viera
Juninho
But Poulsen will be like another pitbull for us, another Gattuso. More aggressive than Ambrosini and Vogel, although he obviously won't be there for his offensive attributes.
I'm glad he'll be here, for a while now Gattuso has known he's pretty much assured a place because there isn't anyone else as 'tough' as him in the squad. Now there is, so he'll have to get his game together.
If Ambrosini, Rui Costa and possibly Vogel do go, that'll leave us very short of cover in midfield. Poulsen will cover one spot but what about the other 1 or 2 places ??
i think this is the summer when rui and ambro decide to leave, vogel would stay, and with poulsen replacing ambro, maybe a sneijder would take rui's place
Does Riquelme count or is he too attacking ?
I'd like to see him take Seedorf's place, we wouldn't be short of creativity then if we had Romi, Pirlo and Kaka !
I can dream i guess :D
Well i always saw him as an attacking midfielder(he always was), but he has change in Europe, he is more versatil now i think, and i add him to my list.
We'll have to wait and see what happens, but if he keeps his actuall level, hell be wanted by all the big teams.
we should nip in there first before someone else does .... although he might not want to move on, he seems pretty happy with the yellow submarines.
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