R9, Van Basten can certainly be as they're not renowned for free-kick brilliance. Now Zico stands out as probably the best of all time alongside Juninho Pernambucano, but in terms of ruling players out. they seem like demi-gods, the most gifted humans ever due to their diminutive stature and mortal nature, whereas Pele is truly divine in that sense. That is what gave him that God-like quality which transcends the likes of Messi/Maradona. but Pele in his prime was right up there and IMO with his superior sense of balance/agility, arguably eclipses all of them as the perfect footballing specimen from a physical perspective. The original Ronaldo is probably the greatest force of nature the game has ever seen, and the two portuguese powerhouses Ronaldo and Eusebio were also fine physical specimens. Cruyff and Di Stefano were solid in the air, with Cruyff's header in the European Cup Final against the hardmen of Inter something for the ages and Messi has scored his fair share of memorable headers but you wouldn't consider any of these players as forces of nature in the air. AERIAL THREATĬristiano, Van Basten are real standouts from this list yet Pele absolutely matches them in this regard and is recognised as one of the GOAT headers in the game, Some would argue that Pele had the greatest leap ever and as the video testifies below - who would blame them. The rest are as gold standard as it gets, supremely intelligent footballers under pressure who very rarely relinquished possession. They are the sort of footballers who were prone to losing the ball under pressure due to the high octane nature of their game and the sheer directness of their play. Whilst you'd expect all footballers of the calibre of our shortlist to be A* at this, for me R9, CR7 and Eusebio fall slightly short here. None of the other forwards are worth a mention in this regard. CR7 is underrated with regards to his crossing but not really renowned as a long-range passer. In this category, Maradona, Zico reign supreme with their wonderful mastery of long passing as well as crossing, although for outside of the foot crosses - Cruyff was King. His style of play just didn't incorporate long range passing/crossing, as he preferred shorter passes for quick-fired combination play. It is an area of the game where Pele falls short. Long-Range passing incorporates the ability to spread the play and crossing. Lets not forget his attempt from the halfway line too - a man clearly not daunted from taking a long distance punt. I'd have him just behind Messi and alongside Eusebio. Pele as the video below illustrates is right up there, mirroring Eusebio's explosiveness from range and more efficient than a Cristiano. Cristiano is also a great threat from range but his efficiency is questionable. with the former having a cannon shot off either foot and Lionel being able to pass it in from just outside the box and generally just being unerringly accurate and consistent from long range. He like Henry, loved to score a variety of goals which seemed to defy the laws of physics but powerhouses from distance? no.Įusebio, Messi stand out. Maradona was a scorer of spectacular goals but it would be pushing it to say he was a master of the long-range goal. Puskas was renowned for having one of the most lethal shots of all time but he was not a huge threat from beyond 25 yards, with his ferocious long range effort against Benfica being the exception rather than the norm. Di Stefano and Cruyff were similar in that they could also strike from range but preferred to work their way into the box and put the ball away from close range. Some like Zico who clearly had great set piece ability and could score from range tended to choose not to and majority of his goals result from dribbles into box/being a fox in the box. Now, alot of players on the list above have obviously scored a range of long-distance goals but I would argue R9 and Van Basten can instantly be ruled out as evidence of their long-range prowess isn't as pronounced as the others.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |