I know a lot of fans from other clubs will disagree with this.
As Liverpool supporter it would be Alan Hansen. We have had good defenders who have come after him - Sami Hyypiä and Carragher.
But none has been as good as him on the ball, joined in attack and we have never been able to really replace him which says something due to the fact he has been retired for more than 20yrs. We have had different types of defenders.
The only one I thought was as exciting to watch was Rio Ferdinand when he was playing for Leeds. Not disrespecting United as good as defender he was but I always thought he could have offered a lot more.
The best defender I ever saw was Jonathan Woodgate for Newcastle, if it wasnt for injurys and off the field problems he would have been an England regular IMO. He had the potential to be better than Terry or Ferdinand.
I saw him partner Titus Bramble for Newcastle and he talked him through the whole 90 minutes, telling him where to go, who to mark etc...he made Bramble into a half decent player when they played together.
A career unfulfilled. Fantastic debut for Real Madrid too...
I know a lot of fans from other clubs will disagree with this.
As Liverpool supporter it would be Alan Hansen. We have had good defenders who have come after him - Sami Hyypiä and Carragher.
But none has been as good as him on the ball, joined in attack and we have never been able to really replace him which says something due to the fact he has been retired for more than 20yrs. We have had different types of defenders.
The only one I thought was as exciting to watch was Rio Ferdinand when he was playing for Leeds. Not disrespecting United as good as defender he was but I always thought he could have offered a lot more.
I wasn't born when Emlyn Hughes was playing but ive seen the videos and spoke top people who watched him play every week. He looked brilliant at joining attacks.
I feel abit gutted that I missed out on him
Ashley Cole must be up there as one of the best full-backs at his peak.
John Terry was a superb centre-back
(I'm not a Chelsea fan by the way!)
It's hard to disagree with those 2 as being at least worthy of mentions. Cole has always been Mr. Consistent for club and country and will be remembered by me as one of the best left backs I've seen. JT will probably be remembered less fondly by most due to his indiscretions, but he's obviously been central to Chelsea's successes over the past decade or so. I'd also give mentions to Zanetti, Vidic and Puyol.
This has been quoted in a recent article on ManUtd, but I think it can be applied to most teams nowadays. They get so carried away with signing star forwards that they forget almost entirely about their defence.
"I'd never build a team with champions up front and dummies in defence. That's just deceitful advertising designed to fool the fans," from Andrea Pirlo's book. He talked about AC Milan's success and said that it didn't really matter that much who played up front as long at they had the likes of Maldini, Baresi, Costacurta, Nesta etc in the back. The attacker were allowed to make mistakes and try again because they knew the defence would pick up the ball at the back.
Comments
As Liverpool supporter it would be Alan Hansen. We have had good defenders who have come after him - Sami Hyypiä and Carragher.
But none has been as good as him on the ball, joined in attack and we have never been able to really replace him which says something due to the fact he has been retired for more than 20yrs. We have had different types of defenders.
The only one I thought was as exciting to watch was Rio Ferdinand when he was playing for Leeds. Not disrespecting United as good as defender he was but I always thought he could have offered a lot more.
I saw him partner Titus Bramble for Newcastle and he talked him through the whole 90 minutes, telling him where to go, who to mark etc...he made Bramble into a half decent player when they played together.
A career unfulfilled. Fantastic debut for Real Madrid too...
Tony Adams
I wasn't born when Emlyn Hughes was playing but ive seen the videos and spoke top people who watched him play every week. He looked brilliant at joining attacks.
I feel abit gutted that I missed out on him
It's hard to disagree with those 2 as being at least worthy of mentions. Cole has always been Mr. Consistent for club and country and will be remembered by me as one of the best left backs I've seen. JT will probably be remembered less fondly by most due to his indiscretions, but he's obviously been central to Chelsea's successes over the past decade or so. I'd also give mentions to Zanetti, Vidic and Puyol.
Ashley Cole
John Terry (A few years ago)
Tony Adams
Can't think of many more at the moment
"I'd never build a team with champions up front and dummies in defence. That's just deceitful advertising designed to fool the fans," from Andrea Pirlo's book. He talked about AC Milan's success and said that it didn't really matter that much who played up front as long at they had the likes of Maldini, Baresi, Costacurta, Nesta etc in the back. The attacker were allowed to make mistakes and try again because they knew the defence would pick up the ball at the back.
Of course I agree :cool: