Greatest midfielders you have watched

nottsco2-0 said:
In the flesh has to be Silva. Yaya is superb but Silva is the most intelligent player I've ever seen. You could spend 90 mins just watching him and come away from the game educated.

I terms of others, xavi was the one for me, an absolute maestro.

Oh, and Quinton Fortune too. I got a lot of pleasure from watching him
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I bet yer liked Bebe, too! And that stopper, or non-stopper Taibi!
 
Some good names, surprised whenever these thinks come up that Rijkaard isnt mentioned. Slightly more defensive than most of the names but had it all both in defence, midfield and attack (scored the winner in a European Cup final from memory). Miles better football player than makelele for me. Also hated zee germans (Voller)!!

M Laudrup also!!
 
Bluearmy said:
Some good names, surprised whenever these thinks come up that Rijkaard isnt mentioned. Slightly more defensive than most of the names but had it all both in defence, midfield and attack (scored the winner in a European Cup final from memory). Miles better football player than makelele for me. Also hated zee germans (Voller)!!

M Laudrup also!!
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Laudrup is so highly spoken of, I remember more of his brother unfortunately. Just didn't see enough clips of Michael.

Rijkaard, always remember him flobbing in Vollers curly monstrosity
 
paddyblue said:
In the flesh.

David Silva
Roy Keane
Yaya
Paul McGrath
Pirlo
Luca Modric
Arjen Robben
Georgi Hadji
Bernardo Silva
Phil Foden
Frank Lampard
Shaun Wright Phillips
Gareth Barry
Damien Duff
Makalele
Mascherano
Figo
Veron
Diego Simione
Rui Costa
Milner
Essien
Gerrard
Tuncay
Nigel De Jong
Wesley Sneider
Dejan Stankovic
Stephen Ireland
Pjanic
Paulo Sousa
Stan Petrov
Ray Houghton
Glen Whelan (massively underrated)
Andy Townsend
Kevin Sheedy
Jao Mouthinho (saw him at the europa league final in Dublin 2011, Porto v Braga, Otamendi and Fernando lifted the cup that night too).

I think that’s most of them through the years. But thinking back I’ve seen some good football, most of those have been against Ireland. There’s probably a few more.

***I’ve not seen KDB in the flesh yet
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I take it you mean Ronnie Whelan not Glenn the full back
 
Crouchinho said:
I loved Italia 90, a few complained about the lack of goals but I loved everything about it. From Scilachi, Baggio, Klinsmann, Mattehus, Canniga, Miller, Maradona and of course Gazza to Pavarotti. Lots of spelling errors of course.

I'm glad we both went through at the time, it stitched up the Dutch but we got royally stitched up by them a few years later courtesy of some dodgy reffing and a certain Koeman. I'm pretty sure you got your own back USA 94 when Ray Houghton got a screamer v Italy, may have got the tournie mixed up? Correct me if I'm wrong

Even back then that's some shite wages for a professional footballer, I know they weren't on crazy wages of today but that's still pretty naff.

Good GT took care of him, he had a good heart, the way the media hounded him was pathetic, they couldn't wait for us to lose a game under him.

Good on McGrath lasting that long in the game too
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In 90 it was Holland 1 Ireland 1 when the England result against Egypt came in 1-0. So as it stood Egypt we’re going out and the rest of us progressed. So Ireland Holland pretty much stopped playing, Tony Cascarino didn’t get the message that the game was decided between the two captains, McCarthy and Gullit, and big Cas was still milling gym about for 5 mins before the rest of the players told him to relax haha. it got so bad the red was stopping the game to tell the players to attack

We went on to knock Romania and Hagi in the next round, John Aldridge has pulled a muscle and was coming off at half time so he nearly took Hagi out of the game with a tackle. Hagi battered us that day. Packie Bonner was my hero for years after as a result of that penalty save which looking back now, it was more of a bad pen than a good save.

Schillachi knocked us out in the next round. For a few years after in Dublin, the was still T-shirt’s going around which just said “Fuck Schillachi”

we did get our own back in 94, and Ray Houghton did score a belter, I’ve always enjoyed playing Italy.

In 94 the Dutch knocked us out 2-1 in the 2nd round. We’d beaten them in a warm up a few weeks before the tournament. But in the US, McGrath was immense that day and had a late goal disallowed. But 2-2 was never a favoured Irish result, we generally leaned towards 1-1.
But yeah man, Italia 90 was epic. Interesting I watched the Maradonna doc recently. There’s a good chunk documenting Italia 90 which is worth a watch
 
dave1967 said:
I take it you mean Ronnie Whelan not Glenn the full back
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Ronnie was great, I saw him play a bit but he was knackered by the time I start going to games regurlarly.

I’ve seen a lot of Glenn Whelan who was a midfielder. And though he’s no where near the names on the list, he’s a very good player, great reading
and positional sense and a really good passing range. He just stood out in the pitch which wouldn’t be hard in the current Irish team unfortunately. When he first came into the Irish team I didn’t rate him. But years of watching him has changed my mind. Not in the top players class but very underrated
 
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paddyblue said:
In 90 it was Holland 1 Ireland 1 when the England result against Egypt came in 1-0. So as it stood Egypt we’re going out and the rest of us progressed. So Ireland Holland pretty much stopped playing, Tony Cascarino didn’t get the message that the game was decided between the two captains, McCarthy and Gullit, and big Cas was still milling gym about for 5 mins before the rest of the players told him to relax haha. it got so bad the red was stopping the game to tell the players to attack

We went on to knock Romania and Hagi in the next round, John Aldridge has pulled a muscle and was coming off at half time so he nearly took Hagi out of the game with a tackle. Hagi battered us that day. Packie Bonner was my hero for years after as a result of that penalty save which looking back now, it was more of a bad pen than a good save.

Schillachi knocked us out in the next round. For a few years after in Dublin, the was still T-shirt’s going around which just said “Fuck Schillachi”

we did get our own back in 94, and Ray Houghton did score a belter, I’ve always enjoyed playing Italy.

In 94 the Dutch knocked us out 2-1 in the 2nd round. We’d beaten them in a warm up a few weeks before the tournament. But in the US, McGrath was immense that day and had a late goal disallowed. But 2-2 was never a favoured Irish result, we generally leaned towards 1-1.
But yeah man, Italia 90 was epic. Interesting I watched the Maradonna doc recently. There’s a good chunk documenting Italia 90 which is worth a watch
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Great memories in fairness. We were lucky to survive against Romania to be honest. Always loved Hagi and he is one of my favourite midfielders ever anyway.

Went to both games in Giants stadium in '94. The Italy game was epic. It was supposed to be a few thousand Irish and tens of thousands of Italians from New Jersey etc. Of course everybody knows now that we had at least three quarters of the stadium that day. We scored tickets from everywhere but I was still surprised how many more we had there. Brilliant brilliant day. Was also at the Norway game which clinched passage to the next round. Still though; probably one of the worst games of football that I have ever seen...did I care? Nahh. I had a pop-up Jack Charlton hat and the few Norwegians there all had Viking helmets and skis and were a great crowd. Boy could they drink...the only people who can outdrink those loons are the Finns imo...:)

We were not as good as we were in '90 and the Dutch knocked us out with relative ease really although they were no great shakes that year too.

Which reminds me: some of the greatest midfielders seen following Ireland are:

Platini, Tigana, Giresse - that French midfield; just wow...

Gullitt - destroyed us in Dalymount in '83. Him and van Basten. Before they were household names.

Hagi

Playing for Ireland:

Brady - Rolls Royce of a player
Ronnie Whelan,
I saw Giles once in the 70's. Well past his best but man could he pick a pass. And wasn't as dirty as he was with Leeds. Some player.
Paul McGrath. Although as everyone knows, he was a better CH. But he was still a brilliant midfielder.
Keane. Hated him with manure but got behind him when he played with Ireland. Not forgiving Saipan any time soon though. Plus I may have played against him in Cork back in the day. Dirty cranky little bastard back then too. Assuming it was him. He may have been only 15 or something. He was on that team that we played at the time - Rockmount Celtic. He could fucking play though.


For the rest - again only seen live:

Silva, Yaya, Lampard, Makelele, Pirlo, Can I couunt Maradona as a midfielder? If so, yeah him. He was pretty good...;)

So many that I have not seen live that have been mentioned earlier in the thread. Too many to mention so I won't. Went to the US in '89 so haven't had that much exposure to the real top class stuff over the last 30 years. But I have seen a few in my time...;)
 
paddyblue said:
In 90 it was Holland 1 Ireland 1 when the England result against Egypt came in 1-0. So as it stood Egypt we’re going out and the rest of us progressed. So Ireland Holland pretty much stopped playing, Tony Cascarino didn’t get the message that the game was decided between the two captains, McCarthy and Gullit, and big Cas was still milling gym about for 5 mins before the rest of the players told him to relax haha. it got so bad the red was stopping the game to tell the players to attack

We went on to knock Romania and Hagi in the next round, John Aldridge has pulled a muscle and was coming off at half time so he nearly took Hagi out of the game with a tackle. Hagi battered us that day. Packie Bonner was my hero for years after as a result of that penalty save which looking back now, it was more of a bad pen than a good save.

Schillachi knocked us out in the next round. For a few years after in Dublin, the was still T-shirt’s going around which just said “Fuck Schillachi”

we did get our own back in 94, and Ray Houghton did score a belter, I’ve always enjoyed playing Italy.

In 94 the Dutch knocked us out 2-1 in the 2nd round. We’d beaten them in a warm up a few weeks before the tournament. But in the US, McGrath was immense that day and had a late goal disallowed. But 2-2 was never a favoured Irish result, we generally leaned towards 1-1.
But yeah man, Italia 90 was epic. Interesting I watched the Maradonna doc recently. There’s a good chunk documenting Italia 90 which is worth a watch
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Italia 90 was the dogs danglies mate. I remember having the sticker album, used to drive my old man nuts. He would give me a quid to pick up the Shoot and Match magazine and id blow it on stickers (which were all swapsies)

Hagi was a fine player, I never liked them bastards for some reason, them sort of teams always have a wonder players. Bonner was an excellent goalie too

That should have been England there instead of Netherlands, but that makes me sound the usual bitter English bastard!! USA 94 was odd, I remember one of your players being booked for carrying a bag of water or drink of some kind, it was ridiculous. It's a tournie I found hard to watch without England there

If you find a link of the doc throw it over mate I will give it a whirl!
 
In no particular order: David Silva, Ya Ya Toure, Colin Bell, Philip Lahm (after he moved position), Liam Brady, Iniesta, Zola. Does Messi count? Not really a conventional striker.
 
Players I have seen in the flesh

as a kid: Colin Bell
and based on 1 live appearance (and several on the telly as I used to keep an eye out for him) Gunter Netzer

slightly older: Gerry Gow exactly what was needed at the time and then some

Older still: Merlin - for me probably the best player I have ever seen
then Yaya
 
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