++ [ originally posted by erado ] ++
The Sweden media cant really judge solely on potential or skill abilities, thats where performance come into place, with Rooney and Bojinov is high up in the list.
To be fair to Rooney, his debut season has been reasonable good, a hatrick against Fenerbahce and 4 goals in 9 EPL fixtures( 2 as subs), while half of the list cant even get a couple of games.. Agreed that he may not be the best but he is good and he is England most exciting prospect. Its a great list that Chxta have and I m impress by most of them, but how times we have seen talents vanish in the game when playing in a bigger league/club or getting lesser playing time... Rooney still 19 and getting games week in week out for ManU, his future looks promising...
I never said that Rooney isn't good, I just said he is overrated.

And I stand by my words. I think that within the current Manchester United team there are 3 better strikers: Ruud van Nistelrooy, Louis Saha and Alan Smith. Rooney has one thing going for him, and that is youthful exuberrance (ferrosity). :fero:I have watched him charge down balls that a far more experienced striker would let go, and as the second goal against Fernabche if memory serves me correctly, got lucky to go ahead and score. He is yet to experience what a particularly mean defender would do in such a situation. (The EPL doesn't seem to have anyone left in the mould of Steve Bould, Martin Keown or Gary Pallister.

I believe that you'd agree with me that England had a 'soft' group at the Euros? I'd like to see Rooney play like that against Argentina or Cameroon at the next World Cup. If he successfully pulls it off, then I'd be convinced. Or maybe we needn't wait that long. In February, I hope they get drawn against either Milan (Nesta and Stam) or Inter (Materrazzi). I'd pay a lot of money to see him run rings around those guys.:excited:
Now Erado, listen... Fergusson has a number of talents, and one of them is being a great manager. Management also involves pleasing the crowd. The Old Trafford crown
want Rooney. They'd rather Rooney anytime anyday than Smith.

Take a look at Smith's impact whenever he comes on. Wouldn't you just agree that he's a great player?
One other thing that makes a player is his ability to rise to the occassion when things aren't going his teams way. (Zidane for example, Real Madrid versus Bayer 04 Leverkussen). As we all saw against Spain in a not too friendly match recently, young Wayne simply doesn't have that. :totti:Go back to his Everton career and you'll see further evidence of that.
My prediction for Mr. Rooney... wait another four years and we'll resume this thread. THen you'll see that I'm right.
And please
nobody should place Wayne and Bojinov in the same boat. They are not even from the same planet.
++ [ originally posted by erado ] ++
Agreed, M.Owen is over-rated. Nothing worth mention about him, maybe his WC98 performance.
Well I'm glad we agree on something.
++ [ originally posted by erado
] ++
Have you watch CL1999 games? Have u seen Beckham deliver those pinpoint crosses? :frown: He is one of the best in that department. He may not reach his best again since 1999 but he is still one of the best crosser and passer in the game. I still feel that playing wrong position worth a shout, and no offense, try putting Figo in the center.

Playing center is workable for Beckham but nowhere near ideal. Agreed Figo is better complete player but doesn’t mean Beckham is terrible..
Once again, you failed to get the gist of my post. I never said that Beckham was terrible. Real Madrid would not buy Usher:lick: as an example just to increase shirt sales. He has to have some value as a footballer to wear the white of the
Meringues.
Having said that, we cannot analyse a player's 10 to 15 year career based on
just 1999 else I'd say that Totto Schillachi's the greatest scorer ever

. I said, and I repeat, Beckham's potency with crosses while he was at Manchester United was based on the fact that he had been playing with some of those boys since 'God talked to Moses', so they knew him inside out. Can you argue with the fact that Portugal's best ever team was Figo and Couto's
golden generation, not Eusebio's group. Despite the fact that Eusebio's gang was probably more celebrated? If the best team based on talent won every tournament, then Eusebio and co. should have won World Cup 66, Figo and co. should have won Euro 2004, and Inter Milan should have won UCL 99
not Beckham and co. But that is just the way football is.:coolc;
Remember at Old Trafford in 99, we were a goal up in added time
which should have been 2 minutes,

but Giggsy scored in the 3rd minute of added time. It is a matter of conjecture, but I maintain that had we won that game, they'd never have beaten us in Turin.

Anyways, the point is this... in that game Giggsy was the man who took the game by the scruff of the neck,
like in the Bayern game 4 weeks later, not Becks, but then Giggsy's Welsh. I think that the best player of Manchester United's class of 92 is Giggs and not Beckham.
Beckham has just had some incredible good fortune. Ask the Greeks in that fateful World Cup qualifier from Old Trafford. How can someone be so fortunate? Even to something as little as where the foul was committed? Another thing going for the boy's his dedication. In the current Real Madrid set up, he's one of the least talented players, but he covers it up by an astonishing work rate:thumb: that the likes of Raul simply do not have anymore. So please... let's not bore ourselves with Beckham this... Beckham that.
By the way, in terms of crosses, I think the best player on UCL 99 was Mehmet Scholl, as evidenced in the quarter final second leg against Kaiserslauten.
++ [ originally posted by erado
] ++
Are you serious?

I still rank Beckham above all others.. His freekicks may not be spectacular but it is always effective.. We have seen so many times he scored from freekicks which highlight his consistency in that.. His numbers of goals from freekicks and conversion rate is way ahead of others (not sure about Miha)...
IMO, Rooney and Beckham isnt really over-rated by their capabilities... Still, Media so often mislead us with their own match reports and match ratings of players.. Its all about seeing it urself..

Miha's way ahead of Beckham in terms of conversion I thnk. Not sure either, but I don't really remember seeing him miss more than once per game he played in. His main weakness was Veron, who later went on to plague Beckham as well. That guy:fool: never left the job to the real prefessional.