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Billy Wright captained England in 90 matches! That's incredible. He earned over 100 caps in an era where opportunities to represent your country were fairly limited compared to today.
He won the silver medal in the Ballon D'or, as a central defender!!! You simply can't imagine a defender earning that kind of acclaim across Europe nowadays.
[Post edited 30 Sep 2022 15:49]
Don't think you can pick anyone from pre 00's because standard of football was so low. This was in part due to lack of awareness about physical levels. They just weren't comparable athletes to these days
Proof of that is just look at the New Zealand rugby team comparison from 73 to 2011. Always makes me chuckle
I would say Rio Ferdinand is the best I saw. Technical ability, intelligence and a real athlete. Imagine if there wasn't the top foreign players in the world coming to this country and it was only British and Irish players as it would have been in Wrights day. A defender today, rather than marking Haaland, Salah and Jesus it would be up against Dykes, Chris Martin and Afobe
Don't think you can pick anyone from pre 00's because standard of football was so low. This was in part due to lack of awareness about physical levels. They just weren't comparable athletes to these days
Proof of that is just look at the New Zealand rugby team comparison from 73 to 2011. Always makes me chuckle
I would say Rio Ferdinand is the best I saw. Technical ability, intelligence and a real athlete. Imagine if there wasn't the top foreign players in the world coming to this country and it was only British and Irish players as it would have been in Wrights day. A defender today, rather than marking Haaland, Salah and Jesus it would be up against Dykes, Chris Martin and Afobe
I accept the argument about fitness levels, diet, conditioning etc, and how much more professional players are nowadays compared to 70 years ago. There is too much money at risk for them unless they fully embrace professionalism.
However, try and imagine how the current generation of players would cope with the conditions of playing the game in that era. Robust challenges without fear of being carded, heavy footballs, heavy boots, saturated pitches. You can't really compare one era against the other, so any defender who was acknowledged to be far superior to his peers in any era deserves a mention in this type of conversation.
Don't think you can pick anyone from pre 00's because standard of football was so low. This was in part due to lack of awareness about physical levels. They just weren't comparable athletes to these days
Proof of that is just look at the New Zealand rugby team comparison from 73 to 2011. Always makes me chuckle
I would say Rio Ferdinand is the best I saw. Technical ability, intelligence and a real athlete. Imagine if there wasn't the top foreign players in the world coming to this country and it was only British and Irish players as it would have been in Wrights day. A defender today, rather than marking Haaland, Salah and Jesus it would be up against Dykes, Chris Martin and Afobe
Agree to a certain extent, watched the Big Match Revisited last night, we were on, 4th round FA Cup away at Blackpool 82, it was painful to watch! However, you have to go with the best of each era, the likes of Butcher or Beattie would be top defenders todays because they would have been brought up with diet and training plans, playing on billiard table pitches.
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