People are using new fangled terminology that doesn’t make sense"
Even games masters at schools now fill the heads of eight, nine, and ten year-olds with all these fancy modern theories with their attendant labels of "“front runner”, “striker”, “target man”, “midfield provider”, “sweeper” and the rest, not forgetting, of course, the sacrosanct Ramsey phrase of “work rate”
I sincerely hope this person is still alive and tuned in enough to have heard about registas and mediapuntos.
I love that there were people in the 70s basically calling people twitter nerds for using the term “striker”
This is guy is pretty good, but probably not technical and refined enough for the modern game
Btw, he was this good and a pretty highly rated Brazil international as a 19 year old. No way in the world he doesn’t go straight to Real or Barca if this happens nowadays.
I think it was good for him he has the time to refine and develop his game further at PSG, with more freedom he had there.
One of the issues of the modern game is that everything just happens too quickly. The players can develop physically but not mentally soon enough to match the tempo and all the expectations.
Watching that that clip, I can’t help but to imagine him in a modern/nowadays team, where he would probably be more focused and directed on the goals alone and wouldn’t be picking the ball so far away from the goal so often. A team with a strong, technical creative midfield that would serve him as most top modern forwards.
Also if he played closer to the style he played post injury but had that pre injury ability/athleticism.
Pfff 50+ league goals easily nowadays.
He had an incredible goal to games ratio in those times (with Inter, not to mention Barca), was a clinical finisher, while playing in the strongest and most competitive league in the world, known for strong defences and relatively defensive mentality and playing for a team that shared that mentality and where he didn’t enjoy nearly as much creative support as most modern top goalscorers.
This would take away from so much of his game though, dropping deep and carrying the ball by running at the opposition was a big component of his game.
It’d probably be more deadly today with all the defenders that prefer to stand off.
I’m not saying I would like that, just saying he would be much more efficient as a goalscorer.
Probably the best case would be some mix of him still being able to drop deep, but still having better support where he would have more opportuninity to prey on those chances himself.
He always has a special place for himself when discussing about that golden Croatia generation of the 90s because of the pure fact he missed both the Euro 96 and the WC 98 because of the injuries. While being in his prime, playing in prime Serie A. What could have been…
Šuker was an unreal player and one of the best finishers of the 90s imo (his peak was Sevilla and Real, no one should judge by his Arsenal time; just for those who don’t have a clue about him), but many Croats will say Bokšić was an even better player. Despite the fact Šuker was regarded as the biggest Croatian footballer ever, prior to Modrić, by most Croatians.
That’s how good Bokšić was.
For me it’s close although it’s hard to put Bokšić ahead of Šuker because of what Šuker did with the national team primarily, but also with Real and Sevilla. Bokšić had a great club career, highly regarded during Serie A prime years playing for Lazio and Juve (won Serie A with both), winning the CL with Marseille prior to that (as their top goalscorer that season). 4th Ballon d’Or in 93.
While Šuker was a clicial finisher (one of the very best I’ve ever seen) and also a great technician, creative, while being a very average athlete, Bokšić was bionic man. There was a talk between Del Piero and Vieri I think a few years ago where they touched on Bokšič and just said he was a complete animal. Fast, big, strong, great stamina while also a great dribbler and highly skilled.
One of them said, Bokšić only downside was he needed a ton of chances to score… I don’t consider him a that bad finisher at all. I think he was partially a victim of his completness as a player where the managers used him as a part winger part striker, carrying the ball, dribbling, creating, while doing a ton of defensive work also.
