Unpopular football opinions

Yeah, this was skills on toast

:sweat_smile:

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Only player I enjoy watching from a neutralā€™s perspective these days.

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If he does win the Balon Dā€™or, he needs to speak to his fashion advisor.

Having peroxide blonde hair, pink boots, with tights and gloves is fine if youā€™re touting for business in the red light district of Paris but itā€™s not a great look for a professional footballer.

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Not even the best player at PSG. Heā€™s got a vitamin D deficiency from all the time he spends in Mbappeā€™s shadow.

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That PnP merchant knock-off Thierry Henry* is at least 49.05% less effective without the massively fun, put the smile back into football, successor to the spirit of Joga Bonito - effortlessly do wonderful things on the pitch, act like a weirdo, party hard and flame out off the pitch.

*I love Mbappe too, but Neymar is just different gravy and, in a world of robots that spam crosses or passes into the same area, or press into the same area time after time after time, he is the only guy that plays with the same style the heroes of my youth did.

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I think we should stop calling it football and call it soccer. :henry2:

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Tomas Rosicky was a better player than Freddie Ljungberg.

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Hard to compare them tbh, theyā€™re not the same type of player. Both great in their own way.

I honestly think Rosicky could do what Ljungberg did (with the off the ball movement etc) but offered a lot more than that too.

Iā€™m sure he could, but he played mostly more central in his career and didnā€™t seem as explosive as Freddie. But far better on the ball and much more technical. I reckon his injuries would have been worse though, probably would have received more ā€œhigh speedā€ hits on the wing.
But for me (only my opinion) itā€™s hard to compare them, since I donā€™t see them as competitors for the same position.

They were both outside midfielders for Wenger pre-2009. Hleb and Rosicky were the replacements for Ljungberg and Pires.

Freddie for me as his sort of personality and leadership on the pitch is a vital peice of DNA that weā€™ve missed for years.

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I find this a very unpopular opinion.

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Theyā€™d occupy different spaces and functions in peopleā€™s teams so itā€™s not exactly an important comparison to make.

Plus if Iā€™m doing my greatest ever Arsenal side I definitely want to see Bergkamp and Ljungberg working together in it. If I put him in on the right (where he basically never played for us?), he doesnā€™t link up with Bergkamp in the way Ljungberg does.

Because Iā€™d basically agree, if you were to break it down and analyse all facets of their game, their technique etc, Rosicky was more talented and able than Ljungberg probably was.

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Generally, maybe you could say Rosicky was a bigger talent, but in terms of their actual impact on the (Arsenal) team he was never really on Freddieā€™s level.
Freddie was just so incredibly intelligent as a player, everything he did was so effective. Not the most elegant on the ball, but you could rarely see him make a wrong touch. Their movement off the ballā€¦ well Rosicky of course is not in the same galaxy as Freddie. But on the ball Freddie also had great vision, great decision makingā€¦ Sheere technical ability, ability to retain the ball, long distance shooting, was on Rosickyā€™s level, but everything else basically on Freddieā€™s. He was just more effective and smarter on the pitch. He was also one of the best players in the league in 2002, later some injuries affected him, his athleticism and explosiveness first of all and he lost a bit of his edge.
No, for me Rosicky was never a better player than Freddie.

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I agree with this so much, Freddie was my favorite player and IMO a little underrated. There was no doubt that Rosicky was talented, but the application just wasnā€™t there enough for me, I do understand that injuries held him back massively but I still think heā€™s overrated by Arsenal fans.

Iā€™d take a player like Freddie all day every day in my team over Rosicky, all the flair and technique in the world gets you no-where if you canā€™t find that end product. In many ways the comparison is a bit of a microcosm between early successful Wenger and later, exciting but frustrating peak Wengerball.

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Yep. I found Rosicky overrated, first of all because I was comparing him with Pires, and he never he could clean Bobbyā€™s boots. Rosicky was never very effective as a playmaker, had all the technical ability in the worldā€¦ seriously, when it comes to close control in tight areas, he was possibly the best I saw in Arsenal shirt. But his vision just didnā€™t follow that. Had relatively average vision tbh. He just never had that game intelligence and quickness of the game Pires and Ljungberg had.

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Well we got the best Ljungberg didnā€™t we, and for most of his time at Arsenal

Rosicky we got him in short spells at his peak but not at that consistent top level for long enough. Same bracket as Arshavin, Cazorla? Ɩzil?

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Rosicky was the most direct midfielder we had for years. A fully fit Rosicky gets into almost every Arsenal team in any era.

(Fully fit being the operative words)

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Rosicky before his injury had the end product.