01 Sep 2019 17:22:01
75 million de ligt got walked over by napoli in 10 minutes there.
Just tells you how low defending standards are in todays football.
Just makes me appreciate VVD robbo matip gomez fab and TAA even more.
01 Sep 2019 22:04:55
De Ligt is overrated and always has been, IMO. Could he still fulfill his potential? Absolutely BUT I just don't think he is as good as people were/ are raving about him.
02 Sep 2019 00:48:33
VVD raves about De Ligt and I would guess he is in a very good position to judge . Napoli are a very good team, look far sharper than last year .
02 Sep 2019 08:35:18
VVD is hardly going to say anything else is he. Whaen asked the question he just says he is a good young player who can improve, he is not going to say his Gran is quicker.
02 Sep 2019 09:43:20
I agree with your assessment of the current level of defending standard being so poor. Just look at the champions league for example. The top clubs in the world and over the last few years there has hardly been any memorable defensive quality. Last season we had a strong defence for sure but we still lost 3 group games, conceded in every away knockout round and rode our luck with Barcelona at anfield. Every top side was vulnerable to conceding 3 or 4 goals regularly, city vs spurs, ajax vs spurs, LFC vs Barca. Madrid, juve, bayern having a leaky defence as their downfall. The year before psg and Barcelona were conceding for fun, we smash 5 past a hapless Roma but then concede enough goals to give them hope of comeback.
In previous years there were top class defences built with real quality. Atletico Madrid recently, juve with chiellini bonucci buffon in their prime, Chelsea with carvalho Terry cole cech, United with van der sar vidic Ferdinand evra, Milan side with nesta maldini. Bayern even when neuer lahm hummels boeteng in prime.
Today there is no standout world class backline. Huge money is being forked out for defenders now simply because there's such a small number of quality available. World record fees shouldn't be needed to get you a Harry Maguire, wan bissaka, walker, mendy, De ligt, Hernandez level of player.
It's a part of the game that is rapidly declining. In England all the top clubs had a vidic, Terry, carragher, kompany etc as top performing strong leaders. Today's standard has Chelsea, arsenal, spurs, United not capable of keeping clean sheets to lesser sides while us and city having the strongest defences still don't look regularly solid. Juve, bayern, Dortmund, Madrid, Barca, Atletico have all been conceding goals for fun this season so far.
02 Sep 2019 13:52:50
Young Lad, one game. He has some great strengths and definitely has things to work on.
The price reflects his high potential rather than his current ability but let's give it some time.
{Ed001's Note - I remain to be convinced as he shows no ability to defend. The money seems to be paid for his ability on the ball rather than his ability to defend.}
02 Sep 2019 19:00:50
Roy, what were you expecting VVD to say about a fellow compatriot and CB partner? That he is crap and is not good enuff? Think, man.
I'm with Ed01 on this one. I am yet to be convinced about De Ligt cos yes he is good on the ball, he simply can't defend for now. There is a reason why I think Gomez is already better than him. Gomez is great on the ball, faster, more physical with a higher ceiling. He can also defend one one one in wide areas as a CB cos well, he can play RB.
{Ed025's Note - your right redwolf, what roy does not realize is that every single liverpool player is out of this world and absolutely brilliant and world class, every other player on the planet is totally crap and they can only wish that they played for the reds,...come on roy get with the programme..