08 Mar 2026 21:18:44
Ed001 have you done a player profile Maradona if not can you add it please.
Also ed001 and everyone else who's your Mount Rushmore of players in your lifetime.
Maradona
R9
Zidane
Messi.
{Ed001's Note - I have added him to the list. Zidane and Messi would be nowhere near it for me. Messi has the best publicity machine of all time, but he is nowhere near a goat. No player who vanished in every big game can be considered among the greatest.
Maradona.
Pele.
The Real Ronaldo.
The King Kenny Dalglish has to be there for all he has done.
Cruyff.}
09 Mar 2026 07:48:21
Just curious, Ed1, when asking about the Mount Rushmore of players in our lifetime, most people usually name attackers. Defenders or goalkeepers rarely make the list, no matter how good they are.
If you were to do the same for defenders and goalkeepers, who would be on your list? And would any of them come anywhere close to making the Mount Rushmore list you mentioned in the original post?
{Ed001's Note - sadly people only really see skill when it is obvious, when it beats a man or puts the ball into the net. Often when a defender does well it goes unseen - positioning is the most important thing but fans and pundits rave only about last ditch tackles, which are something the best defenders rarely made. Flashy saves like Pickford makes are the same, they are usually bad saves made to look special as he is out of position and forced to go full stretch. Whereas a good keeper (like a defender) makes it all look easy, so they don't get the hype.
Defenders would be:
Hansen
Maldini
Baresi
Thuram (Lillian)
Desailly
Goalkeepers would be:
Alisson with long hair
Alisson with short hair
Alisson with a beard
Alisson without a beard
Alisson with medium length hair.}
09 Mar 2026 07:54:12
Yeah with me not watching Pele Cruyff Ed did not want to add them but yeah if I did I would probably put Pele 1 3 world cups and kicked out of the one win won so would it have been 4. Would love to have seen Messi and Ronaldo deal with that kind it treatment.
{Ed001's Note - I can't have Messi as a world great - without favourable refereeing and cheating, he struggled throughout his career. I am sure if he had not had the favourable refereeing and cheating in his favour that he would have developed into a great player and coped with it, but he never experienced it, so he struggled when it happened. It is a shame as his legacy is always going to be extremely questionable. Let's be honest, he should never have even been allowed to play professional football in the first place after the growth hormones, so you have to question him.
Cristiano was a great player, without doubt one of the greatest individual players, but he was not enough of a team player in a team sport to be ranked in the top echelon imo.}
09 Mar 2026 07:58:08
I'm similar Ed but I've got Bestie in there in place of Kenny!
Sorry!
Hope all is well mate
{Ed001's Note - I never saw Best play at any kind of top level, so simply can't include him sadly. I did see him many times away from the pitch performing at a top level though!}
09 Mar 2026 08:53:11
I love all the defenders that you listed, ed, and have Milan jerseys with Desailly, Maldini, Baresi and Costacurta printed on them (despite never being a Milan 'fan' so to speak), but I honestly do feel like Virgil belongs up there with the very best I have ever seen in his pomp. Opposition fans love to go on and on about how we overrate Virgil as a fanbase but at his best he was a one man defense who seemed like he could cover an entire half on his own (with Ali of course) without ever getting caught out of position, getting beat for pace or going to ground, plus he had every kind of pass in his locker as well.
09 Mar 2026 10:37:31
Virgil was, in 2019-20, probably the best centre back I've seen. And I saw all the 90s greats in the flesh in Italy. Baresi, Nesta and Thuram were my favourites.
09 Mar 2026 10:21:31
Ed, I must say. I love the Allison part of your comment and I agree. Ali is one of the greatest GK's to ever do it, IMO. For me, he is the best the PL has ever had. Why? because he could play in any era. The others couldn't play in this modern era. Just my take.
As for others you could add, I would place the great Marco Van Basten. He was my idol at CF. Up until that baby-face alien life form that originally landed undetected in Brazil, appeared out of nowhere in "O Fenomeno" Ronaldo.
As for Messi and CR7, they can kick rocks. Personally, I always thought Iniesta was better than Messi as a footballer while He will never be better than Diego for Argentina. Same goes for CR7. There is NO way on this earth that CR7 is a better player than Figo, Rui Costa, Paulo Futre and obviously, the original "Black Panther" Eusebio.
09 Mar 2026 10:23:34
The Alisson list made me laugh Ed. Definitely our best but special mention to Clemence who was outstanding.
Hard to argue with your defensive choices. Loved Baresi especially. Always loooked like he'd just gotten out of bed, but what a player.
I remember we were linked with Desailly back in the Roy Evans era, before he went to Chelsea.
09 Mar 2026 10:28:52
You missed out Alisson with the Magnum style moustache, Ed.
{Ed001's Note - dammit I knew there was one I missed.}
09 Mar 2026 12:05:29
He had the mustache for like 1 game, didn't he?!
As a Liverpool player... If your name isn't Rush, you don't grow one. You gotta be kinda special to pull off a moustache.
09 Mar 2026 11:32:20
Ed your are so right about positioning. As a kid I loved Hypia and it was because he always seemed be in the right place. Cara's game improved immensely playing alongside him.
09 Mar 2026 13:32:11
Figo and Rui Costa were brilliant players (Rui Costa could disappear in games, though) and Futre was a level below (I remember him being injured all the time), but surely Ronaldo is a level above any of them, Oli. I dislike Cristiano immensely, but his longevity and consistency has been quite ridiculous.
09 Mar 2026 13:57:16
Zidane is the best player I've seen imo.
09 Mar 2026 15:11:10
I would have Bestie in there on looks alone. Any wonder he had the problems he did. ?
09 Mar 2026 12:39:18
Ed001 have you ever done a profile on Bobby Firmino? Would love to see one. Think he's still my favourite player from the last ten years. Was such a joy to just watch all game round.
{Ed001's Note - I don't remember, but I will add him to the list if not, I can do an updated one from what I saw of him this season.}
09 Mar 2026 17:38:41
Maradona was the best player I've ever seen. Got chopped in half by mad defenders and got up again and again. Scored some unbelievable goals, skilful, fast, strong as an ox and carried Napoli and Argentina to titles. The man was a genius. All these Messi/Ronaldo fans must be younger, because if you'd ever seen Maradona play, you'd know who was the GOAT.