Football (Soccer) Thread

[Syt]

I remember Sebastian Deisler was one of the biggest up and coming talents in German football. He suffered a few early injuries and never regained the confidence to ever reach the potential others saw in him and fell into depression under the pressure (signing with Bayern Munich probably didn't help). He retired a few days after his 27th birthday. He later said he was just not cut out for the business.

[The Larch]

I remember Sebastian Deisler was one of the biggest up and coming talents in German football. He suffered a few early injuries and never regained the confidence to ever reach the potential others saw in him and fell into depression under the pressure (signing with Bayern Munich probably didn't help). He retired a few days after his 27th birthday. He later said he was just not cut out for the business.

The "young super promising player that suffers from severe injury setbacks in his early career" is almost a trope at this point, I think. In Spain we're seeing the same thing happening right now with Barcelona's Ansu Fati, which was considered a generational talent but a couple of big injuries have really sapped his confidence. The guy is still only 20, but you already hear some voices saying that Barcelona should cut ties and get rid of him, as he's never going to amount to much after those injuries, which sounds extremely callous to me.

[mongers]

Southampton to escape relegation?

In other league news. Championship referees are awful.
Midweek game given a non penalty against us creating a loss and yesterday gaining a non penalty to convert a loss to a draw.

Nothing will beat the Matt Le T. lead 'Great Escape'. 

[Josquius]

There's a lot more internationals in recent decades than there used to be right?

Harry Kane just became England's top scorer and not too many spaces below on the rankings is Michael Owen...
Kane is good but as good as prime Lineker or others?
And Owen?...

[The Larch]

There's a lot more internationals in recent decades than there used to be right?

Yeah, tons more. Club matches as well.

[Josephus]

England beat Italy in Italy for the first time since 1961

[Gups]

There's a lot more internationals in recent decades than there used to be right?

Harry Kane just became England's top scorer and not too many spaces below on the rankings is Michael Owen...
Kane is good but as good as prime Lineker or others?
And Owen?...

Kane's scored six more goals in one more game than Lineker and 14 more goals in 8 fewer games than Owen.

Owen was amazing for a couple of years but over his career Kane is vastly superior. Hard to compare with Gary, different era where strikers like him and Rush has no duties other than to get in the box and score.

Kane has a suburb goal average for England. Way above any other player on the last 50 years. You have to go back to Greaves and Lofthouse to find better. He's way better statistically than Shearer and Rooney.

[FunkMonk]

Conte out.

[Josquius]

There's a lot more internationals in recent decades than there used to be right?

Harry Kane just became England's top scorer and not too many spaces below on the rankings is Michael Owen...
Kane is good but as good as prime Lineker or others?
And Owen?...

Kane's scored six more goals in one more game than Lineker and 14 more goals in 8 fewer games than Owen.

Owen was amazing for a couple of years but over his career Kane is vastly superior. Hard to compare with Gary, different era where strikers like him and Rush has no duties other than to get in the box and score.

Kane has a suburb goal average for England. Way above any other player on the last 50 years. You have to go back to Greaves and Lofthouse to find better. He's way better statistically than Shearer and Rooney.

Shearer and Rooney weren't exactly super stars either.
I guess the lesson is less Kane great and more England shockingly mediocre.

[The Larch]

Shearer and Rooney weren't exactly super stars either.

    

[Josquius]

Shearer and Rooney weren't exactly super stars either.

    

Rooney fits neatly into the earlier topic of failed wonderkids.
Amazing teenager, peaked early, and became meh... good, maybe on the subs bench of a world xi at his peak, but not a superstar.

Shearer... he had some amazing seasons at Blackburn but for various reasons dropped off to merely good. I'd give a lot of credit to Sutton.  Utd failed to give him such an effective partner.

Note the bar we're talking about here. Best players ever. Not were they good or not.

[celedhring]

Dunno, if the bar is "best in the world at the time" I'd certainly have considered Shearer one of the best strikers worldwide during his pomp. Rooney probably not, though.

[The Larch]

Shearer and Rooney weren't exactly super stars either.

    

Rooney fits neatly into the earlier topic of failed wonderkids.
Amazing teenager, peaked early, and became meh... good, maybe on the subs bench of a world xi at his peak, but not a superstar.

Shearer... he had some amazing seasons at Blackburn but for various reasons dropped off to merely good. I'd give a lot of credit to Sutton.  Utd failed to give him such an effective partner.

Note the bar we're talking about here. Best players ever. Not were they good or not.

Calling Rooney a failed wonderkid is complete nonsense. The man has a list of honours longer than my arm, a long and illustrious career and heaps of silverware. You saying that he peaked early makes no sense either, when his best scoring season was at 26, and he performed well for United until his early 30s.

Shearer was without a doubt one of the world's best between 93 and 96, and getting Blackburn to win the PL was an incredible feat.

Both Rooney and Shearer were absolute super stars on their time, to dismiss them is ridiculous.

[Gups]

There's a lot more internationals in recent decades than there used to be right?

Harry Kane just became England's top scorer and not too many spaces below on the rankings is Michael Owen...
Kane is good but as good as prime Lineker or others?
And Owen?...

Kane's scored six more goals in one more game than Lineker and 14 more goals in 8 fewer games than Owen.

Owen was amazing for a couple of years but over his career Kane is vastly superior. Hard to compare with Gary, different era where strikers like him and Rush has no duties other than to get in the box and score.

Kane has a suburb goal average for England. Way above any other player on the last 50 years. You have to go back to Greaves and Lofthouse to find better. He's way better statistically than Shearer and Rooney.

Shearer and Rooney weren't exactly super stars either.
I guess the lesson is less Kane great and more England shockingly mediocre.

Kane has a better goals per game ratio than Messi, Ronaldo or Neymar. He's an outstanding international striker. He's a underestimated by people who don't watch much football because he doesn't play for a top club.

[Gups]

Dunno, if the bar is "best in the world at the time" I'd certainly have considered Shearer one of the best strikers worldwide during his pomp. Rooney probably not, though.

The bar was best English strikers. Kane is undoubtedly one of, if not the, best