Complete Players

CliffyG · 3 Jan 2008 at 14:45

Was thinking last night about Arsenal players and realised i couldn't think of any players i would pedantically call complete. We've had some world class players but they always have a side to their game which wouldn't live up to the rest.

E.g

Henry - lack of heading ability
Bergkamp - lack of acceleration / electric pace
Wrighty - not the best dribbler, didnt have vision for passes
Campbell / Adams - passing skills pretty basic
Vieira - should have scored more

Now i know in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter because they were all superb at what they did but i was wondering if anyone can think of players which ticked all the boxes.

CliffyG · 3 Jan 2008 at 15:07

davestar_delux said:
Henrik Larsson (Celtic) - got every kind of goal imaginable (bullet headers, 6 yard poaching, 30 yard screamers), link up play, tracking back, setting up for others, crossing, had it all, never had lightning pace but wasn't slow by any means.

Although not sure I agree with your Vieira assessment, he got a few goals and not a position that always has to score loads. I'd say he was the complete *defensive* mid.

I must admit i did have second thoughts about that after posting it, he's as close as i can think of actually.

Henry always looked unfortable to me when heading the ball, when he was actually in the area to receive a cross i never expected him to score if it came in at head height.

CliffyG · 3 Jan 2008 at 15:13

Just checked and Vieira got 29 in 279 appearences for Arsenal, not bad for a defensive mid but 1 every 10 games seems a little low still.

CliffyG · 3 Jan 2008 at 15:28

[ASSE]Hinchy;10803422 said:
But when he got into positions where he got the chances, he took them. He was a great finisher. Thing is if you go as far as saying he wasn't a complete player because he didn't score goals, then there is no such thing as a complete player. No defensive midfielder will score regularly. He and Keane had decent records for defensive players. Its what they were like when they got a chance that is important, and both of those players were calm in front of goal, making them in my eyes - complete.

They both had around 1 in 10, as did Gilberto so pretty much the norm for a DM. Now if one of them managed 1 in 5 for instance would they be considered as more complete or just complete making the others not complete?

CliffyG · 3 Jan 2008 at 15:48

G|mp said:
Thats why i left Cantona out, him and ZZ didnt need to be quick because they always had space, but on that basis they aint complete players because they are slower

I did say i was being pedantic

.

CliffyG · 3 Jan 2008 at 16:19

Does Gerrard score any headers / is he good in the air?

CliffyG · 5 Jan 2008 at 14:36

HangTime said:
I think all this guff about Henry not being able to head the ball is just a victim of the statistics.

A very low percentage of his goals for Arsenal were headers, but this is due in part to the fact that during his time at the club, their playing style was not focussed on wingers getting to the byline and swinging high balls into the box. It's not like he was missing 5 headed chances every game or anything. He also was often the corner or freekick taker, which again limits his opportunities to score headers.

In another team with less emphasis on short passing and he probably would have got more headed goals.

He probably scored less than 10 headers, he wasn't awful but never looked particularly proficient when the ball did come in, i can remember a few terrible ones. By far his weakest point.