Football Banter Thread

Egon said:
He really is a complete ****
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I don't know, I think he's a generally decent person and he's certainly a fairly intelligent guy, but he undoes it all spectacularly well with flashes of anger and some comedically idiotic decisions.

It wouldn't surprise me if he placed a bet knowing it would mean a quick-fire release from his contract, thinking he's been hard done by with recent events.

Edit: by "generally decent person" I mean in the same sense that a guy that beats his wife can otherwise seem decent. In no way am I defending him as he's done some truly dreadful things (stubbing a cigarette out in someone's eye is just...), but he comes across surprisingly genuine whenever he's on a football show or giving an interview.
 
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this_is_gav said:
I don't know, I think he's a generally decent person and he's certainly a fairly intelligent guy, but he undoes it all spectacularly well with flashes of anger and some comedically idiotic decisions.

It wouldn't surprise me if he placed a bet knowing it would mean a quick-fire release from his contract, thinking he's been hard done by with recent events.

Edit: by "generally decent person" I mean in the same sense that a guy that beats his wife can otherwise seem decent. In no way am I defending him as he's done some truly dreadful things (stubbing a cigarette out in someone's eye is just...), but he comes across surprisingly genuine whenever he's on a football show or giving an interview.
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He's got a book coming out soon, still, that is a lot to do to get some attention ahead of its release.
 
Lol Drogba feeling a bit butthurt by Chelsea losing to us haha:p.

And remind me the last time he played for his precious Chelsea, he didn't exactly set the EPL alight lol.

Meh must be nice scoring goals in the retirement league aka MLS :p
 
You can criticise Drogba for many things, but his ability can never be questioned. Phenomenal footballer, and he tore Arsenal a new one on most occasions, also.
 
Was he? In his first spell at Chelsea, in 8 seasons he scored 20 goals or more (in all comps) just twice. The other 6 seasons he managed 16, 16, 15, 14, 13 & 13. I'd say that was bang average.

When he wanted to be he was unplayable but with the exception of 1 top class season where he got 37 goals in 44 games, he didn't want it enough to be classed as a top class player.
 
He used to set a lot of goals up for other people though. That should count as well as goal stats.
 
One stat that's not recordable of top footballers is their ability to influences the games in-directly, through sheer fear and movement. Tactically they change the game for the opposition which essentially takes them away from their own football/attack.

He was absolutely top draw as a centre forward.
 
hehe, Drogba not top class, sure.

04/05 he only started 18 league games and got 10 goals and 5 assists. UCl 5 goals in 8 games.
05/06 he only started 20 games, got 12 goals and 11 assists, UCL 5 starts 1 goal
06/07 he started 32 games, 20 goals 4 assists, 12 ucl games 6 goals 1 assist.
07/08 17 starts 10 goals 6 assists, ucl 13 starts 8 goals 2 assists.
08/09 15 starts 5 goals 4 assists. UCL 7 starts 5 goals 1 assist
09/10 31 starts 29 goals 10 assists, ucl 5 starts 3 goals.


and on and on. In fact 10/11 is the only season in which he started a huge number of league games and didn't score a huge number of goals, he still got 11 goals and 13 assists in 30 starts. 05/06 was the only bad season he had in the UCL.


In general as others above, his game wasn't about just being a number 9, he had multiple fantastic years for assisting, his strike rate in the UCL was pretty consistently high. He pretty much got a goal or an assist in every season in 2/3rds of his games, in some seasons much higher, others a tiny bit less. However he also had a massive knack for scoring in the toughest games and he was around through Mourinho playing to use him as a often very isolated striker who spent huge portions of games holding up the ball and fighting defenders while waiting for support.

He was an absolutely top class striker because his scoring record was fantastic DESPITE being in a team which often favoured defensive play and having him work on his own so much. It's also rare for a player who is so dominant in the air, who can bully defenders and wear them down score so much. Him and Zlatan are almost alone in that regard. His record only maybe appears less good if you believe he started 34+ games every season like a lot of other top players have. 10 goals/5 assists wouldn't be much for 38 starts, but for 20 it's amazing.

This is also why Rooney is average, he also only has 2 seasons above 20 goals, and he has a similar scoring record to Drogba, but by and large he started many more games. From 04/05 starts Rooney had in the league is 24, 34, 33, i'll come back to 07/08, 25, 32, 25, 32, and on. 07/08 for some reason ESPN lists as 25 league games and 22 UCL games.... so I'm not going to take that one as certain :p they have some random years thrown in where the data is wrong but the rest is normally accurate. Drogba only had over 20 starts in the league twice, both times he scored over 20 goals. Rooney had over 20 starts in effectively every single season and yet still only managed over 20 goals twice.
 
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His scoring record was far from fantastic. In the 1990's 1 in 2 days it was decent but when you compare his scoring record to other top strikers of his era it pales in comparison. Drogba was a player that when he wanted to play well was unstoppable but would drift through games, sometimes he'd drift for weeks and months, and was nothing more than a passenger.
 
Who are you comparing him to though? top players of Barca or RM who score more than 1 in 2 or top players in the PL which is far more competitive across the board. 1 in 2 in this country is excellent, if you are at Barca or RM, 1 in 2 isn't good enough though. 1 in 2 is still the benchmark for strikers around the world.
 
1 in 2 was excellent in 1995. The likes of Henry and Van Nistelrooy changed that and it's been carried on by the likes of Suarez and Aguero. These are top class strikers. The difference between those 4 and Drogba is consistency. On his day Drogba was as good as any of those but for every day when he was on top form there'd be another when he couldn't be ****ed.
 
1 in 2 is still excellent, just because those strikers had a better 1 in 2 ratio doesn't mean that 1 in 2 is now worthless. They all have different attributes that make them great players, if you're comparing strikers, you should go one further and compare the type of strikers as well, Aguero doesn't play anything like Drogba, to compare them is like comparing apple and oranges within the striker role. Compare Drogba to other target men..
 
I never said it was worthless or he wasn't a very good player. I questioned whether he was top class. And while I take your point that there's different types of strikers, ultimately they're main purpose is to put the ball in the net. But answering your request, Lewandowski and Ibrahimovic - they both score at a far better rate than Drogba managed.

I'll say it again, Drogba on his day was as good as any of the strikers I've named but his day was few and far between.
 
Geezus some butthurt people over Drogba eh?? I was joking hence the smiley ;) lol.

Yes he was a decent player there's no doubt about that. But as Baz just rightly pointed out, he had his off days as wel.
 
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