Strachan in his autobiography: "In the areas of touch and vision I would say he is the best player I have ever worked with or seen."
Strachan can't speak highly enough of Naka so I'm happy to be in agreement. ;)
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Strachan in his autobiography: "In the areas of touch and vision I would say he is the best player I have ever worked with or seen."
Strachan can't speak highly enough of Naka so I'm happy to be in agreement. ;)
I'm one of them too. I don't think he's rubbish. He's a good player, but i don't think he's as good as Strachan makes out. He's maybe a model pro, but for me, he doesn't do enough to justify the hype.
There's too many games where he is non-existent.... particularly at places such as Ibrox, Old Trafford etc. Other than his free kick at OT last season i thought he had a poor game.
Just my opinion.
I like Nakamura myself. Wouldn't class myself as a Celtic fan in case anyone is in doubt. Not sure he's world class but enjoy watching him play in SPL and Champions League
It just shows scottish_bohs because I've watched that Man utd-Celtic game about 3 times now and I couldn't disagree more. I posted this before, a minute clip of him doing what he does best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evd4iHPypcg
Just look at his positioning and awareness. It's very rare that Naka makes a wrong decision. Because he's not doing anything spectacular it goes unnoticed by many but he played half the passes in that clip.
Celtic are an ordinary team without him atm. They had 60% possession at home to Shakhtar last week and still looked ordinary. I'd be pretty sure it would have been much better football if Naka was playing. If Celtic have 60% of possession against any team with Naka on the pitch he'll usually dominate.
Overrated: Cech - honestly not watched chelsea in a while, but he doesn't seem to be able to deal with low shots or a slick pitch.
Roy the boy - Can't see how people put him in the underrated category! Born leader - yes. A truly great central midfielder - yes. But he got a fair bit of credit for this all along. Even the American commentators during the '94 World Cup billed him as soon-to-be world class. Total lack of sportsmanship and pace also noted.
Rio Ferdinand - He makes Titus Bramble like errors. The team he plays for can clean up after him. Did yous see that backpass he made that time O'Shea was in nets? Makes me mad when people refer to him as a modern day libero
Adriano - what a teet
Dida - very inconsistent goalkeeper for a team like Milan
Anelka - Wonderful talent, woefully incosistent and prone to long periods of very patchy form.
Patrick Kluivert - He was my favourite footballer for many years. But it makes me sad he is still in the game at all.
Steven Gerrard. Magical goals, magical moments for liverpool, but his passing range lets him down, very much a kick and rush player.
Underrated
Edwin van der Saar: 37 years old, wonderful organizer of the backline, He was always talented, I think the amount of appearances he made for a club like Fulham demonstrate how underrated he has been for much of his career.
Philip Cocu - played as many positions as John O'Shea but played well in all of them. Great central midfielder who could play on top of the back 4, box-to-box or behind the forwards. Won the medals to back up his status, but rarely remembered by football fans outside of Holland.
Gui'varch - great forward, the forgotten man of fond France '98 memories.
Anti Niemi - not much to say except he was/is (still playing?) a great goalie
Fabien Barthez - rose-tinted glasses here but I like to remember the good times with this guy. Made some phenomenal acrobatic saves. I remember one where he made a point blank stop and to stop the ball from going back into play he overhead kicked it over the crossbar. A lot of his better saves were becasue he was dreadfully out of position, but its unfair to remember only his gaffes.
That Croatian guy who scored all the goals in one of those tournaments. One of you more knowledgeable guys will know who I mean, I can't remember his name
John Sheridan - talented midfielder who really didn't fit all that well into Charlton's system.
Kevin Kilbane - Don't care how much you hate him, has played some great games for Ireland. That France game was a magical performance in central midfield, although mostly do to Roy Keane rolling back the years for a night.
Dean Kiely - a fine goalkeeper, if Shay Given wasn't so damn good he would have been a good number one for us. Not related to him being underrated, but he never takes the position of an English player in interviews nowadays. Takes every opportunity to say he's proud of his time in the green (err yellow with black sleeves) shirt. Also offered his services as a "midfield dynamo" when Keane got sent home from Korea. Quality
On the basis of what I've just been watching, Sulley Muntari is underrated :D
Glen Johnson way overrated. I thought he was rubbish at Chelsea and I now see Alan SMith touting him again for England (he has one cap) because he's in a successful Pompey team. Count the number of times he gives the ball away. Unbelievable.
It well and truely is a game of diverse opinions, to see Gatusso listed as over-rated astounds me as does Seedorf in the Under-Rated category, was there ever a luckier player??
It's obvious to most people that the majority of players in the premier league (especially the English players for some reason) are over-rated, the hype around it makes people think that Frank Lampard and his ilk are world beaters when the reality is, he is a decent footballer in a good side, Essien is far more important to Chelsea.
Over-rated – Gerrard, Lampard, Adebayoor, Saha, Robbie Keane, Defoe, Hleb, Carrick, Cech & Michael Owen
Under-rated – Giggs, Vidic, Evra, Cahill, Shaun Wright Phillips, Carragher, Crouch, Joe Cole, Benni McCarthy, Teves & Marlon Harewood.
About right – Rooney, Torres, C.Ronaldo, Drogba, Van Persie, Cesc Febregas, Van Der Sar, Toure, Micah Richards
Gerrard is certainly overrated. He only gets the plaudits for Liverpool as he's, like, their one decent player and they build everything around him. Watch him play for England and argh it's just kick, run, shoot. No tactics or thought put into his play really. Some of his runs are good, but that's it.
dirk kuyt is over rated as well, due to the fact he is rubbish!!!
If yesterdays match was anything to go by Cambiasso is terribly underrated.
Agree with Cambiasso. Holds it all together for Inter at the moment.
Two players I've seen a lot of lately (partly because I have them on my fantasy team and back their team regularly) are Bentley and Santa Cruz. Not getting half the credit they deserve and it won't be long before the big guns are on the blower to Hughes asking him to name his price. Why, at 4.5m, did nobody else try get Sanata Cruz last summer? Proven at every level, young enough and ideally suited to the Premiership. Bentley deserves as much credit for the service he's providing though. I've my fingers and toes crossed that Dirk Kuyt/Harry Kewell or Jermaine Pennat might fancy a swap deal in January for one, or both, of these two!!
I think Gerrard is the type of player who needs space to attack. He can carry the ball well and his ball striking technique is excellent but put him under pressure in a tight spot and he'll struggle. Surely a "world class" central midfielder should be comfortable on the ball in every situation, not just when there's a gap to run into?
Gerrard is overrated by Liverpool fans but because of this he is underrated by everyone else.