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.Originally Posted by eirebhoy
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.
Yer hame team is yer ain team!
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
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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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
"No regrets, none at all. My only regret is that we went out on penalties. That's my only regret. But no, no regrets." -Mick McCarthy
Croatian is Suker
Ferdinand is generally thought to have been one of his teams best players this season by the fans of Man United that go to the games week in and week out
i dont think it was appropriate for you to put up the clip talking about my peno against Hamburg(0:22)
There's the right way, the wrong way.... and the Max Power way!! :-D
On the basis of what I've just been watching, Sulley Muntari is underrated
"Life is like a hair on a toilet seat. Sooner or later you are bound to get pi$$ed off."
"In this league, a draw is sometimes as good as a win" - Steve Morison
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.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Very true. A more important (and better) player than Vidic.
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.
Last edited by endabob1; 10/12/2007 at 3:05 PM.
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
The Hallion Battalion Molests football.:D
Unbelievably good first season at Chelsea. Hasn't played to anywhere near that standard since and I think it's wrong that that hasn't been recognised. In fact to almost anyone who comments professionally on the English game he's the best in the world.
Robbie Keane. Is he one of the leading scorers in the Premiership is this season? Must be overrated.
Gerrard: only pulled Liverpool by the scruff of their necks through to the next rnd of the CL. Overrated.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
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.
"Life is like a hair on a toilet seat. Sooner or later you are bound to get pi$$ed off."
"In this league, a draw is sometimes as good as a win" - Steve Morison
Anonymous yet again in the biggest game of the Premiership season.
dirk kuyt is over rated as well, due to the fact he is rubbish!!!
nobody rates him anyway
"If God had meant football to be played in the air, he'd have put grass in the sky." Brian Clough.
You'll NEVER beat the Irish.......you'll just draw with us instead!!!
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!!
Mens sana in corpore sano
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