Gerrard & Carragher on Goals on Sunday

[Rudo]

No probs dude.

Once again, i have to declare my love for Gerrard's shirt, absolute beaut that it is.

[Rudo]

Oh and England Is The Pinnacle? hmmm, surprised Gerrard came out with that.

[Fernandinho]

Yeah quality shirt from gerrard. made carra's look even tackier then it was. Gerrard looked so disinterested and carra seems a dreem to interview because he knows how to talk.

[Shaggy]

Oh and England Is The Pinnacle? hmmm, surprised Gerrard came out with that.

I'm surprised that people are continually surprised by this.

Did you ever play football? Ever get picked by your local side? Your county side?

Whether we like it or not, from a players' perspective of course playing for your country is the pinnacle. I reckon CL football is now a higher standard than international football, but regardless of that from a players' perspective it is still the ultimate honour.

[dww]

I'm surprised that people are continually surprised by this.

Did you ever play football? Ever get picked by your local side? Your county side?

Whether we like it or not, from a players' perspective of course playing for your country is the pinnacle. I reckon CL football is now a higher standard than international football, but regardless of that from a players' perspective it is still the ultimate honour.

At the minute certainly - although I think it will change. I guess the infrequent nature of it will make it retain some level of prestige but you can see the difference in the fact that Messi can happily be ranked as a truly great player without really having achieved anything at international level despite playing for a big nation.

[anfieldanfield]

At the minute certainly - although I think it will change. I guess the infrequent nature of it will make it retain some level of prestige but you can see the difference in the fact that Messi can happily be ranked as a truly great player without really having achieved anything at international level despite playing for a big nation.

Messi will never be truly great until he has dominated a world cup.

[Nick77]

Messi will never be truly great until he has dominated a world cup.

Unfortunately that's true even though it's much tougher in this day & age seeing as certain players like Messi get to play about 80 games in a season during a WC year - at least double the amount the likes of Pele & Maradona had to endure...

[the rev leeroy brown]

Messi will never be truly great until he has dominated a world cup.

Unfortunately that's true even though it's much tougher in this day & age seeing as certain players like Messi get to play about 80 games in a season during a WC year - at least double the amount the likes of Pele & Maradona had to endure...

dont agree.

if messi continues on the form he has, and even improves, and keeps dominating the spanish league and european competition likes he has for a good few years now, id say regardless of international / world cup glory he'll be classed as a true great before he turns 30.

[RedReet]

Messi will never be truly great until he has dominated a world cup.

Unfortunately that's true even though it's much tougher in this day & age seeing as certain players like Messi get to play about 80 games in a season during a WC year - at least double the amount the likes of Pele & Maradona had to endure...

Sorry Cryuff, Eusebio and Di Stefano, you don’t meet the criteria. Instead we’ve had to substitute in Kleberson, Diomede and Guivarch to take your places.

Nah, in all seriousness, just because Maradona won the World Cup single handily, that shouldn’t necessarily be the yardstick for all future greats. In his defence, Messi was still extremely young in 2006 and realistically had no chance this year with Maradona in charge. By the end of this season he’ll have probably won 5 Liga titles and 3 Champions League’s which is phenomenal for a 23 year old. If his career continues in this trend and he avoids any major injuries during his prime then he’ll fully deserve to be discussed as one of the all-time greats, even if wasn’t to ever kick another ball for Argentina.

dont agree.

if messi continues on the form he has, and even improves, and keeps dominating the spanish league and european competition likes he has for a good few years now, id say regardless of international / world cup glory he'll be classed as a true great before he turns 30.

Got distracted before I could hit send.

[JudgeRed]

Unfortunately that's true even though it's much tougher in this day & age seeing as certain players like Messi get to play about 80 games in a season during a WC year - at least double the amount the likes of Pele & Maradona had to endure...

Fair enough but Messi gets a lot more protection from the hackers of the game by referees than Pele and Maradona did over ther seasons. Its the age old- why cant they play for there country like they do for their club?- debate.

[Mattshark]

dont agree.

if messi continues on the form he has, and even improves, and keeps dominating the spanish league and european competition likes he has for a good few years now, id say regardless of international / world cup glory he'll be classed as a true great before he turns 30.

[dww]

Fair enough but Messi gets a lot more protection from the hackers of the game by referees than Pele and Maradona did over ther seasons. Its the age old- why cant they play for there country like they do for their club?- debate.

My view - there are two main factors:

1/ General fitness and skill levels have improved. It is harder now for players to stand out - this is a general thing but the fact that judgements based international performance are drawn from a limited set of data make it much less likely for rare dominant displays to be observed.

2/ It is much easier to organise a defense in the short time available for international team creation than it is to produce the understanding that frees the best attacking players.

[Shaggy]

dont agree.

if messi continues on the form he has, and even improves, and keeps dominating the spanish league and european competition likes he has for a good few years now, id say regardless of international / world cup glory he'll be classed as a true great before he turns 30.

Absolutely no doubt about it.

George Best is routinely referred to as a great, and rightly so, and that poor ****er never got near a World Cup due to being Northern Irish.

[DannyMan2006]

Well people fancy Messi could be the all time greatest player, which he will never acheive without dominating a World Cup. If he carries on the way he is going for another 5 years then no doubt he'll be up there with Cruyff, Eusebio and others.

[DannyMan2006]

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