Tell me, how many of Nilton Santos' 723 appearances for Botafogo have you seen? I'm willing to bet that opinion on him is based entirely upon World Cup appearances.
Tell me why a team would let a player play over 700 games for them at Left Back if he wasn't any good?
I'm willing to assume that he was very good but given that the question is who the best ever was it's hard to judge someone whose career exists largely in writing. No amount of clips from the 1958 World Cup can make up for over 700 games of which most of us will not have seen a single second. I doubt footage even exists of most of his career. A lot of these players live on reputation because there's hardly anyone around who saw them and usually very little in the way of recorded matches. So all we have are statistics which for a left-back tell you very little beyond how many times he played and clips of his very best performances in the WC. I don't know how that can trump Paulo Maldini for example.
And I don't think it will. But I also don't think we'd know a Left Back from Brazil so well if he hadn't been somewhat decent at the game. Would his legend make it 50+ years to the future if it wasn't worth discussing?
Semi Finals for Left Back are up! FF All Time XI - Left Backs Semi Finals: Paolo Maldini v. Giacinto Facchetti FF All Time XI - Left Backs Semi Finals: Nilton Santos vs. Roberto Carlos
That's the joys of drafting mate. You research the **** out of all these players. I've watched so much you tube footage of games and read so many articles on older players so it's unfair to say you can't have an opinion on them because you haven't seen them play. How many times did I see Koeman play? Probably only a few times but I still know he was one of the best around. xx
2 down, 9 to go and so far we've only brought in Italians.. But the RB will be a new nationality for sure. CBs will be brutal. I can't wait!
Perhaps Guyett's brainwashing has had an effect on us afterall :/ If Dele Alli gets in too I'm calling this All Time XI a sham. Spurs fans should be limited to one vote.
Gianluigi Buffon and Paolo Maldini have been added to the final XI! The Semi Finals for Right Backs have been posted get your votes in! Centre Backs nominations are up next!
Semi Finals of the Loser's Bracket are posted, losers are eliminated and then there will be one more Centre Back poll to determine Beckenbauer's partner. Looks like we'll be putting in our THIRD Italian to the squad unless Passarella can beat all the greatest Italian Centre Backs lol
