Gary Neville or Steve Finnan? - Page 6

RedDevil10 · 04-09-2006, 05:21 PM

Neville has been solid for the past 8-7 years plus hes been a stand-out for the England Squad.

04-09-2006, 05:44 PM

All Liverpool people voted for Finnan, others for Neville.

King Kenny · 04-09-2006, 06:14 PM

Neville is far better than Finnan at getting forward. Neville has virtually no ball carrying ability, but has the confidence to stumble past the occassional attempted tackle and has a very decent cross. Finnan, on the other hand, has virtually no ball carrying ability and doesn't have the confidence to even try to get past tackles.

Neville, perhaps because of his combination with Beckham, overlaps with the RM/winger very well. He'll occassionally make the run to receive the ball, other times just to draw the LB and create room for his teammate. And for an 'old fashioned fullback' - I do agree with the term - he gets to the byline fairly frequently and isn't half bad at picking a cross/pass.

Finnan just doesn't combine at all well with the RW'er. You'll often see our RW attacks slow because he'll stop and ponder a pass, or stop and cut inwards: very rarely is there a fluid movement without the 'stop'. Rafa has got him playing a lot more fluidly and Stevie's extended run on the RW has seen Finnan get back to his best play at Fulham where he was an attacking fullback and a far more adept attacking force, constantly appearing on the edge of the box for rasping drives and picking up spills and blundered clearances. But life at the top is a lot harder than life at Fulham and being a RB for Liverpool means make the run but get back into position and maintain the shape pretty sharpish...and Finnan appears to like the easier life and not get too far out of position at all. When he joined us he had just been in the PL Team of the Season, having had a season not dissimilar to Chimbonda last term and last season was the closest he got to that for us.

Over the past 2 seasons Finnan has been the better player, partly due to consistency, mainly due to availability. Over the course of careers Neville's shadow is far larger.

PS: the pass someone referred to earlier was the cross from deep for Garcia's sublime header from the edge of the box against Anderlecht. One of the best headed goals in the history of televised football - and I don't believe that to be exaggeration.

Yiannis · 04-09-2006, 08:21 PM

First of all i have to say that you gotta love KK's in-depth analysis in different football matters

Quote:

Originally Posted by King Kenny

PS: the pass someone referred to earlier was the cross from deep for Garcia's sublime header from the edge of the box against Anderlecht. One of the best headed goals in the history of televised football - and I don't believe that to be exaggeration.

That header was just marvelous.A joy to watch.That and a Van Basten's(with Milan) header i remember, again from the edge of the box but not as curvy as Garcia's one.

akibo · 04-09-2006, 09:24 PM

I would've voted for Gneville for his consistency over the years, but for the mere fact that he is, was & will be a total prick, I had to vote for Finnan.