Mane came runner up for Ballon d'Or, won pl golden boot....apparently you get to do that with some goals/assists. Mane was a legit world class player & arguably better than Salah in his prime
Yeah, I don't see Saka that far away from that, his numbers are amazing already and he is only 21.
He has been on of the better performers in the UCL this season. Although he definitely was handled by Porto in both legs. This was a very tricky game, but builds character. Just glad the team came out with the win and will have a lot of weeks to rest up.
Did you watch Cristiano Ronaldo play football till like 2013? Dude almost never showed up in any big games for both club and country. And I would say I never saw him perform well in any big international tournaments. A lot of the world class labeling is about marketing and narratives. Same media and some fanboys were overly critical of Hazards performances for his country, but if you actually watched the guy, you'd see he was the definition of world class in his prime for both club and country.
I'll still say a clinical CF, another dynamic midfielder to replace Partey and another GK and versatile Winger who can play both wings are the requirements to become a truly scary team for the next 5 years at least.
Tough game to say this about, almost our entire team got shown up in this tie. If these games were something to go on Saliba is years away from being even in contention for the label, Rice put in two God awful stinkers etc
Finally Mr. Jones speaks some sense. At the end of the day it's a team game. Arteta also deserves some criticism, but I'll cut the team some slack as Arsenal has not even been in the champions league for years and the first time in the quarterfinals in 15 years. There must have been a lot of pressure, easy to get psyched out. People need to remember that a lot of our best players are pretty young still. Saliba, Saka, Martinelli, even Ødegaard do not have a lot of experience in these type of situations.
I think I agree. I'm going to need some examples of known world class players standing out in fixtures like this. I think certain players might often have a clutch moment but not a great performance. He scored his pen.
Big words here if you consider we have the best defense in the PL and only conceded 5 goals in the CL which looks to me like it's the best defense in that competition as well.
Yeah and I think this tie shows that none of them are there yet. It’s not specific to Saka but he’s the one you get the most heat for saying he’s not WC.
How you think they earned the labels in the first place?
Forum arguments like all other labels, obviously
Mate read my post again, I'm saying the exact opposite of what you think I said.
Porto are master ****housers and a good side, unlucky not to finish 1st in their group, finished 1st last year in a strong group and gave Inter hell in both matches in the Ro16. You also missed my point - I don't think Saliba is years away, I think he's clearly there or thereabouts but based on this match he's nowhere near.
