Manchester United defender the best in Europe? He’s not even the best at Old Trafford!
by stresster on July 24th, 2008
| 228 words |
It appears that Sir Alex Ferguson has been out in the sun too much recently. Not content with an ill-advised jibe about Chelsea’s supposedly ageing squad (read Van Der Sar, G Neville, Giggs, Scholes), the Scot is now making outlandish claims about one of his central defenders.
Don’t forget to check out Online Football Manager!
Although many of us might think Rio Ferdinand isn’t even the best centre half at Manchester United, Fergie has been taking lessons from Slaven Bilic when it comes to talking about the abilty of his players. The Sun report that he’s positively gushing about the former West Ham man, but is he right to make such a claim?
He said: “Rio has been the best defender in the country, if not Europe for a couple of years.
“His maturity and leadership have been key factors in the team’s success.
“He is someone that young players learn from and that more experienced players respect.
“I have not seen a better defensive pairing than him and Nemanja for a long time.”
Indeed, many of us would argue that Vidic is a better all-round defender than Rio, with the former making less mistakes and also marking the opposition’s star striker out of the game on regular occasions. Do you think Rio is the best at United? How about the Premier League? And even Europe? Or should Fergie stay out of the sun?
Robie - July 24th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
well the only striker that Rio has truoble dealing with is Drogba and Adebayor. But then who doesn’t. Rio in my opinion is better all rounf than Nemanja only due to his versatility as a defender. He is not only about block, heading, but more importantly his reading of the game!
Vidic is an awesome defender, but if he has Rio’s extra yard of pace, i think he would be No.1 but without it he for me is No.2
Either way they both play for United! and are defo the best centre back pairing anywhere around. Closest partnership around at the minute is Terry and Carvalho. For me Carvalho is the Rio of the chelsea team and Terry is the Vidic (but slightly less Manly, Vidic would never show emotion, he is like Ivan Drago in Rocky “if he dies, he dies”
william johansson - July 24th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
at least i would not trade him for any other centre half
william johansson - July 24th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
IN THE WORLD
Miguel Rodrigues - July 24th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
LOL rio is an absolute zero how can he say that he is the best of europe?he’s not even england’s n#1…and english centre-backs aren’t that great
i would love to see if fergie actually met the likes of canavaro,pepe,nesta,marchena,sergio ramos or even puyol…guess the old fergie is becomming senile
CJ - July 24th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Uumm, he is the best in Europe. How can you possibly write football articles when you don’t know anything about football? Rio can handle anything coming towards him! Keep an eye on him when the opponents take corners, you’ll see there that he tells almost every one of his team mates what to do. He even does the same when United are taking corners. You won’t see a better captain than him on the pitch. He has more confidence than John Terry (as we found out in Moscow).
I just don’t understand how you can say that he isn’t the best defender Old Trafford. He’s the best in the world by far
mark - July 24th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I think you are a knob and should be banned from writing articles..poor wind up, bad effort 1/10…at best
Rio is the best defender in the world..FACT!!
LIVERPOOL FAN - July 24th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
John terry is better and i hate chelsea
Drug cheating reterd with the IQ of a Brussel Sprout
LIVERPOOL FAN - July 24th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Why do people state their opinions as FACTS
Retards everywhere
United For Life - July 24th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Miguel Rodrigues explain Woodgate, Terry, King , Ferdinand, Richards, Dawson then say England dont hav great centre backs, Knob!
Anonymous - July 24th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
hes got a shit memory though
Donald - July 24th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
King and Woodgate to challende these two next season!!!
and they are both English
Anonymous - July 24th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
WUM
Andy, Barnsley - July 24th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
What a load of rubbish, how an earth can u say vidic makes less mistakes than Rio???? Im a die hard Utd fan and i can honestly say that i think vida might be a bit over-rated, he’s good but quite clumsey on occasions, and theres no doubting that Rio is the best defender in the league and in europe, never makes an error and is also class on the deck!!! Awful article!!!!!
Gab - July 24th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I guess the article was wrote by a Liverpool fan obviously.
Well to be honest Rio is currently the best defender in the league and one of the best in Europe. League and Champions League are facts that proves that.
Another fantastic defenders are Nesta, Terry, Carvalho, Vidic, Maldini, Toure, etc. I guess you wanted me to say some Liverpool ones but Hey some of them can be good as Agger but are far from been World Class. Ohh another point is that Torres did fuck all against Rio in both games last season and that is supposed to be your WORLD CLASS STRIKER.
LIVERPOOL FAN - July 24th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Come on he has never played against MAN U before (to my knowledge) and he couldn’t do much after Mascherano got sent off. Watch out this year that was just his debut season and all we need to once again rule supreme is 1 winger (SILVA) all man u need to become a good team as apposed to an unstopable one is to lose ronaldo.
macB - July 24th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
u must be MAD marchena i rubbish!!!!!!
Plymouth fan - July 24th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
woof woof
sexy boy - July 24th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
r ne of u into bondage?
Chook - July 25th, 2008 at 1:25 am
Miguel Rodrigues, you named 3 defenders from Real Madrid. May I remind you Real’s european aspirations got punctured by a team Man Utd beat easily in qualifying and the quater-finals, Roma. Marchena is awful, I don’t know how you can justify that choice. Puyol didn’t appear in the first leg of man utd - barca, barca conceded nothing. He did however play in the second leg and Barca conceded. Nesta and Milan got beat by Arsenal in the first knockout round….at the san siro. Captain Rio Ferdinand won the premier league and the champions league with manchester united. Obviously its not just down to one player, but it would of been a different story if Man Utd didn’t have him in that back two and leading the team.
As for the inspirationally named ‘LIVERPOOL FAN’; practice what you preach, you hypocritical tit. Stop being so bitter at the fact you live on the wrong side of the north west. Rio shut Torres up at Anfield (where your petulant Mascherano didn’t get sent off) and at Old Trafford.
Ahhhhhhh, thats better……
Is my bias showing???
omar - July 25th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Rio IS United’s backline. He holds everything together, is always in the right place at the right time, never struggles against pace, his distribution is quite easily the best in Europe, need I go on? He literally has no weakness…
Vidic without Rio has constantly struggled (need I remind you of AC Milan in 2007?) against pacey and nimble forwards. If he had a bit of pace and if his positioning was a bit better, he’d be up there with Rio most definately, however, despite improving on the latter, he will probably never rectify the former, and IMHO, that is what is stopping Vidic from being one of the very top defenders in the game…
omar - July 25th, 2008 at 4:50 am
Also, name me one striker Rio has struggled dealing with…No? Exactly, he has had Henry, Torres, Drogba, Shearer, Adebayor, and literally every striker he has come up against in Europe in his pocket! How the author has come to the conclusion that Vidic is better than him I’ll never know, especially when you consider the fact that Defoe and Anelka are the most recent examples of his struggling with pace…
Dave - July 25th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Rio was England’s best defender in both 2002 and 2006 world cups, ahead of Campbell and Terry. he is probably the most complete defender in Europe right now, with assured tackling and heading abilities combining with an exceptional reading of the game and outstanding passing ability. Remember that Man Utd had the best defensive record last season with the rio/Nemanja pairing. i believe rio is now ripe for Man Utd and England Captaincies. Who would u say is better than him?? Cannavaro and nesta are way past their best! pepe and puyol…well u must be joking i guess…
What! - July 25th, 2008 at 7:29 am
He is A Premier League Champion and a European Champion and we let less goals in than anyone in Europe and we did not lose a game in Europe all year.
What can you say now you bunch of thick c****
Ha Ha Ha
Ridiculous
anthony - July 25th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
ask fernando torres who the best defender in europe is , if rio lets him out of his back pocket this season that is, rio was the only defender that put torres in his place last season
rolo - July 25th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
anyone that does`nt rate rio knows fuck all about football.simple as that
Red - July 25th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Ask Torres about rio did you you say?…Ask a European cup winner about that english no international trophy poser . Maybe can actually become a champ on teh international stage then you,ll have a point. Besides How many international european cup wchampions do those fake reds manchester have in thier entire squad. Liverpool have 5 , how many you punks got?…oh that right ZERO !!!
Tuck - July 25th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Did someone back at the top actually mention Pepe,Marchena.Puyol and sergio ramos in the same breath as Rio. For me he is World No.1 at the moment, Closely followed by Terry and Nemanja Vidic. If u were picking ur dream team, who would be ur starting centre halves??
Hipyeti - July 25th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Im sorry, but your comparing Rio to defenders around Europe, Cannavaro, Puyol, Nesta etc.
Te best defender in the premiership is Jamie Carragher. This isn’t because I am a Liverpool fan. Many wouldn’t compare him to the like of Rio or John Terry, some may compare him to Carvalho and even Gallas, but if your talking about the best overall defender in the premiership it has to be Jeamie Carragher. He has the vision of a veteran and can time a slide tackle to perfection. He is also extremely consistent. In the 04-05 Champions league final, he was like a brik wall in defence in the second half. Every bal that flew into the box, he had it covered.
Chook - July 25th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
How many premier league titles have liverpool got ‘red’? You getting a bit nervous that united are closing that gap and the fact you’ve won fuck all in the league for the last 18 years. You can’t match FA cup wins either (Utd- 11, liverpool- 7). Enjoy those champions league qualifiers and your permanent spot at 4th place, your team is just not good enough mate.
Rio rules the european roost, nuff said.
jake - July 25th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
jamie carragher may well have been a ‘brik wall’ but how long ago was that? we’re talking about the present not years ago. rio has been a better defender than carragher last 2 seasons, hes one of 3 reasons utd have had the great defensive record they have, and the other 2 are, having joint best defender in the world vidic, nd an unbelievable keeper called van der sar, although i can see him being knocked off the top spot by foster very soon
muck bee - July 26th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
absolute bunch of retards the lot of you
I think Rio is the best defender has present now ,he is good,fit and banlance.i like him. - March 13th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
desmondddon
Edgar - May 19th, 2009 at 11:10 am
You know… its funny looking back at this. The lot of you who said that Vidic wasn’t a better defender than Rio Ferdinand… congratulations, you now look like complete idiots.