21 - Frenkie de Jong

DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
Xavi is a different breed from all the others, and what he was responsible for at his peak makes even Zidane/Iniesta pale somewhat in comparison. Just because Modric is not close to his level is no bad thing lol. Same with the fact that he isn't as good as the latter two.

But it's just ridiculously lazy to say Modric sucks on the sole basis of Barca's Clasico dominance over the last decade. A low hanging fruit if I've ever seen one. Literally the exact same tone and 99% of the same words could be used to make Ramos/Alonso/Casillas and even the likes of Ronaldo to be complete bums. Bums that won 4 Cl's in 5 years though, while we've been getting embarrassed far worse.

Modric was actually incredible in several Clasicos too. To say anything otherwise is proof of a short attention span because Modric absolutely has played Rakitic/Iniesta/Busquets out of the park plenty of times. Including Clasicos against the treble winning Barca and peak MSN teams.

That take would look even more embarrassing if I were to pull up some of Modric's compilations vs Barca.

Why not restrict the conversation to CL campaigns then? Zidane has had hardly any success and despite stacked teams, he couldn't even succeed even more than 1 time. Iniesta was on the end of embarrassing midfield demolitions throughout the 2010's, including his very peak years.

I won't even entertain the argument that Rakitic was better in the World Cup lmfao. Modric was better in basically every single statistic, both offensive and defensive. Goals, assists, key passes, dribbles, defensive duels won, distance covered. Pretty much everything. Rakitic had really nothing to show outside of the Argentina/Russia games. Overhyped to hell based on 2 fucking penalties in shootouts lol. Even Perisic and Mandzukic would have far better arguments, and it would be absurd to say they did more than Modric.

It is just sad to see people actually believing Modric is on the level of Toure or Schweinsteiger lol. Don't let bias turn into ignorance. It's that exact type of blind arrogance that Barca's greats are infallibly better than their competition that's led to us being unsuccessful in Europe by the standards of our spearhead in Messi, and the amount of money we've spent on transfers and wages. At various points the likes of Busquets, Pique, Alves, and even Iniesta were getting outperformed on the CL stage by players on plenty of other teams even in the years they were supposedly at their prime.

It is a fact that Modric has been the brains behind a historically successful midfield, generating the type of European success that was never seen once in the Champions League era. That is not something that comes around 1 time every 7 years like people are suggesting lmfao, it pretty much hadn't happened since Di Stefano's RM. Classical Ajax/Bayern/Liverpool teams were better but RM did win 4 European titles which is impressive as hell.
 

Arnaez

Member
The only real thing Modric has over Iniesta is that he's a better defender, but to be fair that probably made him a better fit for Madrid.
 
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serghei

Senior Member
Imo people underrated players like Ramos and Ronaldo and overrated players like Modric, Kroos and even Marcelo, when they judge Madrid's CL success.

Ronaldo in particular was Madrid's key player in all these CL winning campaigns from 2014 to even 2018 followed by Sergio Ramos.

That's not to say Modric wasn't world class.
 
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Imo people underrated players like Ramos and Ronaldo and overrated players like Modric, Kroos and even Marcelo, when they judge Madrid's CL success.

Ronaldo in particular was Madrid's key player in all these CL winning campaigns from 2014 to even 2018 followed by Sergio Ramos.

That's not to say Modric wasn't world class.

By far the most important person in the CL wins was the referees. I still don't understand why this is not brought up more as it was clear as day. And I am not even a conspiracy theorist but it's a fact that with VAR , there would have been a maximum 1 CL, if that and no la liga but even Simeone said at the start of that season ' They are going to make sure Real Madrid win this year.'

There are literally 6 or 7 ties that were decided in their favour by the referee exclusively. Their last CL win they wouldn't have even beat PSG let alone the Bayern robbery and then there was Ramos on Salah in the final. How can people respect that? I don't.

Let's not forget half the referees in La Liga are well known Madrid fans as is the la liga president as is Sepp Blatter who is also an honorary member. Even Ronaldo himself admitted through his sister when he lost the Ballon Dor about the real Madrid 'mafia.'
 

underoath

Banned
Imo people underrated players like Ramos and Ronaldo and overrated players like Modric, Kroos and even Marcelo, when they judge Madrid's CL success.

Ronaldo in particular was Madrid's key player in all these CL winning campaigns from 2014 to even 2018 followed by Sergio Ramos.

That's not to say Modric wasn't world class.
😂 Are you serious ? Modric is the one that is underrated, regardless if he deserves the BD'or.
 

serghei

Senior Member
�� Are you serious ? Modric is the one that is underrated, regardless if he deserves the BD'or.

No. He is not. Madrid were dominated in more than half the ties vs big teams. But had clutch goalscorers like Roaldo and beasts at set pieces like Ramos.

If Modric was anywhere near Xavi Bayern wouldn't have dominated that Madrid team on Bernabeu in 2017 and 2018.
 

jamrock

Senior Member
I personally don't think Modric was miles better than Rakitic at the world cup for my money he was every bit as good are close and showed he could handle the pressure of taking those PK's when Modric couldn't, they things are huge in a world cup.

modric while great showed he couldn't handle the pressure.

I wouldn't say he is overrated though, i don't think anyone with sense puts him in the top ranks of midfielders certainly not close to Xavi or iniesta.
 

Devils

Senior Member
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full
 
Did you see him in the Masters League? He ended up going in hard on someone and injuring them and the crowd booed him the rest of the tournament. Owen i think it was. Puyol just doesnt have a complacent bone in his body.
 

PhilS

Active member
If Todibo does go in the Neymar deal, can De Jong be relied upon as #4 CB? All I know is that he did play this position at times for Ajax.
 

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