HongKongVillan Posted June 19, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted June 19, 2014 (edited) McGrath>Laursen>Mellberg>Teale>Southgate>Johnsen/Alpay>Ego>Barry(when he first started)>Vlaar>Cuellar>Dunne/Collins>Ridgewell/Clark>Baker Not old enough to rate anyone else prior the McGrath & Teale's era but I would say Vlaar is towards the last few claret & blue centre backs that I would rate - perosonally. Its very sad to see how standard have slipped some what. Not this "standards" thing again. People rate a very good CB, how is that an example of standards slipping? If everyone was praising Baker then you might have a point. But the fact that Vlaar is actually a "decent" CB for us at the moment proves that standard is lower. But then again ths Villa team overall poor compare to the years we have had. to my original list I missed the likes of Cahill and Davies, which again I personally thinks they were both better than Vlaar. Edited June 19, 2014 by kwoktolai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 you have Cuellar ahead of Dunne and COllins Id have Clark and Zat Knight ahead of Cuellar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HongKongVillan Posted June 19, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted June 19, 2014 you have Cuellar ahead of Dunne and COllins Id have Clark and Zat Knight ahead of Cuellar Personally don't like error prone defence. Dunne could be very good for one particular game, but really dont like the fact he is an accident waiting to happen, a bit like Clark. At least with Cuellar you know what you are getting.....and that I remembered we had Mr Very Average Aaron Hughes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 McGrath>Laursen>Mellberg>Teale>Southgate>Johnsen/Alpay>Ego>Barry(when he first started)>Vlaar>Cuellar>Dunne/Collins>Ridgewell/Clark>Baker Not old enough to rate anyone else prior the McGrath & Teale's era but I would say Vlaar is towards the last few claret & blue centre backs that I would rate - perosonally. Its very sad to see how standard have slipped some what. Not this "standards" thing again. People rate a very good CB, how is that an example of standards slipping? If everyone was praising Baker then you might have a point. But the fact that Vlaar is actually a "decent" CB for us at the moment proves that standard is lower. But then again ths Villa team overall poor compare to the years we have had. to my original list I missed the likes of Cahill and Davies, which again I personally thinks they were both better than Vlaar. Vlaar is a decent CB for us because he's a decent player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Stevo985 Posted June 19, 2014 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted June 19, 2014 (edited) People spouting all this lowering standards/expectations bollocks is the worst thing about VT. Vlaar is a good defender. The fact he's part of a bad defence means virtually nothing. Thiago Silva in our defence 2 years ago wouldn't have suddenly transformed us into an incredible defence, so is he shit too? Vlaar is a good player. Not amazing. Not McGrath. Not Laursen. But that doesn't mean he isn't good. I can't believe someone said he was "overrated" on here. He's barely rated at all, so how he can be overrated is beyond me. People have always seemed to have something against Vlaar. I think players that don't start too well for Villa often struggle to get their reputation back (Milner and Petrov for example) even if they're playing well. Seriously, drop the grudge guys. He's a good Centreback. Very good for where we are at the moment. We'll be lucky if he's here next season as we won't be able to afford to replace him with anyone better. Edited June 19, 2014 by Stevo985 23 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody1000 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 People spouting all this lowering standards/expectations bollocks is the worst thing about VT. Vlaar is a good defender. The fact he's part of a bad defence means virtually nothing. Thiago Silva in our defence 2 years ago wouldn't have suddenly transformed us into an incredible defence, so is he shit too? Vlaar is a good player. Not amazing. Not McGrath. Not Laursen. But that doesn't mean he isn't good. I can't believe someone said he was "overrated" on here. He's barely rated at all, so how he can be overrated is beyond me. People have always seemed to have something against Vlaar. I think players that don't start too well for Villa often struggle to get their reputation back (Milner and Petrov for example) even if they're playing well. Seriously, drop the grudge guys. He's a good Centreback. Very good for where we are at the moment. We'll be lucky if he's here next season as we won't be able to afford to replace him with anyone better.This! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weedman Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Anyone who puts Gareth bloody Barry in a list of top defenders for this club obviously never saw him play prior to going in central midfield. Bang average defender. Terrible left winger. Top class central midfielder. Comparing him to Vlaar just because he's a good centre mid who happened to play back a few times is ridiculous. Its like comparing him with Heskey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Also, no way were Mellberg and Laursen better than Southgate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Anyone who puts Gareth bloody Barry in a list of top defenders for this club obviously never saw him play prior to going in central midfield. Bang average defender. Terrible left winger. Top class central midfielder. Comparing him to Vlaar just because he's a good centre mid who happened to play back a few times is ridiculous. Its like comparing him with Heskey I put Barry in. I thought he was very good at a young age on the left hand side of a back 3. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenko#4 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 After watching another inept performance tonight, I have a hypothetical question for everyone............if Ron was English would he have made our World Cup Squad? I think yes, maybe not as good as Cahill or Jagielka, but arguably better than Jones and definitely better than Smalling at this moment in time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 After watching another inept performance tonight, I have a hypothetical question for everyone............if Ron was English would he have made our World Cup Squad? I think yes, maybe not as good as Cahill or Jagielka, but arguably better than Jones and definitely better than Smalling at this moment in time. Well, he's an average Premier League defender, so he'd be at home with the other average Premier League defenders in the England team. Jagielka was woeful tonight I thought. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 I wish all of our team was that average. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Based on Jagielka's defending tonight I am expecting him to be signed immediately the lads get home. He will slot in well to our defence. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avfc1982 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Anyone who puts Gareth bloody Barry in a list of top defenders for this club obviously never saw him play prior to going in central midfield. Bang average defender. Terrible left winger. Top class central midfielder. Comparing him to Vlaar just because he's a good centre mid who happened to play back a few times is ridiculous. Its like comparing him with Heskey Cobblers. When Barry first broke into the first team all those years ago he played in a back 3, and he was that good he was called up to the England squad at just 17. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordSepulchrave Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Is there anything to be gained to comparing him to defenders who played when the game was a different beast than it is today? I think it's more useful to compare him to, say, Stephen Reid or Curtis Davis or Ashley Williams or Dejan Lovren. Players who play for teams that we want to be competing with and exceeding. For me, only Dejan Lovren is a better CB outside of the top 7, although there might be someone I'm just not remembering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rovers13 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Is there anything to be gained to comparing him to defenders who played when the game was a different beast than it is today? I think it's more useful to compare him to, say, Stephen Reid or Curtis Davis or Ashley Williams or Dejan Lovren. Players who play for teams that we want to be competing with and exceeding. For me, only Dejan Lovren is a better CB outside of the top 7, although there might be someone I'm just not remembering. I would probably say caulker is better, though I suppose he mightn't count any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 I'm struggling to think of any CB outside of the top 7 that is better than Vlaar. Maybe Lovren but that's about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weedman Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Anyone who puts Gareth bloody Barry in a list of top defenders for this club obviously never saw him play prior to going in central midfield. Bang average defender. Terrible left winger. Top class central midfielder. Comparing him to Vlaar just because he's a good centre mid who happened to play back a few times is ridiculous. Its like comparing him with Heskey Cobblers. When Barry first broke into the first team all those years ago he played in a back 3, and he was that good he was called up to the England squad at just 17. He wasn't that good though, he was a youngster with potential, no different from the likes of Ridgewell or Clark or even Baker (who everyone was raving about when he first broke in until it became apparent he is not a footballer). Comparing him to our best ever defenders is ridiculous. If he was comparable to the likes of Laursen he wouldn't have been thrown out to the left wing where he was awful for so long simply because he had a left foot. I mean Portsmouth were about to sign him for about £2 or £3 mil before MON came in and put him central midfield where he flourished. Lots of promising youngsters have been called up for England based on their potential and never made it. Barry is on that list for me, showed promise as a defender but never made it. The Gareth Barry that plays so well in midfield is not the same player. To keep it on topic, the Gareth Barry that played in defence for us isn't half the defender that Ron Vlaar is, not even a quarter of the defender in fact (in my own opinion of course) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakid007 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Vlaar is starting in the holland 1st in the World Cup where his team sparked current world & European champions 5-1 & Australia 3-2 and top their group going into last 16 but yeah I agree is crap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SikhInTrinity Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Let's not forget who Barry had beside him, Southgate and Ugo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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