Javier Mascherano

Barcelona

Defensive midfielder - Argentina



Original 200 writeup:

Defensive master like few others. Mascherano has great work rate and tackling ability and during his time at Liverpool was a key player in some of the best defensive performances in recent years.

With his excellent defensive qualities but limitations in contributing going forward in almost any way, he in many ways embodied a Liverpool team that especially in the Champions League against good technical sides gained the reputation of maybe the toughest matchup around.

In the Premier League it was often similar, and at least (to some extent) until Xabi Alonso especially in his final year took his play to another level, it was a side you'd often see struggling to get enough going in attack to put away the same smaller sides the other top teams took care of mostly with ease, while against the very top teams you could see Benitez Liverpool compete at a very high level.

It's really no secret what Mascherano does well. He is an enforcer or spoiler if you will who knows every trick in the book (who won't hesitate to use them either) and whether his defensive job, and it is always a defensive job for Mascherano, is tight tactical defending holding together the midfield chains (straight lines Benitez style, notice his obsessive hand gestures signaling this to his players constantly throughout every game) and defending his zone or if it's more aggressive pressure, battling to win the midfield, winning tackles in the process, Mascherano will do as great a job as anyone out there.

What's most impressive about his work is his range of defending I think. Not meant like he gets out of position, that would be as bad for him as it would a centre-back, but in the concentrated area that is central midfield he really does seem to be able to do more defensively in more places more often than perhaps anyone else out there.

On this list in many ways (like on the pitch actually) Mascherano where he ended up (fitting I think right before the top 50) became sort of the ultimate defensive block for the attacking players. Or for that matter the best players with something to offer both defensively and going forward. The one defensive specialist that only the most special players would be able to go past up the list. The one excellent defensive player, providing us with one final defensive stand where even small chinks in the (attacking player's) armor, or a few questionmarks here and there, like with Arshavin and his consistency, would be enough to stop the rise up the list and instead get to be - ranked behind
Mascherano.

The 300 update:

Mascherano got out of Hodgson's Liverpool and joined Barcelona where perhaps not surprisingly he hasn't made that much of an impact, even if he hasn't done badly at all when given starts here and there.

Here are some thoughts of mine from the time of the transfer that I think cover both Mascherano and his direct competition Sergio Busquets pretty well:

Interestingly the physical area where I said Busquets was far behind someone like Mikel and had room to improve, he now looks very strong to me and can definitely win physical battles.

However Busquets is still a little too one dimensional for my taste, for me to call him one of the best in the world and I really wonder how he'd do taken out of his very specialized role of holding and passing well in small concentrated midfield area for teams, like Barca and Spain, that dominate possession in every single game.

Mascherano of course is another specialist but the defensive midfield specialist I think. So much so that like others have said, that maybe Busquet's one clear edge in passing, makes Masch almost redundant at Barca.

I'm definitely not willing to write him off though and here is what I said during the transfer speculation:

"That will be interesting. Barcelona does of course have plenty of games so there should be games for both. The positive is that they now have two defensive specialists instead of Toure, and Keita for that matter, who are more allround players better in less specialized roles.

When it does come to pure defensive specialization I do think Masch definitely is the best player and in a needed stern defensive effort or in physical midfield battle, would take him any day.

His problem will be though, that at Barca those don't really take place or are called upon every day like they were for Liverpool, if ever at all, so Busquets with his edge in maybe just a few things, like when it comes to forward passing, could still be the superior fit in the Barca style.

I have however always quite liked Masch's passing game from his position, you would see it previously on the pre-Maradona well organized attacking Argentina teams, and it will be interesting to see how it holds up so to speak on what is the ultimate passing team, Barcelona.

Even Xavi's description here of Busquets is kind of like Mascherano:

he’s a right bastard. He gets a leg in, he goes for the crash, he’s puta, from the street. That kind of cunning, you either have it or you don’t.

So they're actually kind of similar there, but with Busquet's having an edge in Barca passing and generally in the technical ability department that's needed there. He is strong as well and has become a good enforcer in the unique Barca environment of possession domination, but he is also slow (quite stiff no?) and limited outside his comfort zone of defensive midfield.

So is Mascherano of course (which has dumped him quite a bit on my list) but he is quicker. Has a good passing game of his own with an amazing work rate and a range of quality defending that is quite unique I think.

I'm still unsure if Busquets could be a great defensive midfielder or perhaps rather a very good midfielder on many other good teams. How would he perform his defensive duties on normal teams that don't dominate possession. Put on pressure without the ball, defend his zone with either pressure or by having to back of for large periods of a game? How good would he be in a normal team defense. Likely not bad at all, but I'm not totally confident he is already as good as the best.

The other area where he could really (once again to his credit) surprise me and jump in my estimation would be if I saw just a little more quality from him further forward. Like both Keita and Toure have shown. I know that's not his role but just some evidence here and there would be enough.

So to conclude I do lean towards that for Barcelona at least Busquets is better than Mascherano.

Javier Zanetti

Inter

Right and left-back/Midfielder - Argentina



Original 200 writeup:

Quite simply a force of nature. He plays every game every year. Has probably had one semi serious injury in the last fifteen and that was 10 years ago when he only played 29 of the league games...
He has missed just two league games in the last four seasons at an advanced age.
7 of the last 8 seasons he has played 50 games or more, rarely if ever as a substitute, and almost never badly. If ever at all. He is one of the most consistent players around. He is 36 years old. The oldest on the list.

He has great stamina and is seemingly never tired. When he plays fullback he still gets up and down the line and if he is midfielder, more common in recent years, he defends well and still makes those trademark (Il Trattore) tractor style runs forward with cannot be rocked balance, the ball glued to his feet. At 36 he is still somehow a dynamic player.

First time I saw him was early 1995, the first Confederations Cup being played (then actually less prestigious than it is these days) and the final between Argentina and Denmark.

Denmark had the Laudrups and Argentina still young ones such as Ariel Ortega, Batistuta, Ayala etc etc and then there was Zanetti who's class immediately stood out. He had made his debut late 1994 post the Argentina/Maradona World Cup collapse in America that year.

At this point he was an exciting right-winger who with pace and skill gave Denmark all kinds of problems and if I remember correctly one year later for the incredibly exciting and talented Argentina 1996 Olympic silver medalist team (but with respect to the gold medalists Nigeria by far the best, they had Ayala, Chamot, Ortega, Crespo, Simone, Sensini, Claudio Lopez, Delgardo, Almeyda and Gallardo,) it was similar though looking at those names it's possible he was right-wingback with Chamot, Sensini and Ayala the central defenders. He was very attacking I do remember that.

In the following years for Inter that was also his role. Under ever changing coaches they had many spells where they played 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 if you will and during those years, where they just could not win, whether he was a wing-back in one of the above systems or fullback in a back-four, in my mind it was always between him and Cafu for the title as the best right-back in the world.

Unfortunately for Zanetti he was "stuck" on both an underachieving club and national side, while Cafu even at Roma won a Scudetto and then there was his highly praised work, and the trophies to show for it, for Brazil and later AC Milan.


Cafu therefore understandably got the more attention and was of course an excellent, one of the best ever, right-backs, but was he a better player than Zanetti?

Personally I think it's up in the air but towards the end of Cafu which coincided with Zanetti starting to play other positions I do think Il Capitano as Inter fans call Zanetti, was the more complete and better player. And I won't rule out that he was in fact all along.

Of course Inter would later get the current best right-back in the world Maicon and as he came into his own (himself a former winger) Zanetti started to play most of his games in midfield, either as a defensive midfielder or right-central midfielder in a diamond during the Roberto Mancini years.

He was now at a point. A point he is still at where he could do a great job in several positions and as Jose Mourinho took the Inter seat, that is what he did, right, left, center, midfield or defense leading the team to great triumphs culminating of course this year with the European Cup and treble.



Mourinho who after his first season in charge said this:

"The player who surprised me the most was Zanetti. His passport cannot be telling the truth (claiming he's 35), it must be ten years out, he's incredible,"

He is indeed incredible and when I started this list I really didn't think I would rank him this high. But as the season went along he just kept proving again and again that he was still going strong, showing no signs of slowing down yet another season at an advanced age defying nature, and then his amazing physical ability, good technique, intelligence, leadership and not least unique versatility makes him one of the better players in the world.

The 300 update:

Not even the great Zanetti is unaffected by Inter's poor 2010/11 season so far, and there have been some lesser performances than what we're used to seeing from Mr Consistent himself.

I'm definitely not going to start talking about showing age when the man has defied just that countless of times before, and it could just be the team, the injuries, the new coach, tactics and well other younger player's advanced age behind all the trouble.

For everything involved with Inter a lot depend right now on Rafa Benitez going or staying, and him going (getting sacked or quitting) seems to depend on how president Moratti feels about pleas for strengthening the squad in January.

We'll see what happens.

Goran Pandev

Inter

Attacking midfielder/Forward - Macedonia



Original 200 writeup:


Pandev missed most of the season forced to sit out when he was involved in a contract dispute with his club at the time Lazio and their boorish president Claudio Lotito.

Lotito getting so worked up over Pandev refusing to extend his contract that he ordered him isolated from the first team.

That went on for months and mainly resulted, in one: Lazio's attacking game without Pandev stagnating to such an extent that they spent much of the season battling relegation, and two: Pandev taking the matter to the courts eventually winning his freedom and being free to go (for free!) to whatever club interested in his services.

He went to Inter of course where he quickly became another piece in getting the passing game working that the Ibrahimovic-less Inter so desperately needs.

With his fine technical ability and final third movement he is someone very suited to complement Wesley Sneijder the new Inter centerpiece, as well as strikers Milito and Eto'o, both unlike Ibrahimvic dependent on good short passing surrounding them.

Position-wise Pandev can do a good job in all the attacking midfield positions as well as be more of a second striker. He also has a good work rate and will defend his position.

Unlike previously for Lazio and I assume unlike when he represents his country Macedonia, for Inter he is very much a tactical role player mainly present to the benefit of the even more skilled on the team, and as a result of that he might not shine as brightly there, but he has just enough skill, just enough pace, hard work and cleverness to make Mourinho prefer his contribution over for an example immensely talented Mario Balotelli. Even with Balotelli still being a total headcase often ruining his own cause, that is an achievement in itself.

The 300 update:

Pandev continued his time at Inter as a very useful complementary piece (not least tactically) on the way to their amazing triumphs at the end of the 2009/10 season.

This season of course things have started a lot worse. Tactically the two-way-play wide role he played under Mourinho has seemingly gone extinct under new coach Benitez who prefers higher up the pitch wing play, including more pace with the ball than what Pandev has to offer.

The Mourinho role probably wasn't Pandev's strongest anyway. But his passing and movement without the ball coupled with defensive discipline worked very well with Sneijder, the other wide forward Eto'o and at the time in-form hitman Diego Milito up front.

Now we have Milito gone all the time through injuries. Eto'o as the new in-form striker, young players still unproven at this level Coutinho and Biabiny out wide, Sneijder understandably not quite in the same form and Pandev kind of filling in where ever there is trouble.

When Eto'o was recently banned Pandev even saw time as the top striker and not with great results.

With all the injuries, advanced age, Benitez new tactics in a can't win scenario if there ever was one, it's interesting and unpredictable times for a lot of the Inter players, including Pandev, who all could move one way or the other up the list. So keep an eye on that.

Next up for them is the club World Cup where Benitez in a do or die scenario is expected to bring back the trophy to owner Moratti.