Dribbling Styles

I have been thinking of making this thread for a while now, dribbling styles are a major attractive feature among players. One of the main reasons I started supporting Milan was Pato. I first saw Pato in the olympics for Brazil, the x-factor that I found with Pato was his dribbling style. In my opinion, I favor it over the likes of Messi, C.Ronaldo and others. The little bursts that he does after going past each player are amazing, unfortunately, after Pato has experienced a series of injuries during his Milan career, when he came back, I felt that he was more protective on the field as he tried to avoid tackles, this has caused him to change his dribbling style a little, however, he still has these moments in which he shows flashes of his old dribbling style. Luckily, with Corinthians, I can see through videos on youtube that he is slowly getting his old dribbling style back, this is something that makes me very happy.

Now, enough talking about Pato, there are many other players out there with brilliant dribbling styles. The first that come in mind are the likes of Messi, Ronaldinho, C.Ronaldo, and Ronaldo. A more recent dribbling style that I have been impressed with is El Shaarawy's, I feel as if its a mixture between Ronaldinho's and C.Ronaldo's but not as good yet.

So my question to you is, which player's dribbling style do you favor the most? Mind you, that dribbling stye does not necessarily mean that a player is a very good dribbler, its just the style that is being addressed in this thread.

I personally am in love with how Messi dribbles, I love his reaction speed to any given situation from the middle of the field vs 5 people he does it with such ease, and without having to waste time.
for example, one style I dislike is Neymar's style because he usually has to stop the play, usually on the wing wait until 1 opponent gets infront of them and then start doing pointless stepovers etc. until the defender makes a mistake.
That is precious time he wasted so he could do pointless skills that hardly works then run around them like a normal winger would in a 1v1 situation.
Messi on the other hand starts most of his runs through the middle going through 2-4 people nutmegging them most of the time until he is fouled as that is the only thing a defender can do to stop him 90% of the time.
The only times he does stepover sort of dribbling is when he is near the throw in line and has no passing options. like the dribble vs Nani in the champions league final vs Man U which led to David Villas goal.
most of his runs are simple, and seems effortless which makes it a joy to watch.
If your a fan of dribblers, i don't care if you support Madrid etc this video is a must watch in HD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvbbzVCyoik

for some awkward reason i love one trick ponies like robben and valencia

Neymar and Ronaldinho's dribbling style that's class

I personally love the way Vucinic and Pirlo dribble. Alot of the best dribblers use the top of outside of their foot more when dribbling, like Messi, Robben, etc. Vucinic and Pirlo use the inside of their foot. Theyre also both very slow yet go past players with ease, it looks like theyre in slow motion most of the time.

Of course though Messi's technique is obviously the best, just to watch him play is mesmerizing.

I love Iniesta's dribbling style but who the hell doesn't? Honestly.

Personally I enjoy watching Lennon dribble too. He's a one trick pony sure but he's damn effective sometimes and watching him quickly step inside and then back outside and beat a defender is fun to watch. Same reason I like watching Navas.

does Lebron James count?

I love Rosicky's style

Sessegnon is great. His close control is very good, but he uses bursts and trickery well to beat players.

Oscar is also fantastic at dribbling in tight spaces

+Suarez - very effective dribbler with a great style

Ronaldos style

robben for me. very cool style

CBarca wrote:I love Iniesta's dribbling style but who the hell doesn't? Honestly.

Personally I enjoy watching Lennon dribble too. He's a one trick pony sure but he's damn effective sometimes and watching him quickly step inside and then back outside and beat a defender is fun to watch. Same reason I like watching Navas.

I think Isco has a similar dribbling style to Iniesta, they tend to keep the ball very close to their feet, I think even better than Messi.

DeviAngel wrote:does Lebron James count?

Lebron doesn't play football but Kobe might count

P.S. I dont even watch Basketball

juventus101 wrote:I personally love the way Vucinic and Pirlo dribble. Alot of the best dribblers use the top of outside of their foot more when dribbling, like Messi, Robben, etc. Vucinic and Pirlo use the inside of their foot. Theyre also both very slow yet go past players with ease, it looks like theyre in slow motion most of the time.

Of course though Messi's technique is obviously the best, just to watch him play is mesmerizing.

I have to agree with you on Pirlo's style, it is very unique, I have yet to see a player with a similar dribbling style.

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Pirlo, SES, and Messi. All very different from each other but so fun to watch. Pirlo's style is the most unique and I don't think I have seen anyone else dribble like him.

DeviAngel wrote:does Lebron James count?

Really though, Ronaldo is the best dribbler of all time imo

Messi is the best atm, he is always under control and pretty much impossible to stop 1v1

Ronaldinho.

I love how Müller does it:
He doesn't dribble. And then he's past you. And nobody can tell you why.

Other than that, I like the way the ball is glued to Messis feet, in the same way, though to a lesser extent, Özil and Schweinsteiger are excellent defensive dribblers, somehow managing to drop back deep without the losing ball even if they got like 3 or 4 defenders pressing them.

As a rule of thumb, if a player regularly emerges from a chaotic mass of legs kicking at the ball and still has the ball, as well as a mischievous smile, I'm impressed. With forwards, Messi really shows how it's done.

Ronaldinho wins this easily for me, just amazing

Zidane....he was from my point of view one of the masters...everything seemed so simple..like it was the logic turn or flick or ...what ever he was doing
my favorite style....adn then messi

Ozil, Silva, Iniesta, Messi, Marcelo, Lennon, Benzema and Young.

Suarez's dribbling style is too haphazard imo. He loses the ball too much for my liking.

VivaStPauli wrote:I love how Müller does it:
He doesn't dribble. And then he's past you. And nobody can tell you why.

Exactly.
Very underrated player as well. I was impressed when I saw him against arsenal, genius player

I love Nermans and Dinhos dribbling style. I like Messi's as well even though its not as flashy.

I like Coutinho's dribbling style, I also really like Joaquin and Figo's style.

To my fellow Milanisti: what's so great about ES dribbling style? I dont think its all that impressive