futbol_bill wrote: Now that's an overrated Alves. Cafu, Alberto, Maicon all way better than Alves. And someone earlier put Alves and Intelligence in same sentence! That's just illogical.

I agree Lahm is good, very good, but agree (for once) with Jibers.

M99 wrote:Maybe most people here see Zanetti as a LB since thats where he played after Maicon joined Inter.

Majority of his career he played RB, he should be recognized as one of the greatest of all time. In my eyes he is better than all three of Lahm, Alves and Maicon.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:He's overrated if you consider him the best of his generation because he isn't.

He's clearly always been an elite though, also Alves at his best ability to defend is vastly understated or more so his peers are overrated at that particularly.

Maicon especially, i mean his own treble winning manager said he wasn't a defender As for Lahm his defensive ability is also a bit overhyped tbh ( even if he's still better than his peers overall), he had good positional sense, awareness and decision making off the ball but one v one and as individual defender he's worse than Alves and Maicon easily.

If i were to go further Lahm was probably better than both overall at passing and technical skills ( thus his relative success at a midfield role) but he wasn't as explosive as either offensively.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:I dunno, i think Lahm's close control and first touch is better tbh as is his short passing.

Alves is a better at dribbling and passing over 10 yards though.

The Franchise wrote:Maicon to me was a really great "normal" fullback.

When I say normal I mean like, if you were to create a fullback in the lab it might come out something like Maicon.

Tall, fast, strong, great control, can dribble, runs all day, amazing overlaps and tremendous crossing with an ability shoot from distance.

But Dani Alves is different, he misses some things Maicon had (power, size) but he does things a normal fullback wouldnt even compute. He play's 1-2, sometimes more than 1 in a row, he dribbles inside, he makes passes like a midfielder (with both feet) such as through balls and chipped passes. He has legitimate midfield skills combined with extraordinary physical capability.

Maicon did everything a fullback should do (going forward), Dani Alves did things you dont expect a fullback to.

Robespierre wrote:Frankly it's incredible to number of elite fullbacks who we could see (we've just lost Zanetti and Lahm in last 2 years ) .. if I think now  .. probably we got the golden age on this role . Lahm is part of them . I don't think he was overrated .
probably if he 'd played for another team beyond the Bayern , another league etc he'd got even more tributes