Ok well my criteria won't include variables that give an unfair advantage to one midfield over another... the difference in talent surrounding some of the other midfields is just too large.

Much easier to play as a midfielder when you have an absolute world class defense and attack surrounding you and you're actually considered the weak point of the team, which our midfield was on many of our teams.

Nobody made gameplans to overcome our midfield until the last 2-3 years.

You’re also missing Modric winning best player in one of years you are putting them down!

This debate is going no where. I disagree completely with you.

Oh Luka is great.... no doubt!  He's the one that I feel is an all time great without an absolute doubt.

I just don't feel like Kroos and Casemiro are near the all time greats at their positions.  Like not at all.  They're just very good in their era.

KCM was a very good midfield on great teams... and wasn't an impact line until the last 3 years.  So i do not consider them the all time greatest midfield by any stretch of the imagination.  That's my position.

Despite it being Barca, i do consider Busquets/Xavi/Iniesta as perhaps the greatest because all 3 of them would be all world in any era.

sportsczy wrote:Ok so let's limit to 433.  Every Holland and Ajax team played a 433.  That's the basis of their "total football" system invented by Michels and then Cruyff as a manager.

Brazil played a 433 technically with Zico (everyone attacked lol)... so Zico, Socrates, Cerezo

Busquets - Xavi - Iniesta

Zidane - Vieira - Makelele for sure.  They dominated the 2006 Brazil team that was incredible.

Scholes - Keane - Giggs

Bayern had some really good ones too there with Schweinsteiger.

And we're not talking "most decorated" but which midfield trio was the best.  Not the same thing.  I consider the 70s Holland team the best and they never won anything.  

let me preface this by saying. i dont know who ranks the best cos its not like there are a bunch of teams running around that we can make comparisons with. once again sports lol those midfields are not really 4 3 3's as we know it. when i think 4 3 3 as far as this convo, it means 2 central mids and 1 defensive

the great french midfield zidane is an attacking mid. it would be like saying ozil, alonso and khedira, was a trio....that was a 4 2 3 1, with ozil as the amf. which is what zizou was. the keane scholes giggs is a reach. cos when keane was there giggs was a left winger, becks on the right. it would be like saying cristiano, scholes carrick as a trio.

as for this debate, at least for me personally, it wud be best to have a list, cos i cant think of too many dominant midfield trio off the top. while we are fans, we have to keep it sincere. xavi iniesta busquets might top the list. now they may not have won back to backs in ucl. but the club coupled with their national team dominance was serious.

my point is, its too early for this to be ranked; teams copying the 4 3 3 (two CMs and a DM) really took off in the 2010s (granted barca used it during the dinho era with deco and van bommel, but most teams up till the 2010s still had a number 10)

now if we look from the 2010s on, how many teams have been dominant with that system is the first question. the next is are those teams employing the exact same trio during that span of dominance? and that second part is where the real difficulty lies. cos besides real and barca, most of the other dominant sides in that time frame have constantly rotated the players in that trio.

so it may be something where we have to wait for more candidates to pop up. our midfield of modric xabi di maria was waaay more fun for me to watch than kcm, but going to my point, they only played 1 season.

btw sports i just saw ure bayern pick. i agree with that, but i feel like they didnt always use the same 3 personnel. i remember schweini but i dont remember who his other 2 partners were (they were the guys i was thinking ahead of barca's trio but i couldnt remember the third wheel besides shweini and martinez). and i dont think martinez was featured in all their dominant phases. but i was gonna def put them over barca's guys cos of the way they whooped them like ugly step children back in 2013

Their achievements is literally unmatched by any of those past midfields you want to put up against them. If we are measuring how great of a midfield they were at winning things, they are easily in the top 3 if we are being conservative. They absolutely dominated the champions league era, in a way that there is no comparison to what they achieved.

Let’s stop glorifying the past, these 3 guys were monsters. They absolutely destroyed your favorite modern teams which were all supposed to be better across 7-8 years.

How did the so called best trio KCM come third in the league then? Behind Atletico Madrid n Barca featuring the likes of Paulinho? XD

titosantill wrote:btw sports i just saw ure bayern pick. i agree with that, but i feel like they didnt always use the same 3 personnel. i remember schweini but i dont remember who his other 2 partners were (they were the guys i was thinking ahead of barca's trio but i couldnt remember the third wheel besides shweini and martinez). and i dont think martinez was featured in all their dominant phases. but i was gonna def put them over barca's guys cos of the way they whooped them like ugly step children back in 2013

I actually think they played a 4231 with a double pivot now that I think about it.

The attack was Ribery - Mueller - Robben with Mario Gomez as the CF in front of them.

BarcaLearning wrote:How did the so called best trio KCM come third in the league then? Behind Atletico Madrid n Barca featuring the likes of Paulinho? XD

dude don’t reply to my posts you are still not done learning ffs