Is Vincent Kompany a top defender or over-rated?

NIMAN

Once again I have watched a half of football when Kompany is exposed when playing against top players. Its not the 1st time I have watched him struggle.

Its ok to look great against a lot of the muck in the EPL, but I do think he is hyped up a bit and not as good as many think he is.

Any agree or disagree?

Montroseee

Most over-rated player since Beckham.

klose

An excellent season the first season city won the league and has not reached those heights since IMO.

prettyboy81

Hasn't been consistent enough to be recognised as a world class defender, IMO.

Still a very good defender though.

Blue giant

Montroseee wrote: »

Most over-rated player since Beckham.

I'm not sure Beckham was really overrated. Just because he didn't go on mazy runs doesn't mean he wasn't a very good player. The best crosser of a ball and dead piece specialist I have ever seen. He was also a man for the big occasion.

CSF

There aren't many CBs capable of handling this calibre of players when not in a ridiculously well organised team. He has made his share of errors no doubt, but so do the likes of Silva and Godin (my 2 preferred centre backs). We see more of Kompany and so his mistakes are more pronounced. Hummels for example has been very poor for spells in recent times but still comes up in every centre back conversation because the average football fan just doesn't watch Bundesliga every week.

In terms of physical and technical attributes Kompany is up there with the best, but he has definitely dropped off form in the last year and a half in particular.

Still a great centre back but there are better out there for sure.

brevity

Dont understand the Beckham comment tbh. Hard working player talented player imo, couldnt ever say he was overrated.

ThunbergsAreGo

Said this a few times amongst my mates and have been shouted down.

He is a decent defender and a very well spoken guy. But makes alot of mistakes (positioning etc) that dont always get picked up on and doesnt really come across as a leader

Gringo180

Jaysus. A bit of bad form and he is some how over rated. Football fans are a fickle bunch. It was only a year or so ago that people were creaming themselves over him saying he was one of the best in the world :pac:

Class defender imo going through a bad patch. Injuries havent helped his cause all the same but he is still one of the best defenders in Europe on his day.

Ulysses Gaze

Anyone rate Pique any better?

ThunbergsAreGo

Gringo180 wrote: »

Jaysus. A bit of bad form and he is some how over rated. Football fans are a fickle bunch. It was only a year or so ago that people were creaming themselves over him saying he was one of the best in the world :pac:

Class defender imo going through a bad patch. Injuries havent helped his cause all the same but he is still one of the best defenders in Europe on his day.

You could say it the other way though. One good season does not mean he is forever the best in the world. And alot of casual football fans would see him as that.

Noone on here is not saying he isnt very good

Then again there is a dearth of real quality centre backs these days

Talib Fiasco

If Hummels is a top defender then so is Kompany

MythicalMadMan

Montroseee wrote: »

Most over-rated player since Beckham.

Brooklyn? bit harsh.

Gringo180

naughtb4 wrote: »

You could say it the other way though. One good season does not mean he is forever the best in the world. And alot of casual football fans would see him as that.

Noone on here is not saying he isnt very good

Then again there is a dearth of real quality centre backs these days

People are quick to forget his great games where he was heroic in some of Citys wins that were key to them winning titles. He hasnt been in the best of form this season but there is no way he is over rated. Plus he is up against 3 of the best attacking players in world football tonight in Messi, Neymar and Suarez.

Turtyturd

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

Anyone rate Pique any better?

Pique gets a harsh time of it on here because he left United for Barca...much better defender than he's given credit for.

ThunbergsAreGo

Gringo180 wrote: »

People are quick to forget his great games where he was heroic in some of Citys wins that were key to them winning titles. He hasnt been in the best of form this season but there is no way he is over rated. Plus he is up against 3 of the best attacking players in world football tonight in Messi, Neymar and Suarez.

I wouldnt hold tonight against him, but i think he gets away with alot becasue he is Kompany.

The Demichellis sending off last year agaisnt Barca, I think was Kompanys fault (just off the top of my head). He is human :cool:

He is good, very good in fact. Just not guarenteed starter in a world XI

Sheepy99

brevity wrote: »

Dont understand the Beckham comment tbh. Hard working player talented player imo, couldnt ever say he was overrated.

Here's how you understand it. Beckham is the first overrated player(in the poster's opinion) that came to mind. Simple really.

Can't say I agree with him though, those deliveries were too good.
There was an assist in the Euro2008 qualifying decider against Croatia that stuck out for me, unreal!

K4t

Dunno but Dimechelis is or at least was severely underrated. He's a superb footballer and reads the game incredibly well, better than Kompany imo, who relies more on his physical attributes.

Timmyctc

Turtyturd wrote: »

Pique gets a harsh time of it on here because he left United for Barca...much better defender than he's given credit for.

Thats not why he gets a hard time at all. He's been suspect for a few years and most fans would tell you that, Barca fans have told me that infact.

Kompany is a class defender. Getting "found out" against Barca doesn't mean he is no longer one of if not the best CB in the PL.

Strange night for this thread when he's up against the best attack in football

NIMAN

rarnes1 wrote: »

Strange night for this thread when he's up against the best attack in football

As the OP, I only started it because its not the first time in the last year or so that I have seen him really struggle, and not always against Barca.

I'd take Pique before Kompany. And imho Mascherano is a better CB than him too.

Kirby

Timmyctc wrote: »

Thats not why he gets a hard time at all. He's been suspect for a few years and most fans would tell you that, Barca fans have told me that infact.

Kompany is a class defender. Getting "found out" against Barca doesn't mean he is no longer one of if not the best CB in the PL.

Kompany gets "found out" against the likes of Burnley. He's overrated and always has been. And if he didn't have so many pals in the media, he'd have been rightfully picked apart for his many, many mistakes over the last few seasons. He's not a bad player by any means. But talk of him being the best CB in world are ridiculous. He wouldn't even make a top 20.

Paully D

My thoughts on him posted at the end of last season:

A very good defender for sure (and I think he seems to be a really nice bloke off the field) but the way a lot of people speak about him you would think he was a cross between Franz Beckenbauer and Franco Baresi.

IMO, for someone who is so highly rated, he seems to struggle a bit against the top level forwards, has a tendency for making needless silly/rash challenges, and is often (well, ever increasingly at least) found not being on the same wavelength as his defensive colleagues (stepping back/up at wrong times for example) which doesn't always get punished and therefore not highlighted.

Making the PFA Premier League 'Team of the Year' (among others) for the 2013/2014 season was the straw that broke the camels back for me. It was a complete and utter joke and proved it was based on reputation. Demichellis got a lot of stick last year (mostly it seems because he doesn't look like your stereotypical Premier League center half and had a somewhat difficult start) but he was much better than Kompany was yet was berated for much of the season. The first leg of the Barcelona game was a good example. Demichellis took a ridiculous amount of criticism for being sent off, yet it was a result of trying to rectify Kompany's mistake in the first place.

As I said, a very good player (don't get me wrong), but not quite as good as popular footballing opinion perceives him to be IMO.

Timmyctc

Kirby wrote: »

Kompany gets "found out" against the likes of Burnley. He's overrated and always has been. And if he didn't have so many pals in the media, he'd have been rightfully picked apart for his many, many mistakes over the last few seasons. He's not a bad player by any means. But talk of him being the best CB in world are ridiculous. He wouldn't even make a top 20.

Kirby

Ignore his frequent appearances on MOTD and Sky. Ignore the fact that when he has an absolute mare, they don't even mention it.

Yeah go on. Post a silly gif. So witty. :rolleyes:

eagle eye

Blue giant wrote: »

I'm not sure Beckham was really overrated. Just because he didn't go on mazy runs doesn't mean he wasn't a very good player. The best crosser of a ball and dead piece specialist I have ever seen. He was also a man for the big occasion.

Becks was a great player and if anybody is not sure about that then just go to his last full season with Real Madrid and look at his last two seasons there.

LuckyLloyd

I think that as the seasons roll by it becomes every more clear how out on his own John Terry is as the best EPL Center Back in history.

Kompany is a very good center back mind, just not an utterly exceptional one.

bucketybuck

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I think that as the seasons roll by it becomes every more clear how out on his own John Terry is as the best EPL Center Back in history.

Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell say hi.

Andersonisgod

bucketybuck wrote: »

Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell say hi.

John Terry replies "hi"

I think people are getting caught up with this being made after the Barca game, it isn't just about last night, Demichelis has generally performed better than him for a year now.

eagle eye

So you see a central defender make a mistake and you start quetioning how good he is. I think you have to look around him before you just decide that he is overrated.

When people started raving about him he had Nigel de Jong in front of him breaking up play. You look at other top defenders in recent times and you'll see that Terry has had a top defensive midfielder in front of him for most of his career. I personally think John Terry is the greatest central defender in my time watching football and that stretches back to the late 70's.

I think Vincent Kompany is the second best central defender in the Premier league today but he has had a lot of injuries over the last while and the defensive midfield cover has not been the best at City for the last couple of seasons. Demichelis is a tough as nails type player but he is very slow over five yards and he gets caught out a lot by that, this is going to affect the player playing alongside you too and lead to mistakes.

LuckyLloyd

bucketybuck wrote: »

Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell say hi.

Yeah, his longevity and consistency means he stands apart from those players (as good as they were), sorry.

corcaigh07

To answer the OP, I'd say most here would say he is a top defender AND overrated!

Iused2likebusts

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I think that as the seasons roll by it becomes every more clear how out on his own John Terry is as the best EPL Center Back in history.

Kompany is a very good center back mind, just not an utterly exceptional one.

I agree as much as I dislike him Terry is the best CB of the pl era. He is so good he even finds the time to try referee most of the games he is involved in. Kompany was excellent in his first couple of years but he has become quite injury prone which I think is taking its toil on his performances since then.

Nerdlingr

Kompany hasnt been great for about a year now. Riddled by injury and hasnt hit the same heights as he has previously. He was poor last night and he was poor when the two teams met last year as well...although Demichelis was made scapegoat until people realised how he was carrying both of them.

Skylinehead

He is overrated, no question. He has a lot of great attributes, he generally reads the game quite well, great leader, and is strong.

However, give him a quick pacy forward (or Nacho Monreal) and he's going to fall to pieces. See Arsenal, Liverpool last season, Barca twice, Fulham OG from memory, and there's definitely more. I'd have Demichelis over him this season and the second half of last season, no question.

CSF

bucketybuck wrote: »

Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell say hi.

Terry wins for sure

bucketybuck

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Yeah, his longevity and consistency means he stands apart from those players (as good as they were), sorry.

Longevity alone wouldn't enough to give him the mantle of best ever PL defender, it might give him an edge over Ledley King but not the other two.

And the argument doesn't hold water anyway. Longevity? Rio Ferdinand total league appearances 512, John Terry league appearances 451, Sol Campbell 504. He played less PL games than either of them.

Consistency? Rio Ferdinand selected 6 times in PFA team of the season, John Terry selected 3 times, Sol Campbell 3 times. I don't think I even need to compare Ferdinands trophy haul to Terrys if you want to talk consistency.

You can prefer Terry to Ferdinand/Campbell if you wish, but the facts do not support any claim that his longevity or consistency was better than theirs.

eagle eye

bucketybuck wrote: »

Longevity alone wouldn't enough to give him the mantle of best ever PL defender, it might give him an edge over Ledley King but not the other two.

And the argument doesn't hold water anyway. Longevity? Rio Ferdinand total league appearances 512, John Terry league appearances 451, Sol Campbell 504. He played less PL games than either of them.

Consistency? Rio Ferdinand selected 6 times in PFA team of the season, John Terry selected 3 times, Sol Campbell 3 times. I don't think I even need to compare Ferdinands trophy haul to Terrys if you want to talk consistency.

You can prefer Terry to Ferdinand/Campbell if you wish, but the facts do not support any claim that his longevity or consistency was better than theirs.

He was and still is better any way you look at it.

He has been a team leader on top of being the greatest central defender in the Premier league era.

LuckyLloyd

bucketybuck wrote: »

Longevity alone wouldn't enough to give him the mantle of best ever PL defender, it might give him an edge over Ledley King but not the other two.

And the argument doesn't hold water anyway. Longevity? Rio Ferdinand total league appearances 512, John Terry league appearances 451, Sol Campbell 504. He played less PL games than either of them.

Consistency? Rio Ferdinand selected 6 times in PFA team of the season, John Terry selected 3 times, Sol Campbell 3 times. I don't think I even need to compare Ferdinands trophy haul to Terrys if you want to talk consistency.

You can prefer Terry to Ferdinand/Campbell if you wish, but the facts do not support any claim that his longevity or consistency was better than theirs.

Hey, you're entitled to think whatever you like. Terry has been at the elite level very consistently since 2001. Campbell probably had a decade at that high level and Ferdinand's level dropped during the last few years at Utd. As is always the case, trophy haul is a fairly irrelevant way to judge a single player.

I get it, you're a Utd fan and Terry is very hateable. You are entitled to ignore how tremendous he's been (and still is!!).

stiffler123

Better than any current PL defender apart from Terry, top defender and great captain too. Koscielny isn't far behind him.

bucketybuck

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Hey, you're entitled to think whatever you like. Terry has been at the elite level very consistently since 2001. Campbell probably had a decade at that high level and Ferdinand's level dropped during the last few years at Utd. As is always the case, trophy haul is a fairly irrelevant way to judge a single player.

I get it, you're a Utd fan and Terry is very hateable. You are entitled to ignore how tremendous he's been (and still is!!).

A disappointing response, my post had nothing whatsoever to do with being a United fan or hating John Terry. It looked at the facts, while in response I just get vague statements that simply repeat the original claim.

"John Terry played longer and was more consistent"
"But he didn't, the facts say he played less than they did and won less individual awards?"
"He was just better any way you look at it".

Par for the course in this forum I guess.

Back to the OP, I'm in the overrated camp for Kompany. In my mind its not just one poor season, its now a few seasons where he hasn't played particularly well, his consistency levels simply haven't matched the levels of the aforementioned Terry/Ferdinand. The disappointed thing is that I would still take him over a lot of other defenders, the quality in the position really is poor at the minute.

GavRedKing

Lets look at when Rio joined Utd in 2002.

Rios played 312 league games for Utd and 9 for QPR so far this year, Terry same period has played 384, want to throw in the 2 years before that with Leeds, Rio is on 397 JT is on 439.

No point comparing goal scoring really, Terry also was part of the greatest defence in the EPL during Joses 1st season.

John Terry is also, at 34 is performing much better than Ferdinand was at a similar age and hasnt looked like declining as rapidly as Rio has towards his last 2 or so years with Utd.

LuckyLloyd

bucketybuck wrote: »

A disappointing response, my post had nothing whatsoever to do with being a United fan or hating John Terry. It looked at the facts, while in response I just get vague statements that simply repeat the original claim.

"John Terry played longer and was more consistent"
"But he didn't, the facts say he played less than they did and won less individual awards?"
"He was just better any way you look at it".

Par for the course in this forum I guess

Rio Ferdinand is over two years older than Terry and Campbell is 40. Pointing out that Terry has made less league appearances than they have doesn't really matter in terms of who has had the better overall Premiership career. Terry was longer coming into the first team at Chelsea for obvious reasons, Ferdinand broke into a comparatively weaker West Ham side and is also continuing to notch up league appearances as a liability at QPR.

In terms of individual awards, Terry hasn't been named in a PFA Team of the year since 2006. That is more a damning indictment of the criteria for selecting same than any commentary on his performance imo. But Terry was PFA player of the season (Ferdinand never was); named UEFA Defender of the year three times (Ferdinand never was); and named in the UEFA Team of the year four times (Ferdinand never was). Three of those UEFA Team appearances came AFTER his last PFA Team of the year appearance.

Finally, in terms of trophies I could say Terry has one more European trophy than Ferdinand has but ultimately Terry has been a rock for a Chelsea team that have consistently competed for honours over the last decade. I don't think the odd extra league or cup here or there is any material point to differentiate the two.

You used the wrong facts, so you got the response you did.

RayCon

Gringo180 wrote: »

Class defender imo going through a bad patch. Injuries havent helped his cause all the same but he is still one of the best defenders in Europe on his day.

I'd agree with this.

bucketybuck

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

You used the wrong facts, so you got the response you did.

By wrong you of course mean that I used the facts you didn't like.

You are the one that said longevity meant Terry was the better EPL defender, and yet now league appearances don't matter in terms of the overall Premier league career. Ferdinand is older, so longevity isn't as important now?

You are the one that said EPL, and yet now its Uefa awards and European trophies that matter most?

And that Terry has less PFA awards can only mean the voting for the PFA awards is flawed, I mean, how can you argue logic like that!

As I said, you can like who you want all you want, but why not try to be a little bit objective about it.

rob316

He was outstanding the year they won the first league, a player I was seriously jealous that city had, definitely dropped off since then.

Had a bit of a mare at Anfield last season too played a big part in Sterling and Coutinho's winner which could of cost them the title.
Still a top defender but he doesn't like to play against pace.

eagle eye

bucketybuck wrote: »

By wrong you of course mean that I used the facts you didn't like.

You are the one that said longevity meant Terry was the better EPL defender, and yet now league appearances don't matter in terms of the overall Premier league career. Ferdinand is older, so longevity isn't as important now?

You are the one that said EPL, and yet now its Uefa awards and European trophies that matter most?

And that Terry has less PFA awards can only mean the voting for the PFA awards is flawed, I mean, how can you argue logic like that!

As I said, you can like who you want all you want, but why not try to be a little bit objective about it.

I think you either are failing to comprehend what he said or are just trying to break away from it.

From what I've read he was referring to Terry's longevity at an elite level, not just longevity as in length in the league or games played.

bucketybuck

eagle eye wrote: »

From what I've read he was referring to Terry's longevity at an elite level, not just longevity as in length in the league or games played.

Which clearly is just going to be assessed as "Terry was elite for longer because I say so".

eagle eye

bucketybuck wrote: »

Which clearly is just going to be assessed as "Terry was elite for longer because I say so".

But Terry has been in the elite class for a long, long time. He still is.

He already explained this in one of his posts. Campbell was not an elite player his last two years at Arsenal and he played nearly 100 games after that for Portsmouth.

Ferdinand as he explained was starting at West Ham before he was at the elite level and was very poor at United for the last couple of years and now he is with QPR where he has been awful.

Campbell had nine or ten seasons as an elite player, Ferdinand maybe eleven but Terry is up on 15 seasons as an elite defender.

PhlegmyMoses

Ferdinand was not very poor for United in his last couple of years. His last year was awful, but he was 35 and destryoed with injuries by that stage.

Terry's best period was Mourinho's first stint at Chelsea. I remember thinking that he was the best young defender I had ever seen back around 2005.

He had a few so-so years after Mourinho left where it looked like his legs were gone and in the last year and a half has returned to some tremendous form in a system that massively protects against any of his deficiencies.

Terry is a great defender. Ferdinand was a great defender. Only on a football forum could people make a definitive call either way and make out like somebody else is mental for thinking otherwise.

For me, Ferdinand has always been my favourite defender. I prefer his playstyle to the likes of Vidic and Terry.