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Top 10 SWFC Players of the last 10 years (Owlstalk Ratings)


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1 hour ago, mcmigo said:

My bet is we have a few wild cards in the top 5.  My guess top 5 will include these 5.

 

Hector

venacio

Hutchinson

thorniley

westwood

 

and the bottom 5

 

nuhiu

reach

harris

matias

rhodes

 

Defenders rarely get stinking marks , unless we take a walloping which is rare:  meanwhile up the park if a player like Harris messes up say 4 crosses he will get pelters.

 

Yes, there are some of the usual suspects in there, but there is at least one wildcard player that no-one has mentioned yet.

 

As for the worst ever players, I think I might start a separate thread for that, but with the qualification period reduced to just 10 games. The think about being awful is, it is hard to get to 25 games as you will eventually get dropped (with one or two honourable exceptions in recent years).

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11 hours ago, DoesJackHunt said:

This is good and I agree with lots of it…….but how can you leave Bannan out when he’s without question been our best player for the last 10 years.

He’s not only easily our best player over the last decade but also incredibly consistent (maybe not in the big games) and rarely injured. I 100% get that you want Hutch and Lee in but you can’t drop Bannan for them, you just have to shoe horn those 2 in to a 442 if that’s what your doing. 

Stick Lee at right back for Buxton or Hutch at Centre Half for Hector but you can’t drop Bannan. It’s just rude! 
 

I suppose it's because I don't think that he has been our best player in the last 10 years. I didn't put Lee at RB because I think Lee has been our best central  midfielder in the last 10 years. I didn't put Hutch at CH bevause I think he's been our best defensive midfielder in the last 10 years, albeit his top form lasted only 24 months. I think Bannan struggles in a 4-4-2 against a powerful midfield. I agree that Bannan is consistent and also rarely injured, but think back to when Carlos was getting is playing our best football, often it was with Bannan moved out wide. 

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Just now, onlyonedavidhirst said:

I suppose it's because I don't think that he has been our best player in the last 10 years. I didn't put Lee at RB because I think Lee has been our best central  midfielder in the last 10 years. I didn't put Hutch at CH bevause I think he's been our best defensive midfielder in the last 10 years, albeit his top form lasted only 24 months. I think Bannan struggles in a 4-4-2 against a powerful midfield. I agree that Bannan is consistent and also rarely injured, but think back to when Carlos was getting is playing our best football, often it was with Bannan moved out wide. 

No it wasn’t, he played him out wide first half and in the middle second half and he came into his own second half.

I love Lee and Hutch but Bannan would be the first name in a 442 midfield over past 10 years for me. Fair enough though 

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Is this going to go on the average rating?

 

there are players that I thought was good but maybe didn’t play as much games or came in and was excellent for us briefly ( hector comes to mind ) 

 

then there’s players that average rating maybe not being as high due to being played out of position or only playing a bit part like as a sub that have been excellent in the role both on and off the pitch for us I can think of Palmer, semedo, attey in this bracket 

 

whats the criteria?

is it talent, 

key performances 

amount of games 

squad contributions

 

its hard not to put Palmer in a top 10 players of the last 10 years. Mr consistent, plays everywhere you put him 

gets in just about every match day squad over that period 

 

however for talent and spectator value Forestieri trumps him every time 

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3 minutes ago, DoesJackHunt said:

No it wasn’t, he played him out wide first half and in the middle second half and he came into his own second half.

I love Lee and Hutch but Bannan would be the first name in a 442 midfield over past 10 years for me. Fair enough though 

Home v Brighton in the play off semi it was Lee and Lopez in the middle, Bannan wide. Same for the return leg. Then in the final he brought Hutch in for Bannan. So for our 3 biggest games of that season Bannan wasn't even 3rd choice centre mid. I know that's maybe being harsh, but that's what I meant about Carlos not picking him in the centre when we were at our best

 

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8 minutes ago, onlyonedavidhirst said:

Home v Brighton in the play off semi it was Lee and Lopez in the middle, Bannan wide. Same for the return leg. Then in the final he brought Hutch in for Bannan. So for our 3 biggest games of that season Bannan wasn't even 3rd choice centre mid. I know that's maybe being harsh, but that's what I meant about Carlos not picking him in the centre when we were at our best

 

Generally that season though, if it wasn’t  working, that’s what we did and it worked.

look I think that Bannan is a significantly better player than Lee and Hutch anyway to be honest. 

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41 minutes ago, fpowl said:

Is this going to go on the average rating?

 

Yes, purely on average rating for the games they played. So yes, for these ratings a brief excellent career (with at least 25 games) would be ranked over a solid player for 250 games.

 

Although there are definitely some players who have played well over 100 games for us that have managed to maintain a position in the top 10.

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1 hour ago, DoesJackHunt said:

Generally that season though, if it wasn’t  working, that’s what we did and it worked.

look I think that Bannan is a significantly better player than Lee and Hutch anyway to be honest. 

Ive no issue with anyone thinking that way and you may be right. Football is definitely a game of opinions. I love watching him, but I think that he is less of a team player than the other two (I realise many won't think that but I think at times he doesn't play to the team structure such as when he constantly wanted to come back for the "quarterback" position then ping 60 yard glory balls upfield that rarely worked), plus he offers far less defensively (which if he's part of a 2 in midfield we need that) and when you look at his goal output he's only ever scored more than 2 league goals in a season on one occasion before this year, which is disappointing for such an attacking player. 

If I was on my local park picking a central midfielder to play alongside me and I had Lee and Bannan at the very best to chose from, I'd pick Lee every time. He had, in my opinion, a much more rounded game, scored more, intercepted more, tackled more, was better in the air, got in both boxes more, in fact I'd say the only things that Bannan was better with was picking a slide rule pass, shooting from outside the area  and delivering a cross. I don't want to seem like I'm not a Bannan fan, I am, but I think we rate him higher than we should. Almost everyone watching the Sunderland games said Pritchard looked the better player (though we don't know how injured Bannan was) but to be fair to Bannan his pass to Johnson for our goal was exactly the sort of pass he is absolutely superb at playing. 

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32 minutes ago, onlyonedavidhirst said:

Ive no issue with anyone thinking that way and you may be right. Football is definitely a game of opinions. I love watching him, but I think that he is less of a team player than the other two (I realise many won't think that but I think at times he doesn't play to the team structure such as when he constantly wanted to come back for the "quarterback" position then ping 60 yard glory balls upfield that rarely worked), plus he offers far less defensively (which if he's part of a 2 in midfield we need that) and when you look at his goal output he's only ever scored more than 2 league goals in a season on one occasion before this year, which is disappointing for such an attacking player. 

If I was on my local park picking a central midfielder to play alongside me and I had Lee and Bannan at the very best to chose from, I'd pick Lee every time. He had, in my opinion, a much more rounded game, scored more, intercepted more, tackled more, was better in the air, got in both boxes more, in fact I'd say the only things that Bannan was better with was picking a slide rule pass, shooting from outside the area  and delivering a cross. I don't want to seem like I'm not a Bannan fan, I am, but I think we rate him higher than we should. Almost everyone watching the Sunderland games said Pritchard looked the better player (though we don't know how injured Bannan was) but to be fair to Bannan his pass to Johnson for our goal was exactly the sort of pass he is absolutely superb at playing. 
 

No I get it, it’s great to discuss, I equally don’t want to come across that I’m not a Lee and Hutch fan either.

But those “slight flaws” in Bannans game, I just don’t really see, I’ve read a lot say similar on here but I don’t see it myself. For me he’s technically light years already of the rest and the rest of his game is very solid. 
Lee was brilliant and his stats were great and he was technically excellent. He had loads of ability as well but he was less naturally gifted. Brilliantly coached but not as naturally technically gifted. Nano was closer to Bannan in that respect, even better to be fair. Nando had other floors for me though. 
 

Bannan number one for me personally, quite easily, Lee number 3 after Hooper and I think I put Hutch at 6. 

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Top 3

 

Bannan

Hooper

Fletcher

 

next 7

 

Lee

Lees

Loovens

Wallace

Nuhiu

Luongo

Hector

 

If I could bend the rules I’d have a category for ‘The Fernando Forestieri award for Top player when he played on the wing but hated him when he played up front’, but I’m not going to reveal who I’d nominate.

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10 hours ago, onlyonedavidhirst said:

Home v Brighton in the play off semi it was Lee and Lopez in the middle, Bannan wide. Same for the return leg. Then in the final he brought Hutch in for Bannan. So for our 3 biggest games of that season Bannan wasn't even 3rd choice centre mid. I know that's maybe being harsh, but that's what I meant about Carlos not picking him in the centre when we were at our best

 


You missed off….and by taking Bannan out of the middle Carlos wasted our best player and left us little or no chance to create.

 

On a bored evening, re-watch the Brighton home semi and watch what happens to our performance once Carlos brings Bannan central after ~ 65 minutes and pushes Forestieri wide left. We were twice the side when Carlos did this.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Holmowl said:


You missed off….and by taking Bannan out of the middle Carlos wasted our best player and left us little or no chance to create.

 

On a bored evening, re-watch the Brighton home semi and watch what happens to our performance once Carlos brings Bannan central after ~ 65 minutes and pushes Forestieri wide left. We were twice the side when Carlos did this.

 

 

Yeah but at that point Brighton were tired, they'd made all 3 subs (from memory) and we were completely dominating the game. I always held the view that Fessi had to play wide left, not up front, to be most effective, but that's a different discussion. If we'd have started with Bannan central at home to Brighton I'm not sure we'd have been at the same point at 65 minutes to do what we did. 

After Hull, a large number of Wednesday fans all said we needed a strong powerful central midfielder to get us up to the Premiership. At the time, most viewed it as a player to play alongside Lee, with Bannan being 1st change or out wide in certain games that didn't suit Fessi. What we actually did was not sign such a player (think we got in Abdi and Jones at various points who weren't the types we needed - though it's hard to say with Abdi as we never really saw enough to know about his game) and we started playing Fessi more central at times.

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16 hours ago, Holmowl said:

 

If I could bend the rules I’d have a category for ‘The Fernando Forestieri award for Top player when he played on the wing but hated him when he played up front’, but I’m not going to reveal who I’d nominate.

 

Is it Marco Matias?

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15 hours ago, onlyonedavidhirst said:

I always held the view that Fessi had to play wide left, not up front, to be most effective

 

Effective attacking, yes, but you always have to balance attack and defence.  I remember a game at QPR with Fessi on the left, he never tracked back, and we were killed down that side.  You can afford an attacking player one side if you're winning your battles and doing well in midfield, but when it's even you can't afford to leave defensive holes.

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On 28/05/2022 at 08:29, Emerson Thome said:

Need something to keep you cold over those long, warm summer months?

 

I've een a few threads about best SWFC players in recent days, so....

 

Over the next few weeks I will post who Owlstalk posters have voted as our best player over the past 10* years (well, 9 year actually, but that didn't sound as good) in the match threads, counting down from 10 to 1.

 

The ratings will include all games from the 2013/14 season to 2021/22.

 

I'll only include players who have played 25 games or more, so if you want to have a go first at who your favourite / top 3 / top 10 players are first, here are the players in the running:

 

25 SWFC appearances or more (alphabetical order):

BANNAN, Barry

BORNER, Julian

BOYD, George

BUXTON, Lewis

COKE, Giles

DAWSON, Cameron

DELE-BASHIRU, Fisayo

DUNKLEY, Chey

FLETCHER, Steven

FORESTIERI, Fernando

FOX, Morgan

GREGORY, Lee

HARRIS, Kadeem

HECTOR, Michael

HELAN, Jeremy

HOOPER, Gary

HUNT, Jack

HUTCHINSON, Sam

IORFA, Dominic

JOAO, Lucas

JOHNSON, Marvin

JONES, David

KIRKLAND, Chris

LEE, Kieran

LEES, Tom

LOOVENS, Glenn

LUONGO, Massimo

MAGHOMA, Jacques

MAGUIRE, Chris

MATIAS, Marco

MATTOCK, Joe

MAY, Stevie

McGUGAN, Lewis

MURPHY, Jacob

NUHIU, Adthe

ODUBAJO, Moses

PALMER, Liam

PATERSON, Callum

PEACOCK-FARRELL, Bailey

PELUPESSY, Joey

PUDIL, Daniel

REACH, Adam

RHODES, Jordan

SASSO, Vincent

SEMEDO, Jose

THORNILEY, Jordan

VAN AKEN, Joost

VENANCIO, Frederico

WALLACE, Ross

WESTWOOD, Keiren

WILDSMITH, Joe

WINDASS, Josh

 

Post your thoughts below, I'll start the countdown next week.

 

Okay, I'll post the first player in the countdown in a couple of days time.

 

I actually just realised I missed a player out of the list above with 25 appearances. I doubt it will change your top 10's, but just in case, the missing player was:

 

ZAYATTE, Kamil

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Think Bannan best player from last 10 years with how many games he has played and comfortably most influential player currently.

 

One player not mentioned in thread from lot 10 years is Michail Antonio, probably as he only just gets in and player just a season but gone on to be a key player for West Ham who have played in Europe and top 6 finish.

 

Probably on talent Forestieri but was a player badly let down by an attitude of a stroppy teenager too much of the time.

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9 hours ago, WalworthOwl said:

 

Effective attacking, yes, but you always have to balance attack and defence.  I remember a game at QPR with Fessi on the left, he never tracked back, and we were killed down that side.  You can afford an attacking player one side if you're winning your battles and doing well in midfield, but when it's even you can't afford to leave defensive holes.

Fessi got worse and worse at tracking back. I put him in my team based on the best players at the peak of their form. No way would I pick Fessi based on some of his less interested performances. To be fair to Carlos, when Fessi first started for us - predominantly wide left, he had Wallace who could come inside to allow Bannan or Lee or Hutch to fill the gap that Fessi left. That, for me, was when we really were at our best. We had 2 from João, Hooper, Nuihu up top and Fessi cutting in. Fessi played for Watford wide left and it's based on those performances that we signed him. Playing him up top, for me, was part of the reason we didn't get promoted automatically in year 2 under Carlos (and I wouldn't have played them as a 2 against Hull) because the better CHs could mark him more easily. Whilst him and Hooper were probably our best 2 technically, it meant we lacked height up top and both liked to drop into the hole so we were often left with insufficient forward players and it made our attacking more lethargic. 

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