Re: Serie A Thread (Inter crowned champions)
well mate, it can be nice to disagree sometimes.. i mean, what's the point in having conversations if we always share the same opinions
talking about billy, first i got to say 1 thing. By comparing him to nesta, honestly i went too far, that's true. there was also a big contradiction in my statements, as i also said billy is among my 20 favourites italian cb of the last 20 years..... while if he would have been on the same level of nesta.... he would have been among my favourites
"5" cbs :mrgreen: ).
nontheless, i really can't consider him just a decent player. a "decent" cb wouldn't have played regular for milan for 8 years. Costacurta was one the "Sacchi's Immortals". he was part (an important part) of the most famous defensive line in history (maldini, costacurta, tassotti, baresi). it's hard to remember what a great player he was, coz we're talking about a lot of time ago...... and the fact he continued to play since last year doesn't help.... coz when we try to think to billy, our mind goes to the player we saw in the past few years (wich is a natural reaction). but the player we saw in the last 8 years is very, very, very distant from the "real" costacurta (from 26 to 31 years old)..just like the maldini we see today is not even the shadow of the maldini we were use to see till 8 years ago.
he was also a member of capello's defensive line. And Capello is not the kind of guy who adapt himself.. if capello wouldn't have consider billy as a defender worthy to play with maldini, tassotti and baresi, u can be sure he would have written him off.
moreover he played 60 matches (if i do remember well) with the italian national team...... u don't play as a cb for italy if you're not special. let me do a simple, silly, but effective comparison: if u play regular for brazil as advanced midfielder, then u're probably among the greatests in the world in your position, coz brazil has a great "school" in that role. the same way, if u play as cb for italy......
last year i heard a zaccheroni interview. he said costacurta was
the most underestimated player he ever trained.
well i really agreed with him.
i think he was underestimated coz he always played with some of the greatest defenders in history. Nobody could deny maldini, baresi and tassotti had something more than billy...... but afterall, they had something (better saying "a lot") more than anybody else :mrgreen: . it must be hard to rise from the ranks, when u play with the greatests
and there's also one other reason imo why is was so underestimated.
his phisique. he looked everything but a central back :mrgreen: . he isn't tall, he isnt' strong, he isn't fast.... he doesn't even look like a football player :lmao: .
but he had an unbelieavable timing and position. i never saw billy running..... but actually he never needed to run (at least when he played as cb), coz
he was always in the right spot at the right time (and that's the most important thing for a cb).
bringing to an end this looong (and maybe boring) post, i'd say that is hard, when we're not talking about pure legends (like maldini, nesta, baresi, tassotti or cannavaro) to "classify" a player, and probably personal likes become an important factor in ours judgements. we could say that,
if we consider the whole continental scenario, billy was a "border-line" player. he was one step behind the greatests..... but sure he was "something special" (as i said before, u can't play at that level, with his phisique, if u're not something special).
And if we consider just the italian scenario, then he can be truly considered a top class defender
so clearely he wasn't just a "decent cb"..... at least according to my personal likes
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