Two very talentented footballers of our generation. Their ball control, ability to create something our of nothing and get their clubs out of trouble was nothing short of magical. Both players have had a lot of success with their respective clubs, and played alongside some of the best players in the world, likewise and International level. Very little separates the two, however, they have their strengths and weaknesses.





Nedved is definitely the weaker of the two in terms of natural footballing ability. He often said himself that he isn't the best dribbler nor the best player, however his eagerness to work hard for the team and desire to improve on his weaknesses are what made him such a world class player. Being relatively short for his age, his dribbling and work rate were fantastic, and is one of the hardest workers on the pitch.

For Nedved, 2003 was a telling year. Crowned European Footballer of the Year after his outstanding performances for Juventus in the Champions League especially, despite missing the final due to two yellow cards in the semi-final leg, no-one can deny how influential he was in that side going all the way.

Moving to Juventus from Lazio not only gave him exposure and more recognition for his talent, but also the ability to perform on the highest stage at club level. At Lazio he was never considered as great as he was at Juventus, especially not by non-Lazio fans. As Lazio at the time were somewhat struggling due to financial reasons despite the success they had he was able to move on.



Czechoslovakian Championship:
1992/1993

Czech Republic Championships:
1993/1994 - 1994/1995

Italian Cup:
1997/1998 - 1999/2000

Serie A:
1999/2000, 2001/2002, 2002/2003





Robert Pires is probably one of the most adaptable midfielders of this era, his ability to play across the park, create from anywhere and assist made him one of Wenger's shrewdest buys from Marseille. Despite struggling at first, his progression as a player was obvious.

He came to London to try and reply Marc Overmars, who was a huge favourite at Arsenal and an extremely talented player, Pires had big shoes to fill. His first season was realtively unsuccessfully, however in his second he helped Arsenal to their Premiership title, however it was the following seasons where Pires flourished as a player and became integral to the starting XI. His goal scoring record, making him at the time one of the highest goal scoring midfielders in the league and his assist record, were astounding for a left midfielder.

Currently plying his trade at Villarreal, Pires is a shadow of his formerself. Injuries have disrupted his career, and as often seen before, Wenger was clever to allow him to leave as he knew how much he could get from Pires should he have stayed any longer.



French League Cup winner:
1996/1997



FA Premier League:
2001/2002, 2003/2004

FA Cup:
2002, 2003, 2005



World Cup:
1998

European Championship:
2000

Who would you consider to be a bigger footballing legend?

From the two, at their peak, who was the better player and in your opinion a starter at your club?

Pires's goal scoring record separates him from other left midfielders, however in terms of their performances and abilities overall, who would you consider the better player?

Any one liners nonsense will be deleted, this forum is set for intellectual debate, and we should work together to achieve that. Please put some thought in to your post, and give reasons. And please please, try to be as less biased as possible. If you don't feel you can give an evaluated opinion on both these players, then don't. And if someone has a different opinion to you, please respect that, and let's not got into any disagreements about the different leagues of the allegiance of the posters, it's unnecessary and just drags down the discussion.

EDIT: Sentence fixed.

Nedved is clear winner ... in many categories i,e, Ball control, dribbling, header, passing and vision. Nedved is also a very "complete" midfielder as he has a decent skill in defense (much better than Pires). The only areas that Pires has better than Nedved are:

1- Shooting with precision (long or short)
2- Goals nose (be at right place and right time)

shit man I just realised this is a really bad idea about this quality posting shit. i seriously dont even know why I come here anymore. fuck this.

Not really adding to the debate but I disagree here. Pires is the reason why Villareal is doing so well this season in the Liga. He has hit an amazing form once again and he definitely isn't a shadow of his formerself right now.

excately. I dont see the point in this stupid quality posts rule thing especially if for one people cant give proper facts.

edit: how the f*** is lazio not succesful in the late 90's. Lazio never struggled in the 90's. what you wrote about nedved is totally wrong. for a mod who is asking everyone to post quality, you just made 2 BIG mistakes in ur opening post.

anyways im off, i'll miss u all.

Did we really have to start another Pires discussion. I thought we all agreed that Pires topic was the one plus point from the forum crash. Pires 7 is going to have a field day here

Anyways if im really honest i would be lying if i said i watched Nedved play. Dont get me wrong ive seen him play alot of games but not consistently enough like i have with Pires so my opinion would obviously be a bit biased to Pires. Pires in full flow was just phenomenal to watch and his partnership with Henry was one of the most dangerous the i have ever watched. He could do everything, dribble, pass, cross, shoot but what made him stand out was his awareness. He knew when to pass and when not to and like i said earlier that partnership with Henry was just fucking scary.

just one more thing too add, like you said bubmeister, you hardly watched nedved play alot. it is good u admitted it.

because i for one know that ALOT (95%) of the people will instantly say that nedved and figo are the best wingers without actually even watching them play at all except for a few mins on youtube. it is just like how everyone declares that pele and maradona as the best players in the world without watching them.. watch nedved and figo week in week out, and I can tell you that you will be more impressed with giggs and pires. nothing that nedved/figo did, pires cannot do.

for the record, pires is definately better than nedved. nedved is overhyped and overrataed because he plays for an italian club and gets more media publicity and nice magazine deals. same with figo.

pires is massively underrated and is definately better than figo and nedved.

Even though I agree with most of what you've said, the part is bold is completely ridiculous. Maybe you've said it on the spur of he moment, at least I hope so, but that's uncalled for. Nedved is quite a fine player, a bit overhyped yes, but still a brilliant player. Same goes for Figo. You've made them out to be utter fools there who're not even fit enough to play for York City.

I honestly feel that Pires at his peak in Arsenal, where he won the Player of the Year award, he was sensational, compared to that, he isn't as good as he was then. Obviously that was his peak and he may not be as good as he was then, but that was where the comparisons was made. I agree this season he has been doing much better, but Villarreal IMO are a team that strive on team work, no way are they just doing well because of one player.

I never said Lazio in the '90's were struggling, I said at the time he left, although it may not have been worded right. We all know how much money was spent and Lazio needed to balance the books hence why players were allowed to leave. We all know how amazing Lazio were under Sven.

You've been told plenty of times how to get a thread running, if you want, open one yourself. But with one sentence it won't work. Just because we have differences of opinion, i.e., in Pires's current form and his form at Arsenal, and the reasons behind Nedved leaving doesn't make it wrong. It's a discussion form, you are more than welcome to dispute it just like Edwardo did. No need to get all wound up about everything

Anyway, iv always said that pires in his prime was the best winger in the world. He give arsenal everything that a winger could give. He was a big game player, he scored lots of goals and he adapts to different positions on the pitch. He was also a good play maker. A lot of the time he would go to the middle of the park to link up play with bergkamp or Patrick Vieira and get the team flowing with fast and direct football.

His partnership with A.cole down the left hand side destroyed teams for years. Everyone knew they would go down that left and link up all the time but they just couldn’t deal with it. I always thought Pires brought the best out of A.Cole as he give him the space to get forward by dragging one or two players onto him and giving the ball to A.cole who was good at going into the penetrating areas.

I’ve always thought pires was underrated and he doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his years at arsenal.

Thierry Henry always got more credit but I also thought that Pires got the best ouf Henry aswell. So many of Henry’s goals were set up by Pires.

He brought the best out of everyone in the team going forward and when he wasn’t there you could tell we did miss him.

He was also a great consistent player by turning up for the smaller games but also the big games. Something a lot of arsenal players didn’t do IMO. Henry was one of them in (some games).

A lot of people also forget that Pires scored the FA cup winning goal in a game in which we never got to grips with against southhampton. He also lead the side to a league title during the 2001-2002 season and giving the rest of the players inspiration.

I could dare to say that Pires was more important to arsenal than Henry. When Pires left and Henry stayed on, Henry never seemed to be the same player again and when Henry lost both A.Cole and Pires, he just didn’t perform like he used to.

His goal scoring and assist stats speak for themselves. He was just a wonderful player and there was a time when Pires was getting the most credit in the arsenal team but Henry started to become such a good player and he never seemed to get the credit he deserved IMO from the english media and also europe. Why he wasn’t up for any major european awards is beyond me. He was clearly one of the best players in europe in his prime.

He didn’t drop his form when he was out of his prime. He kept scoring goals and helping the team out.

I can’t think of a type of goal pires hasn’t scored. He has scored every type of goal from free kicks to Long range shots, tap ins, curlers into the bottom corner, heading. He was a good header of the ball aswell. He didn’t get enough credit for that. He scored one good header against chelsea in the champions league and also another against everton which was a great header.

He was our best player for over 3-4 seasons IMO.

When we needed a goal he was the player to find it for us. So many examples of this, liverpool at highbury when he got us to 2-2 which was vital to us going on to win the title.

The guy always destroyed tottenham. They couldn’t deal with him every time they faced. The best big game player we had.

Pires is a Legend and should go down as one in english football.

Just one to add that the Pires-Vieira-Henry combination was world class. The double moving triangle one touch pass tactic that the french trio executed against Liverpool was phenomenol in 2004/2005. I dont need to say anymore, just watch Vieira's goal.

Pires was massively underrated. few examples
Pires also was good at defending, dragging players away and playmaking. in 2003/2004 away vs chelsea, Pires tackled makelele, passed to bergkamp. Pires then made a run to the left of the penalty box, and dragged terry and gallas with him. chelsea left a big gap in the middle and bergkamp passed to Vieira to have a 1v1 and score. this is the kind of examples where pires is definatly underrated. all the commentators where praising bergkamp for his through ball, but never even mentioned pires's tackle or important run.

Also when arsenal beat liverpool 4-2 in 2003/2004, everyone was praising henry's hattrick. pires was massively underrated, when he was the one that tackled hamann, and a split second later did a 40 yard long ball right to henry's feet to equalise. And at 2-1 down, Pires was the one that popped into the box, shrugged of Jamie Carragher and scored past Dudek. Those 2 moments that pires did are definately more important than henry's solo goal or hattrick. without pires there, arsenal would have lost.

Also, Vieira's finishing is world class. I dont see why everyone is saying that vieira is not a world class finisher. he is the complete midfielder.

He is a fine player, but the part in bold was in reference that alot of people say that figo/nedved are the best wingers in the world. People say figo/nedved are the best in the world is because of they play for bigger clubs who get more publicty and more magazine deals. that is what i meant.
inever said they arent good.

all i am saying, as backed up from keith's wonderful post, is that pires is definately at least on par with figo, nedved. and in my opinion, better.

summary is, figo and nedved get too much hype from the media, hence boosting their reputation and leading to people saying that figo/nedved are better than pires without even watching figo/nedved play.

and big example is that figo at inter milan is less impressive than pires at villareal. figo is piss poor at inter milan had went the season goaless i think 2 seasons back. seriously no one criticises him but yet when pires had a mini dry patch he gets attacked badly by the media, pires at villareal looks far more impressive than figo at inter.



Pires was world class in 2003/2004, better goalscorer after injury. 3 goals and 3 assists in 5-6 games at the end of last season from Pires? that made villareal win like 5 straight matches in a row. pires single handedly won the match for villareal against barca this season also. i dont need to give any more examples or post any stuff about pires because i already have done it for 6-7 months and am fedup.

i dont know what you said with the lazio thing but you edited your quote from the original one, and the orginal one had factual errors. something about lazio not being successful in the 90's and led to nedved being sold. btw nedved was already considered world class at lazio.

wound up? seriously do you think everyone has time to write a good opening post and waste their time on a forum? i dont. and please, everyone was enjoying the pires vs figo vs giggs debate much more than the figo vs giggs and pires vs nedved debate.

this thread and the figo vs giggs one wont go further than 3 pages, and as proven, is already going to a much slower pace than the pires figo giggs one.

all i am saying is, this forum has gone beyond the limits with its quality posting stuff... alot of good threads have been closed down.




Wonderful post, really wonderful. everything you said sums it up,especially the bold part. how pires isnt up for world player of the year is beyond me. nedved, figo where hardly impressive at all (compared to pires0 in 2003/2004 2001/2002 etc... and yet they got more awards/votes than pires.

i must also add that pires scored 23 goals in 45 games (missed 4) during the unbeaten run. that is world class.

Yea his peak was at Arsenal no doubt, simply immense and breath taking player he was, but some people call his form this season at Villarreal his "second peak", he's doing that well. I never said Villarreal only rely on Pires, just that Pires helped the majority part of Villareal's success this season so far. Of course the likes of Cazorla, Rossi, etc are doing amazing as well.

Nedved, Golden Ball winner for a reason.

Quite probably, however the reason I feel his time at Arsenal was his peak was because at the time he truly was one of the top 3 left midfielders in the world, one of the best players in the Premiership and one of Arsenals best players. For him to refind that form it would mean he is now one of the best left midfielders in the world, which to be fair, he isn't; as there are a lot of players who have improved, or come through and become much more consistent. Players like Hleb especially.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, all players have a peak and reduction in quality, it's just the fact that in them few years at Arsenal he was playing at such a high level that to replicate it would be something amazing, and I don't think he is quite refound that form.

I disagree with this notion that Pires is underrated and the other two are overrated, I mean Pires7 said that people overrate the other two despite not having seen them play, surely the rebuttable could simply be put to yourself that you only saw Pires play and not the the other two hence why you feel they (Figo and Nedved) are overrated and Pires underrated. Pires IMO got exactly the right amount of appreciation he deserved, we saw that with the awards he won whilst in the Premiership, the comments he got from fellow professionals and from other managers. The only argument that could be put forward in terms of Pires being underrated was his effect on the unbeaten team and the team that went to the CL Final. I don't want to go through this all again as it's been done a million times, but Wenger IMO did make an error in taking Pires off after the Lehmann red card, especially given Pires's performances in the big games and the difference he was able to make.

As Keith mentioned, his distribtution from the left wing, partnership with Cole and understanding with Henry was first class and something Arsenal needed in the CL Final, but unfortunately for Pires it never happened.

In that unbeaten team, everyone was playing at such a high level that it was rare for everyone to get the merit they deserved, a lot of it went to Henry and Vieira, him being the captain and Henry the star, this took away the hard work from the others, especially from non-Arsenal fans.

But otherwise, Nedved's European Player of the Year tag was well deserved, and he is definitely one of the best midfielders of this generation.

As an Arsenal and also Juve fan, I see both of them top-class players. Both worked hard, both are vital for their respective club, BOTH ARE LEGENDS. ..

Michael Owen has won a Golden Ball whereas Thierry Henry has not...guess that means Owen is the better foward and player...

I may be biased as i am an arsenal and france fan but i choose pires. I think he is one of the most elegant players i have seen and his scoring rate and assist rate was fantastic for a left mid. I also agree that players like Nedved, though they are very good have been overhyped by playing in italy, and especially by playing for an italian giant like juventus.

Pires is clearly the better player. Nedved played in such an open and slow enviroment its unbelivable no offense to Serie a i'm sure its an art in its own way however premier league is a nightmare for playmakers.

The premiership shows the best playmakers "Pires" from the average playmakers "Veron". Veron was world class in serie a but got found out in the premiership.

Premierleague gives playmakers no time to think so boy do you have to think quickly and Pires was the master of this.

What he did on the left wing i have never seen any other winger do.

By the way Peace whats up with the compilation of pictures of Pires? What is that going to add? You put up a comp of Nedveds quality but with Pires you put a slide show of pictures with awful music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_DJfg-H2-M
Nedved eat your heart out

I agree on Pires being better. He was absolutely amazing at Arsenal, and it's very hard to match his goals and assists - especially from left wing!

Clearly Nedved for me, At his peak Nedved was the best player in the world, Pires has never been. Nedved was a great player, to me Pires was never any better than good. No coincidence 99% of the people who voted for Pires are Arsenal fans.

You didn’t even give us a good reason as to why you favour Nedved?

And the way you completely discredited Pires and built nedved up in that post really doesn’t tell us anything about why you rate Nedved as a better player.

Maybe because Nedved played in a tactically defensive league, where there are little gaps in the defense? Or maybe Nedved carried the Czechs on his shoulders almost alone alone?
Personally I would rate both of them just about equal, with pires the faster player (great for counterattacks) but Nedved the more all-round player...

Every season Pires would make 12 Appearances for France and score 5 goals. He wasn’t ever a favorite with the french coach at the time and for him to still get that sort of ratio for a left winger says a lot about the charcter of Robert Pires.

Pires also assisted Trezeguet for that goal against italy in Euro 2000 which won them the cup. Pires basically did something right there with that one assist than Nedved did in his International career.

Injures also prevented Pires from going to the 2002 world cup aswell and I think france would of actually done a lot better had he been there.

After that Injury, Pires came back and scored 14 premiership goals from 20 starts. That is world class.

People doubted him during the 2004-2005 season and many said he was finished yet he still scored 14 goals and finished 3rd highest goal scorer in the league and many people said he had a poor season. That would be a great season for many players. It shows the true class of the player.

People also say Nedved is a play maker yet they forget that Pires was one of the best in the premiership for linking up the play with the midfield and bringing others into the game.

Here is an example of it.

How does that explain his great performances in the Champions League, Cup winners Cups and multiple International competitions for the Czechs so?

Its very hard to choose. I think at his peak, that season where he busted his CL that Pires was better than nedved ever was, but I think Nedved was better for longer than Pires was. That season Milan beat Juve in penalties in the CL, I honestly feel, if Nedved had played, we wouldnt have lifted that trophy. He was in World beater form that season. He was such a dynamic part of the team and was almost their entire creative spark and attack. But the thing about Nedved was he was a better leader IMO than Pires. Nedved would grind out in defence and never stop running in attack for his side. He would keep going until a ball landed to him and he is one of the great pure "volleyers" of a football in the modern era which, to me, is just as tehcnique orientated as a Pires chip or flick.

Neither player possessed outstanding blistering pace, but neither player was a slouch either but both were VERY quick of thought, one always saw the quick pass (Pires) hte other always saw the quick first time shot (Nedved). Both are cery admirable attriubtes to have and it doesnt matter the pace of the game that is played aorund you if your instincts are as sharp as those 2 guys were.

The one other thing that I always respected about Nedved, is that I dont think I ahve ever seen a player on the receiving end of so many hard tackles in our era and still get up for more. I have seen him play multiple make or break games for Juve and the Czechs, where he got hit, was clearly injured but refused to go off until he was forced off by stretcher. A die hard! In his latter days he ahs been slammed for being a diver, an accusation also levelled at Pires, but Nedved has taken enough kickings and injuries to be allowed the odd "soft foul" in my eyes.

While a part of me always repsects every player that has played under Wenger, Pires definitely one of the more notable...I remember seeing him play for Metz in the UEFA Cup agaisnt Newcastle or Blackburn...cant remember which, and he was devastating. Next I saw him at Marseille and I remember him scoring with a crazy shot from an unreal angle from the right wing, and he still had that incredible technique and guile that made him so highly rated at Metz....and even when he moved to Arsenal, I remember seeing him come up agaisnt Emile Heskey (at the time was playing pretty well) and there was an incident where Pires was out on the wing with his back in field and Heskey little just stormed down the byline, nicking the ball off his toe and Pires just having a look of astonishment on his face that now he was in a more physical league. Pires knuckled down and built on his upper body and became a great Premiership player and for that always will have my respect.

Nedved, however, played for Juventus, a club I always have and always will hate, and yet soemhow, I cant hate this guy. I cant bring myself to say anything bad about him or what he has done. For me to respect a guy who has played for Juventus, he MUST be a truly special player. Its a tough call between 2 players who arent wingers in the classic sense, but I would probably give it more so to Nedved...BARELY!!!

I'll add this link instead, I didn't really watch all the video, I just added the first link that was active in the YouTube search

Okay firstly, Keith and all the arsenal fans, really nice posts. Especially urs Keith.

btw, those wikipedia quotes are mine. (yes I literally wrote the whole wikipedia page on pires, seriously. )

and yea, pires, 3rd highest scorer in 2004/2005, and you know what? pires is actually the 2nd highest scorer in 2004/2005 in EPL if you take away penalties. andy johnson scored 21 goals, but 11 or 12 or them where penalties. so johnson scored like 10 open play goals, compared to pires's 13 open play goals. pires scored more than drogba, c.ronaldo, rooney, giggs, gerrard, lampard, robben, duff etc..

and like you said, 14 goals in 20 appearances in 2002/2003, world class.

and, 23 goals from 45 games (missed 4 games) during arsenal's 49 unbeaten run, is world class. that record of 23 goals from 45 games is pure world class. and I think pires got 20 assists during the 45 games, but i forgot.


Dreamlander, i agree with you that nedved plays well in certain CL matches, but in general, when nedved, zidane, ronaldinho, kaka, figo etc.. play well in CL matches, they get DAMN over-hyped by UEFA and everyone in general. trust me.

and no one remembers how shit nedved played against arsenal in 2001/2002 when we trashed them 3-1, and during the 2 matches in 2005/2006. all these matches, and alot more in the CL i have watched, nedved, figo, zidane, ronaldo9, kaka have been playing average, but generally UEFA ignores them. but when pires plays shit, they attack on him and say he sucks. all a marketing tactic seriously... especially it will sell more magazines etc.. if one player (nedved) is portrayed better than another (pires).

and alot of italian clubs/players are overrated, roma, juve, inter milan, florentina,lazio etc.. all overrated. arsenal, man utd etc.. all brushed aside roma (7-1 vs man utd, 1-3 roma at home against arsenal), inter milan got brushed aside 5-1 by arsenal, and lost to man utd and arsenal this summer in friendlys.... all english clubs defeated juventus etc... in general i dont see the big hype in italian football. alot of players are overrated and english + spanish clubs are superior to them. i seriously see players like nedved, del piero, chivu, ibrahimovic really struggle against liverpool and arsenal in the CL. i see christian chivu, ibrahimovic, adriano etc.. struggle against toure, gallas, even hyppia etc..

the only exception to that was ac milan, who have performed well. but in general, ac milan struggle really badly without kaka. take kaka out of the equation, and ac milan will perform as badly as inter, juve, roma in the CL. just look at juve, roma and inter's records in the CL. all piss poor.


pires's heading is massively underrating, he can score headers too. an example was the world class header that he did against chelsea in the CL where he jumped, outmuscled terry and scored.

Well the CL is not exactly English football so that does not add anything really.

Nedved never really stepped up against the english teams in the CL. While Robert Pires always did against Juvenus twice, Inter Milan and a very good Lazio team.

Nedved never achieved this against the English teams but Pires always put in a world class performance against the Italian opposition.

It's cause you have never seen Pires play and he played at an English club so thats why you say Nedved is the better player.

As much as I hate Arsenal, I liked Pires, Pires was underrated and played at a tougher league. Giggs and Pires was way better than Nedved.

Good example of why Pires is better.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fnNG2kTWreI

Henry and Pires taking a shit at Inter.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-pcCoCnXurU

Arsenal beat Juventus.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-dgt98zcqoI

I second that UEFA pretty much has a hard-on for all the players you mentioned when they play well.




Nedved no where to be found lol, correct me if I'm wrong but Zlatan played shit and had a hard time trying to get past Arsenal's defence?, Pires might not have scored but he was still creating chances.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-dgt98zcqoI


Chivu and Zlatan is overhyped, Chivu is no where near the level of Vidic. Good thing Barca dodged Chivu in the summer, cause young Giovani outplayed him. Zlatan is a good striker, but seems like he has a hard time scoring goals against English and Spanish Clubs. Adriano the guy is pure shit, he's not going to get away with that kind of social lifestyle if he had Fergie, Wenger or Mourinho as his manager. I'm guessing thats' why everybody goes to Italy for the lifestyle.

Look at Cannavaro playing poorly and useless at Real Madrid.




Milan only play well in CL, but play shite in Serie A. Probably won't even finish in the top 4 at the end of the season, they rely to much on Kaka and is probably waiting for Pato to save there ass and then your going to have Milan fans overhyping Pato.

Nedved is better as he wouldn't do this:

I was only trying to lighten things up a bit. One moment doesn't define a player's career.

i have great admiration for nedved becos afterall he is beat madrid in CL 1 time. but i choose Pires as better player by little bit.

What does playing well against English oppostion have to do with anything? Playing well against Arsenal, United, Liverpool, Chelsea or Accrington Stanley doesnt make you a great player. What does is being the driving force behind a successful side across the board. And Nedved was exactly that, on all fronts. Pires was a driving force as well, dont get me wrong, but from that invincible side, he would be 3rd or 4th on the list of the teams most important behind Henry, Vieira and possibly Lehmann.

Nedved for me is numero uno for Juventus....or at least was!

To me at his peak Nedved was the best player in the world, IMO Pires wasn't even the best player at Arsenal, let alone England, let alone the world.

all those who are saying pires is better are all obviously premiership fans and probably dont watch serie a regularly. just because pires cant do those things doesnt mean he is better. you never watch nedved regularly so how could you tell whether he is better or not or whether or not he can do the same thing pires does? its just simple logic dude. one thing pires doesnt have and nedved does have is a ballon d'or and that suggests the difference in their footballing skills.

Look man, when you mention Vieira and Lehmann as more important during the invincibles era, i can clearly tell you that you dont know what you are talking about no offense or anything.

Lehmann was at fault for at least 6-7 goals during our unbeaten season and was our weak link back then, and he almost cost us alot of matches. and furthermore there was even talk about him leaving after one season!

Vieira was injured for 3-4 months, and wasnt as important as Pires, as far as winning matches and overall contribution is concerned.

Henry, look man if nedved as at arsenal henry would still be more important during the unbeaten season than nedved, pires or anyone else. but anyways, alot of henry's goals where assisted by pires.... and people forget alot of important matches pires saved our ass during the unbeaten season. e.g. assisting the equaliser and scoring the winning vs liverpool away, equalised vs spurs at home, assisted 1st equaliser and scored 2nd equaliser vs liverpool at home, played a BIG BIG contribution (makelele tackle) to equaliser vs chelsea etc..






I can say the same thing. I know for a fact alot of people hardly watch figo and nedved, but yet they say nedved/figo are better than PIres. or same with the way alot of people declare maradona/pele as the best players in the world without even watching them play

oh, and michael owen won the ballon d'or. I guess by your definition that Owen is better than Bergkamp, RVN, Shearer, Henry etc..?

Please read the opening post before posting. How does saying the above help move the discussion forward? I could easily rebuttal that with those who watched Italian football and not the Premiership would vote for Nedved rather than Pires, but that gets us nowhere.

Also, all the one liner posts have been deleted in this thread and others, please add some substance to the post a lot of people have made an effort please do so likewise.

FFS! Read the arguement again and stop putting words in my mouth.And there is noway that Lehman was more important then Pires. Also in 2002 Pires was our most important player and the best winger in the world at the time.

dude where did i say about voting for anybody. i just said some of the english premiership fanboys should watch both players equally so their opinions dont sound so biased and one-sided.

on the topic i would say nedved is better, in his all around ability and offensive contributions to the team. when he plays, he adds another dimension to the juve and czech republic team, and his contributions overshadows even juve's captain del piero and the goal machine trezegol in juve's attacking trident. in the 2003 champions league he broke through barca's defense at their home ground and gave juventus progress to the next round, and in the semi-final he repeated his contribution by again breaking through real's defense and guaranteeing juve's place in the final. in the final without his abilities juve's attack proved ineffective and contributed to what became a dour game.

pires is technically gifted, but on his team he's not even the most dangerous, and when the game needs to be turned it is usually henry or vieira that shoulder the responsibilities. pires amazing attacking abilities is only on display when arsenal is dominating the game, but when the game goes against them his contributions dwindles down as well and he tend to 'disappear' from the game. in defense nedved has stronger abilities as well, with the discipline to track down offensive players and mark them, and tackling them if necessary. pires is severely lacking in this department, i dun think he defends at all. he basically have no defensive responsibilites while playing, like most attacking spaniards, and so has much more energy to contribute to his team's attacking plays.

of course ex marseille player Robert Pires

You're funny...although I agree with your general assumption of football fans. I have watched Figo, Pires, and Nedved for along time. Pires was a great winger and a player of our generation, but since the general public shy away from the Italian Serie A, they seriously don't know how good Nedved really is, and it's shame.

As for Figo, he's far better than Pires IMHO.

For me, Pires. Nedved, like Figo, is massively over-rated (hence Juventus having to fix matches to win Serie A 2 years ago). I don't think our generation has ever seen anybody reach Pires's level except, possibly, for Ronaldinho's performance against Chelsea.

The incredible thing about Pires - the REVOLUTIONARY thing is...that he wa right footed, yet he played....yeh, yep, you guessed it: on the LEFT! He just blew me away every time I watched him, and that's before he even touched the ball. Let me tell you this: without Pires, there would be no Henry. Or Cashley Cole. Or football as we know it.

Here are the stats:

EPL titles

Pires - 3
Figo - 0
Nedved - 0

European Cups:

Pires - 1
Figo - 0
Nedved - 0

Facts speak for themselves.






OK, in my honest opinion, this thread is an insult to Nedved. But fuck it, it's 3 pages long now.

What EPL has anything to do with Figo and Nedved? so ridiculous ....

Let's learn from the truth and learn how to compare players:

* /club trophies:

============= League champ ======= CL ========= Euro supercup ===== National cup

1- Figo ...................4 ligas + 1 seriA .............. 1 2002................1 (2002).....................2 (96-97)
2- Nedved...............3 seriA ............................ 2final ................1 (99) ........................4 (98,00,02,03)
3- Pires ................. 2 EPL + 1 ligue1 ...............1final ................ 0............................... 3 (FA)


** Individual Trophies:

=========== WPOY fifa == Ballon Dor == World player= League best player === Other=
1- Figo ................... 1 (2001)...... 1 (2000)........... 1(2000).............. 2 (00-01)........... 0
2- Nedved ............(2 x4thplace)...1 (2003)............1 (2003)............. 1 (2003).............Goldenfoot04
3- Pires .................. 0 .................0 .....................0 .......................1(2002)..............MVP/Confedcup

*** STATS:
===========Club GPG career) ==========International GPG (country)================
1- Figo .............. 0.20 GPG ................................. 0.25GPG
2- Nedved ..........0.23 GPG ................................. 0.20GPG
3- Pires ............. 0.26GPG................................... 0.18GPG



Overal:

1- Figo
2- Nedved
3- Pires

Oh man, I laughed at first but now I've seen the effort you went to I feel terrible...did you read the bottom of my post? Did you not pick up on the rather obvious sarcasm?

Jamesbh11 I can just make up some random fact like how Wiltord and Kanu won more trophies than Shearer. Going by your definitions, Wiltord and Kanu are better then Shearer.




Figo? How on earth is he better than Pires? Figo is massively overrated, Pires has more goals and more assists than Figo. Same with Nedved. Pires has more goals and assists than him. So what are they better than Pires at? Figo has never been known for his goals or assists, he just creates some nice goals out of nothing like the goal against man utd in 2002/2003 CL, but week in week out... the fact is I wouldnt swap Pires for either Figo or Nedved. Pires is way more consistant than either, and performs effectively week in week out for arsenal. in 2001/2002 he was the best left winger on the planet, even Wenger said so himself. if he didnt get injured, he would have surpassed both nedved and figo.

You are about the only person that seems to think this!

Figo overrated?? this is the most ridiculous thing i have ever read on this forum. Are u like married to Pires or something? geez.

according to you Pires is the greatest player that has ever played the game.

It is a very tough choice, but I will choose Pires.

In terms of ball control, dribbling and scoring, Pires is better than Nedved. Versatile and most important, he has great positional sense.

To me, Pires at the top of the his game was more dangerous and effective than Nedved at his peak.

oh man this thread is epic iv been reading the first few pages.

i think im going to round up all the classic quotes

PIRES