In a reader's vote launched by the "Sun" a few days ago, Manchester United's star Leo Ferdinand was named the best defender in the history of the Premier League with a large advantage.
Ferdinand announced his retirement in 2015, and many new fans did not have the opportunity to witness his style on the pitch, and fans who had watched him play have become somewhat blurred with the passage of time. There have been many excellent centre-backs in the history of the Premier League, from Adams to Vidic to Terry, to later Kompany and now Van Dijk, how can Ferdinand Hoder be able to suppress such a person to become the best?
Ferdinand is 1.88 meters tall, a typical center-back figure, and he has all the qualities of a good center-back, such as strong confrontation ability, accurate card position, excellent header technique, super ability to predict in advance, and so on. But what sets him apart from other good centre-backs is two other very important qualities.
First of all, England's big players will always give people some clumsy impressions, and the traditional style of English football means that the centre-back players will be heavily reloaded by the opponent again and again, and there is no strong body and anti-collision ability.
Ferdinand is not physically disadvantaged, but he is on the field, with other English defenders rare "agility" and "wisdom", and even gives people some sense of elegance, his foot skills, in England's contemporaries are very prominent, even compared to some midfield players are not inferior, which makes him not only able to become the terminator of the opponent's attack on the field, but also the initiator of his own attack, which is very rare before Guardiola's concept swept the world.
Secondly, Ferdinand has taken the "dog fighting" spirit that England fans most admire to the extreme, he is not a passive defensive player on the field, but he is aggressive at any time and anywhere, which makes the opposing attacking players very headache. Arsenal's Russian striker Arshavin once commented: "Ferdinand is the most difficult to deal with, he is like a bull, as long as you get in his sight, he will take the initiative to crush you." Choosing to go away with Ferdinand is the most unwise thing to do, and I wouldn't do it unless I had to..."
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(Text/Forbidden Spirit Fox)