Haven’t seen Hansen play. Way before my time.
For me Hyppia and VVD are the best CBs I’ve seen playing for Liverpool.
Agger might have gotten close to that level and on paper a peak Agger and VVD combo ticks a lot of boxes too.
If you have ever watched hot chocolate smoothly being poured… then you have seen Alan Hansen moving on a football pitch
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Like I said. Way before my time. Ive started following football from 1998 onwards.
Ha ha @ all the old geezers around.
Plenty of footage of him to watch if you want to!
Ha ha @ at all the tech savvy geezers around
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@Sithbare This game is famous for the thrashing and for Rush scoring the first hattrick in a derby, but Hansen’s role in the first is a great illustration of why us less youthful fellas rave about him so much.
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Watching this clip honestly just makes me think that they would get destroyed in modern football, just from how much faster the play is.
That said, I wonder what it would be like if they got to benefit from the same resources and training.
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That pitch was in marvellous condition for the time, but look how many bobbles the ball still took and the players just got on with it. Today that would result in an inquest from the opposition manager for why dirty tricks were being used against them for conditions not being perfect.
It was definitely a different time, and it can be jarring to be brought up on the idea that “pass and move is the liverpool groove” and then go back and watch highlights and see a liverpool defender just fucking welly the ball down the pitch like a prime Peter Kay, but if you watch long enough you see where it comes from. The way the tackles came in and the condition of the pitches meant it just wasnt possible to play then the way we expect to it played today, but our success came from being able to do the industrial shit the times demanded of us while taking the opportunities where they were to bring the ball down and knock it around teams…all while having defenders be allowed to kick the shit out you and never knowing exactly where the ball was going to bounce off the pock marked pitch
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Feels like that’s quite the exaggeration.
While I understand where you’re coming from, it was more of a remark on the speed of it all, and that should be expected given how much further nutrition and training have come from those times. I wonder how many of those stars of the past could keep up with the professional standards of today.
The grass was too long. They purposefully didnt water it. The ball was different.
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I guess I just don’t pay attention enough to see managers complain about the first two. I swear they’re in fact often talked about as part of the game, e.g. how teams would use that to slow us down in the past few seasons. The last one though, weren’t Arteta and Guardiola rightfully laughed at for that?
On the other hand, modern players would get shell-shocked by the conditions.
There is no point comparing then and now. The good ones would excel in all eras; the bads one would suck in all eras.
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Would they? They don’t seem particularly bothered when we’ve gone to lower-league teams. I’m fairly certain many of our players grew up playing on similar conditions if not worse. I think the whole idea about pitch conditions is overly exaggerated.
I genuinely doubt that, hence why I raised the point to begin with. How often do we keep talking about speed merchants with just that single trick? In a world without VAR, it would be just hoofing it up to them to beat the offside trap. An Adama Traore is pretty ineffective in today’s world, but put him in a game where he can easily match the opponents for physicality while beating them in speed?
Adama Traore wouldn’t be anything special in any era. He wouldn’t be as fast with older boots on bad pitches full of mud. And he certainly wasn’t the only one with formidable body strength.
Human evolution hasn’t taken leaps within 4 decades. There were physical wonders then as there are now. There were speed merchants then as there are now. I read somewhere that Jesse Owens was estimated to be within a stride of Usain Bolt with modern running gear and that’s without the benefit of the current training regimes.
In any case, this is a debate that’s been going on forever and it’s off topic.
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Hansen and Van Dijk would have been good in any era in my opinion.
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Never in favour of comparing sportsmen across eras.
Unless you are probably looking at sports like cricket and individual performances there. But then cricket is that funny team sport where individual performances matter.
Even in sports like tennis , it’s really hard for me to compare someone like Bjorn Borg to someone like Djokovic. Too many variables have changed for them to be essentially an even field.
Comparing Hansen to VVD is fraught with the same difficulties. The sport essentially is different. Different playing conditions, different opponent levels. For every point in favour of Hansen , there will be another unrelated point in favour of the modern defenders.
It’s relatively easier to compare a Rio Ferdinand to Virgil for that matter. It’s not just because I’ve seen both over the course of their entire careers. It’s also because football hasn’t changed too much from 2000 to 2020. Whereas the difference in the game from 1980 to 2020 is substantial.
We weren’t comparing VVD and Hansen, we were saying that they are both greats.
The two greatest CBs to have graced this club.
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I would have to agree to that going by the almost unanimous support here.
Ive seen Hyppia. For me he was the best till the likes of Virgil. Agger was good in periods as was Matip , when they were both fit.
Loved Sami, but Hansen was much smoother on the ball.
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Also it would be frightening to see exactly how much better VVD would have become if prickford didn’t assault him.
He’s still the best defender currently playing. But he’s lost a step after that
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Loved Hansen as a pundit. Did not see him as a player.
Matip over Hyypiä for me 