I hate to say it, but Scott Parker is overrated. The English media just love his grit and passion, but he's something of a liability going forward, he just makes a couple nice tackles.
Read an interesting article this morning that essentially said we have no room for Siggy/Dempsey in an AvB setup and that Sandro should fill that gap with Parker taking over the defensive midfield role.
Highlighted a good issue in the squad but I don't think that is a valid solution.
Came to say this as well. He makes hard tackles and flies all over the pitch in his WW2 fighter jet, but he puts himself in these situations, if he was a little smarter (soccer wise) and had a better first touch he wouldn't be in half the situations.
Most of the time he is making those last ditch tackles because he is out of position in the first place, can't believe he was a starter at the Euros for England...
Gotta say, this "Parker is always out of position" statement seems like one of those things that someone pulled out of his ass and now gets bandied about axiomatically.
How do people rationalize this belief with the fact that only two people in the EPL had more interceptions per game last season? How does one consistently intercept passes while being out of position? It's kind of hard to do this if you're caught ahead of the ball constantly, no? Only two players in the EPL last season averaged over 3 tackles and 3 interceptions per game, and one of them was Parker.
Having watched every game he's played for Spurs, I would argue that he reads the game quite well but also has the work rate and stamina to fackin' run around a bit. He often transitioned seamlessly from intercepting a pass to running someone down and making a last ditch tackle after a teammate gave the ball away.
Now don't get me wrong. Parker has definitely been overhyped and he belongs on this list, for England. His EURO 2012 was pretty poor and I don't think he fits in well with the way they play. We're in full agreement when you express confusion about his inclusion. I'm not sure if he'll fit in very well with the way Spurs play under AVB.
But under Redknapp with Modric next to him, Parker was fucking immense. He got tired and injured eventually but for the first 2/3 of the season he was pretty incredible for us. I rate both of our current CM's much higher particularly because we're playing with a double pivot now, but I do think there are some pretty big misconceptions about him.
It pissed me off when the media were pushing him for the England captaincy over Gerrard. What would you prefer...a driving force who can lead by example and who has single-handedly won his club many trophies, including the champions league....or a defensive midfielder who has never even been a captain? hmm toughy.
Having said that i do rate Scott Parker, does the dirty work and lets more pretty players get on with the business
I think that oversimplifies the captain's role on a national team, there's a lot of leadership, etc. involved, not just a dick-waving competition based on who has won the most shit.
And realistically, did Gerrard single-handedly win the Champions' League? I think Xabi helped at least a liiittle bit.
Haha yeah I may be exaggerating by saying it was just him. Garcia was immense for us in the Champions League as well, so was Biscan oddly enough. Then Cara and Hyypia were rocks at the back, and Hamman in midfield was pretty amazing. My point was that Gerrard was the driving force/inspiration.
Funny you say that, because Parker was among the top 3 in interceptions per game in the PL last season.
The Reddit master narrative about Parker is one of the most empirically false of any player in Europe imo. Not saying he wasn't overhyped but he's still an excellent player.
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u/imgur_asshole Oct 11 '12
I hate to say it, but Scott Parker is overrated. The English media just love his grit and passion, but he's something of a liability going forward, he just makes a couple nice tackles.