The general consensus in any sport is that quality improves over time, mainly due to advancements in fitness, nutrition, injury rehabilitation and so forth. Football is no different for the most part, but due to the skill level of the players being so important, it’s easy to make an argument that the stars of the past might be better than the stars of today.
While it’s impossible to truly guess how the likes of Pele and Best may have done in today’s modern game – they both played almost half a century ago now – it’s a little easier to look back at the early era of the Premier League, the mid to late 1990’s.
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The game has advanced since then, no doubt, but some of the players back then could easily still have done just as well in today’s Premier League. Here are five of them.
#1 Peter Schmeichel
The legendary Danish goalkeeper won basically everything outside of a World Cup in his career, and was a key part of the Manchester United side that won the Treble (Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League) in 1999.
Once he left United after eight seasons, Schmeichel was still one of the best and most reliable keepers in the league, spending one season at Aston Villa and then a season at Manchester City – United’s great rivals.
What made Schmeichel so great? Well, like all great keepers he was a tremendous shot-stopper, he was both huge and athletic, and he was rarely caught out of position or seen dropping crosses. He also had the tendency to charge towards an oncoming attacker, making himself appear far bigger than he actually was, which enabled him to stop many a potential goal.
Perhaps Schmeichel’s best asset though – in an era before the “sweeper-keeper”, was his ability to set up attacks in an instant – not by using his feet, but by accurately launching the ball down the field with a huge throw.
For me, today’s top keepers like Courtois, Lloris and Cech pale in comparison to the giant Dane, who would probably still be recognised as the best in the game if he came around today.
#2 Alan Shearer
In today’s Premier League, the ‘traditional’ English centre-forward is no longer in vogue – witness the lack of respect for Andy Carroll – but any of today’s Premier League teams would kill to have a striker like Alan Shearer.
His goal record is still unmatched in the Premier League – he still holds the record number of hat-tricks in the league’s history with eleven, and is still the league’s record goalscorer overall with 260 in 441 games. To put it into perspective, Wayne Rooney is second with 195, but he’s already played twelve more games than Shearer. The Toon hero averaged 18 goals a season over 14 campaigns, which is insane.
A horribly aggressive player for defenders to face, Shearer was physically powerful and was adept at using that to his advantage, often accused of over-use of his elbows inside the penalty box. But he was also highly skilled, using his right and left foot – as well as his head – to score his many goals.
In terms of goalscoring, nobody comes close to Alan Shearer. With his physical style of play, would he still bag as many goals in today’s Premier League? I don’t think there can be any doubt about it.
#3 David Beckham
Perhaps no player split the football fanbase quite like David Beckham. While he was never the best player in the world – even in his pomp – he was equally never the overrated, preening pretty-boy his detractors made him out to be.
Best positioned in right midfield, Beckham wasn’t the type of player to beat defenders with his dribbling, ala Eden Hazard. But then he never needed to – his passing accuracy was unmatched during his years with Manchester United, particularly with crosses and dead balls.
The statistics speak for themselves – over nine seasons, Beckham assisted in 80 goals. His own goal return of 62 wasn’t bad either.
Those so-called ‘Hollywood passes’ that the likes of Gerrard and Lampard were usually denigrated for trying so often? Beckham was the master of them and rarely did they go awry.
While the game is played, somehow, at an even faster pace these days, a player of Beckham’s passing accuracy would still be successful simply because he could set up goals with one well-timed ball.
He’s maybe the best free-kick taker in Premier League history too, scoring 15 of them in the league during his time at United.
#4 Matthew Le Tissier
While he’s recognisable today as a pundit, it’s easy to forget that in the mid-1990’s Le Tissier was one of the Premier League’s greatest players.
Le Tissier never won a trophy in his playing career, but that was purely because he spent his whole Premier League career at Southampton, a club who were at the time perennial relegation candidates.
Capable of playing as both an attacking midfielder and a forward, Le Tissier was always the focal point of Southampton’s attack and his goal record shows this – he scored 15 goals in the inaugural Premier League season and then followed that up with 25 and 20, all in a struggling side.
Le Tissier could dribble, shoot with both feet, and was equally adept at setting up goals for his teammates too. But what really stands out is the wild moments of magic he pulled out – his goals against Blackburn, Manchester United and Newcastle still remain some of the best in Premier League history.
With the money currently in the Premier League today Le Tissier would likely be playing alongside world-class talent like himself rather than journeymen, which would likely mean he’d have far more success than he achieved in his actual career.
#5 Eric Cantona
When you talk about foreign players succeeding in the Premier League there’s only one place to start and that’s with King Eric. While the likes of Ronaldo, Suarez and Henry might be more well-remembered today, it was the success of Cantona in the mid to late 90’s that paved the way for all of them.
Cantona had an immediate impact at Manchester United, scoring 9 goals as United won the inaugural Premier League in 1992/93. And although he only spent a further four seasons at Old Trafford, the enormity of what he did in that time cannot be understated.
His crowning achievement? Returning from a long suspension in the 1995/96 season, Cantona found himself in a United team that trailed league leaders Newcastle by 12 points in mid-January. Overhauling the lead seemed impossible, but Cantona almost single-handedly managed it, scoring eleven goals in United’s last fifteen games – five of which were 1-0 wins.
It remains perhaps the greatest achievement in one season by any one player in league history. And that isn’t even getting started on the skill that Cantona possessed, as well as the ability to score goals and set them up from all types of positions.
Simply put, a player like Eric Cantona would’ve succeeded in any era – including this one.
