Yeah good question.Can the OP define this a bit more?
The player who you have seen live and consider the best but not necessarily on the occasion(s) you saw them?
The player who put in the very best performance you've ever seen live?
The player who was consistently great every time you saw them live?
Yeah good question.
Probably Henry for me. But often think I’ve seen Ronaldo play live loads, but never at god level.
Wonder how many Ballon D’or winners have played against Boro? Good trivia question.
Remember that game too and have completely the same opinion. Beardsley ran the show.Remember when we played Liverpool in 1989 at Ayresome. We were staring down the barrel of relegation, they were on their way to the title (!). Got hammered 4-0 and Beardsley ran the show that day. As close to a 10/10 performance as you will see. Unplayable.
Henry did like playing against Boro too
I remember sitting at the Riverside watching one of our hammerings by Wenger's Arsenal and consoling myself with the thought that we were up against one of the great club sides of all time. Nobody has mentioned him yet but Viera was absolutely immense in that team.That Arsenal team made me appreciate football as a whole instead of watching it from a purely partisan point of view, convinced Boro were being wronged in some way by bad referees and a general conspiracy against a small town from the north east. I’d started to be quite angry at times during Boro games, a fat teenager taking out his frustrations at the match by shouting and swearing at the opposition and officials.
It sounds far-fetched but I really think Wenger’s Arsenal teams of that time changed how I watch football matches.
That was the game I was thinking of, the 6-1 defeat. They were unplayable that day and can remember the applause from quite a few boro fans. I was a teenager at the time and remember coming out and being blown away by the different level of most of that team. But for me Thierry Henry was the best, he could go past players with the ball and looked like he was in 2nd gear.Aside from Juninho, I’d have to say it could be any one of three or four from that Arsenal team. I remember them thumping us once and my dad applauded a goal of theirs. I was shocked and he just looked at me and was like ‘what can you do other than applaud that?!’ And he was spot on, they were incredible.
Viera was the best for me. Just completely dominated the pitch. But how do you seperate him, Henry, Bergkamp. Even Pires was something special