What Kind of Player Were You?

[Shomin Geki]

Watching some Barrenechea highlights I was reminded of how I myself tried to play later on in my football-playing days.  A calm, pace-shaping defensive midfielder, keeping it neat and simple.  Tragically I was not particularly technically able so my passing was never that crisp or incisive.  But I was able to stay relatively calm, had a decent engine, good concentration and managed to read the game, knowing where all the pieces were on the board as it were, in lieu of any real physical or technical gifts.  Kept things ticking over, low energy quarterbacking etc.

As a younger fella I thought of myself as a Luke Young type, a marauder basically, at left back.  Not a great touch, crossing not a speciality, but I was incessant and kept on leaping into things.  I seem to remember Young would kinda jump into this 'Haka-like' posture, a would-be-intimidating throwing down of the gauntlet for one-on-ones.  I obviously thought this was pretty cool and remember 'homaging' sweet little Luke as I flared my thighs and stomped the grass.

I really wanted to be as suavely swashbuckling as Davor Suker was.  Or the ice-cold maestro Dennis Bergkamp.  It quickly became obvious, barring a few kick around moments, that I would never be a Suker or Bergkamp.  Ultimately I was happy, in my inglorious pomp, to be a Luke Young.

Obviously this was the lowest of the low levels for me: Playing for my school, Sunday League etc.

So... what kind of player were you?  Don't be bashful!  What players did you try and emulate?  Who did you want to be?  Who, ultimately, did your style, attitude, ability, moves resemble?  Did you manage, for a magical moment, to pull of some prime McGrath, Yorke, Barry, Milner, Agathe, Salifou, Knight, Yeboah, Ketsbaia, Wanchope, Barton?  Maybe some of the fine specimens of Villa Talk were more than park legends?

(apologies if this shouldn't be in Other Football, or if there's already a thread for this)

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Great thread idea @Shomin Geki

I'm 46 years old so my favourite player growing up was Tony Daley and I used to be really quick in my early years so I also played on the wings. I was skillful and scored the odd goal; often very greedy too.

As I got to Secondary School i slowed down a little and was moved to a midfield role where I was a bit of a box-to-box player and at that time my favourite player was Lothar Matthaus. For many years I played in midfield for school and county next to Ian Ross's son. Incidentally and I have mentioned this before Ian Ross was managing in Iceland and during the Winter break he returned back home in the Midlands and managed our school football team for a few weeks. We suddenly became WORLD BEATERS for a few weeks having a professional coach, the training was so much fun!

Just out of respect for a Holte Ender in the Sky, Ian Ross was an absolute gentleman by the way and all the kids had so much fun with him and respect for him. R.I.P.

As I got older i focused more on Martial Arts and therefore haven't played much since leaving school apart from five-a-side now and again but i haven't played for years.

 

[ozvillafan]

Tony Adams x Dennis Wise x Alexsander Tonev.

Decent defender with a bit of a nasty streak but couldn't shoot to save my life.

[villa4europe]

Started as a CB but wasn't particularly physical, started vets football which made a huge difference to me, played with a good vets team, the big difference to me was the talking, the guys just talked their way through the entire game, moved to RB, moved to Germany, played more at RB but then when we had the twice weekly kick about I used to push further up to RW and eventually striker 

I found at vets level I was fast, definitely in Germany I'd say you notice the speed and then all of a sudden i was classed as physical, got a good cross on me but absolutely no tricks so can't beat a man with anything other than pace 

Would say it my late 30s I paired it with doing cross fit and losing a bit of weight so I had that speed plus then good fitness and energy so I peaked as a footballer around 38 years old playing with others between 35-50 years old