How good was Paul Scholes?

I definitely started watching football after Scholes's prime years had passed.

But, one question I always had about Scholes is, how he is regarded as one of the greatest midfielder of all time, when his tackling was average at the most?
 
cu3 said:
I definitely started watching football after Scholes's prime years had passed.

But, one question I always had about Scholes is, how he is regarded as one of the greatest midfielder of all time, when his tackling was average at the most?
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He was good to position himself both defensively and offensively, and although he wasn't a great defensive player he wasn't a liability. It has to be said that when Scholes was at his prime most teams did play midfield 2 with wingers iirc, so it was not as crowded with several inverted wingers and 3 midfielders as it is today, and it was more open in the middle of the pitch.
 
Despite lack of height, he had great movements in the box, positioning, and finishing skills. Later he developed his passing skills, and one touch ball movement to get away from his marker. A really underrated skill which is rarely seen nowadays.
 
cu3 said:
I definitely started watching football after Scholes's prime years had passed.

But, one question I always had about Scholes is, how he is regarded as one of the greatest midfielder of all time, when his tackling was average at the most?
Click to expand...
Passing, vision, passing, ability to read the game, passing, volleying, passing and ironically (given the timing of his tackling), great timing to get to the penalty area and on the end of crosses.



(even the commentator couldn't believe it)







I could go on and on and on and on... and they're just some goals when his passing (from 5 yards to 50) was scarily accurate. His passing range/accuracy was possibly the best I've ever seen.

(turn sound down)
 
cu3 said:
I definitely started watching football after Scholes's prime years had passed.

But, one question I always had about Scholes is, how he is regarded as one of the greatest midfielder of all time, when his tackling was average at the most?
Click to expand...

Because he worked hard, put players under pressure and had great positioning. You dont always need to make a tackle.
He also got that making a bad tackle and giving away a free kick wasn't the worst thing in the world depending on position.
You didn't see him make too many shit tackles in our own box or just outside against teams who were good on free kicks.
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
Passing, vision, passing, ability to read the game, passing, volleying, passing and ironically (given the timing of his tackling), great timing to get to the penalty area and on the end of crosses.



(even the commentator couldn't believe it)







I could go on and on and on and on... and they're just some goals when his passing (from 5 yards to 50) was scarily accurate. His passing range/accuracy was possibly the best I've ever seen.

(turn sound down)
Click to expand...

I literally almost cried watching these and especially the last one, also showing the styles and type of football we used to play.

Our current Paul needs to quickly improve on his pass-and-move ability and his work-rate - it would make a world of difference to our whole game in the midfield area.
 
caid said:
Because he worked hard, put players under pressure and had great positioning. You dont always need to make a tackle.
He also got that making a bad tackle and giving away a free kick wasn't the worst thing in the world depending on position.
You didn't see him make too many shit tackles in our own box or just outside against teams who were good on free kicks.
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Also, he only came to playing frequently in a midfield two after Carrick arrived. They were at the time able to tiki-taka like Barcelona, and place precise balls up the lane that didn’t come back at them. And they both had great positioning both in and out of posession.

Not to forget Scholes could be fierce. I’ll never forget how he, more than Evra, took Messi out of the game at Camp Nou in 2008. Only to eradicate them like that at Old Trafford ...
 
cu3 said:
I definitely started watching football after Scholes's prime years had passed.

But, one question I always had about Scholes is, how he is regarded as one of the greatest midfielder of all time, when his tackling was average at the most?
Click to expand...

Look, Scholes is a United legend - he'll always be my favourite player and I'll always rave about him to whoever will listen.

He was world class, the best English midfielder of his generation - but even I wouldn't put him in the GOAT category.
 
If you seen him live at a game he was unbelievable he just controlled a game. He always seemed to find space and was composed. I don’t know how he did it but he always had so much time on the ball compared to our other midfielders. England should of built the midfield round him not stuck him out on the left for inferior players.

I read a stat the other day that Shaun wright phillips, and Stewart Downing have more caps for England than Carrick. Scholes was right to quit England there absolutely clueless.
 
17 Van der Gouw said:
Look, Scholes is a United legend - he'll always be my favourite player and I'll always rave about him to whoever will listen.

He was world class, the best English midfielder of his generation - but even I wouldn't put him in the GOAT category.
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I don't think many would. For me, though - alongside Iniesta - he's the best midfielder I've ever seen live.
 
Grande said:
Also, he only came to playing frequently in a midfield two after Carrick arrived. They were at the time able to tiki-taka like Barcelona, and place precise balls up the lane that didn’t come back at them. And they both had great positioning both in and out of posession.

Not to forget Scholes could be fierce. I’ll never forget how he, more than Evra, took Messi out of the game at Camp Nou in 2008. Only to eradicate them like that at Old Trafford ...
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Not agreed. Scholes played in midfield 2 most of his career. He started out as a striker, 2nd striker but was moved to midfield 2 even though he was more like an AM, still that was a midfield 2. When Veron came, he was moved to 2nd striker role behind RVN to accommodate Veron. But after Veron left, he was back to midfield 2. Queiroz came during this period (or slightly earlier) and SAF started be play a more continental style formation like 4231.
 
cu3 said:
I definitely started watching football after Scholes's prime years had passed.

But, one question I always had about Scholes is, how he is regarded as one of the greatest midfielder of all time, when his tackling was average at the most?
Click to expand...

Because it didn't matter when you had the passing, vision, ball retention and shooting ability he had. In his later years he was just the definition of midfielders that control the tempo of the game
 
Quite simply the best one touch two player i've ever seen at United, and his range of pass when he was on blob was on a totally different level to anything seen in England since Hoddle and Molby were strutting their stuff, and for those that say he wasn't a great tackler i'd have to disagree, occasionally he'd be late(or as Paul would joke he got there as soon as he could), but he was a nasty so and so who if he thought the other team were taking liberties(and they often tried) he'd take it upon himself to sort out the chief protagonist and sort them out good and proper, and more so if Roy Keane and/or Nicky Butt were already on a booking, he knew what he was doing.
 
He could do it all. Came in to see if anyone had posted those Dyer quotes :D We really could’ve used a prime Scholes right about now.

I remember that Villa volley well. He had another spectacular volley from a direct corner, it touched the keeper on the way in. Anybody remember who it was against?
 
Handré1990 said:
He could do it all. Came in to see if anyone had posted those Dyer quotes :D We really could’ve used a prime Scholes right about now.

I remember that Villa volley well. He had another spectacular volley from a direct corner, it touched the keeper on the way in. Anybody remember who it was against?
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Bradford I think.
 
cu3 said:
I definitely started watching football after Scholes's prime years had passed.

But, one question I always had about Scholes is, how he is regarded as one of the greatest midfielder of all time, when his tackling was average at the most?
Click to expand...

17 Van der Gouw said:
Look, Scholes is a United legend - he'll always be my favourite player and I'll always rave about him to whoever will listen.

He was world class, the best English midfielder of his generation - but even I wouldn't put him in the GOAT category.
Click to expand...

what catching my attention the most from paul scholes is not his long range goal but it's his quick one-touch play and ability to pass the ball everywhere he wants , he was literally anti-pressure, luis figo describe him as someone no one can catch on the field,
he was like when you play Fifa, you push X , O or Triangle immediately without the need to control the ball, making accurate forward pass without thinking and he did that effortlessly all the time, it looks simple on TV but very hard to do , other top footballer knew how good he was and how they must stop him at all cost if they want to beat united


the reason why we dominate epl for years was because of paul scholes was our midfield general
 
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JohnLocke said:
Bradford I think.
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Nope, that goal certainly didn’t touch the keeper;) I may have worded the description badly, the goal wasn’t in the corner or anything, just hit hard directly from a corner and the keeper got a hand on it but couldn’t keep it out.

What a player
 
Handré1990 said:
Nope, that goal certainly didn’t touch the keeper;) I may have worded the description badly, the goal wasn’t in the corner or anything, just hit hard directly from a corner and the keeper got a hand on it but couldn’t keep it out.

What a player
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Fulham.
 
For me the key is what the players say about you....not so much at retirement as everyone says nice things then...I'm sure you can dig out nice comments from the world stars when lampard or gerrard retired.

But when asked pretty much in every interview the best player the utd ex pros say they have played with is Scholes. And we used to have a team with plenty to choose from. Also often the opposition say the same I remember Henry annoying carragher on MNF one time by saying scholes over gerrard.

Scholes ability to dictate the pace of a match his passing ability (short, long, quick or slow) was exceptional. You don't see this in stats.
 
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My favorite player ever. Full of grace, humility and poise. Thinking of the way he used to spray the ball from one end of the pitch to the other still gives me chills.

He could pass short, long, tackle, head, score. The complete midfield maestro. Could play as a DM, AM, box to box...

He is one of a few players I wish I could clone.

I always felt that we would not lose a league title in any season due to his consistency levels.

Paul Scholes quality was inimitable.
 
cu3 said:
I definitely started watching football after Scholes's prime years had passed.

But, one question I always had about Scholes is, how he is regarded as one of the greatest midfielder of all time, when his tackling was average at the most?
Click to expand...

Zidane, Pirlo, Xavi some other greats that were poor at tackling as well. cant be much great midfield players for you
 
Kemizee said:
My favorite player ever. Full of grace, humility and poise. Thinking of the way he used to spray the ball from one end of the pitch to the other still gives me chills.

He could pass short, long, tackle, head, score. The complete midfield maestro. Could play as a DM, AM, box to box...

He is one of a few players I wish I could clone.

I always felt that we would not lose a league title in any season due to his consistency levels.

Paul Scholes quality was inimitable.
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:wenger:
 
He always looked like he had 2 more seconds thank everyone else when he had the ball.

That's how good he was.
 
He had remarkable spatial awareness. Add that to his ability to pop little passes off using all parts of his feet and it made him highly press resistant. Run stupidly as Scholes and he would be deflecting a ball through a gap to a runner with the opposition midfield having to scramble to recover.

That was his key skill, forget the long passing and superb shots, they were bonuses but the fact that his teammates could trust him with the ball in any area under pressure, not just trust him to keep the ball, but to find a progressive pass was a huge part of the confidence the team had.
 
xavi - pirlo - scholes - gerrard - lampard - xabi alonso ... what an era.. to sum up, a tier 1 midfielder generation that will never ever exist again.
 
How good? How do you scale it?

The best analogy I have of his talent is that he could make an entire team good. If we had prime Scholes in our team today Mourinhos job would look so much easier. If Paul Scholes had been playing for us today he would make the entire team «click». Paul Pogba would look like the player he did at Juve, and we would be capable of challenging City.

The most influential Man Utd-player I have ever seen.
 
Amazing hybrid of CAM, playmaker, and deep-playmaker. He had it all, tiki-taka, range-of passing, ping-pong passes all over the pitch, shooting from distance, running from deep, goals, poaching, core-centre of attacks, that trademark turn of his beating his markers, birdeye-view visions, unpredictable creativity, controlling tempo of games, fighting spirit... an epitome of inspiration and amazement. But more importantly...

Can play in midfield two, despite his defensive flaws. lol
 
Xavi played better than him at his peak, true. But, put Scholes in that Barca team and I'm convinced he could have matched Xavi at his peak.
 
cu3 said:
I definitely started watching football after Scholes's prime years had passed.

But, one question I always had about Scholes is, how he is regarded as one of the greatest midfielder of all time, when his tackling was average at the most?
Click to expand...
How great of a tackler did you think Xavi was? Iniesta, Kroos, Modric, Busquets and just about most great European midfielders?
 
Prodigal7 said:
Xavi played better than him at his peak, true. But, put Scholes in that Barca team and I'm convinced he could have matched Xavi at his peak.
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That's the part that I don't understand with the Xavi argument. No team in the history of the game supported their midfield as much as that Barcelona team. The amount of movement and options to every player at all times was higher than any other team. Scholes was playing in a footballing culture that is entirely different where midfielders stood out thanks to their stamina and box to box contributions. Obviously Xavi was also an essential part in making that team tick which makes him an all time great but the comparison is just so silly.
 
The most complete player I’ve ever seen, and I count it lucky to have watched him play live. There are some things the telly doesn’t pick up on, and primarily it’s his off the ball work rate and positioning.

The mark of a true great is how easy he makes the game look, and for those who’ve watched him live, it’s easy to see that Scholes made the game look, well, incredibly easy. Despite his limited athleticism, you could rarely if ever mark him out of a game. He always seemed to buy himself more time on the ball than it’s possible, amazing timing on runs, finishing and of course, a master of every single type of pass available. And despite what’s said about his tackling, I beg to differ, Scholes is not a bad tackler, but a cynical one. Every time he goes in, it’s obvious that he knows what he’s doing.

Say what you want about Fergie’s Fledlings, but for me he’s simply the best of a generation.
 
Scholes was good but he also played in thre right era. Swap Robbo and Scholes around and Robbo would have won Balon D'or. Dont know if Scholes would have stood out that much in the 80s teams when the rest of the players were pretty average, and the pitches were mudfields.
 
wolvored said:
Scholes was good but he also played in thre right era. Swap Robbo and Scholes around and Robbo would have won Balon D'or. Dont know if Scholes would have stood out that much in the 80s teams when the rest of the players were pretty average, and the pitches were mudfields.
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I don't buy these time period arguments. Scholes wouldn't have done well in most of the older years because the level of footballers was lower and no one could keep up with his passing and movement. Robson would bomb in the Barca team as technically not good enough (despite being good in that area) but that doesn't take away from how great he was in his era and for the teams he played in.
 
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