Best defender ever?

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Beckenbauer or Baresi for me, Maldini close behind.

Not suggesting that they're at the same level but I've just noticed that in the 1991/2 La Liga season, Fernando Hierro scored 21 goals and Ronald Koeman got 16, making them 2nd and 4th top scorers in the whole league. Daniel Passarella was another defender who scored a lot of goals, although some of that is down to River Plate in the 70s/early 80s playing something akin to total football in the Argentinian league.
 


Slightly biased here but in the 70s/80s you'd have to go a long way to beat Dave Watson plus he was handy at the other end.
Bobby Moore so comfortable with the ball. More recently John Terry but he was a tw@t
 
Alovesuperb said:
Moore or Beckanbauer. modern day my favourite was Puyol.
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Loved Puyol. Took pleasure in defending. However the best moment I can recall is a video of him kicking off at his own players for play acting etc and also him dragging Ronaldinho over to be included in the Barca team pic after he’d been sold to Milan for the role he’d played the season before.

Excellent defender, better captain.
 
Comeback_Kenwyne said:
In terms of people I've seen, I think Ferdinand, Terry and Campbell will likely be vastly underrated in this debate, because they are, in their respective ways, all absolute whoppers. But we had a production line for a bit that only the Italians in my lifetime have surpassed. Carragher, King, Southgate, Adams, Woodgate - we were spoilt for choice for about 15 years.

You'd have to look at the great Italian four though - Maldini, Cannavaro, Nesta and Baresi.

You'd probably say Maldini was the best at club level, Cannavaro the best at a World Cup, but Baresi won it all and therefore probably takes it.

Probably Moore or Beckenbaeur only two that might place above him historically. Maybe Hansen, never saw him and difficult to decouple from his endless whinging on MotD. Dominated for a while though.

Would throw Lillian Thuram in as a contender too - he was a hell of a player in my opinion. More recently, I like Diego Godin as a classic warrior type centre back - really embodied Athletico's approach - and obviously Van Djik has hit a level recently that few ever reach.
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Great post, have a like.
 
Maldini for me, CB or FB he could play either comfortably and didn't get the cards others mentioned seemed to get, quick, great in the air and rarely seemed to get injured, 25 seasons at one club and playing until he was 41, I would love some of what he was on!!
 
socrates said:
Ive seen Bobby Moore livemany times andhim and Beckenbauer arebettertan anything ive seen.

Vigil Van Dyjk is the closest taht comes to them. Amazind defender.
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is that you kildare?
SkyblueHarry said:
For 'pure' (can't think of a suitable alternative) defending, I'd vote for Franco Baresi. He was a real warrior who seemed to have a 'they shall not pass' attitude towards defending. Can't even remember what he was like with the ball, but if he was marking a player, he was all over them like a rash.
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Met him and he made a speech about the size of a mans heart being more vital than his body size.
 
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