Souness or Merson?

Suppose you had to be there, but although Merson was terrific and a different position...Souness by a country mile.
Tough as teak, incredible passing range, spatial awareness and had a goal in him.
Nobody, as in nobody, fron Liverpool, Man Utd etc in the 70's was anywhere near as complete a midfielder as Souness.
"Born Is The King of Ayresone Park".....
 
Soutra said:
Easily Graeme Souness. He could play a role like Merson did, but Merson couldn't play Souness' role.

And Merson just took the easy options through his career, he wasn't driven like Souness. Could Merson have cut it at Liverpool? No, he would have made an excuse and bailed.
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Souness could not play the same role as Merson .
 
Must be a shed load of 65 + year olds on this forum with fantastic memories.

I’m in my 40s and I’ve watched a lot of our Jack Charlton stuff on YouTube. The standard of football was terrible. I mean terrible. Souness was a good player but if you watch some boro games from 72-78 you’ll see him make plenty of bad passes and horrible tackles.

Nasty footballer.

Merson for me. Absolute quality.

Not Juninho but a close runner up.
 
Juninhos_Socks said:
Must be a shed load of 65 + year olds on this forum with fantastic memories.

I’m in my 40s and I’ve watched a lot of our Jack Charlton stuff on YouTube. The standard of football was terrible. I mean terrible. Souness was a good player but if you watch some boro games from 72-78 you’ll see him make plenty of bad passes and horrible tackles.

Nasty footballer.

Merson for me. Absolute quality.

Not Juninho but a close runner up.
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Yes, that's me!
My first away match I watched Souness destroy Fulham at Craven Cottage 1974 (0-4). Strong, hard, intelligent, commanding. I still remember his performance.
Yet I thought Merson had a stroke of genius.
 
Souness, but do you know what brought it home to me how good Merson really was? That fun World Cup doco where Harry Redknapp put together a team of old soaks to go and play legends football against Germany.

Merson was still unbelievably good and the best player on the pitch by some margin. Was like watching 1998 all over again when he was playing a different game to everyone else around him.

I’m too young to have watched him closely in his Arsenal pomp but I reckon his influence on that team is underrated with time and the TV character he’s become. Especially considering the way he lived his life - up all night doing lines and smashing pints Wed-Fri, bossing it at the top end of the PL on a Saturday.

His autobiography is shocking. For anyone who hasn’t read it, it’s not like Eden Hazard turning up with a hangover and scoring a hattrick - Merson would do 48 hour coke binges and go straight from the all night pub to training, for years.
 
Juninhos_Socks said:
Must be a shed load of 65 + year olds on this forum with fantastic memories.

I’m in my 40s and I’ve watched a lot of our Jack Charlton stuff on YouTube. The standard of football was terrible. I mean terrible. Souness was a good player but if you watch some boro games from 72-78 you’ll see him make plenty of bad passes and horrible tackles.

Nasty footballer.

Merson for me. Absolute quality.

Not Juninho but a close runner up.
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I agree it is hard to compare across eras but my old fella compared Mannion (favourably) to Juninho and I think you have to assume the talent would span the years.

The point is that if you had seen Souness and Merson in the same Boro team, Merson would have been twice the player.
 
Juninhos_Socks said:
Must be a shed load of 65 + year olds on this forum with fantastic memories.

I’m in my 40s and I’ve watched a lot of our Jack Charlton stuff on YouTube. The standard of football was terrible. I mean terrible. Souness was a good player but if you watch some boro games from 72-78 you’ll see him make plenty of bad passes and horrible tackles.

Nasty footballer.

Merson for me. Absolute quality.

Not Juninho but a close runner up.
Click to expand...
”Nasty footballer”


What I would give for a “nasty footballer” like Souness in our line up right now.

By the way in your trawling of brief footage of games played in the 70s you will have seen football played on ploughed football fields where passing was not as easy as the bowling greens football is played on from the late 90s onwards. Sourness made playing on ploughed pitches effortless. But you d have to have seen and witnessed it rather than peering at grainy TV footage.

Making comparisons about footballers from slight different eras is always flawed but having seen both players, one in my teens the other in my late 30s it’s Souness every time.
 
Once again in defence of Souness:

In my opinion he was the main man in the greatest ever Liverpool team.

There's only one player I think was possibly better than Souness. Roy Keane
 
Souness, I’d bet if you asked any football fan of any team the same question they’d all say Souness, even Arsenal fans
 
We didn't see Merson in his prime, we saw him in the second tier, which is where Souness was for his first full season.

Comparing the two seasons, Merson had the biggest influence but Souness was by far the more accomplished footballer. He skippered the best side in the country winning trophy after trophy.
 
Souness made the point about the state of the pitches he played on recently on talk sport. Said he would have got more goals if he played today.

My favourite player of all time.

I did however go to a night match at Port Vale (I think) and Merson ran the length of the pitch before falling flat on his face on the goal line. He must have been knackered and ready to puke. He just lifted his head off the ground and looked at the crowd and had a massive smile on his face.
 
Given how many people think Merson got us promoted 'on his own' its not a totally daft question. No one ever says that about Souness!

Of course, its not true in Merson's case either. I never saw Souness until the very later stages of his career but in terms of footballing achievements/profile he is way ahead.
 
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