The most talented Boro players you’ve seen at the Riverside

For out and out talent, I'd say Viduka, followed by Boksic and Juninho.

Honourable mentions for Murdoch, Souness and Mendi.
 
It never ceases to amaze me when people say Emerson was unplayable for 3 months. It was in fact 6 PL games (4 weeks) - in the 7th game Patrick Vieira put him in his back pocket and he was never the same again. If people doubt that, how did we manage to go 12 games without a win (over 3 months from 14th September until Boxing Day) with this supposed dominant midfielder playing alongside Juninho and Ravanelli? We scored 7 and conceded 26 in that 12 game run. If Emerson had been anything other than a complete passenger, that record would not have been so pathetic.
 
WilliamMunny said:
It never ceases to amaze me when people say Emerson was unplayable for 3 months. It was in fact 6 PL games (4 weeks) - in the 7th game Patrick Vieira put him in his back pocket and he was never the same again. If people doubt that, how did we manage to go 12 games without a win (over 3 months from 14th September until Boxing Day) with this supposed dominant midfielder playing alongside Juninho and Ravanelli? We scored 7 and conceded 26 in that 12 game run. If Emerson had been anything other than a complete passenger, that record would not have been so pathetic.
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The Inter friendly was the main match that got people excited about Emerson I reckon.
 
Juninho, Boksic and Viduka would be my top three, but I would also give honourable mentions to Merson, Barmby, Hignett, Ziege, Zenden, Ramirez and Traore
 
WilliamMunny said:
It never ceases to amaze me when people say Emerson was unplayable for 3 months. It was in fact 6 PL games (4 weeks) - in the 7th game Patrick Vieira put him in his back pocket and he was never the same again. If people doubt that, how did we manage to go 12 games without a win (over 3 months from 14th September until Boxing Day) with this supposed dominant midfielder playing alongside Juninho and Ravanelli? We scored 7 and conceded 26 in that 12 game run. If Emerson had been anything other than a complete passenger, that record would not have been so pathetic.
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People see that season with real rose tinted spectacles because of the cup finals and three points. Ravenelli scored most of his goals at home against weaker opposition, Emerson went missing for half the season and when Juninho was stopped from playing we were ineffective.....only when Festa and Schwarzer joined did we have a side capable of challenging the best....see one nil at home v Chelsea and 3-3 away to Man Utd. Our brilliant performances early season were against sides who turned out to be our relegation rivals and we failed to beat either of the two sides who went down with us :rolleyes:
 
Definitely a mention for Viduka. I know it comes up on here plenty of times 'who's the best CF' and it's always him for me. I don't know many players who've had the same 'skill set' as in a target man with silky skills.

Boksic was a stunning signing. A classic 'on his day' yet not enough for me due to niggley injuries. I remember his debut away at Coventry. I just thought 'what's he doing with us'. (one of the highest payed players in the league... That's something to do with it😂).
 
WilliamMunny said:
It never ceases to amaze me when people say Emerson was unplayable for 3 months. It was in fact 6 PL games (4 weeks) - in the 7th game Patrick Vieira put him in his back pocket and he was never the same again. If people doubt that, how did we manage to go 12 games without a win (over 3 months from 14th September until Boxing Day) with this supposed dominant midfielder playing alongside Juninho and Ravanelli? We scored 7 and conceded 26 in that 12 game run. If Emerson had been anything other than a complete passenger, that record would not have been so pathetic.
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I agree his good spell was very brief. When he arrived he was unplayable. The thread was the most skillful, not the most consistent or best loved or hardest worker. Emerson was crap on every metric except his skill.
 
JM14 said:
Valdes too, you could tell just how good he actually was despite never really wanting to be at the club. Didnt ever think we would get anyone from that Barcelona side playing for Middlesbrough
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Valdes was ****.
 
Juninho - Thread over

( I do have a Juninho hot chocolate mug and a framed wall art - so I might be biased haha )
 
Otto42 said:
People see that season with real rose tinted spectacles because of the cup finals and three points. Ravenelli scored most of his goals at home against weaker opposition, Emerson went missing for half the season and when Juninho was stopped from playing we were ineffective.....only when Festa and Schwarzer joined did we have a side capable of challenging the best....see one nil at home v Chelsea and 3-3 away to Man Utd. Our brilliant performances early season were against sides who turned out to be our relegation rivals and we failed to beat either of the two sides who went down with us :rolleyes:
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Yes, our away perfromances especially were particularly dreadful. I think we had enough memorable games at home for people to overstate our quality. The team from 2004 to 2006 would've beaten that side easily.
Regarding Rav though most strikers score most of their goals against weaker opposition, that's always going to be the case, especially in a disfunctional team.
 
Laughing said:
I agree his good spell was very brief. When he arrived he was unplayable. The thread was the most skillful, not the most consistent or best loved or hardest worker. Emerson was crap on every metric except his skill.
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I don't doubt he had talent, but even that is overstated by Boro fans IMO. Regardless, people talk about being unpayable for 3 months (not necessarily you Laughing) - one poster even said he was the best midfielder in the league for 6 months - yet after the first 4 weeks of the season we went 13 weeks without a win in the league and only won 2 league games in 5 and a half months. In most of those we failed to score and couldn't keep a clean sheet for toffee. If we truly had the world's best midfielder in our ranks, alongside a creator supreme and an elite centre forward, how were we so poor at both ends of the pitch for so long?

He was great for 6 games, but in no way is that long enough to justify claims of him being the best midfielder in the league or the world. A younger, less experienced Patrick Vieira owned him on debut and I would suggest that had we signed him instead of Emerson, we would have been a vastly better team as a result.
 
WilliamMunny said:
I don't doubt he had talent, but even that is overstated by Boro fans IMO. Regardless, people talk about being unpayable for 3 months (not necessarily you Laughing) - one poster even said he was the best midfielder in the league for 6 months - yet after the first 4 weeks of the season we went 13 weeks without a win in the league and only won 2 league games in 5 and a half months. In most of those we failed to score and couldn't keep a clean sheet for toffee. If we truly had the world's best midfielder in our ranks, alongside a creator supreme and an elite centre forward, how were we so poor at both ends of the pitch for so long?

He was great for 6 games, but in no way is that long enough to justify claims of him being the best midfielder in the league or the world. A younger, less experienced Patrick Vieira owned him on debut and I would suggest that had we signed him instead of Emerson, we would have been a vastly better team as a result.
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I agree whilst the guy was very impressive during that period his good spell weas far too brief to be rated quite as highly as people claim. You've got to factor in something for consistency. When you look at his career stats of 23 goals in 429 games then it suggests he wasn't unplayable by a long way.
 
WilliamMunny said:
I don't doubt he had talent, but even that is overstated by Boro fans IMO. Regardless, people talk about being unpayable for 3 months (not necessarily you Laughing) - one poster even said he was the best midfielder in the league for 6 months - yet after the first 4 weeks of the season we went 13 weeks without a win in the league and only won 2 league games in 5 and a half months. In most of those we failed to score and couldn't keep a clean sheet for toffee. If we truly had the world's best midfielder in our ranks, alongside a creator supreme and an elite centre forward, how were we so poor at both ends of the pitch for so long?

He was great for 6 games, but in no way is that long enough to justify claims of him being the best midfielder in the league or the world. A younger, less experienced Patrick Vieira owned him on debut and I would suggest that had we signed him instead of Emerson, we would have been a vastly better team as a result.
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Vieria was another level.
 
S7DiscoDown said:
Definitely a mention for Viduka. I know it comes up on here plenty of times 'who's the best CF' and it's always him for me. I don't know many players who've had the same 'skill set' as in a target man with silky skills.

Boksic was a stunning signing. A classic 'on his day' yet not enough for me due to niggley injuries. I remember his debut away at Coventry. I just thought 'what's he doing with us'. (one of the highest payed players in the league... That's something to do with it😂).
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Codswallop. It was on Boksic's bucket list to play alongside Phil Stamp and Noel Whelan before retiring.
 
Depends on how you define talent I suppose, to me that means something which cannot be easily coached, or which is just natural.

So, from 1990 onwards:

Juninho had an incredible first touch, great speed and a knack of running will the ball at a distance where the defender thought he could get there first and nip it off him, and then never did, they just ended up on the floor, being made to look like a moron, I've never seen anyone match Juninho for that. His creativity was exceptional too. So for that role, he's a mile above anyone else I think.

Timing a run, to be in the right place at the right time is definitely Stuani, not seen anyone come anywhere near him for that.

Finishing, or the ball ending up in the net, right place right time, might first thought was Slaven, but might change that to Ravanelli, as Rav did it at the higher level.

Pog and Quedrue played with absolutely zero fear, which I used to love.

Southgate the best older style defender (suppose that can be coached), but Woodgate the best modern style defender, that's harder to coach.
 
JM14 said:
Valdes too, you could tell just how good he actually was despite never really wanting to be at the club. Didnt ever think we would get anyone from that Barcelona side playing for Middlesbrough
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I think Valdes, like many players gets overrated because they played for Barcelona.

Put him in any other side and he would be just above average, like how Bojan used to look class at Barca, and then crap for a poor team.

Saying that, Barcelona can also turn good players into poor or average players, especially those who go from being a big fish to just a fish, like Coutinho.
 
Viduka was class, it was very rare back then to have such a strong players with such good feet, I think he could have been so much better though.

I suppose we had two or three back then mind, with Jimmi and Yak, but they were all quite different in their own way.
 
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