I was watching some goal highlights of both players and it dawned on me that they have never scored a freekick! It is kindof depressing that the two supposed faces of football lack so much to their game. Mbappe is probably the player most would agree is the best in the world but the fact that he is doesn’t bode well for the coming generation.
Why do you think both players have been so abysmal at freekicks? They don’t need to be great but at least score at least one. My goodness
This is so dumb! 😕
I would love to see a statistic or a graph of freekicks scored throughout, let’s say the last 20 or 15 years.
Would you rather KdB take the free kicks for your team or have Ronaldo blast 99/100 into the stands? If I were Pep I’d keep the guy who is really good at free kicks on free kicks instead of putting Haaland on them.
Ronaldo in his peak was probably the best free kick taker
Do you mean best taker ever or best in the world at the time? I def agree with the second one he was a menace in 2007-10 with free kicks
Scoring that free kick during the World Cup against Spain 3-2 down required an insane amount of talent to do under that type of pressure. It was Beckham level. That was in 2018. I love Messi but even he flopped hard when put in a similar situation at the 2014 World Cup final.
He never was
As much as we try to force it, we will never see two players with the profiles of Messi and Ronaldo go against each other ever again. Having two such complete attackers playing at that level for that long is a once in a lifetime event. Things like set pieces were never necessarily the specialty of elite goalscorers.
Free kicks are a skill that often take years to truly perfect. JWP has the best conversion rate in the top leagues but he only really became the best a few years ago, before that he was just above average. Both Haaland and Mbappe are young. If they want, they have plenty of time to work on their deadball capability in training. But in truth it’s just not that important of a skill in the grand scheme of things, so working on other aspects of their game just makes more sense
Jwp has anyways been an elite free kick taker
Not to forget that Man City already has one of the best set piece takers in the world, in addition to which you’d arguably rather have Haaland in the box for a free-kick
If Haaland was the best free kick taker for scoring goals then not really.
Haaland doesn’t have the finesse to score freekicks (yet), and city has better options so why on earth would pep let him take free kicks he can’t score. Mbappe was never the first option free kick taker, but I think he’s better than haaland at it (neither are really good tho). They’re young and they have time to develop that part of the game. Your view of the best player in the world is somewhat muddied. We’ve been spoilt by Messi and Ronaldo; but sometimes you just can’t do it all, simple as that.
Haaland is almost 2 meters tall and phenomenal at positioning for quick reactive strikes. Why would he take free kicks?
Yeah so? What do freekicks have to do with anything?
Some people have the weirdest views on football. I don’t know if their only reference is Fifa or some shit but something is seriously wrong.
Being good at free kicks has requires abilities more common in midfielders than strikers.
In current football the good free kick takers are the players with good passing accuracy. Wingers fall into this category, but Mbappe is not a “true” winger
Messi and Ronaldo are anomalies that we probably will never experience again
ive heard some specialist saying that generally football is so atheltic right now that players are rarely allowed to practice beyond what the club prescribes them and stuff like free kicks was always a question of the players praciticing it till they get sick of it (i think roberto carlos in an interview said it not sure tho), like this is how u got Roger Ceni
Bro ronaldo and Messi have set the standard/ expectations sooo high that it will be near impossible to Rival their feats…stop comparing them to the kids now, they have a lot way to g, they haven’t achieved eve a fraction of what those two GOATS have achieved
It’s a team game. Whoever is better would take it. It’s a team game. Everyone has a role to play. There is no need to compare them with others. They’re unique in their own way
Why would either be taking free kicks if there are better players in the team? They’re probably not bad at them but there’s no need for them to take them regularly if they play in teams that have players who are more capable. It’s more beneficial for them and their teams for them to focus on other aspects of their game
Interesting. I think Haaland makes sense to not be assigned as the free kick taker. With his size and finishing/heading ability, he is much likelier to score off a free kick rebound or cross, than to score the free kick itself.
Mbappe is indeed a little more puzzling, but I think it boils down to 2 things:
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Kicking a dead ball is suprisingly unpredictive to a player’s general footballing ability. Relatively speaking of course. Most greats like Messi, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho are great FK takers. Some, like Ronaldo Nazario, aren’t. Some of the best FK takers like Juninho and James Ward-Prowse are not considered amongst the greats. Mbappe is probably ‘merely good’ at the FK.
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He does not have many seasons at the top flight and in those he always had a teammate with world class FK ability. Moutinho at Monaco, and Neymar, Di Maria, and Messi at PSG. So there never was a need for him to get better at it
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