That’s a really good shout. To be honest, I found it very hard to think about matches for all of these players.

Especially Diego Costa and Drogba. They really don’t make them like them anymore.

Yes I remember when Robben came. Immediately he looked a completely different class to the wingers we had in the league.

Tore the league up… then got a bad injury.

Great player to watch as well.

Drogba: Guirassy

Diego Costa: Lautaro Martinez

Anelka: Benzema

Robben: Rafael Leao

Henry: Mbappe

Lampard: Van de Beek or Mount but much better - I don’t think he plays like Lampard at all

Side note, I’m a Liverpool fan and I’m surprised people are suggesting Robben was nowhere near Salah’s level.

At Robben’s peak, I would say he was equally influential - he just was injured ALL the time. Never had a full season whereas Salah is never injured. I don’t think it’s disrespectful to compare them at all.

I really struggle to think of better wingers of that generation.

Lol what?? I am amazed anyone agrees with this.

He was certainly talented but never, ever, at any point of his career was he doing what Haaland is doing now or has done for the last 4 years.

He’s at a goal every 60-70 minutes for 4 years.

Pato was quick, skillful and could finish but this is a bizarre comparison.

While I understand the disdain for people blindly using stats, the argument that stats don’t matter is ignoring that people have their own biases.

Both your opinion (which is all your “understanding” is - an opinion) and the facts (which is what the stats are) need to be put into context.

My opinion: comparing Ten Hag and Klopp is not putting the stats into the context of the jobs they started in but…

United want to play out from the back but have lost their best ball playing defender in Martinez and their two left backs which were inverted at the start of the season. Now he is using players he wanted to get rid of. This would make a huge difference to any team. Despite that, they are not that far off the top four and it’s important to consider that when all these calls of “sack him” are ringing through the media.

Chelsea have been playing well, just not finishing their chances likely because of their lack of maturity. They will improve naturally, not just because of the “direction” but they have heavily invested in a very young team that are going to improve individually over the next few years.

I have a bias that Ten Hag is a good manager and that I think young teams that develop together like Arsenal did can be very successful. None of those are facts and the stats will actually tell if I am correct or not in the end.

I’m a fan of neither of these teams but I think they have cause for optimism.