5 former Premier League legends who would make an impact today
The general consensus in any sport is that quality improves over time, mainly due to advancements in fitness, nutrition, injury rehabilitation and so forth. Football is no different for the most part, but due to the skill level of the players being so important, it’s easy to make an argument that the stars of the past might be better than the stars of today.
While it’s impossible to truly guess how the likes of Pele and Best may have done in today’s modern game – they both played almost half a century ago now – it’s a little easier to look back at the early era of the Premier League, the mid to late 1990’s.
The game has advanced since then, no doubt, but some of the players back then could easily still have done just as well in today’s Premier League. Here are five of them.
#1 Peter Schmeichel
The legendary Danish goalkeeper won basically everything outside of a World Cup in his career, and was a key part of the Manchester United side that won the Treble (Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League) in 1999.
Once he left United after eight seasons, Schmeichel was still one of the best and most reliable keepers in the league, spending one season at Aston Villa and then a season at Manchester City – United’s great rivals.
What made Schmeichel so great? Well, like all great keepers he was a tremendous shot-stopper, he was both huge and athletic, and he was rarely caught out of position or seen dropping crosses. He also had the tendency to charge towards an oncoming attacker, making himself appear far bigger than he actually was, which enabled him to stop many a potential goal.
Perhaps Schmeichel’s best asset though – in an era before the “sweeper-keeper”, was his ability to set up attacks in an instant – not by using his feet, but by accurately launching the ball down the field with a huge throw.
For me, today’s top keepers like Courtois, Lloris and Cech pale in comparison to the giant Dane, who would probably still be recognised as the best in the game if he came around today.