Gareth Bale

How does he do it? There are other players in that liminal 'wide player' non-category between wing-back and winger who seem to have similar qualities eg Taiwo, Vargas -- it's scarcely a novel idea to have explosive running power on the flanks, but Bale already is way outstripping that echelon of players.....his productivity is at the level of someone like Malouda or Krasic, yet they tend to play further forward.

The way Bale plays now is really anomalous, almost a hybrid of Valencia and Cristiano Ronaldo....byline crosses but rare sangfroid and prodigious finishing.

The paradox is that you wonder if he would be ~less~ effective as a true wing-forward, because whilst his technical level is a little above Krasic/Valencia, he isn't exceptionally skilful; he has fantastic shooting technique (similar to Gerrard) but he doesn't have the tricksiness of Robinho, Nani et al or exceptional close control like Pedro, Nasri - perhaps to be expected given his size. There's a suggestion he'll always need a little space in front of him to be most effective, not that he can't deceive with feints or cut inside but he needs the ~threat~ of overpowering a full-back down the flank to induce the necessary consternation.

It's unlikely Tottenham can keep him for more than another season, but what happens if he ends up at a top-tier side? In Italy or Spain you suspect he would be indulged as a nominal fullback but with greater license than he'd get here. The depressing prospect of a £40m move to City would probably see him preserved as a quasi-winger. Though I guess he's the most ~complete~ prospect to emerge in a while and there's the possibility that some enterprising manager will try to convert him to a more central position, it's not difficult to imagine a 25 yr old Bale doing most of what Gerrard did in his best days playing behind Torres.

he has another gear of pace that lets him lift his head as if he's jogging when fullbacks are sprinting to keep up.

his control of the ball at full pace is also exceptional

what's the opposite of cunted? cocked?
http://i54.tinypic.com/sety87.gif

i believe pro evo was first here..."he dicks it in"

anyway, he's no wilshere

A few hacks have said ~deceptively fast~ which is one of those curious codewords usually applied to players who aren't really fast, but aren't not-fast. Bale doesn't have amazing first-step speed, though his power makes up for it, and once on his way he just keeps accelerating. But his athletic qualities aren't ~that~ rare tbrr. I'm not sure about exceptional close control either, when he's at full-pace it's more about making sure the penultimate touch is perfectly weighted for the pass/shot, and he's very effective there (unlike Lennon, say).

coutinho was more wowing in the last game, bale is obv more advanced in his career but hard to say where he'll go from here.

There's a suggestion he'll always need a little space in front of him to be most effective, not that he can't deceive with feints or cut inside but he needs the ~threat~ of overpowering a full-back down the flank to induce the necessary consternation

nicely put.

think you're selling bale's touch short. and his acceleration is good, but his legs-stretching pace is exceptional i think.

Maybe I underrate him there cuz his endurance is kinda amazing.....can burn through defences even in injury time. And his control at speed is good....it's different for powerful, explosive 6'+ players, irl they're never going to have Messi level touch. But within that category he's not quite as poised as say Torres or Balotelli, and I'd expect someone like Alves would cause him problems.

he'd cause alves as many, tho. rate maicon as better than alves.

he has a willowy whip quality that most full/wing backs dont, compare his lithe crossing to the passive aggressive tension of ashley cole whacking it every time.

There was something amiss with Maicon tonight....anyway I can imagine Bale coming unstuck against a smaller, nimbler, technical full-back who can just nick possession off his toes, kinda like Ronaldo found Ashley Cole. There aren't a lot of great right-backs around though so Bale is def going to be 'tearing some new a-hole' in the 2k10s.

the passive aggressive tension of ashley cole whacking it every time

LJ doesn't have a display name right now does he?

.anyway I can imagine Bale coming unstuck against a smaller, nimbler, technical full-back who can just nick possession off his toes,

yeah, a 'defender's' right back that tackles him early akes him work p neville was prob on the other side of legal in dealing with him lately imo, but he kept him quiet by sticking to him and snapping early at him.

Has he played against Ivanovic yet?

ha

one or t'other dont finish that game imo

Ivanovic in third round with TKO

LJ doesn't have a display name right now does he?

hmph

the nation's least favourite right back

gareth bale

the point about the quality of bale's crossing is quite true...like to be fair, you see huge volumes of those low crosses where the commentator is all "just needed a touch" or whatever, but not actually a huge amount where someone scores.

he picks his man, look at those two balls in tonight

Has any player gone from laughing stock to world class so quickly? I still considered him a busted flush back in January and then suddenly woah.

never considered him laughing stock tbh. misused and injured.

The 'Bale curse' thing was a bit freaky. I knew he was better than that but didn't suspect he'd ever get this good.

http://i54.tinypic.com/sety87.gif

Nice contrast between the sublime weight/trajectory of the delivery and the scrappy conversion.....Bale reverts to spectator as soon as it leaves it foot, just ~inviting~ Crouch to try and find some way to fuck up a cross that good.

Crouch did quite well there with his movement imho

but then he knew *exactly* what sort of ball he'd be getting I suppose, which is Bale's genius

crouch did well for that goal, but still not good enough tonight again.

As of last season I would have said Vargas > Bale although I haven't seen Viola this season and I guess he/they suck now?

he'd cause alves as many, tho. rate maicon as better than alves.

― cant believe you sb'd me for that (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 23:03 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

btw maicon has been dropped from the brazil team because he has been out of sorts since the start of the world cup (classic goal excepted). only nakh seems to have been thinking in terms of form opposition and trying not to overrate bale's game.

I really do like watching this guy play. He's a bit of a mix between Kuyt and Ronaldo (minus step overs) imo with maybe a bit of Pires thrown in. Everything about his game, or when I've seen him in the past year is about being effective - there is nothing indulgent in his game at all. Cannot wait to see him in front of a left back who isn't a liability.

Also take a moment to think about the Welsh midfield in 5 years.

Ledley* Collison** Ramsey Bale

maybe more exciting than

Johnson Rodwell Wilshere Walcott

*although i guess scottish football may have ruined his career? need a celtic fan to update.
**when he leaves WHU and joins a proper team - would love to see him in the last years of Fergie tbrr.

OFF TOPIC but all i could notice in this gif is his dick flopping everywhere -- dude needs to strap that thing down imo

http://i54.tinypic.com/sety87.gif

awesome at football, hasn't yet been accused of rape* and has a large penis - poor boy has it too hard.

*will come eventually, this week it was klasnic.

that's not his willy, it's jermain defoe

*although i guess scottish football may have ruined his career? need a celtic fan to update

Jury still out on Joe Ledley in Scotland - he's had to play a few games at left back (where he dropped no major clangers that I recall) since Neil Lennon didn't believe us all when we said Charlie Mulgrew was gash. Signing an actual real left back and injuries to Scott Brown and Beram Kayal have seen him playing midfield again and forming what looks like a decent partnership with Ki Sung Yung, but no idea how long that'll last when the other two come back. I don't think Scottish football will ruin him so much as signing for a team with 8 zillion midfield options though.

There you go. You can go back to talking about Gareth Bale now.

Ledley has never impressed outside of one or two performances imo. Not impressing still puts him ahead of a lot of the squad, but I still wouldn't say he's looked like anything to write home about.

Also take a moment to think about the Welsh midfield in 5 years.

Ledley* Collison** Ramsey Bale

maybe more exciting than

Johnson Rodwell Wilshere Walcott

imo.

*although i guess scottish football may have ruined his career? need a celtic fan to update.
**when he leaves WHU and joins a proper team - would love to see him in the last years of Fergie tbrr.

― gazza bale flame (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 3 November 2010 06:45 (4 hours ago)

Those players are technically good enough (Ledley excepted) that they might not have to play 4-4-2....

Jordan Henderson also looks interesting.

Take Bale out of that Wales midfield and it ain't all that.

is Henderson Welsh? Well him instead of Ledley makes that even better.

Ramsey > Bale tyvm

And I overlooked in the op how dangerous Bale could be on the right flank cutting inside. Not sure if he's played there yet?

david noble, thudd

No Henderson is English.....but Rodwell/Henderson/Wilshere is a promising midfield.

ramsey is not better than bale...for god's sake.

Well now he's broken, sure. But those two months he ran the Arsenal midfield when Cesc was out > Wilshere tbh, and Wilshere > Bale.

Nordtveit > Lúcio > Djourou > Piqué

why do you even say this rubbish...do you think it's a global conspiracy that bale is getting huge attention for his recent performances and nothing of the kind happened ramsey during that time? ramsey isn't even guaranteed to be a top player yet...

In fairness, Phil Neville shut Bale out of the game completely the other week.

i agree bale is overhyped...it's actually pretty annoying. but i think he's done far more to deserve hype than aaron ramsey.

Maybe. There was some talk of Pep wanting to move Ribery on but that might be nonsense.

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmcase/Results/1/UK00002657917

haha

has anyone done a 'shop of that yet with the Wu-Tang logo in the middle

goatseeeee

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67521000/jpg/_67521553_168311540.jpg

Gareth Frank Bale (born 16 July 1989) is a Welsh footballer who plays for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the Wales national team as a winger.

for posterity

Not going anywhere.

http://distilleryimage4.ak.instagram.com/8916abf6f5a711e2a61a22000a9e06f0_7.jpg

spotted in times square

billboard has apparently been taken down already.

the best british players (apart from the actual best ie scholes) do tend to conform a force-of-nature type, gerrard is the best example and rooney when he is indulged, oxlade chamberlain is another of those players who 'could play anywhere' which usually means 'will play everywhere'

― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Saturday, 24 March 2012 21:03 (1 year ago)

ross barkley is another to add to that list, he is very gifted but he doesn't have any sort of composure or natural discipline in his play, and it's not just because he is young

I am always faintly surprised when I remember that you rate Gerrard.

gerrard without the long passes would be a hell of a player

gerrard is a hell of a player, the long passes would have been crushed out of him elsewhere but they show passion and desire and plus he can kick it really hard and these are v good things in the british isles obv

ancelotti's madrid will be such a different team to tottenham of the last few years that i imagine him becoming yet another sort of player, that he will be broken down and remade in a different image

he just isn't going to be able to play with the license he has had for most of the last two seasons

Gareth Bale has a slipped disc on the L5 -S1 vertebrae and a bulge on the L4 -L5. This amounts to a significant injury which, at least for the moment, isn't giving him trouble and won't prevent him from playing for the foreseeable future. However, further down the line it may force him off the pitch and, depending on how things progress, may even require surgery.

Real Madrid medical staff diagnosed the injury on 2nd September, the day of his official presentation at the club. The MRI scan left no room for doubt: a slipped disc on the L5 -S1 vertebrae and a bulge, which is the beginnings of another, on L4 -L5. An injury that set alarm bells ringing at the Sanitas clinic in La Moraleja, just outside Madrid, and from where Florentino Pérez was informed of the injury hiding in the former Tottenham player's spine.

Bale said he hadn't noticed any pain at all and claimed he had never had problems in that area before.

There was no going back on the signing. The deal was done and Florentino Pérez, who was now up to speed on Bale's secret, did not object. The € 91million deal was going to go ahead as planned and neither hell nor high water would prevent Bale from running onto the pitch at the Bernabeú in a Nº 11 shirt, in front of a 40,000 strong crowd.

Since he was in no pain, the club chose not to dwell on it. But those who saw that MRI scan know all too well that they may face a very serious problem with the Welsh player at any moment...

levy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvW6qiTkZdw

In response to the information that the newspaper Marca has published today regarding the player Gareth Bale, Real Madrid would like to state the following:

1. The information published, claiming that the player has a slipped disc on the L5-S1 vertebrae and a bulge on two others, is completely false.

2. The player does not have a slipped disc, as the club's medical services stated clearly to the newspaper before the information was published. Surprisingly, the version the doctors offered this media outlet on Thursday 10 October has been omitted.

3. The player Gareth Bale has a small chronic disc bulge, which is extremely common among football players and by no means prevents him from carrying out his professional activity normally.

http://i.imgur.com/iEpb7Uu.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvzxmUSEYk8

s'alright I suppose

Gareth Fail.

my friend insisted on showing me this goal on his phone

lol

valdano was negging him in midweek, some of the madrid press seem to be ever so slightly disappointed that all he does is run really fast and finish with impeccable technique from ever angle, this is what you get

10 in 17 in the league despite arriving injured and getting injured again midseason

i'm content seeing him have a quietly accomplished first season while he acclimatizes & gets over his injuries. it's so rare to see a successful british export, i've ended up wanting to see him excel despite myself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUln6RCw4NU

http://i.imgur.com/8OQprPI.jpg

"bale makes hay"
About 13,700 results

there are some pissy comments bout the awkward looking right footed touch that brings the ball into the box

clumsy as it looks, it ensures he is clearly in front of barta so that any attempt to get the ball is a certain penalty, and gives him a better shooting angle

the 'speed merchant' calumnizers misread the sort of calculation that allows a player to eke everything possible from his athleticism, being fast is only half the story

http://nesncom.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/gareth-bale-goal-barcelona-real-madrid-copa-del-rey-2014-final.gif

bottle job from tata there tbh

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/11/268A5A1100000578-0-image-a-60_1426085641539.jpg

Gareth Bale was berated as he left the Santiago Bernabeu after Real Madrid's 4-3 defeat by Schalke on Tuesday night

That's one for the "things you always sing to a tune" thread, because the next line is "PC McGarry Number 452".

i'm afraid seven nation army has that cadence sewn up. it's a shame

Haha I immediately sang that as Seven Nation Army without even questioning it, it was just an automatic reaction.

Reading this thread back was kinda fun.

Ramsey has been a mixture of crocked/shit this season huh?

he was terrible against schalke alright but even as a RW under avb that was purely a nominal ruse to cut in and shoot/score, the last night he was going wide and crossing off his right and it wasn't pretty

still, 8 games seems a bit dramatic to base "move" stories on

crocked would in fairness account for uh call it stuttering form alright

which out of utd or rm would turn down angel de maria +£40m for gareth bale?

RM obv missing lil luka, but they also can't really defend the wings playing those 3 up top. Could get Bale to play more as a wide midfielder and tilt the central mids towards the left but does Bale really want to do that?

If I didn't loathe him so much I might feel a little sorry for how much stick he's been getting from the bernabeau. But seeing as I do I'm finding it p funny.

Face it Gareth, you're just a poor mans McManaman.

http://www.squawka.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/wA6eBA0.png

ouch

could maybe do a job for us as cover for Jonny and Vinagre

155 appearances and 78 goals for Real is way more than I expected for someone who still gets treated as a flop despite literally winning them the Champions League a year ago.

Yeah i assume he goes out on the town wearing a Barca shirt and punching babies otherwise i don't really get it

with his left only obv