Two Most Over-Rated Premier League Left Backs – Evra & Assou-Ekotto
Who’s the world’s best left back? If your answer is Roberto Carlos, we are on the same page. There have been a lot of world-class right backs, Sergio Ramos, Maicon, Dani Alves and so on. How about left backs? Perhaps only Ashley Cole could achieve similar status. While Arsenal are struggling to replace Ashley Cole (for six years!), Manchester United and Tottenham appear to have enjoyed stability, at least, at their left back position. However playing regularly in a top team does not necessarily mean you’re a top player.
Patrice Evra joined during in January 2006 as Argentinan left back Gabriel Heinze was injured and needed swift cover. By the end of 2006, with compatriot Silvestre’s long-term injury, Evra had cemented his place in Manchester United’s starting lineup and have since played around fifty matches a season for the Red Devils and is now the stand-in skipper.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto was signed by then manager Martin Jol as a bright prospect in summer 2006 but it was not until his greatest admirer – Harry Redknapp – took over in season 2008-2009 that Assou-Ekotto was playing week in week out for Spurs. Even with superior physical strength compared to ordinary attacking full backs, he never established himself as a fan favorite since he surprisingly proclaimed his genuine motivation in playing football lies in his paycheck rather than passion for the sport.
His peak may have gone past
Evra does own a world-class resume: Four Premiership titles, three League Cups, one Champions League title, but people seldom realize his decline in work rate. He rarely earns the upper hand over top class wingers, let alone Jamie Mackie of QPR. His attacking form is also over-shadowed by the Brazilian Da Silva twins. What makes things worse is his incapability to follow the example of his fellows, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, to step up as an influential leader at the backline. When Manchester United was on the back foot in the infamous Derby loss and the crucial match at Basel, Evra had never delivered an inspirational moment throughout.
the same mindset as cashley cole, but the quality differs
Assou-Ekotto can concentrate on his defence duty while enjoying the partnership of the flamboyant Gareth Bale, though from time to time he looks shaky in key moments. Already reluctant to use his weaker foot, he has always failed to clear a ball promptly and showed a lack of concentration, most notably in leaving Sturridge unmarked in the box to allow Chelsea leveling the most recent derby. He can only hope this will not come back to haunt them by the end of the season, though we would guess Benoit can’t care less as long as he is paid.
While other Premier League teams are also having difficulty to field a natural and reliable left back, with Newcastle employing right back Ryan Taylor, Wigan playing midfielder David Jones, Sunderland playing right back Phil Bardsley, there are also left backs that are doing a great job for their team and are on the verge of representing their country on a regular basis.
At 27, Leighton Baines is already in his 7th season in the Premier League and is always remembered as the most hardworking player in the team as well as a good striker of the ball. In Baines, you can see the passion to play and you can feel his athleticism is the engine of the Merseyside team. When Ashley Cole retires, he will be the undoubted replacement for the three lions.
Jose Enrique seemed to be the long term solution for Liverpool. He doesn’t have the thunderbolt shots of John Arne Riise but the indefatigable Spaniard has a rich blend of strength, pace and bravery that gives confidence to the Liverpool faithful which was not found in Traore, Dossena or Insua. His occasional surging runs are good enough to produce half-chances for Suarez to convert into goals. Consistent performances for his club could easily impress Del Bosque as the ideal replacement for Joan Capdevilla.
Having written the article, we saw Assou-Ekotto outperformed Baines last night, leading Spurs to victory with a brilliant assist and a 35-yard screamer, where Baines was tortured by the speed of Lennon. Harry will be absolutely delighted if he can sustain this level of performance, but mark my words Spurs’ fans, apart from Gomes, Assou-Ekotto will ever be the most dangerous bomb.
BAE has one of the best work rates and vision on our team, the reason Bale has such freedom to rampage opposing defenses is because he has BAE behind him. You bring up a lapse in concentration against chelsea? I saw that game, Chelsea scored because of a hand ball, and because we didn't respect the team by letting ourselves get caught on our back foot. To put the blame on BAE is a blatant attempt to slander him by prodding at a derby loss. Modric's want-away to Chelsea is because he plays for a paycheck JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PLAYER IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE, Modric has been nothing short of stunning this season. Baines is quality, the rest of this article is garbage.
I've never read so much shit in my life, 'the most over rated,' he's underrated by most of the people, who don't watch him every week, and support other teams. I am a season ticket holder, and go every week, and BAE is by far the best left back in the country. Since Bale has come inside, instead of staying out wide, he has to make the width on his own, and find a pass inside, where there's a lot of traffic. His pass com 89%, and they are mostly forward passes. I wouldn't swop him for anyone, so fuck off, and find something else to do, you twat!
This article is an absolute joke. I'm going to completely ignore the fact that you suggested that BAE doesn't care about Tottenhams final table position as long as he gets paid. He is spurs through and through and to suggest otherwise is ludicrous. He is arguably our most improved player over the past 2 seasons, and when you consider the rise of Bale and the development of Kaboul it is an outstanding achievement to be even mentioned. BAE plays his role to perfection week-in week-out, and any other LB in the country apart from Cole and Baines would be a significant downgrade on Assou-Ekotto. I find it astonishing that you get paid to write dribble such as this.
Load of rubbish, Roberts Carlos best left back in the world? He’s currently playing defensive midfield for Russian side Ahanzi! Please keep up if your going to class your opinions on football, as for BAE he’s decent works hard and scored a cracker h other night, evra is prob only player barca wold sign from man utd, u gotta be a city fan or an idiot or both
Eh, while Ekotto was a liability he's now one of Spurs most consistent players and is most certainly a fan favourite.
Biggest load of nonsense I've read in a long time. But then football is all about opinions…
He is defensively weak and lacks concentration but he is the best at going forward from his position Harry has kept faith in him and since the Chelsea game I think his game has improved a lot , over the past two seasons I think he's been a liability in his own penalty box trying to wrestle players down ect but I'm hopping he will keep improving and that having defensive cover with Parker and sandro will help if he gets to much out of position. Has a person I love this guy
What an extremely poorly written and badly researched article. BAE very rarely gets beaten by an opposing winger and his distribution with either foot is excellent. Evra has a trophy cabinet the size of Upton Park and has captained his country, you don't get all that by being a poor player.
The most comical part of article is where Leighton Baines is heralded as Englands defensive future in one paragraph and two paragraphs down we are informed that BAE completely outperformed him at WHL the other night. The author needs to make his mind up, is BAE over-rated or does he really mean Leighton Baines?
"ever be the most dangerous bomb", what the hell does that mean? Looks as if it was written by someone who's 1st language isn't English.
Shocking piece of work and the most shocking part is the author had the nerve to post it on the internet.
It is wrong he is generally underated by most because he is characterized by the few lapses in concentration and the whole wage thing was very brave to admit so what if he has no feelings for spurs if I went to play for some foreign team therell still only be one team for me and we spurs fans admire him for his honesty
You're an idiot.. BAE is exceptionally underrated.. He's better than every other left-back in the league.. If not for his reliability at the back and his frequent balls down the left flank, then it's safe to say that Bale wouldn't look as impressive as he does.. and despite your claims that his mercenary attitude has led to the fans not embracing him, the opposite is true.. We love BAE.
First of all, thanks very much for your comments. As we said, we welcome all the opinions and are looking to improve our work.
It maybe a bit harsh to put BAE as overrated. His attacking form has been excellent, and being able to play week-in week-out is valuable to Spurs, but down to personal opinion, he is still shaky at the backline. And the fact that Tottenham is not able to provide competition in the position makes him look complacent from time to time.
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