These are some of mine:
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Pepe was actually a better defender than Ramos, but Ramos’ knack for important goals (not a defender’s job) and what he won with Spain made him the better player in people’s eyes.
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Courtois should have been in the top 3 of the ballon D’or ranking in 2022.
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Xavi was a more complete midfielder than Iniesta. He pressed better, controlled games better, gave better weighted passes, and was also a good dribbler when pressed (Iniesta was the better dribbler overall). I’d say he was the better one.
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Modric and Kroos have far bigger careers with Madrid than Zidane did.
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Zidane and Ronaldinho were great players but were sometimes frustrating to watch and ineffective even in their primes. Their convoluted style of doing simple things made them highlight champions.
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Luis Garcia generally played the biggest role in taking Liverpool to the UCL final in 2005, but his name is hardly mentioned when that UCL win is mentioned (Gerrard, the Scouse, vs Garcia, the foreigner)
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Pique was a better defender than Puyol. The latter was prone to mistakes and making rash decisions, while Pique was far more intelligent.
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Eto’o had a bigger impact in Barca than Suarez did. The former came in 2004 when Barca hadn’t won the league since ‘99. He became the league top scorer for two straight seasons as Barca won the league, then the league and UCL double. He also won the treble in 2008/09. Suarez, on the other hand, came when Barca were already dominant, but just having a bad spell.
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Gerrard dived for the penalty which led to Liverpool’s equalizer in 2005 UCL final.
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Carvalho is the most underrated defender in his generation. He was basically Mourinho’s wingman.
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If Lampard played in this age, with those same stats, he’d be recognized as the best amongst the three.
What are yours?
Iniesta in my opinion is just a tad bit better than Xavi ,watch the Euros 2012 he had zero goals and assists by far the best player in the tournament,he was basically given role of Leo Messi for that Spanish team. We give you the ball you create something, amount of times he glided pass and set up through ball for Jordi Alba to run in behind a defender to create something was staggering.
Even after Xavi declined or retired Iniesta took that mantle of Xavi role and excelled in it .
There is a reason he was the man of the match in two UCL finals a world cup final and a euros ,big games there is less space ,most of the time them games are won in midfield he was always the point of difference.
Only messi and Neymar can rival his dribbling skills and the madness about his dribbling or being press resistant it’s pure technique he doesn’t have speed or acceleration to get away.
I have a long time friend with which I too often (after a bottle or two of red) have debated Xavi vs. Iniesta. It’s actually a bit like the Messi/C.Ronaldo debate for me: they are both so stupidly good, but also different enough that settling one over the other is hard, so we should just cherish that we get to enjoy both.
One UCL final (2015). Xavi was 2009, while Messi was 2011.