Our grestest central midfielder?

Gazza 8 said:
Who takes the number one spot?

Baxter
Souness
Gazza
Durrant
B. Ferguson

Any others that come close who aren't on that list?

At the age of 30 unfortunately I never got to see Baxter or Souness and was maybe a bit too young to fully appreciate Gazza and Durrant. Barry was the main man for me growing up.
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Anyone who watched him says Baxter. That's good enough for me.
 
due to amount of games played and quality its barry for me. never saw baxter and i bet most on here that dont have him as best never saw either.

Souness only played 40 odd games and Gazza a few seasons. Durrant could have been best of them all but injury stole that from him.

For best contribution to my team its barry for me,
 
For me, there's 3 outstanding candidates.
Baxter (who I've limited viewing of)
Gascoigne (seen plenty but on videos)
Barry (One of my all time heroes)

All have different qualifications for it. Baxter was by all accounts I've seen a tremendous player.
Gascoigne, only one word needed. Genius.
Ferguson IMO we will never have a player come through the ranks as good as Barry again. Just a fantastic footballer, could do it all, carried teams full of international stars.

personally, its Barry, he's my Rangers version of Gerrard.
 
MO_TxTruBlu said:
;)
Yes John Greig was a Right Half in the sixties, but he could play anywhere, and was excellent wherever he played, Inside Right, Right Half, Left Half, Right Back, Left Back, Central defender, Sweeper, man marker, Greig could play comfortably and well in any of those positions.
Although the teams were still listed as 2-3-5, I think that by the sixties, we were operating more of a 3-3-4 formation, with McKinnon central in defence, and Shearer and Caldow, right and left of him.
In Midfield, Greig would be central, with McMillan, and Baxter right and left of him.
McMillan and Baxter were the creative ones, so to speak, with Greig the central holding midfielder, but despite being the 'defensive' midfielder of the three, you will still find that he probably scored more goals than any of the more attack minded midfielders.
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Just as an aside. It's fascinating how football has completely transformed formation wise in the last 40-50 years. It's actually like a flip reverse. Now you have 5-3-2 as oppose the the 2-3-5 etc
 
I once worked with an older Carlise fan, who said to me out of the blue one day. Son I have been lucky enough to have seen the greatest football player ever. Unfortunately he played for Sunderland at the time. And his name was Slim Jim Baxter.
 
EricBoAnderson said:
He and Gio rotated a lot throughout the game. His best position was CM.

Albertz and Gio rotated constantly throughout a match. I watched him at left wing back under Walter and saw Advocaat leave him on the bench plenty but, in my opinion, he was a central midfielder and a top class one at that.
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It’s a big call and it’ll get support but, not from me.
Ferguson was our biggest player in a team that contained de Boer and Cannigia (albeit, not at the highest point of their careers) and van Bronckhurst.
He had the respect of all of those.
 
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MO_TxTruBlu said:
I started going around the same time, and I'm probably a lot lot younger than you ;).

I don't think we would have played with two central defenders in the early sixties.
I would say we operated a 3-3-4 formation, for the most part, with Greig the deeper of the midfield trio.
By the mid sixties, some teams were using 4 at the back ie 4-2-4 or as Ramsey's England 4-4-2.
Celtic used McNeill and Clark as a central defensive pairing, but I think that Clark was more there to cover McNeill who was not fast, and was often beaten easily on the deck.
McKinnon was fast, and not easily beaten on the deck, and therefore did not need the insurance of cover in the same way.
Having said that, I think at Wembley 67' Greig and McKinnon were a central defensive partnership.
Even with Davie White, I think Greig was the central Midfielder, with Penman, and Dave Smith either side of him.
I would say it was the very end of the sixties, start of the seventies, before we used two central defenders, as in Jackson/McKinnon, or Johnstone/Smith.
That is just my take on it.
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Think you're right it was when I heard a new word. Sweeper. Bobby Moore and John Clark were the two it was used for. First Rangers player referred to as a sweeper was Dave Smith.
 
tazzabear said:
It’s a big call and it’ll get support but, not fro me.
Ferguson was our biggest player in a team that contained de Boer and Cannigia (albeit, not at the highest point of their careers) and van Bronckhurst.
He had the respect of all of those.
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You know what, both at their best, I think you're right, Ferguson was better. I just thought he was nowhere near the same player in his second spell. He was outstanding when he first broke through but offered no goal threat. However from 2002-2003 he was the complete midfielder. Albertz is my hero so I maybe have the blinkers on!
 
Jim Baxter is the one truly World Class player on that list. The best ever Scottish player in my lifetime.
 
EricBoAnderson said:
You know what, both at their best, I think you're right, Ferguson was better. I just thought he was nowhere near the same player in his second spell. He was outstanding when he first broke through but offered no goal threat. However from 2002-2003 he was the complete midfielder. Albertz is my hero so I maybe have the blinkers on!
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Feck me, that must be close to being a first!
A poster admitting his opinion is wrong and its not a definite that it is, for what it’s worth.
 
Albertz Loyal said:
Albertz indeed was much more than just goal scorer. He could read the game, an amazing passer of the ball, maybe lacked a bit of mobility.

The reason I'd take him out of this thread is he wasn't a centre mid, mostly played on the left, or even left back at times.
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I don’t have any issue with omitting him as a centre mid. It’s just the “aside from a great shot he wasn’t all that great” bit I took issue with. Fucking brilliant footballer and the ultimate man for the big occasion.
 
tazzabear said:
It’s a big call and it’ll get support but, not from me.
Ferguson was our biggest player in a team that contained de Boer and Cannigia (albeit, not at the highest point of their careers) and van Bronckhurst.
He had the respect of all of those.
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It should be noted when discussing Ferguson's stature, that at 21 years of age he was captain of a side with 2 Champions League winners and received the utmost respect. A few years later that became 3 with the addition of RDB.
 
Not many of us could go before Baxter so really we want to know who is the best since Baxter?

Baxter is tops, since him we'd likely say Gascoigne.
 
RodVegas said:
Absolutely this. My personal greatest Ranger. Appreciate many others who may have been technically much better players but the big man for me any day.
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100%. And what I loved most about Albertz was the bigger the game the better the performance. The amount of European and old firm goals he scored from midfield was ridiculous
 
Expatbear said:
Although he only played 50 games for us The Magnificent Bastard is the one for me. 5 league titles with Liverpool and 3 European Cups, a record that no other Rangers player can rival outside of Scotland
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On that basis Gio and Rino raise you a world cup final to go with top leagues and Champions League wins
 
Gazza was a great player but Baxter would have tormented the living daylights out of him.
 
JW1988 said:
For me, there's 3 outstanding candidates.
Baxter (who I've limited viewing of)
Gascoigne (seen plenty but on videos)
Barry (One of my all time heroes)

All have different qualifications for it. Baxter was by all accounts I've seen a tremendous player.
Gascoigne, only one word needed. Genius.
Ferguson IMO we will never have a player come through the ranks as good as Barry again. Just a fantastic footballer, could do it all, carried teams full of international stars.

personally, its Barry, he's my Rangers version of Gerrard.
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Multiple Likes :))
 
In my lifetime its Gazza or Ferguson

The excitement watching a young Ferguson burst onto the scene, go toe to toe with Europes best and look absolutely filled me with a pride thats hard to describe.

The buzz around the club when Gazza signed was something else difficult to put into words. Then to see him in a Rangers jersey was something else.

Difficult to compare players from different era’s.
 
It always surprises me that when we speak about our great midfield players that Ian McMillan is very rarely mentioned, although I know this is probably a generation issue. He wasn't a centre midfield player but a right sided as opposed to Baxter on the left side, the balance in the team was superb.

Ian was unfortunate in his Scotland appearances in that he had an out and out genius in opposition for a Scotland place in John White but McMillan deserves to be mentioned as a truly great midfield player for Rangers. Always remember my father saying to me at games 'watch McMillan and how easy he makes the game look', he really was a class act, as good as most in our history
 
Barry Ferguson.

Based on ability, longevity and trophy count.

Gazza was phenomenal but wasn't with us for that long, relatively speaking.

Too young to have seen Baxter in his pomp.

Souness is a good argument, all be it he was winding down as a player by the time he came to us.
 
Never seen Baxter but can accept he is a legitimate contender based on the opinion of older fans.

But in terms of those who played in my era (80's onwards) the answer is Paul Gascoigne. No doubt about it.

Barry Ferguson and Durrant would be 2nd and 3rd.
 
Gazza 8 said:
Who takes the number one spot?

Baxter
Souness
Gazza
Durrant
B. Ferguson

Any others that come close who aren't on that list?

At the age of 30 unfortunately I never got to see Baxter or Souness and was maybe a bit too young to fully appreciate Gazza and Durrant. Barry was the main man for me growing up.
Click to expand...
 
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