George Best | 1967-1968

[Brezza]

Nickname: "El Beatle"

Club: Manchester United



Growth type: Early Peak

"If I had been born ugly, you would never have heard of Pele."

INFO:

Spoiler: show

"I think I've found you a genius" - United scout Bob Bishop's telegram to Matt Busby on 15 year old George Best.
A fantastic dribbler of the ball who beat defenders with ease. First discovered by Manchester United scout Bob Bishop at the age of 15, he was described as a "genius". He was a favourite in the media for his showmanship, skill and celebrity lifestyle. His new found lifestyle which included drinking and gambling lead to discipline problems later in his Manchester United career and in 1974, after 466 appearances and 178 goals, he left United having been their top scorer for six consecutive seasons. This marked the beginning of the end of George Best's career, although he did have further spells with Fulham, Bournemouth and three American clubs.

On the 3rd of October 2005, George Best was admitted to intensive care as a result of his long term alocholism and at 1.05PM on 25th November 2005, he died.

Since, his death George Best has had Belfast City Airport renamed after him and had one million "George Best £5 notes" dedicated to him. George Best has been described as the greatest player to have never played in the world cup and in 1999, he was voted 11th in the IFFHS European Player of the Century election and 16th in the World Player of the Century election. He was named as one of the best players in the world by Pele in the FIFA 100 and was 19th in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll.


HONOURS:
Manchester United
Football League Championship Winners Medal: 1965, 1967
UEFA European Cup Winners Medal: 1968

Personal
European Footballer of the Year: 1968
Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year: 1968
Freeman of Castlereagh: 2002
Inaugural inductee into the English Football Hall of Fame: 2002
Honorary Doctorate from the Queen's University of Belfast: 2001
PFA Special Merit Award, for Services to Football: 2006

VIDEOS:

Spoiler: show

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Best

http://www.ifhof.com/hof/best.asp

http://www.georgebest.com/home/

[Classical]

5 for consistency? I never saw a complete game of him, just highlights.

[Ace]

if these stats are based on his best ( ) year, Condition 3 is simply wrong...

[Rykef]

also his balance was amazing, Ive seen him be absolutely clattered by a hulk of a defender and he rode the challenge keeping control of the ball the whole time

[Oriello]

if these stats are based on his best ( ) year, Condition 3 is simply wrong...

100% agree here, do not mean to be rude but sometimes the conditioning level that some players are given is baffling, to me it should be judged on the amount of matches a player is able to particitpate in effectively, sometimes there maybe unfortunate differences in league structure such as the Coca Cola championship having more games than the Eiredivisie, that can effect a players ability to showcase his long term endurance qualitites. And in view of classic players, looking at some of the records of English league players they were definately playing in more games on average due to England's first division being comprised for the longest time with 22 teams, while many other leagues in Europe floated from 16 to 18 or maybe 20. Basically this means with FA Cup, Europe, and what ever charity sheild the potential for literally a shit load of games for some players at sucessful clubs probably brings them close to modern endurance standards, if they stayed injury free.

Now I know Best had his problems but really for this season he made over 50 appearances! I used wikipedia's source links to find this page, a season by season listing of the games he played and the postition he was started in, looking at the specific season he was made for on quick count he played in 56 matches!!! with 3 conditioning!!!??? I am not an expert of Best but his style involved more than standing in one spot for the duration of the match right? For the previous season a qucik count equates to 46 matches. For the 68/69 season 59 mathces!!! Well anyways in keeping with the standard I have been laying out for others I suggest Conditioning 8 for Best at his prime, not for the stats that might represent when he crumbled apart from the European Footballer of the year.

Please if the site with the appearances looks off I hope a United fan can locate a better/more reliable source, if anyone knows that maybe best was a player who was frequntly subbed off to be rested, then maybe he could be brought to a 7 in Conditioning.

Also could he possibly have SS, did he not play as an inside forward somtimes?

EDIT: I meant no offence to combineharvester with my little blip of an 'explosion' on the COnditioning thing.

[Plava Čigra]

God job on the stats CombineHarvester.

Here, I found his height and weight: http://www.worldfootball.net/spieler_pr ... orge-best/

Don't know is it reliable, because, about a month ago, I saw on some forum discussion about Best and the height was same as on the WorldFootball (175 cm), but his weight was 65 kg (on WorldFootball 69 kg).

Could somebody confirm or deny any of this information?

[Dylza_94]

Maradona good, Pele better, George Best.

[Tom]

Very good post on his Condition, Oriello. Let's get this thread started;

His Team Work needs a significant boost. The fact that he liked to dribble and take on his man does not mean that he had no understanding with his team-mates, on the contrary, his understanding with his team-mates was, in culmination with decent crossing, a reason why he would set up so many goals. Obviously I can't gather any statistics for this as Assists only became recorded during the late 70's.

At the same time his LPA needs a decrease, although his crossing was very accurate it was quite clear that George Armstrong was far more pin-point his crossing at the time. Best could still have a value in the upper 80's (anything in the 85-88 range) but the value just doesn't make sense in comparison to his contemporaries. At the same time, his LPS does need a boost, his crosses weren't anywhere near as lofty as that and they did have quite a level of venom behind them and a good level of height. An 81 for his LPS would not go amiss.

Also his Balance does need an increase. Look at how small he was, look at how light he was. He didn't get outmuscled anywhere near as much as implied and if anything, could sit at an 80-81 value. He was remarkably strong for his build

[Brezza]

And a very good post again

Completely agree on changing his long passing stats to the ones you mentioned. Great passer but he was no Figo and hd wasnt better at crossing as players like Armstrong, Robertson and Callaghan who were probably the best British crosses of the ball prior to Becks.

I agree teamwork looks unnecessary harsh for all his flair he did have unselfish moments where he stop on the ball on the wing knowing people couldnt get the ball of him waited for Law or someone to get into the are before sending in a sublime pass. Plus he got his fair share of assists. a Value within 76-78 looks good.

Balance could be raised i wouldn't say he was strong, per se but I think it was more of a case of him having phenomanal balance than he seemed to stay on his feet from the hardest of tackles from the opposition lynchmen around in those times. Considering his height weight/agility a value between 78-80 looks good.

[Classical]

I agree with the lately proposed changes.

[Jez]

agree, can we update?

[Brezza]

Updated

[p1rha]

i don't agree with the value for balance. I saw 68 final against Benfica and in the first 30 minutes he's always on the ground, everytime someone passes him the ball he ends up tasting the green. many times due to vicious tackles but mostly because of being so weak. Messi, as an example, is small but he's much stronger than Best ever was. On my OF i have him at 70, but acording to the database ladders i would say 75 max.

Shot accuracy and attack (mainly attack) could be a wee bit higher, he was very dangerous in the box.

[Uzair]

you guys sure about that 98 in technique. on par with Bergkamp, Cruyff and only one point lower than Maradona, Pele and Zidane?
i'd rate him around the same figure as Figo here, so a 94/95...maybe?

[electric_trigger]

I would suggest an update in attack 86 seems a little too low....Jose Agusto is rated 88 in the DB, Sekularec has just lowered Dzajic from 92 to 88. Best update in attack, he scored way over the natural quota of goals for a winger in his era. He was the best winger in the world at the time including Dzajic though Dzajic was awesome. I think Besty deserves 88-90? On the techinique thing sure he had outstanding control but 98 seems a little excessive. 95-96 would be a better fit.

[Brezza]

I beleive that that attack came down to 86 when comparing that his posistional sense to Cristaino Ronaldo, but then the latter does have *posistioning so I wouldnt begrudge a 88 value.

On the other hand I think short pass accuracy is abit overrated, Im not sure that I would rate it over Luis Figo. I agree with Uzair that technique could come down to a 95 value like Figo as he wasnt quite on par with those on 98.

Also I agree going back to Gooner's 80/81 value for balance. If you watch the video in the first post he could really swat aside some of those cruncing challanges. Sure the guy was fouled alot but so is Cristiano Ronaldo despite his strength (you cant replicate his diving in the game). Plus you cant really help it when going at full pace and someone scything you down.

[electric_trigger]

cheers Brezza on the 88. Also agree with balance 80, he was tough in a tough era and had amazing balance for a winger.

[Brezza]

Updated

[p1rha]

I'm a bit late and sorry to spoil the fun, from what i've seen (not much but at least i've seen 1 full game) Best was a feather, just blow at him and he'll fly with the wind. All he did in the 1st half of Man U vs Benfica 1968 was complaining to the ref, whenever he had the ball he would end up eating dust. So obviously i disagree with the BB raise, there r guys like Maradona who can stand the charge and others like Best that just can't or prefer not to. U may say diving is not a reason to give a player low BB, but if he consistently lets go on duels and doesn't fight to be the last to stand then he deserves low BB.

About his attack positioning, it was simply much better than any striker Manchester had (they didn't had Law), he surely had the instinct, and a orange value woudln't be far off at all imo.

In that game he was playing more as a striker or an SS than anyother thing, since the true winger was clearly a guy who played on the left, probably the best man on the pitch in that game but i don't remember his name. I'd like to see that guy's stats btw, if someone can point me to them...

[Plava Čigra]

You're probably thinking about John Aston Jr.: viewtopic.php?f=183&t=9409&hilit=Aston

If I'm completely honest, I didn't have too much time to watch again 1968 Final and recall about his Technique, although he certainly wasn't on Bergkamp's level so I agree to lowering it under 98.

I wasn't gonna say anything, since a few people reached an agreement about his BB. p1rha's post about that Final is completely true. One thing that I recall 100% are Best's dives and to tell the truth, judging by that game he doesn't deserves more then a 78 for BB (and if you watch just that video, that's pretty generous).