Best defensive midfielders ever?

[Eye of Ra]

Who do you guys have?

I would go with Roy Keane, Didier Deschamps, Patrick Vieira and Lothar Matthäus.

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[Evilo]

Warren Zaire Emery

 

[gary69]

There are so many, depends who do you define as defensive midfielders. For example, I wouldn't categorize Matthaus as defensive midfielder, certainly not in his early career/prime.

Busquets, Redondo, Rijkaard just to name a few.

 

[93LEAFS]

Pure defensive? Probably Makelele who was always great as the pure #6 in a 3 man midfield, Real wasn't the same without him when they went into the Galatico era, and he was huge in the defensive foundation of Chelsea under Mourinho. I don't think he's better than some of the guys you listed, but I'd refer to someone like Roy Keane (the player I'm most familiar with) as more of a pure box-box all action classic #8, at least until his body started breaking down towards the end. Vieira was also more box to box during the invincibles era at Arsenal.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Warren Zaire Emery

I was sure you where gonna say Emmanuel Petit

 

[spintheblackcircle]

....from just last week

 

[Power Man]

I like Biscuits, Makelele and Redondo

 

[JeffreyLFC]

Surprised nobody mentioned Busquets and Alonso.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

It's tricky, because very few of the ones that immediately get thought of as the best weren't pure DMs, but were 6/8 hybrids. I have a hard time pinning Kante down as a pure DM.

For pure 6s, since I've been watching, it's Busquets. No doubt.

Gonna chuck in a mention to someone who is not the best but deserves a shoutout - prime Nemanja Matic was an absolute f***ing menace

 

[Eye of Ra]

It's tricky, because very few of the ones that immediately get thought of as the best weren't pure DMs, but were 6/8 hybrids. I have a hard time pinning Kante down as a pure DM.

For pure 6s, since I've been watching, it's Busquets. No doubt.

Gonna chuck in a mention to someone who is not the best but deserves a shoutout - prime Nemanja Matic was an absolute f***ing menace

Matic? Even his fellow serb, Dejan Stankovic, was probaly better.

 

[crobro]

Desaiily

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Not the best ever but shoutout to Mousa Dembele.

 

[Albatros]

There are so many, depends who do you define as defensive midfielders. For example, I wouldn't categorize Matthaus as defensive midfielder, certainly not in his early career/prime.

No? He was a DM neutralizing Maradona at the '86 and '90 World Cup finals.

 

[Evilo]

I was sure you where gonna say Emmanuel Petit

Not even close. He had a decent prime but not comparable to DD or Vieira. Or even Tigana.

Desaiily

Played most of his career at CB though. Was great at DM.

 

[gary69]

No? He was a DM neutralizing Maradona at the '86 and '90 World Cup finals.

That was an exception match for him at that time and in that tournament, he still wan't pure defensive midfielder even in that match. But they thought (rightfully imo) it's better to assign someone who can actually somewhat keep up with Maradona rather than worse pure defensive midfielder. And can offer something in the other direction too, forcing Maradona to work as well.

Germany nearly pulled it off.

More surprising was the inclusion of Norbert Eder (who was basically a defender and only ever played twice for Germany) in midfield to help midfield. On the other hand, that allowed Jakobs to be more attacking at times, alongside with normally attacking fullbacks Berthold and Brehme.

Rolff was probably the best defensive midfielder in that German team, but of course he wasn't anywhere near Maradona's class.

 

[Power Man]

Surprised nobody mentioned Busquets and Alonso.

Biscuits was already mentioned twice lol

No? He was a DM neutralizing Maradona at the '86 and '90 World Cup finals.

yes he fouled him a lot in 86

 

[JaymzB]

Rijkaard because I am biased.

 

[cgf]

Pre-knee-injury Sammer > Lodar

 

[Albatros]

That was an exception match for him at that time and in that tournament, he still wan't pure defensive midfielder even in that match. But they thought (rightfully imo) it's better to assign someone who can actually somewhat keep up with Maradona rather than worse pure defensive midfielder. And can offer something in the other direction too, forcing Maradona to work as well.

Germany nearly pulled it off.

More surprising was the inclusion of Norbert Eder (who was basically a defender and only ever played twice for Germany) in midfield to help midfield. On the other hand, that allowed Jakobs to be more attacking at times, alongside with normally attacking fullbacks Berthold and Brehme.

Rolff was probably the best defensive midfielder in that German team, but of course he wasn't anywhere near Maradona's class.

He did play other positions relatively often, but when you look at the famous matches he was pretty much always a DM. Often it was only against weaker opponents that he took more offensive positions. I think the misconception has a lot to do with his role as a #10 at Inter when he won the Ballon d'Or, but with the national team or at FC Bayern it wasn't so.

Eder was the reliably hard but fair no-nonsense type that wouldn't get you in trouble and had played as a midfielder before so could bring in stability to any defensive position allowing others around him to play to their strengths.

 

[gary69]

He did play other positions relatively often, but when you look at the famous matches he was pretty much always a DM. Often it was only against weaker opponents that he took more offensive positions. I think the misconception has a lot to do with his role as a #10 at Inter when he won the Ballon d'Or, but with the national team or at FC Bayern it wasn't so.

Eder was the reliably hard but fair no-nonsense type that wouldn't get you in trouble and had played as a midfielder before so could bring in stability to any defensive position allowing others around him to play to their strengths.

Well, I disagree as I was speaking about his peak/prime years. I saw well over 200 matches from him between 1982 -1991 until he left Inter, and I feel comfortable saying that he almost never played as a DM in those.

After the WC 1990 as he got older into his 30's he played in deeper positions, but he wasn't the prime Matthaus we knew any more (even if he good in those roles as well)

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

Gary is the LAST person on this board who you should pull the "well if you actually saw him play" card on, lmao

 

[Albatros]

Well, I disagree as I was speaking about his peak/prime years. I saw well over 200 matches from him between 1982 -1991 until he left Inter, and I feel comfortable saying that he almost never played as a DM in those.

After the WC 1990 as he got older into his 30's he played in deeper positions, but he wasn't the prime Matthaus we knew any more (even if he good in those roles as well)

You can also call him a deep-lying box-to-box midfielder or whatever else, but his standard position in the formation was still usually that of a DM in the 1980s. Also France Football selected him to their all-time list exactly as a defensive midfielder despite his Ballon d'Or earned in a somewhat more offensive regista role.

 

[gary69]

Nah, I don't know about that. Memories fade and can be deceiving.

And it's safe to say that I didn't or don't see more than a handful of matches from well over 90% of players. This was even more true before more matches started to be televised in the 1990s. Season ticket holders at any particular club (and staff) were the best sources before that.

This holds true today as well, since fans tend to watch all /most of their team's matches in person or from TV.

 

[gary69]

You can also call him a deep-lying box-to-box midfielder or whatever else, but his standard position in the formation was still usually that of a DM in the 1980s. Also France Football selected him to their all-time list exactly as a defensive midfielder despite his Ballon d'Or earned in a somewhat more offensive regista role.

I'd call him all around midfielder (not box-to-box midfieder), as he did all types of things on the pitch.

As I said, it depends on the definition of defensive midfielder. I'll reserve that definition to players like Busquets, Redondo or Makelele.

 

[Elvis P]

Who do you guys have? I would go with Roy Keane, Didier Deschamps, Patrick Vieira and Lothar Matthäus.

I've only been watching since 69 but I have 1. Lothar, 4. Roy, and two different guys.