Is praise of Harvey Ball and Kendall unfair of other players?

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rbm

Player Valuation: £6m
I'm well on in my 40s now and grew up in the 1970s just as the RS dominated us and the glow of the great 1968 to '71 team was fading fast. I became and remain accustomed to hearing people talk of the great midfield trio as representing the best of Everton.

No problem with that. But look at the other players on that team; Royle, Wilson, Labone etc. Prolific scorers and tough world class defenders. They are like forgotten men with the Trio sharing the podium up with Dean and Lawton as the pinnacle of what the School of Science is.

One of the older fans. Were Harvey Ball and Kendall really that much of a stand out on what looks like a very evenly matched and balanced team?
 

It is right to prasie them but not to ignore the rest. A team is of 11 players and back then it was a hell of an 11 player team.
 
Same in the 80s I suppose; but without your Harpers, Richardsons, Baileys and Powers you win nothing.
 
Harvey, Kendall and Ball were the heart of the team in terms of how we dictated play - not unreasonable given that they played in midfield. Once the term "Holy Trinity" had been picked up on, there probably was a focus on them rather than the team as a whole. We had quality across the whole team, though. Royle was a beast up front, Whittle was inspired when he came in as injury cover late in championship season, Morrissey was a fantastic wide man and our defence was as strong as anyone's.
 
rbm said:
I'm well on in my 40s now and grew up in the 1970s just as the RS dominated us and the glow of the great 1968 to '71 team was fading fast. I became and remain accustomed to hearing people talk of the great midfield trio as representing the best of Everton.

No problem with that. But look at the other players on that team; Royle, Wilson, Labone etc. Prolific scorers and tough world class defenders. They are like forgotten men with the Trio sharing the podium up with Dean and Lawton as the pinnacle of what the School of Science is.

One of the older fans. Were Harvey Ball and Kendall really that much of a stand out on what looks like a very evenly matched and balanced team?
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Didn't Labone once say sarcastically that that Everton side was the first 3-man side ever to win the league?
 

You have to understand the phenomenon that was Alan Ball he invented the modern midfielder combining sublime touch and vision with aggression and perpetual motion the phrase "covered every blade of grass" was invented with him he was the best midfielder in the world from the mid 60s to 1970.

The nearest I can compare it to is Barca in their pomp truly great players festoon their trophy laden squads but Messi is THE stellar talent his work with Iniesta and Xavi just takes it to another level and it's no disrespect to the others it's just the way it is.
 
United refer to Best, Charlton and Law as their Holy Trinity. I presume that was swiped from us? Wouldn't mind confirming that if anyone knows.
 
rbm said:
I'm well on in my 40s now and grew up in the 1970s just as the RS dominated us and the glow of the great 1968 to '71 team was fading fast. I became and remain accustomed to hearing people talk of the great midfield trio as representing the best of Everton.

No problem with that. But look at the other players on that team; Royle, Wilson, Labone etc. Prolific scorers and tough world class defenders. They are like forgotten men with the Trio sharing the podium up with Dean and Lawton as the pinnacle of what the School of Science is.

One of the older fans. Were Harvey Ball and Kendall really that much of a stand out on what looks like a very evenly matched and balanced team?
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In a word.

No.
 

nigelcoyb said:
You have to understand the phenomenon that was Alan Ball he invented the modern midfielder combining sublime touch and vision with aggression and perpetual motion the phrase "covered every blade of grass" was invented with him he was the best midfielder in the world from the mid 60s to 1970.

The nearest I can compare it to is Barca in their pomp truly great players festoon their trophy laden squads but Messi is THE stellar talent his work with Iniesta and Xavi just takes it to another level and it's no disrespect to the others it's just the way it is.
Click to expand...

Did you ever see Bobby Collins play? If so you might want to rethink about the best.
 
rbm said:
I'm well on in my 40s now and grew up in the 1970s just as the RS dominated us and the glow of the great 1968 to '71 team was fading fast. I became and remain accustomed to hearing people talk of the great midfield trio as representing the best of Everton.

No problem with that. But look at the other players on that team; Royle, Wilson, Labone etc. Prolific scorers and tough world class defenders. They are like forgotten men with the Trio sharing the podium up with Dean and Lawton as the pinnacle of what the School of Science is.

One of the older fans. Were Harvey Ball and Kendall really that much of a stand out on what looks like a very evenly matched and balanced team?
Click to expand...

Tommy Jackson played ( I think ) 17 games deputising for one or the other of them. The vastly under rated Sandy Brown played half a season.

Husband was as effective as Ronaldo in his pomp

The holy trinity was just a label, the whole team was,on most days, virtually unstopable

TEAM, TEAM.

Did I mention Team
 
I love this quote from melted candlehead at QPR

“Even when they had Moore, Hurst and Peters, West Ham’s average finish was about 17th. It just shows how crap the other 8 of us were.”

Very funny. But you couldn't apply that remark to the 1970 side. BHK may have been the best of us that year but the team was stuffed with players who were all - to a man - very good at their jobs.
 

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