One player - Spain

[Rossi22]

Across all comps yeah, but then look at who his goals have been against

Reading
Saudi Sportswashing Machine
Wolves
Arsenal
Norwich
Shakhtar
Nordsjaelland x2
Sunderland x2
Monterrey
Leeds
Aston Villa
Brentford
Middlesbrough
Steaua Bucharest
Rubin Kazan x3
Basel
Benfica
Everton

In the league he has 8 goals off 68 shots. Defoe has 11 off 108 and Ade has 5 off 42.

 

[El Guepardo]

Alba would be more of an improvement on BAE than Iniesta would be on Lennon, Sig, Dempsey or Dembele?

Probably not but I think left back is a position that we need to improve upon, whereas I think our midfield is pretty damn good with Sandro, Paulinho, Dembele, Bale and likely another new quality midfielder.

 

[braineclipse]

Probably not but I think left back is a position that we need to improve upon, whereas I think our midfield is pretty damn good with Sandro, Paulinho, Dembele, Bale and likely another new quality midfielder.

Iniesta would walk into any team in the world, club side or national side and make them stronger. That includes ours. From a more tactical viewpoint the kind of player he is would massively improve us, a creative final third player seems to be among the missing pieces after a central midfielder (Paulinho?) and a striker.

 

[metalgear]

mata for me - proven epl performer, very consistent and while he has many strengths, his eye for the final pass/ball for the assist has carried a lacklustre chelsea attack for a long time.

 

[NaijaSpurs]

Iniesta.

 

[NaijaSpurs]

Iniesta would walk into any team in the world, club side or national side and make them stronger. That includes ours. From a more tactical viewpoint the kind of player he is would massively improve us, a creative final third player seems to be among the missing pieces after a central midfielder (Paulinho?) and a striker.

this

 

[NaijaSpurs]

i'd be amazed if his shots to goals ratio and goals per minute played stats across all competitions last season were not far superior to defoe and adebayor

The point is you could sign ton of strikers better than Defoe and Ade but how many players out there that can do the job Iniesta does better than Iniesta. Remember when Modric use to make us tick, well methinks Iniesta would be a massive upgrade on a player like Modric.

People seem to have a view that we will play 433 next season well imagine a midfield of Sandro / Iniesta / Paulinho

 

[El Guepardo]

That Iniesta is the best player in the Spanish team is obvious. I guess maybe I'm guilty of trying to break up the monotony of having a thread potentially full of Iniesta, Iniesta, Iniesta, Iniesta style answers.

I think Alba is a great left back and would definitely improve our team. I wanted to create an argument for why he would be a good player to have and how he could improve our style. I think that I achieved that to an extent.

Alba's pace and composure make him an excellent counter attacking threat, whilst his pace is ideal for the style of defence we are now operating. A defender with pace saves us from time to time. Walker gets criticised for his mistakes but I feel that he does help out a lot defensively and isn't always recognised for this. His pace allows him to get in to positions where other defenders are struggling to recover their ground. Alba is a better defender than Walker so would be even better equipped to improve our defensive stability.

So of course Iniesta is the best player BUT naming him would be equivalent to a thread of...'which Argentinian player would you like?' And the gulf of answers albeit the quality difference between Messi and the rest of the Argentinian players is perhaps more than the difference between Iniesta and the other Spaniards.

 

[Baleforce]

The point is you could sign ton of strikers better than Defoe and Ade but how many players out there that can do the job Iniesta does better than Iniesta. Remember when Modric use to make us tick, well methinks Iniesta would be a massive upgrade on a player like Modric.

People seem to have a view that we will play 433 next season well imagine a midfield of Sandro / Iniesta / Paulinho

i did say in my original reply that Iniesta was an obvious choice, but as the OP asked it was which player would you take, not who was their best player, I went for the guy who I thought was best solution to our biggest problem

 

[NaijaSpurs]

Probably not but I think left back is a position that we need to improve upon, whereas I think our midfield is pretty damn good with Sandro, Paulinho, Dembele, Bale and likely another new quality midfielder.

Cast your mind back to all those matches where teams have to the Lane and have sat back with 11 men behind the ball and we have all wished for a player with guile to be able open up those tight defences. Iniesta would be the player capable of unlocking these defences, Sandro, Paulinho, Dembele and Bale quality players that they are do not really have that capability as their strong point

 

[NaijaSpurs]

i did say in my original reply that Iniesta was an obvious choice, but as the OP asked it was which player would you take, not who was their best player, I went for the guy who I thought was best solution to our biggest problem

I would suggest that our two biggest problems are the lack of a clinical striker and a player capable of opening tight defences

 

[Joesh]

My answer would be Iniesta due to his style. He is what Spurs are about - class & composure where fans get on their feet and applaud for an outrageous idea even if it doesnt come off just for having the balls to try it.

 

[johnola]

Iniesta is incredible.

I'd sooner we developed our own talent tthough.

 

[braineclipse]

That Iniesta is the best player in the Spanish team is obvious. I guess maybe I'm guilty of trying to break up the monotony of having a thread potentially full of Iniesta, Iniesta, Iniesta, Iniesta style answers.

I think Alba is a great left back and would definitely improve our team. I wanted to create an argument for why he would be a good player to have and how he could improve our style. I think that I achieved that to an extent.

Alba's pace and composure make him an excellent counter attacking threat, whilst his pace is ideal for the style of defence we are now operating. A defender with pace saves us from time to time. Walker gets criticised for his mistakes but I feel that he does help out a lot defensively and isn't always recognised for this. His pace allows him to get in to positions where other defenders are struggling to recover their ground. Alba is a better defender than Walker so would be even better equipped to improve our defensive stability.

So of course Iniesta is the best player BUT naming him would be equivalent to a thread of...'which Argentinian player would you like?' And the gulf of answers albeit the quality difference between Messi and the rest of the Argentinian players is perhaps more than the difference between Iniesta and the other Spaniards.

The quality difference between Messi and the rest of the Argentinian players is probably bigger than it is between Iniesta and the other Spaniards, but not between Iniesta and Alba.

I think there's at least 5-6 Spanish players that are clearly better than Alba other than Iniesta. Not that I don't rate Alba, don't misunderstand me, but players like Ramos, Busquets, Xavi, Alonso, Silva and Mata would be better choices.

If you wanted to be the contrarian you should have gone for one of those. Saying Busquets would have been awesome, I kind of wish I had done that now

 

[El Guepardo]

I just hate Busquets since he did that roll and wink. I think he's a good footballer but I can't pick someone like him to join us, would go against my principles.

 

[metalgear]

i've never seen iniesta without xavi. is iniesta so good that he can play with anyone?

 

[Mumorn]

i've never seen iniesta without xavi. is iniesta so good that he can play with anyone?

or is it the other way round?

why was it that before Iniesta was starting at Barcelona properly that Xavi was never talked about as one of the worlds greats?

 

[Baleforce]

I might be misremembering this but wasn't Xavi still the central mf in Rijkaards Barca?

 

[Mumorn]

I might be misremembering this but wasn't Xavi still the central mf in Rijkaards Barca?

No idea.

Just looked at the 2006 Champions League final winning team and they had Xavi and Iniesta on the bench and started with Deco, Edmilson and van Bommel in central midfield.

Just looked at teams round about 2005/2006 and they had a midfield of Xavi/Deco with Edmilson behind them. The following season they preferred the exact same trio in midfield. They then signed Toure and replaced Edmilson with him and then finally started to play Iniesta. It wasn't until Guardiola come in the following season (after a successful Spanish Euro 2008) that Barcelona were starting to be hailed as the greatest team in the world and one of the best of all time when Busquets was pushed into the line up

 

[braineclipse]

No idea.

Just looked at the 2006 Champions League final winning team and they had Xavi and Iniesta on the bench and started with Deco, Edmilson and van Bommel in central midfield.

Just looked at teams round about 2005/2006 and they had a midfield of Xavi/Deco with Edmilson behind them. The following season they preferred the exact same trio in midfield. They then signed Toure and replaced Edmilson with him and then finally started to play Iniesta. It wasn't until Guardiola come in the following season (after a successful Spanish Euro 2008) that Barcelona were starting to be hailed as the greatest team in the world and one of the best of all time when Busquets was pushed into the line up

According to Wikipedia Iniesta had 37 league games in 04/05, although 25 were as a sub (when he was 20), 33 and 37 in the following two seasons.

Xavi had 35 games in the 01/02 season (when he was 21/22), having played 17, 24 and 20 in the three season leading up to that.

Still according to wiki: He was named the vice-captain in the 2004–05 season [...] Xavi was named La Liga Spanish Player of the Year in 2005.

Since you mentioned Busquets too:

He played 24 league games in the 08/09 season (when he was 19), a season when he also started the CL final. The next season he played 33.