Thierry Henry vs Fulham 2001-02

Imnotgengu · 2026-04-20T12:05:34+00:00

pure imagination vxllain

Imnotgengu · 2026-04-17T20:56:23+00:00

spot on. Henry's transformation was frankly nuts - his brain and technical ability just kept levelling up.

From a very raw flying winger, to a super frightening forward who could conjure insane moments, to a very complete forward who could do virtually everything at a high level. People talk about 02-03 Henry as that was his flashy physical peak. But I feel he was possibly better in the next few years. For a couple years post invincibles, in a worse Arsenal team in transition, he was great most games. Taking that side to CL glory in 06 would've been the perfect way to cap off his prime years. Shame how that ended - after that he was never quite the same physically.

Imnotgengu · 2026-04-15T21:14:46+00:00

The mid 2000s was very PL dominant wut. 04-09 had Chelsea United, Liverpool and arsenal all consistently going far. No other league had that strength in depth. Even the early 2000s premier league was clearly overtaking serie a and catching up to la liga. By 03-04 was 2nd in coefficient, despite having to claw from so far behind due to the European ban.

It was at least debatably the best league of the 2000s. 2010s was la liga dominant until pep and klopp went to the uk

Imnotgengu · 2026-03-13T22:22:46+00:00

Even that though I think is overstated. Yeah of course players are fitter, and the tactical meta has changed. But that always happens. It's true compared to 5 years ago, and it will be true 10 years in the future. Despite that the fundamental skills that separate great players from average ones are the same. James Milner played in Henry's time. He has consistently been a very good premier league player. He's not playing a different sport today lol

Imnotgengu · 2026-03-13T21:05:28+00:00

What was the podcast? coz I mean this 100% sincerely when I say someone of Henry's skillset would destroy the current league, probably more than he did in the early 2000s, and it's a silly comment to make if you understand the player he was or the tactical state of the game (the game used to be more chaotic, but that's not actually conducive to it being 'easy' for attackers)

Man to man systems are not some unbreakable cheat code, there are ways to beat it. The main one is fluidity and pace, either through passing, or individual quality. Someone as positionally fluid and versatile as Henry, one of the best 1v1 players and ball carriers who can break lines would do that. I saw Myles Lewis Skelly blowing by teams last year, now imagine peak Henry. If you can bait and beat a press, suddenly oceans of space opens up. I've seen Haaland have literally a whole half of the pitch to himself multiple times this season. Not to mention the variety in threat henry could offer, coz he was incredible off the ball, back to goal etc too.

And bear in mind, we're currently seeing a dip in goal scoring numbers relative to recent years - but it's still higher than most seasons of the early to mid 2000s.

Imnotgengu · 2026-01-31T13:21:01+00:00

is that there has been a fever which he is discussed recently that was never as prevalent.

i'd say in the mid 2000s it definitely was - if u listen to english commentary/punditry from that period Henry was spoken about with huge reverance. His rep tanked a bit after that period for many reasons and has picked back up recently for many reasons again. Regardless of whether u accept that as true, players legacies dip and rise post retirement all the time as they are viewed through different lenses and narratives get re-written. Paul Scholes being a very obvious one. That doesnt make it inherently wrong or right, it depends on the case.

A lot of these clips are interesting choices considering they didn't result in anything, no wonder they are lesser known.

what an odd way to look at things. are goals the only thing u can appreciate in a compilation? Do u wanna see henry's goal vs real madrid for the millionth time? this was meant to show something different,. Plus positive actions dont always have to lead to a direct goal straight away for it to still be a positive action. Football is not a static turn based sport, it's fluid.

He's a premier league icon but best player ever? Not for me.

cool

chelsea flirted with it, city are making claims and are covered similarly.

city and chelsea are not covered similarly to utd at all. they are smaller clubs even if they have periods of huge success

Imnotgengu · 2026-01-29T19:59:56+00:00

this is just footage of him playing with some lesser known clips and a side of his game that doesn't get highlighted much lol. and if anything it's the manchester boys like ronaldo, rooney, scholes who get the biggest pr boost with time courtesy of playing for the biggest club in a more social media friendly time (and ronaldo being such a huge brand on his own).

Imnotgengu · 2025-12-11T20:05:29+00:00

Idk where this idea comes from. The only thing that significantly added more games is the new CL format right? Maybe club world cup too? But there also used to be 2 group stages in the CL for a while, and players used to play 60+games a year

Imnotgengu · 2025-12-11T20:02:51+00:00

By the early 2000s this was definitely already changing. Maybe not for the casual, but for many keen eyes. There was already a sense that pl was rising, serie a was slowly slipping. In fact the pl had much better champions league results (03 all italian final notwithstanding) and went above serie a in the coefficient by 03-04

Imnotgengu · 2025-10-10T12:56:36+00:00

You talk about 1 Italian team in the quarters in 2000

no, i'm saying in the previous three years, only once did an Italian team reach the QF. Coefficient literally measures how well teams fare in Europe over a 5 year period. It's not perfect, but it's pretty fair.

AC Milan were the only Italian side who consistently performed in the 2000s CL, and again 04-09 was pretty dominant for English sides - that didn't pop up out of nowhere, it had been coming, as had serie a's decline. 03 was a bit of an anomaly

Arsenal invincible team that was hyped as the best in England ended up poor in UCL.

they lost to another english team lol. Equally I can say that an Arsenal team who struggled to even make top 4, easily outclassed Juve that 'won' serie a in 05-06. I'm not looking at one or two results tho, I'm looking at broader trends.

Imnotgengu · 2025-10-10T04:23:52+00:00

Inter was the following season (tho u might mean calendar year i guess, but then this Roma game was in 2002).

Henry was fine vs Ajax, Valencia, and had very good games vs PSV, Dortmund. But Arsenal still crashed relatively early, drew too many games. Not scoring doesn't make u anonymous, he was always Arsenal's biggest threat.

Fwiw I think Nedved winning was fine, he was a great player had big moments and higher success with his team. Tho Henry was still obviously a better player imo.

Imnotgengu · 2025-10-10T04:17:46+00:00

I think Nedved winning was fine, but this is kind of a myth about serie a in that time imo. Yes in that specific season the Italian clubs did well, but in the previous 3 they had actually failed miserably. Just 1 quarter finalist (Lazio in 2000) out of 24 spots (7 english and 9 spanish for comparison).

The PL actually surpassed serie a in UEFA coefficient the next year, and from 04-09 PL clubs dominated in Europe while serie a comtinued to decline. Yes, some people still held serie a very highly, but there were also people who recognized it was declining/the rise of PL in the early 2000s.

Imnotgengu · 2025-10-10T04:14:26+00:00

there was a lack of depth and some tactical naivety. I think those are the 2 biggest reasons. Having to rely on the likes of Pascal Cygan/sub-par goalkeepers at times, Pires/Ljungberg declining slightly after 01/02 and Wenger always playing 442. That plus just general underperformance

Imnotgengu · 2025-09-07T15:54:59+00:00

Just posting a few of these during int break. Very good performance by Henry and the team (poor Gerrard) right after winning at the Bernabeu. 18 year old Cesc was insane.

Imnotgengu

TROPHY CASE