How good is Steven Pienaar?

The time he was playing in South Africa, he was probably the fourth best player in his position. But somehow all the players who were better than him have all vanished. So Pienaar went to the bigger Ajax and he was considered to be good, but somehow teams were not jumping to sign him when he left Ajax.

After the weekends’ match against Chelsea, there has been so much hype in South Africa about how he’s back to his Ajax good days. Is he really good, because only the media in South Africa thinks he is while the fans don’t want to see him anywhere near the national team?

he's had a patchy start imho, seen everton quite a few times and he's often looked a bit lightweight, and gives too many wayward passes but the epl is not an easy league to adjust to, so give him some time.

He's been decent enough - he's got a bit of guile and creativity and seems to have slotted well into Moyes' set up - when you talk about the best central midfielders at Everton though, the names Arteta and Cahill will always come first - but he's a bit different to both of them - utilising the wings more and making bursting runs dribbling past players.

I mean, I've barely heard him mentioned by the press over ehre, but whenever I've seen him he's done reasonably well and caused the opposition a few problems.

The EPL is supposed to be a very physical and athletic leage where players without any physical attributes are supposed to perish. Although he has pace, he's not lightening and he's showing that players without physical attributes can be a success, and this for apparently one of the more physical teams in the league

If he is back to his Ajax form than he certainly wasn't very good. Do South Africans believe he was any good in those days? In the Netherlands they certainly think otherwise.

I don't know how he was used at Ajax, but in the Everton set up he's got a lot of defesnive protection and him and Arteta are both pretty much told to drift all over the place in between the midfield and strikers.

Moyes is a very good manager - he's managed to get the best out of most of the players he has managed

Since 1888 wrote:If he is back to his Ajax form than he certainly wasn't very good. Do South Africans believe he was any good in those days? In the Netherlands they certainly think otherwise.

That's the thing. The fans here thinks he's one of those lucky players because he has a good agent who manages McCarthy and Mokoena as well. We actually think he's sh!t, and we are surprised he has made it this far considering we had very little expectations for him.

Was he really that sh!t at Ajax, coz we are reminded about he made a fool of Vieira when Ajax played Arsenal in Champions League?

I remember that game vs Arsenal, he was good that night.

How is Mokoena regarded in South Africa? Always looks clumsy and cynical when I watch him.

Parks lives wrote:I remember that game vs Arsenal, he was good that night.

How is Mokoena regarded in South Africa? Always looks clumsy and cynical when I watch him.

Well i guess he owned Vieira afterall then.

Let's just say the only thing that keeps Mokoena in the national team is the fact that he's the captain, and he had very good management from a very young age who always protected him. He made his debut for the national team at 16 because the national team coach (Jomo Sono) at that time was his 'agent'. People didn't have a problem because he showed so much promise.

Since then he has declined and we have come to admit that there are around five centrebacks in the country who are way better than him, but sadly Mokoena will still be the captain and start every match because of his management team. Him and Pienaar have the same agent, and the agent is very influential in our football so they will never get dropped from the national team.

In short, Mokoena is sh!t and thanks to Hughes many people are starting to see that every week in the EPL.

Nice to see that other National teams suffer from the same sort of Nepotism & politics than England does.

I never thought Pienner was anything special really. A Very poor man's Alex Hleb, if anything.

Hughes plays him in midfield. Mainly as a defensive midfielder who kicks everything that moves. Basically Savage's understudy.

Parks lives wrote:Hughes plays him in midfield. Mainly as a defensive midfielder who kicks everything that moves. Basically Savage's understudy.

There has been suggestions that maybe we should play him in defensive midfield and i agreed because the guy is horrible in defence lately. One thing i like about him in that position is that he doesn't shy away from tackles even though his passing is horrible. Let's just say Mokoena is very happy to be a squad player so i guess they might as well make him Savage's understudy.

As for politics, it's worse here because if u don't below to Rob Moore who manages half the national team including Benni, Pienaar, Mokoena, Buckley, Zuma, etc then ur chances of making it in the national team are very slim. If u do make it then u will quickly get dropped and forgotten for no apparent reason. Rob was exposed to be the one who recommended our previous coach (Stuart Baxter) to the national FA so he can choose all his players for the national team. Well Stuart stuck to the deal and choose all Rob's players and we failed to go to the WC as a result, no offence to Ghana.

Rob owns/ed a very popular soccer magazine and has journalists by their balls because he introduced most of them to journalism so they are forced to suck up to him. If u hear the kind of hype Rob's players get then u would be forgiven to think they are world class. We woke up on monday and every news website was talking about how Steven Pienaar is back to his best. Imagine when Benni scored against Arsenal in the FA Cup.

Tweedle wrote:
The EPL is supposed to be a very physical and athletic leage where players without any physical attributes are supposed to perish.

Then how on Earth did Bergkamp survive ?

Bergkamp was a nasty peice of work when he wanted to be and he could certainly handle himself.

Parks lives wrote:

Bergkamp was a nasty peice of work when he wanted to be and he could certainly handle himself.

Indeed, but he wasn't very physical at all....still surprises me that the likes of Keane and Savage didn't end his career like they did Van Basten's.

Van Basten was also a nasty piece of work who could handle himself, but as brittle striker you normally don't last long...