by Bashmachkin Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:54 pm
I'm not sure that either of them have been fringe world class - obviously it depends on how that is defined, but I'm not sure that either of them were ever amongst (or just outside) of the top five or ten central midfielders/attacking midfielders in the world, for instance. Perhaps Bowyer was for a season or two around the turn of the century - he was a very good goalscoring midfielder, who could time his runs well and who could loft the ball into the net really nicely from the edge of the area - but he was a spent force by the time he left Leeds for West Ham, and he was useless, and often not a particularly pleasant player to watch, by the time he arrived at Newcastle.
I think Dyer is and has been the more talented of the two, and the more consistent, in the sense that he's shown real quality throughout his career in between all the injuries. I've said before and I still think that Dyer, without the injuries, could really have added a huge deal to England's centre of midfield over the last ten years - the combination of his pace, his dribbling ability, and his concise and incisive passing (which is a side to his game that has improved over the years - and whilst it is a small thing to say, I actually think that Dyer's passing game looked better than even prior to us selling him last pre-season) means that he's a very different sort of player to Gerrard/Lampard, and he could have offered extra drive and creativity. On the other hand, he played best for Newcastle on the right wing, getting to the byline - in the centre of midfield, he tended to drop deep too often - but he often seemed to step up a gear for England.