Playing Style and Reputation
Speed was a versatile player who could play in left midfield, central midfield, and also at left-back, but playing mainly as a left-side attacking midfielder, with a knack for directing powerful headers towards goal. He possessed great tactical awareness, and could both create and score goals. Regularly a captain, he was said by his teammates to have been an 'inspirational figure' who led by example and demanded the best from those around him.
He was well known as a 'consummate professional' both on and off the field. Hardworking, honest and self-critical, he was not blessed with exceptional talent at a young age, but instead developed his technique through many hours of hard work on the training field. He had a reputation as an extremely fit footballer who looked after his body. He had a modern approach to diet and fitness, a rare quality amongst players of his generation. His level of fitness allowed him to avoid injury and to continue playing until the age of 39; he rarely missed a game.
He also had a reputation as a friendly and supportive person, who cared for and took an interest in the lives of the people around him; his 'nice guy' persona made him a popular and well respected figure amongst his peers.
Read more about this topic: Gary Speed
Famous quotes containing the words playing, style and/or reputation:
“Is not the tremendous strength in men of the impulse to creative work in every field precisely due to their feeling of playing a relatively small part in the creation of living beings, which constantly impels them to an overcompensation in achievement?”
—Karen Horney (1885–1952)
“A cultivated style would be like a mask. Everybody knows it’s a mask, and sooner or later you must show yourself—or at least, you show yourself as someone who could not afford to show himself, and so created something to hide behind.... You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being.”
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980)
“The reputation of generosity is to be purchased pretty cheap; it does not depend so much upon a man’s general expense, as it does upon his giving handsomely where it is proper to give at all. A man, for instance, who should give a servant four shillings, would pass for covetous, while he who gave him a crown, would be reckoned generous; so that the difference of those two opposite characters, turns upon one shilling.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)