The debate on who is the greatest player of all time has gathered momentum before the key Premier League clash between Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor. Following the performances of ‘MVG’ in recent weeks has got many people pondering the question, but at the moment who is, as I have a look at many different factors.
Titles:
If this was based on the amount won then Michael van Gerwen would have to run across the world and grab all the trophies he could find and back to even get close to emulating Phil. ‘The Power’ over many years has won the biggest titles on numerous occasion, not least including his 16 World Championships and 15 World Matchplays.
However, people would argue that Michael hasn’t had enough time to have the chance to win the titles, where Phil has been in the game for 26 years, 2016 marks the 10th anniversary that Michael van Gerwen has been on the big stage. Michael in that time has won the World Masters, World Championship, 2 Grand Prix’s, 2 UK Open’s and the World Matchplay.
Performances:
Michael has shown the form over the last few weeks that nobody ever has produced. In that I include Phil Taylor, he is averaging 123.4. 116, 113 and that just on it’s own is staggering, but in these matches if it wasn’t for the one dodgy score or hitting the doubles these averages would have been through the roof. In that game against Michael Smith where he broke the World record he had the chance to make that average 133, which if he did, probably would never have been beaten.
These averages however, have only come over a period of a few weeks, the quality that Taylor had previously imposed, was imposed week in and out for a number of years. I firmly believe that if Taylor didn’t persevere to be better over the periods where he was without a shadow of a doubt number 1, we wouldn’t have got close to the averages that we see today. For the most part of the 2000’s, most players were averaging 93 or 94, nowadays we see these a poor or adequate averages.
Taylor made these changes and made the quality if the game better for 25 years because nobody had an answer for him and to shut him up so to speak, they would have to go and average the 100 average that for years was only ever touched by Phil Taylor.
Quality of opposition:
Michael van Gerwen is playing in an era where he knows that on their day, anyone in the top bracket of the game can beat him. This was not true back in the days of Taylor’s years of dominance. Any player could walk into a room first round and quiver over the sight of Taylor and even the top players were around 5 or 6 points below the average they needed to beat Taylor.
In head to head records, you’d be lucky to see someone to get more than two victories against Phil Taylor. Take Roland Scholten for example, he was at World number 8 for the best part of 6 years. This would mean by seeding, that he was playing Taylor in every big TV quarter final, except from when he went on to lift the UK Open in 2004, he lost every other televised match against the ‘Power’. With Michael van Gerwen, Dave Chisnall who is World number 12 has the game to take Michael van Gerwen to the cleaners when he is at his best and has proven that by beating van Gerwen 6-0 on the pro tour.
Time at the top:
Michael van Gerwen has been World number 1 since January 1st 2014, that is 2 years and 2 months, Taylor has been World number 1 for 18 years. However this is the bracket where ‘MVG’ in people’s eyes will start to be considered the World’s best. What we all forget is that Michael is only 26 years of age and yet has been playing top level Darts for 10 years. When he was only 16 years of age he was a Winmau World Master and in the top 10 of the BDO rankings.
For Phil Taylor, this was much different, he was only playing competitive Darts at the age that Michael van Gerwen is at now. Being mentored by ‘The Crafty Cockney’ Eric Bristow he would only play in the odd tournament and try and break even, as he would give all winnings to Eric. These ten years of difference could be a key factor when deciding the question of ‘Who is the greatest of all time?’.
How do we measure who’s the greatest?:
Even after all this when both players pack the sport up, how would we compare them to see who’s the greatest. Do we judge on world titles, that would be the most fair way, as by any sport you are defined in greatness by the greatest achievements. If we did this by TV major won, the balance would be unfair. We are now use to around 11-12 televised tournaments a year without the World series events and the European tour. Back in Taylor’s day you had the World Championship, World Matchplay and World Pairs/Grand prix from ’98.
In conclusion:
I believe that Michael van Gerwen at this present moment in time is playing better than anyone at any point. In my mind, I feel that to have this debate we need to have 3-4 years of this type dominance from ‘MVG’ along with 7-8 World titles.
BY Henry Deacon
16/3/16 19:38
Henry Deacon Media 