Who do you rate as the greater player?

Williams: 3 World Championships , 2 UK's, 2 Masters, 22 ranking titles

Selby: 3 World Championships, 2 UK's, 3 Masters, 17 ranking titles


Selby won one more Masters title, Williams 5 more rankers. Who do you rate as the greater player?

Williams.

Mark.

Williams.

My prerogative.

SnookerFan wrote:Tough one. Really tough one.

I want to say Mark Williams, but not sure I can.

Same.

Williams. Next.

Selby. Easy.

It's impossible to call this. I agree with a previous poster who said I want to say Williams but not sure that I can.

I've not looked at the head to head. I guess they would beat each other over a series of meetings. And their title wins are so similar. This is too difficult to call

Dragonfly wrote:It's impossible to call this. I agree with a previous poster who said I want to say Williams but not sure that I can.

I've not looked at the head to head. I guess they would beat each other over a series of meetings. And their title wins are so similar. This is too difficult to call

It's really not that difficult.

Williams.

Williams. He won so much in probably the most competitive and high-quality era snooker’s ever had. Plus winning his third world title 15 years after his previous one, and playing fantastically pretty much throughout.

I don’t think one extra Masters title makes up for the five ranking titles.

It’s a good question, though. Selby will almost certainly end his career more successful than Williams.

In terms of specific skills I’d say:

Potting - Williams
Breakbuilding - Selby
Safety - Selby
Tactics - Selby
Creativity - Williams
Temperament - Tied
Cueball control - Selby

But aside from breakbuilding, the things Williams is better at he’s far better at, whereas Selby’s not significantly better than Williams in any one department. Plus you just feel like Williams is the greater player.

Plus Ronnie mentioned him and not Selby as a great

the welsh potting machine

It's difficult, but I have to go with Williams in the end.

Nice summing up from Iranu, & tomorrow I will add a longer post explaining why I agree with him.

Having come through a significantly more competitive era, Williams won roughly the same number of triple-crown events and five more ranking events. It's Williams.

Williams. He was No.1 at a time when the competition was probably the stiffest EVER in the history of the game.

SnookerEd25 wrote:Nice summing up from Iranu, & tomorrow I will add a longer post explaining why I agree with him.

It's genuinely close at the moment (Selby will probably end up greater by the time he reaches MJW's age), so to decide it for now my missus said its Selby because he has a nicer bum and hair.

There’s more to the story than Williams simply being ahead on rankers. Watch Williams in his prime and you’ll see why he was a better player. Of course, the stats do back that up. His peak game was very very special. The class of 92 cancelled each other out along the years. You could argue that each of Higgins, Williams and Ronnie would all have more trophies if their prime years hadn’t coincided. I’m not sure Selby had that competition 10-15 years later. Ronnie, perhaps, but sporadically.

After becoming established Selby has never reached the lows that Williams did. Williams fell out of the top 16 a few times.

I'm surprised so many people are so sure Williams is the better player. Yes of course his game is easier on the eye. He is certainly more talented than Selby.

But doesn't Selby thrive against such players. Disrupting their flowing, natural game. I know it takes a lot to ruffle Williams. But even his potting suffers when he's nailed to the baulk cushion all day long.

We all know Selby has had considerable success against O' Sullivan. And O'Sullivan is better than Williams. I'm not saying that Selby is better than Williams. I am just surprised that the consensus is overwhelming against Selby.

I much prefer Williams. His potting and playing style are wonderful. But Selby is a match for anybody as he's shown against O' Sullivan over the years. If he can regularly beat the best player of all then he can beat Mark Williams too.

The Williams of 1998-2003 beats any version of Selby for me.