can´t take anything from

[beachboy]

"You can´t take anything from Nadal" (Nadal is a tennis player). What does it mean?

 

[Tdol]

You can't criticise him- he's good in every way.

 

[beachboy]

Two questions: 1) Besides athletes, can I use this expression to refer to people and professionals in general? Politicians, teachers, classmates?
2) Is the sentence only used in negative sentences? Could I say: You can take something from Maradona ?

 

[Tdol]

1 Yes
2 That doesn't really work for me.