Your most overrated footballer

Paxi said:
Who is your favorite player that you overrated?
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Seems like a fair amount of people misunderstood the thread.

Tomasz Kuszczak gets my shout. After all those save of the season nominations/awards I thought he was good enough to be our long term no1.
As a fellow Pole I really liked him and wanted him to succeed which clouded my judgment.
 
Devil81 said:
Wow!

Either some really young supporters not having a clue or some pretty bad judges of top top footballers, Henry and Bergkamp were both truly world class.

Have people erased how good Arsenal were during that period or were they that young that couldn't appreciated players abilities.

There was a period where Henry was easily top three player in the world and who was his supplier and partner in chief. Dennis Bergkamp, okay he didn't weigh in with as many goals but that wasnt what his game was all about, he was a genius and he opened defences by holding the ball up and having incredible skill for a man of his size.

Others questioning Scholes as well, when fellow pros are saying he's the best, trust me he was the best. Jamie O hara said on talksport the other day Scholes was the best Premier league player he ever played against, they all say it so why do people think United fans overate him.

Honestly the likes of Welbeck, Cleverley and Joe Hart have been overated but people naming superstars need to go back and watch some games.

The two Arsenal lads would walk into any eleven in world football right now.
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The question was who was your overrated player, so whether Bergkamp, Henry or Scholes were overrated by some really depends on how highly they originally thought of them. Whether he was truly world class is immaterial in the context of this thread.
 
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Sterling. At one point the English media were trying to claim he was the 3rd best player behind Messi and Ronaldo :lol:
 
Theo Walcott is genuinely the worst footballer I’ve seen in person, I find it amazing he has been a Premier League player for so long. Couldn’t pass it, made the wrong runs every time, awful decision making - he makes Nani look like Zidane.

I wouldn’t say he’s overrated though, because I don’t think anyone rates him.
 
Devil81 said:
Wow!

Either some really young supporters not having a clue or some pretty bad judges of top top footballers, Henry and Bergkamp were both truly world class.

Have people erased how good Arsenal were during that period or were they that young that couldn't appreciated players abilities.

There was a period where Henry was easily top three player in the world and who was his supplier and partner in chief. Dennis Bergkamp, okay he didn't weigh in with as many goals but that wasnt what his game was all about, he was a genius and he opened defences by holding the ball up and having incredible skill for a man of his size.

Others questioning Scholes as well, when fellow pros are saying he's the best, trust me he was the best. Jamie O hara said on talksport the other day Scholes was the best Premier league player he ever played against, they all say it so why do people think United fans overate him.

Honestly the likes of Welbeck, Cleverley and Joe Hart have been overated but people naming superstars need to go back and watch some games.

The two Arsenal lads would walk into any eleven in world football right now.
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you are misunderstanding the thread. Its players YOU personally overrate.
Also the Scholes bit is meaningless. Because he doesn't get much credit compared to others, ex pros are now overcompensating by labelling him the GOAT. its happened with other underrated players before
 
renandstimpyfan83 said:
If Özil had the drive of a Cristiano he’d probably be one of the greatest footballers of all time.
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This answer plays into philosophy what success looks like in a post-modern setup so is a little embarrassing in tone, and I might be explaining it poorly in one paragraph, but if Ozil had Cristiano's "drive" I don't know if he'd be selfless enough to be composed to the extreme level he was at in his decision making and passing, if that makes sense. It's possible, but Cristiano's "drive" and being desperate to score goals seems easier to replicate than having a fanatical drive to be calm and unselfish enough to hit 20+ assists without the long passing of a De Bruyne or Beckham.
 
Giggs86 said:
Yep, bizarre. Those who think he's overrated should rewatch Italy's semi-final vs Germany and final vs France from 2006.

Two games, two goat-ish performances from Pirlo. My favorite non-United moment was Pirlo in the dying moments of extra time vs Germany and that no look pass to Grosso which sealed Italy's place in the final.
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He doesn't get credit for his team's defending because people don't realize that quality distribution and being available and pegging teams back by virtue of your passing threat aid in defending. They think it's just done without the ball or via tackling or pressing.
 
Canagel said:
Not controversial at all. He was a journeyman in the 2000's and carried a reputation for bottling big games.
And His Goal to game ratio was actually average for someone who demanded he should be the main man. If he had accepted he wasn't a main man maybe he would have won the Champions League and had a better legacy.

And his spell at this club is very overrated . Infact he was lucky we won the EL wihout him and people forgot about all the sitters he wasted otherwise everyone would have called him a flop.

Comfortably a tier below the likes of Benzema, Suarez, Lewandowski etc in the 2010 and players like Eto'o in the 2000's
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I'd definitely have him above Benzema. In the Suarez/Lewa/Etoo tier but maybe at the bottom of it if you're talking about fitting into a good team and 2nd behind Suarez if you've got a weaker side.
 
renandstimpyfan83 said:
The main thing that held Defoe back was his inability to play as a lone striker, which pretty much every top team played when he was at his peak. If he was ten years younger he’d have had a much better career in my opinion.

I always thought the same of Theo Walcott. He would have suited being the “little man” in an old school 4-4-2 but ended up being used mostly as a right winger because his lack of hold up play made him unsuitable to play as a centre forward.
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In hindsight, some managers/teams from the early 2010s would have done well to get ahead of the 3 at the back curve in order to accommodate 2nd strikers like Defoe, and wingbacks who weren't natural fullbacks or wingers could have been bought cheaper than their actual value.
 
slored1 said:
I always overrated Ramsey. Somehow I still think he's a brilliant player and that he would be a good fit for our squad if we didn't sign Bruno.
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Like Nasri and Nani, he had a 6 month run as a top 2-3 player in the Prem, so if you think of that era first you likely overrate him, and if you think of their down periods you probably underrate them.
 
Gio said:
Different type of player though. Bergkamp’s touch and hold up play were more polished and consistent. His threaded passing through defences was more incisive. In contrast, young Rooney was a more explosive ball carrier and more powerful finisher.

Bergkamp’s Arsenal stint might be a tad overstated, but in my view peak Bergkamp was the Ajax version that came 2nd and 3rd in the Ballon D’Or in the early 1990s. I’m not sold that Rooney ever surpassed or fully matched those heights.
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I've yammered on about this elsewhere but the big what-if for Rooney's career for me will always be what if Fergie hadn't fecked up the 2011 CL final and had played Rooney as a lone striker with Chicharito off the bench and gotten another body into midfield. Rio and Vidic were up for it that day , and if we'd have won 1-0 or 2-1 off of Rooney terrorizing their CBs like he did as a lone striker dropping deep to start counters, his peak might be remembered differently (if only because CBs get overrated so their greatness would have faded, it's not like people wax lyrical over Umtiti and Varane dominating the World Cup in 2018). He was pretty damn good that year.
 
As a child I thought David Batty was good. I also liked Leon Osman as a player for a long time. United wise possibly Cantona. He's probably not the greatest man and player that ever lived. Probably.
 
Furious George said:
Robert Earnshaw was always the thinking man's Defoe
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He was stood behind me in a queue at the cinema once about a decade ago. Asked him if he was the thinking man's Defoe. He thought about it for a minute.
 
As a kid it was Nani, I remember him scoring a couple goals in his first pre season and therefore expecting Cristiano levels of output from him :D
 
These days Jack Grealish, been raving about him to friends for nearly two years. Even said a year ago that he was in top 5 best Premier League players in the league :lol:

Use to be a big fan of Luca Toni for some reason back in the day, man was a machine for Fiorentina
 
My personal favourite player I overrated was Anderson, I still think he was as good as Fred is now for United, maybe even slightly better at his very best for United, there was something very endearing about the way he played and he really ran a few games I saw live. But injuries and maybe not a great attitude didn’t help him. Even when he was a joke figure for other fans I still defended him. He also had some pretty bad games and you couldn’t rely on him for a season.
 
DanClancy said:
Bergkamp did nothing in the CL with Arsenal and had plenty of opportunities too unlike Cantona, unfortunately Eric never played for France past 28 after what happened at Selhurst Park when he was the French captain.
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Bergkamp did win two UEFA Cups however (when it was still a competition comparable in quality to the European Cup) and was top scorer in one of those seasons.

Bergkamp not flying to away games really contributed to Arsenal’s failure in the Champions League during those seasons which shows how important he was during that 1998-2004 period.

To be honest, that kind of sums up the negative aspect of Bergkamp: he was a bit of a bottler. Let down his club and country by being too cowardly to fly and also let them down by refusing to take penalties after missing in the FA Cup semi. The Netherlands could have reached the Euros final if he’d taken the penalties rather than De Boer or Kluivert vs Italy and would probably have qualified for the 2002 World Cup if he hadn’t retired after deciding he wouldn’t fly to Asia.
 
renandstimpyfan83 said:
Bergkamp did win two UEFA Cups however (when it was still a competition comparable in quality to the European Cup) and was top scorer in one of those seasons.

Bergkamp not flying to away games really contributed to Arsenal’s failure in the Champions League during those seasons which shows how important he was during that 1998-2004 period.

To be honest, that kind of sums up the negative aspect of Bergkamp: he was a bit of a bottler. Let down his club and country by being too cowardly to fly and also let them down by refusing to take penalties after missing in the FA Cup semi. The Netherlands could have reached the Euros final if he’d taken the penalties rather than De Boer or Kluivert vs Italy and would probably have qualified for the 2002 World Cup if he hadn’t retired after deciding he wouldn’t fly to Asia.
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I might be getting my stories mixed up, memory is saying it was an italian player - he skipped a plane journey which ultimataly crash landed in a crocodile swamp.

Maybe during the US world cup.

Anyway was a creepy story iread years ago :)
 
Luke Shaw and Martial would be the main two from current team. Shaw is a horiffic player and stealing a living at 150K a week. Martial 80% of the stuff he attempts doesnt work.

Edgar Davids probably the most overated player of all time.
 
Personally, I think I overrated Veron. For me, he's one of the best CM in the world during his career, on the same level as Scholes, even after his time here.
 
GifLord said:
Sterling. At one point the English media were trying to claim he was the 3rd best player behind Messi and Ronaldo :lol:
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And now he could order a fish & chips and make a headline about how inhumane he is.
 
Aguero. He's good but I don't really rate him as world class.
 
Fingeredmouse said:
Scholes was on a shaky peg in the early 00s when Veron came in for a little while.
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But scholes versatility is why I'd have him over both xavi and pirlo. He was a star attacking midfielder when he was moved there. He had the energy, agility off the ball movement and shooting to still play wel higher
 
Can only think of fairly recent examples.

Probably Kovacic. He's a good player but I've always thought he was incredible and on the precipice of world class play. Just really like Croatians for some reason.

Jean-Michel Seri a few years back. Had fully bought into the hype and was convinced he'd tear it up at Barca. Move ended up not materializing and now he can't get a game for Fulham.

Finally, Marco Asensio. He's still pretty young and could improve but I've definitely overrated him since he broke through at Mallorca. Really have a thing for left footed technicians who can strike a ball but he doesn't have much else to his game to be honest
 
Kleberson, remember buzzing United had signed him after the 2002 World Cup only to find he either couldn't cope with the pace of the game in England or he just didn't fancy the physical aspect.

I know Sir Alex has since said he could tell he wasn't fitting in straight away but I was genuinely excited we had a world cup winning Brazilian from that great 2002 side.

My memories of him were really a weak individual getting bullied a bit on the ball, I think Sir Alex actually tried him out right in one or two games and he was even worse there.
 
Big Dunc
What a player on the ground as well as unstoppable in the air, didn't play enough games through injury, 3 month sentence and being sent off, 9 red cards (record)
to justify teams paying what they did for him
Scotland
4M Dundee Utd to Rangers, scored 2 goals for Rangers
England
4M Rangers to Everton
8M Everton to Newcastle
3.75M back to Everton
15.75M transfer total in England

Newcastle, 8 goals for their fee (8m - 3.75m) = £531k a goal plus wages
Everton, 60 goals for £7.75M, £129k a goal plus wages
this was back in the 90's / 00's
 
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And Raul. Bamford could have scored more in those Madrid teams.
 
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