Footballer who carried the whole team

[Piratesoup]

Kahn at the 2002 WC (until the final...) deserves a mention

 

[mazhar13]

Laszlo (Ladislao) Kubala is another player who pretty much carried Barcelona to La Liga and European Cups, overcoming the greatest Real Madrid side in history on top of that. He was so significant and influential that Barca fans made him their best player ever over Messi a few years ago, and he's one of the reasons that Barcelona are what they are today. I wonder what Barcelona could have become if Kubala didn't go there. Could Barcelona have become the footballing powerhouse they are now without him?

 

[montpelier]

You could subtly re-title thread summat like ''Which teams were most built around a single player?'' to circumvent these pesky it's never 'appened arguments.

Beckham vs. Greece

or ''please provide examples of instances where footy best showcased an individual talent with the other members of the XI adversely affected by tactical subjugation in order to facilitate success for the team unit as a whole'' maybe

Cruyff - Holland '74, what a bunch of jokers the rest were, really

Hoddle @ Spurs

quite an interesting question / argument I think,

 

[walkinhop]

Stoichkov, Bulgaria, 1994

 

[Gio]

Stoichkov, Bulgaria, 1994

Decent shout, although credit should be given to Balakov and Lechkov for running many of those games for Bulgaria.

 

[Piratesoup]

Also: Trifon Ivanov. Always. All hail!

 

[InfiniteBoredom]

RvP, Arsenal, 2011-2012.

 

[montpelier]

Spurs again & their ''just give it to Gazza'' FA Cup run

 

[montpelier]

Thierry Henry - wouldn't have been very invincible without him

and to do a slightly silly Utd before I get shouted at...

Lee Sharpe before Giggs got into the team & before Cantona arrived,

CWC season would it be, everything we did going forward went through him

 

[walkinhop]

Decent shout, although credit should be given to Balakov and Lechkov for running many of those games for Bulgaria.

Agree, it is not as blatant carry as some other names but def. wouldn't have happened without him.

 

[sallycinnamin]

Bobby Charlton in the aftermath of Munich and with such grace and humility.

 

[surf]

"Tom Finney should claim income tax relief ... for his 10 dependents."

Anon, about the Preston team.

 

[TheCorkman]

Keane for Ireland around 2000 to 2002. Those matches against Holland and Portugal were unbelievable. Can't think of a player in the game today that could replicate those performances.

Maybe Hagi for Romania or Gala?

 

[::sonny::]

Batistuta - Fiorentina
Ronaldo- Inter
Ronaldo - United
Totti - Roma
Aguero - City

 

[Enigma_87]

Keane for Ireland around 2000 to 2002. Those matches against Holland and Portugal were unbelievable. Can't think of a player in the game today that could replicate those performances.

Maybe Hagi for Romania or Gala?

Hagi for Romania is a very good shout.

Shearer for both Newcastle and Blackburn
Batistuta for Fio
Cruyff for Barca
Deco for Porto
Ronaldinho for Barca (I know they had quality players but he was the one that always dragged the team forward in the tough matches)
Stoichkov - Bulgaria

maybe Scirea - Juventus?

 

[Macern]

Van Persie - Man United in 2012/2013.

Carrick.

 

[Moriarty]

George Best-Manchester United 1969-72

 

[.Rossi]

Eric for us in 1996.
Some of the performances were dreadful during the run in that season but, he'd pop up and score the all important winner for us. That game at St James' Park. Atrocious stuff. Newcastle should have been 6-0 up at half-time

Suarez obviously
De Gea
Seems like Aguero carries City half the time anyways

 

[Amar__]

Kane for Spurs last season?

Edit: de Gea carried us through lot of games alone last season.

 

[dogwithabone]

Gerrard, in his pomp, definitely carried Liverpool for a period. He was scoring crucial goals and was everywhere on the pitch. Tevez at West Ham and Suarez last season at Liverpool are notable others. Bale too. Robson was carrying us for a time as well before it all clicked.

 

[Cheesy]

For United, I actually think you could make a reasonable case for Rooney at certain points of the 09/10 season in an attacking sense. Nani did perform in some games, but we looked very devoid of ideas in some when Rooney was missing and Berbatov was our main man up front. Our defence was probably good enough though to warrant Rooney's case not being too strong. Carrick probably did enough in 12/13 to ensure RVP wasn't quite carrying us, even though he was massively influential and our best player that season.

 

[RedFish]

Enzo Schifo - Belgium

Denmark /Verona - Elkjaer

Davor Suker - Croatia

Riquelme - Villareal

 

[sammsky1]

Maradona / Argentina

Roberto Baggio/Italy

 

[RedFish]

Maradona / Argentina

Roberto Baggio/Italy

Schillachi 1990 Italy ?

 

[sammsky1]

Schillachi 1990 Italy ?

Yeah! That was great!!!!

 

[Joga Bonito]

For United, I actually think you could make a reasonable case for Rooney at certain points of the 09/10 season in an attacking sense. Nani did perform in some games, but we looked very devoid of ideas in some when Rooney was missing and Berbatov was our main man up front. Our defence was probably good enough though to warrant Rooney's case not being too strong. Carrick probably did enough in 12/13 to ensure RVP wasn't quite carrying us, even though he was massively influential and our best player that season.

That's a great shout, he was absolutely integral for us that season and more or less carried us. When Rooney got injured during that season everything fell apart. We lost that title decider against Chelsea without him and lost the CL quarter finals against Bayern, with an unfit Rooney being hurried back for the second leg (exacerbated his injury if I remember correctly). I have no doubts in my mind that we'd have won the league and made the CL final if Rooney was fit and firing for the business end of the season. He scored twice away against Milan in the Round of 16 fixture, where he was in the middle of his crazy heading spree iirc and then repeated the feat in the home fixture. Opened the scoring against Bayern in the away leg before getting injured unfortunately. Berbatov was extremely underwhelming during that season and could never step up to the plate, esp when Rooney was injured iirc. Rooney was on course to match/beat Ronaldo's 42 goal mark before his injury too. We were ridiculously dependent on Rooney to drag us through that season, with many players not being great overall. Valencia was good that season but I'm struggling to think of many more. Nani in the second half of the season I think? Most certainly not Berbatov or Owen... Reckon our defense was fairly solid as usual as well.

 

[RedFish]

Eric for us in 1996.
Some of the performances were dreadful during the run in that season but, he'd pop up and score the all important winner for us. That game at St James' Park. Atrocious stuff. Newcastle should have been 6-0 up at half-time

Suarez obviously
De Gea
Seems like Aguero carries City half the time anyways

Suarez was the equal of anyone in the world that season for me. Some of those goals were downright ridiculous, that header from 20 yards out for example.

 

[OzKangarooney]

Tim Cahill for Australia, he has done it a few times

 

[RedFish]

Tim Cahill for Australia, he has done it a few times

Good call. Did it for Everton on countless occasions too.

 

[Cheesy]

That's a great shout, he was absolutely integral for us that season and more or less carried us. When Rooney got injured during that season everything fell apart. We lost that title decider against Chelsea without him and lost the CL quarter finals against Bayern, with an unfit Rooney being hurried back for the second leg (exacerbated his injury if I remember correctly). I have no doubts in my mind that we'd have won the league and made the CL final if Rooney was fit and firing for the business end of the season. He scored twice away against Milan in the Round of 16 fixture, where he was in the middle of his crazy heading spree iirc and then repeated the feat in the home fixture. Opened the scoring against Bayern in the away leg before getting injured unfortunately. Berbatov was extremely underwhelming during that season and could never step up to the plate, esp when Rooney was injured iirc. Rooney was on course to match/beat Ronaldo's 42 goal mark before his injury too. We were ridiculously dependent on Rooney to drag us through that season, with many players not being great overall. Valencia was good that season but I'm struggling to think of many more. Nani in the second half of the season I think? Most certainly not Berbatov or Owen... Reckon our defense was fairly solid as usual as well.

Yep, as I say we were excellent defensively which arguably cancels it out, but in an attacking sense we looked worryingly average without Rooney. Certainly, our excellent final tally of 86 PL goals would've probably been struggling to reach 60 if we'd been without him that season.

Valencia was good, although then his main quality was mainly dropping crosses (when he was good at them!) onto the head of none other than...Rooney. Nani excelled in some later season games, but probably not enough to compensate for Rooney. Berbatov didn't fill in well enough, and only performed at a higher standard in 2010/2011.

 

[IFC 1905]

But that's not the title of the thread. The title is "Players who carried the whole team". To me, that suggests that anyone could've been in there and Tevez would have kept them up. I disagree - if Macherano hadn't, they would have gone down.

Then the thread is a nosense.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Yup.

Wasn't Tevez pretty the only thing which stopped West Ham getting relegated the season before we signed him?

I never thought I'd see those words together.

I think it's already been mentioned, but Le Tissier kept Southampton in the PL for a few seasons.

 

[fontaine]

Delap - Stoke

 

[Wittmann45]

Did Charlie Adam carry Blackpool during their good spell in the PL?

Aubamayang has won games for Gabon off his own ability as I recall.

Steven Gerrard has his flaws but has shown he can lead squads of lesser ability to victory however his selfishness became more apparent as his natural abilities and consistency waned.

Eric Cantona led United to Titles.

Hard to argue for 1/11th of a team leading it solely to glory, Maradona can be as good as he wants but if he's got Jeremy Beadle as his Goalie he won't win anything. Probably better to ask which one player has made the biggest impact relative to their club/s.

In the 1995-96 season, did Cantona not carry that team to the title, especially after the Tottenham loss? There was a run of five or six games in a row, 1-0 wins and 1-1 draws, where Cantona was the only goal scorer.

 

[ravi2]

Batistuta - Fiorentina
Ronaldo- Inter
Ronaldo - United
Totti - Roma
Aguero - City

I don't think Ronaldo carried us.... He had an in form, prime Rooney and tevez to work with plus we had one of our best defences led by Rio and vidic..... Our midfield wasnt bad either. We were buying young stars like ando and Nani for fun.... Then the glazers acquired mufc and suddenly we stopped buying at the rate we used to.

 

[Theonas]

I have a a lot of admiration to the way Barcelona play, their tactical discipline, the clockwork style they move with and the ridiculous passing ability they possess. But Messi is a serious shout as one of the most if not most influential players in recent times. We have to remember that this was a team that was never a superpower in Europe in terms of European Cup wins before him. They were definitely going to be a top team even without him but he elevated them from a top team to probably the best ever and levels of dominance that have probably never been matched. The number of games that were on the edge in Europe like against Real in 2011 or Bayern last year before he simply decided to go out, dribble past players like they weren't there and score is truly astonishing and incomparable in the modern game.

 

[B20]

Ignoring 92, it's not wrong to say that Brian Laudrup essentially carried the national team for much of the 90s.

 

[Maroo]

Suarez in his last year at Liverpool

 

[Sky1981]

I don't think Zidane ever carried France, to be honest. He was a talisman, but on that front you could say Cantona carried United or Messi Barcelona.

Off course no one man can literally carry a bunch of championship player to win a world cup, have to take the statement with some consideration. In a game of 8 matches, bailing the team on 2-3 games is enough to be called carrying the team, not literally perhaps, but in spirit.

You could subtly re-title thread summat like ''Which teams were most built around a single player?'' to circumvent these pesky it's never 'appened arguments.

Beckham vs. Greece

or ''please provide examples of instances where footy best showcased an individual talent with the other members of the XI adversely affected by tactical subjugation in order to facilitate success for the team unit as a whole'' maybe

Cruyff - Holland '74, what a bunch of jokers the rest were, really

Hoddle @ Spurs

quite an interesting question / argument I think,

I could, but at the end of the day it's no brainer that star players like Zidane/Ronaldo/Laudrup/Maradona have the teams built around them, or at least close to it. it's a very subjective matter. On principle football is won by 11 people, but on some occasion there are shining individual who contribute more than the sum of 1 men among 11.

Roy Keane carried us through in Turin, that sort of performances perhaps, off course again he didn't do it alone.

 

[ghagua]

RvP - Title #20
De Gea - Saving us from a relegation battle.