Whale in a goldfish team: All time XI

RedTillI'mDead

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A head scratcher for you...

There are times where a player finds himself at a club, but he is miles ahead of the rest of the team and essentially carrie's the team. I'm thinking the type of player who might be seen as one of the best in the world in their position, but surrounded by players who are some way off that.

Ronaldo and Messi are unlikely to be in this xi, as they always have very good players around them, although they do carry the team at times.

Someone like Hazard this season could be passable, as Chelsea have been mostly average and players like Kante have been played out of position thus are not currently one of the best in their played position in the world. I'm not sure that any of the other players in their team would be seen as within the best in their positions. This said I don't think Hazard has been particular big fish this year, so there might be better picks

The stipulation is you need to state the year and the club.

If you can't make an xi, then maybe nominate players and we'll eventually get there.

I'm struggling to even get started, Icardi 14-15 looks a good shout, but even then Inter had Handanovic, so that might rule him out. Batistuta came to mind, but he had Rui Costa. Plenty of other players stand out in the bigger fish category, but not whales to goldfish ratios!

This website is very useful for research...
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/
 

MVBDX

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Gareth Bale, Spurs, 2012-13.
 

Maagge

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How good was Schmeichel for Brøndby before we signed him? Anyone know?
 

11101

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Maradona with Argentina and Napoli, pretty much any year but especially 86 and 87.

Gerrard for Liverpool a few times.
 

Grylte

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Stoichkov for Bulgaria.
Loved watching that team play, but he literally carried them.
 

Firstouch20

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Van Persie 11/12 Dragged by far the worse Arsenal team ever assembled to 3rd in the league and won PFA Player of the year and finished top scorer to boot.
 

paulscholes18

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DDG
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Bale Modric JayJay Ronaldinho
Batistuta Ronaldo

*Southampton
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Sir Scott McToMinay

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Shearer at Newcastle during most of his time there.

Neymar for Brazil in 2014, rest of the team was either past-it, mediocre or simply shite.

Pretty sure Ballack played for some poor Bayern and German sides at some point.

Di Canio when he played for Sheffield Wednesday.
 

antohan

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Maradona with Argentina and Napoli, pretty much any year but especially 86 and 87.
A myth. Exceptional as he was, the rest of the cast where nowhere near as poor as made out to be.

The right description isn't "carrying a team" but having a team built around you, and thus dependent on you showing up.
 

Bole Top

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perhaps Gilardino when he was in Parma. relegation team with league's second best scorer. they even played relegation tie-breaker in the same season, but survived just barely because of his goals. obviously that got him his transfer to Milan.

Pauleta? I remember PSG always finishing from 10th to 15th place in league even when he was league's top scorer couple of times.
 

harms

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Messi this season is within a shot to be fair. He's directly responsible for 41% of their goals and also for bringing the ball forward via dribbling or passing (33,6% of that is done by Messi). On paper they have a great team but in reality he's carrying them like he never did before.
 

11101

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A myth. Exceptional as he was, the rest of the cast where nowhere near as poor as made out to be.

The right description isn't "carrying a team" but having a team built around you, and thus dependent on you showing up.
They werent great in the national team, and at Napoli they definitely were that poor. They finished two spots above relegation the season before he arrived.
 

harms

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Zico at Udinese in the 80's? He's had Causio with him, but he was on the wrong side of his 30.
Serie A of the 80's had some similar cases due to the foreigners rule.
 

Grylte

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I guess he's pointing out that he didn't literally carry the team (or the country for that matter).
I think he did, i was rooting for Bulgaria and was a stoichkov fanboy at the time.
Remember when he single handedly knocked Germany out.

I need to stop using the word literally, i do it too much :lol:
 

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Luigi Riva was the first name that came to mind. Had some support from players like Domenghini, Boninsegna (a markedly better performer for Internazionale later in his career), de Carvalho over the years — but he was quite clearly the difference-maker and talisman who dragged Cagliari to a Serie A championship with back-to-back-to-back Capocannoniere seasons after making an early impact in Serie B. For reference, he scored roughly 50% of Cagliari's goals when they finished 1st and 2nd in Serie A and 60% of the goals when they were runner-up in the 1969 Coppa Italia — an exemplary return in a rough and tumble Catenaccio-inspired period where the best attackers were closely marked and ruthlessly tackled.
 

harms

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Uwe Seeler at Hamburg
Good shout. Willi Schulz aside, I'd struggle to think of any notable Hamburger player of that time. Kaltz and the new generation only appeared around his retirement.
 

harms

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I think he did, i was rooting for Bulgaria and was a stoichkov fanboy at the time.
Remember when he single handedly knocked Germany out.

I need to stop using the word literally, i do it too much :lol:
Figuratively carries the team:


Literally carries the team:
 

AltiUn

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DDG
AWB VVD* Maguire** Grosso
Bale Modric JayJay Ronaldinho
Batistuta Ronaldo

*Southampton
** Hull City
AWB and Maguire? What about Zaha and Robertson, they weren't/aren't one man teams by any stretch.
 

antohan

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They werent great in the national team, and at Napoli they definitely were that poor. They finished two spots above relegation the season before he arrived.
The national team was better as a team than the shite Messi has had to put up with (most real top quality clashes or overlaps with Messi bar Di Maria, and Mascherano down the spine).

Re: Napoli, they also finished 8th after he arrived. It was only with the likes of Ferrara, Baiano, De Napoli, Crippa, Alemao, Carnevale and Careca that they finally rose to the top. Still remarkable when Milan had THAT Dutch trio and Italian All-Star Defence, but it wasn't a one man job.