Players you rate more highly than others did...

[Nr.7]

Agree with those saying Okocha and Beckham.

I would mention two fullbacks, Gianluca Pessotto and Dennis Irwin.

 

[JakeC]

Kuszczak, Oshea, Smalling, Silvestre, Fabio, Carrick, Anderson, Fletcher, Nani, Saha, Berbatov.

 

[criticalanalysis]

Michael Essien. I'm completely biased as he's my favourite ever player and it might be blasphemous to say but pre knee injuries I thought he was the closest thing to prime Keane before or since - Chelsea have never had a midfielder able to run an entire game in all phases by himself at the highest level outside of Essien.

I rate peak Essien as one of the best midfielders I've ever seen. He was the complete midfielder whenever I put on a Chelsea game.

His goal against Barca is one of my favourite strikes ever. Such a clutch shot with fantastic technique on his weaker foot. It really should have been the match winner.

Then we would have beat Chelsea in the final as we had their number at that time.

 

[SATA]

Mahrez. Underrated winger and player amongst the stars at City

 

[lawliet354]

Hargreaves, still believe we would've won another CL with him in the squad. If he's injury free I'd say he's better than Carrick and Fletcher

 

[Rolandofgilead]

Luke Shaw.

I said for years how good he was. Turns out I was right.

 

[Green_Red]

Fred

 

[Bebestation]

Hargreaves, still believe we would've won another CL with him in the squad. If he's injury free I'd say he's better than Carrick and Fletcher

During that CL win - I find people forget how important he was during that season.

He provided the final defensive balance to our midfield.

 

[JSArsenal]

Flamini

 

[El Jefe]

Aleksandr Hleb - was so good in tight spaces and was comfortable in central positions or out wide.

Thiago Motta - To me he was Carrick with a bit more bite. Lovely player

Gonzalo Higuain - The misses in the finals haunt him but he was successful at Madrid, Napoli and Juventus despite some huge transfer fees. He was actually capable of some insane finishes.

Luis Suarez - Seems strange to include him in here because he's rated very highly but he's one of the best players I've ever seen. Till this day I don't think anyone has 'wowed' me in the PL as much as he did in 2013/14. Forget the stats, the sheer audacity of some of the things he attempted was just unreal.

 

[Red Pumpkin]

Naldo - better than Mertesacker whom he formed a cb-partnership with at Werder Bremen.

Bordon - was rated by Bundesliga-fans as high as Lucio but he never got the glory as he played for Schalke.

Pedro Geromel - slick cb similar to Pique. Played for Cologne, never got his due.

Bance - played for Mainz. As good as Drogba, at least for one season.

Valbuena - quite close to the level of Iniesta or Silva. Played for Marseille so he is terribly underrated.

Elano - was good at City but at his best at Shakhtar.

Ze Roberto - at 37 he was running Bayerns midfield. Great feet, tenacity, technique. Would slot Into 99% of top teams XI today. Similar but better than Giggs.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

Aleksandr Hleb - was so good in tight spaces and was comfortable in central positions or out wide.

Thiago Motta - To me he was Carrick with a bit more bite. Lovely player

Gonzalo Higuain - The misses in the finals haunt him but he was successful at Madrid, Napoli and Juventus despite some huge transfer fees. He was actually capable of some insane finishes.

Luis Suarez - Seems strange to include him in here because he's rated very highly but he's one of the best players I've ever seen. Till this day I don't think anyone has 'wowed' me in the PL as much as he did in 2013/14. Forget the stats, the sheer audacity of some of the things he attempted was just unreal.

His the best finisher ever in the Pl. There's no type of goal he can't score

 

[Pow]

Naldo - better than Mertesacker whom he formed a cb-partnership with at Werder Bremen.

Bordon - was rated by Bundesliga-fans as high as Lucio but he never got the glory as he played for Schalke.

Pedro Geromel - slick cb similar to Pique. Played for Cologne, never got his due.

Bance - played for Mainz. As good as Drogba, at least for one season.

Valbuena - quite close to the level of Iniesta or Silva. Played for Marseille so he is terribly underrated.

Elano - was good at City but at his best at Shakhtar.

Ze Roberto - at 37 he was running Bayerns midfield. Great feet, tenacity, technique. Would slot Into 99% of top teams XI today. Similar but better than Giggs.

In no way shape or form was valbuena at the level of silva let alone iniesta.

 

[Bebestation]

He was a rival but I dont care.

I loved watching Xabi Alonso play.

He maybe isnt exactly underrated, but people dont talk about him as much as he deserved.

A bit like David Villa. Fantastic players that doesnt get much attention due to the Iniesta's and Xavi's.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Aleksandr Hleb - was so good in tight spaces and was comfortable in central positions or out wide.

Wasn't too bad looking either.

 

[Haddock]

I have no idea if people still think of Fabianski as "flappy handski" but I think he's very good. Same with Ogbonna.
I think Benzema is class, at any rate I enjoy watching him glide across the pitch.

There was a chap called David Pizzaro who played for Roma back in the 7-1 days. Juan Arango formerly of Gladbach, one of the great highlights players.
Also rated Mehmet Scholl and Bernd Schneider highly.

David Villa was world class, he never gets talked up enough. I also liked Luca Toni and Mario Gomez even though they seemed useless outside the box. I also like a Spanish winger named Vicente (what little I saw of him) and Joaquin. Now Joaquin is a wonderful player. A real pro's pro. He is 39 and still plays for Betis. Some of you may remember him from the 2002 world cup when he missed a penalty in the shootout against Korea. It's a shame he never played for Spain after 2007 and thus missed the whole glory era despite being in his twenties.

Xabi Prieto of Sociedad. I thought he was really good. We didn't always get non Real/Barca games where I lived and even then they were broadcast late. So it's not like I have watched him for 150-200 games.

 

[C'mon FC]

Totti - Should make it in everyones best 11 but didn't get the (real) Credit because of never leaving Roma.
Wesley Snejder - Insane season at Inter and should have wone the Ballon d'or that season.
Bernd Schneider - maybe german's most gifted technical player.
Marek Jankulovski - really good LB back in the days in Milano.

 

[Cascarino]

Grouped these two together as they joined Arsenal at a similar time and were both blighted by injuries. Always enjoyed watching them.

Rosicky - a lovely player to watch, one of those who glides across the pitch linking play together. Had a calming influence and was very comfortable taking the ball in tight situations, laying it off and then finding space. Was capable of shooting from range and scored a few beauties. Injuries ravaged his Arsenal career but he often seemed to find fitness in the spring in time to curtail Tottenham’s top 4 bid.

Diaby - Another player who struggled with injuries, to the point that he became something of a meme, which was a shame as he had wonderful talent. Often likened to Vieira due to their physical similarities and the way they moved on the pitch, he was less defensively adept than his fellow countryman (though his long legs and grasping stride still meant he was hard to bypass), but he excelled at breaking the press and bringing the ball forwards. In that manner he was reminiscent of Yaya Toure, in that they combined excellent technique with excellent physicality and could blow past the opposition. Injuries limited him to sporadic appearances most seasons, but his 2012 performance vs Liverpool in a 2-0 victory gives a good idea of what could have been.

 

[Ish]

Ander Herrera. Douglas Costa. Would be 2 of mine which springs to mind.

 

[bsCallout]

David Silva. One of the best players I have ever seen. I was absolutely devastated that City signed him, and he became a legend for them. We were heavily linked with him around 2008 I believe.

When has Silva not been highly rated?

 

[bsCallout]

Outside of United fan opinion I'd say Roy Keane, people seem to think he was just a tackler. Might be a generational thing though.

 

[Red Pumpkin]

In no way shape or form was valbuena at the level of silva let alone iniesta.

He could have been great but he stopped below that level and I believe it was in large part due to him never playing for any great sides. Just like di Natale, Batistuta, Reus, Tim Cahill, Henrik Larsson, Mohamed Aboutrika, Gabor Kiraly, Essam El Hadary and several others.

Imagine if Batistuta had played for Real, if Reus had played for Bayern or Valbuena had played for this PSG. Valbuena always looked top drawer for a national team featuring Henry, Ribery et. al.

 

[christian bennett]

Tony martial
Luke shaw
Pogba

Is that better formatting for you?

 

[Suedesi]

Steven Gerrard - Too many remember him only as the all-action hardman but he was an intelligent and technically proficient passer too

Chris Smalling - What Rozay said.

Steven Gerrard underrated? I mean he's only considered Liverpool's best ever player next to Dalglish...

 

[lysglimt]

McClair, Fletcher and Hargreaves at United

 

[calodo2003]

I actually played in a match against Okocha. Surprised how small he was.

 

[Suedesi]

I met Seedorf in New York - he seemed short and very stocky.

 

[Karel Podolsky]

Probably right. My main memory of him now, though, is the story about him whinging because City didn't get him a birthday cake.

My memory of him is the story about his agent whinging because City only gave a birthday cake not a Bugatti like Roberto Carlos got from Rubin Kazan (?) Owner.

 

[Nickelodeon]

David De Gea

His shot stopping is exceptional. Not just in making saves, but the way he catches really hard hit shots is better than I've seen for most GKs. On the flip side, I've seen Ederson and Allisson and especially Lloris make similar errors season after season without getting any of the flak that DDG gets.

Everyone has jumped on the Henderson bandwagon when at best he's likely to be a good PL keeper rather than hit a De Gea like peak. I expect history to be kinder to De Gea than many of our fans have been.

Post a best saves compilation just to remind what has been and hopefully, might also be in the future.

 

[Karel Podolsky]

Roy Makaay
I rated him higher than van Nistelrooij

 

[RedDevil@84]

To be fair, the Redcafe appraisal of Steven Gerrard doesn’t exist anywhere else as soon as you step off the caf. He’s considered top class without the number of if or but stipulations that get added to that on here.

Similar to John Terry, who the caf makes out was some average joe.

The problem is not Stevie G as such. But many discussions try to bring him into "one of the best PL midfielders" discussion. That puts him on the same pedestal as Scholes, Keane etc.

I can still agree with JT.

 

[RedDevil@84]

David De Gea

His shot stopping is exceptional. Not just in making saves, but the way he catches really hard hit shots is better than I've seen for most GKs. On the flip side, I've seen Ederson and Allisson and especially Lloris make similar errors season after season without getting any of the flak that DDG gets.

Everyone has jumped on the Henderson bandwagon when at best he's likely to be a good PL keeper rather than hit a De Gea like peak. I expect history to be kinder to De Gea than many of our fans have been.

Post a best saves compilation just to remind what has been and hopefully, might also be in the future.

This.
I regularly see other keepers making same decisions as DDG does and doesn't get the flak that he gets. Also the collective moan on redcafe, every time he doesn't run like a mad man for every cross is just irritating.

 

[Borys]

Kyle Walker, Ndidi, Giroud.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Juan Mata definitely.
We had this ridiculous attempts to force him into a RW and when it was obvious he sucked in that role, we put him there some more. And then fans started calling him s**t and not worth it. He could have played centrally, worked excellently well for us. Very intelligent player and makes good decisions.

 

[Borys]

Kyle Walker, Ndidi, Giroud.

From previous years, Hargreaves would have made a difference of could stay fit, and I always enjoyed watching Xabi Alonso play.

 

[UpWithRivers]

Carrick. I wanted him instead of Joe Cole when they were at West Ham. Did I get laughed at! Not saying Joe Cole wasnt a great young player at West Ham but even now a lot of people dont rate Carrick as highly as he should be.

 

[sherrinford]

The problem is not Stevie G as such. But many discussions try to bring him into "one of the best PL midfielders" discussion. That puts him on the same pedestal as Scholes, Keane etc.

I can still agree with JT.

Gerrard belongs in the group of great attacking midfield powerhouses with Fabregas, Yaya Toure and De Bruyne. You don't think these players should be in 'best PL midfielders' discussion?

 

[Gio]

The problem is not Stevie G as such. But many discussions try to bring him into "one of the best PL midfielders" discussion. That puts him on the same pedestal as Scholes, Keane etc.

I can still agree with JT.

What's outlandish about that when he's been selected by his peers to be in the PFA team of the season 8 times?

 

[Xeno]

Alvaro Recoba

 

[Red Pumpkin]

Roy Makaay
I rated him higher than van Nistelrooij

Nah. I love Roy being a Bayern-fan but Ruud was better. It was unfortunate for him that the Netherlands had Kluivert, Bergkamp, Nistelrooy as well as Hasselbaink, van Hooijdonk, Kuyt and then later on Huntelaar and van Persie as options. Sometimes a player is just unfortunate like ter Stegen having Neuer in front of him, great is not enough in front of GOAT.