Average players who went through a world-class patch, then returned back to being average

[Oranges038]

Di Natale did almost all his impressive goalscoring a few years post-calciopoli, an entirely different era when Serie A was in decline and higher numbers were easier to get. That said he was definitely an excellent goalscorer and well above average as an overall player at that time, just a late developer. Underrated imo.

Vieri was a mid 90s/early 00s player that was finished before that time and played when talent was more spread out and the league was stronger. He was also injury prone, but still posted better than a goal every 2 games for about 8 seasons. Of course ideally you want a striker to stay fit the whole season and get past 20, rather than have as impressive a goalscoring to games ratio yet due to injuries you're only getting 12-14 goals, but still considering the more defensive era than post-calciopoli he was a very good goalscorer. Definitely way above an average player.

For a similar player to Vieri, i'd say Alen Boksic is closer to the mark though imo he was clearly better than average too. He had the one brilliant almost balon d'or winning season at Marseille where his pace, strength, good two-footed skill and goalscoring made him look a monster, but before and after that was always far more wasteful rarely even getting 10 league goals. Still very useful as a creative and battering ram forward though.

Vieiri's peak was 1999 to 2005 with Inter, he had 2 really good years and for the most expensive player in the world his goal return was quite about average

 

[HTG]

Oh, Carlos Eduardo is another Hoffenheim player who fits the thread.

 

[MikeKing]

He's replicating his German league numbers in italian league right now.

Wow, I didn't know that. Glad to hear.

 

[el3mel]

People saying Bale and Salah, are they joking or something ?

 

[Lay]

Carlos Alberto for Porto. They won the CL and he scored in the final. When they played us, I thought he was impressive. He left Porto after that season and bounced around a few clubs

 

[dcrompton]

Anyone remember Paul Warhurst? He was a centre-back at Sheffield Wednesday in the 90s who they were forced to play as striker due to injuries and he hit 12 goals in 12 games. Got a call up to England as a striker and a big money move to Blackburn. Regressed back to a utility player and ended up at Bolton.

 

[MarkK]

Carlos Alberto for Porto. They won the CL and he scored in the final. When they played us, I thought he was impressive. He left Porto after that season and bounced around a few clubs

There's actually an interesting idea in there: There are quite a lot of players who only seem to work in certain clubs/leagues amd decline once they go somewhere else. And there are certain clubs that seem to be destined to make players decline (here in Germany Hamburger SV comes to mind).

As for the topic:
From a German perspective I will add
Jorn Andersen
Marek Mintal
Theofanis Gekas

All were leading scorers for one season and mostly shit before and after.

 

[Lay]

There's actually an interesting idea in there: There are quite a lot of players who only seem to work in certain clubs/leagues amd decline once they go somewhere else. And there are certain clubs that seem to be destined to make players decline (here in Germany Hamburger SV comes to mind).

As for the topic:
From a German perspective I will add
Jorn Andersen
Marek Mintal
Theofanis Gekas

All were leading scorers for one season and mostly shit before and after.

Would Ibisevic fall into this? 18 goals in 17 games before injury ended that run. Never got close to those figures since

 

[MarkK]

Would Ibisevic fall into this? 18 goals in 17 games before injury ended that run. Never got close to those figures since

Well, from my perspective, Ibisevic had a longer spell in which I regarded him a decent player. He looked class for one season but had a couple more when I thought he was a good player (for Hoffenheim, Stuttgart and at times even in Berlin). With the three I mentioned, they had this one season that came as a miracle and were shit before and thereafter (OK, this assessment may be a bit harsh on Mintal, but it is genuinely true for Andersen and Gekas).

 

[11101]

People saying Bale and Salah, are they joking or something ?

I can understand people saying Salah. He was being talked about as a challenger to Messi and Ronaldo a couple of years ago. He is world class but hes not that good.

Daniel Sturridge is the perfect example imo. Unstoppable when Suarez was busy distracting opponents, mediocre before and since.