Most overrated ex Manchester United players

ScholesyTheWise said:
The term 'overrated' seems to mean different things to different people.
The way I see it, it is possible (technically/linguistically/what have you) to both be brilliant and overrated.
Though he's my favorite player ever, I can understand why people would say that Scholes is overrated by some of the fanbase.
It's been claimed by some fans that he was as good as Xavi, or the best English midfielder of all time. These for me are over-rations of him,
Even thought we was obviously brilliant.

This thread seems to aim more at players that were though to be very good but were actually 'not all that' in the eyes of some-
Fletch, Herrera, etc...
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Agree completely. It would be blasphemous to say on RedCafe but it’s probably a valid view that Roy Keane is a bit overrated depending on how you view the term.

Cult heroes are somewhat tougher to define as overrated because I’m not sure anyone said Park was top class or one of the best at his position, rather that he was an important player in some of our best teams. So maybe the nostalgia overrates him a bit because you just see him on the counter against Arsenal but forget the often mediocre performances he put in as a starter in forgettable league matches.

Just depends on how each person looks at it I guess.
 
I personally think Solskjaer was over-rated, often regarded as the best finisher we've ever had and someone that replaced Becks on the right... he was good, a handy sub for sure and a club legend for his CL goal but over-rated nonetheless and he only replaced Becks via Fergie's ragebait.

I'd also say Nani who despite a few absolute belters IMO never really produced to a level that he influenced the game, he always felt more like a luxury player that we could afford to accommodate.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Agree completely. It would be blasphemous to say on RedCafe but it’s probably a valid view that Roy Keane is a bit overrated depending on how you view the term.

Cult heroes are somewhat tougher to define as overrated because I’m not sure anyone said Park was top class or one of the best at his position, rather that he was an important player in some of our best teams. So maybe the nostalgia overrates him a bit because you just see him on the counter against Arsenal but forget the often mediocre performances he put in as a starter in forgettable league matches.

Just depends on how each person looks at it I guess.
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There is no world where Roy Keane is overrated.

Perhaps he wasn't the best at any particular skill but (IMO) he was the most influential player we've ever had. He was a one man army.
 
cpresc said:
There is no world where Roy Keane is overrated.

Perhaps he wasn't the best at any particular skill but (IMO) he was the most influential player we've ever had. He was a one man army.
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This is sort of what I mean. I think oppo fans or neutrals would argue he is, simply because United fans all largely agree he’s our greatest midfielder ever (depending on how you see Robson) and would make all time PL XI’s easily but I’m not sure others would agree.

It’s not unlike how we mostly all agree as United fans that Gerrard is overrated by Liverpool supporters. Similar concept( and takes nothing away from either player, just more so speaking to my point on the thread depending on how you classify and think of “overrated”)
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
This is sort of what I mean. I think oppo fans or neutrals would argue he is, simply because United fans all largely agree he’s our greatest midfielder ever (depending on how you see Robson) and would make all time PL XI’s easily but I’m not sure others would agree.

It’s not unlike how we mostly all agree as United fans that Gerrard is overrated by Liverpool supporters. Similar concept( and takes nothing away from either player, just more so speaking to my point on the thread depending on how you classify and think of “overrated”)
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Yeah, we share the same view it seems.

I'd think that United fans would (conciously or not) underrate pretty much every Liverpool player of high prominance, and vice versa.
Same goes for any 2 fanbases who share a rivalry/hatred.

Neutral football fans are probably a better source of perspective [just how many neutral fans there are in England towards Man United is another question worth asking, mind).
 
ScholesyTheWise said:
Yeah, we share the same view it seems.

I'd think that United fans would (conciously or not) underrate pretty much every Liverpool player of high prominance, and vice versa.
Same goes for any 2 fanbases who share a rivalry/hatred.

Neutral football fans are probably a better source of perspective [just how many neutral fans there are in England towards Man United is another question worth asking, mind).
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Yeah the most unbiased opinion would probably be someone who watched a ton of PL but isn’t in the country and supports a club from a different league.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Yeah the most unbiased opinion would probably be someone who watched a ton of PL but isn’t in the country and supports a club from a different league.
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That would be me, yet not even in that case, I gave a similar opnion dividing the "types of overrating" yet like any human being I'll still have some bias in my taste.

Nonetheless it's true that many EPL fans are a bit too much insular and only start to respect or praise someone when that player trashes an EPL or English team. Lots of fans around the globe, specially from traditional countries, does not put some EPL legends as high, or even coaches like Fergie are not that often seen as the barometer like in many ways it's seen in this Forum at least, against which every coach historically must measure against.
It's understandable too because in many ways the EPL (and the old format too) it's fantastic, but at the same time it does not make any other player nowadays or historically, not proven if it doesn't play in The Isles or didn't face "english" teams.
Many of "shocks" regaridng the NT or even some ocasional Arsenal agaisnt Porto come from this kind of distorted view regarding the rest of the world.
 
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Overrated to me doesn't mean a player isn't great. Seeing Fellaini and Cleverley here to me is just absurd tbh. I've never seen a Utd fan rate either of these highly. For me some that come to mind are Park (just a decent player honestly as much as I respected his work rate), Gary Neville (by Utd fans, he's actually become underrated by neutrals), Nani, Pogba, Matic, Mata (for Utd, thought he was fantastic at Chelsea).

On the extreme end where they are world class but still not quite as high in the all time rankings as most put them, I would list Schmeichel. He made a lot of mistakes that people gloss over whereas DDG by comparison has compilations made of mistakes by people with an agenda. I'd say VDS was the most consistent of the 3 with DDG having the highest highs in performance imo. I reiterate, Schmeichel was still an amazing keeper. I'd also put Bruce in as a very good cb but not at the level of the likes of Pallister, McGrath, Stam, Rio and Vidic.

I'd be more interested in an underrated thread tbh since there are far more that I'd like to list in that.
 
RedDevil [NC] said:
Seeing Nani mentioned so much is crazy considering how good he was, I still hate the absurd red card in the Real Madrid game. We were so good that season with him as one of the main catalysts
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As someone who listed him, I'll give my reasoning. Nani only really had 2 decent seasons between 2010 and 2012. He was very good for these couple years but didn't deliver enough throughout the rest of his career. 17 of his 25 goals and 24 of his 43 assists for us came in just these 2 seasons. The other 5 seasons really weren't particularly good. He also got 3 goals and 9 assists in his 1st season with us (and I wouldn't say he was particularly great that season tbh). 5 goals and 10 assists across his other 4 seasons simply isn't good enough for how highly most Utd fans rate him imo.
 
1. David De Gea- A lot of United fans like him but he is massively overrated. His last 5 seasons were horrendous and he was prone to howlers similar to Onana. His shot stopping abilities were overrated as well. He should never be in conversation with Schmeichel and Edwin.
2. Marcus Rashford- He had two very good seasons for Utd but was never a consistent player. Even in his "prime" he was overrated by Utd fans and was compared to the likes of Mbappe. Took a piss at Utd and ruined his legacy by being lazy and not giving a f' about this club.
3. Juan Mata- He was incredible in Chelsea but his career in Utd was a massive disappointment. He had flashes of brilliance but he never reached his Chelsea level in Utd. Mata looked like a semi retired player in his last two seasons at Utd.
4. Diego Forlan- We all know how good he was later for Atletico but he never managed to reach those heights in Utd. A cult hero for Utd fans but generally a massive disappointment.
5. Nemanja Matic- Everything that I said about Mata applies to Matić.
6 Henrik Larsson- Larsson came as a loan player in 06/07 and while he was good, he only scored 3 goals and definitely wasn't a world beater.
7. Gabriel Heinze- Had a very good first in Utd but fell out of favor when Evra came and tried to force a move to Liverpool! What a d$$k!
8. Ashley Young- A good servant for the club but was never truly a world class player and was generally inconsistent.
9. Tom Cleverely- Why did he even play for us? He was never good enough for Utd and yet was one of our most regular starters in our title winning season.
10. Anderson- He was a decent player but never a world beater.
 
KingEric04 said:
1. David De Gea- A lot of United fans like him but he is massively overrated. His last 5 seasons were horrendous and he was prone to howlers similar to Onana. His shot stopping abilities were overrated as well. He should never be in conversation with Schmeichel and Edwin.
2. Marcus Rashford- He had two very good seasons for Utd but was never a consistent player. Even in his "prime" he was overrated by Utd fans and was compared to the likes of Mbappe. Took a piss at Utd and ruined his legacy by being lazy and not giving a f' about this club.
3. Juan Mata- He was incredible in Chelsea but his career in Utd was a massive disappointment. He had flashes of brilliance but he never reached his Chelsea level in Utd. Mata looked like a semi retired player in his last two seasons at Utd.
4. Diego Forlan- We all know how good he was later for Atletico but he never managed to reach those heights in Utd. A cult hero for Utd fans but generally a massive disappointment.
5. Nemanja Matic- Everything that I said about Mata applies to Matić.
6 Henrik Larsson- Larsson came as a loan player in 06/07 and while he was good, he only scored 3 goals and definitely wasn't a world beater.
7. Gabriel Heinze- Had a very good first in Utd but fell out of favor when Evra came and tried to force a move to Liverpool! What a d$$k!
8. Ashley Young- A good servant for the club but was never truly a world class player and was generally inconsistent.
9. Tom Cleverely- Why did he even play for us? He was never good enough for Utd and yet was one of our most regular starters in our title winning season.
10. Anderson- He was a decent player but never a world beater.
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Apart from De Gea and maybe Larsson, none of those are held in particularly high regard.

Be honest: you bumped this almost 1 year old thread just to shit on De Gea :lol:
 
Oh boy. The thread where whatever player you say, someone will take umbrage with it :lol:

Ander Herrera is the first name that comes to my mind from recent history. He was a decent player to have during those early transition years but I can’t see him being anything more than a squad player under a Ferguson squad. Lot of fans were bemoaning the fact we let him go but I felt we could easily get a better player and that he wasn’t on the level of Keane or Scholes or even Butt like some people intimated he was back then.
 
KingEric04 said:
1. David De Gea- A lot of United fans like him but he is massively overrated. His last 5 seasons were horrendous and he was prone to howlers similar to Onana. His shot stopping abilities were overrated as well. He should never be in conversation with Schmeichel and Edwin.
2. Marcus Rashford- He had two very good seasons for Utd but was never a consistent player. Even in his "prime" he was overrated by Utd fans and was compared to the likes of Mbappe. Took a piss at Utd and ruined his legacy by being lazy and not giving a f' about this club.
3. Juan Mata- He was incredible in Chelsea but his career in Utd was a massive disappointment. He had flashes of brilliance but he never reached his Chelsea level in Utd. Mata looked like a semi retired player in his last two seasons at Utd.
4. Diego Forlan- We all know how good he was later for Atletico but he never managed to reach those heights in Utd. A cult hero for Utd fans but generally a massive disappointment.
5. Nemanja Matic- Everything that I said about Mata applies to Matić.
6 Henrik Larsson- Larsson came as a loan player in 06/07 and while he was good, he only scored 3 goals and definitely wasn't a world beater.
7. Gabriel Heinze- Had a very good first in Utd but fell out of favor when Evra came and tried to force a move to Liverpool! What a d$$k!
8. Ashley Young- A good servant for the club but was never truly a world class player and was generally inconsistent.
9. Tom Cleverely- Why did he even play for us? He was never good enough for Utd and yet was one of our most regular starters in our title winning season.
10. Anderson- He was a decent player but never a world beater.
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De Gea should never be in this list. To say his shot stopping ability wasn't up to previous incumbents is beyond moronic. Voted our player of the year four times. Won the PL golden glove during his last season with us, before being very badly treated by the club in how he left.
 
Berbatov. Pushed Tevez out of the lineup, was lazy and never as good as people have somehow perceived him to be because of some moments of brilliance and an exquisite touch - sold for only 5m as well.
 
Sunny Jim said:
Valencia, Herrera and Felaini
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Yeah, congrats.. you've completely misread the title. Valencia and Fellaini are two of the most criminally underrated ex-United players ever.

Fellaini got booed off the pitch multiple times, yet people forget he was one of the key reasons we even won anything in those dark post-Fergie years. That ridiculous chest control, the late goals, the chaos he caused in the box. But instead, he became the easy target whenever things went wrong. Still doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

And Valencia? Don’t even get me started. We’ve still never properly replaced him. Guy was an absolute machine. One of the best ball carriers we’ve ever had, strong, consistent, and technically so much better than people gave him credit for. His first touch, his passing, even those low crosses were dangerous every time, but used as some lazy criticism.

Valencia, Fellaini and McTominay would probably top the list of the most underrated ex Utd players.
 
dinostar77 said:
De Gea should never be in this list. To say his shot stopping ability wasn't up to previous incumbents is beyond moronic. Voted our player of the year four times. Won the PL golden glove during his last season with us, before being very badly treated by the club in how he left.
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I disagree with you. Even in his prime, he was prone to howlers and bizarre mistakes. He wasn't good at claiming crosses or corners and his shot stopping abilities were good but overrated at the same time. Being overrated doesn't mean being bad. I think that he was a good GK in his prime but Schmeichel and Van Der Sar were levels above him.

Being voted 4 times player of the season in the post Fergie era isn't that big of an achievement. His post 2018 form was not good and a lot of times it was actually pretty terrible. He should've been sold like in like 2019 or 2020.
 
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Wasn't a fan of Valencia. Was becoming my favourite because of his pin point cross and then suddenly after that big injury, he was neveer the same. His crossing was so bad. Then he became probably the worst attacking winger I've ever seen at the time. Run down the wing, fake going left, run right and cross it in. Repeat infinity. No shooting, no threat whatsoever. (Shockingly I've seen worse wingers since)

I'd say Carrick for me. Very overrated. In his last few years with us, he was basically the reason for doing so much ineffective side ways passing. I can't even remember him doing one pass forward until the last game and he even took a rocket shot which was almost a goal and remembered thinking, where was that in the last few years.
 
It’s hard to think of who was overrated in the Ferguson days, as the team was successful and the superior players covered for the weaknesses of other players etc.

I think a fair few of the academy players who came into the first team post-Ferguson were overrated by sections of the fanbase back then. Januzaj being the biggest one. He had the brace against Sunderland at a time we were desperate for something exciting then nothing much happened after that. I don’t think he even registered an assist, let alone a goal, under LVG… I never saw it with him. Lots of flair but no consistency and I do remember fans being incredibly pissed off at LVG for selling him.
 
Ander Herrera comes to mind. He was good, but not that good. Ran around a lot and tackled, so people thought he was better than he was. It's often that kind of player who gets overrated. In today's squad, it's not many. Maybe that some overrate De Ligt and Casemiro, but that's about it.

Rashford, Cleverley, Anderson etc ABSOLETELY NOT overrated.
 
The thing about Herrera is this: post Fergie and up until mid 2023 (the jury is still our on any arrival since then) he is arguably a top 3 signing. And almost definitely top 5.

Seeing as we signed around 50 players in that period, that makes him a good signing overall. No one ever seriously claimed that he was anywhere near the level of Keane, Scholes or Carrick. But being a top 10% signing over the span of 10 years is naturally going to land you some praise.
 
One thing this thread makes clear is that it in some ways its better to come in with very low expectations - like a Buttner- and do something to approach mediocrity in the limited time they're here and become a cult hero of sorts :lol:
 
A lot of our legends in their later years were really overrated for me.
 
Mickson said:
Ander Herrera comes to mind. He was good, but not that good. Ran around a lot and tackled, so people thought he was better than he was
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This particular take is usually a good barometer for which fans actually watched our games and which ones have largely tuned out since Fergie's retirement.

A simple list of our best moments from 2014 to 2019, and Herrera's involvement in them:

2016 FA Cup: set up the winning goal in the semifinal.
2017 Europa League: literally man of the match in the final.
2017 League Cup: set up the winning goal in the final.

That's without getting into the uncanny knack for goals and assists in big games in the league, in some of the most famous games: off the top of my head, "Juanfield" (assist), the 3-2 comeback against City in 18 (assist), the win against Conte's Chelsea in 17 (goal and assist), the winning goal in the FA Cup semifinal in 2018 as well.

"Ran around and tackled a lot", sure, if you just ignore all the tangible contributions!
 
KingEric04 said:
1. David De Gea- A lot of United fans like him but he is massively overrated. His last 5 seasons were horrendous and he was prone to howlers similar to Onana. His shot stopping abilities were overrated as well. He should never be in conversation with Schmeichel and Edwin.
2. Marcus Rashford- He had two very good seasons for Utd but was never a consistent player. Even in his "prime" he was overrated by Utd fans and was compared to the likes of Mbappe. Took a piss at Utd and ruined his legacy by being lazy and not giving a f' about this club.
3. Juan Mata- He was incredible in Chelsea but his career in Utd was a massive disappointment. He had flashes of brilliance but he never reached his Chelsea level in Utd. Mata looked like a semi retired player in his last two seasons at Utd.
4. Diego Forlan- We all know how good he was later for Atletico but he never managed to reach those heights in Utd. A cult hero for Utd fans but generally a massive disappointment.
5. Nemanja Matic- Everything that I said about Mata applies to Matić.
6 Henrik Larsson- Larsson came as a loan player in 06/07 and while he was good, he only scored 3 goals and definitely wasn't a world beater.
7. Gabriel Heinze- Had a very good first in Utd but fell out of favor when Evra came and tried to force a move to Liverpool! What a d$$k!
8. Ashley Young- A good servant for the club but was never truly a world class player and was generally inconsistent.
9. Tom Cleverely- Why did he even play for us? He was never good enough for Utd and yet was one of our most regular starters in our title winning season.
10. Anderson- He was a decent player but never a world beater.
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:confused: perhaps he was underrated then? Not that I ever thought he was that good, but going by your explanation.
 
Herrera and Mata. It was impossible to criticise them without prefacing it with "nice guy, but..." or you'd get jumped on by the sensitive mob
 
King Azaz the Unabridged said:
This particular take is usually a good barometer for which fans actually watched our games and which ones have largely tuned out since Fergie's retirement.

A simple list of our best moments from 2014 to 2019, and Herrera's involvement in them:

2016 FA Cup: set up the winning goal in the semifinal.
2017 Europa League: literally man of the match in the final.
2017 League Cup: set up the winning goal in the final.

That's without getting into the uncanny knack for goals and assists in big games in the league, in some of the most famous games: off the top of my head, "Juanfield" (assist), the 3-2 comeback against City in 18 (assist), the win against Conte's Chelsea in 17 (goal and assist), the winning goal in the FA Cup semifinal in 2018 as well.

"Ran around and tackled a lot", sure, if you just ignore all the tangible contributions!
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Do you know what overrated is? He was a good player, but he was overrated. I remember CAF going into meltdown because United wouldn't pay him 300k a week. He was never one of the best in the league or Europe in his position. He was a good, decent, hard-working player. He wasn't great defensively, nor was he great in attack. He was a decent all-around midfielder but didn't really have any standout qualities and was very, very suspect defensively in his position, rash in tackles, he played on instinct, and these kind if players often get overrated, and you are proving my point. He set up a winning goal in an FA Cup semifinal? Okay, he isn't overrated then!
 
KingEric04 said:
I disagree with you. Even in his prime, he was prone to howlers and bizarre mistakes. He wasn't good at claiming crosses or corners and his shot stopping abilities were good but overrated at the same time. Being overrated doesn't mean being bad. I think that he was a good GK in his prime but Schmeichel and Van Der Sar were levels above him.

Being voted 4 times player of the season in the post Fergie era isn't that big of an achievement. His post 2018 form was not good and a lot of times it was actually pretty terrible. He should've been sold like in like 2019 or 2020.
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I highly doubt anyone was rating DeGea over Schmeichel and/or Van Der Sar
 
KingEric04 said:
I agree with you. I am not watching the Italian League that much but he had plenty of time to prove himself in Utd and he was okayish but nothing like a world beater. Very few Utd fans objected to his sale last summer.

Like who exactly?
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Evra, vidic, Rooney.
 
Red in STL said:
I highly doubt anyone was rating DeGea over Schmeichel and/or Van Der Sar
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A lot of people tend to put De Gea in the same category as Schmeichel and Van Der Sar and that's just ridiculous in my opinion. If he stayed for like 6 years like VDS, nobody would rate him that highly.
astracrazy said:
:confused: perhaps he was underrated then? Not that I ever thought he was that good, but going by your explanation.
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It was more like Fergie being a genius and managing a lot of bang average players like Smalling, Jones, Cleverly, Young and Wellbeck and turning them into a title winning squad.
 
KingEric04 said:
A lot of people tend to put De Gea in the same category as Schmeichel and Van Der Sar and that's just ridiculous in my opinion. If he stayed for like 6 years like VDS, nobody would rate him that highly.
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I disagree, most of the debate was about whether Schmeichel or Van Der Sar was our best ever goal keeper, can't say I ever saw that argument for De Gea being that
 
sired44 said:
I always think of Park when i think of over-rated ex players.
People today seem to talk of him as some unsung hero.... and I get it, his work rate and role in a counter attack system work well for us, particularly in games at the Emirates or when we were the underdogs.
However, we were only underdogs in like 5% of our games so most of the time I used to cringe when I saw his name on the team sheet at the expense of players like Nani.
My memory of Park was that he got stuck in a lot, but that was because his 1st touch always seemed to force his 2nd touch to be a tackle.
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SAF has Park as one of his most under rated players.

 
Mata. Our first galactico signing under Woodward and really epitomises the waste in transfers that were to follow for a decade.
 
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