Players who don't get the respect they deserve?

[Eric's Seagull]

He missed one against Villa in 99

Thanks very much for informing me of that but until this point I was convinced he'd never missed one and everything that I had read said so as well

EDIT Just checked he missed another against Forest in 2000. Shouldn't have listened to several articles which spouted lies. Doesn't take away from the fact that he was amazing player for 12 seasons. The reason I mentioned him is that he was an unsung hero and few people talk about him amongst the Manchester United greats

 

[Real Madras]

I can’t understand for the life of me why Chris Smalling gets so much abuse. Not only from people on the CAF but people like Southgate who I feel has no back up to his reasoning about Smalling not being able to pass. Defending is fundamentally not about just passing especially if you are a defender. It’s about stopping the opposition from scoring. LVG played Smalling and Blind when he was our manager and they were both very solid and defensively one of the best in the league at the time. Same with Mourinho. He picked Smalling a lot in his 2nd year and we had if I remember correctly the best defence in the league. These ‘great managers’ are picking him so he must be pretty decent. The guy knows his limitations and does his job very well. Very underrated in my opinion.

 

[RochaRoja]

Fabian Barthez

Had a great career and was a top keeper but is unfairly remembered for being error prone.

 

[Eric's Seagull]

Fabian Barthez

Had a great career and was a top keeper but is unfairly remembered for being error prone.

Do you think any of this could be attributed to the amount of cigarettes he smoked during his career?

 

[Welby5]

William Gallas at Chelsea

He left on a very sour note, so maybe that's why he's never mentioned alongside Terry, A Cole, Lampard and Drogba as Chelsea greats.
But during his time, his level of performances week in week out were every bit as good as those players! Lightening quick, and strong as a bull. Read the game well and timed his tackles to perfection. Him and Terry were as perfect a centre back partnership as you can get!

 

[SiRed]

Thanks very much for informing me of that but until this point I was convinced he'd never missed one and everything that I had read said so as well

EDIT Just checked he missed another against Forest in 2000. Shouldn't have listened to several articles which spouted lies. Doesn't take away from the fact that he was amazing player for 12 seasons. The reason I mentioned him is that he was an unsung hero and few people talk about him amongst the Manchester United greats

I have absolutely no memory of that one. He was a top player really dependable and those old enough to remember him properly generally rate him higher than Evra who himself was fantastic.

 

[SambaBoy]

Wes Brown is a good one. Had some absolutely stellar performances down the years, and knew what it meant to be a United player. Loved clattering into players and was always up for the derbies.

Injuries sort of stunted his potential. Fergie described him as the most natural defender he has managed which is high praise indeed.

 

[Beobachter]

Filippo Inzaghi, a flawed player with exceptionally annoying playstyle that I don't think would work well in this era.... but a striker's most (arguably only) important job is to score. And he did his job so damn well. End of.

 

[Eric's Seagull]

I have absolutely no memory of that one. He was a top player really dependable and those old enough to remember him properly generally rate him higher than Evra who himself was fantastic.

Totally agree with you on that. "Mr Reliable" was a fantastic servant to this club. I would rate him slightly higher than Evra. I think a lot of the present squad would do good to look at him as an example of the attitude to have as a footballer.

EDIT It was against West Ham keeper Craig Forrest at Old Trafford in 2000 but he scored on the rebound. Sorry for the mistake

 

[Shakesy]

Harry Kewell was a beast until Liverpool broke him. Now he's just east.

 

[JPRouve]

Benzema.

In the CL, he is the 4th all time goalscorer.

 

[JPRouve]

Wes Brown is a good one. Had some absolutely stellar performances down the years, and knew what it meant to be a United player. Loved clattering into players and was always up for the derbies.

Injuries sort of stunted his potential. Fergie described him as the most natural defender he has managed which is high praise indeed.

Someone tried to have a dig at Smalling by comparing him to Brown, when for me it would be a compliment.

 

[pacifictheme]

I would put Carles Puyol in that list. Always came across as a player who was just taken for granted. Technically he wasn't the most gifted of defenders and within his peers there was probably players with more finesse and grace. However what a player and a leader who would run through brick walls for the Barca cause.

I'd say in his playing days he was considered one of thr best cbs of his generation.

 

[Bestietom]

Gary Speed, Nolberto Solano, Desailly.

 

[Ooge_]

Thiago

 

[lysglimt]

LeTissier - the best player to never have played for a top side. The only player I can think of, who made 30 yard screamers into the top corner, look easy

 

[SER19]

Rivaldo is a great shout. Fair enough he won the ballon dor but you don’t often see him mentioned in same breath and some of the 90s and 00s best when he absolutely. He was a phenomenal player

 

[Sir Scott McToMinay]

Gonna put it out there.
Carrick is the most overrated player on the caf.

He was a good intelligent midfielder, with very good positional discipline and sense, but the people who are claiming him to be some top class defensive midfielder either have short term memories or they have short term memories, one or the other.
We’ve never ever been a midfield dominant team with him in the side, we were an attack dominant side.

We would pin teams back because we had fantastic attackers and/or wingers and we knew we had Rio and Vidic to count on in case of a counter, Carrick’s main job was to protect the back four and get the ball as quickly as possible to our wingers or our attackers, he was poor when pressed and way to timid for what a starting Manchester United midfielder should be.

He was poor between 09 and 11, bang average.
Which is why he wasn’t playing for England at the time much, he also never really played well for England.

At first he was underrated, then he became beyond overrated, he didn’t came into his own until Fergie’s last season and was not much more than a water carrier before that.
I don’t think we would’ve been much if at all worse if we had Gareth Barry next to Scholes in 06-09.

I’ve seen people here compare him to Busquets, Pirlo and Xabi Alonso, you’d get laughed at for saying that to any neutral fan, you know it, I know it.

 

[Siorac]

Fabian Barthez

Had a great career and was a top keeper but is unfairly remembered for being error prone.

That might be unfair for his overall career but at United he was very much error prone.

 

[Flanders Devil]

A few that haven’t been said:
- Carlo Cudicini: due in large to Petr Chech

- Pires, and to a lesser extent Ljunberg - think overlooked due to Henry and Viera. There’s even a few more in that arsenal/French team who would make this list (eg Wiltord)

- Christian Ziege: thought he was great for Tottenham

- miroslav Klose: wc scoring feats alone.

Then there’s a group of the likes of: Shawcross, Baines, Defoe, Foster, Forster, type players who have performed for a long time and high level in the premier league- just not for the top teams.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Rooney!!!!!!!

 

[Mick1]

Valencia.

Throughout his time here, bar his Injury season, the 7 season and his last year, been an absolute beast for us. Won player of the season twice and did a brilliant job replacing our best ever player. Constantly praised by both team mates and opposition players/ managers alike.

At a club with a less entitled fan base, Valencia would be seen as a legend and bar De Gea, the last of Fergie s greats.

 

[simplyared]

Going by some of the disrespectful comments that we see on here I would say Chris Smalling gets a rough deal from so many posters. All of a sudden Lindelöf is the bees knees and Smalling is shite. Jeez!

 

[Member 39557]

Yaya Toure. Especially in birthday week.

 

[norm87cro]

I'm going to go with Joe Hart. His career is over and just like boxers goalkeepers feed on confidence and the lack of the same was very evident in his game after being axed by Pep. Despite his decline he was brilliant for Birmingham that one season and for City 5 or 6 seasons. In that time he was great in 1 on 1s and a brilliant shot stoper second only to our Dave. All i all 6 to 7 seasons of good goalkeeping and winning trophies with City is not that bad. Gets a lot of stick from oppisition fans just because he is not likeable.

 

[Based Adnan]

Gonna put it out there.
Carrick is the most overrated player on the caf.

He was a good intelligent midfielder, with very good positional discipline and sense, but the people who are claiming him to be some top class defensive midfielder either have short term memories or they have short term memories, one or the other, or they


We’ve never ever been a midfield dominant team with him in the side, we were an attack dominant side.

We would pin teams back because we had fantastic attackers and/or wingers and we knew we had Rio and Vidic to count on in case of a counter, Carrick’s main job was to protect the back four and get the ball as quickly as possible to our wingers or our attackers, he was poor when pressed and way to timid for what a starting Manchester United midfielder should be.

He was poor between 09 and 11, bang average.
Which is why he wasn’t playing for England at the time much, he also never really played well for England.

At first he was underrated, then he became beyond overrated, he didn’t came into his own until Fergie’s last season and was not much more than a water carrier before that.
I don’t think we would’ve been much if at all worse if we had Gareth Barry next to Scholes in 06-09.

I’ve seen people here compare him to Busquets, Pirlo and Xabi Alonso, you’d get laughed at for saying that to any neutral fan, you know it, I know it.

Carrick played in a 2 man midfield. The intention never was to dominate the midfield. I reckon if he was DM in a 3 man midfield playing possession football he'd be widely seen as one of the best English midfielders of his generation.

 

[BrianMcClair'sBarnet]

Cavani.

 

[Leif GW]

Marco Storari who decided to be the second guy behind Buffon for five years or so instead of opting for a starting role at a club like Roma or Napoli. I was always impressed with him whenever he played instead of Buffon.

 

[Kanu]

Park from any other club outside our own.

Loved at PSV and many other fans from the Netherlands. Cult hero. He was really creative too in his PSV days. Was also very good at United of course.

 

[tentan]

David Villa - Fantastic goalscorer. Was vital to Spains international success. World class and was still a great player even played out of position to accommodate Messi.

David Seaman - Very important player during Arsenals glory days and was fantastic for England too.

Gilberto Silva - Arsenals Michael Carrick? Good player and won the World Cup with Brazil.

 

[MikeKing]

Gary Speed, Nolberto Solano, Desailly.

Thuram as well probably.

 

[Alek M]

Veron

Too early?

I thought he was a missunderstood genius. Wasteful at times,but also very creative. I liked watching him play.

Also Del Piero, after Zidane, Best player in that era.

 

[jackal&hyde]

From our current players it has to be Pogba and DDG. Pogba has been by far our best player but some pretend not to see that and DDG had a blip in form for a few games and already he is not worth a new contract according to some

From the past, Carrick. A very intelligent player and a great passer of the ball that controlled games with the calmness and confidence that i've only seen in Pirlo. Rooney is another strange situation, a WC attacker, record goal scorer, but because he had a bit of a meltdown with his contract he was not that special according to some.

 

[Steven Seagull]

Always fascinated by players like Mark Noble. Doesn’t seem to have any real talent but it’s never enjoyable playing against him and you feel like West Ham would suffer for his loss.

 

[Tony Babangida]

Probably 95% of footballers don’t get the recognition they deserve. I was listening to a podcast the other day where a few ex-pros were talking about the effect of playing football on their body and on their mental health. It seems that nearly all pro-footballers abuse ibruprofen and nalproxen to cope with being constantly sore. Plus you have to sacrifice a lot to play professionally.

Obviously the wages go a significant way to making up for that, but a lot of footballers struggle physically and mentally.

 

[Kweku Amonoo]

Aymeric Laporte.
Absolutely world Class defender who's also an incredible footballer. Still surprises me how United never moved for him.

 

[KirkDuyt]

All defensive midfielders in history.

 

[kouroux]

Gonna put it out there.
Carrick is the most overrated player on the caf.

He was a good intelligent midfielder, with very good positional discipline and sense, but the people who are claiming him to be some top class defensive midfielder either have short term memories or they have short term memories, one or the other.
We’ve never ever been a midfield dominant team with him in the side, we were an attack dominant side.

We would pin teams back because we had fantastic attackers and/or wingers and we knew we had Rio and Vidic to count on in case of a counter, Carrick’s main job was to protect the back four and get the ball as quickly as possible to our wingers or our attackers, he was poor when pressed and way to timid for what a starting Manchester United midfielder should be.

He was poor between 09 and 11, bang average.
Which is why he wasn’t playing for England at the time much, he also never really played well for England.

At first he was underrated, then he became beyond overrated, he didn’t came into his own until Fergie’s last season and was not much more than a water carrier before that.
I don’t think we would’ve been much if at all worse if we had Gareth Barry next to Scholes in 06-09.

I’ve seen people here compare him to Busquets, Pirlo and Xabi Alonso, you’d get laughed at for saying that to any neutral fan, you know it, I know it.

It's a good thing not many people do that, a player can be good and valuable to Man United without being among the best in the world.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Guti, Casillas(?) and Makelele at Real.

David Villa, his Spain teammates seem to get more praises and recognition than him. I think he's the key for Spain NT when they were dominating in mid to late 2000s(?), they can play tiki taka all they want, but not having someone to finish (when Villa retire/bench) makes their football somewhat pointless.

David James, the keeper, often being made fun of.

Some of our players who doesn't "finish well" (form and performance wise) their career at United: Rooney and Valencia are two of the biggest profile. If De Gea stops and left, or continue his worse form next season, definitely joining this list.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

I’ve seen people here compare him to Busquets, Pirlo and Xabi Alonso, you’d get laughed at for saying that to any neutral fan, you know it, I know it.

Not here, but one of the people is Xabi Alonso himself, comparing Carrick to himself, or was it vice versa. Have a look.