Players who gave a misleading first impression

I know he’s not popular on here but Micah Richards was another one who started in a blaze of glory and then kind of faded away.
 
Lukaku’s hold up play and first touch was amazing in his first PL game against West Ham and scored on his debut in the super cup vs the CL champions Real Madrid. For his first seven games or so he made all the usual criticisms of his play look pretty foolish early on.

Then right on schedule he turned into the Lukaku who we all know. Shite first touch and big game choker.
 
Josh Mceachran. He started vs Newcastle in a league cup game aged 16 or 17 under Ancelotti. He absolutely bossed their midfield, looked like a miniature version of prime Xavi.

We had a couple like that though, Kakuta, Boga, Musonda, who impressed in early cameos then just fizzled out through lack of opportunity, quality, fitness or all of the above.
 
TheReligion said:
Good shout. There’s a few of these kind off centre forwards over the years.

Remember Zaki at Wigan? Michu at Swansea? Asamoah Gyan? Berahino was another.
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Good shouts - I was going to mention Zaki and Michu.

Another one I guess is Mido. He had a good introduction to English football in his loan spell at Spurs, but then after signing permanently he struggled badly wherever he went - though often after scoring on his debut I seem to remember.
 
Nani Nana said:
He was so impressive at the beginning. Shame he did not sustain his 18-year-old form into his twenties
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Went back and watched after mentioning him to make sure I remembered properly and yeah he was excellent. Great technique, good vision and it, lovely balance, could strike it with both feet, fluid athlete.

Such a strange “flash in the pan” type because by all means he should have had a good career even if it didn’t end up working with us.
 
I know there's plenty of players who flatter to deceive at youth levels, but I have to give a mention in a thread like this to Daniel Opare.

He was an absolutely outstanding attacking RB for Ghana at the 2007 U17 World Cup, where they reached the SF's. He looked to have everything a modern full back needs, and was a superb and pacy attacking threat.

I thought he really could be one of the best full backs of the upcoming generation, and wasn't at all surprised to see him raved about and see Real Madrid sign him soon afterwards. However he only played for their Castilla team, and has spent much of his senior career in the Belgium top flight without really settling anywhere.

He played 18 times for Ghana's senior national team, but spread over 8 years so was never a regular and hasn't featured for them since 2018.

He turned out to just be a pretty average player, but he really looked like he could be something special in the tournament that I first saw him in.
 
Klopper76 said:
Alberto Moreno for us. Had a really good debut at Spurs and scored a great solo goal.

Then he turned out to be dreadful.

Voronin was alright for us initially as well in 2007, then drifted into oblivion.
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Voronin returned to WWE and married the boss' daughter
 
Darmian had a brilliant debut and has had a good career since then, but just never happened here.

Possebon looked fantastic before he got injured.
 
JPRouve said:
From what I understand about him and how his teammates talked about him, the issue isn't tactical, he is a team player and disciplined. If I understand the issue correctly, after a while he thought that LVG was too negative and didn't provide any positive reinforcement, all his interactions were criticism aimed at players even after good performances. Now the interesting part for me and I don't know if you heard the same thing with the national team is that Di Maria is allegedly extremely reserved, he doesn't like confrontation outside of the field and doesn't talk much.
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It's said it wasn't primarly tactical, yet the issue came because Di Maria would always risked the ball more than Louis wanted (Di Maria have moments that not even his most ardent fan would not want to kill him on every team he was, even today) and ended creating a clash between the two, a very public one in front of everyone.
For me, he was never a player for Louis, for instance Mou was always was over the top with his critics depending the player, but he mostly knew how to deal with Southamericans, he is a fox in the dressing room. He knew when to add salt to the injury in order to make a player react, made them feel important, etc... or for instance Ancellotti "laissez faire" regarding players also suited Angel.

A fella that stubborn, blunt, brutally honest, fierce and so methodic in his ideas like LVG would always have some issue with such an old guard alike player like Angel would always be.
El Fideo is reserved, but very much like Roman that he plays like plays, he is way more obedient regarding positions and roles it's true, for instance Roman clashed with Van Gaal after he changed his position during games and Louis wanted to kill him.
Yet Angel like he showed more than one time, when he reaches his limit with sthg (right or wrong), he can't shut up his mouth (his wife even worse) ina very public style.

Sad because such an all around, fast, skillfull and generous player (with even longevity, his last two games in benfica were really great vintage Fideo) was perfect for Man Utd and EPL, even his numbers under such conditions during his time in Man Utd speak about that, yet some things are just are not meant to happen.


PD: Even more odd it's why Alexis lost his mojo all of a sudden given how focus, already proven in EPL, generous and well behaved the Chilean always have been, bizarre.
 
TheReligion said:
Good shout. There’s a few of these kind off centre forwards over the years.

Remember Zaki at Wigan? Michu at Swansea? Asamoah Gyan? Berahino was another.
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Michu and Gyan had a few good seasons
 
Rashford. Looking at that debut he seemed like he’d be a natural in the box who knew where to be and score loads of goals like that.

He’s obviously been a good player for us overall though.
 
Welbeck announced himself with a swinging rocket from 40 yards, then decided that dribbling 30 yards only to get his sand wedge out and chip the last 10 yards into the keepers hands was the better option for the rest of his career here
 
Onana for us seems to be turning out that way. Arguably one of the players of the season so far.
 
De Gea made many simple mistakes in his 10 first games. Journalists/fans started to debate if Lindegaard should be the first choice or not.
 
That Moroccan player at the world cup who looked a gem, Ounahi? Went to Marseille, flopped and now is in Greece. Looked like a future world class star
 
I was wrong about Welbeck, Januzaj, Di Maria. Thought they started well and got super excited.
Wellbeck just had the greatest skillset (I think he could've been our budget version of Benzema), Januzaj I believed will be better than Ozil in 2 seasons, and ADM was nailed on to be a hit as I watched him a lot in Real Madrid.

From recent examples, still can't figure out Zirkzee but leaning towards the opinion he ain't it.
 
Paddy McNair, Tyler Blackett were two players who burst onto the scene with LVG. And how can we forget Rashford? Europa League brace followed by a brace against Arsenal. He was brilliant. Lastly, Dan James when he started with us, went on a mini run and was our most important player for about 10 games.
 
Biggest one is Januzaj. Looked like one of the most naturally talented youngsters I'd ever seen. Career went nowhere near that talent.

Anyone one is not a single player but a team, our line-up that started the 2011-12 season with Cleverley-Ando in midfield with Nani-Young on the wings and Rooney-Welbeck in attack. Maybe it was a bit of me wanting it to do well because we had a couple of youth products in the line-up, but we had a run of a few games where we were so smooth in attack. I don't remember why we went away with it but I think either Ando or Cleverley got injured.
 
I Was 99% sure Kasper Dolberg would be the new Bergkamp. Instead he became the new, ehm, some obscure striker in the French league.
 
Eliaquim Mangala. Looked like the perfect centre-back in his debut vs Chelsea. Hardly looked like a professional footballer again for the rest of his career
 
I remember Obertan’s debut against Blackburn and thought we had a player on our hands. The end product was poor, but he beat some players, showed pace, made good runs and linked up well with our players. Boy was I wrong.
 
Swedish_Plumber said:
Rashford. Looking at that debut he seemed like he’d be a natural in the box who knew where to be and score loads of goals like that.

He’s obviously been a good player for us overall though.
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He was first 10 games under Van Gaal then Mourinho turned him into a defensive winger for a while when he came in. Always wondered how his and Martial’s development would have went with a different manager in those formative years.
 
Antony1.jpg
 
Antony.
Januzaj.
Blackett.
MacNair. I still remember his amazing headed clearence vs West Ham.
Its not looking good for Zirkzee.


Charlie McNeill was one I thought would be the next big thing.
 
Yagami said:
Marco Negri. Striker for Rangers in the 90s.

Scored 23 goals in his first 10 games. Ended the season with 32 goals overall, looking like the next big thing.

He then suffered an eye injury, never regained his form and only played 3 more times for Rangers. He didn't play a single game for one season. Then Rangers sold him and he disappeared.
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This guy should also be the OP for the most unfortunately named footballers thread

iirc him and Allegri were the stars of that Perugia team too. What a blast from the past
 
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