Mo Salah.
Players with the steepest declines
- Thread starter Hound Dog
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Gotze has to be up there. From scoring a world cup winning goal to barely making the Dortmund team. Guess injuries had a huge part in it but it's a steep decline nonetheless.
Michu went from fantasy league darling to holding onto his career by a thread. Again, injuries played their part.
Adrian Mutu seemed to decline pretty quickly?
Also, Chicharito went from United and Madrid to Leverkusen and West Ham.
Michu went from fantasy league darling to holding onto his career by a thread. Again, injuries played their part.
Adrian Mutu seemed to decline pretty quickly?
Also, Chicharito went from United and Madrid to Leverkusen and West Ham.
shadow of last year. Is he genuinely carrying an injury? He's been second best to every ball the past few games. Can't believe he hasn't been subbed in the last 20 mins or so. He's been tumescent.Dortmund had several of those, like Sahin and Kagawa
Gary Neville
Ibra did decline heavily after his long-time injury.
Rio Ferdinand was a huge liability at the end of his time at Utd.
Iker Casillas went from the Fifa XI to a laughing stock very quickly. One of the few good things Jose did as Madrid was to attack his status.
Rio Ferdinand was a huge liability at the end of his time at Utd.
Iker Casillas went from the Fifa XI to a laughing stock very quickly. One of the few good things Jose did as Madrid was to attack his status.
Good call. After his second season at Roma he plummeted like a stone
Ronaldinho.
Went from world's best player to shit (maybe not totally shit) in no time
Went from world's best player to shit (maybe not totally shit) in no time
Good call. His first season with us was amazing, his second season very good and the third season (apart from that game against Arsenal) was pretty awful. I remember him having a mini revival as a defensive midfielder with Sunderland but I don't remember anything else about him after he left for Blackburn.
I mean Torres is the stand out example for me. The guy seemed to lose the ability to play football at Chelsea, and never really recovered.
At least some of the others mentioned resembled footballers.
At least some of the others mentioned resembled footballers.
Kinkladze. I don't remember him having bad injuries, he just turned crap after leaving Manchester City. Couldn't even dribble well anymore.
Hleb was the same after he left Arsenal, flopping at Barca happens, but he barely played a good game anywhere else after it.
Hleb was the same after he left Arsenal, flopping at Barca happens, but he barely played a good game anywhere else after it.
How about Ian Wright? Double winner in 97/98, including breaking Arsenal's goalscoring record only to be playing for Burnley who were then in the old 2nd Divison in the 99/00 season
Schweinsteiger
Mata
Sanchez
Gary Neville
RVP
Mata
Sanchez
Gary Neville
RVP
Vermaelen's form dipped, never got back in the first team. Sold to Barcelona, constant injuries.
Lost his hunger after winning the treble
This for me. At times with Inter he looked like a cheat code in a video game. Sad how he just didn't have the mentality or support to nurture outrageous combination of talent and physicality.
Vidic. A steep decline was bound to happen considering his aggressive playing style.
David Villa. He never was the same after breaking his tibia.
David Villa. He never was the same after breaking his tibia.
Harry Kane
Torres was a real head scratcher. Genuinely one of the best strikers I've ever seen, I was pretty jelous we never signed him after being convinced for two seasons that we would.
However, I still can't quite understand how he went so bad at Chelsea. Every week he was a laughing stock, and I just kept thinking "he's too good not to turn this around". Yet he never did.
He was incredible - pure power & precision - imagine one of his shots hitting your face. Literally rose to the top with no answer from anyone then it all went away.
Mario Gotze
Joe Hart
Joe Hart
Henry post-Arsenal, he was still decent, at times pretty good, but on average he was a shadow of his former self, a big decline for sure.
I disagree. He was still great for two seasons before the decline hit him. Fell off a cliff after the 08/09 season.
That was one of the shocking ones for me, his father dying completely crushed him. It's kind of crazy the many different ways incredible talent can simply disappear.
Michael Owen. World class at 21. Finished by 25.
Rivaldo was quite decent at Olympiacos and AEK but just about finished as a top, top player at the elite level — far removed from his Barcelona peak. 7th in the 2001 Ballon D'Or rankings, 8th in 2002 — All-Star in the 2002 World Cup with critical performances in the Knockout stage vs. Belgium, Turkey and England — yet looked like a fish out of water at Milan — subsequently loaned back to Brazil and snubbed by Allardyce at Bolton Wanderers:
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...ck-after-apologising-to-allardyce-553620.html
The Milan team of that period had a couple other high-profile players that suffered a steep decline for varying reasons after making Galáctico-lite moves wrt. profile: Redondo is arguably the most prominent one (knee damage) and there's also Rui Costa, relative to his performances at Fiorentina (which worked out perfectly for Kaká).
Also, Wesley Sneijder — from bona fide Ballon D'Or candidate with Treble winners Internazionale and 2010 World Cup Silver Ball with the Netherlands to never recapturing that sort of form again and moving to Galatasaray in just 18 months.
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...ck-after-apologising-to-allardyce-553620.html
The Milan team of that period had a couple other high-profile players that suffered a steep decline for varying reasons after making Galáctico-lite moves wrt. profile: Redondo is arguably the most prominent one (knee damage) and there's also Rui Costa, relative to his performances at Fiorentina (which worked out perfectly for Kaká).
Also, Wesley Sneijder — from bona fide Ballon D'Or candidate with Treble winners Internazionale and 2010 World Cup Silver Ball with the Netherlands to never recapturing that sort of form again and moving to Galatasaray in just 18 months.
Didn't Torres get some sort of knee injury at Liverpool? I remember he was crap even before Chelsea signed him.
Also, how about Pato? I feel like one moment everyone was talking about him and was gone the next
Joe Cole
He missed a lot of games in 2010 for Liverpool, then he was almost out of the Spanish team for the WC but made it through at the last moment because he was one of the key players.
I'll always think he pushed too hard to be in South Africa with Spain and destroyed his body, he lost a lot of his explosiveness, he was one of those guys that could create a lot of chances with his physical superiority but was wasteful at the same time, once he lost that pace and power he just remained a wasteful (but still inteligent) striker.
Yea, Torres wasn’t the same after his injuries in 2010 I feel. Had a poor World Cup (coming off the knee injury) and he was out of form and didn’t look like the explosive Torres we were used to seeing, but then he scored a brace against Chelsea which led everyone to think he was getting back to his best, and he subsequently got his move during that season’s January transfer window.
I think he also said he drank his talent into oblivion.
Yes, his lifestyle is a mess but the drinking began heavily once his father passed away. He just couldn't recover.
I’d argue that one. It was a shock move but in his first season he played a huge amount and was influential in boro winning their first trophy ever. That boro team over the next couple of years was very strong with ehiogu, zenden, a reemergent Juninho, hasselbaink, viduka, downing and many other good players. I’m fact some of their football en route to winning that league cup was really good with Mendieta central to it. He then had an absolutely shocking run of injuries which led to a steep decline but IMO injuries are a harsh way of measuring decline.
Kagawa is probably Dortmund's best player last season
Kaka is a good shout, from Ballon D'Or to finishing his career in US, that hernia completely robbed his pace, used to be one of my favorite player
It is a bit harsh as he has had his moments. It hasn't been so steep, but its worth a mention i think. I have a mate who is a Chelsea fan and before he moved to us I told him Mata was going to decline fast. The weird thing is I thought he was about 29 when he was 25 or something which is sort of funny and the fact that most of his goals for Chelsea was about being at the right place at the right time type of goal. I've always thought he was a bit overrated, but anyhow I didn't see his skillset holding up for several season and sadly that has been the case.
Eduardo... he did have that leg break at Arsenal, but it killed his career.
Andy Carroll and Christian Benteke both unrecognizable playing in a Liverpool shirt. Since than playing for their current clubs gone from bad to worse. Both Prolific goalscorers at Newcastle and Aston Villa.
I dunno, Boro did have some good players so tbf calling them shite was stupid, but I don't remember Mendieta ever impressing much for them. I remember them playing him a lot when he was on loan to try to get him to stay but I don't think he was anything like their most important player at any point which you'd have thought he would be. He just looked pedestrian. He was also a dud at Lazio before that, albeit he seemingly played a fair bit for Barcelona. I still think compared to the rep he had at Valencia he was basically done at the top level by about 29 which is really when a midfielder should peak.
What always gets me is that Liverpool struck gold by selling a past-it Torres for 50 mil, which was like 150 in today's climate, and then spending 70% of it on Carroll
To put it into perspective, Suarez, who joined the same day, cost them a third less than Carroll