The players who practically never scored a goal

lysglimt

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I looked at the stats of the old Roma and Valencia player Amadeo Carboni and noticed that in his 20+ year career - he scored a total of 8 League goals in over 500 matches and finished his career by scoring 1 goal in 9 seasons at Valencia. The worst of them all in or just before the Premier League must have been Des Walker who scored 1 goal in 801 matches - against Luton in his 313th senior match.

Who else "never" scored ?
 
I looked at the stats of the old Roma and Valencia player Amadeo Carboni and noticed that in his 20+ year career - he scored a total of 8 League goals in over 500 matches and finished his career by scoring 1 goal in 9 seasons at Valencia. The worst of them all in or just before the Premier League must have been Des Walker who scored 1 goal in 801 matches - against Luton in his 313th senior match.

Who else "never" scored ?

Mascherano at Barca?

It got to a point when Messi and co. almost tried to talk him into taking a penalty to finally score his first but he refused anway.
 
Claus Lundekvam played quite a lot of matches for.... Southampthon, i think, and scored very few. Think maybe only 1 or 2.

Ok, had to google it. 2 goals in 357 matches, 2 for Norway in 40 matches.
Very low since he was a tall CB and quite a good header.

Fun bonus fact: He didn't score against my team after he was retired professionally either :lol:
 
I remember back in the day me and my United supporting friend use to joke about us drawing 1-1 with Paulo Ferreira and Gary Neville getting the goals.
 
Who was the player arsenal signed in the 90s who was a striker and went about four years without scoring a goal. Think he played for West Ham and Blackburn.
 
Luke Shaw has scored like one or two career goals ever, in 8 years.

Alan Smith was a supposed ‘striker’ who I’m sure didn’t score a goal for about 4 years (after which I stopped checking) from United to Newcastle to some lower league team (might have been MK Dons). Admittedly, he decided he was a tough-tackling central midfielder somewhere along that journey, rather than a tough-tackling centre forward, which he had been known for.

Edit: Smith retired in 2018 with a career total of 47 league goals, of which he had scored 38 by the time he left Leeds in 2004. He had another 299 league appearances over the remaining of his career in which he scored the remaining 9 goals, played in a combination of centre forward and centre midfield, at various levels of the football pyramid. Terrible player, never liked him, and saw him as the epitome if the older English football mentality of the time, in which everyone was seduced by fecking slide tackles.
 
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Who was the player arsenal signed in the 90s who was a striker and went about four years without scoring a goal. Think he played for West Ham and Blackburn.
Who was the player arsenal signed in the 90s who was a striker and went about four years without scoring a goal. Think he played for West Ham and Blackburn.
Francis Jeffers?
 
defensive midfielders like Makelele, Busquets, Mascherano or Albelda. all of them with about 500+ games and about 10 goals total. I didn't check wiki for them, but they probably fit in this thread. you can forgive defenders having low scoring stats, but defensive midfielders are more often in position to score from long range at least. and how sad Anichebe's stats look compared to such players given he was striker? :lol:

edit: Mascherano scored 2 goals in career :wenger:
 
Rob Jones?
Wasnt there a running joke on Soccer AM how he never scored for Liverpool.
 
Mauro Silva, more than 300 games in la liga and only one goal

 
Lillian Thuram has to be a good shout as well, 13 goals in 683 club appearances, 2 in 142 national appearances, those 2 were in a WC semi though.

 
Jamie Carragher scored 5 goals in 775 games for club and country.

One of the goals was on his debut too.

You've forgotten the 2 he scored for United!

Players who rarely score are usually defensive minded full backs or centre backs who are poor in the air.

Neville and Rio are the two obvious ones at United. Neville had limited opportunities but Rio used to go up for pretty much every corner!
 
defensive midfielders like Makelele, Busquets, Mascherano or Albelda. all of them with about 500+ games and about 10 goals total. I didn't check wiki for them, but they probably fit in this thread. you can forgive defenders having low scoring stats, but defensive midfielders are more often in position to score from long range at least. and how sad Anichebe's stats look compared to such players given he was striker? :lol:

edit: Mascherano scored 2 goals in career :wenger:
6 goals in his career. 2 in the league.
 
Wes Brown only scored 5 for us in 360 appearances. To be honest, the only goal I remember from him was the opener against Liverpool around 2008, when Mascherano was sent off and Nani scored a screamer.
 
Dennis Diekmeier has scored 1 goal in his career in bundesliga 1 and 2 and it took about 260 games for it to score and as he only just scored there weren’t any fans in the stadium to celebrate it
 
Wes Brown only scored 5 for us in 360 appearances. To be honest, the only goal I remember from him was the opener against Liverpool around 2008, when Mascherano was sent off and Nani scored a screamer.
If I remember correctly he scored against Newcastle the same day Rooney scored ‘that’ Volley
 
defensive midfielders like Makelele, Busquets, Mascherano or Albelda. all of them with about 500+ games and about 10 goals total. I didn't check wiki for them, but they probably fit in this thread. you can forgive defenders having low scoring stats, but defensive midfielders are more often in position to score from long range at least. and how sad Anichebe's stats look compared to such players given he was striker? :lol:

edit: Mascherano scored 2 goals in career :wenger:

One of those mascherano goals was a penalty his Barcelona team mates forced him to take when they were 5 nil up I believe.
 
I read just recently that when Marcel Schmelzer scored the last time, our new young lad Gio Reyna was 10 years old.
 
Manolis Siopis, a defensive midfielder now playing for Alanyasport in Turkey. Up until now he has 191 caps with 1 goal. His one and only goal came from the penalty spot 2 years ago, in a game where his team scored 6 more goals..
 
Francis Benali, Southampton stalwart from the 90s. 1 goal in his career as far as I can make out, definitely 1 in the league anyway. 311 league appearances for Southampton, 15 for Nottingham Forest and 22 for Eastleigh.

Lee Cattermole scored 7 for Sunderland last season when he'd previously scored 3 in 9 years for them. Must have found it a lot easier in League One. Anyone know if he was on pens?

Edit: Thought of another, Ian Culverhouse:
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Paul Parker didn't get many:
iC98dnA.png


He has at least one to add to that as Wiki doesn't do cup goals in the main profile. Scored against Reading in one of the early rounds of the cup in 96. His league goal for us was really nice, in a 4-1 win against Spurs. Played a 1-2 and slotted it into the corner. The same match Cantona did that famous assist for Irwin.
 
Paul Parker didn't get many:
iC98dnA.png


He has at least one to add to that as Wiki doesn't do cup goals in the main profile. Scored against Reading in one of the early rounds of the cup in 96. His league goal for us was really nice, in a 4-1 win against Spurs. Played a 1-2 and slotted it into the corner. The same match Cantona did that famous assist for Irwin.

Also scored a cracking own goal for England.

 
Paul Parker didn't get many:
iC98dnA.png


He has at least one to add to that as Wiki doesn't do cup goals in the main profile. Scored against Reading in one of the early rounds of the cup in 96. His league goal for us was really nice, in a 4-1 win against Spurs. Played a 1-2 and slotted it into the corner. The same match Cantona did that famous assist for Irwin.

It usually does in career statistics. The top bit is always just league. Unless he is such a no name player that he doesn't have career stats further down.
 
It usually does in career statistics. The top bit is always just league. Unless he is such a no name player that he doesn't have career stats further down.

Yes, none of Benali, Culverhouse and Parker have a career statistics section lower down. It's also an era thing, plenty of modern-day players less prominent than those have that section.
 
Lloyd Doyley, 2 goals in 14 years for Watford and then since he’s left he’s scored 1 goal in 5 years in the non league
 
The one who frustrated me was Carrick.

I mean, yes he scored more than whose in this thread but I always felt if he had taken more risks his technique would have got him 10 goals a season.

Look how many shots Fernandes takes. No wonder he scores so many it's a stats game. Carrick often got into similar spaces near the edge but wouldn't strike it.