Which player had the biggest purple patch followed by the steepest decline?

Ramos

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That English rightback from Liverpool that almost went to the WC 2014 after 1 season in the team, then fell off and completely disappeared.
 

Gio

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One that I can think of that roughly defines this is Jelavic. Had two good seasons with Rangers and we signed him in Jan. He scored 9 goals in 13 PL games and I thought he would be amazing for us. Went on to score 7 in his next 46 games. :wenger:
We definitely cashed in at the right time, although he scored 29 in Austria the season before he joined us, so that's arguably 3 good years before dropping off a cliff.
 

SilentWitness

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We definitely cashed in at the right time, although he scored 29 in Austria the season before he joined us, so that's arguably 3 good years before dropping off a cliff.
Didn't realise he scored that much in Austria! Fair play.
 

Smores

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Cruz, Benjani, Berahino all had a stand out period then reverted.

I seem to recall City having a few players that suddenly performed then went back to average, Stephen Ireland, Elano etc. Blackburn had a good few too actually.
 

Kramer

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Fernando Torres - just never understood his career trajectory.

Was always a good player for Athletico. Had an amazing 3-4 year run at Liverpool. Won the Euros and WC with Spain.

Then joined Chelsea and turned completely to sh*t. An incredibly abrupt and steep decline for seemingly no reason.
 

Sir Erik ten Hag

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Fernando Torres - just never understood his career trajectory.

Was always a good player for Athletico. Had an amazing 3-4 year run at Liverpool. Won the Euros and WC with Spain.

Then joined Chelsea and turned completely to sh*t. An incredibly abrupt and steep decline for seemingly no reason.
His injury caused it. Nothing's strange here.
 

JPRouve

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Wilfried Bony should be remembered.
 

Kramer

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His injury caused it. Nothing's strange here.
Nothing’s strange??

Yes I understand that was the start of the decline but he was an absolute world beater before. Lot of footballers come back from injuries.

He just completely lost all confidence infront of goal.
 

harms

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Granite in 2008/09. Won the league with Wolfsburg, scoring 28 goals in 25 games (35/31 in all comps), unsurprisingly becoming both the league’s top scorer and best player.

With this great goal against Bayern as an icing on the cake:

Went back to scoring 11 league goals next season (which matched his tally for 07/08) before transferring to Al Ahli
 

MelvinYeo

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Papiss Cisse - the goal against Chelsea was something else.
 

Gio

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Fernando Torres - just never understood his career trajectory.

Was always a good player for Athletico. Had an amazing 3-4 year run at Liverpool. Won the Euros and WC with Spain.

Then joined Chelsea and turned completely to sh*t. An incredibly abrupt and steep decline for seemingly no reason.
It's an odd one. He was a big prospect from 17-18 and did well for a fairly defensive mid-table Atletico side. But what you're saying is backed up by how many shots he took for every goal he scored:

2005/06: 6.3
2006/07: 6.3
[Joins Liverpool]
2007/08: 3.9
2008/09: 6.1
2009/10: 4.4
2010/11: 11.1 [Joins Chelsea in January]
2011/12: 10.0

He has those 3 years of turning everything to gold. Went off the boil before he moved to Chelsea. Injury seemed to rob him of that extra gear of pace he had over everybody, but he still got into good positions to get chances which he mostly ended up squandering. So perhaps it was his confidence that was shot on the back of losing an edge, which could explain his comparative wastefulness in front of goal.
 

Skills

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Jarrod Bowen - throwing it out early

Papiss Cisse - was incredible for 6 months
Demba Ba - also incredible for about a year until he moved to Chelsea
Michu
 

Chief123

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Players that went from average to incredible back to mediocre in a short space of time?

Dele Ali
James Rodríguez
Lingard

All come to mind
I must have blinked when Lingard went to "incredible". Always been bang average for me while having Dan James moments of hope.
 

Daydreamer

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Aaron Ramsey.
He had a sublime 6 month run that was never replicated after.

My nomination would be Victor Moses. He was a beast for precisely 8 months after Conte switched to wingbacks.
 

Skills

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He had a sublime 6 month run that was never replicated after.

My nomination would be Victor Moses. He was a beast for precisely 8 months after Conte switched to wingbacks.
He was but didn't Conte abandon that in his second season?
 

Lynty

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Gus Payet was genuinley a top 5 player in the world for a brief period.
 

Chipper

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Papiss Cisse - the goal against Chelsea was something else.
Was going to say him too, but then he did score 37 in 65 in 2 years in Germany just prior to joining Newcastle.

Also got 11 in 22 in 14/15 which is a top notch strike rate. Nothing like the 13 in 14 when he first joined but that was other worldy.
 

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Amir Zaki
Oddly enough, he's the first one who came to mind for me.

Had that unreal scoring streak at the start of the 2008-09 season where he looked absolutely unplayable. Got linked to a bunch of top clubs as a result, but then fell out with the club management and quickly returned to being shit.