When I was a lad Denis Law was my idol. He was The King to every utd supporter in the 60's. They used to say if his name was on the team sheet it would put an extra 10,000 on the gate. He was a showman. An entertainer who scored many spectacular goals for us. Did we overrate him. Reckon it's up for discussion!
Your most overrated footballer
- Thread starter Paxi
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
I realised it was exactly at the time I was starting to get in to 'YouTube Football' & he looked unreal in a 15 minute clip. He's a good technical player, though in my opinion a bit self centred in the modern team centred sport and it showed a bit with some holes in his trophy list.
I overrated Barkley as an English wonderkid when he was younger - something I kind of do with alot of young English players (kind of knowingly though, because dgaf).
I realised it was exactly at the time I was starting to get in to 'YouTube Football' & he looked unreal in a 15 minute clip. He's a good technical player, though in my opinion a bit self centred in the modern team centred sport and it showed a bit with some holes in his trophy list.
I overrated Barkley as an English wonderkid when he was younger - something I kind of do with alot of young English players (kind of knowingly though, because dgaf).
Deulofeu for me. I think he's good for any of the top 4 teams in the PL 
Gazza after his injury
I am still holding out hope that he turns it around
Don't people have to rate him in order for him to be over rated? Luiz is horrible and always has been. Funny thing is, he's a good footballer. I just don't think central defense is his position. Should be a DM with players behind him. Same goes for Sergio Ramos, who in my opinion is the most over rated player of all time. He is quite possibly one of the worst defenders I have ever seen. I'm talking Phil Jones level here defending. Ramos is another who should be a midfielder and not a teams last line of defense...
You would still pick him over Zidane ?
He turned out better than what I thought in the youth team initially. Then the last year under Ole has been terrible.
Anderson.
I made an incredibly confident wager with a friend that he would win the Balon D'Or.
Still getting that one in the neck.
I made an incredibly confident wager with a friend that he would win the Balon D'Or.
Still getting that one in the neck.
Jay-Jay Okocha. Based on the clips and matches I saw of him while playing in PSG and Nigeria I truly believed he was the best player in the world and just had bad luck with choice of club and place of birth.
I also played Kim Källström myself a couple of times when I/he was 14-16. Since he was so dominant back then against us, I just assumed he would become what Zlatan actually became.
I also played Kim Källström myself a couple of times when I/he was 14-16. Since he was so dominant back then against us, I just assumed he would become what Zlatan actually became.
Yeah, forgot about Adnan Januzaj. Overrated him quite a bit.
Makes me think about another one: Musonda JR. Same generation. When he debuted for Betis i was certain he was another superstar in the making. Expected him in the national team in a matter of months, maybe even be a wild card at Euro2016. Quite wrong on that one.
Makes me think about another one: Musonda JR. Same generation. When he debuted for Betis i was certain he was another superstar in the making. Expected him in the national team in a matter of months, maybe even be a wild card at Euro2016. Quite wrong on that one.
feck outta here
Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Not that he isn't a fantastic player in his own right, but he is miles below the level of absolutely world class players he, and a major part of the media, seem to consider him to be a part of. This might not be a very popular opinion on here, but I would take the likes of RVN, RVP, Rooney, Aguero, Lewandowski, Torres all over Zlatan at their respective peaks. And that's not even considering the likes of Henry or the Brazilian Ronaldo who were miles better than him. But hearing people (and indeed Zlatan) talk about him you'd think he's just a rung below the level of Ronaldo and Messi.
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Probably Mbappe in a few years
I don’t really rate Martial too. Good player but not in the top tier level. We won’t be clamouring to sign him if he is playing for another team, like say a Sancho or Haaland
I don’t really rate Martial too. Good player but not in the top tier level. We won’t be clamouring to sign him if he is playing for another team, like say a Sancho or Haaland
Ten years ago I would have said Zidane by far. When I heard people and media put him in Top 5 of all time, it was silliness. But I think he's fallen back now to a more realistic rating.
I was on the Reo-Coker hype and thought he'd be a world class player for years to come.
Me too actually! He really looked good at one point.
Jack Wilshere is another one for me. Always felt jealousy that arsenal had him but looking back, he's one superb game away against Barcelona from being extremely average and a crock too.
I dont think hardly anybody rates Martial in the top tier yet but there's still plenty of time for him to reach that bracket. I don't understand the constant criticism he receives though, just because he's not Sergio Aguero. One of our most unique talents that can easily score 20+ goals over a season with service yet isn't United standard to some. Weird.
Paul Merson said Renatho Sanchez would be the best player in the world two years after his debut.
I think he was a great talent, but he had a habit when dribbling to knock the ball just far enough ahead to invite challenges. It looked great when he still had that burst but a few injuries, surely linked to the hits he received with his style of play, and it was a slippery slope for him, lost mobility, didn't adapt his style.
Sigurdsson for me.
I thought he was an exceptional number 10. Always involved in goals and passing going through him and dictating the play. Maybe I wanted to believe that as I miss those kind of 10’s in the modern game.
The more I have watched him at Everton though, the more I see someone who keeps himself amongst the goals through set pieces and his lack of mobility can actually hurt the teams performances.
No doubt a great weapon on his day because of his consistent delivery, but not the 10 I used to want at United. I pretty severely overrated him.
I thought he was an exceptional number 10. Always involved in goals and passing going through him and dictating the play. Maybe I wanted to believe that as I miss those kind of 10’s in the modern game.
The more I have watched him at Everton though, the more I see someone who keeps himself amongst the goals through set pieces and his lack of mobility can actually hurt the teams performances.
No doubt a great weapon on his day because of his consistent delivery, but not the 10 I used to want at United. I pretty severely overrated him.
When I was younger I thought Ole was world class and better than some strikers I considered to be overhyped by the media (Ibrahimovic, Raul, Trezeguet and a few others)
Looking back, a lot of this was probably just personal bias.
Looking back, a lot of this was probably just personal bias.
I thought O’Shea would be a long-term United starting XI player based on his breakthrough season.
Schneiderlin, Reo-Coker and Shay Given also worthy of mention.
Schneiderlin, Reo-Coker and Shay Given also worthy of mention.
I was sure Viktor Onopko was going to be become one of the great defenders of his generation. It took a while to accept he had killed his career by moving to and being happy to stay at Real Oviedo (who were battling relegation every year) and stagnated as a player.
Also had a few years of feeling Alen Boksic and Igor Kolyvanov could develop into great forwards, due to their two-footed elegant dribbling styles, good link-up play and capability of producing great moments before eventually having to concede they were far too wasteful and more often than not went missing in important games.
Also had a few years of feeling Alen Boksic and Igor Kolyvanov could develop into great forwards, due to their two-footed elegant dribbling styles, good link-up play and capability of producing great moments before eventually having to concede they were far too wasteful and more often than not went missing in important games.
I overrated the heck out of Recoba but really he was just a likeable but incredibly lazy, inconsistent, injury prone enigma.
His debut for Inter was something else though. La Gazzetta summed it up perfectly:
Roberto Baggio, I could never understand the hype
For different reasons the above are both laughable.
Two of the more realistic responses.
I'll add Joey Barton to the list.
Bale, or is he more of a golfer these days?
Greizmann. Never really wowed me any time I'd watched him, definitely don't think hes worth his reputation.
Sergio Ramos by a gargantuan margin. Like humongous. Really, nothing compares. He's the football equivalent of popcorn.
Wait I missunderstood the thread. Strangely it's Larsson for me too. I saw him with his dreads playing for Feyenoord ams was quite sure no one would ever surlass his greatness.
Wait I missunderstood the thread. Strangely it's Larsson for me too. I saw him with his dreads playing for Feyenoord ams was quite sure no one would ever surlass his greatness.
No one dare say sh*t about Miro Klose.
For Germany, I thought Ginter would be a the next great CB and give an easy transition from Hummels, but he flopped at Dortmund and isn't great at Gladbach as well.
For United, I thought Kieran Richardson was going to be a direct replacement for Giggs.
Larsson is so hard to judge. I know I will risk the wrath of Celtic fans, as the league was certainly a higher standard than it is today, but I really wish we got to see him at one of the giants in his mid-twenties.
He was nearly 33 when he signed for Barcelona and still proved very useful, including two (one of them excellent) assists in a 2-1 Champions League Final win. Ronaldinho and Henry spoke very highly of him.
We only got a brief glimpse of him, long past his best, at United, and he was still highly influential and well-thought of by everyone at the club.
He did all he possibly could at Celtic, but we will never really know how good he was compared to the very top strikers of his era. We didn’t get to see him at an elite club in one of the very top leagues at his peak.
From all those memories of Old Firm games, I think he would have bossed it anywhere, and it’s a real regret that his name isn’t brought up alongside the top strikers of his heydey. He really was superb.
Nonsense. He meteoric rise to one of the best in the world in '06 wasn't because of his goalscoring but because of his phenomenal all-round skill and ability on the ball. He was deciding games from anywhere on the pitch through brilliant solo runs, assists and combinations with other players as well as goals. I think becoming such a ridiculously prolific scorer later in his career has actually meant that his overall game at his peak is now absurdly underrated as people think he was only world class because of goals.
Griezmann by a long long way
How was Ibra not world class?
Compare his goals with almost everyone you listed and the fact he won more titles for his clubs than almost anyone in history too. Year in year out hardly got injured and won more individual awards than a lot of those players combined.
We also saw Rooney and him play together. How you think Rooney was a better footballer is beyond me.
It’s not as bad as when 90’s kids say Ronaldo 9 was a better player than Messi though.
Balotelli
Mangala
David luiz
Mangala
David luiz
I overrated Adriano like crazy when he peaked. I thought that he was going to be Ronaldo (the fat) and Batistuta all rolled into one.
Not sure. Most of the ones I can think of for myself got absolutely decimated via injury rather than falling off organically: Ganso, Rossi, Thiago, Shaw, Dembelele.
But, having said that, these players, that I had a vested interest in, let me down in relation to the thought of what they would become: Rooney, Javi Martinez, Neymar (subject to change), Pogba (subject to change), Varane (subject to change).
But, having said that, these players, that I had a vested interest in, let me down in relation to the thought of what they would become: Rooney, Javi Martinez, Neymar (subject to change), Pogba (subject to change), Varane (subject to change).