acnumber9
Full Member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2006
- Messages
- 22,481
Mo Salah.
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.Mo Salah.
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.
Torres
Schevchenko
Sanchez
Kaka
Batistuta
Dwight Yorke. He's like a shooting star.
Lost his hunger after winning the trebleDwight Yorke. He's like a shooting star.
Adriano for Inter Milan - was unstoppable by any team. Would score goals from absolutely anywhere - I watch some of his videos to this day.
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.
Harry Kane
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.
I disagree. He was still great for two seasons before the decline hit him. Fell off a cliff after the 08/09 season.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.
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.
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.
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
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.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
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.
I think he also said he drank his talent into oblivion.
Gaizka Mendieta hands down. From quality player for title winning Valencia to not really good enough to hold down a regular spot at a shite Middlesborough.
Dortmund had several of those, like Sahin and Kagawa
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.Maybe a bit harsh, but Juan Mata. World class at Chelsea, one of the best players in the league. Average at best for United most of the time.
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.
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.