Rio Ferdinand. Too many United fans rate him way above Vidic in lists when Vidic was better when he was at the club and won more individual accolades/team of the years and was considered our leading defender in those years. Rio has reached almost mythical status because of this idea that he was ultra composed on the ball. In his best day he was brilliant but he was far more inconsistent than Vidic and Vidic was the leader who carried United through tough away games like Stoke away.
Most overrated ex Manchester United players
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Jamie (@Vault Dweller) are here to talk about United's dreadful home defeat at the hands of Big Ange's Tottenham Hotspur. Should this have been the end of Ten Hag? How long does he actually have left? And does Nik finally want ETH out?!
Can you believe scholes and Beckham have been thrown in. Were these punters in nappies back then.
Beckham was a super talent and also a great grafter.
Scholes is up there in the best players I saw under Fergie. Second only to Cantona.
Beckham was a super talent and also a great grafter.
Scholes is up there in the best players I saw under Fergie. Second only to Cantona.
It's a laugh, absolute weirdos.
This might be a point but i feel if Scholes had the looks of Beckham he would have been more popular and had more acclaim. Scholes was not charismatic and preferred to stay out of the limelight. Together with Pirlo and i think he was the greatest long passer ever and in general. I think when you have Henry saying that the PL player that he most wanted to play who was an opponent. Also you have Giggs saying that the best player he'd played with over his entire career its Scholes.
I think he can be overhyped in retrospect, but i do think he's was underrated because of his lack of charisma and glamour
It's funny you say that when Scholes had his best years in like 06-08...
Have you watched that Newcastle game back in full? He made one or two good saves and a couple routine. It's been mythologised beyond measure. See also Keane Juventus.
I watched it live. He was incredible. You are completely wrong there.
Just found this too - can't believe you can possibly play it down. Are you on the wind up? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/34...-schmeichel-manchester-united-newcastle-1996/
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I too watched it live. Not denigrating the man's career, but this has always struck me as misremembered game.
Besides some great work early on, it's all bread and butter with a dash of woeful distribution.
Gonna get $h!t, but for me Carrick. I don't think in anyway he was a bad player, but people seem to look back on him like he was world class. For me when ever I saw him play in high tempo games he struggled. He was great when opponents sat deep and he had time on the ball or just played a longball and he had time to position himself for interception, but need him to play quick passing football, or defend against players running at him or playing quick 1 -2's or triangles and he really struggled.
Ok if you are going to double down then I'll never agree with you, it was a phenomenal performance. Others have judged it the best PL performance of all time.
It's certainly the best goalkeeping performance in the PL even beating some of De Gea's.
I mean we had the best manager of all time, you saw what happened the following season after we had just won the league. So not really a push to assume that Fergie's management managed to find ways of elevating players throughout his reign.
How would you like your shit served?
Politely and at a distance?
Agreed, Carrick was always the tier below world-class level. Not the same class as Keane, Scholes and the likes, more like Nicky Butt level (which isn't to denigrate him, Butt was a good player and actually had more caps for England than him).
Yeah in no way am I saying he was terrible, there just seems to have been a revisionism around him that he was world class. Which I just don't agree with.
The most shocking thing about Steve Bruce was that he rarely lost a game. He was a no-nonsense defender who threw his body into every duel he could - and he was always fit to play the next game. The guy played 727 league games in 19 seasons. That's an average of incredible 38.3 league games pr season (his first 5 seasons were in the third div where they played 46 games a season, and then a few season when they played 42 games a season)
If you add to the fact that he probably missed a few games really early and late in his career where he was benched - and that he missed a few games through suspensions. Basically Steve Bruce maybe missed an average of 1-2 league games pr season due to injuries. Those are insane numbers
100% agree on Carrick, I remember him almost being forced out by SAF before we had a defensive crisis and he stepped up as a stand in CB, it followed a period of really poor form in midfield where he gave away the ball many times leading to goals.... that said he is only overrated because some fans on here seem to remember him as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, he was still an excellent player, I would take him in this squad any day of the week, and I would jump through hoops to take him as manager now instead of baldy.
However my choice would be Brian McLair, overrated by SAF, as a striker McLair was very good, however as he got on on years SAF dropped him back into midfield where he was atrocious, but SAF persisted playing him there for seasons.
An honourable mention goes to Pogba
For me it would be Carrick. Good player in his day, but nowhere near the Rodri - Messi hybrid some fans on here promote him to be.
He would give the ball away more often than Casemiro at times and his passing could be atrocious if he wasn't concentrating. He could give Onana a run for his money at gifting goals away. He was probably good for us for a couple of years, but beyond that he was another player we held onto for far too long and because of that he's put into the same category as Keane and Scholes, when he was nowhere near.
When we bought Ugarte some of the fans said he'll never be like Carrick and all I could think was, I bloody hope not!
He would give the ball away more often than Casemiro at times and his passing could be atrocious if he wasn't concentrating. He could give Onana a run for his money at gifting goals away. He was probably good for us for a couple of years, but beyond that he was another player we held onto for far too long and because of that he's put into the same category as Keane and Scholes, when he was nowhere near.
When we bought Ugarte some of the fans said he'll never be like Carrick and all I could think was, I bloody hope not!
Park-Ji Sung for me, a good player with a great engine but very much a squad player and overrated by many in my opinion. Nice bloke though.
Played over 900 games.
Regularly played 50+ games a season throughout his career. One season he played 62 games for Utd. Even at the end of his time at Birmingham he played 45 games in his second to last season, he was 38. In his last season as player manager, he played 11 games before retiring in November, so well in his way to another 40 game season.
Guy was a constant and an absolute rock of a defender at the time. His style might not wash now, but he could read the game exquisitely and that was probably his biggest asset.
He was also a fantastic goal scorer for a centre-back. Was it the first premier league season in which he scored 19 goals?
Think it was the year Utd won the cup winners cup, he was denied a 20th by Mark Hughes tapping one in on the line.
His penalties were brilliant, walk back to the edge of the box, turn around, run in and smash it into the corner. No dicking about, no hop skip and jump. Just power and placement.
Unfortunately very hard to find good videos of his defending, goals will have to do.
Vidic. He was world class on his day but not the all time great some make him out to be, was never as good as Rio or Stam. Got humiliated by Torres more than once.
Carrick had an 18 month period where he did struggle, but later after retiring he admitted he was suffering from depression at that time. Before and after that period he was generally very good.
I don't think anyone rates him as one of the greatest of all time though. He's clearly a level below the likes of Keane and Scholes, although I also think he's at least one level ahead of Butt (who I saw somebody compare him to above).
Poborský, just because of the euro
And Progba
And Progba
Off the top of my head, I don't think I'd say any of our really top players are overrated. Maybe De Gea since people continued rating him as one of the best many years after he declined, but that's about it.
People like Matic and Mata more come to mind for me. They both seem to get remembered fondly and rated more highly than players in the same teams who were better and more consistent. I'm sure they were nice guys, but both of them had many more poor games for us than good.
People like Matic and Mata more come to mind for me. They both seem to get remembered fondly and rated more highly than players in the same teams who were better and more consistent. I'm sure they were nice guys, but both of them had many more poor games for us than good.
This is the most necessary thread ever.
Complete nonsense. He got “humiliated by Torres” literally once where he made a mistake not to head the ball. 2 time Premier League player of the year. We didn’t concede a goal for 3 months when he was in his prime. Absolutely sensational player.
Would agree with the Carrick shout if I thought people generally did rate him as much as Scholes or Keane, or thought he would be as acclaimed as Rodri is at the moment in the current era.
But I don't think that's actually that prevalent an opinion. There are a few people on this forum who overrate him but the majority typically recognise he wasn't at that level. And in the wider football world he certainly isn't viewed in that way. I don't actually see him spoken about much at all.
There's a difference between "X player is overrated" and "a few people overrate X player".
But I don't think that's actually that prevalent an opinion. There are a few people on this forum who overrate him but the majority typically recognise he wasn't at that level. And in the wider football world he certainly isn't viewed in that way. I don't actually see him spoken about much at all.
There's a difference between "X player is overrated" and "a few people overrate X player".
Yeah, he was incredible for us.
There’s definitely a selective memory amongst fans with Carrick - he was a mainstay of a midfield that for years the consensus was that it simply wasn’t good enough and needed to be upgraded upgrading perpetually. He was horrific for England as well whenever he played, hence being overlooked by various decorated managers.
He was a good player, and would probably have suited the modern game with inverting fullbacks to protect him that Rodri needs to neutralise his many flaws, but it’s the rabid revisionist overrating of him since he retired that has pushed him into this thread.
This - the latter day Scholes post-2004 where he dropped deeper and played with the game ahead of him was an elite footballer, but before that point while being asked to play further forward, his limitations in dribbling and finding a decisive final ball in tight spaces made him distinctly above average and nothing more.
From memory - and YouTube match compilations from that era (circa 2000-04) reaffirm this - he generally seemed to pass sideways 90% of the time, and looked awkward to the point of having wooden legs while playing from the left.
Of that midfield 4 of the late 90’s, Scholes was the one often rotated, and I think that reflected how SAF saw him around that time. It’s well known that Ferguson wanted Gerrard, and also had Essien and Ballack stolen by Chelsea. If two of those players had arrived before he dropped deep and became the midfield dictator, I’m not sure Scholes would have ever established the legacy he did because his work before that was erratic and square pegging round holes.
I've gotta disagree with this. Scholesy was up there with the best in the world. The only thing He couldn't do was tackle!
After reading those Carrick posts this just popped up on my twitter.
Onana
Dalot...De ligt....Martinez....Shaw
Mainoo......Casemiro
Garnacho.....Bruno.....Rashford
Hojlund
can i do an overrated current man utd instead?
Dalot...De ligt....Martinez....Shaw
Mainoo......Casemiro
Garnacho.....Bruno.....Rashford
Hojlund
can i do an overrated current man utd instead?
Carrick's problem is he doesn't get much involved in doing one-two. He would pass a ball and then just stay in the same position defending instead of attacking.
In his younger days, he was better because he would still involve himself more in the attack. When he became older, he would just pass the ball and then defend (more suitable when team is weak). Also Carrick doesn't have great confidence in shooting for a central midfielder. There are many mid tier players like Fred, McTom, Xhaka who can shoot better than him from outside the box.
Many will disagree but for me Garnacho is extremely overrated, last year some members suggested they wouldn’t sell him for 100m, in reality I can see him on the same level as Iwobi or Almiron. Average PL player and nothing more
Herrera, Pogba, Kagawa, Anderson and Rafael.
Utd won titles with Rio and Brown/Silvestre. Probably would have won in 2004 but for Rio suspension. Its like the Steph Curry KD situation. He had won before Vidic got there