Player’s You Don’t Rate As Highly As Others

Zidane

Absolutely unplayable on his day, and those days tended to be in very big and important games.
However, he often did absolutely feck all for the majority of the season during his time at Juve and Real and then turned up in the latter stages of CL and for France
 
Hazard - even when he was in the PL. Some rated him on the level of Messi and Ronaldo, when all I saw was a flat track bully with a habit of going down way too easily. He was a decent player but the way some fans (especially Chelsea fans) regard him as a PL great I find over exaggerated.
 
On top of my head:
Ballack, Ibrahimovic, Bergkamp, Gerrard, T.Müller, Kahn, Schweinsteiger, Totti,
 
Rozay said:
Was hoping nobody would dare to go here. But alas, now Lionel fecking Messi is overrated. Seen it all!
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Don’t get me wrong I do “rate” Messi, of course I do, just not quite as much as others seem to. For me, Ronaldo is a notch higher as he’s done it in different leagues.
 
David Luiz - For whatever reason I've never understood why so many managers have parted with 50 million plus for this show pony. I get he likes to think he's a modern day Frans Beckenbaur but he hasn't got the brain to even be considered on that level and is always liable to drop an absolute clanger during a match.

Fernando Torres - If you actually look at his goal record it was only a couple of seasons he was brilliant, 80% of his career he was pretty bloody average on the goals front and always loved missing a key chance.
 
Christiano Ronaldo - So many people think he's the best player to ever play the game. I only rate him as the third best.
 
Marcelo is very good but he is not one of the best left-backs ever. His peak at RM was not super long, and before and after he was often a huge liability.
 
Plant0x84 said:
Raphael Varane. Can’t say I’ve ever seen him do anything amazing, or boss a game in defence like a Ramos or a Ferdinand. Cant really be all that if Madrid are willing to let him go….
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But that's far from the truth. According to Ornstein and others, they have offered him improved contracts for the last year and even the captaincy was talked about.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
Messi - never tested himself outside of his Barca comfort zone
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I'd agree with that. He's one of the greats, but he had an absolutely stacked team built around getting the best out of him for his whole career. The only time he's stepped out of that environment with the national team he hasn't come close to those heights.
 
Tom Van Persie said:
But that's far from the truth. According to Ornstein and others, they have offered him improved contracts for the last year and even the captaincy was talked about.
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Real Madrid don't offer the captaincy to anyone - it's assigned purely on the basis of who has been at the club longest. Granted, Varane isn't the furthest down this list - right now their order is Ramos - Marcelo - Benzema - Varane.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
Don’t get me wrong I do “rate” Messi, of course I do, just not quite as much as others seem to. For me, Ronaldo is a notch higher as he’s done it in different leagues.
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You will never see a better footballer than Messi as long as you live!
 
WeePat said:
Fernando Redondo - he was all the rave when I was in school because he skinned Henning Berg once. People also only ever reference that one moment when talking about him.
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To be honest I thought he was a tad over-rated as a hipster's wet-dream, but @Joga Bonito compiled a number of his early career performances which show him as a hell of a player.
Rozay said:
Carlos was just a Brazilian Kyle Walker. In a Panini sticker era where most people saw less week to week performances, players are often summarised into a highlights package.

For a ‘defender’ - Carlos was flashy. Eye-catching. He was incredibly fast, and kicked the ball incredibly hard. Often when he kicked it though, it didn’t go anywhere. He spent his career dining out off one goal, repeatedly smashing free-kicks from 40 yards into the wall, row Z or anywhere else. When he went forward, I don’t really remember him doing much at all. He was just busy and noticeable. But not graceful, not a great defender either.

Marcelo was twice the player, as was Dani Alves.
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Going forwards Carlos and Marcelo have a solid case to be the two greatest attacking left-backs of all time. So to me it's more a question of preferred style - Marcelo's nimble and trickery-based feet versus the dynamic flank domination of Carlos. But going the other way I'd maintain Carlos was a better defender than Marcelo. Both guilty of brain farts and neither are in the top tier of left-backs defensively, but Marcelo's made so many basic errors over the years. Carlos could make those too but not with the same frequency and he also had superior powers of recovery, was stronger, more aggressive, better 1v1, and generally had slightly weaker defensive cover around him.
 
I never rated Bale as world class, very good player but I never saw him at the elite level & thought Madrid got fleeced at the time & my mind never changed. 80m & 500k a week you expect much much more.

Bruno & Sterling right now. Controversial perhaps as they are very good players, but I don’t see them as world class footballers.
 
giorno said:
Exceptional ceiling raiser. Not much of a floor raiser. All time great, not nearly on the level of Xavi or Zidane
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I thought it might have been about in comparison to Xavi. Fully agree
 
I would say Dennis Bergkamp.

Marvellous talent of course, with outstanding first touch and control, but he always looked like a player that was just past his best, throughout his career. Sounds a strange thing to say but he just lacked something for me, a killer edge maybe. Always seemed to be slightly weak mentally, too.

Also, I think his two most famous goals are a tad overrated.
 
Gabriel Jesus, for me. Feels like he doesn't score that often but also his numbers look way too high. Tap in merchant most of the time, and not in the 'great movement to get in that area to begin with' type of way.

Benefits from having about 20 balls played across the face of goal per game in this City side.
 
Plant0x84 said:
Raphael Varane. Can’t say I’ve ever seen him do anything amazing, or boss a game in defence like a Ramos or a Ferdinand. Cant really be all that if Madrid are willing to let him go….
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Two clubs have 'been willing to let go' of Cristiano Ronaldo.
 
OL29 said:
Not getting into a debate between who was better but I don’t think it’s fair to use goals and assists as a metric for who’s better. For one, Rashford has spent long periods playing up front, and even as a wide player, he plays in a 433, where as Nani played as a winger in a 442. By the same logic, you could probably argue that Martial is better than David Beckham.
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I totally agree about stats giving an incomplete picture but, in a like-for-like comparison of players who've played a lot of games in similar positions, it seemed relevant. For what it's worth, I'm no Rashford fanboy and didn't instigate the initial comparison but I do feel that people are generally harsher on current players, whereas memories of former players become very selective over time.

Even my missus, who knows nothing about football, knows my opinion of Nani, as she had to listen to "FFS Nani! Again?!" for years. Safe to say my opinion of him is yet to mellow!
 
Eckers99 said:
I totally agree about stats giving an incomplete picture but, in a like-for-like comparison of players who've played a lot of games in similar positions, it seemed relevant. For what it's worth, I'm no Rashford fanboy and didn't instigate the initial comparison but I do feel that people are generally harsher on current players, whereas memories of former players become very selective over time.

Even my missus, who knows nothing about football, knows my opinion of Nani, as she had to listen to "FFS Nani! Again?!" for years. Safe to say my opinion of him is yet to mellow!
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I fully agree with this and I think Rashford bares the brunt of it more than probably any player in our squad.

:lol: I think that sums Nani up well for most but to be honest I was willing to turn a blind eye to some of his decision making as that’s the sacrifice you make for players with that amount of flair. He was brilliant and frustrating in equal measure but it’s rare to see players as gifted as him and I always felt we were a more entertaining side with him in our line up.
 
OL29 said:
I fully agree with this and I think Rashford bares the brunt of it more than probably any player in our squad.

:lol: I think that sums Nani up well for most but to be honest I was willing to turn a blind eye to some of his decision making as that’s the sacrifice you make for players with that amount of flair. He was brilliant and frustrating in equal measure but it’s rare to see players as gifted as him and I always felt we were a more entertaining side with him in our line up.
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Nani drove me mental at times, he made the football look like a balloon some weeks, he'd be overhitting everything.

Having said that some of the dross we brought in to replace him it had you scratching your head why he was sold.

In a deal for Rojo as well!!!!!!!
 
Bale. Even at Spurs when he won player of the year I thought it was ridiculous, both times.

His career at Madrid went as I expected. Brilliant moments but not consistent enough
 
youngrell said:
I would say Dennis Bergkamp.

Marvellous talent of course, with outstanding first touch and control, but he always looked like a player that was just past his best, throughout his career. Sounds a strange thing to say but he just lacked something for me, a killer edge maybe. Always seemed to be slightly weak mentally, too.

Also, I think his two most famous goals are a tad overrated.
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interesting.

tend to agree with you, it doesn’t we suddenly we think he’s Kevin Davies - but many rate him as one of the all time greats. I don’t think he is.

however, context is important - and there were very few overseas stars when he joined, and even fewer with most of their career ahead of him. He helped increase the standard of play in the PL, but then others overtook him.
 
WeePat said:
Might as well get in on the act;

Ricardo Carvalho - class player, incredibly elegant but people have elevated him to a level where it almost sounds like Terry was hanging on to his coattails in that defence. They complimented each other perfectly, but I rate Terry much, much higher.

David Silva - another incredibly elegant classy player who is spoken about as if he belongs at the upper echelons of Premier League midfielders when he's at least the very least a tier below, maybe more.

Didier Drogba - I have come to this painful realisation in recent years. I used to have him right up there next to Henry and Shearer as one of the all-time great strikers in this league. He's still wildly important to me and his record on all the big occasions will speak for itself, but I have reluctantly lowered his all-time status from neck and neck with Henry and Shearer to having an internal debate about whether he can scrape into the top 5.

There is one more, but I'd rather not feel the wrath of this forum.
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Took 200 or so, but this was the first post I completely agreed with the suggestions for in this thread.
 
Abe144 said:
Drogba. He was a moments player. Doesn't have the numbers of true elite and all time top strikers. Far from it
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Hate to agree, but people keep lumping him in with superior, more consistent players. Despite his assists, he was complained about heavily till his standout 06/07 campaign. We all expected him to dominate and standout as the premier league's top striker after that, aside from the big games ( particularly against Arsenal), he didn't standout again until the 09/10 season, after which Chelsea were trying to replace him, hence Torres.
 
Tom Cato said:
Christiano Ronaldo - So many people think he's the best player to ever play the game. I only rate him as the third best.
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Which is fair, he's good enough to be rated anywhere from 1 to 4, anyone going lower is really undervaluing what they have been witnessing. Like a previous poster suggested, there are a few past players that are overrated due to the panini sticker era, the FIFA documentaries and the magazines, where fans were not really watching other leagues and went off the commentary of pundits and magazines ( that told a story, rather than the play by play account we watch today).
 
Anthony Martial.

Goes both ways. I had high regard for him, up until Jose's last season.
Now I barely notice whether he is on or off the pitch.


Ruben Neves, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Paulo Dybala(Talented, but still never consistent).
 
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Devil81 said:
Nani drove me mental at times, he made the football look like a balloon some weeks, he'd be overhitting everything.

Having said that some of the dross we brought in to replace him it had you scratching your head why he was sold.

In a deal for Rojo as well!!!!!!!
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I actually respected the risk he was willing to take, I always did. We've had too many players willing to let a game go by without much contribution, but with players like Nani, even if they don't make a positive impact, their attempt to make it happen makes the game entertaining. I've never been a fan of the Isco's or Mata's, players who look pretty and do a lot of one two's without actually having any impact. I think people were really decieved by the praise of Iniesta and could not really decipher what he actually did, as a result overly praising players for being unproductive, similar to players like Cleverley getting praise in the era of Xavi.

Iniesta is special because he used his amazing first touch, balance and agility to provide support for players in distress when holding the ball higher up the pitch. He would move around the pitch providing an option, knowing that when he got the ball, he had the ability to keep hold of it, as he was a hard player to tackle. If an opening arised, he had the technical skills to provide a key pass or dribble into the open space, but for the most part, while Xavi dictated play, Iniesta was like an offensive fireman, who consistently reduced the threat of Barca losing possession of the ball by bring his cool touch and agility in service to the team. Mata and Isco were not that, but were small enough, played enough one twos, had good enough first touches and moved enough to trick people into believing in them.
 
People calling me out for the MBappe to Rashford example - how was Kylians performance tonight against City? Seen Rashford play better against City on his first Derby when he flopped Demichelis.
 
432JuanMata said:
Thought I’d make a thread as we all have certain opinions on players that are rated really high but you yourself don’t think so.
You can still rate the player just not as high or a player you think is rubbish but others think are good to great.

I’ll start Etoo
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Your title is wrong... There should be no apostrophe in 'Players'. They are not owning anything in the sentence, therefore it is wrong. Sorry to be the grammar police, but this is glaring!
 
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