The natural successor: Has Neymar blown it?

There's more of a chance Messi will repeat what he did in 2022 than Nemar doing anything of note in 2026.
 
morisjee said:
Neymar has always impressed when he was fit. That's just the problem...unfortunately he was often injured.

In his younger years he had 109 scorers in 139 games at Santos

At Barca 181 scorer in 186 games, including 2 goals in the final in his CL victory

At PSG 195 scorer 173 games

And for Brazil 133 scorer in 124 games

I don't understand how you can call it overrated. The dislike of him has other reasons. In terms of football, he is one of the greatest.

And if he won the ACL with al-Hilal, he would be the 1st player in history to win the Champions League in 3 continents. Legend!
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Those GPG stats don’t look correct? Basically been scoring a goal a game?
 
morisjee said:
Neymar has always impressed when he was fit. That's just the problem...unfortunately he was often injured.

In his younger years he had 109 scorers in 139 games at Santos

At Barca 181 scorer in 186 games, including 2 goals in the final in his CL victory

At PSG 195 scorer 173 games

And for Brazil 133 scorer in 124 games

I don't understand how you can call it overrated. The dislike of him has other reasons. In terms of football, he is one of the greatest.

And if he won the ACL with al-Hilal, he would be the 1st player in history to win the Champions League in 3 continents. Legend!
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Agree he's an amazing footballer and for me defijitely an all time great. Sad he semiretired from club football that early in his career. What could have been.
 
ThierryHenry14 said:
For French all time great, the first 2 names pop up to me is Zidane and Platini. As I said before I am not sure if Henry can be considered as one, just like I am not sure if Bergkamp, RVP or Robben can be considered as Dutch all time great.
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Robben has no business being grouped with those others.

Robben is one of the greatest wingers of all time, and perhaps Holland's greatest. Even if not #1 outright, immediately in the conversation.
 
Stretchered off against Uruguay.

Looked like a bad knee inury or maybe his sister has a birthday coming up. Hard to tell.
 
What a shame. Unreal talent, a real goalscorer (what I loved about him), but look at him, Pogba. So much fame, and money, it seems to have messed them up (or, alternatively, the fame and money has simply highlighted their true character??)

They both have surrounded themselves with some awful characters, motivated by money. Now look at the result.

Brazil need to put Vinicius, Raphina, Rodrygo as priority. Neymar destabilises that team. Look at the recent WC. They have enough talent to build a competitive, balanced team.
 
Jeffthered said:
What a shame. Unreal talent, a real goalscorer (what I loved about him), but look at him, Pogba. So much fame, and money, it seems to have messed them up (or, alternatively, the fame and money has simply highlighted their true character??)

They both have surrounded themselves with some awful characters, motivated by money. Now look at the result.

Brazil need to put Vinicius, Raphina, Rodrygo as priority. Neymar destabilises that team. Look at the recent WC. They have enough talent to build a competitive, balanced team.
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Neymar is miles better than Pogba all-time and they're not similar at all.

Neymar simply can't stay fit since his move to Paris back in 2017. He gets injured every single season, but he was performing exceptionally well. The same isn't true of Pogba at all.
 
Jeffthered said:
Brazil need to put Vinicius, Raphina, Rodrygo as priority. Neymar destabilises that team. Look at the recent WC. They have enough talent to build a competitive, balanced team.
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I have watched all Brazil games at the WC and I have no idea what you are talking about. In any case, Neymar probably won't be able to play football at all by the time the next WC happens anyway so no need to get concerned over this.
 
Jeffthered said:
Brazil need to put Vinicius, Raphina, Rodrygo as priority. Neymar destabilises that team. Look at the recent WC. They have enough talent to build a competitive, balanced team.
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Like how we always heard that Neymar destabilizes PSG, he left and they look worse even getting hammered by Newcastle
 
Insane talent but very stupid person. It's a shame he's been injured so often but when you have such a history and still decide to go partying before a game, you're asking for it. I mean, he's semiretired and can party whenever he wants but does so in the night before an international game. In 2023, Brazil plays 9 games. Those are the only competitive matches left in his schedule and he still goes into them half heartedly and risks his health doing so.
 
I think is all about perspective: in another timeline, Neymar Jr would probably be considered a legend. But when two monsters like Ronaldo and Messi keep scoring, assisting and wining titles in absurd numbers, it is a very tough hurdle for any attacking player to surpass.

And if we bare in mind that most of star players have huge egos, it makes it even more difficult for them to handle that.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
Neymar is miles better than Pogba all-time and they're not similar at all.

Neymar simply can't stay fit since his move to Paris back in 2017. He gets injured every single season, but he was performing exceptionally well. The same isn't true of Pogba at all.
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Their similarities relate to their career trajectory. Both generational talents, both have probably not sustained the levels of consistency that we all, as football fans, would have hoped. Have either of them played, say, 10 successive matches, for anyone, in the last two years? But they are always in the news.. and why ? Off the field stuff... allegations, moving clubs etc etc. It's a circus and it's sad. So I disagree that they do not have similarities.
 
antk said:
I have watched all Brazil games at the WC and I have no idea what you are talking about. In any case, Neymar probably won't be able to play football at all by the time the next WC happens anyway so no need to get concerned over this.
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Brazil do not know where to play Neymar; you have Vinicius Jnr, Neymar, Raphina, and Richarlson. All forwards. Croatia exploited this at the WC. You can't play them all.

And just to note, check any of my previous posts on Neymar, and you'll note that I am his biggest fan. I think he's a special, special, player, quite brilliant. And I am not sure if Brazil knows how to get the best out of him, for the benefit of the wider team. Brazil, with their talent, should be smashing up international teams. Their team lacks balance.
 
Jeffthered said:
Their similarities relate to their career trajectory. Both generational talents, both have probably not sustained the levels of consistency that we all, as football fans, would have hoped. Have either of them played, say, 10 successive matches, for anyone, in the last two years? But they are always in the news.. and why ? Off the field stuff... allegations, moving clubs etc etc. It's a circus and it's sad. So I disagree that they do not have similarities.
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No. Neymar is far, far beyond anything Pogba ever showed, and for a far longer period.
 
Jeffthered said:
Their similarities relate to their career trajectory. Both generational talents, both have probably not sustained the levels of consistency that we all, as football fans, would have hoped. Have either of them played, say, 10 successive matches, for anyone, in the last two years? But they are always in the news.. and why ? Off the field stuff... allegations, moving clubs etc etc. It's a circus and it's sad. So I disagree that they do not have similarities.
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Neymar was PSG most influent player during his tenure there. Even with his injury Record his stats are absurd. And I'm not talking about goals and assists only: his attacking stats are terrific overall.
 
Floydian said:
Just imagine if Neymar had half the discipline that Cristiano has.
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Every manager he has says he works hard in training and tactically. The major issue is how much do you want to win. Messi and Ronaldo when losing they seem to run more and more. It's not easy to keep such mindset during so many years in any sport.
 
André Dominguez said:
Every manager he has says he works hard in training and tactically. The major issue is how much do you want to win. Messi and Ronaldo when losing they seem to run more and more. It's not easy to keep such mindset during so many years in any sport.
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That's not true
 
Jeffthered said:
Brazil do not know where to play Neymar; you have Vinicius Jnr, Neymar, Raphina, and Richarlson. All forwards. Croatia exploited this at the WC. You can't play them all.

And just to note, check any of my previous posts on Neymar, and you'll note that I am his biggest fan. I think he's a special, special, player, quite brilliant. And I am not sure if Brazil knows how to get the best out of him, for the benefit of the wider team. Brazil, with their talent, should be smashing up international teams. Their team lacks balance.
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I appreciate where you are coming from but I don't think Brazil's results with a crippled Neymar in World Cups are indicative of any tactical issue with him in the setup. Croatia exploited Neymar playing on a single ankle and even then were the lesser team that night.

Brazil should move on from Neymar because his body has failed him consistently for half a decade, but he's been the best player in a highly performing team each and every time he has been healthy.
 
Neymar scored a truly special goal against Croatia at the last World Cup and his team-mates let him down there in defending/lack of control/poor penalties. Felt sorry for him really because that was the moment everyone had been waiting for in a WC when it mattered and then Brazil sleepwalked into penalties.

It’s true that wasn’t a balanced team though, Casemiro got isolated with Paqueta not always giving him a lot of defensive support in that two and then four forwards. With that shape it played into Croatia’s strengths in midfield (although their keeper was their best player and rode their luck) and it’s hard to see that team beating France or Argentina afterwards as they were more balanced.
 
Jeffthered said:
Their similarities relate to their career trajectory. Both generational talents, both have probably not sustained the levels of consistency that we all, as football fans, would have hoped. Have either of them played, say, 10 successive matches, for anyone, in the last two years? But they are always in the news.. and why ? Off the field stuff... allegations, moving clubs etc etc. It's a circus and it's sad. So I disagree that they do not have similarities.
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Neymar has been far better than Pogba.

You're far off the mark here.
 
Fortitude said:
Robben has no business being grouped with those others.

Robben is one of the greatest wingers of all time, and perhaps Holland's greatest. Even if not #1 outright, immediately in the conversation.
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RVP and Begkamp were amazing footballers.

Maybe didn’t win European honours like Robben but there is an argument to be said that RVP for a couple years was as influential as Robben ever was in his career for club.

Bayern had a stacked squad remember that so helped Robben cut in as other people had to be marked like Ribery on the other flank.

Neymar is one of the best of all time back to topic. When he wasn’t injured. His style was amazing on the eye but players will just kick the hell out of him.

Messi meanwhile plays almost within himself past the age of 20. The ball was tighter to his foot so players don’t feel they can go charging in like with Neymar.

As a teenager Messi’s goal against Getafe for example was a lot more like Neymars dribbling style with footwork and longer strides. That will get you injured doing it every game.
 
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Its genuinely ridiculous how unlucky he's been with injuries. Its almost like that PSG move has cursed him. Gutted for him and hope he has it in him to recover one more time from a serious injury.
 
André Dominguez said:
Every manager he has says he works hard in training and tactically. The major issue is how much do you want to win. Messi and Ronaldo when losing they seem to run more and more. It's not easy to keep such mindset during so many years in any sport.
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Neymar is considerably a harder worker, in terms of effort and defensive work, than those two so don't think this is true at all.
 
Sucks for him. The injuries he's accumulated since his move to PSG and after are ridiculous.

Every time a compilation comes up of his on social media it makes me wish he just stayed at Barcelona. What a joy he was to watch.
 
wr8_utd said:
Its genuinely ridiculous how unlucky he's been with injuries. Its almost like that PSG move has cursed him. Gutted for him and hope he has it in him to recover one more time from a serious injury.
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There’s a reason he has become a sicknote since moving to psg. Feck load of money and party life has ruined him. I never doubted his love for football but it’s hard to keep yourself motivated when you are playing in a piss easy league and with all the bags of money. He can only blame himself for that. Some players need a challenge and I always thought Neymar is one of them. Knew his career would tank as soon as he moved to Paris.
 
wr8_utd said:
Neymar is considerably a harder worker, in terms of effort and defensive work, than those two so don't think this is true at all.
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Yeah that comment was a bit odd.

During the Remontada, it was Neymar being the driving force and not Messi. His work-rate and effort on the pitch is pretty underrated.
 
Frank Grimes said:
He still had a great career. He's picked up a lot of injuries due to his style of play. People's expectations are somewhat skewed with Messi and Ronaldo being the new bar.
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He was brilliant, I loved him. I know he got lots of shit for some antics but I always thought he was a fantastic player. He would have been a sensation at Utd.
 
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