Most Overrated Player in History

[Tomaszk]

David Trezeguet

Eric Cantona

Edin Dzeko

[useless]

Sorry but that's not true of Gerrard, he was so much better than that, and this idea that because he had a good workrate he was somehow a typical English midielder with no skill or flair doesn't ring true either, there was more to his game than just a good workrate and scoring goals, for a start he could do pretty much everything that Scholes could do and more besides. Also not many of the celebrated midfield players of that era did well playing for England including Scholes, but showed that they could perform at the highest level in the champions league, so I think that was just a thing of England not being very good all round rather than a reflection on Scholes, Gerrard, Lampard or Beckham as individuals, all four of them would have probably have been welcomed in the world's best sides in their respective peaks.

[villa4europe]

If you take Gerrards peak as 2005 then yeah probably

But then post pep and the explosion of tiki taka I don't think he does, football moved a different direction

And by overrated I'm not suggesting he wasn't a great player, he definitely was, I just don't think he's this in the conversation as greatest midfielder ever that the scouse appeasing media would have you believe 

[useless]

Weird to see Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Beckham, Giggs, Cantona, Giggs and even Scholes all get a mention considering they all played a sizeable role in the most succesful English team over the last thirty years. Weirder still that there's probably an element of truth to it, which shows what a good manager Alex Ferguson was, even in his final season when the The Devils' squad didn't look that great on paper he still managed to win the title with them

Edited May 29, 2020 by useless

[Zatman]

Beckham is a strange one, he was probably underrated as a club player but overrated on the international scene

Cantona is certainly one for the list, Seedorf is another maybe controversial one. Was a bit hit and miss for me. Gerard Pique too

[villa4europe]

Genuine question... Is Joe Hart still at Burnley? And is he still on man city's books? 

[sne]

Seen quite a few lists like this over the years who have Pele at the top of most overrated players.

To young to have any idea but the reason is usually that he buffed his goal numbers up by playing a lot of meaningless exhibition games against crap opponents and that he wasn't the stand out player for Brazil in any of the WC's they won.

No one is saying that he wasn't a great player, just that he might be wildly overrated.

[Mat Kendrick's Dentist]

I'm gonna have to batten down the hatches Steve Bruce style for this one, but I'm saying Zinedine Zidane. Brilliant player and incredibly good to watch, but really inconsistent as an effective performer. He had plenty of full seasons when he didn't produce. In his entire career he only won 3 league titles, despite sharing most of it between an absolutely outrageous Juventus side and the Galacticos of Real Madrid.

If we look at his career pre-Juve, aged 23/24, he was still being rejected by Blackburn and Newcastle. Now, don't get me wrong, those clubs were clearly stupid not to take him (Jack Walker being quoted as saying "Why would we need Zidane when we've got Tim Sherwood?" is particularly hilarious. This point is, can you imagine anyone turning down Messi/CR7/R9/Ronaldinho/Neymar/Mbappe etc at 23/24?

Again, I'd reiterate that Zidane was a brilliant player; one whose ludicrously aesthetic style brought him a cult following. He also produced the goods on the biggest occasions (World Cup, Euros, Champions League final). Week to week, however, I'd argue that he was never consistent, which contributed to his star-studded clubs rarely winning the league, and never (!!) winning a domestic cup. For this reason, he's not an all-time great, or even among the very elite of my lifetime. 

[PaulC]

One could say the same about Scholes. They all failed to achieve their potential at international level. Gerrard did more than any one to win the champions league for Liverpool. I think they failed at international level because Sven stuck rigidly to 4-4-2. They were often outnumbered in midfield. Beckham I would say was overrated. Yes he’d bang in the odd free kick and ping a cross in but he was never world class IMO 

[Zatman]

35 minutes ago, Mat Kendrick's Dentist said:

I'm gonna have to batten down the hatches Steve Bruce style for this one, but I'm saying Zinedine Zidane. Brilliant player and incredibly good to watch, but really inconsistent as an effective performer. He had plenty of full seasons when he didn't produce. In his entire career he only won 3 league titles, despite sharing most of it between an absolutely outrageous Juventus side and the Galacticos of Real Madrid.

If we look at his career pre-Juve, aged 23/24, he was still being rejected by Blackburn and Newcastle. Now, don't get me wrong, those clubs were clearly stupid not to take him (Jack Walker being quoted as saying "Why would we need Zidane when we've got Tim Sherwood?" is particularly hilarious. This point is, can you imagine anyone turning down Messi/CR7/R9/Ronaldinho/Neymar/Mbappe etc at 23/24?

Again, I'd reiterate that Zidane was a brilliant player; one whose ludicrously aesthetic style brought him a cult following. He also produced the goods on the biggest occasions (World Cup, Euros, Champions League final). Week to week, however, I'd argue that he was never consistent, which contributed to his star-studded clubs rarely winning the league, and never (!!) winning a domestic cup. For this reason, he's not an all-time great, or even among the very elite of my lifetime. 

I agree and I said this on here a few years back. Prepare for a backlash

[KenjiOgiwara]

I'd throw in Benzema. Not saying he's overrated, but personally I've never see him do anything useful and that's up top for one of the best teams in the world. I just haven't been able to see what so many others see. 

[HongKongVillan]

Jack Wilshere - massive media hype but never any end product to back it up - bear in mind he was in a relatively decent Arsenal side at the time.

Jamie Redknapp - All I ever remembered him for was injuries, and a goal against us when (muppet Enklemann?) was down fainted on the ground. Oh and that irrelevant free kick goal against Blackburn on the last day of the season and Blackburn still get to win the PL. He is a Ashley Westwood but may be a red Ferrari version

At present day, Virgil Van Dijk. He is good, but may be I am quite crtical in defenders, and growing up to see the likes of Maldini, Baresi, God etc. kind of make you feel VVD would have been just a decent central defender in comparison.

[sharkyvilla]

4 hours ago, useless said:

Weird to see Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Beckham, Giggs, Cantona, Giggs and even Scholes all get a mention considering they all played a sizeable role in the most succesful English team over the last thirty years. Weirder still that there's probably an element of truth to it, which shows what a good manager Alex Ferguson was, even in his final season when the The Devils' squad didn't look that great on paper he still managed to win the title with them

Someone posted a little while ago that team Fergie put out that scored 8 against Arsenal was shit on paper even with some players out of position.  It probably goes without saying but he is the greatest manager ever, even if Utd were sprinkled with some world class players it was usually what he got out of the rest that made the difference.

Gerrard and Lampard were both great players but you had to build the team round them and partner them with intelligent, usually foreign midfielders.  That's why it never really worked with England.  I thought Beckham was underrated, I remember when there was a clamour to drop him for Shaun Wright-Phillips for England because he was quicker and could beat a man down the line.  What people forgot is that Beckham just needed half a yard to swing a perfect ball onto the striker's head whereas SWP or Lennon would take about five dribbles down the wing for every decent cross they put in.  Plus I thought he was as much the heartbeat of the Galacticos as any of the others especially after he won his place back in the team under Capello.

Personally I don't see all the fuss with Modric.  He's very good, but good enough to break the Ronaldo and Messi reign of player of the year, not for me.

[OutByEaster?]

Ronaldo.

Not modern Ronaldo, the Nike one from Brazil. He was very, very good, but I hear people have him down as the best of all time and it baffles me. He's in a group with Shevchenko, Weah and Eto'o and I think edges that group as the best of them, but he's not up there with Maradona, Messi, Modern Ronaldo, Cruyff, Zico, Ronaldhino and that group. 

[villa4europe]

55 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

Plus I thought he was as much the heartbeat of the Galacticos as any of the others especially after he won his place back in the team under Capello.

Did dome work in Madrid in Jan, ended up in a bar drunk at Spanish tea time (about 1am) talking football, Beckham came up from 2 Madrid season ticket holders... Utter garbage player only there to sell shirts... They were very cynical of the whole galacticos thing and hated Beckham in particular 

[VillaChris]

Wonder how history will view Eden Hazard in five years time?

A wonderfully gifted dribbling player who's one of the best for winning free kicks and running down time and of course inspired Chelsea to two league titles. However he went completely awol in the seasons after those league titles and I'm really struggling to think of any dominant performances in later stages of champions league, two last 16 exits to PSG stick out.

With Belgium he struggled a bit to influence in world cup 2014, played better in 2016 but from memory Wales handled him reasonably well and then in 2018 world cup he was excellent but in a very tight SF with France he couldn't influence things enough.

Not made much impact at all for Real Madrid although been injured for large chunks.

He's good but considering his ambition is to win balon d'or he's a bit below that given Neymar has won CL. Probably same level as Gareth Bale who's in decline now. Bale won many titles, scored in plenty of finals and was also huge for a not quite as good Spurs team between 2010-13 although he's been more of a moments player at Real Madrid.

Edited May 29, 2020 by VillaChris

[VillaChris]

6 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Did dome work in Madrid in Jan, ended up in a bar drunk at Spanish tea time (about 1am) talking football, Beckham came up from 2 Madrid season ticket holders... Utter garbage player only there to sell shirts... They were very cynical of the whole galacticos thing and hated Beckham in particular 

He went to Real Madrid at the wrong time really. If they'd kept likes of Hierro and Del Bosque for one more season and signed a replacement for Makelele he could've won a CL with them.

Instead they played him centrally where he was good but couldn't really influence high level matches regularly as he could do out wide and Madrid were in real decline with poor CB options and no defensive midfielder.

He lacked that iconic moment say Zidane had. Figo and Ronaldo also won the league title in their first seasons. He did do well to force his way back in his final season and play a decent part in their comeback title win so at least won the respect of Madrid fans that way.

It's forgotten but Barcelona were originally the ones wanting him in summer 2003 when Barcelona were pretty mediocre. He didn't want to go there and they signed Ronaldinho instead. It's pretty hard to imagine Beckham getting anywhere near to the level of influence Ronaldinho had on Barca between 2004-06 so they'd have probably continued underachieving until Messi grew up and Ronaldinho would've probably signed for Manchester United.

Edited May 29, 2020 by VillaChris

[villa4europe]

The whole election campaign "I will sign such and such" from Madrid and barca seems to have died down

Thinking about it the company I went to do some work with in Jan was a construction company called Cobra, owned by none other than florenrino perez 

[VillaChris]

4 hours ago, Zatman said:

Beckham is a strange one, he was probably underrated as a club player but overrated on the international scene

Cantona is certainly one for the list, Seedorf is another maybe controversial one. Was a bit hit and miss for me. Gerard Pique too

I mentioned Seedorf somewhere else....his international career really amounted to very little despite winning nearly 100 caps and while he was decent at Real Madrid he was a bit of a nightmare to coach in that period (tried to take John Toshack to court over not playing him!) and then didn't make an impact at Inter Milan.

Gets a pass though for rediscovering himself at AC Milan which is my favourite club side of last 20 years, that 2003-07 period when the average age of their line up was 47 yet they'd always turn it on in champions league.

[mikeyp102]

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

Ronaldo.

Not modern Ronaldo, the Nike one from Brazil. He was very, very good, but I hear people have him down as the best of all time and it baffles me. He's in a group with Shevchenko, Weah and Eto'o and I think edges that group as the best of them, but he's not up there with Maradona, Messi, Modern Ronaldo, Cruyff, Zico, Ronaldhino and that group. 

I disagree with this one. 
I loved Ronaldo, he was at the very top. Unfortunately, he had too many injuries and lived to party. But up until 24 his goal scoring exploits were phenomenal