Most Overrated Player in History

[TrentVilla]

1 minute ago, NurembergVillan said:

Don't need to sprint past a full back if you can curl your cross around him.  His ability to do that meant the timing of his delivery was unpredictable and hard to defend.

Ruud van Nistelrooy was a world-class striker in terms of positioning and finishing, so he and Beckham were absolutely made for each other.

RVN only ever scored once from outside the box I believe, fun stat for the day.

As a full back I always relished someone trying to take me on, trying to defend against someone doing what he used to do would have been an absolute nightmare. In fact I suspect most LB's would spend 90 mins shouting at the LM to close him down because they never got close enough.

[VillaChris]

26 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

If Beckham played in central midfield (where he absolutely had the skill to) instead of on the wing he'd be remembered more fondly. His passing was sublime. But because that was the era where English football were obsessed with wingers who could run fast in a straight line and beat full backs (and then not deliver a good final ball, but let's ignore that) as well as the fact that Ryan Giggs was ripping it up on the other side, he gets kind of underrated and you see comments like "he could only cross". Well yeah, that in itself is an amazing (and rare) quality for a winger!

Nah to me it was a bit like when towards end of career Rooney was suddenly being hailed as England's saviour in central midfield. Incredible technique they said but loads of times when he'd just do a heavy touch and lose it and he was useless v any sort of press from opposition, actually a bit like Barkley playing for us now.

Beckham played CM in 1999 final and barely got a kick and then England tried him as a sort of quarterback in run up to 2006 world cup but quickly ditched the idea. Such a Sven thing to decide the answer to Gerrard-Lampard was to put Beckham centrally aswell.

He was a very very good player thought at his peak, think the celebrity he got towards end of 90s made people automatically underrate him a bit but huge for Man. United in late 90s and think his level only dipped when he got injured just before the world cup.

Moved to Real Madrid at the wrong time and then it was just basically dropping in on leagues for short term impacts while he tried to get the MLS going.

[villa4europe]

2 hours ago, useless said:

Most Chelsea fans will tell you that Terry has easily been their best defender over the last twenty years, and if anything it was he who made their other defenders look better. He's a genuine contender for best central defender of the premier league era.

I agree but think like most English PL players (lampard, Gerrard) he's benefitted from best player in the PL + PL is the best league in the world = he's the best player in the world, there's a very blinkered logic to it, I don't think he was as good as puyol, cannavaro, Nesta or ramos, he was a top 5 CB though and for a long time, I'd take him over rio or vidic as the best PL CB, the VVD comparison stuff was ridiculous 

Ashley Cole was a contender for the world's best LB for a long time with really only lahm better than him, he benefitted from there being not a whole lot of competition though, that's usually the case, there are seemingly never loads of fullbacks knocking about at any one time, something that in 10 years of this thread is still going TAA and Robertson will greatly benefit from

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, VillaChris said:

I first thought is always Cantona tbh but then he was involved in 4 title wins in the 5 seasons he was there and the only year they didn't win it was when he was out until October for the kung fu kick.

Always been more based on France and not getting a huge influence in their european campaigns in that era.

Cantona never turned up in European games for United though. He was a fine player and good for image of the league bit wasn't really anything special

[Zatman]

On the Beckham argument its hard to say, yes his technique was incredible at times but was he a great player that his reputation states. 

He suffered because of his celebrity but i think sometimes he also tried to be the action man instead of being disciplined

[sharkyvilla]

Beckham also had to deal with being the most hated player in England and within a few years became probably the most loved after the Greece game.  

[HanoiVillan]

I assume we're not doing 'most . . . in history' any more since we were talking about Martial and Antonio, so I want to add Adama Traore to the thread. He just doesn't have a footballing brain IMO.

[Zatman]

This could have been an easy game for Traore if he had a football brain but he let Elmo dictate him

[Genie]

Beckham was a sublime footballer a real unique talent. Can’t believe people discuss him in “most overhyped ever” conversation 

Traore (Adama) absolutely fits the title.

Edited March 6, 2021 by Genie

[Zatman]

11 minutes ago, Genie said:

Beckham was a sublime footballer a real unique talent. Can’t believe people discuss him in “most overhyped ever” conversation 

Traore (Adama) absolutely fits the title.

Beckham is understandable, he was for a time the most famous footballer in the world. He was good but he was never really a world class player

[PaulC]

5 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Beckham is understandable, he was for a time the most famous footballer in the world. He was good but he was never really a world class player

Yes I think he was overrated. When i was in Utah in 2002, nobody knew anything about football there but they had all heard of Beckham, like he was the most famous footballer in the world. He was like De Bruyne but not quite as good. 

[Genie]

8 hours ago, Zatman said:

Beckham is understandable, he was for a time the most famous footballer in the world. He was good but he was never really a world class player

His rating may have exceeded his ability as he was the most famous player on the planet, but I’m not having most over rated ever. He was incredible over 15+ years.

Theres so many other players who were hyped up for nothing.

[sidcow]

Wasn't fit to lace the boots of Gordon Cowans. 

[PaulC]

2 hours ago, sidcow said:

Wasn't fit to lace the boots of Gordon Cowans. 

Yes I agree he was very overrated. 

[mottaloo]

2 hours ago, sidcow said:

Wasn't fit to lace the boots of Gordon Cowans. 

Pure Laandaan bias, that's all.

[StewieGriffin]

Controversial one, and it's not my generation, but....

Pele.

Scored a tonne of goals in a pub league, and was surrounded by an unbelievable array of talent at national level - someone like Lineker would have scored/achieved a similar amount at national level had he been in the same scenario.

Obviously a world class footballer, but best ever? Not even top 5 for me, yet its almost sacrilegious to suggest he wasnt top 2.

Discuss.

[Zatman]

23 minutes ago, StewieGriffin said:

Controversial one, and it's not my generation, but....

Pele.

Scored a tonne of goals in a pub league, and was surrounded by an unbelievable array of talent at national level - someone like Lineker would have scored/achieved a similar amount at national level had he been in the same scenario.

Obviously a world class footballer, but best ever? Not even top 5 for me, yet its almost sacrilegious to suggest he wasnt top 2.

Discuss.

Its quite fair.as some journalist said recently how can somebody be the best ever when people outside of Brazil saw him play 20 times at most

[slowandlow]

11 hours ago, Genie said:

His rating may have exceeded his ability as he was the most famous player on the planet, but I’m not having most over rated ever. He was incredible over 15+ years.

Theres so many other players who were hyped up for nothing.

Massive exaggeration. 

He was one of the better players in his position for 5-6 years from about 96/97 ish to about 2003ish at a push

After that football was a sideshow, especially after 2007, irrespective of turning up at milan etc for a couple of months in his latter yeats

[Genie]

13 minutes ago, slowandlow said:

Massive exaggeration. 

He was one of the better players in his position for 5-6 years from about 96/97 ish to about 2003ish at a push

After that football was a sideshow, especially after 2007, irrespective of turning up at milan etc for a couple of months in his latter yeats

Hmmm not sure about that.

One of the best players in his position 96-03 by your admission

Ahead of that he was part of the class of ‘92. Won the title and FA cup with United.

Then in 2003 joined Real Madrid’s star studded team winning the league and a cup. 
England player of the year 2003

Uefa player of the year 2003

Real Madrid player of the year 2005/6 (squad contained Ronaldo, Raul, van Nistelrooy, Ramos, Roberto Carlos...)

He was a top tier player right up until he went to the States where it becomes pretty much impossible to gauge him in the MLS.

So, there’s 10-12 years of being at the top of his game and one of the best wide players and set piece takers ever. After that it gets a bit sketchy due to MLS and Milan/PSG cameos (where he still looked good). 

 

 

[slowandlow]

8 minutes ago, Genie said:

Hmmm not sure about that.

One of the best players in his position 96-03 by your admission

Ahead of that he was part of the class of ‘92. Won the title and FA cup with United.

Then in 2003 joined Real Madrid’s star studded team winning the league and a cup. 
England player of the year 2003

Uefa player of the year 2003

Real Madrid player of the year 2005/6 (squad contained Ronaldo, Raul, van Nistelrooy, Ramos, Roberto Carlos...)

He was a top tier player right up until he went to the States where it becomes pretty much impossible to gauge him in the MLS.

So, there’s 10-12 years of being at the top of his game and one of the best wide players and set piece takers ever. After that it gets a bit sketchy due to MLS and Milan/PSG cameos (where he still looked good). 

 

 

So the class of 92 factors into being incredible for 15 years lol

At absolute best you can claim 10 years as top class, which is significantly less then 15 years of incredible. Hence the massive exaggeration statement.

1 league title in 4 years at Real against a good but not ridiculous Barca is nothing to write home about. Nowhere near in champions league either. 

Bounced back in 2007 a fair bit granted but he, along with the rest of the galacticos, were performing below top level and below their reputation for a decent part of the mid noughties (especially 2005/6 when you say he won player of the year)