Written by Bobby Hare
It happens to every football fan at some stage. There’s this player, and it seems that every single person on Planet Football rates them. Except you. You can’t fathom why he receives endless adulation and incessant platitudes from every Tom, Dick and Sally that you talk football with. And whilst you’re enveloped in this state of utter bemusement, you start to question yourself. Is it just me?
Herein lies the fundamental beauty of football – it’s all opinions. So keep that in mind before you rush to ridicule me for what I’m about to write. Here’s my team of footballers who, quite frankly, I just don’t understand what all the fuss is about. They’ll be set up in a retro 4-4-2 formation (remember those days?), naturally.
Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid and Spain): Christ, I’ve started with a good ‘un – a World and European champion. But bear with me. In my eyes, this fella is the epitome of someone whose reputation precedes him. As with many a modern goalkeeper, he’s capable of pulling off the odd gravity-defying stop. But when you scratch beneath the surface, he’s generally rather an iffy ‘keeper. Casillas doesn’t inspire confidence when coming to collect crosses, nor does he distribute the ball as well as two of his Spanish counterparts – Pepe Reina or Victor Valdes. In Spain, he earned hero status for his penalty heroics against the Paddies in the 2002 World Cup and subsequently the notion of anyone displacing him as their number one is met with widespread scorn. If you’ve watched him closely over the past couple of seasons, you’ll notice that he’s building a pretty decent repertoire of gaffes.
Right Back: Daniel Alves (Barcelona and Brazil): Alves could only truly thrive in Barcelona’s side, where the emphasis on attack is so great and where the lack of possession afforded to the opposition renders his defensive duties little more than a footnote. Good job, because defensively he’s about as solid as jelly on a bouncy castle. Okay, but he attacks with real gusto, right? Well, there’s no denying that he motors forward to great effect, but his final ball is mixed at best. Don’t even get me started on the general, all round cheating that has long been emblematic of the man.
Centre Back: John Terry (c) (Chelsea and England): Overlooking his leanings towards the ‘crap human being’ end of the spectrum, Terry is and has always been overrated. His chest thumping style was always going to earn him plaudits in England, a footballing nation that values perspiration over inspiration. When Jose Mourinho was in charge at Chelsea and they were winning the Premier League at a canter, posting record shattering defensive statistics along the way, it was Terry that was largely credited for that parsimony.
But for me, there are a couple of key caveats: 1) Ricardo Carvalho, who at his best, carried Terry by bailing the former England skipper out with his exceptional pace and reading of the game. As an aside, how much could Chelsea do with the Portuguese now? 2) Chelsea’s generally defensive outlook with Claude Makelele patrolling the area around the back four, meant that their team was compact and exceptionally difficult to break down. Essentially, Terry enjoyed safety in numbers.
Compare this to Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand at Man United, who excelled for a sustained period between 2006 and 2009 despite never being afforded the protection of a destroying midfield player and being part of a cavalier side that habitually left the back four exposed thanks to their attacking travails. Now that Chelsea have regressed somewhat, Terry has been exposed for what he is: a limited, last-ditch merchant with the turning effect of an oil tanker being driven by Rik Waller. That said, he’s better than Paulo Ferreira.
Centre Back: Jamie Carragher (Liverpool): Let me set my stall out. I like Jamie Carragher. Any professional player who takes the time to call TalkSport and offer out Adrian Durham deserves a pat on the arse. But I’ll not let that cloud my opinion of him as a footballer. A lot of what was said about Terry is equally applicable here. Carragher has earned plaudits down the years for a style of play which has, to all intents and purposes, consisted of last ditch challenges and wrestling style suplexes. These tactics have been employed by a man desperate to mask the fact that he has less pace than a dead snail. His longevity and his long-standing affiliation to one club should be commended. As should the fact that he actually comes across as a genuine, passionate and down to earth bloke. But for a short period, people were talking about Carragher as one of the best defenders in the world, which is frankly laughable. He is another central defender who can thrive in a defensive team that is set up to play deep and compact. As soon as Liverpool try to open up and play more expansive, Carragher becomes a big liability.
Dani Alves, couldn’t agree more. I was at Barca vs Sevilla a few weeks ago and it was only live that I could appreciate the space he gets playing for that team and just how bad his decision making/consistency is.
dan agrees with this antirely. but i would have also added frank lampard and gareth bale (even though he hasnt been around that long). 2 good performances against a crap right back and hes a world beater. but when he played against steinson of bolton he couldnt beat him once and steinson even scored! DANNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!
The Bale hype has been a bit much at times, but he is something special nonetheless. I wouldn’t call Maicon a crap right back – he’s been far superior to Alves down the last few years. But Bale completely roasted him.
This seems written by a man utd fan as some of the player are clearly a gripe a uniteds rivals better players.
Whether the writer’s a united fan or not is anyone’s guess, but he makes some good points.
Dani Alves is interesting but I think I’m right in saying he’s played in 8 finals and won them all, so a stat like that is pretty hard to argue with.
Barry was a class act at villa to a square ball, foul machine or England and Man City.Last year at villa he was in the team of the season, nobodys even talking about him anymore. Looks like Milner could be headed for similar fate.
Top of my list would be Kaka. Completely overrated, no surprise he’s done nothing at Real.
Rooney slightly further down…
Disagree with ibrahimovic and essien.
Hands up, I am a United fan! Footy fan in bias shocker. In fairness, I was a fag paper away from putting Patrice Evra in at left back – good player, and a fantastic character, but considering the fantastic positions he gets himself into, his final ball can be infuriating at times. He also gets caught square on far too often when defending.
Rooney went some way to shedding any overrated tag last season, but he’s got it all to do again.
I couldn’t agree more with you. Especially with Gabriel Heinze. I too think he is overrated(though he was palying for Real Madrid.) I desperately wanted to know why did maradona not include Javier Zanetti in the world cup squad? yes, he is 38years old but still the man has great defensive skills. Add to that, he is the lifter of the 2010 champions league. He should have bben the argentine captian instead of Javier Mascherano. I strongly believe the results of Argentina against Germany in the 2010 world cup would have been the other way round if Zanneti was there.
I don’t know if Zanetti would have been the difference in Argentina winning and losing against the Germans, but it would have been a start. Cambiasso was another SHOCKING exclusion.
Maradona set that side up with an embarrassing lack of balance and a real deficit of quality in the central midfield.
What are you trying to achieve with this article. It is completely inaccurate and misinformed journalism, embarrassing.
Tom – I tell you what would be better than coming on with a one liner: posting what your specific qualms are. Anyone can jump on a soap box like you have. What is specifically perturbing you about what I’ve written?
Also, I’m not pretentious enough to call myself a journalist. I’m a football fan who penned a few of my opinions 🙂
I completely agree about Casillas, while I do think he is a very good keeper I don’t believe he is elite or on the level of the likes of Cesar or Reina. He has a great reputation based on his “weak” defences in the previous 4-5 seasons where on a few occasions (as said by the commentators in-game) he has been the keeper who has made the most saves throughout the league at the end of the season, for a team who have finished top 2 consistently for the past 5 years. Now some will obviously point to the defence, or lack thereof, alongside the loss of a defensive midfielder who wasn’t replaced but for me that is a get-out clause. One of the requirements (in my humble opinion) for a keeper who is world class is the ability for them to be able to marshall and organise a defence, this I haven’t seen from Casillas much over recent years, add to this his inability to command his box to any great significance and I think while he is a very good keeper, he isn’t world class and has never been better than Gigi Buffon (that good ol’ debate eh?). I also feel as though he started in the World Cup because of his past reputation of a keeper, based on form Reina would have started and there wouldn’t have been any drop off in production for me, especially when you look at Casillas in the tournament.
I don’t agree with Carragher as being overrated, apart from Liverpool fans every football fan I speak to re Carra do think too highly of Carragher (“pundits” do not count), so for this reason I don’t think he can be overrated. Decent defender who is beginning to get caught out due to lack of pace, will always give 100% to the Liverpool cause though and can relate to all of their fans which is why I think they laud him up so much. On the whole I don’t think he has ever been considered a top, top defender from anyone outside of scouseland.
Heinze also has me of a similar thinking with the notion there are not too many people out there who think so highly of Heinze that he can be overrated, agree about the lack of left backs who are though. Ashley Cole is comfortably the best full back in the world and everyone knows the rest of the left backs around are behind him, by some distance too.
Terry did get a lot of praise during the Mourinho era, but similarly agree that it was Carvalho who was the cornerstone of that defence and it would be interesting to see the defensive stats with and without Carvalho during his stay at Chelsea. If I was Ancelotti I would have no concerns playing Ivanovic and Alex as the two centre backs if they are given time to gel, just never play Paulo Ferreira in that role again, I might as well rock up with my boots.
Dani Alves I also agree with, I hate full backs who spend more time in the opposition half if they cannot defend (A. Cole is one of very few exceptions), Micah Richards and Glen Johnson are my prime examples in that they love gallivanting forward but are inept defensively and Richards has the footballing brain of a newt (although never proven I don’t imagine it is too high). I think Alves gets a lot of love because he is quite involved with Barca’s attacks going forward but defensively you can get at him, he has a high motor though and rarely gets caught out in a sprint so he gets a few points for that.
With Walcott I think it is simply a case of people not thinking of him that highly anyway so don’t think he can be considered overrated, infact as an impact player he is up there with anyone for me. During the WC I was a huge supporter of Walcott over SWP, something I got slaughtered for, but my main point was both would be on the bench so you have to go for someone who would make the biggest impact from the bench, not starting, and you can name far more games where Walcott has made an impact on a game over the last 12-18 months than SWP. I like Walcott but I’m not too sure on a position for him yet but like him as an impact player and his pace worries many.
Can’t see how Essien is overrated, guy is a stud in centre midfield. I think the main problem he has is that he can put good shifts in at both right back and centre back, if Chelsea have an injury crisis in the centre back or right back position they know they can call on Essien who will fill the void with great effort and a small drop off in production but with the ability to put a centre midfielder in and hope to carry him (to an extent – if he’s playing for Chelsea I doubt he’s a scrub). It reminds me of the situation with Gerrard, he is almost that good that you can put him wide right, wide left, behind the striker, sitting and he will do a good job in all positions despite him being best in the central midfield role with a defensive mind alongside him. For example you wouldn’t be able to put Lucas wide right if you had a crisis in that position, but you know you can put Gerrard there if needed because he will do a good job despite his loss in his more natural and favoured position. So for me I think it is more a case of him being almost too good in other roles compared to other players despite how good he is in his more preferred role.
I think Barry gets a lot of flack mainly for his England performances, which are rightly pointed out because they have been woeful, but for City he is a big player and is a large part of that side. He offers the balance alongside De Jong and has good passing range along with the ability to help cover the left back area if he goes for a wonder, and with Kolarov having the ability to cross a ball this has happened a few times for City this season. I don’t think that many people are a fan of him now and so as such don’t think he can be seen as overrated, if you ask most City fans I think they would say he would be one of the first names on the team sheet.
Ribery I agree with to an extent, he had great potential and since being heavily linked with moves to Chelsea and Madrid, as well as his ban things have regressed quite badly for Franck. Given time I think his stock will rise again and he has some potential in there that if guided correctly can unleash a world class player for me, he just needs a little time, which unfortunately is not something you get much of in the football world these days.
You know my stance on Higuain haha! In fact I almost think he is underrated by some, at Madrid Ronaldo and Mourinho are the headline grabbers but Higuain is a massive part of Madrid for me, although how badly his injury hampers him his unknown yet. I don’t think a player who has 7 in 12 so far this season (all league stats), 27 in 32 last, then 22 in 34 the year before, can be overrated when nationally they don’t really get a great deal of recognition. I think his play off the ball is also sometimes overlooked with all the superstars they have and I think in time, although Benzema has the greater potential, they will miss Higuain during the next 2 months.
Ibra is like marmite in that you either love him or hate him, he has a lot of detractors but also some fans who worship the ground he walks on. His big money move to Barca didn’t quite pan out as he would have hoped and perhaps he is just a player who needs his ego massaging and a league like Serie A to bring his ability out in him. While I do think he is overrated from his fans, in general my perception from the majority of fans is that they do not rate Ibra.
All written in a rush before we finish work xD, so I expect there are plenty of mistakes in there haha!