Overrated players

[The College Dropout]

7 hours ago, STM said:

Given and Pope we're two keepers playing in the wrong eras. Pope would have been one of the best in league in the 90s/00s (not that he isnt now) his shot stopping, sweeper, commanding style was a much better fit for then.

 

Given would have flourished even more in the modern era, playing out from the back and modern coaching.

 

Both great keepers, neither really managed to break into the elite category but really good a consistent. Both cracking blokes too.

Shay wasn’t much cop with his feet from memory. Certainly not great at kicking. 

 

29 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

Never got Darren Anderton at all. If Balotelli had no personality have been seen more clearly as a second-tier journeyman forward all of his career instead of belatedly. Michael Owen was monstrously overrated in his prime, they were desperate to put him in the fat Ronaldo echelon circa 98.

 

 

 

Michael Owen won the PL golden boot in his first proper season at 17-18 years old. Younger than Mikey is now. Michael Owen was a phenom. 
 

He has a top 5 teenage resume of all time. 

[Jonas]

16 hours ago, Stottie said:

I think he was better than Ginola, who was overrated just because of the looks and aura. He got Players' Player of the Year at Spurs off 3 goals and 10 assists, which sound like Nobby Solano numbers, with Nobby also tracking back and making tackles. Murph got more than that last season. Stats don't tell everything of course, but they are pretty good for attacking players with highly questionable defensive contributions.

 

Robert was more consistent, esp. pre Souness, and is above both Ginola and Ben Arfa.

That's not how people, used to, base who the better football is. Otherwise it wouldn't even be a question or debate. You'd just say unequivocally X scored the most goals, Y had the most goals and assists so must have been better.  A lot of players of the year, best players in world cups, players of the season wont have had the best fantasy football goals and assists stats. 

Cant be a massive coincidence his career was a lot better than any of the players he's being compared to unfavourably. More caps than Ben Arfa/Robert, bigger clubs, better teams, 3rd in the PFA awards in 96, 1st in 99 the others wouldn't have been considered.

Robert was anything but consistent btw. Was talked about openly by people at the club at the time (Shearer, Sir Bobby) nevermind the fans. 

 

[Heron]

Garnacho

Richarlison

[Wolfcastle]

19 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Shay wasn’t much cop with his feet from memory. Certainly not great at kicking. 

 

Michael Owen won the PL golden boot in his first proper season at 17-18 years old. Younger than Mikey is now. Michael Owen was a phenom. 
 

He has a top 5 teenage resume of all time. 

Was joint with legendary phenoms Chris Sutton and Dion Dublin as it happens. 

Andy Cole won it in his first season in the topflight and second proper season period, with twice as many goals. He wasn't lauded the way Owen was as a near second coming. Gazza and Rooney I could see it with because they were obviously gifted and not reliant on pace, said that was by far Owen's biggest asset and not really a football ability, and it didn't turn out far wrong.

 

 

Edited November 1, 2025 by Wolfcastle

[Kid Icarus]

16 hours ago, Stottie said:

I think he was better than Ginola, who was overrated just because of the looks and aura. He got Players' Player of the Year at Spurs off 3 goals and 10 assists, which sound like Nobby Solano numbers, with Nobby also tracking back and making tackles. Murph got more than that last season. Stats don't tell everything of course, but they are pretty good for attacking players with highly questionable defensive contributions.

 

Robert was more consistent, esp. pre Souness, and is above both Ginola and Ben Arfa.

 

Ginola scored 7 goals for Newcastle in his whole time here, Longstaff scored 8 in 23/24. Sometimes stats don't tell the full story, but in other instances they outright lie.

 

In Ginola's first 6 months here he's still one of the best players I've ever seen at Newcastle. It was short-lived but the level was incredibly high.

 

 

Edited November 1, 2025 by Kid Icarus

[The College Dropout]

2 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

Was joint with legendary phenoms Chris Sutton and Dion Dublin as it happens. 

Andy Cole won it in his first proper season in the topflight with twice as many goals. He wasn't lauded the way Owen was as a near second coming. Gazza and Rooney I could see it with because they were obviously gifted and not reliant on pace, said that was by far Owen's biggest asset and not really a football ability, and it didn't turn out far wrong.

 

 

 

Name the other teenage Golden Boot winners 

[Wolfcastle]

Out and out strikers aside, off the top of my head Beardsley is the only case I can think of where his stats (goals, assists) do mirror his overall ability and performances.

[Jewel]

8 minutes ago, Heron said:

Garnacho

Richarlison

Those two are rated exactly as they should be, which is bang average.

[The College Dropout]

2 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

Ginola scored 7 goals for Newcastle in his whole time here, Longstaff scored 8 in 23/24. Sometimes stats don't tell the full story, but in other instances they outright lie.

 

Ginola's first 6 months here is still one of the best players I've ever seen at Newcastle. It was short-lived but the level was incredibly high.

 

 

 

Particularly in the 442 era. Wingers played to feed strikers and create.  

[Fak]

Does Van de Ven deserve a shout in here? He's a good defender, but feels like pace and maybe that assist v. Man Utd has done some heavy lifting for his reputation 

[Wolfcastle]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

Name the other teenage Golden Boot winners 

I'm not basing it on age, or goal scoring, this is about overrated players, I thought he was and if he wasn't he'd have been the greatest player this country ever produced the way people were going on and it turns out he fell a long way short of that hype.

 

 

[Fak]

Just now, Wolfcastle said:

I'm not basing it on age, or goal scoring, this is about overrated players, I thought he was and if he wasn't he'd have been the greatest player this country ever produced the way people were going on and it turns out he fell a long way short of that hype.

 

 

 

I think he probably would have been had his body and particularly his hamstrings didn't start falling apart in his early 20s. 

[Heron]

1 hour ago, Jewel said:

Those two are rated exactly as they should be, which is bang average.

I actually think people think these are half decent players. Richarlison was probably at his level st Everton tbf, but Garnacho at Chelsea is bizarre.

 

 

Edited November 1, 2025 by Heron

[The College Dropout]

20 minutes ago, Wolfcastle said:

I'm not basing it on age, or goal scoring, this is about overrated players, I thought he was and if he wasn't he'd have been the greatest player this country ever produced the way people were going on and it turns out he fell a long way short of that hype.

 

 

Owens reputation has everything to do with his age and goalscoring. 
 

Goalscoring is a skill and Owen had an elite mindset as a kid. 
 

‘Yeh I’m just ignoring the fact he scored 40 PL goals before the age of 20.’

This is such a dumb take I’m out. 
 

[Moose]

Has anyone mentioned Bellingham yet? 

[Sibierski]

Simons.

 

He’s yet another player that’s come from Bundesliga who has a rep because the league is slow and there’s acres of space. When he’s actually bang average and flimsy as fuck.

[The College Dropout]

3 minutes ago, Sibierski said:

Simons.

 

He’s yet another player that’s come from Bundesliga who has a rep because the league is slow and there’s acres of space. When he’s actually bang average and flimsy as fuck.

Simons had a rep prior to Germany. He’s a big name but I don’t think he’s massively rated.  He’s been pap whenever I’ve seen him. 
 

Wirtz is way more over rated. The talk in Germany was that he was THE guy.  

[La Parka]

 

Too soon?

[KennyUtd]

21 minutes ago, La Parka said:

 

Too soon?

Came here for exactly this. Just knew.

[TBG]

[kenlau88210]

Bruno and Botman are both overrated imo

[KennyUtd]

6 minutes ago, TBG said:

Here we go 😆

[KennyUtd]

3 minutes ago, kenlau88210 said:

Bruno and Botman are both overrated imo

On their day they're both absolutely class. We just don't see as many of those days as we'd like unfortunately. 

[The College Dropout]

Nearly everyone I know raised an eyebrow at the Elanga fee. He’s not over rated by most. 

[TheBrownBottle]

Not an individual player, but our midfield as a collective is overrated.  We can’t retain the ball and we are ridiculously easy to play through.