Marc Overmars

Giggs didn’t have a season that compares to Pires 01/02 season when Pires scored 9 and provided 15 assists in just 28 games or his 14 goals and 8 assists in 03/04. Giggs did manage quite a good few 10 goals and 10 assist type seasons though.

2 Likes

#Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs
Missed an open goal
Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs
Missed an open goal
How did he miss?
Arsenal took the piss
Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs#

2 Likes

I doubt he’d be so unanimously sucked off if he played for Arsenal instead of Man U, so no I don’t think he would be so overrated haha

Out of interest then, which of our players would you say we overrate?
Im putting Jack Wilshere top of that list.

1 Like

Diaby is top of the list for me. We had more than enough of a sample size of games from him to know his limitations but yet people will still swear blind he would have been better than Yaya Toure.

5 Likes

In my head, I always call him Mars OverMars.

1 Like

Fabregas, wildly overrated at the time and absence has made the hearts go all misty-eyed.

That’s bate

Bate Borisov

Tbh at the start, when he was about to end his career here, I was quite baffled when people talked about his potential to be next Yaya Toure, Vieira etc… He always massively lacked the general awareness on the pitch, obviously defensively he was pretty crap… But even attacking wise his vision was never nowhere near elite midfielder level… Quite poor passing technique and delivery. Song was fucking Pirlo compared to him. Great/unique combination of athleticism and dribbling ability (absolutely brilliant dribbler) and that’s about it. Very cool finisher too. Overall somewat similar to Hleb I’d say, he could always dribble out of impossible situations, great work rate, but never had elite vision/passing, quite poor end product (non existent finishing/shooting) in general compared to elite players in that role.

1 Like

While all this holds true, it was partly about potential with Diaby. His first touch, dribbling, pace and athleticism were all top class. He got the ankle fracture very early here and never got regular game time. With more game time and experience there’s the chance his game is allot more well rounded. Having Diaby’s ball carrying and press resistance alongside Cescs playmaking could have been unplayable in theory. Also you can say he was defensively weak but he was imposing and won the ball back quite often so that’s another area he likely improves without the injuries. Without the injuries he also hits higher levels of peak athleticism.

As it is I remember when depressed Liverpool fans gushing over this performance

Diaby’s whole career is based on a couple quotes and a highlight video of his performance against Liverpool lol.

1 Like

That Liverpool perfomance was very far from his general standard, and by far his best game ever. Hardly made a bad pass that day which was quite unusual for him. Although Liverpool had a pretty mediocre team on that day (Shevey, aged Gerrard, maybe Allen?). Other few good games I remember were against Porto when we trashed them at home, and I remember a very good game at Old Trafford also in 2010, but he scored a freak own goal that day… (we should have won that game ffs :triumph: ) But he was inconsistent and frustrating with his passing and decision making… You could obviously see he doesn’t have the elite football intelligence. Even throughout 2009/10, his best season, I couldn’t wait for Ramsey to step in as that third, box to box player between Song and Cesc.

He was imposing physically, very good work rate, great to have in dynamic, physical, open, games, not a great tackler, though but ofent too though making unneccesary fouls… But the biggest problem was severe lack of defensive positioning, discipline and awareness (it’s a joke to compare him to Vieira in that respect - who would, even with all what he brought to the attack, never forget his defensive duties; even to Yaya… I’d say even Pogba, who is an attacker, but still more disciplined than Diaby).

In Beckham’s defense, he did manage to get to the second place for FIFA player of the world award TWO times, once for the Ballon d Or award…
Yeah, those awards aren’t the ultimate criteria, personally I don’t take them too seriously, but the fucker surely had to do something right to get so high there.
Surely he was one of the most productive wingers of his era. Couldn’t dribble, but his passing abillity, not just crossing (GOAT is an understatement), was brilliant.

I loved Becs. :bellend: My first football idol/role model. :bergkamp:

2 Likes

Definition of overrated him for me. Never delivered when it mattered on the very big stages.
United never missed him when he left. Very limited pigeon holed footballer him in the end. Early Beckham with drive and passion and willing to learn off Fergie was dynamic.
Self publicising and never developed his game to any higher level of note after leaving.
Cleverly orchestrated moves which benefited both parties from PR publicity more than real footballing growth.

Again for me it comes back to injuries impairing his development. Usually when players come back from long term injuries they are off the pace and not as well drilled. That’s perfectly normal and Diaby was always coming back from injuries

I’m not saying he ever became elite, it’s that he might have become elite with enough consistant injury free development. It’s the same thing with Wilshere, Ramsey, Eduardo and maybe to a lesser extent Reyes

Tbf I hated him when he made the move to Madrid. Not because he left United (I hated them, still do), bit his mentality changed dramatically. He was much more agressive in United shirt, turned into an absolute poser as soon as he got his 23 number in Madrid. Never the same person after that move.

That Madrid team had Ronaldo, Raul, Zidane, Figo, Guti, Roberto Carlos… what did you expect from Beckham?

Seriously mate? 6 out of 8 seasons when he played for them they won the league. He leaves and they don’t win the league for 4 seasons. His most PL assists in a season is 15 while getting 6 goals. But he was regularly getting 10+ PL assists and around 10 PL goals a season. And his end product in the CL was prolific too.

The historic underrating of Beckham off him being a bit of a spiceboy is well off base. He’s arguably the best ever crosser in football.

1 Like

I don’t know where you’re going with that… What do those players have with his mentality I was talking about? I said nothing about his performances there.