Most underrated premier player ever

Druss_The_Legend said:
Peter Crouch. I think it is more because he didn't look how people think a footballer should look. About a 1 in 2 goal scoring record for England.
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Deceptive England record in my personal opinion.

1 goal in a major tournament - against Trinidad and Tobago.

9 in qualifiers (3 Andorra, 2 Belarus, 1 Macedonia, 1 Estonia, 1 Ukraine, 1 Croatia).

12 in friendlies (3 v Jamaica plus 9 others mostly against mediocre opposition).

There's a reason England significantly underachieved during the period in which he and Rooney were the main strikers, and that's that neither of them scored enough goals in proper/competitive matches despite being fed by many of the same players they excelled with at club level. Just my opinion, of course.
 
atypical_boro said:
LOL no that's Scholes.

Who, by the way, was a great player and consistently in Man Utd's best 3-5 players. But since retiring its become widely accepted amongst United fans that he is better than Zidane, Ronaldinho, Cruyff and Maradona combined.
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100% agree with this.
People going on like Scholes was the greatest player to ever play for Man United at times. He never once won the Sir Matt Busby Award. In his time at United, the following players all won that award.

Cantona x 2
Kanchelskis
Beckham
Giggs
Keane x 2
Sheringham
Van Nistelrooy x 2
Ronaldo x 3
Heinze
Rooney x 2
Vidic
 
B_G said:
100% agree with this.
People going on like Scholes was the greatest player to ever play for Man United at times. He never once won the Sir Matt Busby Award. In his time at United, the following players all won that award.

Cantona x 2
Kanchelskis
Beckham
Giggs
Keane x 2
Sheringham
Van Nistelrooy x 2
Ronaldo x 3
Heinze
Rooney x 2
Vidic
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Yes. And as I say, he WAS a really good player, but there's a lot of clouded memories about just HOW good he was. Largely guided by a couple of compliments he had paid to him by Xavi and Zizou I think.
 
No one said Andy Cole yet? His name usually crops up whenever 'underrated' and 'PL' are put together.

And rightly so too. His goal scoring record - for someone who rarely took penalties - was fantastic.

He's still 4th on the list of all time top scorer in PL on 187 goals. And just think of how many penalties he could've scored during that time. He would have no doubt surpassed 200.
 
B_G said:
100% agree with this.
People going on like Scholes was the greatest player to ever play for Man United at times. He never once won the Sir Matt Busby Award. In his time at United, the following players all won that award.

Cantona x 2
Kanchelskis
Beckham
Giggs
Keane x 2
Sheringham
Van Nistelrooy x 2
Ronaldo x 3
Heinze
Rooney x 2
Vidic
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I think the revisionism around Scholes' ability is down to the Scholes v Gerrard debate that Mancs/Scousers regularly find themselves in, which has somehow elevated Scholes' already high ability levels to something approaching god like territory!!!
 
atypical_boro said:
Hmm, I do remember him playing 'in the hole' a lot and even upfront. He did play CM some of the time but he wasn't a Bryan Robson type.
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He did play as an emergency striker on occasion, but he was predominantly a cm in a 4-4-2, Moyes preferred formation. More like a Frank Lampard (who we would all say is a cm) making late runs into the box than a No'10
 
MickaelDebevePhenomenal said:
I think the revisionism around Scholes' ability is down to the Scholes v Gerrard debate that Mancs/Scousers regularly find themselves in, which has somehow elevated Scholes' already high ability levels to something approaching god like territory!!!
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Isn't it down to Zidane or someone of that ilk saying he was wonderful and therefore he is now looked back upon as some kind of world beating superstar of that era?
 
Might be a controversial one but Robbie Savage.

Some still seem to regard him as a joke but he played at the highest level for the majority of his career and was the type of player you hated but would have loved to have in your team.
 
parmoboy said:
Might be a controversial one but Robbie Savage.

Some still seem to regard him as a joke but he played at the highest level for the majority of his career and was the type of player you hated but would have loved to have in your team.
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Nope. Don't doubt the stats, with him playing 300+ PL games but still a nobhead.
 
Southgate is a good shout, as much for his on pitch leadership as anything else. Ugo, for all his talent and physical ability, was not as good a player without GS alongside him. Riggott was better with GS there too.

I think Carrick is a decent shout too. For all he was never that high profile at MU, it was noticeable Ferguson always had him in the team for the big games.
 
Marvanelli said:
No one said Andy Cole yet? His name usually crops up whenever 'underrated' and 'PL' are put together.

And rightly so too. His goal scoring record - for someone who rarely took penalties - was fantastic.

He's still 4th on the list of all time top scorer in PL on 187 goals. And just think of how many penalties he could've scored during that time. He would have no doubt surpassed 200.
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Great shout.
 
Marvanelli said:
No one said Andy Cole yet? His name usually crops up whenever 'underrated' and 'PL' are put together.

And rightly so too. His goal scoring record - for someone who rarely took penalties - was fantastic.

He's still 4th on the list of all time top scorer in PL on 187 goals. And just think of how many penalties he could've scored during that time. He would have no doubt surpassed 200.
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Only 18 off shearer excluding pens



11Alan Shearer26056204
24Harry Kane21333180
33Wayne Rooney20823185
42Andy Cole1871186
 
parmoboy said:
Might be a controversial one but Robbie Savage.

Some still seem to regard him as a joke but he played at the highest level for the majority of his career and was the type of player you hated but would have loved to have in your team.
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Not having that at all. Decent player for a lower level PL team but was never good enough to go any further. I think he was rated very accurately.

When we say under-rated I'm taking it to mean someone that either played the majority of their time below the level they could have played (like Southgate, Boateng etc) or played at the very highest level but doesn't get considered in conversations that they should (like Andy Cole). Savage isn't that.

Cole is a great shout because he's rarely mentioned. I think Cole is disregarded a bit because he was playing at the same time as Shearer and it was almost a given that Shearer was better so Cole was automatically not mentioned even though he would be better than some of the players that played at different times.
 
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