There's some strange definitions of 'underrated' going on. Of those given already Keith Jones is the best example of a player going about their business and doing a top notch job with the minimum of fuss and attention. See also someone like Stuart Armstrong at Saints.
Emile heskey - one of the best target men this country’s ever produced, you could tell defenders hated playing against him, social media wrecked his confidence.
He was immensely powerful. Man mountain.
Shame he was written off as a bit of a donkey as must have knocked his confidence.
Me. I always thought I was underrated. I had an educated left foot (the right foot never did pay any attention in school) and was a master of late tackles that looked like an unfortunate accident. I was able to play in most positions and thought that I was very effective at playing in the hole. My team mates often said that they wished I was in a hole.
I was a sort of mixture of Dick Tydeman and Nicky Bailey, although, unlike Nicky, I only missed one out of 17 penalties. In an emergency, I could play in goal and was first class at bollocking the defence for any mistakes I made.
There's some strange definitions of 'underrated' going on. Of those given already Keith Jones is the best example of a player going about their business and doing a top notch job with the minimum of fuss and attention. See also someone like Stuart Armstrong at Saints.
Paul Scholes was overshadowed by some of his team mates in that squad imo. I always thought he would have been much highly thought of in any other team
Paul Scholes was overshadowed by some of his team mates in that squad imo. I always thought he would have been much highly thought of in any other team
I bored people to tears rabbiting on about how we will only appreciate how good Scholes is when he's gone. He was such as un-English player, never gave the ball away certainly not to the extent those who were lauded like Gerrard and Lampard (not that they were serial offenders but it was those two Scholes was plonked out on the left to accommodate)
I remember the pub dickheads "but he can't tackle"
Neither can fucking Pirlo, Zidane, Del Piero, Iniesta or Davids. We should have accommodated Scholes however we could have
I know people think he's good, but you hear so much about Liverpool's front 3, Van Dijk etc and he seems to be passed by a bit, whereas I think he's absolutely superb.
Paul Scholes was overshadowed by some of his team mates in that squad imo. I always thought he would have been much highly thought of in any other team
I bored people to tears rabbiting on about how we will only appreciate how good Scholes is when he's gone. He was such as un-English player, never gave the ball away certainly not to the extent those who were lauded like Gerrard and Lampard (not that they were serial offenders but it was those two Scholes was plonked out on the left to accommodate)
I remember the pub dickheads "but he can't tackle"
Neither can fucking Pirlo, Zidane, Del Piero, Iniesta or Davids. We should have accommodated Scholes however we could have
Oh good gawd this! You can go back 15 or 20 years and find posts from me banging on about the criminal waste of Scholes by Sven, etc. We had a truly world class footballer in the side and should have built the team around him. Instead we played him out of position in order to accommodate two, albeit very good, footballers instead. 3 if we include Beckham in that discussion too.
Paul Scholes was overshadowed by some of his team mates in that squad imo. I always thought he would have been much highly thought of in any other team
I bored people to tears rabbiting on about how we will only appreciate how good Scholes is when he's gone. He was such as un-English player, never gave the ball away certainly not to the extent those who were lauded like Gerrard and Lampard (not that they were serial offenders but it was those two Scholes was plonked out on the left to accommodate)
I remember the pub dickheads "but he can't tackle"
Neither can fucking Pirlo, Zidane, Del Piero, Iniesta or Davids. We should have accommodated Scholes however we could have
Oh good gawd this! You can go back 15 or 20 years and find posts from me banging on about the criminal waste of Scholes by Sven, etc. We had a truly world class footballer in the side and should have built the team around him. Instead we played him out of position in order to accommodate two, albeit very good, footballers instead. 3 if we include Beckham in that discussion too.
The English obsession with 442 which Sven seemed to buy into didn't help either.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we should have been playing a midfield 3 of someone like Butt/Hargreaves DM, Scholes the main midfielder, and then one of Gerrard or Lampard behind one up top.
We had Rooney who could have played left of 3 up top as well which would have solved the left wing issue.
I'd even say Joe Cole right wing (did well there for Chelsea), Heskey up top to hold it up for Gerrard, Rooney, Cole etc.
That would have involved dropping Beckham, Owen and Lampard and we've had few managers with the balls to do that sort of thing.
Paul Scholes was overshadowed by some of his team mates in that squad imo. I always thought he would have been much highly thought of in any other team
I bored people to tears rabbiting on about how we will only appreciate how good Scholes is when he's gone. He was such as un-English player, never gave the ball away certainly not to the extent those who were lauded like Gerrard and Lampard (not that they were serial offenders but it was those two Scholes was plonked out on the left to accommodate)
I remember the pub dickheads "but he can't tackle"
Neither can fucking Pirlo, Zidane, Del Piero, Iniesta or Davids. We should have accommodated Scholes however we could have
Oh good gawd this! You can go back 15 or 20 years and find posts from me banging on about the criminal waste of Scholes by Sven, etc. We had a truly world class footballer in the side and should have built the team around him. Instead we played him out of position in order to accommodate two, albeit very good, footballers instead. 3 if we include Beckham in that discussion too.
Scholes was actually good out on the left for England in the brief period when it was used though. I agree we could possibly have used a
different shape to accommodate him in another way (though this would
have likely also come at the expense of Beckham and Owen which would
have been a tough choice to make), but it's become a myth in itself that
Scholes was shunted out of position and ruined in order to fit in
Gerrard and Lampard. Scholes had been coming in from the left for Man
Utd quite a lot, which allowed him to come inside and avoid being picked
up by opposition players so he had time to pick his passes. Scholes
himself was happy with it. He also only played there 8 times in 66 caps,
and one of those was for Hoddle. If Rooney hadn't picked up that injury
against Portugal in 2004 we might have been talking very differently
about the way Scholes was used by Sven.
Paul Scholes was overshadowed by some of his team mates in that squad imo. I always thought he would have been much highly thought of in any other team
I bored people to tears rabbiting on about how we will only appreciate how good Scholes is when he's gone. He was such as un-English player, never gave the ball away certainly not to the extent those who were lauded like Gerrard and Lampard (not that they were serial offenders but it was those two Scholes was plonked out on the left to accommodate)
I remember the pub dickheads "but he can't tackle"
Neither can fucking Pirlo, Zidane, Del Piero, Iniesta or Davids. We should have accommodated Scholes however we could have
Oh good gawd this! You can go back 15 or 20 years and find posts from me banging on about the criminal waste of Scholes by Sven, etc. We had a truly world class footballer in the side and should have built the team around him. Instead we played him out of position in order to accommodate two, albeit very good, footballers instead. 3 if we include Beckham in that discussion too.
Given tht we would often get passed off the pitch I'd have been inclined to pay 5 in midfield just to stop us getting overrun more than anything else but a midfield with Beckham, Scholes, Gerrard, Lampard and Hargreaves/Carrick with Ashley Cole and Neville or Young providing width left space for all. Including Owen and Rooney seeing as the two were rarely fit at the same time
Paul Scholes was overshadowed by some of his team mates in that squad imo. I always thought he would have been much highly thought of in any other team
I bored people to tears rabbiting on about how we will only appreciate how good Scholes is when he's gone. He was such as un-English player, never gave the ball away certainly not to the extent those who were lauded like Gerrard and Lampard (not that they were serial offenders but it was those two Scholes was plonked out on the left to accommodate)
I remember the pub dickheads "but he can't tackle"
Neither can fucking Pirlo, Zidane, Del Piero, Iniesta or Davids. We should have accommodated Scholes however we could have
Totally agree. They way England used Scholes was a disgrace. Quality player. I remember Zidane saying Scholes was the best player he had played against. Roy Keane also said he was the best player he had played alongside. So Sven sticks him out wide left…..you have to laugh.
Comments
Shame he was written off as a bit of a donkey as must have knocked his confidence.
Spurs haven't been the same since he left.
Every time I see him on the TV, he looks good and never really heard him talked about that much.
I was a sort of mixture of Dick Tydeman and Nicky Bailey, although, unlike Nicky, I only missed one out of 17 penalties. In an emergency, I could play in goal and was first class at bollocking the defence for any mistakes I made.
I rest my case.
I remember the pub dickheads "but he can't tackle"
Neither can fucking Pirlo, Zidane, Del Piero, Iniesta or Davids. We should have accommodated Scholes however we could have
I know people think he's good, but you hear so much about Liverpool's front 3, Van Dijk etc and he seems to be passed by a bit, whereas I think he's absolutely superb.
All the top clubs being linked with Rice should spend that money on Ndidi.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we should have been playing a midfield 3 of someone like Butt/Hargreaves DM, Scholes the main midfielder, and then one of Gerrard or Lampard behind one up top.
We had Rooney who could have played left of 3 up top as well which would have solved the left wing issue.
I'd even say Joe Cole right wing (did well there for Chelsea), Heskey up top to hold it up for Gerrard, Rooney, Cole etc.
That would have involved dropping Beckham, Owen and Lampard and we've had few managers with the balls to do that sort of thing.
I'm not sure George Best was ever "underrated".
Mark Stuart was underrated. Brendan O'Connell was underrated.
Bernado Silva , Kante, Giroud, Lewandowski are not underrated.
I dont watch enough football to gauge underrated players who don't play for us and I get the impression not many others do either
So I went for 'unappreciated at the time' as my own spin on a simple to follow thread
Hoddle and Waddle back in days. I feel they were underrated.