well, i dont know if this topic sounds right..or do i use the proper vocab there? whatever..

okay, lets try and test our football knowledge..design a formation with less known or underrated players that you think are able to give competition against best players formation..if possible, explain why? the records, achevement, skills etc etc..either retired or still playing..

my formation 4-2-2-2, dont get me wrong, these are players that i watch with my own eyes and impressed with them..

leo franco (gk)

rafinha-alessandro costacurta-martin demichelis-dede (def)

fernando redondo-guti (def mid n playmaker)

tomas rosicky-sebastian deisler (wingers)

nelson valdez-jan koller (forward n target man)


leo franco-he had never played for big clubs (highest he could get is athletico madrid) but his string of saves in his career is full of acrobatic dives and punching away crosses..plus, if you remember, if im not mistaken, malaysia held the 2008 youth world cup..and argentina won the competition..he is the goalie! totally underrated player!



rafinha-currently at genoa, but at schalke 04, he is no different like dani alves, well, not exactly like maicon..

alessandro costacurta-you know paolo maldini, franco baresi and mauro tassoti? they are the defenders who form the untouchable milan team during 1989 and 1990 under arrigo sacchi, alongside ruud gullit, marco van basten and frank rijkaard..they won the champions league back to back..and during 1989 and 1990, the world player of the year consists of all milan players..like the current barcelona team..but no costacurta? he also played during both of that seasons..



martin demichelis-not many players can play as defensive midfielder and center back, he is one of the few..13 goals in 174 appearances for bayern munich is not a bad achievement..

dede-totally invisible! the left back glorious moment was when roberto carlos was in the frame! only 1 cap for brazil..but u hv no idea what he is capable of..he was one of the player when borussia dortmund won the bundesliga (and if im not mistaken, the champs league as well)..currently, he is still playing for dortmund!!

guti-i just he wish he can be like xavi hernandez..playing for barcelona in the whole career..in this case, real madrid...but he moved on..his passes are just brilliant



fernando redondo-many defensive midfielders are underrated since football is about goals and they are the ones who supported the defence so their contribution is not much appreciated..but if you say edgar davids or micheal essien are the best ever def mid..then hv a look at this video..



tomas rosicky-what? he is a flop at arsenal..but at dortmund, he and ze roberto (when at bayern munich) are the two most fearsome att mids in bundesliga, thats why AW are interested in him..



sebastian deisler-this one is purely forgotten by many football fans..thomas mueller, jose sosa and toni kroos are among the young players who set to shine at munich as wingers/att mids..but remember this one..he retired from football during age 27 due to mental depress..eventhough some say because of his long term injury..if only he is still playing, he will be a great partner with franck ribery, i personally dont like arjen robben style of play..



nelson valdez-i knew him when he was at dortmund..first impression i was like..oh my, is that really a striker?? he likes to close down defenders and put pressure but he is a forward..not many forwards are like that..his goals contribution are not very good, but if you hv a look at roque santa cruz, his goals almost the same as valdez at bundesliga, but santa cruz appeared to be a magnificent player at blackburn rovers..and now, since valdez at hercules, he even scored two goals against barcelona..and im sure you all are impressed with him and oscar cardozo up front during the world cup..

jan koller-some say oscar cardozo are the tallest player, and most say peter crouch are the tallest of them all..but hv a look at Jan Koller..and look at his goals, particularly impressed when he was at dortmund (another ex dortmund player?) and anderlecht..




p/s: i couldnt find some of the players' video in youtube (the suitable one)..thats why i would say they are the most underrated players ever..

EDITED: missed out guti

This post has been edited by MrFay: Dec 25 2010, 08:13 PM

I don't think Rosicky is underrated. It's just he's been injured most of the time.

now i noe deisler havent feature in fifa game anymore.. thx for info..
he's my fav long2 ago

rafinha, definitely underrated..

on Rosicky,
when he started for Arsenal he was good till his crazy injury hit him
now that he got back, he is never the same again. I thought i could see the same ol rosicky, unfortunately not even close
hes just a mere average player now.
my hopes was high on him replacing Pires
same goes for Eduardo

oh well,this is part of footy i guess

well, i got friends (arsenal fans) who prefer tomas rosicky to be sold after his miss against barcelona last year (if im not mistaken)..and i defended rosicky that arsenal has a marvellous gem in the squad..perhaps you are right..he suffered a lot of injuries at arsenal..

yeah..i though he is gonna be a legendary winger but he got injuries and later declared to hv mental depress, and was advised by his doctor to retire from football

right?? im not sure about his form at genoa now..but at schalke 04, it was like the whole right side of schalke 04 is his territory!!

---

Added on December 25, 2010, 9:16 pmyup! agreed! when arsenal brought rosicky..i was like oh how lucky! got rosicky! well, at least i hv kaka (at that time, LOL)
but after that, it was a long time i had nvr heard of him..because of his injury..and when he came back..he is never like the old rosicky..
well..lots of players are like that..owen hargreaves at man u, antonio cassano and micheal owen at real madrid, and eduardo as u mentioned..all because of injuries..

but eduardo are the most! i mean, before he joined arsenal, he played for dinamo zagreb..there is one season 06-07, he scored goals more than matches he played..i mean, according to statistics, 34 goals in 32 league games..it was like ronaldo (brazilian) at barcelona when he was 20!!

This post has been edited by MrFay: Dec 25 2010, 09:16 PM

Goalkeepers: Michael Rensing. Thought have chance to shine after Kahn's retirement but poor form hit him. Moved to Koln at the moment.

Defender: Andrea Barzagli. Totally forgotten when so many decent Italian defenders around. The best team he ever played for was Palermo and Wolfsburg

Midfielder: Diego. Totally overshadowed by the likes of Schweinsteger, Robben and other big names in Bundesliga.

Strikers: Kevin Phillips. The goals he knocked for Sunderland was more than 2:1 ratio. Grafite also another. Wolfsburg did not depend on Edin Dzeko only. Grafite played a major part on the last season's Bundesliga champion too.

thats right, no one will ever forget about kevin phillips especially if you are a supporter of bpl..some of the fanboys for their club (keep saying their players are the best), than they must know one more fact about kevin phillps..he is the ONLY ENGLISHMAN who won the EUROPEAN i repeat, EUROPEAN GOLDEN BOOT...jermaine who? wayne who? not even close to kevin phillips..instead of being proud of rooney n co..be proud of kevin phillips instead, eventhough he had never scored for england..

how is Guti underrated?
please enlighten me.

for me, underrated means he never get shortlisted for the personal awards such as best player of the year, best player for the club, etc etc.. best is the word.. but he performs almost as good as (if not better) than the other players who won the awards..his passing was awesome..as awesome as xavi hernandez and andrea pirlo..i observed him since the first era of galacticos (zidane,ronaldo,r.carlos,figo n co), but his talent had never appreciated..

and one more point, less known as well..but damn brilliant..

This post has been edited by MrFay: Dec 26 2010, 04:05 PM

Good thread Totally agree with Redondo, Deisler and Koller.

But for leo franco, martin demichelis (I'm not sure why, but I hate him wearing the Argen shirt ) and nelson valdez, they are rated just fine. Neither underrated, nor overrated.

I would put another name into the list though, who I believe is the most genuine Most Underrated Award contender.

Joaquin - was bound to be a world class RW during his Betis days, he was set for much bigger fame with Valencia. But his career never took off to full flight, due to his underachieving Valencia team. Now he is starting to find his footing, though at 29 y.o surely there's not much left for him unfortunately. One of the biggest 'what if' story in Spanish football this decade.

Special mention:

A host of players played for Deportivo La Coruna earlier this decade like Makaay, Mauro Silva, Valeron, Tristan, Fran. A team that full of potential players, but lost its prestige significantly when Fran, Makaay and Irureta either moved on or past their primes, and when the team was hit by financial disaster. Their history is even documented inwiki.

---------------Jaaskelainen----------------

----Leichsteiner--Mertesacker--Mathijsen--Capdevila

--Pjanic--Tymoshchuk--Toulalan--Andre Ayew

---------------Bent-----Di Natale----------------

Mertesacker and di natale are considered underrated?

dude, another way of club appreciate a player is by rewarding them new contract and pay rise. do you know a lot real players being shown the door ? like pavon, bravo, minambres ...

guti played in real till 33 ...

yup, you are also right..everyone has their own opinion..i listed him because, like xavi hernandez who shortlisted for the ballon d'or, and guti had never in the shortlist, not even in the 30 finalists, but xavi n pirlo did..yup i know but for me, pavon, bravo and salgado are not good enough..but for guti, he is an undoubted brilliant player..

---

Added on December 26, 2010, 10:16 pmhow could i ever forgotten about deportivo de la coruna..they are the one who beat milan 4-0 after losing 4-1 at san siro!! they won the aggregate 5-4

This post has been edited by MrFay: Dec 26 2010, 10:16 PM

Mertesacker=yes because instead of his talent,he still stuck at Bremen unlike his compatriot Ozil.Shows that top european club don't trust him.
that's underrated for me.

Di Natale= I bet most people only began to watch him at WC 2010..Even in Italy people seems to 'forget' him.And then what clubs he plays right
now??Considering his less talented peers(Gilardino,Iaquinta,Boriello,Amauri,Pazzini,Quagliarella,Di Vaio,Floccari etc..) all have chance to
play in big clubs(Juve Milan Inter Roma Fiorentina Lazio).

i agreed, antonio di natale is one of the most underrated..he only plays for two clubs..empoli and his current club, udinese...in addition he plays as a winger in udinese but manage to score lots of goals for udinese..he was the top goalscorer in 2010..and when he played against milan, i always highlighted him as a danger man..

lol, sorry have to say guti not the same class as xavi ...

and fyi, salgao is real's 1st team right back for the last 10 years and he was released by real due to his age. he is very good for real.

perhaps he is not good enough to be finalise as the top three for the ballon d'or award, from my observation, he is no different like xavi..but he couldnt even get into the 30 finalists during his time at real madrid..

just my opinion

Now Darren Bent is the new Keven Philips for Sunderland....

the reason Ppl admire Rooney more is because he plays for Man Utd (bigger team)....

agree on the deportivo la coruna player .diego tristan .


where is ruben baraja ?ex valencia player .

What about Scott Parker? He is heart/battery/<insertyourwordhere> of the teams he played for. Well only when he's at Chelsea he didn't get as much exposure as he does when he's somewhere.

GK: Enyeama (Hapoel Tel Aviv)
RB: Gonzalo Castro(Leverkusen)
CB: Hangeland (Fulham)
CB: Barzagli (Wolfsburg)
LB: Zhirkov (Chelsea)
RW:David Bentley(Tottenham)
CM Diego (Wolfsburg)
CM: Marcos Senna (Villareal)
LW: Jonathan Pitriopa (Hamburg)
FW:Christian Benitez ( was on loan to Birmingham)
FW: Rocchi ( Lazio)

agreed on marcos senna..he is a warrior on the pitch..good strength and high work rate..brazil was very foolish to choose the likes of gilberto silva instead of him..won the euro 2008 by supporting the defence..i dont think sergio busquets is anywhere like him..

that i can't agree. Gilberto Silva and Senna are different type of player. Gilberto is more toward traditional defensive midfielder like Makelele. Senna is like Andrea Pirlo, he can create chances but he can defend too. Maybe foolish is not a rigtht word. He has captained Brazil for several times. He is touted as Invincible Wall for something. Plus Brazil already have playmaker such as Diego, Elano, Ramires and Kaka at the same time. And Brazil won the Copa America 2007 (equal to Euro 2008) with Gilberto captained the side.

This post has been edited by Angel of Deth: Dec 28 2010, 07:21 PM

My choice would be JiSung Park.

He has so far contributed 6 goals for United including the match winner(s) against Wolverhampton, Arsenal etc

He also holds the record for having the highest goal tally for an Asian in the FIFA World Cup with 3 goals including one against Greece in South Africa.

He treats every game like a battle field, makes very smart runs to open up play, has very good stamina. He has it all for me to be regarded as one of the Premier League's gem.

If compared to Rooney, both played 11 games of Premier League football, but Rooney as a striker has so far scored 2, while Park has 4 (seemingly crucial goals especially now Manchester City are joint top with United)

This post has been edited by thatsound: Jan 2 2011, 08:44 PM

Too many underrated players recommended in this thread are actually superstars...

My underrated 11 English;

ST: Darren Bent
LW: Adam Johnson
RW: Gabriel Aghbanlahor
CM: Michael Manciene
CM: Nigel Reo-Coker
DM: Fabrice Muamba
LB: Stephen Warnock
CB: Joleon Lescott
CB: Michael Dawson
RB: Glenn Johnson
GK: Joe Hart

The reason I placed Joe Hart in is because I'm annoyed by the fact that England generally feel that he's good but they rather have Ben Forster or Scott Carson as England No1...

Also, Lescott is actually a good defender but he was never given a good partner and was played in Left-Back for England which I thought was a stupid decision...

This post has been edited by Flaming_lion: Jan 3 2011, 01:48 AM