Most over rated Norwich players that you can remember?

[JonnyJonnyRowe 451]

This will be a bit of a contentious one, as we can't just name the many terrible players that we've had over the years as they wouldn't then be highly rated, but players who many thought were good but you just couldn't see it.

My vote goes to Moritz Leitner, might be a tad harsh because he featured a lot in our first Farke promotion season and so some gratitude is owed to all who featured heavily in that, but I never really got the love in, hundreds of very short passes, in fairness he was always willing to receive the ball in midfield and always made himself available for the pass, but I think he was a bit of a one trick pony and that was all he really had to his game. Seldom played threatening or inventive balls forward, almost always went for the obvious or easy option, and seldom brought goals or assists to the table, couldn't tackle either. Did wonders for our possession stats mind.

Plus would roll his shorts right up and make a huge deal about a 5 yard pass like he was the German Paul Scholes. Seems to have been sussed out and ditched quickly at every club he's been at. 

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,852]

24 minutes ago, JonnyJonnyRowe said:

Plus would roll his shorts right up and make a huge deal about a 5 yard pass like he was the German Paul Scholes. Seems to have been sussed out and ditched quickly at every club he's been at. 

I think he's been ditched by every club he's been at because of attitude more than anything, and whilst he clearly is a very good player, he's not quite good enough for the clubs to put up with when he's being a ****.

[Midlands Yellow 4,057]

Alex Neil could spot a bargain. Yanic Wildschut was tremendous value for money and scored that winner at Bramall Lane too.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,788]

Feel like it might be a controversial one but Jamal Lewis. He was clearly a talented younger but I said at the time his move to Newcastle felt like it had come too soon for him and that he was just not good enough for such a big step up and seems I was proven right

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,798]

I'll throw Ben Godfrey in the ring

Good athlete ,yes...good defender, not so sure

Got a good price in £25m (which Everton clearly couldnt afford to pay) but its interesting that in the 4/5 yrs he's been there and the 4/5 managers he's had, he's still never been able to nail down a place at centre half and I'm not sure that he ever will there.

Edited April 26 by GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary

[A K Narey 97]

Before I opened the thread, I thought Leitner. I never understood why some supporters thought he was an amazing player.

[JonnyJonnyRowe 451]

31 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Feel like it might be a controversial one but Jamal Lewis. He was clearly a talented younger but I said at the time his move to Newcastle felt like it had come too soon for him and that he was just not good enough for such a big step up and seems I was proven right

I actually agree with this, he was clearly very athletic and could get up and down on the pitch, but didn't have much composure and seemed to panic whenever he got the ball, we did remarkably well to get £15m for him.

[JonnyJonnyRowe 451]

29 minutes ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

I'll throw Ben Godfrey in the ring

Good athlete ,yes...good defender, not so sure

Got a good price in £25m (which Everton clearly couldnt afford to pay) but its interesting that in the 4/5 yrs he's been there and the 4/5 managers he's had, he's still never been able to nail down a place at centre half and I'm not sure that he ever will there.

It is interesting reading Everton thoughts about Ben Godfrey.

They seem to have concluded that he is a decent right back when you are expecting to be attacking much and will be under the cosh, but is flakey at centre back because he's weak in the air, and isn't much use when attacking which is what is expected from the modern full back.

We did used to seriously struggle defending in the air when we had Godfrey and Aarons in our back four. 

Edited April 26 by JonnyJonnyRowe

[A Load of Squit 5,213]

12 minutes ago, JonnyJonnyRowe said:

It is interesting reading Everton thoughts about Ben Godfrey.

 

I reckon they thought it was money well spent when he stopped Liverpool scoring on Wednesday night.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,788]

14 minutes ago, JonnyJonnyRowe said:

It is interesting reading Everton thoughts about Ben Godfrey.

They seem to have concluded that he is a decent right back when you are expecting to be attacking much and will be under the cosh, but is flakey at centre back because he's weak in the air, and isn't much use when attacking which is what is expected from the modern full back.

We did used to seriously struggle defending in the air when we had Godfrey and Aarons in our back four. 

Never forget that Aarons was almost sold to Spurs before Spurs decided that he was too short for them

[JonnyJonnyRowe 451]

3 minutes ago, A Load of Squit said:

I reckon they thought it was money well spent when he stopped Liverpool scoring on Wednesday night.

They are praising him after that performance which was at right back, but they don't rate him at centre back at all and he can't do much in attack from right back. I wonder if he needs to be one of 3 centre backs in a sort of sweeper role, alongside two centre backs who are good in the air.

Edited April 26 by JonnyJonnyRowe

[JonnyJonnyRowe 451]

1 minute ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Never forget that Aarons was almost sold to Spurs before Spurs decided that he was too short for them

I can remember reading a rumour that Max Aarons vowed never to play for Mourinho after hearing the way he talked to some of his young players from the touchline in a closed door friendly at Colney. 

But I do think the way having an obvious weakness defending the back post with Max Aarons at centre back would have turned some sides off. We are so much better at defending in the air with McCallum and Stacey at full back.

[Thumbbass 319]

Johnny Howson.

[Worthy Nigelton 1,062]

1 hour ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

I'll throw Ben Godfrey in the ring

Good athlete ,yes...good defender, not so sure

Got a good price in £25m (which Everton clearly couldnt afford to pay) but its interesting that in the 4/5 yrs he's been there and the 4/5 managers he's had, he's still never been able to nail down a place at centre half and I'm not sure that he ever will there.

This is the correct answer. Never has the term 'athlete with football boots on' been more apt. The lad could barely kick the ball straight and positionally was the worst of the worst. His physicality covered up many, many ills.

[NWC 245]

(Tin Hat Time) - Marco Stiepermann.

Part of the German revolution under Farke ("All the Germans"), slow, poor touch, lightweight for a big guy, couldn't header for a big guy, could see a pass Yes, but by the time he had seen it, he had already been tackled and lost the ball.

Only got in the team because he was mates with Pukki (I possibly made that bit up!)

[sgncfc 1,253]

To think of the stick I used to get on here when I criticised Godfrey!!! That £25m was an unbelievable deal. Massively over-rated and always positionally all over the place. He should have been a CDM anyway....

Giannoulis is up there for me as the most over-rated in the current squad; have never understood why people rate him above McCallum.

[king canary 7,654]

2 hours ago, JonnyJonnyRowe said:

This will be a bit of a contentious one, as we can't just name the many terrible players that we've had over the years as they wouldn't then be highly rated, but players who many thought were good but you just couldn't see it.

My vote goes to Moritz Leitner, might be a tad harsh because he featured a lot in our first Farke promotion season and so some gratitude is owed to all who featured heavily in that, but I never really got the love in, hundreds of very short passes, in fairness he was always willing to receive the ball in midfield and always made himself available for the pass, but I think he was a bit of a one trick pony and that was all he really had to his game. Seldom played threatening or inventive balls forward, almost always went for the obvious or easy option, and seldom brought goals or assists to the table, couldn't tackle either. Did wonders for our possession stats mind.

Plus would roll his shorts right up and make a huge deal about a 5 yard pass like he was the German Paul Scholes. Seems to have been sussed out and ditched quickly at every club he's been at. 

I remember reading someone who'd heard from the club the Leitner was the worst ego they've ever had to deal with. No surprise he was bombed out of loads of clubs.

For me personally I never got why people rated Elliott Bennett that highly. Worked hard but quite limited in general.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,788]

19 minutes ago, NWC said:

(Tin Hat Time) - Marco Stiepermann.

Part of the German revolution under Farke ("All the Germans"), slow, poor touch, lightweight for a big guy, couldn't header for a big guy, could see a pass Yes, but by the time he had seen it, he had already been tackled and lost the ball.

Only got in the team because he was mates with Pukki (I possibly made that bit up!)

But but cromer crabs!

 

[shefcanary 2,444]

3 hours ago, JonnyJonnyRowe said:

My vote goes to Moritz Leitner,

I still follow him on Instagram; apart from pissing me off with his daily fitness routine, over the past two months he's been sharing his experiences in an indoor football league they have in Germany, sort of 5-a-side but on a mini artificial grass pitch. By all accounts he was player of the tournament so probably finally found his level, his ability to keep and control the ball in tight spaces plus his short passing works well in such a confined game.

[KeiranShikari 1,426]

Kenny Mclean.

Has gone from wildly underrated to wildly overrated.

[Oval Canary 13]

I remember the fanfare of signing Thomas Helveg and Mattias Jonson who were considered top international players at the time. Everyone seemed to be excited about them, myself included…. But both were hugely disappointing and under average.

I was dumbfounded when Jonson lined up against England in the 2006 World Cup when we played Sweden. I would have combusted had he scored against us!

[ged in the onion bag 856]

1 hour ago, JonnyJonnyRowe said:

It is interesting reading Everton thoughts about Ben Godfrey.

They seem to have concluded that he is a decent right back when you are expecting to be attacking much and will be under the cosh, but is flakey at centre back because he's weak in the air, and isn't much use when attacking which is what is expected from the modern full back.

We did used to seriously struggle defending in the air when we had Godfrey and Aarons in our back four. 

It was Farke's call to make him a CB..... we were desparate for a holding midfielder at the time he played CB and personally, I thought he'd be better suited in that CDM role.     Instead, we persevered without a proper CDM and he and the other 'kids' had no protection in front of them in the EPL.   I still like DF though. 

Still reckon Godfrey could do a good job as a CDM. 

 

[Nuff Said 5,171]

4 minutes ago, ged in the onion bag said:

It was Farke's call to make him a CB..... we were desparate for a holding midfielder at the time he played CB and personally, I thought he'd be better suited in that CDM role.     Instead, we persevered without a proper CDM and he and the other 'kids' had no protection in front of them in the EPL.   I still like DF though. 

Still reckon Godfrey could do a good job as a CDM. 

 

Wow. This one will never die. What’s coming next, why don’t we play Becchio?

[sonyc 5,541]

51 minutes ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

This is the correct answer. Never has the term 'athlete with football boots on' been more apt. The lad could barely kick the ball straight and positionally was the worst of the worst. His physicality covered up many, many ills.

I have to admit I was a Godfrey fan when with us. But I've now watched him in two recent Everton games at RB. His positional play was very poor and he didn't get close enough to the attacker / winger on many occasions, even with cross field balls and inside runs. As an onlooking manager I would be less than impressed. He's obviously a 'good lad' but he would be far better in midfield in my opinion. He has some speed. 

I also agree about Stiepermann above to some extent. He just needed too long to control the ball. Yet, like Godfrey, he was part of successful promotion teams. Therefore I would rule him out the same as Ben G. The latter too was a youngster so it's a bit unfair to call label him overrated.

My picks would be Neil Emblen and Peter Thorne. One a former captain (Wolves) of huge experience and the other a long time significant scorer at a few clubs. Both were very poor in our colours.

There are a few more like Walsh and Cottee (from the darker days of our history). 

[Nuff Said 5,171]

Essex Canary

Keith Scott

Big Vince

 

 

(sorry, misread the thread title 😳)

[Nuff Said 5,171]

Add me to the list for making the same post twice.

Edited April 26 by Nuff Said

[C.I.D 303]

4 minutes ago, Oval Canary said:

I remember the fanfare of signing Thomas Helveg and Mattias Jonson who were considered top international players at the time. Everyone seemed to be excited about them, myself included…. But both were hugely disappointing and under average.

I was dumbfounded when Jonson lined up against England in the 2006 World Cup when we played Sweden. I would have combusted had he scored against us!

Plenty of hype on here when we signed them but as disappointing as Jonson was in his 'usual' position,Helveg actually had a decent end-of-season when moved into midfield from his normal full-back role................imho 

[sonyc 5,541]

3 minutes ago, Nuff Said said:

Wow. This one will never die. What’s coming next, why don’t we play Becchio?

Well, as you've asked, you know.... if Snoddy had only let Ricky take that penalty?

[Nuff Said 5,171]

21 minutes ago, sonyc said:

Well, as you've asked, you know.... if Snoddy had only let Ricky take that penalty?

 

[Ulfotto 642]

On Ben Godfrey he did suffer a serious broken leg at Everton after an excellent first season which led to him being in the England squad. it seems he isn’t massively Dyche cup of tea. Personally think he was excellent here if raw and is exactly the sort of defender we need in the current lineup when playing without any defensive midfield players where his physical attributes are very useful. They are less useful for Dyche ball when you are rarely pushed up beyond the 18 yard box the full backs don’t attack and there is a double pivot of defensive midfielders in front of you.