The Most Underrated Players You Have Watched ??

Jamie Carragher & Sami Hyypia

Unquestionably one of the most consistent and most underrated defensive partnerships of the Champions League era. Liverpool 2004/05 conceded only 9 goals in total - 3 out of the 9 conceded goals occurred in the final itself, which means that only 6 goals were conceded in the previous 12 games before the final - but overall only 9 goals were conceded by the Liverpool side that won the 2005 Champions League.

Not to mention that it is perhaps equally important - if not more so - the demonstrable fact that Liverpool 2004/05 had to get through one of the most difficult Champions League campaigns of all time; Liverpool was widely viewed as the inferior club to Juventus (Quarter Finals), Chelsea (Semi Finals), and AC Milan (Final).

Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid is arguably the only club that can compare in terms of said unique talent for consistently upsetting far richer clubs, but then again, Simeone's Atletico Madrid gets the due credit as a defensive talent first and foremost, versus Benitez's Liverpool which is primarily and at times entirely remembered as a "Steven Gerrard and Co. project."

At any rate, the pundits of the time, the journalists of the time, be them English or Spaniards or Italian or else, the vast majority of them agreed about the Carragher-Hyypia partnership being - by some distance - the primary but somewhat inexplicable factor that served as the main driving force behind Liverpool's shrewd consistency in the Champions League. Steven Gerrard - his iconic performance in the final being the single exception - was not seen as the main driving force of that Liverpool side (the one that actually won the cup).

Sami Hyypia was already 32 years old throughout most of the 2004/05 Champions League campaign, and I'd argue that it's probably not a pure coincidence that Liverpool's cup-tournament-defensive-shrewdness declined heavily just as Sami Hyypia suddenly found himself on the wrong side of his 30s; the telepathic understanding of Carragher-Hyypia was over, and Gerrard no longer had a legitimate platform to deliver Champions League greatness in what still was his prime.


Not counting the Champions League Final:

Barcelona 2005/06 conceded 4 goals in 12 games.

Liverpool 2004/05 conceded 6 goals in 12 games.

AC Milan 2004/05 conceded 6 goals in 12 games.

Atletico Madrid 2013/14 conceded 6 goals in 12 games.

Atletico Madrid 2015/16 conceded 7 goals in 12 games.

Chelsea 2007/08 conceded 7 goals in 12 games.

Atletico Madrid 2016/17 conceded 9 goals in 12 games.

Liverpool 2006/07 conceded 9 goals in 12 games.

AC Milan 2006/07 conceded 9 goals in 12 games.

Chelsea 2006/07 conceded 9 goals in 12 games.

AC Milan 2002/03 conceded 11 goals in 12 games

Inter 2009/10 conceded 9 goals in 12 games.

AC Milan 2005/06 conceded 10 goals in 12 games.

Chelsea 2011/12 conceded 11 goals in 12 games.

Chelsea 2004/05 conceded 12 goals in 12 games.

FC Porto 2003/04 conceded 12 goals in 12 games.

Liverpool 2007/08 conceded 12 goals in 12 games.


Goals conceded in the league format:

Chelsea 2004/05 conceded 15 goals in 38 games.

Atletico Madrid 2015/16 conceded 18 goals in 38 games.

Chelsea 2005/06 conceded 22 goals in 38 games.

Chelsea 2006/07 conceded 24 goals in 38 games.

AC Milan 2003/04 conceded 24 goals in 34 games.

Liverpool 2005/06 conceded 25 goals in 38 games.

Chelsea 2007/08 conceded 26 goals in 38 games.

Atletico Madrid 2013/14 conceded 26 goals in 38 games.

Atletico Madrid 2016/17 conceded 27 goals in 38 games.

Liverpool 2006/07 conceded 27 goals in 38 games.

Liverpool 2007/08 conceded 28 goals in 38 games.

AC Milan 2004/05 conceded 28 goals in 38 games.

AC Milan 2002/03 conceded 30 goals in 34 games.

AC Milan 2005/06 conceded 31 goals in 38 games.

Barcelona 2005/06 conceded 35 goals in 38 games.

AC Milan 2006/07 conceded 36 goals in 38 games.

Liverpool 2004/05 conceded 41 goals in 38 games.

 

I have been re-visiting the games of Michel Platini at Euro 1984 and at the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1983/84, and the observation and conclusion that I've drawn is the following: Why is Platini not rated in the same tier as Maradona and Cruyff?

I mean, I do not generally like to use hyperbolic phrases of the "Player X was like Player Y and Player Z rolled into one" variety, but Platini quite literally was like Andrea Pirlo and Steven Gerrard rolled into one virtually perfect player; he actually was that great.


1. Platini had the long-galloping high speed mobility of Steven Gerrard, which enabled Platini and Gerrard with the ability to effortlessly to cover the entire length of the pitch quickly, in fact it is deceptive just how quickly these athletes can cover the length of each half of the pitch, or for that matter, the entire length of the pitch.

As any article ever written about Platini will attest to; Platini did not have a particularly impressive physical appearance if you judge him exclusively on the basis of his superficial physical build, but it is a fact that he was covering a lot of mileage, consistently, in all games. Not many players can do this injury-free, without injuring themselves, and the fact that Platini could consistently get away with doing the donkey work, all the while avoiding injury, while simultaneously also being the ball retention specialist in all of his teams (which meaningfully increases the probability of injury), indicates a rare mix of deceptive-yet-robust athleticism, intelligence, and ability.

As previously noted: it is no exaggeration to think of prime Michel Platini as Andrea Pirlo and Steven Gerrard rolled into one.


2. Platini's defensive contribution was arguably superior to that of Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard, which is an aspect of Platini's overall ability that is always downplayed or just completely ignored altogether; Platini was a similar type of athlete when off-the-ball versus Gerrard, but the difference I think is defined by the fact that Platini had a better intuition/intelligence for the defensive game.

For example, there is little to no doubt in my mind, that if Platini had not been born as the extraordinarily gifted player that he was throughout his career; he would've been an excellent defensive midfielder in his own right, even if you canceled a significant percentage of his creative powers.

On the other hand, a midfielder like Steven Gerrard could offer significant quantity on the defensive end, but that surplus of quantity was more a direct result of Gerrard's super-athlete ability, than it was a result of Gerrard having remarkable positioning and intelligence for the defensive game; the same also applies to Frank Lampard; in both cases, Lampard or Gerrard offer a surplus of quantity on the defensive end, but the quality of said defensive contributions is never as consistent nor as tactically flexible as it is with Platini.


3. Platini had the ball retention expertise of Andrea Pirlo; very few players, arguably only Maradona and Zidane as the obvious exceptions, have been clearly better at ball retention... Which is, yet again, another aspect of Platini's overall ability that gets downplayed or just completely ignored.


4. Platini is arguably the best passer of all time.


5. Platini is arguably the best goal scoring midfielder of all time.


At any rate, it is clear to me, that Platini's lack of slalom dribbling mobility/ability is the main reason why Platini gets underrated so severely... Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Zidane, and Messi (in order of oldest-to-newest era, not in order of my personal preference), all five of them have that impressive and rare slalom dribbling ability, and I think a lot of analysts and experts alike just primarily draw their conclusions from that.

A classic case study of this unwritten rule would be Zinedine Zidane; Zidane is widely rated as the superior player versus Platini, but the reality is that Platini is almost an equal in terms of ball retention (the difference is almost negligible in this art), and then the reality also is that Platini is significantly better in terms of passing, goal scoring, and defending. In other words, it very much appears to be the case, that Zidane's unique brand of slalom dribbling and ball retention, is the eye test unwritten rule that puts him above Platini, even when Platini is quite clearly the better and more consistent player.

Again, the conclusion to be drawn here is that Platini is instinctively and methodically discredited as a generational great, no better than Zico, even when Platini offers equal or better goals-and-assists versus Zico, at the same time that Platini does 2 or 3 times more defensive work than Zico. Simply put: Platini is very underrated... and I think he arguably deserves to be mentioned in the same tier as Maradona and Cruyff.

My counter argument against the (slalom dribbling) purists who routinely discredit Platini, can be reduced to the following principle: good or great slalom dribblers are almost always by definition available for the traditional national teams, and almost all the goat-tier players were lucky enough to have played for traditional national teams.

A textbook example of this principle is the injured version of Maradona at World Cup 1990, that version of Maradona could not offer slalom dribbling, but then Maradona's lack of slalom dribbling contributions could be sufficiently circumvented on the basis of exploiting Caniggia's speed-blessed slalom dribbling; and not coincidentally, it was arguably (if not obviously) Caniggia's absence in the Final vs. West Germany, that made Maradona as useless as he was in that game. In all other games where Caniggia was available, Maradona could use his ball retention and passing to great effect, but without Caniggia, Maradona was largely useless himself.

Maradona-Caniggia at World Cup 1990 is only one out of many similar arguments as to why slalom dribbling ability should not be used as the unwritten rule that it most definitely is, in terms of excluding any and all players who do not possess said rare tier-breaker i.e. slalom dribbling ability. And when you analyze this sport as the team sport that it in fact is, then Platini is arguably not inferior to any player ever; not Pele; not Cruyff; not Maradona; not Messi.

Argentina World Cup 2014 had prime Angel Di Maria, and prime Angel Di Maria would have been allowed far more creative freedom if Argentina 2014 had been built around a midfielder like Michel Platini 1984. In this inevitable context of 'team' sport, I think it stands to scrutiny that Michel Platini has a strong argument for being in the same tier as Pele, Maradona, Messi, and Cruyff.

 

I agree, Carles Puyol is underrated.

"Puyol had the heart of a lion." True, but not at all the only thing that should be remembered about this great defender... Puyol's extraordinary physical ability gets routinely discredited as some form of byproduct of said lion heart. As if having great heart makes a player extremely fast, extremely strong, extremely agile, and extremely injury-resistant. Not to mention Puyol's excellent positional intelligence, which doesn't get the credit it deserves.

Gerard Pique gets more credit than Puyol, and Pique's defensive record is rather unimpressive after Xavi and Iniesta began to decline. In contrast, Puyol always was impressive, even when Barcelona was very dysfunctional in the years after Figo's departure i.e. the Gaspart Era (between 2000 and 2003).