World Cup Flops

Which players that you were expecting to star in the World Cup ended up being a disappointment? Obviously, there are quite a few players who bombed but which ones stood out to you?
Mine was probably Hazard. He looked jaded throughout and never had a performance above 6/10. He never had the best finish to last season with Chelsea and was unable to rediscover his form in Brazil.
Aguero is another. My pre-tournament pick for top scorer but didn't look fit at all and failed to find the net even once.

Ok this is not really a flop...more an irritiation.

Arjan Robben. Quality player, who produced some great performances through the tournament....but please can FIFA / UEFA do something about his diving? It is pathetic and an embarrassment. He should be banned for blatant cheating.

Not really a flop but I recall before the second half of extra time in the third place play-off there was a shot of a woman in Dutch colours with the biggest pair of knockers that flopped up and down as she jiggled with joy.

Now then, I was shattered so it may have been a bloke in drag with enormous falsies so if someone can post a screen shot I'd be grateful.

Messi -way overhyped with all the talk of him joining Pele and Maradona.

Needs to join the second tier of Zidane, Cruyff etc first.

Nowhere near as good as Diego and never will be.

Definitely did not deserve the Golden Ball award.

Higuain, wasted £20 on him to be top scorer.

John Terrys dick when trying to get into Wayne Rooneys bit of brass for the night

Balotelli springs to mind

Spain

Diego Costa too

I'd go with hazard too, just didn't do anything really of note in te competition.

Aguero, Costa, Ronaldo and to a lesser extent messi weren't fit.

Higuain was very poor.

I don't like to call players flops or categorize them, when they are injured. They were clearly injured the likes of Aguero/Costa/Ronaldo from the end of a hard season & bound to fail on the top international stage,. Pretty poor management, if anything, not recognising that fact, especially from Del Bosque. Messi was a difficult one, I don't think he was injured, just think this hamstring injury might have taken a percentage away from his game now & therefore the subsequent drop in form or level, could be perceived as a flop or disappointment.

My main player flops would be - Sturridge, Rooney, Hazard, Balotelli, Lukaku, Higuain, Hulk & Fred

Manager flops - Capello, Del Bosque, Hodgson

Hulk. One of the worst "professional" footballers I've ever seen. Porto could sell snow to the eskimos.

Fred.

Some idiot had him down to be Golden Boot winner!

   

Hulk and Fred aren't great players though. I'm not surprised at their performances.

Hard to argue with johns list otherwise.

Only one id say is balotelli- again I'm not surprised by him, euro 2012 was a surprise from him. Has all the attributes needed apart from a brain.

Yeah, I just added hulk/Fred but really they aren't great players, so not sure you can call them flops really.

@hero - you made the same mistake that Scolari made, he thought the end of season confederations cup (which is basically glorified friendlies) was a good sighter to how things would pan out a year later, especially with Fred.

Yep, saw his goals for the year before and thought ey up home form banker here.

How wrong I was.

Fred   

I can't think of words that are insulting enough to do him justice. Brazil were literally playing with 10 men with him on the field.
Hulk is only marginally better.

Yaya Toure is another name I forgot to mention. Had a great season at City and needed to put in some big performances in order for Ivory Coast to have any success but failed to make any impact at all.

Cavani possibly too? Posed little threat unless Suarez was alongside him.

Me

Predicted Germany to go out in the group stage didn't I...

David Luiz   

With Fred and Hulk contributing little to their forward line, Brazil could have done without a defender who thought he was laying for the opposition.

'Flop' is a little strong, but Messi didn't do enough often enough to justify the pre-tournament hype (and definitely wasn't the player of the tournament). Had occasional moments of brilliance, but I'm sure in both the semi-final and final he had spells of 15-20 minutes where he didn't get a kick. Given that Argentina's tactic was mainly to defend then give Messi the ball and hope for some magic, he didn't show enough.

Don't post here often but anyone saying Messi was a flop needs their heads checked...

There were 736 players in the tournament:
Out of those 736, Messi was the most creative player - creating 25 chances. Don't forget he also played the pass of the tournament into Di Maria against Belgium.
He also topped the stats pile in terms of dribbling - beating 45 defenders.

Where he did let himself down was off the ball - I'm not sure whether it was due to his hamstring, or Sabella's tactics or simply a poor workrate but he simply didn't position himself inside the penalty area often enough.
But don't forget Higuain, Di Maria and Aguero had very disappointing tournaments and that allowed the opposition defence to completely focus on Messi. It's fair to say if Messi was in that German side he would be absolutely lethal - but on the other hand this illustrates just how good Iniesta and Xavi have been in allowing him to flourish.

He shouldn't have been player of the tournament, that was Rodriguez for me - but there was no "flop" here.

By his own high standards Messi flopped, but he was still very good. Hes not fit though.

Ronaldo and Costa were also injured, I'd have to say Hazard was the biggest disappointment.

Argentina may have not made it past the group stages had Messi not been there. He was involved in almost every goal they scored. Had he scored that chance he had against Germany, he would have literally carried this Argentina team to victory.

Most of the PL players had poor tournaments. Bony and Kompany were good while RVP will probably also be pleased with his four goals even though he faded in the KO stages.
Schurrle was probably the most impressive PL player at the WC - 3 goals and an assist in the final.

theslosty wrote:Don't post here often but anyone saying Messi was a flop needs their heads checked...

There were 736 players in the tournament:
Out of those 736, Messi was the most creative player - creating 25 chances. Don't forget he also played the pass of the tournament into Di Maria against Belgium.
He also topped the stats pile in terms of dribbling - beating 45 defenders.

Where he did let himself down was off the ball - I'm not sure whether it was due to his hamstring, or Sabella's tactics or simply a poor workrate but he simply didn't position himself inside the penalty area often enough.
But don't forget Higuain, Di Maria and Aguero had very disappointing tournaments and that allowed the opposition defence to completely focus on Messi. It's fair to say if Messi was in that German side he would be absolutely lethal - but on the other hand this illustrates just how good Iniesta and Xavi have been in allowing him to flourish.

He shouldn't have been player of the tournament, that was Rodriguez for me - but there was no "flop" here.

  Cracking post.

yeh i agree, messi did not flop, he was a top 5 player for me behind rodriguez, muller, nueur and possibly Robben.

Messi's not fit to tie Maradona's boots. leagues apart.

emancipator wrote:Messi -way overhyped with all the talk of him joining Pele and Maradona.

Messi is overhyped most of the time and sycophantically too.

No such thing as the worlds greatest/best player.

Needless to say: Spain were a huge surprise. I mean I was just shocked to see them go out so early.
England were and are pathetic though only a handful of them actually turned up to play.

I expected a Brazil V Holland final and then what happens? Brazil get smashed 7-1, what! Ultimately well done Germany.

Messi flopped late on, but got Argentina through to the semi's.

Rooney again, Spain, Hazard, they've all been said.

David Luiz is surely the only candidate.

Other big-name players had mediocre tournaments, or else under-performed through injury or fatigue. Luiz was the one big-name player who stood out as being genuinely poor. Having just earned a £50m transfer, and coming into the tournament fit and fresh, he utterly destroyed his reputation.

He was never considered a good defender (although a decent footballer), but this World Cup showed that without the right player beside him, he is a liability.

jbeadlesbigrighthand wrote:David Luiz is surely the only candidate.

Other big-name players had mediocre tournaments, or else under-performed through injury or fatigue. Luiz was the one big-name player who stood out as being genuinely poor. Having just earned a £50m transfer, and coming into the tournament fit and fresh, he utterly destroyed his reputation.

He was never considered a good defender (although a decent footballer), but this World Cup showed that without the right player beside him, he is a liability.

Don't think I'd have Luiz to be honest. He was actually pretty good up until the semi where he had a total mare. Even then, he still was not any worse then Marcelo, Dante, Fernandinho and numerous other Brazilians that night.
Yeah, the £50m transfer was a joke but everyone knew that before the WC and it would have still been a joke even had Luiz been POTT.

J.Benson II wrote:

jbeadlesbigrighthand wrote:David Luiz is surely the only candidate.

Other big-name players had mediocre tournaments, or else under-performed through injury or fatigue. Luiz was the one big-name player who stood out as being genuinely poor. Having just earned a £50m transfer, and coming into the tournament fit and fresh, he utterly destroyed his reputation.

He was never considered a good defender (although a decent footballer), but this World Cup showed that without the right player beside him, he is a liability.

Don't think I'd have Luiz to be honest. He was actually pretty good up until the semi where he had a total mare. Even then, he still was not any worse then Marcelo, Dante, Fernandinho and numerous other Brazilians that night.
Yeah, the £50m transfer was a joke but everyone knew that before the WC and it would have still been a joke even had Luiz been POTT.

What about the quarter-final, where his main contribution seemed to be in joining Fernandinho in kicking James out the game? Before that point, he'd scored one amazing free kick, but otherwise was no more than serviceable.

In the semi, his was one terrible performance among many. However, he was captain, and yet was one of the most guilty of losing his head. He so clearly floundered without Thiago Silva to control the defence. I'd argue that his reputation has suffered more harm than pretty much any of his team mates as a result of the World Cup.

jbeadlesbigrighthand wrote:

J.Benson II wrote:

jbeadlesbigrighthand wrote:David Luiz is surely the only candidate.

Other big-name players had mediocre tournaments, or else under-performed through injury or fatigue. Luiz was the one big-name player who stood out as being genuinely poor. Having just earned a £50m transfer, and coming into the tournament fit and fresh, he utterly destroyed his reputation.

He was never considered a good defender (although a decent footballer), but this World Cup showed that without the right player beside him, he is a liability.

Don't think I'd have Luiz to be honest. He was actually pretty good up until the semi where he had a total mare. Even then, he still was not any worse then Marcelo, Dante, Fernandinho and numerous other Brazilians that night.
Yeah, the £50m transfer was a joke but everyone knew that before the WC and it would have still been a joke even had Luiz been POTT.

What about the quarter-final, where his main contribution seemed to be in joining Fernandinho in kicking James out the game? Before that point, he'd scored one amazing free kick, but otherwise was no more than serviceable.

In the semi, his was one terrible performance among many. However, he was captain, and yet was one of the most guilty of losing his head. He so clearly floundered without Thiago Silva to control the defence. I'd argue that his reputation has suffered more harm than pretty much any of his team mates as a result of the World Cup.

Not saying he was really good prior to the semi, but he was performing at a respectable, if at times unsporting level. His reputation did take a massive hit after that semi though I agree.
Someone like Toure overall was more of a flop to me. Had the season of his career at City and established himself as one of the top CM's in the world but was literally anonymous in the three WC games he played.