Most underwhelming high-profile player at WC so far?

[SJ234]

Anyone who says Ozil over some of the other names on there requires brain surgery. Aguero or Costa for me

[CaptainPlanet]

Rooney for me. £300k a week and a talented squad basically built around him, and didn't track back well in either position, didn't create enough, slowed down an awful lot of attacks (particularly good counter attacking opportunities) and didn't finish enough of the chances he did get.

[football_master_94]

Sneijder on this list? I thought everyone knew he's been past his best for a good 2/3 years and isn't close to the player he was at the last WC. Fred too Dunno why he's on the list given that he's just an average player.

The answer is Aguero.

[james_wilko]

Gerrard, two games and completely useless.

[RubenJ]

Rooney for me. £300k a week and a talented squad basically built around him, and didn't track back well in either position, didn't create enough, slowed down an awful lot of attacks (particularly good counter attacking opportunities) and didn't finish enough of the chances he did get.

Rooney was your only threat against Uruguay. Without him it wouldn't even have been a contest.

[Razzler]

He's being contrary, obviously Rooney is waaay behind some others, including others in our team

Costa, but I sort of half expected it with the way Spain are, and being a proper striker in that team, that leaves Aguero in terms of big name player that has done next to nothing without any of the Costa excuses

Fred and Hulk haven't done anything either

[adhikapp]

I voted for Costa simply because Gerrard wasnt there. Don't understand the English media scapegoating of Rooney tbf, looked like the player that bothered playing against Urugay - similar to United in the first half of last season. Scapegoating Gerrard however, even if the rest of the players were duds, will be totally understandable.

[kontermann]

Khedira missing in that list

[jmr]

Gerrard ****ing up was like written in the stars, dunno how you couldn't see it coming. The only high profile England player is Rooney really and whilst he wasn't good there were many more who were worse.

[kontermann]

Rooney is the most overrated player of the decade

[EnterUsernameHere]

Khedira missing in that list

Khedira has exceeded my expectations. He's only been awful, expected him to be much worse

[aggressive minor]

Rooney clearly had sex with CP's grandmother, based on his Rooney obsession.

[el sid]

since when are higuain and fred high profile players?

****ing wow

[Falahk]

Khedira missing in that list

who is most high profile, Higuain or Khedira?

[CloudYildiz]

I could only fit in 14 players and tried to be diversive with names from different countries.

One of the reasons to put Fred was that he gots a lot of stick from the last 2 games and clearly many expected him to perform after a good Confederations Cup run last year.

I know Sneijder ain't the same Sneijder from 2010 anymore, but before the WC, everyone from the Dutch press to fans wanted him included to the squad after Louis van Gaal was openly teasing him to get fired up. I wouldn't be surprised if he joined Man United this summer though.

As for other names, should have excluded the likes of Shaqiri and Drogba though and put in other names

[kontermann]

who is most high profile, Higuain or Khedira?

Khedira in that case

[RubenJ]

ha you do crack me up a lot kontermann. Khedira fgs, his hair is the best thing he has going for him and even that is terrible.

[CaptainPlanet]

Rooney clearly had sex with CP's grandmother, based on his Rooney obsession.

She says he promised he was ready, physically and mentally, but he still failed to perform.

[JD nawrat]

Khedira and Higuain about the same level of notoriety. Neither the main man at their club nor their country. I guess though that Higuain is a bigger name, just because he plays more, does more and I guess Higuain is also more important to his club than Khedira his.

Neither a clear shout for being higher profile than the other. Neither really a disappointment either. Higuain was unfit then came against a defensive Iran that nobody was scoring against. Khedira has been okay imo. Not a disappointment anyway.

[ArsenalFan7]

Cristiano

[scott MUFC]

done naff all else

and Nani has disspointed me.. he scored and hit the post between being his usual rubbish self

[Adelaidean]

Unusual that so many top forwards have failed to perform thus far. Even Messi has struggled aside from his moments of magic

[ArsenalFan7]

done naff all else

And how did you like that cross?

[RubenJ]

He had a rubbish match ffs

Brilliant cross, for 1 point that doesn't really help them at all.

[noikeee]

Think that cross just about makes me not PM a mod to swing my vote from Diego Costa to him. Just.

[Pangaea]

Quite simply, Portugal isn't a team. Hard for Ronaldo to perform when they don't look to have much of a plan and even less cohesion as a team out there, relying on individual brilliance to make something happen. Or gigantic defensive howlers I suppose. Even so, Ronaldo has been disappointing, but I guess we can't really be too harsh on him given the circumstances of injury and crap team.

[G-Man11]

Khedira and Higuain about the same level of notoriety. Neither the main man at their club nor their country. I guess though that Higuain is a bigger name, just because he plays more, does more and I guess Higuain is also more important to his club than Khedira his.

Neither a clear shout for being higher profile than the other. Neither really a disappointment either. Higuain was unfit then came against a defensive Iran that nobody was scoring against. Khedira has been okay imo. Not a disappointment anyway.

Higuain scored 24 goals for Napoli last season as their top scorer...

[ddidiodion]

Higuain scored 24 goals for Napoli last season as their top scorer...

Hamisk would be their "main man" though surely? Even if he was a bit underwhelming last season.

[JD nawrat]

Higuain scored 24 goals for Napoli last season as their top scorer...

But Hamsik is their best player, their most important player and their talisman and captain.

Sure Higuain is important, but you don't get much more important than Marek Hamsik to Napoli. He's the equivalent to Ronaldo at Real, Messi at Barca, Yaya at City etc. - teams padded with quality and arguably players just as good if not better than him, but he is still what the team is built around and focussed upon.

I'm not doubting Higuain's quality btw, I rate him highly. He's just not the 'main man'.

[Boltman]

Meh, replace Hamsik with Harkins and they wouldn't miss a beat.

[Divinity]

Talisman ffs, what a ridiculously overused piece of hyperbole that is.

[Razzler]

Why can't we just have good crosses anymore or good or very good anything really. We have to describe even simple things as 'world class'

Rooney's cross for Sturridge was 'world class' and Ronaldo's cross last night was 'world class' - wtf!

Rooney put a lovely ball across ... erm, that's it. Yes, you see that opportunity fluffed plenty of times and it was a very good ball. Ronaldo's cross was fantastic, fantastic pace, superb but why is everything world bloody class!

Oh world class save, world class cross, world class volley ... sort it out, SI

[RubenJ]

Quite simply, Portugal isn't a team. Hard for Ronaldo to perform when they don't look to have much of a plan and even less cohesion as a team out there, relying on individual brilliance to make something happen. Or gigantic defensive howlers I suppose. Even so, Ronaldo has been disappointing, but I guess we can't really be too harsh on him given the circumstances of injury and crap team.

To hell with circumstances. Messi got the full blame of Argentina 2010 despite being pretty brilliant. This time it's Ronaldo's turn

[kontermann]

Why can't we just have good crosses anymore or good or very good anything really. We have to describe even simple things as 'world class'

Rooney's cross for Sturridge was 'world class' and Ronaldo's cross last night was 'world class' - wtf!

Rooney put a lovely ball across ... erm, that's it. Yes, you see that opportunity fluffed plenty of times and it was a very good ball. Ronaldo's cross was fantastic, fantastic pace, superb but why is everything world bloody class!

Oh world class save, world class cross, world class volley ... sort it out, SI

world class post (no really, this time really )

[ddidiodion]

To hell with circumstances. Messi got the full blame of Argentina 2010 despite being pretty brilliant. This time it's Ronaldo's turn

Like hell he did Maradona took 10x more blame than Messi ever did for that shambles.

[jmr]

He's playing in the worst Portugal side I can remember, with donkey's like Éder getting in the way of him all the time. It's incredible to me that he even plays with these losers.

[milnerpoint]

Costa, i was expecting a world class striker, i've seen a player who doesnt fit into the system, clearly not fit and doesnt look remotely interested.

[DJ]

Excuses, excuses. Ronaldo was anonymous again yesterday. ONE good pass in a whole game. Oh yeah and that 'bedazzling' piece of skill where he managed to not get past those defenders on the middle line and passed the ball back to a teammate.

[ddidiodion]

Excuses, excuses. Ronaldo was anonymous again yesterday. ONE good pass in a whole game. Oh yeah and that 'bedazzling' piece of skill where he managed to not get past those defenders on the middle line and passed the ball back to a teammate.

Everything else in the post instantly invalidated.

[Jonno-Blood]

He had a rubbish match ffs

Brilliant cross, for 1 point that doesn't really help them at all.

Not really true since that point keeps them in the competition, even if it is only just

Anyway to answer the question I think I'm torn between Costa and Ronaldo, Aguero not too far behind. I'm not sold on Costa anyway since he's had literally 1 good season but he came into this WC with a pretty big reputation after what he's done at Atletico this season then he's done absolutely nothing here.

[Pangaea]

Costa, i was expecting a world class striker, i've seen a player who doesnt fit into the system, clearly not fit and doesnt look remotely interested.

Should have played for Brazil instead. They could use an actually good striker. According to wiki, he has 2 matches for Brazil (both friendlies of course), and four for Spain. No bloody wonder the Brazilians are booing him

So many players have gone into this WC (part)injured or missing it entirely though. The commentators over here said yesterday that Queiroz had got the Iran league to finish in April, which was uncommon (naturally, I know absolutely nothing about that league). Perhaps impossible in practice due to the tight schedules all over Europe (and elsewhere I assume), but it would be nice if something similar could be put into place for WC years.

[DJ]

Everything else in the post instantly invalidated.

What should it be called, mein Grammar-führer?

[ddidiodion]

What should it be called, mein Grammar-führer?

Not the "middle line", never the "middle line".

[DJ]

Well, it's the middellijn in Dutch and we are better at football than English speaking countries. Or something ^^

[jmr]

middle line

Reminds me of:

[DJ]

Ah, I just remembered. Half way line ^^

It's too early for grammar-challenges

[Barry Cartman]

should add Dzeko to the list, not nearly a heroic enough performance by the star man for his nations first WC

Both games were his typical City performance without the goal that masks his laziness and moping around the pitch.

I shouldn't be too hard in him because he scored some utterly vital goals for us towards the end of the season, but he is so bloody frustrating to watch most of the time

[JD nawrat]

Should have played for Brazil instead. They could use an actually good striker. According to wiki, he has 2 matches for Brazil (both friendlies of course), and four for Spain. No bloody wonder the Brazilians are booing him

They booed him because he turned his back on the Brazilian national team and gave up his Brazilian citizenship in order to play for Spain. it's basically viewed as the ultimate betrayal. He was wanted in Brazil and he basically told them to gtf.

[Razzler]

Costa, i was expecting a world class striker, i've seen a player who doesnt fit into the system, clearly not fit and doesnt look remotely interested.

and he's ugly

[RubenJ]

he could still make a career for himself playing Mexican drug lords in hollywood films.