Top 10 Most Disappointing Premier League Players Of 2011/12 So Far

Chris Wright

6th, October 2011

61 Comments

By Chris Wright

Yin/yang, Light side/Dark side, Siegfried/Roy – the universe states that for every ‘most impressive so far’ list must therefore come a ‘most disappointing so far’ list to readdress the cosmic balance.

Or some such tosh…

10. David Goodwillie, Blackburn: Not that we were expecting big things from the former Dundee man, but the fact remains (according to Opta) that Goodwillie is yet to register a shot on target in the Premier League this season – which, needless to say, ain’t great for a striker.

9. Nani, Manchester United: Bear with me here. Nani has been perfectly decent so far after a slow-ish start, even flirting with ‘spectacular’ once or twice but this is the man that a few weeks back announced himself to be on course to becoming the ‘best in the world’ and, so far, we’ve seen him peak and trough as per – with the peaks not nearly as high as last year’s vintage. However, there is still plenty of time to rectify that, hence his relatively low placing on the run-down.

8. Charles N’Zogbia, Aston Villa: The sporadically uppity Frenchman made a fairly tentative start to his career at Villa Park, struggling to involve himself cohesively and fanarking up his ‘end product’ on more than one occasion. That said, he’s definitely been showing signs of improvement over the course of the past couple of games and things look to be on the verge of ‘clicking’ for Monsieur Insomnia.

7. Andy Carroll, Liverpool: Carroll’s slightly scuffed goal against Everton on Sunday was his first in the Premier League since April – which, even as a staunch Carroll advocate, I find hard to describe as anything other than ‘a little on the sparse side’. It’s not like he’s been regularly terrorising defences without getting on the scoresheet either. Needs a bit of a break and hopefully his derby goal will prove to be just that.

6. Fernando Torres, Chelsea: Ummed and ahhed about his inclusion as he’s not really been that bad at all so far this term – especially considering last season’s woeful travails. Nando’s off-the-ball movement is looking sharp again, if not quite as spry and dynamic as ‘the good old days’, and his superb goal against Manchester United was unfortunately overshadowed by ‘you know what’ – but the cold, hard fact remains that his record, on paper, for a £50-million marquee striker, still doesn’t make for particularly impressive reading.

5. Bryan Ruiz, Fulham: He cost £10.6 million a couple of months back (only the second time Fulham have ever broken the £10 million barrier for a player, the first being Andy Johnson) thus becoming The Cottager’s record signing on deadline day and, due to what now seem like wildly erroneous reports of from a Dutch acquaintance, we were really quite excited to see Ruiz try his hand in the Premier League. He has been, in technical terms, utter pap. Here’s hoping he’s ‘yet to adapt’, for Mo Al Fayed’s bank manager’s sake more than anybody else’s.

4. Per Mertesacker, Arsenal: The giant German was a hasty deadline-day purchase, bought in to add six-and-a-half feet’s worth of physical presence to Arsenal’s diminutive backline and, as Lawro put it a fortnight or so ago, his addition hasn’t helped one bit. We’ve heard it said for quite some time that he’s slow, positionally lapse and deceptively willowy despite his frame and international acclaim – the Gunner’s are finding that out the hard way at the moment.

3. Adel Taarabt, QPR: Despite being molly-coddled, bubble-wrapped and treated with kid gloves by Neil Warnock in a desperate bid to pander to his incredibly disproportionate ego, Taarabt has failed to set the ‘big stage’ alight so far – though he’s probably tell you otherwise, or blame his teammates, or manager, or his own mother, etc. The Moroccan has also chalked up more shots on goal (by about ten or so) than any other Premier League player in his first seven games and failed to register with any of them.

2. Bolton: Owen Coyle’s side currently sit rock-bottom and have started so poorly, it’s impossible to pick just one Trotter out for castigation. True, their early fixture list has been an absolute pig (Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea) but it’s not as if they’ve held their own against the big boys. Indeed, Bolton have now conceded more goals than any other team after seven games in Premier League history and racked up their longest run (5) of consecutive top flight home defeats after getting pasted 5-1 at home by Chelsea last time out.

1. Carlos Tevez, Man City: It’s fair to say that Tevez is a victim of his own poor/misguided career choices and that his problems will just keep escalating as long as he’s the cash-cow at the centre of Kia Joorabchian and co.’s money-creaming circle jerk – but he really doesn’t help himself when he does the things he (repeatedly) does. Tevez could and probably should have been an all-time great, but he will now forever be tainted with the ‘prodigiously talented mercenary’ caricature that he seems so keen to keep perpetuating. If that isn’t disappointing, I don’t know what is.

Any poo-poo faces I’ve missed? Feel free to give me a nudge in the comment’s box below…

Posted in Featured, Opinion, Top 10s & lists

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61 Comments

  1. NokkonWud says:

    Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson. Both have been awful so far.

  2. Montesquieu says:

    I would have placed Torres closer to the top three, considering his price tag and the amount of goals he has produced. I reckon that Liverpool really are having the last laugh at the end of the day. They got their best from Torres, before he slumped in form and goal scoring.

    Chelsea was the wrong choice for him, especially when he has so many other currently in-form players to compete with. Than again, I doubt any team in the Premier League could bring him out of this rough slump currently. He’d have to be given a vote of confidence by being forced to play every game, and I hardly see that at Chelsea.

    Than again, he is earning loads and will likely win some medal even if he doesn’t play a single minute toward earning the trophy. While at Liverpool that would have been unlikely.

    Overall, I think you nailed it with Tevez. He’s the more extreme version of Anelka, who’s impossible to deal with and has a constant need to be told how much of an important part he is to a team.

  3. utd says:

    you have got to be kidding me
    nani on the list, absolute bollocks that

  4. Colin says:

    Brace yourself for the angry comments regarding Nani’s inclusion!

  5. Elliott says:

    Mertesacker is an interesting case – a centerback that is better on the ball than off it. I’ve enjoyed is calmness in keeping possession, but he’s been turned so many times….

  6. Colin says:

    Couple of thoughts – I’m not so much disappointed about Tevez as this situation was always on the cards even at pre-season stage but, yes, he is a complete tool. Taraabt really does personify the gap between Championship and the Premiership; playing against classier defenders and more tactically sound teams he looks like a pony who has just lost it’s one trick.

    One of my disappointments of the season is the Argentinian striker that Everton picked up, the one with the ridiculous name beginning with ‘P’. Nothing at fault with him personally (at least not yet) but for a team that seems to need a bit of manpower in attack, why has he played so little?

  7. Shane says:

    money-creaming circle jerk…I enjoy that one

  8. Redskywalker says:

    Carl Jenkinson. Biggest joke I’ve ever seen in football.

  9. Davy says:

    Jordan Henderson has to be on this list….He’s gash

    • Chris says:

      @Davy: Completely forgot about Henderson, that’s probably a good indication of how things have been going for him lately.

  10. Neerav says:

    Ramsey has been more disappointing for me than Mertesacker.

  11. Papi says:

    Replace Nani with Henderson and you’ve got yourself a list here, Chris bro.

  12. Nick Wiper says:

    nani wrong, carroll wrong, harsh list considering most of them are in their first season in the premier league. carl jenkinson definitely and possibly antonio valencia

  13. Damian says:

    How Ruiz can show what he have if just plays few minutes???

    Stupid make a list like this with just few games. Give him more time and he will show all what he have!!!!

  14. Damian Beunza Valverde says:

    How Ruiz can show what he have if just plays few minutes???

    Stupid make a list like this with just few games. Give him more time and he will show all what he have!!!!

  15. Marty says:

    Ramsey is like South Africa (cricket) of Football. Chokes on the vital moments. It pains me to see such a talented youngster hide in his shell (with Theo) when we go concede. His passing becomes soo sloppy. It’s like hes a whole different sup-par player.

  16. someone says:

    DJOUROU,KOSCIELNY,JENKINSON,HENDERSON deserved a place here
    while Torres,Nani,Taarabt & Mertasacker shouldn’t be included

  17. thisISben says:

    Nani!?!?! Really?

  18. Sam says:

    Jay bothroyd! Without a doubt im sure everyones going to say “oh yeah” mainly because hes done nothing for anyone to realise. Also as a lifelong norwich fan and him being my cult hero i hate to say it but grant holt hasnt done much for me, hes a quality player but ref’s in this league have his sussed, yet hes a club legend and pissed off AVB so im happy

  19. Kevin says:

    I agree, Henderson really should be up there. Aside from that goal haven’t seen him do anything at all.

  20. Matt says:

    RE Ruiz, if you by “couple of months” you mean 1 month and 6 days, then yes, that is a couple of months.

  21. Persons who wrote that stupid article don’t know what they are saying.
    For example Ruiz need to have more chances to play. Matt is right, give time to people, he needs more minutes, not Ruiz faul, it’s manager fault.

  22. Brendan says:

    Putting Nani on that list is ridiculous! He’s been better than any United player bar Rooney so far this year. Your reason for putting Nani on that list doesn’t even make any sense. Absolute foolishness.

    Stick Henderson or Jenkinson in that list instead of Nani.

  23. panda says:

    Awful list. You include nani while you don’t even put torres in top 3? jokes. Also, this is a player list yet you include Coyle.

    Where is Arshavin, SWP, Lampard?

    disgraceful.

  24. Jeff says:

    “Money creaming circle jerk” has to be the most brilliant phrase I’ve ever seen. Could explain just about all of the professional sports leagues here in the states.

  25. Patrick says:

    Mertesacker hasn’t been great, but not terrible either. There are worse Aresenal flops and guilty parties for goals. Ramsey wasn’t good last game, but has held his own for the most part. Anderson from Man U? He looked terrible last I saw him. I think Torres should be higher up for sure given his price tag to goal ratio.

  26. Patrick says:

    @panda. They didn’t include “Coyle.” They included Bolton and seems logical to include a picture of the manager here (may have been funny to do a team photo though…). And not agreeing here with Lampard or Arshavin.

  27. Daniel says:

    Bryan Ruiz!! He just have played like two games, give him more time!! and to be 5 when Fernando Torres is 6! Fernando must be the number 1!! Nani and Tevez in the list? Who the f made this list?

  28. Mizman says:

    nani? disapointing?! fucking joke

  29. dos says:

    goodwillie played for dundee united, different team from dundee

  30. Paul says:

    Stupid jerk, this is the worst top 10 i’ve ever seen…

  31. Nick Wiper says:

    SWP has been playing quality, watch the games before you judge purely from stats for christ’s sake

  32. Elliott says:

    Bryan Ruiz rocks!

  33. Charlie says:

    Raging goodwillie made the list. Ok he hasnt scored any goals in the premiership…… yet. However every game hes played he has looked liked he was going to score so give him time.

  34. Luke says:

    I know what you’re saying with Nani, but come on – Sunderland! Millions spent to get 4 deflected goals against stoke and stuff every other game?

  35. Rob says:

    Putting Nani on the list ahead of Gervinho and Walcott seems pretty insane to me.

  36. Dont worry says:

    This is not the list of the worst players like some of you say Koscielny (horrible by the way) this is for people with potential and that we expected big things from

  37. Kevin says:

    Hey!! Ruiz played only a few minutes and now it’s bad??

  38. Coolie says:

    People please read the title of the article ‘Top 10 Most Disappointing Premier League Players Of 2011/12 So Far’. Now where does it say worst player in the premier league so far?? To be disappointing people have to have thought you would/could produce the goods. So people suggesting the likes of Koscielny should be on the list are sorely mistaken cause he was pure shite last year and no one has expected him to be any different this year, therefore he has not disappointed.

  39. AGB says:

    Carroll inclusion seems a bit harsh to me. He has scored once since April was the reason….. so that leaves a month between April and theend of last season, three months of no games at all and six weeks of the new season to base the judgement on. And hasn’t he been injured off and on and missed a few of these already limited games as well?

    That said, we must be living in a world gone mad if you could have bought David Villa and had some change from the money Andy Carroll cost.

  40. […] this link: Top 10 Most Disappointing Premier League Players Of 2011/12 So … Related Posts:Newcastle Premier League Squad List Now Confirmed Newcastle United have now confirmed […]

  41. JJ says:

    Ruiz will be ok, he was on par with Suarez when they were both in the Eredivisie and almost single handedly took a bunch of provincial chancers to the championship, beating relative moneybags (and Suarez’s team) Ajax in the process. Quality like that doesn’t disappear, he just needs a fair pop in a position he knows.

  42. Dont worry says:

    Thanks Coolie for sayign what i said in better terms =D

  43. Vans says:

    Shocking, Nani!!! And anyone who has seen chelseas matches involving torres this season will disagree with you, have you only seen his red card and miss against man u and thats what you’re rating him on, i know you have mentioned some improvemnet but to be below the ape Carrol is really just a joke. Carrol is terrible, (dont know how is in the england squad ahead of sturridge who is not only performing better for club but has matured and has a much better attitude now)

  44. chong says:

    yo pensaba que solo en mi pais habian periodistas estupidos , como va a incluir a RUIZ en esta lista ??si no le a tocado la opurtunidad .

  45. GP says:

    Nani?? really?? i agree he had a slow start, but he has been vital for manutd this season, with his assists and important goals… where’s henderson? swp? walcott? gervinho? malouda?

  46. Chris says:

    Wickham & Gardner at Sunderland have been poor. Not at all biased being a black + white ….

  47. Will says:

    Nani in the list?????????
    Stop embarrassing yourselves and take it out of this list…God, is ridiculous what websites are willing to do in order to get some google ranking a couple of hits.

  48. dave says:

    “treated with kid gloves”

    what on earth could that mean?

  49. Tom Jones says:

    Bolton is not a player. Change the headline.

  50. QMario says:

    @Marty: haha great reference! Ons is n bietjie kak.
    Mertesacker has been average, but you dont get into the german team without kwality, give him some time.

  51. Ray Von says:

    Steve Marlet was Fulham’s record signing at £11.5m ten years ago, he was a bag of sh*t. Ruiz will come good though.

  52. makoto hasebe says:

    the liverpool trio henderson, adam and caroll is flop of the year! where are their photos?

  53. Bruce Deuce says:

    Goodwillie played for Dundee United, not their rivals Dundee.

  54. muuslim says:

    eat shittttttttttttttt

  55. muuslim says:

    eat more hallal not shitttttttttttty porkkkkk

  56. Fatma says:

    First plz the so called “muslim guy” is stupid we aint talking about teligion for Gods sake we are talking about football.I am a muslin too but i see your mistake.Lets get back to the subject,nani shouldnt be here neither do caroll.Torres is so much disapointing,I as a chelsea fan am so much hurt and I feel sorry for the billionair abramovich!all the chances that he is given by his fellow mates he messes them up but the one with manchester untd evn my grandpa could score that!!!for a world star like him was a very big embarassment hope he does good on wednesday.He is good at his hair and at the pitch!!! Only tima will tell I hope he changed and chelsea move on not like last season with dear ancelotti!this time we have a handsome young star aka “little carrot”!!!!ol the best chelsea fans

  57. ricky says:

    Arshavin and Walcott have been extremely poor so far this season

  58. Presley says:

    Nani on this list??????
    I guess a chelsea fan out there is responsible for this stupid list

  59. Anonymous says:

    steve downing

  60. Anonymous says:

    One name for your list
    HESKEY

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