World Football's 8 Best Teams That Were over-Reliant on One Player
Great football teams contain great players, this we know. What we also know is that, at times, those sides can tend to be over-reliant on their very best stars, trusting in them to put in match-winning performances, week after week, as they go in search of titles and trophies.
Inevitably these key individuals tend to be offensive players, those who can break ranks, destroy enemy lines and find a decisive contribution to turn tight games into impressive victories.
The downside, of course, is that when that player doesn't find his form, or is unavailable, the team can come unstuck. Over-reliance is something all teams try to avoid, but when you have a player who is that good, it can be difficult not to slip into that level of expectation.
Argentina and Diego Maradona, 1986 and 1990
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One of the most famous cases of a top player "doing it himself" was Diego Maradona, who had an enormous helping hand in Argentina clinching the World Cup title in Mexico 1986.
Four years later and they were back in the final in Italia '90—but the rest of the team was worse than four years earlier.
If they were reliant on Maradona in '86, they certainly did nothing to solve it in the interim period and, with the forward past his prime on Italian soil, Argentina didn't have enough to retain the trophy.
Juventus and Zinedine Zidane, 1998
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Zinedine Zidane was making waves and winning trophies long before he rocked up as perhaps the best player in the world at one point with Real Madrid.
While at Juventus, he became the focal point of the team's attack, letting everything flow though him to reach the talented front two of Alessandro del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi, with a workman-like rather than immensely creative midfield line behind him.
Zidane helped Juve to the Champions League final in '98 and they won Serie A, but with everything going through the Frenchman he was so pivotal to their team that a dip in form—as happened the following year after his World Cup exploits—meant Juve were rendered blunt. They finished seventh the following season.
Brazil and Ronaldo, 1998
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Brazil reached the World Cup final in 1998 and the story on the eve of the final itself remains an oft-told story, with star striker Ronaldo suffering so badly he was initially named out of the starting XI.
Restored in time for the match but clearly ill-prepared, Brazil had no answer to France without their main man in attack firing. They had Rivaldo, a genius and a playmaker, but he was there to provide service to the king front man.
With Ronaldo rendered a bystander, Brazil suffered a heavy defeat in the final.
Arsenal and Thierry Henry, 2006
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Thierry Henry was one of the top forwards in world football for a time, so much so that he became Arsenal's saviour and hero on a weekly basis in his prime.
Once the scoring contribution from the likes of Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires fell dramatically, Henry was the constant, the clinical, the composed.
With Henry in prime form, hitting over 30 goals in 05-06—his fifth successive season of reaching the landmark—Arsenal reached the Champions League final and almost took the greatest prize in club football.
The team was built almost on him alone, though, and when he missed several months through injury the following season, Arsenal managed just the round of 16 in Europe, didn't win a domestic trophy and saw Robin van Persie top score with just 13 goals.
AC Milan and Kaka, 2007
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AC Milan had a tremendous squad for a decade or more but as it began to grow old together in the mid-to-late 2000s, attacking midfield playmaker Kaka became ever more vital.
His driving runs, balance, scoring ability and creative threat meant Milan's attacks inevitably went through him, or not at all.
Kaka helped them to a Champions League final victory in '07, but he alone was not enough to sustain the success and it was four seasons before they strengthened enough to win another trophy of note.
Manchester United and Cristiano Ronaldo, 2009
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Cristiano Ronaldo was seen as one of the world's top players at Manchester United, before going on to shatter that supposed ceiling following his move to Real Madrid.
By his last days with United he was the key man in so many ways, showing remarkable consistency in front of goal, bombarding the opposition with shots from whenever and wherever and dragging United toward a Champions League final.
He alone wasn't enough to win it, outclassed as they were on the occasion by Barcelona, but he was a huge reason for the team being there and one of the only players who came close to matching the opposition for impact and ability.
Barcelona and Lionel Messi, 2013
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Where treads Ronaldo, so inevitably does Messi.
The Barcelona genius was in irrepressible form in and around 2012 when Xavi and Co. were also somewhere around the peak of their powers. As tactics subtly shifted, managers changed and age caught up a little with other stars, Messi remained the key to Barcelona's dominance.
When niggling injuries struck, Barcelona's over-reliance on Messi was apparent in them trying to rush him back, time and time again, to play in key matches and find ways to win games. He wasn't fit, he couldn't do it and the biggest prizes evaded them.
Argentina and Lionel Messi, 2014
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And Messi again to finish with.
Argentina's team was so plainly set up to help Messi thrive on the biggest stage of all this summer, that teams were almost invited to try and keep him quiet to beat Argentina.
Angel Di Maria couldn't shine, Kun Aguero wasn't fit and Gonzalo Higuain was plain old poor, so it was left to Messi to drag his nation through the group stage with his goals and assists. They made it all the way to the World Cup final, but Messi was clearly not on top of his game for much of the knockout stages and the final proved one step too far.
His big aim of winning the title on Brazilian soil wasn't to be, and thus Argentina likewise failed by a narrow margin.
