Mesut Ozil and the 20 Star Names Who Continue to Disappoint
Much of the criticism aimed at the currently injured Arsenal and Germany midfielder Mesut Ozil has been overly harsh, but it is only because we have such high expectations of him.
The World Cup winner hasn't been able to show his true self since moving to the Emirates Stadium, where he has fallen short of the level he demonstrated at previous club Real Madrid.
That has led to plenty of Gunners being disappointed in their attacking midfielder, but the German is far from being alone in that.
Here are some more players who just leave us feeling as though they can give more.
Fernando Torres
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The decline of Fernando Torres is well-documented, with the Spanish forward suffering all manner of insults and brickbats on his way from becoming Chelsea’s £50 million forward to a player they were happy to ship out the door to AC Milan three-and-a-half years later.
Once so prolific at Liverpool and with Spain, the forward became a shadow of his former self whilst with the Blues, with pre-existing injuries and an almost complete loss of confidence surely to blame.
His defenders will point out that he still won pretty much all of the game’s major honours in the past few years, but the fact that defenders often get the better of him leads to a belief that he didn’t really contribute to those successes in the manner he could have.
Roberto Soldado
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Once a respected and feared forward in Spain with Valencia, Roberto Soldado’s name has become a byword for disappointment ever since he moved to Tottenham in a multi-million pound deal in the summer of 2013.
Soldado was supposed to be the man who fired Spurs to the Champions League and the best investment of their Gareth Bale money, but he’s been a complete failure ever since he moved to White Hart Lane, where he now barely gets a game under Mauricio Pochettino.
A move back to his homeland surely beckons, if anyone will take him.
Iker Casillas
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The drop-off in Iker Casillas' form has been one of the headline stories in world football for the past year, with the Real Madrid goalkeeper enduring a nightmare World Cup and now seeing his position as Spain's No. 1 usurped by Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea.
Casillas did still get to lift the Champions League trophy in 2013/14, but the feeling that he is on the decline is a very tough one to escape from.
Whether or not he'll ever get back to the form which saw him become one of the very best stoppers in the world is doubtful, but it promises to be fascinating to watch him try.
Wayne Rooney
4 of 20
As he closes in on becoming England’s record international goalscorer, it seems churlish to criticise Wayne Rooney who this season has been appointed as Manchester United’s captain.
Like so many others on this list, though, we just ended up wanting to see more from a player who looked like he had the world at his feet when he broke through as a 16-year-old at Everton before going on to inspire the England team at Euro 2004.
Rooney has had a glittering career, but the notion that he’s not quite doing enough has led some to wonder whether United would now be better off without him.
Emmanuel Adebayor
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Emmanuel Adebayor will probably have a month or six weeks this season when he looks absolutely unplayable, but then he’ll go back to his usual disappointing self.
The Togolese has all the attributes that any top forward would want to have, but he makes this list simply because we don’t see enough of them.
His below-par start to the season has already got Tottenham fans questioning just how long boss Mauricio Pochettino will persist with him, as the lack of enthusiasm compared to the three players usually stationed behind him—Christian Eriksen, Nacer Chadli and Erik Lamela (a shoo-in for this list last season)—is startling.
Mamadou Sakho
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When he arrived from Paris Saint-Germain last summer, Liverpool fans would have been hoping that Mamadou Sakho was the man to plug the holes in the Reds’ leaky defence, but sadly he seems to have caused a fair few of them.
The French international is strong, powerful and athletic, and so he really shouldn’t be as erratic as he frequently is both with the ball and without.
His lax attitude to marking does him no favours either, and you have to wonder whether the rough and tumble of English football really is for him—something that Brendan Rodgers would probably agree with given that he left him out of the squad for the recent Merseyside derby.
Andy Carroll
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Burdened with the ridiculous transfer fee that Liverpool agreed to pay for him in January 2011, Andy Carroll’s career has been on a steady decline ever since—so much so that current club West Ham now don’t appear to be missing him whilst he’s again out injured.
Fitness problems have long been the issue for the Newcastle-born forward, whose England career has also seemingly melted away over the past couple of years as he’s spent more and more time on the treatment table.
Will he ever return and get back to best? He’s certainly young enough, but it could be a long road back.
Mario Balotelli
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Players with all of the ability in the world but who lack the aptitude to consistently show it are often the most disappointing, and so that’s why Liverpool’s Mario Balotelli has to make the list.
The Reds have taken a gamble on the Italian this season as they look to life post-Luis Suarez, and his slow start at his new club has led to many wondering whether a move for a player who has already been through Inter Milan, Manchester City and AC Milan was the right choice, even though Balotelli has time on his side to try and prove that it was.
He could certainly do with getting on with it, though.
Paulinho
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One of Tottenham’s galaxy of summer 2013 signings, Paulinho has had his good moments in a Spurs shirt, but he’s also had some pretty anonymous ones as well.
The Brazilian was ineffective for his country at the World Cup, too, and the notion amongst some Tottenham fans is that he simply isn’t putting in enough effort to try and help the team as they embark on this new approach under Mauricio Pochettino.
There are few things that fans dislike more than a lack of effort, and so Paulinho would be wise to up his game.
Rio Ferdinand
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Having signed for Queens Park Rangers in a bid to shore up their defence and help their relegation battle, Rio Ferdinand hasn’t done either yet.
It really is just a case of age catching up with the former Manchester United and England man, but he’s undoubtedly been poor as his club struggle along near the foot of the Premier League and fail to inspire many.
Ferdinand’s best days seem long gone, and he is a long way from his best days when he was easily one of the top centre-backs in the world.
Nemanja Vidic
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The decline of Nemanja Vidic has become even more pronounced since his move to Serie A with Inter Milan, where red cards and the concession of penalties have blighted his first few weeks in Italy.
Injuries ruined the later years of the former Manchester United captain’s time at Old Trafford, and they seem to have clouded his defensive judgement and ability to read a game.
The Serbian was once one of the finest defenders in Europe and indeed the world, but not so much any more.
Bojan Krkic
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The rush amongst many to put Bojan Krkic in their Fantasy Premier League teams this summer was presumably off the back of his previous career at Barcelona, but it has quickly become apparent that Stoke City have signed a very different player.
Bojan hasn’t picked up a Spain cap since 2008, and his early struggles at the Britannia Stadium have indicated just why that is the case.
He is a shadow of the player he used to be and hasn’t proved to be the inspiration that many hoped. Therefore, he’s been a huge disappointment.
Joe Hart
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Goalkeeping is a tough job, and it is true that we often unfairly focus on a 'keeper’s bad days as opposed to their good ones.
Joe Hart has been threatening to become one of world football’s very best over the past few years as he has kept goal for Manchester City and England, but the fact that he has never quite reached that level and always seems to have a mistake in him is something of a disappointment.
His inclusion here is undoubtedly one of the harshest, but until he consistently reaches the level that everyone hopes he can, then he’ll go on being someone who is mistrusted.
Simon Mignolet
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By now it is the common consensus that Simon Mignolet is having a poor season at Liverpool, but no-one can really name an obviously dreadful error that the Belgian has made which has cost the Reds a goal.
It is really more of a case of the goalkeeper failing to command his penalty area and put his frequently jittery defenders at ease which is proving to be such a disappointment.
Liverpool’s increased scoring power last season meant that they could somewhat get away with these sort of errors back then, but now they are more pronounced.
Mignolet signed for the Reds when they were a seventh-placed club, but he needs to adapt to the pressures of a Liverpool who are in the Champions League and have Premier League ambitions.
Marouane Fellaini
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The lasting and ultimately the most damning remnant of David Moyes’s Manchester United era, Marouane Fellaini now stands as a monument to disappointment at Old Trafford.
Whilst other, far more exciting additions have been made by Louis van Gaal this summer, the Belgian still remains at the club despite appearing to be completely unsuited to the way they play.
Moyes obviously envisaged his former Everton charge being one of his key men at United when he moved there in 2013, but like the United chiefs were when they agreed to make him the successor to Sir Alex Ferguson, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
David Luiz
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Just the thought of David Luiz’s performance in Brazil’s infamous and still frankly ridiculous 7-1 World Cup semi-final defeat to Germany still makes football fans worldwide shake their heads in bewilderment.
The Paris Saint-Germain defender had the mother of all shockers as his haring around the pitch trying to put out various fires that weren’t there allowed the Germans to assume complete control of the match, scoring seven goals to embarrass the hosts.
Of course Luiz isn’t as bad as this in every match, but it was a microcosm of everything that is wrong with his game, and something that we’ve seen on other occasions, too.
Stevan Jovetic
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The quality of Montenegro’s Stevan Jovetic isn’t in doubt, but sadly the most prolific thing about him in recent years has been his injury record.
The forward showed glimpses of his ability in fits and starts last season—his first campaign with Manchester City—and the beginning of this one, most notably with two goals against Liverpool, but it wasn’t long before the injury curse struck again.
He now faces a huge battle to get into Manuel Pellegrini’s team, and it doesn’t look to be one he can consistently win.
Romelu Lukaku
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This is another harsh inclusion but simply comes from the fact that you always get the impression that Romelu Lukaku could be doing more.
The giant Belgian forward has struggled since becoming Everton’s record £28 million signing in the summer, as he fails to consistently exert his authority on matches and dominate defenders in the manner that he is certainly well-equipped to do.
It is easy to forget that Lukaku is still young, but right now he remains a work in progress.
Joey Barton
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For a man who talks such a good game, winning a place in the struggling Queens Park Rangers midfield really shouldn’t be this difficult.
Injuries haven’t helped Joey Barton, of course, but after showing such immense promise in his early days at Manchester City and then great consistency at Newcastle, that talent hasn’t really come to the fore lately for a man who has previously been so outspoken.
Barton is good enough to have far more of an impact in matches than he frequently does, and so a place on this list is deserved at the moment.
Mesut Ozil
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The frustration with and ultimate disappointment in Mesut Ozil isn’t because he’s not a good footballer—he clearly is all that and more—but it stems from the fact that he doesn’t seem to do enough to influence games.
For a player so remarkably gifted, he seems to seek out the fringes, leaving it to others to impress instead of him.
His current injury makes it impossible for him to answer his critics right now, of course, but it is to be hoped that he does so when he returns, as we all know what he’s capable of and he simply hasn’t demonstrated that so far in an Arsenal shirt.
