Article: Joe Ledley | Football, Wales

I see Mr Ledley is playing for Wales again this evening.

I ask one simple question. Is he good enough. I am not opening an arguement between Swansea and ***diff fans. But from what I have seen and I admit it is not that much. He seems to be the most overated player in modern times.

So come on guys be honest. Do you believe he is good enough.

 

He's good enough but I think he needs to step up a bit more when playing for Wales. I haven't seen much of him since he went to Celtic tbh so can't comment on his day to day SPL form.

 

Let's concentrate on an interesting point: most over-rated player in recent times?
Beckham? Did one or two things really very well, especially if a ball was stationary or moving slowly, but not that good at anything that involved running.
Michael Owen? One good dive and one good goal and suddenly he became the greatest forward in the world.
(neither of these players would have got into sides like Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Portugal ...... but because they were English their feats were hugely over publicised and over-rated).

OK - I've started this off with two suggestions, anybody else got ideas to addd to the list?

 

carlton palmer......??????

agree with beckham

steve mcnanamananmana ???

heski ?????


and good players but do they truly justify the truly godlike staus for what they actually delivered........kaka and gazza anyone????

 

on a club front..... Jordi Lopez .....UEFA Cup winner.....my arse!

 

swim, have to say gazza was the best modern player i have seen. the guy was a genius. shame about his head

 

I rest my case. "What could have been", is his story. They may not need to be intelligent but they do need some brain when they are held up so highly. A crying shame, but ultimately, he did not deliver the promise whenever it was asked of him.


I take it, no arguments over the rest!!!

 

Whilst we are at it, the most underated players???

It's a hard one when the English media build their own up so much but here goes, starter for 1..... Matt Le Tissier?

 

Hopefully with all our midfielders fit and not suspended he wont be putting a Wales shirt on for a while, except for as a sub and then he will be lucky.

 

I know he spent a lot of time playing on the left (fullback and wing), but does seem quite effective in the middle. Often when he's quite in a game is because he's effectively going about his business. Not flamboyant like others but steadily doing his job. Not sure Speed will have done him any favours playing him on the left, he's not played there for a while. As said above, with everyone fit and available, he'd probably be a squad player. A good squad player.

 

Lets face it. Wales arent exactly gifted with talent.

With everyone fit Ledley still gets in the team easily.

As far as being overrated hes a very good championship player playing in a pub league. Hes at his level. He could do a job for a lower league PL side. Dont think anyone has ever said hes real top quality.

Ledley is no better or no worse than Vaughan. Hes better than Andy King and others though.

 

And that was there best bunch in a while apparently

 

I don't buy that a quiet player in a match is playing well! They may not be playing bad, but they aren't 'doing their business' either.

You look at the best defensive midfielders in the world (Makelele - France, De Jong - Netherlands, Mascherano - Argentina, Busquets - Spain) and you realise that they do not go about their work quietly. They get into the faces of the opposition and win the ball back so much that they have to be noticed.

A player going about his work 'quietly' is a player that is just going through the motions. A player being carried by his team mates so that he feels like he doesn't need to play that defence splitting pass, a player that shows a player down the line instead of cutting the ball out before the guy had it in the first place. A team is only as good as it's weakest player, and if a player is going about his work 'quietly', he needs to be replaced by a player that will try his best to go about his work 'loudly'. Club level - you may get away with it. International level - there's too many like-for-like players on the bench that can come on and try harder (King and Allen today).

Ledley is talented and left midfield is not his strength as he's just not quick enough. But he's got a future as a holding midfielder, but he has to knuckle down and make himself noticed. Being quiet doesn't keep you in an international squad.

(PS After all that, I do realise that you've said that he'd probably only be a squad player anyway. But he's got more talent than that, and it would be nice to see him busting a gut to help the cause as it's only Wales that will benefit because of it)

 

this

 

bigkid, I should have been more specific. I'm not saying everyone who is quiet during a game is having a good game. Some players simply go missing. However, from what I've seen of Ledley, he isn't a flamboyant player, but he does the simple things well. Quite often when he's having a bad game he's more noticable because attention is drawn to his mistakes.

Compare that with Bale. You see him everytime he is on the ball. If he's quiet, he's out of the game.

 

Ledley was rubbish

 

I was very specific in my post though, and I was careful not to compare Ledley to something that he isn't. Ledley, for Wales, is a defensive midfield. Hence why my previous post highlighted that the best defensive midfielders in the world do not go 'quiet' during games.

Doing the simple things well is not enough at international level. You face players with more pride for the shirt, with extra passion that gives them that extra half yard of pace and extra strength. Doing the simple things won't keep you up to speed at international level.

I think that he needs to get out of the SPL. Going into every match as a certain favourite and feeling like you don't have to be at 100% to win is spoiling his natural game. He needs to be in a league where he knows he has to perform to his highest standard every week, not just when Rangers are at the party. Only then will we see him improve.

 

The SPL is welcome to the money grabbing little ****, yes I am bitter about Ledley's departure but not because I miss his talent as I think he is overrated but because he purposly led the club along and screwed us out of getting a transfer fee at a time we needed it most. He left for Champions league football, how's that working out for you Joe

 

Most overrated players of modern times (in no particular order)...

Emile Heskey (already mentioned above)
Glen Johnson (good going forward but quite shocking defensively most of the time)
Theo Walcott (has speed and good footwork, terrible end product more often than not)
Robinhio (had talent but was far too miserable/lazy)
Asley Cole (gets beaten defensively too easily by the top players)
Peter Crouch (say no more.. £10 million?????)
Robbie Keane
Jason Koumas (unfortunately. Again, lots of talent but not consistent enough)
John Barnes (one good goal and he is worshipped.. an even worse commentator too)

Funny but i think most of my overrated players seem to be English.. It is obvioulsy due to the press hype they get (someone above has already alluded to this). Don't get me wrong, lots of them are good players, just not the "world class" players they tend to be overhyped as....

 

Ok, so on the first point about Joe Ledley... I'd say he IS good enough (at the moment, at least) but if Allen continues to improve I foresee a midfield including Allen and Ramsey for years to come. Ledley does need to up his game though, as he hasn't really stood out in a long time. Every time we played a derby game he seemed to go missing and I agree with kidders, if you're in a DM position, if you're not being noticed you're not playing well.