Now that the season is drawing to a close,who in your opinion has not lived up to your expectations,for me its Ruiz, Frei, & Richardson,so high hopes,but alas ?.
ros, if we got into the CL you'd be disappointed if we didn't win it! I'm not especially disappointed, purely because after losing our two best players right at the end of the transfer window I thought we'd struggle even more than we have. No, it's not really a season to remember but then I can't fathom why anyone would think it would be. All things considered I'm relieved we are where we are. And did you honestly have high hopes for Richardson?! Even he's done alright recently, and he was never supposed to be the player we build our team around.
I was hoping one of these threads wouldn't appear until the season has actually finished to be honest, there are after all four games left for us to decide who has made the most and least impact. Four games may not be a lot, but if Ruiz manages six goals in that time, I doubt anyone would be putting him on their 'worst players' list. Perhaps not the best example, but a valid point nonetheless. For what it's worth, I agree with Bidley. Richardson hasn't been fantastic but has improved quite a bit since his awful introductory few games, and for the price we paid for him, we could hardly expect him to be a world class player. Frei has been injured for the vast majority of the season, so it would be unfair to label him a failure, otherwise we can put the likes of Diarra and Davies in that bracket too. Ruiz is a tricky one, he certainly has failed to build on his promising start to the season, and I still wouldn't say that for £10m we have got value for money, but the price tag can hardly be the players fault. I'd expand on my opinion when a thread is either created or added to at the end of the season, but right now I would put Ruiz, Sidwell and Senderos in our 'under-performers' bracket and Berbatov, Schwarzer and Riether in our 'star performers' category. Although, I do find it difficult to pick out a player who has really let the team down overall, as all three 'under-performers' have had decent spells.
Agree with Bandit, but have to say my biggest disappointment is once again failing to do anything in the cups - especially the League cup. Why we are so poor in the cups I just can't fathom. The League cup in particular is one where, no matter how good a side we put out, we always seem to fall at the first hurdle to some team like Rochdale.
Agreed. Although to be drawn at Old Trafford this year so early on was just unlucky. You need a certain amount of good fortune in the draw these days.
I agree what you say on the Cup runs. I thought we might have done better but drawing Man Utd was unlucky. Also on young players like Frei, Kasami, Briggs, Kaca - they got their chances and didn't quite shine as well as I had hoped. Early days and next season we may see more if they are still around. Ruiz I think has improved on last year , frustrating at times I know, but still think he will get better. Reither, Dejagah, and Berbatov have been surprise welcome additions. Hangeland and Schwartzer have been as reliable as ever - Duff also nearly making that category. I did not like Richardson to start with but he has improved. All together not bad.
To be fair, with regards to the cups this year we had mitigating circumstances. We made hard work of the Blackpool games which was disappointing, but the Sheff Wed game was the first game without Dembele and our first bad game of the year, and even then we narrowly lost, and we drew Utd after Blackpool. Same with last year, we drew Chelsea in the first League Cup round. So to say we always fall at the first hurdle to lower-league teams is a bit unfair in recent terms. I do agree though, it's disappointing nonetheless.
Briggs...many thought this would be "the" season he comes to age. Got his chance too when Jol had a bust up the the overated Riise. Briggs has been nothing short of awful.
Briggs...many thought this would be "the" season he comes to age. Got his chance too when Jol had a bust up the the overated Riise. Briggs has been nothing short of awful.
