Under appreciated City Players

[Philecfc]

Christy Pym Fans used to he was to short to fat overrated and everything else. But has gone on to play 78 times for Peterborough and until a couple of weeks ago was their number one after 151 for us.

 

[Grecian2K]

Christy Pym Fans used to he was to short to fat overrated and everything else. But has gone on to play 78 times for Peterborough and until a couple of weeks ago was their number one after 151 for us.

Not just Christy but I think most of our glovesmen over the past half century have been under-appreciated (well, in certain parts of the US of A that is)

 

[Greyhound]

I don't recall if the supporters failed to appreciate Dixie McNeil, but ECFC released him after one season. He later scored a load of goals for other clubs.

 

[Alistair20000]

Not just Christy but I think most of our glovesmen over the past half century have been under-appreciated (well, in certain parts of the US of A that is)

As well as under measured......in those parts of USA

 

[antman]

Thing is if you're going to use Exeweb as your yardstick, most players are underappreciated. People use Exeweb to vent their frustrations much more than they use it to laud our players, which I've always found strange. There is certainly praise for players when they play well, but when things aren't going so well the amount of debate and posts on here about what is wrong (and it seems everyone needs their particular reason, whether it's the manager, a scapegoat player, usually this is a striker who doesn't score enough, a defensive midfielder who doesn't create enough - I always find that one weird, or a defender that is blamed for when we concede). Bad runs of form see much more activity on here than good ones, and it only takes a couple of defeats for people to start jumping on here pointing fingers.

In my opinion, and I know you'll disagree, there are some players who have been unfairly targeted over the years. Sweeney is definitely one, he's a good decision maker with intelligent distribution most of the time and can pass the ball very well on the floor which is the main thing people don't seem to appreciate about his game. Woodman was the devil incarnate for many for about a year or two, during which time the defence was not being protected properly by the midfield. That changed, and hey presto he suddenly became one of our better players in his last few years at the club, though still under appreciated. Matt Jay was very underrated at first, not exactly scapegoated but he was supposed to be never good enough to be a real footballer and look how that worked out. I agree with the analysis in the post above about Ryan Harley, but you would be amazed how many people wrote him off on here in the first season when he was getting regular starts. It's not just the criticism that some players get, it is the ferocity of that. The almighty certainty that this player is rubbish despite the manager watching him week in and week out in training (and not just in home games) so there must be something he sees. We had Lloyd James who was scapegoat in chief for a couple of seasons at least. I've written a lot on here why I never thought he was anywhere near as bad as people made him out to be, principally because his role in the team was about being in the way of the other team in midfield and not so much about creative stuff, which is what he was criticised for. A long while ago there was Paul Buckle in a similar midfield role who used to get it a lot from posters on here despite being an asset to the team defensively.

A hilarious one was Marcus Stewart. When he joined people expected him to rack up the amount of goals in a lower league you would expect from a player that had scored plenty of goals with Ipswich when he played in the Premier League. It turned out that at his age he had completely lost his pace and just couldn't do that anymore, so Paul Tisdale and him worked out a way his footballing brain - good movement, intelligent passing, could keep the game going up front and settle the game in midfield when necessary. We were down to the bare bones in our first year in League One after promotion in 2009, and we narrowly avoided relegation that season. Stewart had so many haters on here it was incredible. If we didn't win, it was because he hadn't scored. The following season was his last one as a player, when he was an integral part of the most over-achieving ECFC team in history, as our financial position was nothing like it is now.

Steve Tully was a player who was hugely underrated in my opinion, not exactly scapegoated on here but people did not seem to get how good he was at keeping the game going and quickly using the ball along the floor on the right channel to good effect. One of my favourites was Scott Golbourne, who many people never really rated on Exeweb, who then was sold for quite a bit of money to Barnsley, then joining Wolves and being an ever present in their Lg 1 championship winning team.

There have been players for us who I didn't really rate but I didn't really say so on here because I didn't see them play enough. Jimmy Keohane was one of them, every time I saw him he just seemed weak and and rushed what he was doing. I wasn't surprised when he went back to Ireland to play there. He since of course has proved me and others wrong and come back to be a regular with Rochdale. In Lee Martin's first season with us, I couldn't understand for the life of me what he was offering to the team, and by that time I was watching nearly all our games on iFollow so I did make the point once or twice, but I didn't do it again and again because I don't like to use this platform for that. He actually did have a better season following that one as it turned out, although I now wish Matt Jay had started instead of him every single time he played (with hindsight, admittedly).

Of course, people have a right to criticise players, and when challenged about it they say they are negative on here but support the team vociferously at home games, which I hope is true. But what I think some fans do is have expectations that player is not good enough and then if they make an error it supports their view. We are at a level where all our players will make errors sometimes so you perhaps need to be looking at everything about their game before jumping to conclusions. Does that player have something that others in the team are not offering (in Woodman's case he had the ability to cross the ball which few of our full backs ever had at that time)? What are they doing off the ball in terms of making space and covering (I did actually used to moan about Nicky Law's covering in central midfield, despite him being the most creative midfield player we've had in recent times)?

Finally, the player who is currently our most underrated player is Archie Collins. Not exactly criticised but I'm not really sure people realise how good he is. Great to see him back, and great to see our current form means there's not too much negativity on here, although it was only a few weeks ago that we were actually terrible and in for the worst season for years according to some loud voices on here. That was a very hasty conclusion to make about a team that is just getting used to playing together. I'm cautiously optimistic now.

 

[SEA Grecian]

Thing is if you're going to use Exeweb as your yardstick, most players are underappreciated. People use Exeweb to vent their frustrations much more than they use it to laud our players, which I've always found strange. There is certainly praise for players when they play well, but when things aren't going so well the amount of debate and posts on here about what is wrong (and it seems everyone needs their particular reason, whether it's the manager, a scapegoat player, usually this is a striker who doesn't score enough, a defensive midfielder who doesn't create enough - I always find that one weird, or a defender that is blamed for when we concede). Bad runs of form see much more activity on here than good ones, and it only takes a couple of defeats for people to start jumping on here pointing fingers.

In my opinion, and I know you'll disagree, there are some players who have been unfairly targeted over the years. Sweeney is definitely one, he's a good decision maker with intelligent distribution most of the time and can pass the ball very well on the floor which is the main thing people don't seem to appreciate about his game. Woodman was the devil incarnate for many for about a year or two, during which time the defence was not being protected properly by the midfield. That changed, and hey presto he suddenly became one of our better players in his last few years at the club, though still under appreciated. Matt Jay was very underrated at first, not exactly scapegoated but he was supposed to be never good enough to be a real footballer and look how that worked out. I agree with the analysis in the post above about Ryan Harley, but you would be amazed how many people wrote him off on here in the first season when he was getting regular starts. It's not just the criticism that some players get, it is the ferocity of that. The almighty certainty that this player is rubbish despite the manager watching him week in and week out in training (and not just in home games) so there must be something he sees. We had Lloyd James who was scapegoat in chief for a couple of seasons at least. I've written a lot on here why I never thought he was anywhere near as bad as people made him out to be, principally because his role in the team was about being in the way of the other team in midfield and not so much about creative stuff, which is what he was criticised for. A long while ago there was Paul Buckle in a similar midfield role who used to get it a lot from posters on here despite being an asset to the team defensively.

A hilarious one was Marcus Stewart. When he joined people expected him to rack up the amount of goals in a lower league you would expect from a player that had scored plenty of goals with Ipswich when he played in the Premier League. It turned out that at his age he had completely lost his pace and just couldn't do that anymore, so Paul Tisdale and him worked out a way his footballing brain - good movement, intelligent passing, could keep the game going up front and settle the game in midfield when necessary. We were down to the bare bones in our first year in League One after promotion in 2009, and we narrowly avoided relegation that season. Stewart had so many haters on here it was incredible. If we didn't win, it was because he hadn't scored. The following season was his last one as a player, when he was an integral part of the most over-achieving ECFC team in history, as our financial position was nothing like it is now.

Steve Tully was a player who was hugely underrated in my opinion, not exactly scapegoated on here but people did not seem to get how good he was at keeping the game going and quickly using the ball along the floor on the right channel to good effect. One of my favourites was Scott Golbourne, who many people never really rated on Exeweb, who then was sold for quite a bit of money to Barnsley, then joining Wolves and being an ever present in their Lg 1 championship winning team.

There have been players for us who I didn't really rate but I didn't really say so on here because I didn't see them play enough. Jimmy Keohane was one of them, every time I saw him he just seemed weak and and rushed what he was doing. I wasn't surprised when he went back to Ireland to play there. He since of course has proved me and others wrong and come back to be a regular with Rochdale. In Lee Martin's first season with us, I couldn't understand for the life of me what he was offering to the team, and by that time I was watching nearly all our games on iFollow so I did make the point once or twice, but I didn't do it again and again because I don't like to use this platform for that. He actually did have a better season following that one as it turned out, although I now wish Matt Jay had started instead of him every single time he played (with hindsight, admittedly).

Of course, people have a right to criticise players, and when challenged about it they say they are negative on here but support the team vociferously at home games, which I hope is true. But what I think some fans do is have expectations that player is not good enough and then if they make an error it supports their view. We are at a level where all our players will make errors sometimes so you perhaps need to be looking at everything about their game before jumping to conclusions. Does that player have something that others in the team are not offering (in Woodman's case he had the ability to cross the ball which few of our full backs ever had at that time)? What are they doing off the ball in terms of making space and covering (I did actually used to moan about Nicky Law's covering in central midfield, despite him being the most creative midfield player we've had in recent times)?

Finally, the player who is currently our most underrated player is Archie Collins. Not exactly criticised but I'm not really sure people realise how good he is. Great to see him back, and great to see our current form means there's not too much negativity on here, although it was only a few weeks ago that we were actually terrible and in for the worst season for years according to some loud voices on here. That was a very hasty conclusion to make about a team that is just getting used to playing together. I'm cautiously optimistic now.

Great post, and while I agree on the general point I slightly disagree on MJ and Archie. With MJ I think he was under-appreciated by his managers; he barely played under Tis so it was hard for fans to judge how good he was. Matt Taylor also under-used MJ, particularly in his first season, and by the start of last season I think most fans were desperately keen to see more of MJ and thankfully he lived up to those expectations. Archie is a funny one, though. I've always thought he's looked a really good player but the fact he doesn't seem to attract interest from bigger clubs suggests he's maybe not quite as good as I think he is.

 

[Bridgy 81]

That was very interesting to read antman and well said.
I used to love watching Steve Tully bombing up the line and his commitment to our cause was undeniable.
I agree about Archie too and I think he is underrated. He came into the team at a young age and whenever not injured has justifiably held his place. He plays in a position on the pitch where there’s a lot of responsibility and he’s even been made captain a few times ahead of more experienced candidates, which must speak for his maturity.
I think he still has time to develop further and I’m pleased for our sake (if not his) that there hasn’t been any obvious speculation to my knowledge about him moving on.

 

[Moomin Grecian]

Steve Tully, Aaron Davies, John O’Flynn, Ryan Bowman, Scot Bennett, Tom Nichols, Marcus Stewart etc etc all fit into the under appreciated category (by some) in my opinion.

 

[SEA Grecian]

One name I'd like to add is Jordan Tillson.

 

[SaintJames]

One name I'd like to add is Jordan Tillson.

SEA that's a brave addition to the thread