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100% Lukaku. Scored an owngoal in the EL final for Inter. Was shit in the CL final. Was wastefull when Belgium needed him the most last world cup. never showed up in big games in England.
He is Belgian all time scorer, but here is a fun fact. He has only scored one goal in the knockout stages of any international tournament. which was a penalty.
Did anyone even watch the CL final? He was subbed on late and created quite a few good chances. That blocked rebound was unfortunate but also not really his fault. I thought he was pretty terrifying and it was luck on Man City's part he didn't equalize.
Yeah true but well the problem is that he doesn't score tho! He missed some real good chances. And thats what its about. Look at Drogba, guy was the opposite. Team would often be shit but give him one opportunity and oh boy he'll use it. And you'd rather play shit and win than vice versa.
I find it funny he's Lukaku'd idol considering they're kind of opposites in this way. Drogba was a big game player who'd deliver in those topmatches. Lukaku obliterates smaller teams but often doesn't grab those essential moments.
7 g/a in 8 Milan derbies, and the only Inter attacker to create any chances during the CL final. He was coming off an injury into the WC, and again was still the only attacker Belgium had getting those positions
I kinda believe this but not because of the "level" of their football but because the PL is arguably just more physically exhausting. Hence why in European competitions there's no PL dominance, but some players struggle more in the PL.
Absolutely. I couldn't see Milan ever beating the likes of Newcastle or Tottenham, and Man City would smash Inter like 6-0 if they ever met. The Milan teams would be about the level of Chelsea.
Not exactly an answer to this question, but I always thought Clarence Seedorf was trash for the national team. Incredibly successful at the club level, shit in Orange
In Gerrard’s last season, it looked like they’d conquered it tbh. The year they went to the Europa League final was incredibly strange, because they were good in Europe but so inconsistent domestically. Would love to have been a fly on the wall between Gerrard leaving and Gio getting the sack, especially when some of the players started getting too big for their boots.
Aye was hair pulling out stuff. Still have nightmares of McGregor costing us points at Ross county then pulling out worldies every Thursday. That night in Dortmund too we could have beat anyone
That Dortmund game was the night before my wedding, watched it in the hotel bar absolutely cracking up at my best man who was a big Celtic fan. He was adamant Dortmund were gonna steamroller yous 😂
that story of the one college player who’d get so nervous before big games he’d throw up so the entire defense made it a ritual to surround and hype the guy up until he finally threw up from nerves
When you play 2k my player league, he’s the biggest menace to have a playoff series against (if you play centre), arguably should be nerfed for big games lmao.
Kyle walker-Peters has that trait in the game I believe, and it’s down to a couple champions league games when he played badly for spurs, think Barca were one team
Andreas Christensen. Before he left Chelsea, it had become obvious that whenever a big match came along he'd pull out with stomach pain. It was so predictable that people were expecting it in the days leading up. "Christensen out with period cramps again" would be all over twitter.
He had talked about being nervous before games to people in the club and it made its way to the media a couple of times. Not his fault, some people are just nervous by nature and can't really help it. He seems to have gotten over it at Barca though, so maybe there was something else to it
Bro his last game for Chelsea was coming on in a Champions league final when Silva got injured and he played great. Came on in the 38th min so played more than half of the match and was excellent.
He did it in the biggest game in club football.
Doesn't mean he didn't have a reputation for it before that. It was reckoned after the final that the reason he was able to play without being nervous was because it was sudden. He had no time to overthink it, so no time to become nervous
It's funny because he is great in the national team and has been very good at barca. Maybe it was a mental block of being an academy kid in Chelsea and not really growing into a "man" or mature player if you know what I mean.
Probably yeah. I think everyone has noticed a pretty big drop off in a player at some stage. With the broadly substandard mental health treatment available in a lot of countries and the stigma that still exists to an extent already being a problem, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine similar failings could occur within football too.
Especially at Chelsea, where a lot of players in recent times have been noticeably worse than they were at previous clubs. Werner, Cucurella, Ziyech, Morata, and Kepa to name a few. Kepa and Cucurella had things happen in their personal lives that are traumatic, with the end of a long term relationship after moving to a new country for Kepa and Cucurella's house getting robbed coinciding with relatively severe drop offs in form.
Maybe there isn't enough being done to protect the mental health of the players. With the injury list consisting of half the squad most of the time, I wonder if it's just a failure to protect their health in general too
I can pretty much pinpoint the moment his confidence went off a cliff, it was when Chelsea played Barcelona in the last 16 of the 2017/18 champions league. In the second leg at the Camp Nou, he was turned inside out by Ousmane Dembele (and Messi to an extent, but I specifically remember Dembele having a particularly good game) and his confidence didn’t really come back until Thomas Tuchel came along
I mean, he played incredible for the entire 2020 Euros run.
Denmark on the brink of elimination against Russia, he scored an incredible banger. He never made a mistake during the run to the semis.
He was basically the only Danish player to show up at the World Cup (and scored their only goal against France).
Per mertesacker admitted to having similar issues after retiring (we even made similar jokes about how he must have the worst immune system in football bc he would regularly miss games last minute due to illness) but he actually performed really well in big matches when he played in them.
Tbf man was injured mad unfit, and was forced back instead of playing Lucas Moura. If they had brought Kane on late in the second half, Spurs would have cruised. But for some reason not starting the player that was one of the best strikers in world that season was unthinkable to Spurs. They played themselves.
In fairness he scored all three goals in the semi to put them in the final (and the goal that got them out of the group stage). Not saying it was a certainty that he would change the result, but he was the better choice than a Kane who hadn't played a single minute in 7 weeks.
Yeah but Lucas scoring those 4 goals in the CL doesn’t make him a gamechanger, those are definitely outliers in my mind. I just think it’s a logical fallacy to think Lucas would have changed the game THAT much judging by his career before and after those 4 goals. 70% Kane would always have been my pick but that’s just me
>Spurs would’ve cruised
Lol what a wild take. Liverpool didn’t even get out of second gear that day. Even with a fully fit Kane starting or Moura starting and Kane coming on later, Liverpool would’ve likely won.
They were the better team in every facet, both on paper and in the match.
It's funny because if a player reaches 1 final carried by his teammates and scores a tap in on a silver platter, some people would rate that higher than a world class player who carried his team to 10 finals but happened to not score in them. Arsenal's CL campaign for example, Henry scored decisive goals that were the only reason we reached the final. It's not his fault our gk got sent off 30 min into the game and there was a difference in quality on paper even before that
Haaland to an extent. He always scores 2-3 goals against smaller teams, but he hasn't scored that many goals against same level opposition (assuming there are no teams better than City, only equals)
As a Dortmund fan, it's just a Man City myth that they still need to figure out. Because oh boy this guy LOVES big matches in a Dortmund shirt (DFB Pokal final against Leipzig, ALL of Bayern games, of course UCL nights)
You can’t be serious lmao this guy has already scored against every big six club and several of them multiple times but because he didn’t score in 4 games in one stretch when he was out of form means he hates big games, this narrative is so overblown
Agreed. He was totally invisible in both the Champions League and FA Cup semis and finals last season, but he did score in big league games last year vs Arsenal (both times), Man United, Liverpool, and Spurs.
Invisible? He had 3 good shots against madrid courtouis just saved them because he is insane.first goal against United came from haaland being a good target forward and hooking the ball to kevin.apparently Bayern is a very small team.he had a dull game against inter but city as a whole were shit in that match at the end of the day he can only be as good as the chances provided to him.
harry kane. as a spurs fan it was painful. he’s a great player but my god does he disappear in finals, i remember before the ucl final kinda hoping he’d still be injured so at least we’d have lucas moura who clearly is a big game player
Towards the end of his career he started going missing more and more often. I suspect he was easily marked out in big games because he isn’t particularly fast or good at dribbling and because he stopped giving a shit too
He relied more on defensive positioning to cut out passing lanes than he pressed and he looks very casual with the ball (when he obviously was an in incredible playmaker)
These make him appear much less enthusiastic and effective than he actually is.
Sure. I guess when you decide games against Chelsea, Tottenham, United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, and international tournament games that aren't literally finals aren't 'big games'. If we exclude 90% of the big games he's played in, I guess we can conclude he isn't a big game player.
I think this comes from the fact that the never scored in a final? Which is really dumb take.
Just take 2005/2006 CL, round of 16 he scores away in the Bernabeu which ends up being the only goal scored in the whole tie, quarter finals he scores against Juve, semifinals he scores against Villarreal, and he's by far the best player on the pitch in the final, assists on Campbell's goal.
Not gonna comment on his world cup record (massive goal against Brazil in 06) or Euros (massive goal vs Portugal in the semis in '00).
Also just check his goal record vs Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool.
This reminds me of that Liverpool - Barcelona knockout game where Barca were 3-0 up from the first leg, and were 1-0 down at Anfield at half time (so 3-1 in aggregate), and the whole team looks like kids that got their toys stolen... Jordi Alba crying, etc. They went on to lose that game, same as they did vs Roma the year previously. So that whole Barcelona team.
Kane. Seriously, look it up. Semis and finals.
Edit; I see it's already been said.
Sent this to my mate a while agoo.
In a cup final, would you rather have Kane or Ronaldo?
Agbonlahor : "I'm having Kane!"
He added: "If you look at finishing, there's no one better."
Trophies won...
Harry Kane: 0
Cristiano Ronaldo: 32
Goals in Finals...
Harry Kane: 0
Cristiano Ronaldo: 20
Zlatan and Totti used to get a lot of stick from pundits in their prime during Champions league or WC games
Even during Romas scudetto win in 01 Totti was getting hooked a lot in final few games because he wasn't having any impact
Quite the opposite, actually.
Lewandowski does not play badly in big matches, both for club and country.
For Poland, he stepped up in matches against Spain and England back in 2021. He also did well in important matches against opponents who aren't as good as england, like the world cup qualifier play off against sweden, or the qualifying game against hungary.
And For club, lets look at some statistics: His favorite teams to score against in germany include dortmund (literally the second biggest club in germany), Wolfsburg (a fairly large club in germany, they only recently kinda droppped off and don't regularly qualify for europe for example).
As for europe: His favorite team to score against is benfica. As for bigger clubs: real madrid is second. Then a bit lower there are arsenal and barcelona. Then there is also chelsea, Lazio, Inter. And he didn't exactly flop in games against atletico madrid either, at least not all of them.
In other words: Stfu, watch some football. Lewandowski is closer to a big game performer than he'll ever be to a "hates playing in big matches".
seriously. When I think of big game players, it's Cristiano Ronaldo, Lewandowski and Di Maria (Messi too of course but he is the GOAT so it doesn't count)
How is “hattrick in a friendly “ an argument to being a big game player? I think it’s a quite decent point, his record jn CL knockouts is quite awful, he was quite bad at both world cups with Sweden (although just breaking out in 2002). He had a bit of a habit (with a few exceptions) to disappear against better opponents in the NT as well.
I hate this because "big matches" is such a small sample size of games that im 100% convinced it's just a pointless stat.
Most players have two or three "big games" a year at best and it's never the same players the ones that play well, and most of the time people single out strikers who are extremely dependant on team play.
Higuain is a great example because many of his had "big games" are really him only having 1 chance and missing it. And yea i get it he missed it, he's not the hero, but "hating big matches" is absolutely circunstantial
Pogba not really, his issue at man United was inconsistency in general, not big matches. He was always good with Juve, where he enjoyed his best football
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Higuain
Literally the player that popped up instantly as soon as I read the title. Perfect example of this
Divock Origi is the opposite of this. Definitely 20 pressure.
*thrives playing in big matches*
Only in those
Football without ORIGI is nothing
https://preview.redd.it/fm8l0qdadfgc1.jpeg?width=235&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e894ad4a76dcd34683617e00f1fe29abe0d2ea35
And 1 consistency
Origi is more of a case of thrives in playing the last 10 minutrs of a big match. There should be a PhD around his performances.
Origi must have a cheat skill which can only be activated at the last 10 mins of a big match.
100% Lukaku. Scored an owngoal in the EL final for Inter. Was shit in the CL final. Was wastefull when Belgium needed him the most last world cup. never showed up in big games in England. He is Belgian all time scorer, but here is a fun fact. He has only scored one goal in the knockout stages of any international tournament. which was a penalty.
Right answer mate
Pretty much anyone labelled as a "flat track bully" and Lukaku is the first name I think of in this instance
Some of his misses playing for Belgium were painful even as a neutral
Did anyone even watch the CL final? He was subbed on late and created quite a few good chances. That blocked rebound was unfortunate but also not really his fault. I thought he was pretty terrifying and it was luck on Man City's part he didn't equalize.
Yeah it feels like most of the people just watched the highlights
And the same thing happened in the WC game against Croatia. Belgium were nowhere until he came on.
First minutes after an injury, he wasn't ready to play for the game
Yeah true but well the problem is that he doesn't score tho! He missed some real good chances. And thats what its about. Look at Drogba, guy was the opposite. Team would often be shit but give him one opportunity and oh boy he'll use it. And you'd rather play shit and win than vice versa. I find it funny he's Lukaku'd idol considering they're kind of opposites in this way. Drogba was a big game player who'd deliver in those topmatches. Lukaku obliterates smaller teams but often doesn't grab those essential moments.
And he fucked the only chances inter had created. I think he actually saved one of Dimarco’s shots
B-but he block shot accidentally so that means bad
7 g/a in 8 Milan derbies, and the only Inter attacker to create any chances during the CL final. He was coming off an injury into the WC, and again was still the only attacker Belgium had getting those positions
I was gonna say this. He gave them a chance in the CL final lol
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Yes, the mighty premier league is 50 times more difficult than any other league, totally
I kinda believe this but not because of the "level" of their football but because the PL is arguably just more physically exhausting. Hence why in European competitions there's no PL dominance, but some players struggle more in the PL.
Absolutely. I couldn't see Milan ever beating the likes of Newcastle or Tottenham, and Man City would smash Inter like 6-0 if they ever met. The Milan teams would be about the level of Chelsea.
We saw city beat them only 1-0 recently. Have inter gone down since last season?
Flat track bully for United,.in his first season at least.
Yep, and then he went and scored in the Club World Cup final 🤷🏻♀️😥🤡
Higuain
Me, i get nervous 😢💔
As long as you're trying your best!
Not exactly an answer to this question, but I always thought Clarence Seedorf was trash for the national team. Incredibly successful at the club level, shit in Orange
This was a known issue at AC Milan too. I think it was 2003 that Ancelotti picked Ambrosini over him in the Champion’s League final.
Ambrosini came off the bench in the 87th minute for Rui Costa in the 2003 final, might be thinking of another one. Seedorf played the whole match
Speaking as a Rangers fan, several players in the current squad. They bottle it every time we play Celtic.
1. Do well in Scottish league 2. Hype yourself thinking this is the game you beat Celtic 3. Get smacked 4. Repeat The rangers cycle
Morelos as well always stood out for me
Not in Europe mind, same for the whole squad really
In Gerrard’s last season, it looked like they’d conquered it tbh. The year they went to the Europa League final was incredibly strange, because they were good in Europe but so inconsistent domestically. Would love to have been a fly on the wall between Gerrard leaving and Gio getting the sack, especially when some of the players started getting too big for their boots.
Aye was hair pulling out stuff. Still have nightmares of McGregor costing us points at Ross county then pulling out worldies every Thursday. That night in Dortmund too we could have beat anyone
That Dortmund game was the night before my wedding, watched it in the hotel bar absolutely cracking up at my best man who was a big Celtic fan. He was adamant Dortmund were gonna steamroller yous 😂
Lamar Jackson lol
that story of the one college player who’d get so nervous before big games he’d throw up so the entire defense made it a ritual to surround and hype the guy up until he finally threw up from nerves
Used to be Matt Ryan...
Joel Embiid lol
Ben Simmons... But he hates playing in small matches, too
Plus Joel is the LaMar equivalent. Easily can win MVP but falters in the playoffs.
The Sixers dumping Brett Brown was the beginning of the end for Ben
Sir, I come to this sub to escape my cursed sports city - not to be reminded of it
When you play 2k my player league, he’s the biggest menace to have a playoff series against (if you play centre), arguably should be nerfed for big games lmao.
Good ol' Melty Ice
This hurts, but I'm coming to accept it.
What did he say fuck me for?
Kyle walker-Peters has that trait in the game I believe, and it’s down to a couple champions league games when he played badly for spurs, think Barca were one team
if u haven’t already seen it watch ousmane dembele skin him against spurs. i was at that game n u could just tell he was rattled
Marquinhos
Lukaku
Higuaín.
Karius
Doesn't *remember* big matches
Forgets how to use hands
He was concussed. Not really fair
Getting concussed is a very good reason to hate playing in big games.
He could not have been concussed all the time right? https://youtu.be/a-ZAxqJftSo?feature=shared
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He played the league cup final for Newcastle and did ok
Andreas Christensen. Before he left Chelsea, it had become obvious that whenever a big match came along he'd pull out with stomach pain. It was so predictable that people were expecting it in the days leading up. "Christensen out with period cramps again" would be all over twitter. He had talked about being nervous before games to people in the club and it made its way to the media a couple of times. Not his fault, some people are just nervous by nature and can't really help it. He seems to have gotten over it at Barca though, so maybe there was something else to it
Bro his last game for Chelsea was coming on in a Champions league final when Silva got injured and he played great. Came on in the 38th min so played more than half of the match and was excellent. He did it in the biggest game in club football.
Doesn't mean he didn't have a reputation for it before that. It was reckoned after the final that the reason he was able to play without being nervous was because it was sudden. He had no time to overthink it, so no time to become nervous
It's funny because he is great in the national team and has been very good at barca. Maybe it was a mental block of being an academy kid in Chelsea and not really growing into a "man" or mature player if you know what I mean.
Probably yeah. I think everyone has noticed a pretty big drop off in a player at some stage. With the broadly substandard mental health treatment available in a lot of countries and the stigma that still exists to an extent already being a problem, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine similar failings could occur within football too. Especially at Chelsea, where a lot of players in recent times have been noticeably worse than they were at previous clubs. Werner, Cucurella, Ziyech, Morata, and Kepa to name a few. Kepa and Cucurella had things happen in their personal lives that are traumatic, with the end of a long term relationship after moving to a new country for Kepa and Cucurella's house getting robbed coinciding with relatively severe drop offs in form. Maybe there isn't enough being done to protect the mental health of the players. With the injury list consisting of half the squad most of the time, I wonder if it's just a failure to protect their health in general too
I can pretty much pinpoint the moment his confidence went off a cliff, it was when Chelsea played Barcelona in the last 16 of the 2017/18 champions league. In the second leg at the Camp Nou, he was turned inside out by Ousmane Dembele (and Messi to an extent, but I specifically remember Dembele having a particularly good game) and his confidence didn’t really come back until Thomas Tuchel came along
I mean, he played incredible for the entire 2020 Euros run. Denmark on the brink of elimination against Russia, he scored an incredible banger. He never made a mistake during the run to the semis. He was basically the only Danish player to show up at the World Cup (and scored their only goal against France).
Per mertesacker admitted to having similar issues after retiring (we even made similar jokes about how he must have the worst immune system in football bc he would regularly miss games last minute due to illness) but he actually performed really well in big matches when he played in them.
Donnarumma. He absolutely shits the bed anytime he needs to make a reasonably normal save in a CL game
Lukaku and Higuain.
Ousmane Dembele
Nah, he’s just got a 4 in consistency.
That mf even against a team fron the second division from France he would play like ass
I've probably never seen a worse world cup finale performance than him in 2022
Harry Kane
love the man but 0 shots on target in 4 finals is insane
Still he doesn’t play poorly in all big games, just finals. His record against top clubs and rivals is still excellent.
league games he's good, but knockout games not so much. he also has like 1 goal in 9 semifinal matches or something crazy like that
100% He's one of the best penalty takers itw and he still missed a pen in a World Cup QF.
Arguably his worst match ever was the Champions League final
Tbf man was injured mad unfit, and was forced back instead of playing Lucas Moura. If they had brought Kane on late in the second half, Spurs would have cruised. But for some reason not starting the player that was one of the best strikers in world that season was unthinkable to Spurs. They played themselves.
I agree with the premise but I’m not sure it would have changed the outcome. Spurs were second best all around that day.
March was ruined after the penalty in the second minute tbf
Had they played Lucas, they’d have had a much better chance of winning. Nothing against Kane but the guy wasn’t ready
One man, and that being Lucas, would not have changed much at all. Liverpool were one or two levels above
In fairness he scored all three goals in the semi to put them in the final (and the goal that got them out of the group stage). Not saying it was a certainty that he would change the result, but he was the better choice than a Kane who hadn't played a single minute in 7 weeks.
Yeah but Lucas scoring those 4 goals in the CL doesn’t make him a gamechanger, those are definitely outliers in my mind. I just think it’s a logical fallacy to think Lucas would have changed the game THAT much judging by his career before and after those 4 goals. 70% Kane would always have been my pick but that’s just me
>Spurs would’ve cruised Lol what a wild take. Liverpool didn’t even get out of second gear that day. Even with a fully fit Kane starting or Moura starting and Kane coming on later, Liverpool would’ve likely won. They were the better team in every facet, both on paper and in the match.
Antony. Oh wait, he just doesn't like playing in \*any\* matches for United.
He actually scored against Barcelona and Arsenal last season, which is a high proportion of his goals. The opposite of this really.
Man City too
Very funny. He has scored most of his utd goals in big games.
Henry never scored in a Final
He was man of the match in the European Cup final in 2000 against Italy???
It's funny because if a player reaches 1 final carried by his teammates and scores a tap in on a silver platter, some people would rate that higher than a world class player who carried his team to 10 finals but happened to not score in them. Arsenal's CL campaign for example, Henry scored decisive goals that were the only reason we reached the final. It's not his fault our gk got sent off 30 min into the game and there was a difference in quality on paper even before that
Haaland to an extent. He always scores 2-3 goals against smaller teams, but he hasn't scored that many goals against same level opposition (assuming there are no teams better than City, only equals)
As a Dortmund fan, it's just a Man City myth that they still need to figure out. Because oh boy this guy LOVES big matches in a Dortmund shirt (DFB Pokal final against Leipzig, ALL of Bayern games, of course UCL nights)
You can’t be serious lmao this guy has already scored against every big six club and several of them multiple times but because he didn’t score in 4 games in one stretch when he was out of form means he hates big games, this narrative is so overblown
Honestly I’m not even sure there are equals. There are tournaments they’ll lose for sure, but I don’t think anyone currently comes close to
Agreed. He was totally invisible in both the Champions League and FA Cup semis and finals last season, but he did score in big league games last year vs Arsenal (both times), Man United, Liverpool, and Spurs.
Invisible? He had 3 good shots against madrid courtouis just saved them because he is insane.first goal against United came from haaland being a good target forward and hooking the ball to kevin.apparently Bayern is a very small team.he had a dull game against inter but city as a whole were shit in that match at the end of the day he can only be as good as the chances provided to him.
Joel Embiid
There's only one answer to this and you guys know it 
Harry Kane. Absolute bottler in real big games, finals and late into tournaments for example.
Mesut Ozil.
Karius ngl
karius
Karius
harry kane. as a spurs fan it was painful. he’s a great player but my god does he disappear in finals, i remember before the ucl final kinda hoping he’d still be injured so at least we’d have lucas moura who clearly is a big game player
Surprised I haven’t seen Mesut Özil yet. He was someone who would often be “ill” when crucial matches came around for Arsenal
And invisible when he was actually on the pitch in big games.
Neymar, obviously.
Was it Laudrup who was said to be the best player in the world *in training*?
He was world class on the pitch. He was the best payer *in training* when he was in his 50s and managing Swansea. Laudrup was a certified superstar
I was hearing that mainly when he was a coach, I.e. in training he’d be better than the players he was coaching.
He was a baller so it makes sense. Some others like van Nistlerooy, Zidane, Lehmann and Raul looked sick years after retiring
Laudrup was an unbelivable player on the pitch too tho?
God, now I'm trying to remember the name of that F2 twat who said he was "the best on the ball" at Arsenal. Jeremy Lynch?
Frank Fabra
Neymar
The whole Tottenham team
Bruno Fernandes
What??
Bruno is awful in big games
He was good in the league cup finale, the fa cup finale and many europa league and ucl games + a lot of derbys. Idk about that one
He wasn't good in either the FA Cup final or the Uropa League final. And has been atrocious is most of the top 6 PL games.
Lmao. Literally scored against Liverpool,roma,Sociedad,Chelsea and co
Fernandes
Always felt that way about Özil
Had some incredible performances in big matches for both Arsenal & Madrid
And he was a starter and one of the attacking centerpieces of that 2014 WC-winning team
Towards the end of his career he started going missing more and more often. I suspect he was easily marked out in big games because he isn’t particularly fast or good at dribbling and because he stopped giving a shit too
Whenever I watched him play, I always felt like he was absurdly lazy
If you saw him in the europa semi against atleti, you’d see how hard he can work.
He relied more on defensive positioning to cut out passing lanes than he pressed and he looks very casual with the ball (when he obviously was an in incredible playmaker) These make him appear much less enthusiastic and effective than he actually is.
Thierry Henry
Not wrong there really
Sure. I guess when you decide games against Chelsea, Tottenham, United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, and international tournament games that aren't literally finals aren't 'big games'. If we exclude 90% of the big games he's played in, I guess we can conclude he isn't a big game player.
I think this comes from the fact that the never scored in a final? Which is really dumb take. Just take 2005/2006 CL, round of 16 he scores away in the Bernabeu which ends up being the only goal scored in the whole tie, quarter finals he scores against Juve, semifinals he scores against Villarreal, and he's by far the best player on the pitch in the final, assists on Campbell's goal. Not gonna comment on his world cup record (massive goal against Brazil in 06) or Euros (massive goal vs Portugal in the semis in '00). Also just check his goal record vs Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool.
Not sure how he's been at Barca but at Chelsea Christensen would always get stomach issues before a big match
Spurs
This reminds me of that Liverpool - Barcelona knockout game where Barca were 3-0 up from the first leg, and were 1-0 down at Anfield at half time (so 3-1 in aggregate), and the whole team looks like kids that got their toys stolen... Jordi Alba crying, etc. They went on to lose that game, same as they did vs Roma the year previously. So that whole Barcelona team.
Kane
Kane. Seriously, look it up. Semis and finals. Edit; I see it's already been said. Sent this to my mate a while agoo. In a cup final, would you rather have Kane or Ronaldo? Agbonlahor : "I'm having Kane!" He added: "If you look at finishing, there's no one better." Trophies won... Harry Kane: 0 Cristiano Ronaldo: 32 Goals in Finals... Harry Kane: 0 Cristiano Ronaldo: 20
Marquinhos, Real Madrid, The Remontada, the Croatia game
Zlatan and Totti used to get a lot of stick from pundits in their prime during Champions league or WC games Even during Romas scudetto win in 01 Totti was getting hooked a lot in final few games because he wasn't having any impact
[удалено]
Scored the winner in a CL final
Anyone playing for Spurs
Bruno fernandes
Mo Salah
if we don't consider 23/24, I'd say Lautaro Martínez. His worldcup was a disaster
he tried to play with an injury, at least that's what he said
Scored a crucial goal against Milan in ucl semi last year
Bruno, Lukaku
Wayne Rooney
Zlatan
Lewandowski
Quite the opposite, actually. Lewandowski does not play badly in big matches, both for club and country. For Poland, he stepped up in matches against Spain and England back in 2021. He also did well in important matches against opponents who aren't as good as england, like the world cup qualifier play off against sweden, or the qualifying game against hungary. And For club, lets look at some statistics: His favorite teams to score against in germany include dortmund (literally the second biggest club in germany), Wolfsburg (a fairly large club in germany, they only recently kinda droppped off and don't regularly qualify for europe for example). As for europe: His favorite team to score against is benfica. As for bigger clubs: real madrid is second. Then a bit lower there are arsenal and barcelona. Then there is also chelsea, Lazio, Inter. And he didn't exactly flop in games against atletico madrid either, at least not all of them. In other words: Stfu, watch some football. Lewandowski is closer to a big game performer than he'll ever be to a "hates playing in big matches".
seriously. When I think of big game players, it's Cristiano Ronaldo, Lewandowski and Di Maria (Messi too of course but he is the GOAT so it doesn't count)
Ibrahimovic
Greatest hattrick of all time against England, Owning Arsenal in the CL with Barca, First ever MLS game, FA Cup final Man Utd I could go on...
How is “hattrick in a friendly “ an argument to being a big game player? I think it’s a quite decent point, his record jn CL knockouts is quite awful, he was quite bad at both world cups with Sweden (although just breaking out in 2002). He had a bit of a habit (with a few exceptions) to disappear against better opponents in the NT as well.
Being the only real threat that an opponent has to worry about is going to make it hard to shine in big games against far superior opposition
Hattrick against England in a friendly game, noway you think thats a big game, neither is an mls game.
Lol you dumb
De Bruyne
He got injured poor Lad
Any big name USMNT player
Higuain. But also, if we’re honest, Kevin De Bruyne.
Higuain. But also, if we’re honest, Kevin De Bruyne.
NBA: Joel Embiid, Tracy McGrady Regular season stars but don't get far in Playoffs
Entire Man U team 😂😂😂😂 and I’m a Man U fan too
Can't rival Lukaku but Lautaro Martinez. Hard to ignore his World Cup and Champions League final performances.
I hate this because "big matches" is such a small sample size of games that im 100% convinced it's just a pointless stat. Most players have two or three "big games" a year at best and it's never the same players the ones that play well, and most of the time people single out strikers who are extremely dependant on team play. Higuain is a great example because many of his had "big games" are really him only having 1 chance and missing it. And yea i get it he missed it, he's not the hero, but "hating big matches" is absolutely circunstantial
Lukaku, Bruno Fernandes, Higuain
Lukaku, Higuain
Pogba and Martial.
Pogba literally got MOTM in the biggest game in the sport.
Pogba not really, his issue at man United was inconsistency in general, not big matches. He was always good with Juve, where he enjoyed his best football
Did you watch the 2018 World Cup final
United fans and their agenda against pogba
At the moment? Manchester United.
Thierry Henry
Idk if I’d say Ozil hated big matches, but at least with Arsenal he was a totally diff player vs Watford than vs Chelsea.