Most underrated and overrated Boro players?

Underrated: Nicky Bailey. Some say he was crap but he was excellent playing as a DM during Mowbray's first full season in charge.

Overrated: Ben Gibson. Solid player for us under Karanka in the Championship, and he did do quite well during our PL season, but some were predicting that he was going to go on to become a regular for England at one stage. Reality is he's a good Championship defender, and I feel he was able to perform as well as he did under Karanka because of how we were set up.
 
Can I add Pogatetz to over rated. I thought he was absolute sh1te. Dropping Quedrue for him massively weakened the left hand side and he was even worse when switched to centre back. He put a shift in and gave everything he had but he just had very little ability. We leaked goals for fun whenever he played.
 
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sadgit said:
Under, Lee Dong-gook😁
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Overrated: Curtis Fleming - poor footballer.

Underrated: Adama - One of the most exciting players we've seen at the Riverside. The lad was absolutely explosive, it still amazes me how many Boro supporters didn't rate him.
 
Priv said:
Can I add Pogatetz to over rated. I thought he was absolute sh1te. Dropping Quedrue for him massively weakened the left hand side and he was even worse when switched to centre back. He put a shift in and gave everything he had but he just had very little ability. We leaked goals for fun whenever he played.
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I'll be honest, when McClaren dropped Queudrue and played Pogatetz LB for the first time I thought he'd lost his marbles. Franck was a quality LB, Pogatetz just looked like a headless chicken. I think he looked better at centre back but I can't disagree with anything you've said. He was nowhere near the likes of Huth, Woodgate, Southgate in terms of ability.
 
Looks like Franck remains overrated. I get it, he was great fun to watch. That he was replaced by a limited player like Pog tells you something though.
For many, that will just be that McClaren didn't know what he was doing.
 
This might be an unpopular one, but I suppose that's what overrated means.

Alen Boksic

Had all the talent in the world, but talent and performance are not the same.
For me, he was a hugely frustrating player who seemed more interested in scoring brilliant goals for his own highlights video than helping the team win. Would try floaty little chips which often failed when much simpler finishes were available. I thought he was self indulgent.

Over/underrated are relative terms of course, but when the conversations about greatest Riverside 11s come around, I don't consider him a contender for the striker's position.
 
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Underrated - Gary Hamilton - one of my all time fav Boro players who I don't think got the credit he deserved in the Rich years and before tbh.... Fierce competitor..... Tough tackling.... Scored great goals..... Could pick a pass and a team player..... Could have been an absolute legend without his dodgy knee

Overrated - Stuart Downing - not saying he wasn't a good player because he was, just don't think he was anywhere near the top level which was claimed he was at.... Don't think he fulfilled his potential.
(For me overrated is really a player who has achieved a level and where there are questions about how good they are .... In my time following Boro..... Struggling to think of a player who divided opinion as much as Downing)
 
naively_optimistic said:
Underrated - Gary Hamilton - one of my all time fav Boro players who I don't think got the credit he deserved in the Rich years and before tbh.... Fierce competitor..... Tough tackling.... Scored great goals..... Could pick a pass and a team player..... Could have been an absolute legend without his dodgy knee

Overrated - Stuart Downing - not saying he wasn't a good player because he was, just don't think he was anywhere near the top level which was claimed he was at.... Don't think he fulfilled his potential.
(For me overrated is really a player who is at achieved a level and where there are questions about how good they are .... In my time following Boro..... Struggling to think of a player who divided opinion as much as Downing)
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Downing was brilliant in his first spell, if anything underrated because of his poor second spell with us. To say he was nowhere near the top level is just wrong, what better left wingers were in the Premier League at that time? Can’t of been many besides the obvious.
 
Underrated: Chris Riggott - without injuries, he'd have played far beyond our level. Instrumental in the Eindhoven run.

Overrated: Marvin Emnes. No player more emblematic of where we went wrong in the early 2010s. A total one season wonder who spent the rest of his time at Boro being incredibly frustrating to all who witnessed him.
 
parnabyscrosses said:
Downing was brilliant in his first spell, if anything underrated because of his poor second spell with us. To say he was nowhere near the top level is just wrong, what better left wingers were in the Premier League at that time? Can’t of been many besides the obvious.
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IMO - he was a good and at times v good Premier League player in his first spell.... If he was top level.... He'd have been a top four player and he wasn't.... One season at Liverpool and moved on for not being good enough....So don't think that is wrong tbf
 
Kilburn said:
Looks like Franck remains overrated. I get it, he was great fun to watch. That he was replaced by a limited player like Pog tells you something though.
For many, that will just be that McClaren didn't know what he was doing.
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Franck was brilliant. Think we expected Pogatetz to be something he wasn't, although I can imagine early injuries forced him to change his style of play. Was never the biggest fan of Pogatetz, for me we lumped the "Mad Dog" moniker on him far too early when in reality we had an incredibly rash and at times defensively sloppy player on our books who was possibly just as much of a symbol of our decline in the late 2000s as any other player.
 
naively_optimistic said:
IMO - he was a good and at times v good Premier League player in his first spell.... If he was top level.... He'd have been a top four player and he wasn't.... One season at Liverpool and moved on for not being good enough....So don't think that is wrong tbf
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Villa were a top side during his time there, and he was capped by England more times whilst at Boro than anyone other than Wilf Mannion himself. Downing was a massive part of our successes under McClaren and was something of a talisman prior to his Southgate era injuries (we'd have stayed up if his head had not been turned during that second half of the Premier League season).

I don't even think his second spell was underwhelming, he'd aged six years and was still a top level Championship attacking midfielder in spite of inconsistent minutes over the prior three seasons. His interview on Undr The Cosh offers a lot of insight as to where it went wrong from there though, and as much as I think Boro fans like to talk down a local lad as having undermined the side in that period, Boro under Karanka at least post-Charlton game seems to have been a very dysfunctional and unenjoyable place to be.

Downing's place in our history to me is pretty secure - undisputed Boro legend.
 
Johnny Howson, he runs around a lot and doesn’t add much to the team. Waste money!
Johnny Howson, Captain, fantastic player the engine room that makes the team tick!
 
naively_optimistic said:
Underrated - Gary Hamilton - one of my all time fav Boro players who I don't think got the credit he deserved in the Rich years and before tbh.... Fierce competitor..... Tough tackling.... Scored great goals..... Could pick a pass and a team player..... Could have been an absolute legend without his dodgy knee

Overrated - Stuart Downing - not saying he wasn't a good player because he was, just don't think he was anywhere near the top level which was claimed he was at.... Don't think he fulfilled his potential.
(For me overrated is really a player who has achieved a level and where there are questions about how good they are .... In my time following Boro..... Struggling to think of a player who divided opinion as much as Downing)
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Hamilton was my favourite player growing up and remains so having seen everything and everyone that has passed since 86. He was seriously underrated at the time and the years that have passed mean he's only ever going to be talked about by those who saw him, rather than read about him or watched videos.

He was hard as nails, worked his socks off, had a good passing range and scored goals. How he never got caps for Scotland is an amazement to me (same for John Hendrie). Such a shame his career effectively ended with that knee injury at end of 88/89 season in his mid 20s with god knows how many appearances under his belt.

Edit: 259 appearances and 28 goals by age of 24 when his career effectively ended with last first team appearances against Sheff Wed in the game which saw relegation at end of 88/89 season.
 
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