Guys,

A little sum up and purely focus on the under-performing stars. This thread focus on top tier world class stars or close to that who were total crap during the WC.

If you have to choose 5, who it that be? Please think of some one "high profile, high expectation, have been consistently great this year or the past years, either club or international level".

My pick:

1. De Gea. easy pick, he has been godly in MU... but this WC is nothing but a disaster for his status
2. Dembele What can I say... I have always been saying he was Barcelona's panic buy, but I did really expect more.
3. G. Pique has a little doubt here, not because he wasn't bad, HE WAS TERRIBLE. But he's quite overrated at club level IMO.
4. Kimmich. should replace Lahm, nothing but an absolute weak point.
5. Sterling Might be unpopular here, but I think he should be subbed off far more often...

Had disaster performance but I didn't have high expectation anyway:

• Mascherano
• Piotr Zielinski - the star of Napoli,
• MullerAlthough he's getting old, but this was beyond bad.

What do you think?

You'll get a lot of pushback for the Sterling inclusion, but that's justified imo. While we're talking about City players, I thought Otamendi was pretty garbage. Lewa obviously was underwhelming, as well as about half of the German team.

I suppose I was also disappointed a bit by Eriksen. I honestly thought he'd be able to propel Denmark a bit, and that just did not happen.

I suppose I was also disappointed a bit by Eriksen. I honestly thought he'd be able to propel Denmark a bit, and that just did not happen.

He still was one of Denmark best player however. Otherwise agree with you Sun.

And I seriously disagree with Dembele. He was only given chance to play in 2 match as a starter, the other two he played less than 18 minute overall. I mean, he obviously wasn't given much trust by DD from the start so he was never gonna be able to fully express himself and play at his best level. I personally wouldn't have even brought him if I was Deschamp though, don't forget this season, he already missed pre-season because of his transfer saga, had to deal with injury and had to start adapting at live at Barca.

Just too many players were disappointing because too many big teams failed, more or less. 5 player is just not enough. I could easily get 10-20 players with lots of players from Germany, Spain, Argentina to start with.

I'll give it a try in no specific order:

R Lewandowski
M Özil
T Mueller
J Boateng
D De Gea

But the true question is, was De Gea the most dissapointing big name player in the world cup?

True, everyone forgets how useless that Polish team was... Otherwise this ranking sums it up. Salah wasn't amazing either, but his team didn't help him obviously. Serbian attackers maybe too overrated ?

@expertfootball11

• Manuel Neuer: Since De Gea was already mentioned, I'd like to mention Neuer bottled it big time in this World Cup. I couldn't tell what he was thinking when he decided to play as a midfielder in the final minutes against S.Korea, not even during set pieces either! From former Golden Glove winner to Golden fool.

• Timo Werner: Considering how awful Germans were as a whole in this tournament, this guy was particularly downright dreadful in all three group matches after claiming himself to be Klose's successor. He's had a successful campaign in the build up towards the World Cup, but he was a ghost when it really mattered.

• Mascherano: I agree with Tuann, Macherano was an eyesore to watch in this tournament. I can't blame him though, it did seem like he did try all he could, but Argentina as a whole didn't gel well, which resulted in their demise. Sad way to retire from international football.

• Michy Batshuayi: So many chances he's had to score many goals in the group stages; he managed to bottle all of it except the one goal he produced in the 90th minute against Tunisia. He's a clown who's won the nationality jackpot to be part of the Belgian squad.

I know this is based on performance, but I just want to add in this twerp for another reason to feel disappointed for:

• Nikola Kalinic: It wasn't because of his performance, quite the opposite. Leaving his national team during what is probably Croatia's most successful run in their footballing history due to his refusal to be played as a substitute is beyond disgraceful! He shouldn't be awarded the silver medal and should be banned from playing international football.

M Özil

how?

Ozil and Neuer were two of best German players IMO.

Nikola Kalinic

I'm so glad we did more without him than with him. He doesn't deserve medal. He doesn't deserve to ever get called up again. I'm honestly happy he screwed it up, so he could watch our players get so much respect while his name is now recognized as traitor. :)

Guys, cut Kalinic some slack, poor lad wanted to play but obviously couldn't because of back problem. Cough sarcasm cough.

I could actually have had the entire German squad but we only had 5 options here. Özil was supposed to be the motor behind their offense. Instead he was mediocre against Mexico, benched against Sweden and not convincing against South Korea. Considering he's been one of the best players in europe for some years regarding number of assists it looks bad that in the games he played they went 0-3 in GD with two losses. You expect more, much more, from a player of this magnitude. But again, I'm not pointing him out as the reason for Germanys bad world cup as it was a collective meltdown. But in light of tuans criterias and my own expectations of him I couldn't avoid picking him too. Finally I think it's better to say "least bad" about any german player as no one was really s good as expected.

Ironically, I think I disagree with about 2 votes from everyone lol. Anyways, here is my 5:

1. Neymar (this guy made WC best lineup!?!?)
2. De Gea
3. Pique
4. Mascherano
5. Lewandowski
6. Jesus

I had to put Jesus here. Sorry not sorry, but he was poor.

Edit: I've just realised everyone put Germany lol. A win against Korea would have made them a huge threat IMO. Certain individuals from that team are really overrated (some have been said already)

@amir How dare you put Gabriel Jesus, he scored a total of 0 goal and assisted once against a mighty team like Costa Rica. He is obviously top tier, way above Neymar. :P Nah but jokin aside, I agree 100%, Jesus was an huge dissapointement. Suprised to realize no one else mentioned him before though.

@Sun: well... Sterling was given probably the most chances, playing time but didn't really deliver, can't blame him entirely, and I agree that's a bit harsh... he was lots of time selfish though.

@iHeart: Kalinic got what he deserved! Indeed. He was never top tier in my eyes though.

@expertfootball: indeed... especially with the 2 Lewan & Zielinski...

@pelle: makes total sense. Well I'm not super enthusiatic about Ozil in this tournament due to his recent performance, but he wasn't extremely bad, German has other star can make as much impact as him and they all sucked. I agree I could put the whole team there.

@amir & @Emo: The German, that's the problem aint it. with those stars they didn't deliver in a crucial match... As for Jesus... lol I still have no idea how he was chosen and stayed that long in their last game. I think he's good, but not top tier anyway.

@tuan Well, considering what a big deal it was to sign him by Manchester City and how much playing time he get in both club and national team, he certainly should be considered top tier. :P

Messi had once again a bad World Cup, missed a penalty against a part time fisherman and did very little against France while once again just like 4 years ago Di Maria stepped up and scored a beauty.

Messi wasn't that good, but to put him on a top 5 list is a bit too much. He carries a lot and did show some moments of brilliance now and then, like the goal against Nigeria and freekick.

I agree.

@iHEARTfootball

"Michy Batshuayi: So many chances he's had to score many goals in the group stages; he managed to bottle all of it except the one goal he produced in the 90th minute against Tunisia. He's a clown who's won the nationality jackpot to be part of the Belgian squad."

• "He's a clown who's won the nationality jackpot to be part of the Belgian squad." - # POGBA ? #THURAM ? #ZIDANE ?

"He's a clown who's won the nationality jackpot to be part of the Belgian squad." - # POGBA ? #THURAM ? #ZIDANE ?

I have no clue what you're on about.