One that I always thought was over rated was a Ronaldo free kick at home to Portsmouth. It won goal of the season that year I think.

 

pretty much all of ronaldos frees against also ran teams were lauded as the best goal ever. 

 

Spot on, forgot about that. A shot from inside the box

 

Abso-bloody-exactly

 

 

Beckham's would have been top-notch if that wasn't his fifth or sixth free-kick from similar range in the match!  Similar to Wilkinson's 'heroics' in the rugby. 

Good goal but not a goal of the season contender.

I thought the exact same watching MOTD on Sunday night. Good goal alright but not a goal of the season contender.

Ah away to f**k out of that, that was a brilliant goal.

Shane Longs goal versus Germany. It luckily bounced up from the ground into his shin otherwise he would have lost control. Good shot though.

Or Van Persie. That was sensational.

Don't agree that any of them were over rated TBH.

He said he just had to stick his head on the ball for the Van Persie one

Cantona's goal v Sunderland where he chipped the keeper (think it was Lionel Perez) in about 1996 or 97 is very overrated. It's always on those best Premier League goals lists

He had a few goes at the free-kick though. I remember watching it and thinking about f**king time he got one!

I always felt that Adam and Beckford scored better, Rob Lee's scored a belter on David Forde from halfway at a game I was at.  I also remember Stankovic scoring a wonderful volley from a similar distance. Nayim's is the king though. I just watched it again and it was much further in, but the technique, timing and significance make it underrated.

Cantona's goal appears because of the celebration as much as the goal. Simply brilliant and part of the reason why he is widely loved. I thought he was a very overrated player, I never felt he was world class,or even near it, but he is one of my favourite footballers.

As I am here, I always thought Gazza's goal against Scotland wasn't as good as made out.

Isn't that the one where the keeper headed it, it came to him, and he arched his body sideways and smacked it back at a perfect trajectory? I think it might even have went in without hitting the ground, which made it all the sweeter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhp1kWe1wMI" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhp1kWe1wMI

Yup, that was it.

I love how this thread has actually turned into a celebration of magnificent goals rather than denigration of mediocre ones.

There was nothing inherently better about Zidane's goal against Bayer Leverkusen than there was, say, about Darren Barnard's spectacular left footed volley in Barnsley's 7-1 win over Huddersfield in November 1998. 

Yet nobody ever lists Barnard's goal as one of the greatest of all time.

Ah lads, it was astonishing as the ball was lobbed over so took an age to come down. The technical skill in hitting it so accurately with his weaker foot was fantastic. 

I'm biased because I saw it live, but even still, given the occasion it was a marvelous goal.

Darren Barnard's was better

Only the greats can do what Barnard did

 

Agreed. One of the last goals I ever expected to see appear on a thread about overrated goals! As you say the technical difficulty to achieve what he did was phenomenal. Not to mention doing it in a CL final.

Better than Zidane's anyway

It was a shinny

Overrated film nomination:  That "documentary" which follows Zidane around for the entirety of a match

sh*t plot

sh*t dialogue

sh*t production values

sh*t everything

The difference with Barnard is that his was always less likely to come off and has more of the hairy arsed chancer about it.

Any duffer can swing their foot at a ball in the hope of doing the spectacular. For the chancer, it comes off rarely and is closer to luck than absolute skill. However, for Zidane, it was always much more likely to come off. It's the combination of imagination and technique that makes a good goal; a goal from a player who repeatedly demonstrates imagination and technique is more admirable than one from a hairy arsed chancer who hits a ball a thwallop and gets lucky one time in a hundred.

That's why, I suppose, Ronaldo free kicks are not really that impressive; it's a volume thing. However, the Zidane goal was a thing of beauty. He had the imagination to try and the technique to pull it off, in the Champions League final. If he'd done it in a pre-season friendly for Huddersfield, we wouldn't be talking about it.

The best goals are the one where you see the audacity in the split second before the ball is hit and almost have two phases of disbelief; the first is where you realise the player is going to try the spectacular *in the circumstances of the game* and the second is where they actually achieve the spectacular.

That two phase realisation applies to either of the van Persie goals spoken of, to the Stankovic goal (you can see the body arching before he hits the ball) and to plenty of others. It doesn't quite apply to a lad not renowned for brilliance swinging his boot at the ball in an absolute risk-free environment when his team are already 5-0 up in the first half.

Barnard's goal was technically superior to Zidane's

It was a harder volley than Zidane's as Barnard had to run into position on a faster moving diagonal ball - Zidane had at least four or five seconds in a standing position with no pressure on him - and Zidane shinned his - Barnard didn't

With volleys you can directly compare technical difficulty in a way you can't with dribbled goals

With volleys the status of the match is irrelevant - you can easily get a more technically difficult volley being scored in a match of less status

I thought his goal vs Everton for Arsenal was better. Similar pass and volley but a wider angle.

His volley against Charlton for Arsenal was his best goal, ridiculous technique.

Zidane’s volley was simply incredible and is up there with the best I’ve ever seen.

Beckham vs Wimbledon was a ridiculous goal. He was 20 and playing under Ferguson and he had the balls to try that. Ferguson would have eaten the balls off him if it dropped short or ended up in the stand. The technique of that strike is brilliant and I can’t have it that it’s overrated.

Someone mentioned Cantona’s chip against Sunderland, have to disagree. Sheer brilliance made even more famous for the celebration.

Alot of Puskas winners/nominations are severely overrated

The easiest way to identify whether a goal is overrated or not is think to yourself how many of those goals do you repeated? Once a week? Once a month? Once a season?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen another player hit a ball as sweetly as Shearer’s goal against Everton. Perhaps Rooney against Newcastle a couple of years later but I still think Shearer’s was better. I can’t remember a similar goal like it since. An unbelievable goal.

Same with Zidane in 2002. 

Cantona’s goal was brilliant but yeah it’s more likely to be remembered for the celebration than the actual goal. There have been plenty similar goals scored in the league since.

Top 3 NOT over rated goals in the Premier League for me:

1) Shearer volley vs Everton 

2) Henry vs Man Utd at highbury (the flick and swivel outside the box)

3) Rooney volley vs Newcastle

Top 5 goals in the Greed is Good league

5th) Bergkamp vs Leicester

4th) Di Canio vs Wimbledon

2nd)Le Tissier  vs Manchester United

Fully agree, I love that goal. I'd put it up there with the very best in PL history, perfect connection at a very difficult height.

Le Tissier scored beautiful goals. I'm sure theres a compilation on YouTube 

One for the scrapbook

Did he ever just score a 2-yard tap-in? Just about every goal that lad scored seemed to be a worldie. 

I still have no idea why Eboue crossed the ball in when he did, there were no Arsenal players near the box at the time, makes the technique involved all the more impressive.

Great timing and an important goal, but he shinned it in

I'd put the goal against Newcastle number one. The 2 he got that day could be top 5. Actually think the one against Blackburn is overrated slightly. Still show my class every year a compilation of his best goals. They be in awe!

Had a video as a kid of every goal he scored up till 1996. Watched it on a daily basis. Unreal. Hes the reason I follow Southampton

It’s the way he beats the two men against Blackburn, he is barely walking and he turns them inside out.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4930522/Carlton-Palmer-deserved-caps-Matt-Le-Tissier.html" rel="nofollow - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4930522/Carlton-Palmer-deserved-caps-Matt-Le-Tissier.html

 

always thought Le tissier was better than Gascoigne and England would of had a better record  if he had been their main man

 

Fair play to his loyality but the flip side maybe was lack of ambition/drive

I wonder will we ever see a player like him again due to the systematic nature of the game now. 

 

Was this later on in the night?

If I remember right, Le Tissier’s partner said that woman isn’t happy, he turned around and realised she was with Hoddle and thought it would be funny to send them a bottle of wine.

One of my all time favourite players.

We will never see a ‘luxury player’ like him again.

I’d say he ran maybe 2/3 k’s in a match.
 

This article from 365 sums him up brilliant

Glenn Hoddle is a religious conservative and doesn't like homosexuality but when he saw Le Tissier sitting on his own in the corner he couldn't help but make a pass at him

That  makes no sense. 

twas against the villa