Worst Players Of Euro 2012

It’s a thin line when thinking who the worst players in a tournament have been. Up until his great goal against France Zlatan Ibrahimovic was looking good for it as was Mario Balotelli who looked nothing like the player who emerged in the later stages.

So it could have been so different for a few of these players had their teams just made it one or two stages further.

These are mainly players picked because they certainly didn’t live up to any expectation or hype about them and for the most part struggled badly.

Milan Baros ( CzechRepublic) had a really poor time of it. Struggled to get into any of his teams games. Seemed a shadow of his former self. Hard to see him even get a real scoring chance never mind finish as top scorer which he did in 2004.

Wayne Rooney ( England) was criticised for his poor showings. Maybe lacked fitness. Worked hard but another who didn’t seem anything like the player he was in 2004.

Franck Ribery (France) Hard to believe this is the same player who major teams are always interested in. Not for the first tournament he promised much but delivered nothing. Burst onto the scene in World cup of 2006 with some great showings but has been very disappointing in 3 tournaments since.

Karim Benzema ( France) Highly rated and prolific goalscorer at Real Madrid. Hard to believe it’s the same person. Started slowly in the game against England. Didn’t look sharp in possession or getting shots away. Thought he would improve as the tournament went on but no he just couldn’t get into gear and didn’t seem interested.

Thomas Muller ( Germany) A lot was expected from him after a great World cup but didn’t score any goals and didn’t really get too involved in most of the games. Seemed a shadow of himself.

Mark Van Bommel ( Holland) Has been criticised before for his style of play and the amount of fouls he commits. Was the son in law of the manager and people wondered if he would ever be dropped. He was forced into dropping him for the 3^rd group game here after he was non existent in the first 2 and he couldn’t even get close enough to the opposition to make his customary fouls.

Wesley Sneijder ( Holland) Another who seemed out of sorts. One of the best players at the last World cup but contributed nothing worthwhile this time around.

Robin Van Persie ( Holland) A lot was expected of him after a great season for Arsenal but despite scoring a great goal he missed a few chances which seemed a lot easier. Missed a lot in the first game against Denmark including having a fresh air shot when the goal seemed at his mercy.

Wojciech Szczesny ( Poland) Another Arsenal player included here. Despite only playing part of the first game it was a horror show for the Poland goalkeeper. In the first game against Greece, and Poland 1-0 up and seemingly cruising to victory against 10 men he made a mess of a straightforward cross into the box from which Greece equalised from.

A few minutes later he brought down a Greek forward, was sent off and gave away a penalty and that was the end of his tournament.

Robbie Keane ( Republic Of Ireland ) There could have been a lot of Ireland players picked who just did not get into the tournament but with such a lot of experience more would be expected from him.

Richard Dunne (Republic Of Ireland) Always seems capable of causing goals and that is certainly at fault here. At fault for a few of the goals Ireland conceded and looked out of his depth all the way through.

Shay Given ( Republic Of Ireland) Ireland went in to the tournament with a really good recent defensive record but that was in tatters by the end as they conceded 9 goals in their 3 games. While there may have been some that he couldn’t do anything about there were a few goals he was very culpable.