Worst XI

Is there such a thing as a bad footballer?

We have all sat in pubs and living rooms and given our opinions on this great game of ours. Amongst the usual conversations regarding great goals, great players and stadia are the opinions on how bad players are or were.

Everyone has their view on how good or bad a player is and some are unanimous when assessing player ability and within minutes we can give a good or in this case a bad team.

What makes a bad player and are they really that bad? In some cases it simply involves making a mistake so bad that no matter what they have done previously or what they do after they will always be associated with the particular incident. There are just as many players remembered for a negative incident as a positive one. Should professionals be making mistakes at all? A sole purpose of putting a ball in between two posts. Can't be that hard can it?

Here is my 'Worst XI'

GK: Scott Carson
D: Igor Stepanovs
D: Anton Ferdinand
D: Richard Dunne
D: Frank Lebouf
M: Eric Djemba Djemba
M: Jonathan Greening
M: Karl Henry
M: Ronnie Rosenthal
F: Nicolas Bedtner
F: Carlton Cole

This will no doubt start a debate and some people will disagree with me on a lot of these but that's what is great about football. Everybody has an opinion.

Ronnie Rosenthal wasn't a bad player but the one thing that stands out was when he rounded the keeper and in the green of Liverpool, hit the crossbar from 18 yards. I don't care what he did before or after, he hit the bar?!

Nicolas Bendtner... Now I'm an Arsenal fan and yes he did have his moments but he came to the club with such a high opinion of himself and claimed to be one of the worlds best. He then proceeded to miss the majority of his chances and will forever be seen as a failure by the Arsenal fans.

Richard Dunne has the most own goals to his name in the history of the Premier League and Karl Henry has the most sending offs with 7 dismissals to his name. I don't know any of his career highlights but I know of the sendings off. Does this make him a bad player?

This can work the other way too. Andy Linighan for example. Many of you wouldn't have heard of him and he wasn't a great player at Arsenal. In fact he was Steve Boulds understudy- that should give you an idea of his ability, but Andy scored the winner against Sheffield Wednesday in the 1993 FA Cup Final and will therefore be spoke of more than most Arsenal defenders. All that seems to matter to the fans was that goal!

Everyone has got their opinions on good and bad players and I've done mine based on facts and what players were remembered for. I wonder how many of us could be professional footballers though?!

Frazer Triggs