I visited goal.com to catch up with some the latest football news and was met with the captivating heading Meet Samuel Chukwueze - the new Arjen Robben?
I told a friend of mine this is the beginning of the end for Samuel Chukwueze if care is not taken. The Nigerian has been dazzling for Villarreal with his showing against Barcelona the highlight of a great season. He carried the same form to the Nigerian national team where he helped the Super Eagles to a third place finish. He is rated as the wonderkid of Spanish La Liga.
Comparison is one thing that does more harm than good. A good case is Stanley Okoro who played the 2009 U17 world cup in Nigeria. He was termed little Messi and he never reached that height. He never lived up to expectations and he is back in Abia united.
Comparison by the media, ex-players is a very bad thing and should be discouraged. It is never a way to encourage a player or manager, instead it kills them.
Humans are unique in all ways, even twins don't have the same characteristics, so how do you expect a player to be like another star. The media brings up topics for their own gain not knowing that this topics have massive effects on the player. According to similarweb, goal.com have around 49m total visits. That's a huge number and it means thousands-millions of users now look at him as the next Arjen Robben.
If he misses a chance or fails to dribble someone, you hear stuffs like Robben can't do that, he can't reach Robben height, he's not as good as Robben and so on. With time, this will get to Chukwueze and he will abandon his real self in pursuit of the Robben image. This is what happens every now and then when you compare.
Manchester united football club is a good example of this. Ever since Cristiano Ronaldo left the club, they have been looking for his replacement and also someone to wear the number 7 jersey. The likes of Valencia, Angel Di Maria, Depay, and Alexis Sanchez have all failed to replaced Cristiano Ronaldo. In My Opinion, only Alexis Sanchez flopped. However, most Manchester united fans will think otherwise simply because they already compared them to Ronaldo, they believed they have signed the next Ronaldo and such player should exhibit all the attributes of the Portuguese. Once the player doesn't exhibit Ronaldo attributes, they call for his head.
Antonio Valencia was neither a prolific goalscorer or assist king before signing for Manchester united. He only managed 6 goals and 11 assists in 3 seasons with Wigan. Why expecting much or comparing to Ronaldo?
Angel Di Maria is not a prolific goalscorer too but provides the forwards with the final passes. His first and only season with Manchester united saw him accumulate 4 goals and 12 assists. This is a fair return considering the fact that he just arrived in the EPL.
Memphis Depay is another player who fell to the comparison knife. The youngster from Psv signed for Manchester united and was expected to be an instant hit. Every player need time to adapt. He scored 7 goals and created 6 assists for Manchester united in his first season before being sold in his second season. He joined Lyon and could only score 5 goals and 8 assists in the first season. The second season saw him ship in 22goals and 16 assists. This shows that he only need time to adapt. Unfortunately, they all compared him to Ronaldo, the way he takes his shot and even gave him the number 7 jersey.
We have the Famed Manchester united Class of 92 who don't know anything other than comparing the Manutd managers to Alex Ferguson. You always hear Fergie would have done this, this couldn't happen during Fergie time, Fergie won't pack the bus, Fergie won't use overweight players and so on.
Ibrahimovic slammed them because they cause more harm than good. We saw Gary Neville performance in his short stinct as Valencia Manager. He only won 3 matches out of 16 league games with zero cleansheets. Imagine if that was a Manchester united Manager.
Comparison lead to increase in expectations. The media or individuals cook up the stories which are digested by the fans who then expect such stories to manifest. If this things doesn't work out, you see the fans calling for the sack or transfer of such Manager or player. A recent example is the Romelu Lukaku case.
The media labelled him a slow, overweight player with poor first touch. They sold him and surely regretting now.
Players like Illaramendi, Renato Sanchez, Alvaro Morata have all been slayed with this comparison sword.
Comparison is bad and should be shunned by all means.
What do you think?
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://zoneboy.000webhostapp.com/2019/09/comparison-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-such-player-manager-or-club