Players that have come good after a bad start?

[aws]

Ian Rush took quite a while till he settled and worked out what was expected of him. 

[TheHowieLama]

15 hours ago, an tha said:

Did Rush have a bad start.

 

He was an 18 year old kid when we bought him.

 

Played a handful of games in first season in first team while he learned his trade and played in the reserves.

 

Next season he banged in 30 goals for us and was still only 20 years old at the end of it.

Yep - he doesn't really fit the bill here

[Red Hot]

Ray Kennedy was way overweight and it showed on his play. Bob sorted that out. Ray lost a ton of weight , converted to midfield, the rest is history. 

[Trumo]

5 hours ago, clockspeed said:

Pires is the standard it takes a year to settle . Think Overmars was poor 1 at year also before pair of them tore league up 2nd season 

 

They were never at the club at the same time. Pires was signed as Overmars' replacement when they sold him to Barcelona. In any case, Overmars was quality from the start and they won the double in his first season.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Mostly those that have all been mentioned, especially Crouch and I remember Masherano needing time. Plus he and others were getting way more game time than Keita. If it clicks for Keita then great, if it doesn't I'm sure we'll get a decent price/swap deal for him off a German club. Keita is suffering because we have a great starting 11 who have been winning games on a regular basis for what seems an age. Other players in the past had time to bed in due to us dominating with a larger squad or indeed being mediocre and not being in a position like we are now. 

[Guest Alex_K]

8 hours ago, Bad Red Bull said:

Fabinho..

 

Looked all over the place against Arsenal. Now he's one of our best players on the pitch.

?? I mean this is just stupid. He was one of the best midfielders in Europe within 6 months of his debut.

 

Mascherano & Tevez’ West Ham versions are probably decent shouts but only for half a season - Tevez kept them up almost single handedly later on. Forlan after he left United? Often it needs the move for a player to reinvent themselves. Very rarely does it happen at the same club as the lack of variety of names in this thread shows.

[clockspeed]

13 minutes ago, Trumo said:

 

They were never at the club at the same time. Pires was signed as Overmars' replacement when they sold him to Barcelona. In any case, Overmars was quality from the start and they won the double in his first season.

Got that completely wrong cause I also thought Pires arrived before Overmars ! 

[Bjornebye]

Ron Yeats was 5 ft 4 before Shanks changed the shorts to Red. 

[liverpoolsno9]

Seem to remember Terry Henry not having the best of starts at the Arse. He went on to become ok.

[A Red]

De Gea was a bit shit for a while I seem to remember 

[Bjornebye]

1 minute ago, liverpoolsno9 said:

Seem to remember Terry Henry not having the best of starts at the Arse. He went on to become ok.

Wasn't it something like 8 games without a goal or anything then bang! Best all time prem player for me still. 

[SasaS]

16 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Wasn't it something like 8 games without a goal or anything then bang! Best all time prem player for me still. 

I remember watching him play for Juventus a couple of times and he was terrrrible each time (he may have been good overall for them, don't remember) so I thought Arsenal were crazy to go for him.

[TheHowieLama]

Henry scored like 25 golas his first season.

 

Grasping at straws to compare Keita to any of the fellas so far mentioned.

Heck, even Henry at Juve was better than Keita so far.

[liverpoolsno9]

1 hour ago, TheHowieLama said:

Henry scored like 25 golas his first season.

 

Grasping at straws to compare Keita to any of the fellas so far mentioned.

Heck, even Henry at Juve was better than Keita so far.

 

And? He got off to a bad start. That’s what the thread is about, is it not? His scoring in the 1st season is only half the story. He only scored 2 in his 1sT 17 games and had some fans on his back. That’s a bad start for such a World Class player in my book

 

  

 

 

[moof]

1 hour ago, TheHowieLama said:

Henry scored like 25 golas his first season.

 

Grasping at straws to compare Keita to any of the fellas so far mentioned.

Heck, even Henry at Juve was better than Keita so far.

Keita at Leipzig was better than your ma

[TheHowieLama]

2 minutes ago, liverpoolsno9 said:

 

And? He got off to a bad start. That’s what the thread is about, is it not? He only scored 2 in his 1s 17 games and had some fans on his back. That’s a bad start for such a World Class player in my book

 

  

 

 

Nah man -- not having that. 

 

He switched to an entirely new position and actually scored more in his first season than his second.

 

If that is a bad start Keita hasn't even left the line yet - after 18 months

[TheHowieLama]

2 minutes ago, moof said:

Keita at Leipzig was better than your ma

Not his last season he wasn't 

[liverpoolsno9]

19 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

Nah man -- not having that. 

 

He switched to an entirely new position and actually scored more in his first season than his second.

 

If that is a bad start Keita hasn't even left the line yet - after 18 months

 I’ve not even mentioned Naby! I’ve only remarked on a player who turned out good after a bad start.
Henry.
He. Still. Got. Off. To. A. Bad. Start. 
 

Thierry Henry knew something needed to change. His decision was made – that morning he would go into Arsene Wenger’s office at London Colney and tell his manager that he didn’t want to be a striker anymore.

Nobody would have minded anyway; not the fans who’d been disappointed with the 22-year-old’s first months at Arsenal, and least of all Henry himself, his confidence shot to bits after a tough start to life in north London. Patrick Vieira was teasing him about his profligacy, but deep down it hurt.

Henry’s early days at Arsenal are synonymous with the simple fact that he didn’t score in his first eight appearances. In mid-September he memorably broke his deadlock at The Dell with a 79th-minute winner against Southampton that came only eight minutes after he’d been introduced off the bench. So too had his marker: Saints’ Hugo Almeida was making his debut for the injured Claus Lundekvam, and was soon being turned by Henry to help the Frenchman open his account with a lovely curled finish beyond Paul Jones.  
 

Henry didn’t start Arsenal’s next game four days later, a Champions League group stage tussle against AIK Solna at Wembley, but again came off the bench to set up Suker for a goal and round off the scoring himself in a 3-1 win.

Still, though, the comparisons with his predecessor wouldn’t go away. According to The Times, Henry was “still snatching at chances that Anelka would have converted”. One of those was an easy early miss from close range. “If we hadn’t won the game I would have felt as if I’d let everyone down,” he said post-match. “I looked at the clock and knew I had nine minutes to put it right.”

He did, of course, but those niggly thoughts ate away at him throughout his first four months at Highbury: Henry had netted only twice in his first 17 games in all competitions, and the situation was bringing him down.

Outwardly he preached patience, but the reality that followed was seven more scoreless games after that Solna win. At this point he was still being played out wide. “I think the boss wants me to play in a more central role,” Henry reiterated. “That’s fine, but it means having to learn about timing your runs in a completely different way. That takes time.”

The turning point for Henry’s first season at Arsenal wasn’t even a game he scored in, or even made a direct contribution to a goal for that matter. It came on November 25, 1999, in a UEFA Cup first-leg tussle against Nantes; the Gunners had failed to get out of their Champions League group, and thus found themselves in the third round of Europe’s secondary competition. Henry had replaced Freddie Ljungberg with Arsenal 1-0 up and 20 minutes remaining at Highbury, and although he couldn’t add to his miserly Gunners tally, the young Frenchman looked lively and carved out numerous chances off his own back.  

[TheHowieLama]

So the bad start was a couple months?? Must be just me then as I would not consider a season from a 21 year old coming to a new country and learning a new position while knocking in 25 golas as bad.

 

In fact we should be so lucky.

[liverpoolsno9]

3 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

So the bad start was a couple months?? Must be me as I would not consider a season from a 21 year old coming to a new country and learning a new position while knocking in 25 golas as bad.

 

In fact we should be so lucky.

 

Of course, you’re right. And it seems extremely harsh for one of the best players to play in the Premier. However, his 1st months belied what he was to become.

His start was more than a couple of months. 
The months in question, we’re at the start. And it wasn’t very good. So added all together.

His start wasn’t very good. 

[TheHowieLama]

@liverpoolsno9 Important to remember he was a young winger that had a couple decent seasons in a lesser league, not unlike the fella Pepe they just signed - he was not the world class striker we all remember now. So yeah, in hindsight maybe a slow start.

 

The original post was in relation to Keita - he has been here well over a year. 

[Bjornebye]

Henrik Larsson took a while to get going for Celtic. Scored an own goal on his debut as well. 

 

 

[Jimmy Hills Chin]

16 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Henrik Larsson took a while to get going for Celtic. Scored an own goal on his debut as well. 

 

 

Ahh he only did that to balance out the ridiculous amount of goals he was going to score in the future.

[neopulian]

Mark Wright. Brought in when Souness first arrived, didn't impress until Roy Evans took over and changed to 3atb. Michael Thomas too. He started to play rather well when everybody had already given up on him. 

[Bjornebye]

Dominic Matteo. Couldn't get a regular break into the side (despite us having shite at the back) then as soon as he did and started playing well, we sold him to Leeds who then got the best out of him. 

 

Heskey. Couldn't tell you the stats without looking but he was a bit of a laughing stock in his first season but went on to become IMO one of our most underrated players ever.