Week one of Euro 2016 is well underway and already some fantastic matches have regaled the fans of the beautiful game. Anger, frustration, unethical fights between rival fans, last minute headers and dazzling performances; the beginning itself lays the ground for a riveting tournament ahead if a similar momentum continues.
Some seasoned big names Like Andres Iniesta and Gareth Bale have performed as expected while many more like Liverpool youngster Danny Ward have put up surprisingly good knocks in the face of tough opposition.
Iniesta's performance against the Czech Republic was expectedly brilliant and a further proof as to why he is still widely regarded as one of the best, active footballers in the world.
Danny Ward, Liverpool's second choice goalkeeper was required to fill in for the injured Crystal Palace goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey. Against a reasonably tough Slovakian performance, he did quite well considering how unexpected his appearance was.
However, not all players have lived up to the hype. We look at five such players whose performances were too underwhelming with regards to what was expected and who, ideally, should not start for their respective second games.
1) Romelu Lukaku – Belgium
The Everton striker who has been recently been linked to clubs like Chelsea as the summer transfer window drew nearer but he left the Belgian supporters with a bad taste in the mouth after their national side failed to strike up a performance against Italy.
This comes nearly a week after Lukaku declared to World Football magazine, “I’m among the best.” The 23-year-old reflected none of his Premier League finesse as he struggled against an indomitable Italian defence.
Even when he did get past them, he failed to capitalise on chances and rarely proved challenging to the Italian goalkeeper. His prominent dribbling skills were absent and there was arguably only one occasion which displayed any sign of his footwork when he intercepted a pass by Kevin de Bruyne which, again, he failed to follow up with a finish.
BBC analyst Martin Keown said of his performance, “He’s a tiger at times, but he’s been a pussycat tonight.”
2) Aleksandr Kokorin – Russia
The Russian and FC Zenit forward recently created a lot of speculation when a transfer to Premier League giants, Arsenal was rumoured during December 2015. The 25-year-old is, arguably, most famous for his lavish lifestyle and his consequent advertising of the same on various social media platforms.
Russian football experts have consistently hailed him and teammate Oleg Shatov as the rising stars of international football and It is safe to state that despite an unlucky draw, England dominated most of this Euro fixture and were a much more cohesive team than their opponents.
Arguably, Eric Dier's free kick was one of the rare bright spots of their game as most of the Russians looked shaky throughout the first half. While some finally found their footing in the later part of the game, Kokorin was among those who failed to impress.
The fact that the Russian team do not have too much of bench strength to offer a suitable replacement for Kokorin makes his underperformance problematic. After a brilliant run in the 2012-13 season of the Russian League, Kokorin has primarily been in the limelight more for his extravagance than for his football exploits.
3) Nolito – Spain
While Euro 2016 is on in full swing, the transfer rumours seem to show no sign of slowing down in the midst of this major international tournament. Lately, Nolito is thought to have agreed to terms for a move to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City.
While the Spanish striker has since denied any knowledge of this supposed move to the EPL, in light of his performance against the Czech Republic, it probably seems to be for the best.
Overall, Spain were held to a deadlock by the Czechs until the 87th minute and their performance was largely unremarkable with Iniesta, Juanfran and David Silva being the few bright spots.
Nolito lacked good passes and was poor at intercepting the ball and failed to finish his runs to the goal. He took impossible chances at scoring and seemed to be completely out of sync with the general tactics followed by the rest of the team. Definitely a miss for Spain's next game against Turkey.
4) Arda Turan – Turkey
Probably the biggest flop in Turkey's otherwise mediocre effort against Croatia was one of their biggest names and Barcelona attacking midfielder Arda Turan. The 70 minutes he played seemed very embarrassing when compared to his achievements at the Catalan club.
The player around whom the national team was essentially built, seemed to struggle with the pace of the game and was often found to be fumbling during easy tackles and ball interceptions.
This was definitely a game to forget for Turan as he seemed quite unresponsive and slow and contributed next to nothing to Turkey's fight against Croatia's brilliant display. He was ineffective when it came to creating chances and did not seem to be able to retain possession of the ball for too long.
In the struggling position that Turkey are in, it is absolutely imperative that they improve before their upcoming fixtures to maintain a chance of survival in the tournament.
5) Harry Kane – England
The prolific forward who is essentially the driving force behind Tottenham’s incredible finish last season, unfortunately, fell short of replicating that zing for England's Euro venture.
Prior to the beginning of Euro 2016, England manager Roy Hodgson was widely hailed for his theoretically perfect team. All departments and positions seemed to be well provided for and Kane was, of course, deemed indispensable for the side.
However, that did not seem to be the case as Kane ended up contributing nothing at all to England's otherwise decent performance. Former England striker and current MOTD pundit Alan Shearer harshly criticised Roy Hodgson's decision to not substitute Kane for Jamie Vardy in the second half.
Given the disappointment that England has consistently faced on the international level in the recent past, an early exit is perhaps the last thing that the team needs. Kane needs to improve and he needs to do so fast.
