Does Social Media change the opinions on a players abililty?

Social media is central and pivotal to everyday life whether it be the norm or sports. Football, as well as all other major sports, has now become easily accessible across different media devices and platforms. In particular, social media is always under the limelight when sourcing news, gossip and opinions from all football fans and clubs around the world. These different online platforms do provide a way for fans to connect with their favourite teams and players from the world as well as their fellow supporters from different parts of the globe. However with the positives always come the negatives as the anonymity of users and weak guideline restrictions produce the so-called 'internet trolls.'

These 'trolls' usually formulate ludicrous opinions in the hope of going viral and being seen on everyone's screen worldwide. The ever-growing influence of social media should not be underestimated as these 'joke comments' have all the power to influence other young generations into believing the 'joke' is true. In football terms, a player's reputation can easily dissipate if a 'troll' post on social media goes viral. 

(Image from - OLIVIER MORIN/Getty Images)

Nowadays, many football fans online mainly look at stats produced by a player and use that as the only source of information to judge if a player is truly great or not. A common example is with midfielders and wide attackers. These players may play well every week but without a goal contribution (goal or assist) may very well be undermined on social media platforms as certain players manage to produce great stats but are passengers the whole game.

Players like Neymar and Paul Pogba are usually under scrutiny for their performances, mainly Pogba due to the lack of goal contributions he managed in his 6 seasons at Man Utd. Neymar does still produce decent goal contributions but since they aren't to the standard of his Barcelona days he is constantly under the limelight of being an 'overrated player' by many fans.

However, if fans and supporters watched these two players for their clubs you can see that they are world-class players. Of course, with Pogba it was quite evident in the latter years at United that he wanted out and didn't perform as well on some occasions and was rather injury-prone. But in his first 3 seasons at United, you could see the potential and talent he possessed as a footballer.

A player's price tag is also used constantly to define their abilities. And this was the issue with Pogba and Neymar. Pogba was the most expensive player in the world in the 16/17 season with his return to United. With a price tag of £90M come huge expectations. He managed only 15 goals+assists in 51 matches that season and many defined his season as a 'flop.' Although he won 2 trophies and was a scorer in one of them. His performances throughout the season were exceptional it was just a shame that the Man Utd attackers failed to score the majority of the chances he created. But of course, ignorance of social media ' gurus' produced a very skewed and biased opinion.

Neymar in the following season destroyed the market completely and became the most expensive player as he was bought by PSG at around £220M. Of course, the fee was ridiculous and no player is worth that much. And of course, the expectation was for Neymar to transform their fortunes in the Champions League, as it was an elusive competition for the Parisian giants. In his first season at PSG, they were knocked out by eventual winners Real Madrid in the RO16. Individually Neymar was one of the best players in the world in that campaign, with more goal contributions than appearances, and was unlucky not to be involved in the Ballon d'Or contention. Although Ronaldo also produced yet more wonderful performances in the knockout runs of the competition and was also denied the Ballon d'Or to his former teammate Luka Modric who was involved in the CL and World Cup final that same year.

But the narrative on social media was already built. PSG's lack of Champions League success was the headline due to their heavy price tag for Neymar. Therefore Neymar's numbers and performances were completely ignored due to the early Champions League exit as well as a poor campaign with Brazil at the World Cup. In my opinion, the price tag of a player should not be used when talking about a player's ability as that value is not controlled by the player but rather by the clubs involved in the negotiations. The clubs are responsible for handing the player extra pressure and responsibility which helps them produce a scapegoat for the media when things go wrong.

Neymar did manage to take PSG to their first-ever CL final in 2020 with some of the best individual performances I have seen in a CL knockout phase. But due to his lack of goal contributions and losing the final his value by many fans on social media is still not recognised and therefore like Pogba receives unfair treatment from their supporters.

This highlights how social media is a double-edged sword as it can produce fascinating opinions as well as ridiculous ones but overall emphasises the power it has on altering viewpoints and opinions rather easily.