Your team's Struggle Era lineups are hilarious

No matter which club you support, you’ve probably witnessed an especially grim Struggle Lineup. Even at clubs like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, there’s been a bad season or two. There’s usually a mid-week cup match where fatigue, injuries, and a general lack of quality relative to expectations all come together to give us the gift of a team utterly unfit to represent the club they’re contracted to.

These lineups are burned in fans’ brains forever. So we asked our readers to send us their favorites (or least favorites, I guess) from their clubs, inspired by this Liverpool disasterclass:

I’m not going to lie, I had to look up who No. 14 was. I remember N’Gog, he was a respectable youngster who just didn’t quite reach his potential. Similar things could be said about Shelvey and Spearing. Kyrgiakos, Poulsen and Meireles were decent footballers who were just a bit out of their depth or put into the wrong roles at Liverpool. Konchesky was a famously bad signing. But No. 14, who the heck is that guy?

As reader Jonny pointed out in an email to us: One of the greatest soccer players in the world.

Milan Jovanović signed from Standard Liege, and managed two goals in 18 appearances in just one season at Liverpool. He returned to Belgium with Anderlecht, where he had a couple of OK but not great seasons before retiring at age 32.

This lineup stinks by Liverpool standards, but can anyone beat it?

AC Milan: Downward spiral

Reader Charles writes in: “Roster management is difficult enough as it is, but when that mid 2000s world-conquering Milan side fully aged out... well, you get this starting XI from 2014/15.”

OOF. Milan won Serie A in the 2010-11 season, and had another good year in 2011-12, finishing 2nd and making the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League. This team was highly dependent on the pair of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva — who departed for PSG — as well as the remnants of their Champions League-winning teams. As Massimo Ambrosini, Clarence Seedorf and Alessandro Nesta aged, things got grim for the Rossoneri.

The above is not even a particular game’s worst lineup. This is just AC Milan’s typical starting XI from the 2014-15 season, where they finished 10th in Serie A. This team also featured some decaying shells of once great players not pictured — Michael Essien, Riccardo Montolivo, Giampaolo Pazzini, Daniele Bonera.

Arsenal: I’d blocked this out of my memory

Do you have two immensely disappointing, underperforming strikers? Maybe the way to get them firing is to play both of them at the same time.

I think the most incredible part of this Arsenal lineup is that it’s before the truly bad times set in for the club. This is perhaps the canary in the coal mine, but no one got carbon monoxide poisoning for another 5 years. Even though it was clear the squad’s overall quality was slowly declining, Arsene Wenger continued to squeak out top 4 finishes and good cup runs.

It’s astonishing that Chamakh and Park ever got signed, though.

Bayern Munich: Hey look it’s my favorite fraud

Philipp Lahm famously said that while Jürgen Klinsmann was Bayern Munich manager, the players had to meet in a huddle to discuss tactics before the game because the manager did not provide sufficient plans or strategic insight.

This was a problem against Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, especially with Lahm getting inexplicably benched.

Playing your more defensive winger on Eric Abidal’s side and your winger who doesn’t defend on Dani Alves’ side is an interesting choice. This should theoretically be a well-balanced and competent midfield? But the back 4 and goalkeeper situation here is grim.

Ultimately the names here don’t look too bad, but this is a well-known historically awful performance, so I get the submission.

Juventus: MY EYES

Post-Calciopoli, pre-Conte Juventus had some horrendous lineups, and I wouldn’t be shocked if this was the worst.

We’ve got a fullback playing left winger and an aging playmaker playing holding mid in a 4-4-2. The center forward is wearing 8, which should be illegal. Every player here except Giovinco saw their career go into steep decline after this season, and even he didn’t start performing at a Juventus-like level for another 2 years.

A genuine abomination. I understand the circumstances that led Juventus to this place, but relative to team size and expectations, this might be as bad as it gets.

Manchester United: Who are these people?

A famous 4-0 defeat coming in hot. As our reader points out, many of these players were never trusted by Louis van Gaal again and promptly left the club.

A cup game against MK Dons is a reasonable time to experiment and give some time to youngsters, but holy moly, that midfield. Anderson was very much on his last legs by this point, and Nick Powell was a highly touted youngster who is now at Stockport County.

I had to look up two of these guys. Saidy Janko is now the right back for Young Boys and Gambia, and Marnick Vermijl plays for Thes in the Belgian third division.

Everton: They did this on purpose

Most of the lineups we’ve seen so far can be explained away due to the circumstances. Midweek cup game, injury crisis, financial problems, etc. But none of that can be applied to this Everton team, which features a bunch of guys they spent a shitload of money on within one year of this game.

Someone really signed Wayne Rooney and Davy Klaassen in the same window to play in the same team. This might be the worst single transfer season in Premier League history.

Derby County: Had to be seen to be believed

The 2007-08 Derby County squad holds the record for the fewest points ever in the Premier League, with 11. Their extremely not nice goal differential: -69.

When Benny Feilhaber earned his Premier League move with this golazo vs. Mexico, I was sure his career was taking off. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more wrong about anything.

I don’t even know how to describe how poor this team was relative to their opposition. I think their fans would have much rather lost the promotion playoff final than had to witness what happened the following season.

My personal favorite submission: Juventus 08-09

The most incredible thing about that squad is that it pre-dated the really bad times. Juventus managed to squeak out 2nd place in Serie A that year, before falling to a disastrous 7th the following two seasons ahead of Conte’s appointment.

I think it’s my favorite because it’s the one that is a true sign of a disaster to come. The stars that Juve had were papering over the cracks, but once the three or so best players went to the bench, it became glaringly obvious how thin the squad was. It only took a couple more bad signings to plunge the team into mid-table. —KM

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