Liverpool: 10 Highly-Rated Talents Who Threw It All Away

8. Salif Diao

After putting some mighty impressive performances in for Senegal during the 2002 World Cup, Diao arrived at Anfield with many believing Liverpool had a top class player on their hands. He had, after all, kept the great Zinedine Zidane quiet when his country snatched a 1-0 victory over France in the group stages. Nonetheless, his time at Liverpool was much different. Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher say in their autobiographies that the French-speaking players secluded themselves at the club, with Diao being one of them. He never took to Liverpool, and Liverpool never took to him. Ultimately Diao never displayed the form that had been displayed on a global stage and probably made more mistakes than positive moves. Often, he through in clumsy challenges in dangerous areas of the Liverpool goalmouth and also didn't do anything when his side were going forward. His passing was quite frankly terrible with many going either out of play or to an opposition. Reds fans were glad to say the least when he left for Stoke City in 2007.