This is my best guess about why players get hate (also known as why I have irrationally hated on players) in no particular order.
- Talent; particularly someone who has made it due to talents which are less obvious (ie glamour talents), off the ball runs, work rate, combination with teammates etc. Generally players who have made it through hard work getting the most out of every scrap of ability. Duke and Miller are the obvious current examples, I used to yell all sorts of abuse about Brett Holman for his first touch. The inverse is also true, so guys like Hrustic and Irankunda (Nick Carle was an earlier version) get a pass for gaping holes in their development because the glamour talents are their strengths.
- Age; 'what's the point if he is never going to the next world cup'. Leckie is there now, Lucas Neill got to this point. Anyone over 30 is a candidate.
- Lack of playing time; this generally applies to more talented guys who are selected because they are just better than the alternatives who are playing. Matt Ryan has had this at a few points, Robbie Kruse when he first moved to Germany was a favourite.
- Strikers; I think they are at particular risk of this. Goal scoring is the most important thing but also hard. We haven't had a standout since Viduka then Cahill. Guys with less ability will always have barren patches and people will want them out even if they bring a lot of other things to the table. 'They're in the team to score goals'. Maclaren, Taggart and Duke each bring different qualities but at international level are not good enough to regularly goal score, hence we have bounced between them. Scott Mcdonald was an earlier version of this.
- Incumbent burden; over the duration the guys who play a lot will have bad games, bad runs or the team will be losing. These will stick in the mind because everyone watches. The guy trying to get into the team doesn't have this, people might only see his Aleague form where he plays for a winning side, or read that he is playing every week in Europe with no idea about his form. If you have multiple guys of similar ability they can rotate through, have a bad game get dropped, do their time playing well for their club, get brought back in when they have done their time but are still essentially the same player. We have this with strikers and right back. Strain is the current push, he will probably come in, have a bad game and maybe Atkinson will be back up after he has 'played well for City'.
- 'Blocking' the inclusion of a young player with 'potential'. Fans love potential, what a player could become has almost no limits (read Moneyball for the best description of this). Behich with Bos, now maybe Gersbach (for some reason), Boyle (or anyone really) with Irankunda, Duke with anyone else, Lucas Neill with every defender in Aus at the time.
- No value on experience. FM/FIFA effect. You just pick the best guy, give the team the most stats and they win the match. The 75 caps don't increase his pace so aren't worth anything. If you pick a 'dream' socceroos side and it has less then 100 caps total. If you're playing against Saudi for a WC place in front of 100,000 screaming men, you want someone who has done this before.
- Punchable face - The Robbie Kruse rule. People hated him for no reason. Watching his early Aleague games, blokes cut him in half every match. There were a couple of season in Germany where he was the most fouled player in Europe.
There might be other reasons I haven't thought of. I think Behich ticks 1,2,5,6,7 (maybe 8?). Justified for a lot of hate. If he were also a striker who wasn't getting game time we could get him arrested.
