Ollie v AJ's Right Peg You have until Friday 10pm 01/08/2014 to make any changes to your line-up/tactics. I will then add a poll to begin the voting (open for 48 hours).
Tough match but I think in the end I have the world class players that make the difference, a category I'd struggle to place any of his players in. Hopefully the other managers will realize that Godin & Kompany would be at least one of the best CB partnerships they'd ever seen & with those two marshalling the defence against his average (for this draft) forwards would struggle. His full backs will be pinned back trying to deal with my skillful rapid wingers & the overlapping runs from my full backs who are both quality crossers who like to get forward. Pirlo could also fire in a free kick or indeed score himself, few better at that (if any) so I have a big set piece presence, especially with my CBs both being massive aerial threats. There's no doubt their main strength is central midfield, (not that they're a great side or anything but just to use an example everyone is familiar with) I remember England playing two DMs twice against him & Pirlo just bypassed the midfield by dictating the game with his quarterback passes. If he is marked that leaves Iniesta free so one world class playmaker will always be available to run the show. No doubt that we will control the game with those two legends up against players who still have alot to prove & lack experience in the middle. It's all very well having combative players in there but the're just gonna be chasing the ball around! Then on comes Totti & Navas (lightning fast) to provide some genius & searing pace respectively to destroy tired legs & minds. In contrast they don't have any game changers off the bench that would worry us. So in the end I reckon if you were thinking draw then surely those two would clinch us the match! Nice team Shawn, good luck. x
Joga, I'll be using this lineup.. Subs: Leno, Mustafi, dos Santos, Henderson, Kiessling Can you change the OP? Ta x As for this match, Ollie has the better side on paper but I think my side matches up quite well. Formation wise, we'll mirror em and Strootman/Koke/Ramsey > Pirlo/Gustavo/Cabaye so a key battle will be won in my favor. My front 3 is slick and capable of interchanging can cause their defence some problems, especially the likes of of Maxwell and Debuchy. Fancy Garay and Cahill to handle Benzema as well. Kiessling can come on if need be for some strength and aerial prowess and Henderson can provide some tireless workrate if need be. Dos Santos is similar to Vela and can also be brought on if things aren't working. gl Ollie x
He must have just edited that. Regardless, Strootman/Koke/Ramsey and Iniesta/Gustavo/Pirlo is a great battle, could go either way.
Debatable, I don't think you'd see the ball. Then you have to contain my attack which is better than yours. The average Mertens plus the merely good Rossi & Vela against two world class CBs plus two solid all rounder full backs is only going one way. I don't see the match winners in your team. Also de Gea > Howard. Then I have Totti & one of the fastest players in the world; Navas, to bring off the bench! Anyway again I say good luck, nice side. x
What is that based on? You act like that midfield is world beating - a quality Iniesta, a weaker DM than mine, and an old Pirlo. Iniesta > Ramsey Strootman > Gustavo Koke = Pirlo IMO.
Are you seriously saying Koke is as good as Pirlo? Pirlo is ageless, he doesn't rely on pace, he creates his own time & space. I didn't see koke or any of your other midfielders on the last Ballon d'Or shortlist with Pirlo (not too old for that) & Iniesta where they've been in residency for years. He's a very good player but certainly not atm & he might never be as good. Two of the best passers around with immense experience of dictating games backed up by a top all rounder who has great defensive discipline. Against some good young guns none of whom have ever been world class, two of which could be one season wonders at the top level. We can agree to disagree anyway. Who cares what we think, it's up to other people!
True tbf. Anyway, I've said my bit. Let's hope everyone else doesn't underrate Koke as much as you have x And this is all a laugh anyway, two quality sides - would be awesome to actually see this match.
With the 2 midfields mirroring each other I have to give the edge to Ollie there. I might have gone for an extra body in Henderson - don't think you can contain Pirlo and Iniesta in a 3-vs-3 situation. Throw both Henderson and Strootman at Pirlo and you'd stand a better chance IMO.
Was considering that but opposing such quality wingers, my source of width would've been contained. It was a tough choice but thought trying to mirror em was best. I probably shouldn't say it but I do think Ollie's MF has the edge. I just don't agree that I'd never have the ball as my midfield three is also quality. But even if that is the case - with Mertens/Vela/Rossi, my team is perfectly set up for counters. F*cking tough 1st match tbh, all about second in this group
Stunned how Ollie is winning this by a landslide. He's got some brilliant players, a formidable CB partnership and keeper but, in my opinion, his team has holes and is unbalanced. I think AJ's team is solid right the way through and without any obvious weakness. Debuchy is a good full back; Maxwell is solid going forward but poor defensively. An okay pairing, but are they really enough to stop Mertens and Vela and then Srna and Rodriguez, two of the best attacking full backs around, from overlapping? Would Ribery and Draxler track the runs? For Pirlo to be the player he is, you need to have him deepest of a three/four and have at least two strong, energetic midfielders ahead of him - sometimes three - effectively clearing the space between defence and midfield for him to control. His entire career has been built around this. Think about any team that has had any measure of success with Pirlo in it and where he has played in that team. The answer is always the same. At Milan he had the likes of Gattuso, Seedorf ahead of him; at Juve, Vidal, Pogba and Marchisio; for Italy, De Rossi, Marchisio and Montolivo. All of them had Pirlo as the deepest; Ollie's formation does not do that. Iniesta is a brilliant player, but not defensively. Pirlo literally doesn't do any work defensively. So that leaves Gustavo on his own to defend against the energy and nouse of Strootman, Koke and Ramsey? I'm not buying it. It's okay to say that AJ wouldn't have the ball, but he would because his midfielders are all excellent out of possession, have immense work rates and would hardly get passed around like they're three Tom Cleverleys, and once they have the ball, nobody in Ollie's team is going to win it back. Draxler is out of position, and though he's a bright prospect, he's nowhere near the finished article. He only scored twice in the league last season and only recorded six assists. Rodriguez would have him in his pocket. Srna is no fool and you'd have the likes of Strootman and Ramsey coming back to double up on him, but Ribery is a definite threat, especially with Maxwell outside him. Vela wouldn't track his runs. Benzema is a good striker. Cahill and Garay are both solid and might have his number, but I'd just as easily fancy him to score any chance or half chance he gets. And Iniesta is, well, you know. Him against Strootman would be tasty, but Iniesta will always find a yard to create something. For me, AJ's team would penetrate down the flanks with his wingers coming slightly inside, his full backs overlapping, and then he'd have Koke and Ramsey making well-timed runs from deep. Gustavo isn't good enough to do the job of two people, and as good as Kompany and Godin are, they would be outnumbered and eventually that would cost them. Ollie's midfield is far too lightweight and unbalanced; AJ's would smother it. AJ's team is also far superior down the flanks. Ollie has the better CB partnership and a few genuine world class players that could get him goals, but his team would not control the match. AJ's team would have most of the possession, but might lack that incisiveness of a world class forward. I don't think either of them have a particularly strong bench. AJ could bring on Dos Santos, but does he necessarily offer anything different to Vela? Kiessling could provide an aerial threat, but not against Godin and Kompany. Ollie can bring on an aging Totti, but he'd be against Strootman, Garay and Cahill, and Navas would hardly tear Rodriguez to shreds, especially if AJ is defending deep. A 1-1 draw.
Much more eloquent than my posts but this is what I wanted to get at. And while this match is out of my reach, fancy myself (and better write-ups) to grab second place. Money is in the post, Teevs x
Cheers x But srsly, your team is one of the most balanced. Your defence and midfield is spotless. You could be the Atletico of this draft.
tvr it's ironic that you're so fond of talking about balance because you offered up a very unbalanced critique there to justify your conclusion. No weaknesses in Shawn's team? Come on! Mertens is average in this company so there's one obvious weakness for a start so then they're relying on the other two forwards who are nothing special. He also has a lack of match winners in comparison to my team. You can have the best balance in the world but who is gonna step up & win you the match in the big time CL environment? The world class experienced players that I have, that's who. I can't imagine those 3 forwards have many CL goals between them. Cahill was losing his man time & again in the WC (resulting in 2 or 3 goals), good luck with Benzema's movement off the ball. Despite WC heroics in one game Howard isn't an elite GK either. We have a Man U player of the year GK against someone who failed there. All this tracking runs stuff. I'd fancy Ribery to get stuck in more than Shawn's wingers, he's a real warrior, so that's actually a plus for me! He can track back & cover Maxwell who you don't seem keen on then that perceived weakness vanishes away. One I disagree with btw. Nobody in my team is gonna win the ball back? Yeah definitely give that money to him Shawn! Luiz Gustavo ffs, one of the top destroyers around. Draxler isn't out of position, he plays anywhere in attacking midfield, he's completely two footed, the ball is glued to his feet wherever he is on the pitch & my draft video shows him cutting in off the right wing to score a worldie which is exactly how I see him playing for me. Pirlo doesn't literally do nothing defensively. Again I have a few crunching tackles of his in my video even though that's not his game, he defends with interceptions mainly. It's not just about Pirlo like it is for Italy, I have Iniesta in there & together they will control the game. I have two world class playmakers. & this is what Prolifik alluded to... If one doesn't get you the other one will. although I disagree with almost all of it, you're entitled to your opinion. x
I do agree with TVR a bit but I still believe that Ollie will just have the edge. He has the better defence and attack out of them both and I do believe his midfield will have a lot of the ball. I voted for Ollie.
I'm voting Ollie. His team just seems so well balanced. In CM, you have the physicality of Gustavo and passing ability of Pirlo. At CB I rate Garay and Godin about the same, but Kompany is way better than Cahill. The front three of Ollie would also work really well, with Benzema being one of the few top quality strikers capable of playing as a target man and Ribery being one of the best picks for his position. I voted Ollie's team as best team overall and think he'd win this game easily. PG's Score Ollie 3 - 0 AJ
I don't think his forward line is necessarily a weakness. Mertens, Vela and Rossi are all currently better than Draxler, and I would even rate Rossi as high as to say if not for his injury problems, he'd be at least as good as Benzema - he scored 16 goals in 21 this season, whereas Benzema scored 17 in 35. He's a proven goalscorer, and when he's fit he can be a special player. Your video shows Draxler either coming off from the left or in the middle. I don't see him coming off the right? Luiz Gustavo is going to defend against the whole of AJ's midfield? Like I said before, Gustavo is nowhere near good enough to do the job of two people. Pirlo doesn't do anything defensively anymore - you have a video of him making a tackle, but I have a video of Schmeichel scoring a goal. These days he needs other people to do his running for him, and at least two of them. You're still playing not playing him in a role that he actually plays in, or has ever really played in. Atletico don't have any world class experienced players, or didn't at the time of them battling their way to CL final. You don't need the best individual players to win matches, you need the best team and system. Man for Man, Ollie, you'd win at a canter. But, in my opinion, your team is genuinely flawed in midfield and I think AJ would have too much in there and down the wings for you. The only "Weakness" in AJ's team is that one of his forwards is only good, not great. Rossi and Vela are both big, big talents.
