Ollie v mrwatfordfc You have until Tuesday 12pm 05/08/2014 to make any changes to your line-up/tactics. I will then add a poll to begin the voting (open for 48 hours).
My midfield has perfect balance, with two combative midfielders (one box to box) who can pass, tackle or score screamers ahead of Pirlo who will dictate play & run the show. My attack has alot of star quality, they should have a field day against Luiz & Albiol. My strong aerially dominant CBs should deal with Dzeko. The tenacious Ribery will track back & help Maxwell deal with Robben. Sterling & Robben cutting inside onto their favoured foot will suit me as my CBs are world class. My impact players off the bench: Draxler, Navas, Totti. thanks for reading. x good luck mrwatfordfc
You mention Barcelona style pressing but you need your midfielders to be able to do that as well to make it effective once the ball moves into the middle of the park. Barca's key player in the pressing system to win the ball back is Busquets and you have Pirlo in that role who isn't gonna do any pressing whatsoever. Maxwell would get savaged by the attacking duo of Juanfran and Robben down your left. Ribery would need to be tracking Juanfran each attack so would be unable to help with Robben's considerable attacking threat. If your CBs are preoccupied with Robben and Sterling cutting in that leaves acres of space for Dzeko, Valbuena and Toure in dangerous positions, they'd get plenty of chances there. My wingers are hard working enough to track back and contain Ribery and Iniesta and there is no one in your CM who will break forward to support the attack. Pirlo, Gustavo and Cabaye are all more suited to deep lying roles, it lacks a bit of balance. Someone like a Yaya Toure to make those breaks and score shitloads of goals from midfield is where your midfield falls short.
Cabaye is a box to box central midfielder mate, this role is perfect for him, he will break forward when the opportunity arises. He couldn't have carried Newcastle, scoring 7 goals in 19 games (they were crap when he left) from just defending deep. Some goals from midfield for you there so I guess my midfield doesn't fall short after all. Gustavo is a good all rounder as well who can thread a pass, or break up play, he's great defensively so along with Cabaye who is very combative & gets his foot in they will offer quality protection for Pirlo. These two are exactly the types that play ahead of Pirlo for Italy & Juventus. This gives me a nice balance. Regardless of how your team can hurt mine, your CB partnership is the worst in the draft IMO, there's no leader there or world class talent to carry Luiz. CBs set the tone for the defence, so yours will be pretty easy to get past tbh. Ribery, Benzema & Iniesta? We'd score at will. Your DMs will be ran ragged tryna put out fires there, leaving Pirlo to run the game. Fair point about the Barcelona pressing style, we won't mirror their style then. I guess my two pressing tacklers will have to suffice instead of one. some further reading for you... http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-dimension-manchester-united-desperately-need or take your pick... https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sour...n=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=yohan+cabaye+box+to+box
Why don't you two do a player trade: Yaya Touré for Vincent Kompany... This looks to be yet another excellent tie.
meh I have a good box to box player like Cabaye, he has Luiz & Albiol (average), he definately has the greater need for that trade!
Cabaye's goals mainly came from long range screamers and set pieces, don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of his but he isn't one to burst into the box and score from scraps a la Toure. Gustavo is no goalscorer, he is limited in an attacking sense, you can't compare him to Vidal and Pogba playing ahead of Pirlo for Juve. I agree there are better CB partnerships in the draft but there are worse too. Albiol could be a leader, he captained Real Madrid on occasion, he'll also know Benzema's game inside out from training with him for years. Luiz has an honours list that your CBs would kill for and has achieved this all (bar Confederations Cup) without a world class CB alongside him. People always jump to slate him but 95% of the time he is a very competent player, just a shame his occasional bad game tends to be a complete nightmare which clouds people's perception.
Yeah, Cabaye normally plays a more advanced role and scored 7 in 19 games for Newcastle last season. Don't see that as an issue for Ollie. Whatever Robben and Juanfran accomplish down the right will probably by matched by Debuchy and Iniesta against Schmelzer. Neither side is particularly strong at LB. Actually, I think Iniesta will be a real headache for mrwatford; he'll probably drift in between Albiol and Schmelzer and I'm not confident about either of them picking him up. Matuidi will have to provide some support here. Cabaye and Gustavo should have enough to at least contain Toure and Valbuena. Dzeko isn't troubling Kompany and Godin - one of them should be free to help out with Robben as required. Tactically speaking I don't see any major gaps anywhere but I just don't trust Albiol and Luiz as a CB pairing. If only Ollie had a more consistent striker than Benzema... It really isn't.
Come off it, Schmelzer is much better defensively than Maxwell and Robben + Juanfran is definitely better than Debuchy + Iniesta especially on current form, my right hand side would be significantly more potent. Matuidi and Toure both have the athletic and defensive abilities to support the defence against Iniesta if need be as well as being able to assist in an attacking sense. Toure has bossed midfields containing much better players than the good but not world class pair of Cabaye and Gustavo. Regarding Gustavo.. people harp on about Luiz but over the course of the tournament Gustavo was probably worse. He was almost as bad as Luiz in the Germany game but at least Luiz played well up until then. Gustavo contributed little except fouls. The transfermarkt bible rates Toure + Luiz at £50m and Cabaye + Kompany also at £50m..so its definitely close .
yeah Prolifik, Iniesta will drift inside to occupy Matuidi, the other pairs match up, leaving Pirlo spare to dictate the game. Watford if you meant all 3 of Luiz, Albiol & Toure then they get close lol Great point. I researched Schmelzer extensively for this draft as I considered him but he's not great. Only on peoples radar cos he plays for Dortmund & Durm will replace him soon IMO. So Schmelzer, Albiol & Luiz, my team are licking their lips! 104 goals & 54 assists in the last 4 seasons bro, better than the likes of Suarez & many others who play in good attacking sides. He's definitely a match winner as well. ahahahah Gustavo was one of the few in that match who didn't absolutely disgrace themselves or make a mistake as the likes of Fernandinho & Luiz crumbled. The spine of Silva, Gustavo & Neymar carried them to the semis. & in the earlier games he was immense. Worse than Luiz? You're getting desperate my friend! Real Madrid are rumoured to be considering him atm btw.
As much as I think Ollie's team is better, Luiz is better than what a lot of people think in my opinion. He is the modern day ball playing centre-back who has a ridiculous passing range and I think we'll see more defenders like him in the future. I also believe he has more good games than bad games. He just lacks big time in discipline which causes mistakes in some matches and when he crumbles, he crumbles.
I don't question Luiz's ability, I just don't like players in defensive positions who can't be trusted. As I said on a different thread, it's one thing to have an attacking midfielder who blows hot and cold, but an erratic defender, no matter how talented, is a ticking time bomb. I'd feel a lot better if he had a reliable top-class partner alongside him rather than a decent one like Albiol.
Presuming Gustavo matches up against Valbuena that leaves Cabaye to occupy Toure..that won't end well for you. Have you forgotten how good Yaya Toure is? He scored more goals than any of your team did last season..from centre midfield. The same amount of goals as Benzema in less games. Easily the most valuable player of the four as the only genuine game changer. He's still a better left back than Maxwell. Benzema playing centre forward for the Champions League winners - 24 goals in 52 games Toure playing centre midfield for an inferior team - 24 goals in 49 games Gustavo was woeful in that game! He had a dire tournament, the Brazilian midfield of which he was a part was routinely criticised throughout all their games leading up to the semi final. He was suspended for the only game they played well in against Colombia. Luiz played well for the first five games before the Germany horror show. If we're talking transfers to successful sides then how about mentioning that David Luiz was less than two months ago made the most expensive defender of all time by legendary defender Laurent Blanc.
If Luiz is playing alongside Silva or Terry then he is not left so exposed but Albiol is average & not a defensive leader like they are so all his flaws will come out. Let's face it, the guy is a DM. Where do you get this stuff from? A whole article on how good he was at the WC for you to chew over... "Neymar has earned the plaudits for Brazil but Gustavo has been the unsung hero" http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/03/luiz-gustavo-brazil-world-cup-2014-colombia & another one... "The 26-year-old has been a mainstay in the starting XI at the tournament so far, winning almost 60 per cent of all his duels across his team's four games to date. It is precisely that ball-winning quality between attack and defence that will be so sorely missed against a Colombia side with free-scoring attacker James Rodriguez in their ranks." http://www.bundesliga.com/en/tournaments/news/2013/0000296772.php
Luiz wasn't playing alongside Silva or Terry when he won the Champions League, he was playing alongside Gary Cahill who is probably a similar standard of CB to Raul Albiol. I'm not one for basing opinions on what others think, he did have a poor World Cup in my opinion. Since you ask though.. The Germany game where apparently he didn't play that badly: "Suspended against Colombia and Brazil looked far weaker with him in the team. Completely dominated in central midfield by Schweinsteiger, Kroos and Khedira." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...un-wild-Brazil-vs-Germany-player-ratings.html Brazil vs Mexico: "The midfield pairing of Luiz Gustavo and Paulinho failed to win the midfield battle too, as they were outplayed by the Mexico midfield for the majority of the game" http://www.rantsports.com/soccer/20...e-again-with-poor-performance-against-mexico/ "Gustavo: Has pressed well but slow or poor decision-making on the ball." and "Gustavo: Driving forward a few times was working hard but lacked midfield quality." http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2100105-brazil-vs-mexico-live-player-ratings-for-both-sides Brazil vs Chile "Luiz Gustavo: Distribution has been uncharacteristically poor." http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2112823-brazil-vs-chile-live-player-ratings You can hardly compare his contribution to Brazil's run at the tournament to that of Silva or Neymar
He also says that his midfield partner had one of the worst games in world cup history so it's no surprise the midfield were over ran by those 3 quality palyers. Lazy journalism to suggest it had anything to do with his return but he did also say that David Luiz was an accident waiting to happen throughout the tournament so he's not completely without insight. because it's usually excellent & LOL cos in the very same article... Luiz Gustavo: Will be a big loss in the next round. never heard that about a player who was having a bad tournament, yet it was said all over the place.
Can't see past an Ollie win. Cabaye and Gustavo will push up against Toure and Matuidi, leaving Pirlo against Valbuena. The Frenchman works hard, but Pirlo is Pirlo and will still spend a fair amount of the time controlling the game from deep. Iniesta would be drifting inside to create a numerical advantage in midfield, and I can't see who in Watford's team is really going to stop/track him. I'd fancy Ribery and Benzema to cause more than enough problems for Juanfran, Albiol and Luiz, who is a mistake waiting to happen. Dzeko is a goalscorer but little more. I think Watford would have a threat from wide with Robben and Sterling, but Gustavo and Cabaye are both hard working and will help double up on them, and then Kompany and Godin are still behind them. Yaya Toure would be a threat, but I think it'd be a fairly comfortable win for Ollie in the end. 2-0 to Ollie (Ribery, Benzema)
Ribery had a below par season last year and Juanfran was the best RB in Europe, I'm sure he wouldn't be run ragged. As mentioned earlier Benzema is hardly the most consistent, it doesn't matter who he comes up against he blows hot and cold. Yaya scored as many goals in less games for an inferior team last season. He doesn't need to be with the creativity behind him, all he needs is positioning, awareness and finishing all of which he has in abundance. If Gustavo or Cabaye double up on the wingers it leaves space for Yaya in the middle, something he would thrive upon as evidenced many times in recent years.
