All-Time Fantasy Draft

That was a great final yes, our teams was just about the same strenght! I learned a lot from that time but this time is just as fun!

Still astonished to have gotten more votes than a team that had Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane, Laudrup, Nedved, Edwards, Neeskens and Beckenbauer at the back. :lol:
 
Still astonished to have gotten more votes than a team that had Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane, Laudrup, Nedved, Edwards, Neeskens and Beckenbauer at the back. :lol:

Well I think your great knowledge of selling your team won you a few votes, and you had a great team!

Hopefully that shows that you don´t have to have Messi or Maradona to win this thing :)
 
No fullback would exploit the opposition fullback as well as a quality winger can. Roberto Carlos, one of the best attacking fullbacks couldn't take the role as a winger at Inter, because he is a fullback. The reasons such fullbacks are effective going forwards is because of the unpredictability provided by a winger who is the primary option in attack and creates space.

Also, if the other team has strong wingers, the fullback cannot bomb forward much in the first place, as that risks your team to get murdered on the counter.

I understand what a fullback is. Someones team has Charlton and Maradona as inside forwards with no wingers but nobody is saying 'Why isn't he exploiting the full-backs' It's nonsense to assume that one of the greatest Italian players of all time won't cause his full back if started out wide because he isn't used to it. Like any central player of his quality he would of moved all over the place across the front, including out to the touch line. In fact pretty much everyone's attack is at such a high standard that most of the starting positions are pretty irrelevant, world class players are world class because they can do pretty much everything in either an attacking sense or a defensive sense and they move into any space that can be exploited.
 
The problem is that it is not only the attack that is of a world class level, the defense is as well. You are looking at beating all time greats, players who made a career of keeping the very same quality players out in big games, so anything that takes you out of comfort zone can cost you big.
 
So the answer to breaking down a world class defense it to stay rigidly in position? Theoretically only a world class attack can break down a world class defense and a WC attacks play as I described, fluid and interchangeable.

Playing out of position and wasting your strengths isn't wise either. Not all attacking players can allow fluidity just because they were good at what they did.

And, you are missing the point here. It is not about what world class players can do or not, it is about the fact that when you have such a huge array of players, and you can find players equally good who can do a job in a particular position which they have done in their career, why take a player who hasn't and force him there. That was mine and anto's point in the first place when he picked Meazza, that there are plenty of players left who would naturally fit in that role.
 
Still astonished to have gotten more votes than a team that had Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane, Laudrup, Nedved, Edwards, Neeskens and Beckenbauer at the back. :lol:

To be fair that is a bit much, how did you line up?
 
Playing out of position and wasting your strengths isn't wise either. Not all attacking players can allow fluidity just because they were good at what they did.

And, you are missing the point here. It is not about what world class players can do or not, it is about the fact that when you have such a huge array of players, and you can find players equally good who can do a job in a particular position which they have done in their career, why take a player who hasn't and force him there. That was mine and anto's point in the first place when he picked Meazza, that there are plenty of players left who would naturally fit in that role.

But by all accounts of his talent there are no players of Meazza's quality left. Maybe better suited to that position but why miss out on a player like him if he wants to use him? He could just get another winger and play a 4411 after all. We are only 5 picks in right now remember, there's still 6 first team players left to pick.
 
To be fair that is a bit much, how did you line up?

I had Van Basten, Best and Maradona in attack with Xavi, Robson and Breitner in midfield.

He didn't start with Ronaldo since he had another Brazilian in defense but he brought him on later when he had to go for a win.

The game finished 28-26 if I remember correctly, with me trailing throughout but getting the lead in the last minutes. :D
 
But by all accounts of his talent there are no players of Meazza's quality left. Maybe better suited to that position but why miss out on a player like him if he wants to use him? He could just get another winger and play a 4411 after all. We are only 5 picks in right now remember, there's still 6 first team players left to pick.

Might as well throw all tactics out of the window and pick the best players that come to your mind and put them on a sheet. Why? Because they are world class and can do anything. :lol:

And 4-4-1-1 with Garrincha? Would be 4-2-4 if anything.
 
I had Van Basten, Best and Maradona in attack with Xavi, Robson and Breitner in midfield.

He didn't start with Ronaldo since he had another Brazilian in defense but he brought him on later when he had to go for a win.

The game finished 28-26 if I remember correctly, with me trailing throughout but getting the lead in the last minutes. :D

Yeah leaving out Ronaldo was hard.. but I went for balance in my team and Messi + Zidane was not that bad. But that could have cost me the victory for sure.
 
I don't see much of an issue with playing Meazza, Garrincha and a left-sided player in behind Muller in a 4231. Edwards can cover Garrincha's flank while the other holding midfielder mops up the rest.
 
His other 'holder' is Suarez though. Don't think that's enough against some of the midfields in this draft.
 
Might as well throw all tactics out of the window and pick the best players that come to your mind and put them on a sheet. Why? Because they are world class and can do anything. :lol:

And 4-4-1-1 with Garrincha? Would be 4-2-4 if anything.

4411, 424. Basically the same thing. Not because they can do anything but because he has not overloaded himself with attacking talent at the moment and he can still forge it into perfectly sensible system.
 
How is it the same thing when one has forwards and the other has midfielders in wide positions?

Because 4411 can easily become 424 simply by pushing the wider players forward. You don't have to use midfielders in wide positions either, in fact not that many teams do anymore, wide midfielders yes, but they are essentially wingers.

It's the same way 442 is similar to 4411 which is similar to 4231 which can be similar to 424 or 433. They all came about by slightly changing where players were positioned.
 
Ahhh okay, yeah that makes sense.

Thought he meant that he wouldn't make the final, as in he would look to ship him out for an upgrade.

Not a chance! It was that Rijkaard wouldn't last for third pick and I considered him the more important player and certainly one to go to the final. I was fine with missing out on ever having Cruyff to have him as most of the people favourites can fill that gap. Oddly, it was Neeskens I regretted not being able to ever have as a result but Frank was my man.

Never wanted Matthaus, Rijkaard will do anything he does and I don't miss out on the possibility of eventually landing the likes of Beckenbauer, Breitner or Muller.

Laudrup looked odd to some as a first round pick (not quality-wise IMO but certainly as a vote winner) but I wanted to secure his flexibility positionally and nationality-wise going forward.

I'll tell you, it's a pain to pick that way. I know it has looked very odd so far, but if we get a break with the knockout draw we will be well setup. Hopefully.
 
-----------GK
LB----Stam-----Maldini------RB
---------Deschamps
------CM-----------CM
RW--------------------------Gento
------------Ronaldo
 
Well if I think people are being unnecessary critical for the sake of undermining another team, then I'll point it out.

I'v played other draft games with Aldo before and lets just say its not a surprise to me some of the points he has raised. He has no idea about Meazza but is 'very doubtful' that he can play as a left inside forward, despite everything suggesting the contrary?

Like I said, campaigning. Completely within his and your rights however, but it's also within mine to point out when I think certain criticisms are coming from a subjective, or downright biased standpoint.

Don't think it was his intention. I did notice a fair bit of campaigning with the whole Iniesta/Zidane comparison and it has been dealt with internally.

:antohawkinmeltdown.gif:
 
Not the first time I have held that view though. it would look like I am campaigning for my player, but there was recently a thread about some all time XI squads in the newbies and I raised the same points there as well.

I think I should start campaigning for some other teams to rectify my reputation that has been tarnished by Fergus' son. :D
 
Not the first time I have held that view though. it would look like I am campaigning for my player, but there was recently a thread about some all time XI squads in the newbies and I raised the same points there as well.

I think I should start campaigning for some other teams to rectify my reputation that has been tarnished by Fergus' son. :D

Damn right.

Baresi is a wall isn't he ;)
 
Sorry Aldo, it really was. Most of what you say is really interesting and worth listening to but you were way off there - clearly campaigning for your player!

Although I can't talk because I do the same.
 
Sorry Aldo, it really was. Most of what you say is really interesting and worth listening to but you were way off there - clearly campaigning for your player!

Although I can't talk because I do the same.

Fine. I'll keep shut for the remaining part of this draft.
 
With players of that quality, I think it's fair to make that assumption. Anyway, put Garrincha on the left and Meazza on the right and it's job done, WC final proof that Meazza is playing a role he has done before and I doubt anyone will question Garrinchas ability to play on either flank.

I would certainly be calling you up on that. I have seen Garrincha a million times, club and country (lived in Brazil, they had a great retro football channel), not once did I see him on the left wing or anywhere near anything "insidey", pure right wing.
 
I don't see Meazza having the pace for that role, in my mind he's a Baggio type.

Meazza had pace, certainly by 30s standards, but Baggio was exactly the player I thought about while still mulling through this a while ago. Could Baggio play on the left and do a job? Sure. Does it make sense? No.
 
Fine. I'll keep shut for the remaining part of this draft.

pramthrow.gif
 
I really don't understand this. Here's a player, recognised as one of the greatest ever but not many people know a lot about him. What we do know is that he was supremely talented, and by all accounts could play up front or as a wide forward/inside forward and indeed played the latter in a WC final. Yet people are deciding that he can't play wide? How does that work considering we can have hardly seen him?

Everything suggests to me that he can do an Iniesta or David Villa esque role to as good a level as them.

He played inside in the final, with a winger providing the width. Can he do an Iniesta? Yes. Can you play with a wide player and an inside forward on the other side doing an Iniesta? Yes, but every time someone has done that they ended up with egg on their face, people like symmetry, ask Gio (note. your advice on fullbacks there was very good). Do I think MJJ should give up the chance of having an actual wide player in case he comes up against a weak RB? No, it cost me the 70s final not to have an out and out winger tearing a new one into Gary Kelly.
 
:wenger: Don't be stupid.

What else do you expect me to do? I say something about the player in my team, it is campaigning. I raise a concern about someone else's team that too when the guy is asking for advice himself, it is again campaigning and being biased. I spent more time in backing up Firgueroa and Scirea against passerella and Baresi than in the whole Iniesta or Zidane thing, none of those two had anything to do with my team, and all was for the same reason, and it is me simply saying something I believe with reasons I think are logical. You can start the same comparisons anywhere anytime and you would see me having the exact same view, and mods have the authority to ban me if I differ to suit myself or my draft team.

As much as I enjoy having these discussions and arguments, I wouldn't be wasting my time if everything I say gets accused of campaigning and bias.