All-Time Fantasy Draft

Brwned said:
There's so many outstanding #10s left, Di Stéfano was too good to turn down but I'm beginning to wonder whether someone like Baresi might've been the better option. Picked him on the basis of going for players I have a personal affection for but I didn't realise there'd still be players in the 6th, 7th and 8th round I'd pay a feckload of money just to see train. The '70s playmakers in particular have been surprisingly overlooked so far.
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I've thought from a strategic point of view some drafters would've played it differently in that the logical thing to do would be to get players from lesser or more obscure nations in the earlier rounds and then take advantage of the enormous pool of talent bigger nations have later into the draft.

As to your point, there are some absolutely stellar play-makers left out there who seem to have been way-sided, it has surprised me that some of the absolute best to ever play the role have not been picked by anybody thus far. I'm kind of curious to see when they will be taken, actually. Kind of hoping some are playing a tactical blinder and will start pulling these gems out of nowhere when others least expect it.
 
Fortitude said:
I've thought from a strategic point of view some drafters would've played it differently in that the logical thing to do would be to get players from lesser or more obscure nations in the earlier rounds and then take advantage of the enormous pool of talent bigger nations have later into the draft.
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I set out to do that, then realised if I picked one of those 2nd or 3rd tier (still outstanding) players and built a team around them I would be buggered as far as getting the real top ones later and keeping the side balanced. That's why I'm going for a balanced side and ideally keeping the key country slots empty and only to be used in the event of a drafting emergency (as we are all starting to have) or simply empty so that I can reinforce later with no worries over juggling the team around.

As to your point, there are some absolutely stellar play-makers left out there who seem to have been way-sided, it has surprised me that some of the absolute best to ever play the role have not been picked by anybody thus far. I'm kind of curious to see when they will be taken, actually. Kind of hoping some are playing a tactical blinder and will start pulling these gems out of nowhere when others least expect it.
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Feel free to join in when we are done with the draft and before the games start. There will be a massive cemetery of real top stars to write obituaries on.

That should be interesting.
 
Fergus'son: 1. Beckenbauer 2. Eusebio 3. Didi 4. Krol 5. Zanetti 6. Kocsis 7. Vidic
DanNistelrooy: Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Ronaldinho 3. Nesta, 4. Gascoigne 5. Makelele 6. McGrath 7. Vogts
KM: 1. Messi 2. Scirea 3. Bozsik, 4. Sammer 5. Nedved 6. Valderrama 7. Banks
Thisistheone: 1. Maradona 2. B.Charlton 3. Eto'o, 4. Cannavaro 5. Coluna 6. Bremner 7. Carlos Alberto
NM: 1. Pele 2. Neeskens 3. Passarella 4. Boniek 5. Thuram 6. Tardelli 7. Carvalho
Cutch: 1. Best 2. Van Basten 3. Robson 4. R Baggio 5. Charles 6. Tigana 7. Hierro
Brwned: 1. Di Stéfano 2. Keane 3. Falcão 4. Giggs 5. Matthews 6. Brehme 7. Trésor
MJJ: 1. Duncan Edwards 2. Garrincha 3. Muller 4. Luis Suárez 5. Meazza 6. Schmeichel 7. Rui Costa
JakeC: 1. Ronaldo 2. Maldini 3. Deschamps 4. Gento 5. Stam 6. Law 7. Deco
mightberight: 1. Ferenc Puskas 2. Stoichkov 3. Breitner 4. Jairzinho 5. Bergomi 6. Varela 7. Koeman
EDogen: 1. Cruyff 2. Moore 3. Redondo 4. Figo 5. Romario 6. Desailly 7. Dzajic
Gio: 1. Platini 2. Xavi 3. Rivaldo 4. Kohler 5. Davids 6. Gentile
Antohan: 1. Laudrup 2. Rijkaard 3. Iniesta 4. Facchetti 5. Henry 6. R. Ferdinand
Stobzilla: 1. Zidane 2. Yashin (Russia) 3. Scholes 4. Souness 5. Savicevic 6. Cafu
Isotope: 1. Zico 2. L. Matthäus 3. Santamaríá 4. Hansen 5. Hagi 6. Finney
paceme: 1. Figueroa 2. Baresi 3. Voronin 4. Masopust 5. Batistuta 6. Gullit
 
lunchforthesky said:
Deco was a fantastic player. Best midfielder in the world between his last season at Porto and his first two years at Barcelona.

He was also consistently brilliant for Portugal.
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He was indeed. Some players don't get unanimous praise though and he is one of them. I threw him up as an option and Aldo shot it down. Even Jake picked him, then shot him down himself :lol:.

That's the tricky bit here. The early indication is some people will assess sides bringing the "all-time great" element into it, when the idea is we are putting together a side that can advance in a competition and, obviously, ressemble a team of all-time greats towards the end.

The teams that get to the final will have picked up six 1st-3rd round level reinforcements by then so will look a lot more like an All-Star Team. Deco most probably wouldn't make the final, there are better players, but we are making a total of 208 picks.

Is he one of 208 players who can play at the highest level? Of course he is.
 
PM your picks if you're going offline lads.

Gio missed his go by about 20 minutes.
 
mightberight said:
Honest question - did you ever see him play for Barcelona? Really did outshine Xavi for a few seasons. At his peak he was good as someone like Scholes if not better in my opinion.
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I probably did as most of my Saturdays around that time were spent with my mouth agape at Ronaldinho.

For me he is someone like Riquelme, a good player who should of been much better. They were both beautiful to watch on form, there was just never enough of it, for me at least.
 
antohan said:
I set out to do that, then realised if I picked one of those 2nd or 3rd tier (still outstanding) players and built a team around them I would be buggered as far as getting the real top ones later and keeping the side balanced. That's why I'm going for a balanced side and ideally keeping the key country slots empty and only to be used in the event of a drafting emergency (as we are all starting to have) or simply empty so that I can reinforce later with no worries over juggling the team around.
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The way I saw/see it was to snap up the elites from tiny nations or those who only had one or two great teams first, say, a Hungarian then a Uruguayan, then an Austrian and so forth; they would all be in the highest tier as you'd be snapping up the cream, and by the end, you'd be able to sort out the other positions in the team whilst keeping an eye on the trends and tilts of other posters knowing you have an upper-hand because you're working up the scale so to speak in terms of the nations you're getting your last picks from.

Surely that way you're going to get more cream, or if not that, then a least the creamiest bit of the milk?

antohan said:
Feel free to join in when we are done with the draft and before the games start. There will be a massive cemetery of real top stars to write obituaries on.

That should be interesting.
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I'm going to try and formulate the strongest team I can with the leftovers that don't get chosen for the draft and see how that team stacks up.

Would that make me a gravedigger? :angel:
 
Updated Nationality Graphic.

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Stobzilla said:
Genuinely didnt know people rated Deco. My bad.
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Came 2nd in the Balon D'or in 2004. Pretty much ran the show for Porto in the Uefa Cup and Champions League wins plus for Portugal when they came 2nd in Euro 2004.

I'm amazed people have forgotten what a brilliant player he was. He had the range of passing the match a Xavi/Pirlo/Scholes, scored a fair few goals, would dictate the game like a Riquelme and was quite a bit better defensively the any of the other players I listed above.
 
Fortitude said:
I'm going to try and formulate the strongest team I can with the leftovers that don't get chosen for the draft and see how that team stacks up.

Would that make me a gravedigger? :angel:
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I wonder who the greatest player not to get picked will be.

I can already think of an obvious one no one's taken the risk on yet.
 
Stobzilla said:
I probably did as most of my Saturdays around that time were spent with my mouth agape at Ronaldinho.

For me he is someone like Riquelme, a good player who should of been much better. They were both beautiful to watch on form, there was just never enough of it, for me at least.
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The form Deco showed to earn the move to Barcelona was exceptional but he got slaughtered for his diving antics with Porto, which proved to be a distraction away from his actual talent for some people.

He was also good for Barca, but I think he had to rein in a portion of his talent because of Ronaldinho being the star man in the side, not to say he was bad at Barca, cos he wasn't, but he wasn't as dynamic as he was at Porto where I feel he thrived on being the chief who saw far more of the ball than any of his team-mates.

Whether he's of the quality for an all-time draft is up for discussion, but he certainly has seasons in his career that merit it, especially given he was key to a lot of major trophies being won.
 
Fortitude said:
The way I saw/see it was to snap up the elites from tiny nations or those who only had one or two great teams first, say, a Hungarian then a Uruguayan, then an Austrian and so forth; they would all be in the highest tier as you'd be snapping up the cream, and by the end, you'd be able to sort out the other positions in the team whilst keeping an eye on the trends and tilts of other posters knowing you have an upper-hand because you're working up the scale so to speak in terms of the nations you're getting your last picks from.

Surely that way you're going to get more cream, or if not that, then a least the creamiest bit of the milk?

I'm going to try and formulate the strongest team I can with the leftovers that don't get chosen for the draft and see how that team stacks up.

Would that make me a gravedigger? :angel:
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They would deserve to be dug up. I do have a fair few I will write up tidbits on as I'm positive no one will pick them.

Re: the top Hungarians, Uruguayans, Austrians... the added problem is knowledge. Most people vote based on names they know, not even tactics or team balance. You will see a lot of "that front 4 :drool:" thrown around even if the defensive pair is Mertesacker and Koscielny.

Some people even vote for completely random reasons. I lost one final by one vote from an Arse fan offended that I thought Ramsey should stop being a big girls' blouse and get on with playing with Shawcross for Wales. Random post in another thread cost me the game!!! :mad:
 
antohan said:
They would deserve to be dug up. I do have a fair few I will write up tidbits on as I'm positive no one will pick them.

Re: the top Hungarians, Uruguayans, Austrians... the added problem is knowledge. Most people vote based on names they know, not even tactics or team balance. You will see a lot of "that front 4 :drool:" thrown around even if the defensive pair is Mertesacker and Koscielny.

Some people even vote for completely random reasons. I lost one final by one vote from an Arse fan offended that I thought Ramsey should stop being a big girls' blouse and get on with playing with Shawcross for Wales. Random post in another thread cost me the game!!! :mad:
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Piock fast!!
 
Easy mate. I had Moreno as a potential late pick, reviewing my picking order JIC.
 
antohan said:
They would deserve to be dug up. I do have a fair few I will write up tidbits on as I'm positive no one will pick them.

Re: the top Hungarians, Uruguayans, Austrians... the added problem is knowledge. Most people vote based on names they know, not even tactics or team balance. You will see a lot of "that front 4 :drool:" thrown around even if the defensive pair is Mertesacker and Koscielny.

Some people even vote for completely random reasons. I lost one final by one vote from an Arse fan offended that I thought Ramsey should stop being a big girls' blouse and get on with playing with Shawcross for Wales. Random post in another thread cost me the game!!! :mad:
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True enough, but these guys are from historically revered sides. Wouldn't take more than 20 minutes to Google!

I am looking forward to the voting and the arguments..
 
Doesn't look like anyone else would go for him, but want to get it nailed and move on. Grit, leadership, superb passing range, and if I get Beckenbauer later no need to feck about with the tactics.

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Fergus'son: 1. Beckenbauer 2. Eusebio 3. Didi 4. Krol 5. Zanetti 6. Kocsis 7. Vidic
DanNistelrooy: Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Ronaldinho 3. Nesta, 4. Gascoigne 5. Makelele 6. McGrath 7. Vogts
KM: 1. Messi 2. Scirea 3. Bozsik, 4. Sammer 5. Nedved 6. Valderrama 7. Banks
Thisistheone: 1. Maradona 2. B.Charlton 3. Eto'o, 4. Cannavaro 5. Coluna 6. Bremner 7. Carlos Alberto
NM: 1. Pele 2. Neeskens 3. Passarella 4. Boniek 5. Thuram 6. Tardelli 7. Carvalho
Cutch: 1. Best 2. Van Basten 3. Robson 4. R Baggio 5. Charles 6. Tigana 7. Hierro
Brwned: 1. Di Stéfano 2. Keane 3. Falcão 4. Giggs 5. Matthews 6. Brehme 7. Trésor
MJJ: 1. Duncan Edwards 2. Garrincha 3. Muller 4. Luis Suárez 5. Meazza 6. Schmeichel 7. Rui Costa
JakeC: 1. Ronaldo 2. Maldini 3. Deschamps 4. Gento 5. Stam 6. Law 7. Deco
mightberight: 1. Ferenc Puskas 2. Stoichkov 3. Breitner 4. Jairzinho 5. Bergomi 6. Varela 7. Koeman
EDogen: 1. Cruyff 2. Moore 3. Redondo 4. Figo 5. Romario 6. Desailly 7. Dzajic
Gio: 1. Platini 2. Xavi 3. Rivaldo 4. Kohler 5. Davids 6. Gentile 7. Moreno
Antohan: 1. Laudrup 2. Rijkaard 3. Iniesta 4. Facchetti 5. Henry 6. R. Ferdinand 7. Effenberg
Stobzilla: 1. Zidane 2. Yashin (Russia) 3. Scholes 4. Souness 5. Savicevic 6. Cafu
Isotope: 1. Zico 2. L. Matthäus 3. Santamaríá 4. Hansen 5. Hagi 6. Finney
paceme: 1. Figueroa 2. Baresi 3. Voronin 4. Masopust 5. Batistuta 6. Gullit
 
Fortitude said:
True enough, but these guys are from historically revered sides. Wouldn't take more than 20 minutes to Google!

I am looking forward to the voting and the arguments..
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Even Googling, people then go on about physical condition, make jokes about their waistlines, say football was different, bring out stats to compare players in different eras, leagues, tactical setups.

Some of it is fair, particularly in the engine room roles. Could Obdulio Varela keep up as much as Rijkaard? I don't think so, but it would be a bit silly not too give some leeway, otherwise we might as well do a post-70s draft.
 
Kubala1b.jpg


Voted Barcelona's player of the century in 1999 Kubala was able to play along along the front line and is their third highest scorer of all time, a sublime dribbler and a rocket shot. Great player.


Fergus'son: 1. Beckenbauer 2. Eusebio 3. Didi 4. Krol 5. Zanetti 6. Kocsis 7. Vidic
DanNistelrooy: Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Ronaldinho 3. Nesta, 4. Gascoigne 5. Makelele 6. McGrath 7. Vogts
KM: 1. Messi 2. Scirea 3. Bozsik, 4. Sammer 5. Nedved 6. Valderrama 7. Banks
Thisistheone: 1. Maradona 2. B.Charlton 3. Eto'o, 4. Cannavaro 5. Coluna 6. Bremner 7. Carlos Alberto
NM: 1. Pele 2. Neeskens 3. Passarella 4. Boniek 5. Thuram 6. Tardelli 7. Carvalho
Cutch: 1. Best 2. Van Basten 3. Robson 4. R Baggio 5. Charles 6. Tigana 7. Hierro
Brwned: 1. Di Stéfano 2. Keane 3. Falcão 4. Giggs 5. Matthews 6. Brehme 7. Trésor
MJJ: 1. Duncan Edwards 2. Garrincha 3. Muller 4. Luis Suárez 5. Meazza 6. Schmeichel 7. Rui Costa
JakeC: 1. Ronaldo 2. Maldini 3. Deschamps 4. Gento 5. Stam 6. Law 7. Deco
mightberight: 1. Ferenc Puskas 2. Stoichkov 3. Breitner 4. Jairzinho 5. Bergomi 6. Varela 7. Koeman
EDogen: 1. Cruyff 2. Moore 3. Redondo 4. Figo 5. Romario 6. Desailly 7. Dzajic
Gio: 1. Platini 2. Xavi 3. Rivaldo 4. Kohler 5. Davids 6. Gentile 7. Moreno
Antohan: 1. Laudrup 2. Rijkaard 3. Iniesta 4. Facchetti 5. Henry 6. R. Ferdinand 7. Effenberg
Stobzilla: 1. Zidane 2. Yashin (Russia) 3. Scholes 4. Souness 5. Savicevic 6. Cafu 7. László Kubala
Isotope: 1. Zico 2. L. Matthäus 3. Santamaríá 4. Hansen 5. Hagi 6. Finney
paceme: 1. Figueroa 2. Baresi 3. Voronin 4. Masopust 5. Batistuta 6. Gullit
 
GK
Zanetti CB Vidic Krol
DM/CM Beckenbauer DM/CM
Didi
Eusebio Kocsis​

Thoughts and suggestions?
 
Stobzilla said:
Kubala1b.jpg


Voted Barcelona's player of the century in 1999 Kubala was able to play along along the front line and is their third highest scorer of all time, a sublime dribbler and a rocket shot. Great player.


Fergus'son: 1. Beckenbauer 2. Eusebio 3. Didi 4. Krol 5. Zanetti 6. Kocsis 7. Vidic
DanNistelrooy: Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Ronaldinho 3. Nesta, 4. Gascoigne 5. Makelele 6. McGrath 7. Vogts
KM: 1. Messi 2. Scirea 3. Bozsik, 4. Sammer 5. Nedved 6. Valderrama 7. Banks
Thisistheone: 1. Maradona 2. B.Charlton 3. Eto'o, 4. Cannavaro 5. Coluna 6. Bremner 7. Carlos Alberto
NM: 1. Pele 2. Neeskens 3. Passarella 4. Boniek 5. Thuram 6. Tardelli 7. Carvalho
Cutch: 1. Best 2. Van Basten 3. Robson 4. R Baggio 5. Charles 6. Tigana 7. Hierro
Brwned: 1. Di Stéfano 2. Keane 3. Falcão 4. Giggs 5. Matthews 6. Brehme 7. Trésor
MJJ: 1. Duncan Edwards 2. Garrincha 3. Muller 4. Luis Suárez 5. Meazza 6. Schmeichel 7. Rui Costa
JakeC: 1. Ronaldo 2. Maldini 3. Deschamps 4. Gento 5. Stam 6. Law 7. Deco
mightberight: 1. Ferenc Puskas 2. Stoichkov 3. Breitner 4. Jairzinho 5. Bergomi 6. Varela 7. Koeman
EDogen: 1. Cruyff 2. Moore 3. Redondo 4. Figo 5. Romario 6. Desailly 7. Dzajic
Gio: 1. Platini 2. Xavi 3. Rivaldo 4. Kohler 5. Davids 6. Gentile 7. Moreno
Antohan: 1. Laudrup 2. Rijkaard 3. Iniesta 4. Facchetti 5. Henry 6. R. Ferdinand 7. Effenberg
Stobzilla: 1. Zidane 2. Yashin (Russia) 3. Scholes 4. Souness 5. Savicevic 6. Cafu 7. László Kubala
Isotope: 1. Zico 2. L. Matthäus 3. Santamaríá 4. Hansen 5. Hagi 6. Finney
paceme: 1. Figueroa 2. Baresi 3. Voronin 4. Masopust 5. Batistuta 6. Gullit
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Another really strong and versatile pick. Nice one.
 
Don't remove the formatting while posting your pick, Stob. Rather quote it and remove the quotes so the names in bold stay as they are.
 
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