@Skizzo ______________________________________________________ @Pat_Mustard
The draft thread with lots of additional information
Write-ups on specific players
Skizzo
FORMATION: 4-2-3-1
A blend of creativity, pace, and defensive steel with quality ball players and creativity throughout.
The defensive unit is marshalled by Jan Popluhar, and reinforcements have brought in a defensive stalwart in Nemanja Vidic. The Serbian defender is one of the best at putting his body on the line for the team, and doing whatever needs to be done to stop the attacking threat. He'll be a great foil for the playmaking Popluhar alongside him. The two full backs will play their normal games of up and back, defending when required, and attacking when the opportunity arises, knowing they are well covered by the defense and midfield.
Nemanja Matic and Vladimir Jugovic provide an all action midfield who offer great protection for the defence, as well as being able to retain possession and keep the ball moving along where needed. I don't claim either to be Pirlo on the ball, but they can recycle possession to the creative outlets where necessary.
Kazimierz Deyna is chief creator, and offers a goal threat himself (as seen as him being the leading scorer at the '72 Olympics where Poland won Gold) He would thrive on the movement and other creativity around him with Nedved and Kanchelskis offering a threatening outlet.
Coming in to lead the line is Andriy Shevchenko, the Ballon D'or winning Ukrainian made his mark on football while playing for Milan, being able to put the ball in the back of the net in a variety of ways. His movement and pace will trouble the defense, and with Deyna in behind looking to slip him in, he'll have his chances.
Pat_Mustard
Formation: Lop-sided 4-3-3
We begrudgingly shelf the 3-4-3 formation that served us well in the previous round in favour of a more pragmatic 4-3-3. Ivica Surjak slots in at left back. Tall and extremely fast, this exceptional athlete started his career as a left back and developed into an excellent all-rounder who could basically play everywhere. His pace and strength will be useful in his individual duels with Kanchelskis, but we’re taking the calculated gamble of giving him licence to play as a very offensive full back to create unexpected overloads when we’re attacking. Videos of his attacking menace shall no doubt be spammed later. Władysław Żmuda, veteran of four World Cups and a stalwart of Poland’s golden era, marshals the backline here. Tough and exceptionally intelligent, he’s flanked on the right by his international teammate Szymanowski, a quick, defensively resolute right back who also had a penchant for energetic overlaps. He’ll be tasked with providing an outlet on the right wing but will play more conservatively than Surjak. Khidiyatullin, ever-present stalwart of USSR’s excellent Euro ’88 campaign, completes the defence as Zmuda’s CB partner.
The twin engines of Lobanovskyi’s first great Dynamo Kiev side form the nucleus of our midfield. I’ll shamelessly steal our draftmaster’s description of Konkov and Kolotov from the Remake Draft last year:
Konkov - Cambiasso
A good fit. Intelligent and fierce holding midfielder with a great understanding of the game and an eye for a pass too. Konkov was probably more athletic, but Cambiasso is almost as good as it gets (especially since I picked Martinez)
Kolotov - Nainggolan
Kolotov was probably the best all-rounder in that team. Nainggolan is vastly inferior to him, the only similarities that I see between them are their mentality, tenacity and that they both had a good shot in them. But Kolotov was much more than that, his ball-playing ability far exceeds everything that Nainggolan can dream of. I guess Vidal would be ideal here from the given pool
Their hard, selfless running and tactical intelligence provide an ideal platform for our Galactico signing, the great Gheorghe Hagi. He sits comfortably in the top echelon of playmakers in this draft, and needs little introduction beyond stating that he’ll add a new dimension of brilliance to our attack and is as likely a match winner as anyone on the pitch.
The prolific Sarosi reverts to centre forward. Partnered by Ballon d’Or runner up Mijatovic in a roving second striker role, and flanked by the irrepressible Hungerian great Zoltan Czibor, they’ll form a menacing and multi-faceted attack.
Areas of Advantage:
Not many to be honest, as Skizzo has an outstanding team.
1) Goalkeeper: Soskic appears well-credentialed and highly regarded but I think its reasonable to state that Croy generally appears a bit higher up the pecking order of great keepers, and this should go a long way towards redressing the relative edge Skizzo has with Vidic vs Khidiyatullan.
2) I prefer my CM duo as well, with Kolotov probably at the top of the heap of the 4 CMs on the pitch, and moreover Konkov and Kolotov having a proven and successful synergy.
3) Goal Threat: My biggest advantage IMO, and even then its somewhat marginal. Given the difficulty in comparing across leagues and eras, it’s probably fair to say that Sarosi and Shevchenko are fairly even – both prolific on every stage, and both at or pretty close to BPITW status in their time. Hagi has the superior record to Deyna over the course of their whole cub careers with Deyna having the better ratio in internationals, but it’s worth pointing out the astonishing numbers Hagi was putting up in his early career -34 goals in 33 games in 1985-86, and 37 in 39 in 1988-89 (including 6 in 9 games in the European Cup, lest he get accused of being a flat-track bully). Its elsewhere that my advantage comes into focus, with Czibor being substantially more prolific than Nedved and of course Mijatovic having a superior record to Kanchelskis, albeit at the cost of sacrificing some orthodox width.
Good luck @Skizzo !
but I don't think theres much else in favour of the older pairing. I might not go as far as to say that's all they have in their favour, but there's hardly a gap in quality that its almost suggested. Jugovic has proven his qualities on the highest stage, and arguably in a more impressive fashion by winning the Champions League with not only Juventus, but Red Star Belgrade too. Matic has shown his defensive qualities, and his physicality would match up well here. 
