Biggest All-Time Draft: QF - Skizzo vs Synco

With players at their career peak, who would win?

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Physiocrat

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Skizzo

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Synco

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Skizzo Tactics

Gianluigi Buffon takes his place in goal behind a center back pairing of Thiago Silva, and coming in to partner him, World Cup and Balon D’Or winning Fabio Cannavaro. A solid complementary pairing who can provide an outlet from the back, a great reading of the game, and tenacious hounding in defense.

The full back spots taken up here with Denis Irwin taking up the right back spot in a behind Stanley Matthews, and Roberto Carlos will offer a supportive presence to George Best.

Duncan Edwards will play a more holding and supportive role, while Graeme Souness will look to push on in a more defensive box-to-box role. Both offering a more defensive outlook this time around with Platini being the focus.

Roberto Baggio and Denis Law round out the attack with Baggio dovetailing nicely in the space provided by the movement ahead of him. Law offering an outlet, and able to bring in the playmakers behind him, as well as link play and get on the end of balls into the box.

Synco Tactics

Setup
4231 – tight defense, forceful transitions

Approach
  • Low to medium bloc to restrict space for Skizzo's offense, and defend Best and Matthews collectively
  • Target wide areas on the break, try to force Irwin & Carlos into 1 vs 1s
  • Mauro and Dunga to take care of Baggio like they did in 1994
  • Long balls by Platini and Dunga a crucial weapon on the counter (Blokhin!)
  • Benzema partnering Platini as the offensive playmaking hub
New players
Blokhin will form an excellent partnership with Benzema. He'll go for dribblings & goals himself, but also for crosses & cutbacks to Platini, Benz, Boniek.
Dunga will (finally) join Mauro Silva for a repeat of their World Cup winning partnership – high defensive impact; top notch DLP behind Platini.

Possible advantages
Not many, as this game is extremely close. If I'm facing a 4231, these may prove decisive:
  1. Wing pairs are better defensively – Cabrini/Blokhin & Amoros/Boniek vs Carlos/Best & Irwin/Matthews. With the focus wide action in this game, this may be crucial.
  2. Platini's vs Baggio's overall game – Platini makes for a genuine midfield three in defense and possession. Skizzo's offense has 442 tendencies, imo.
Needless to say that Skizzo has a plus with Buffon, although I'd also point out how damn good Toni was in his prime.
 
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As written in the OP, I think much will happen on the flanks, and the game possibly decided there.

Best and Matthews are prime threats and must be defended collectively. Both of my fullbacks are strong 1 vs 1 defenders for themselves. In addition, the deep sitting defense ensures that Skizzo's wingers can be doubled, and mutual cover exists.

Right side: Amoros / Thuram / Mauro Silva + Boniek tracking back
Left side: Cabrini / Ferri / Dunga + Blokhin tracking back

I think that's pretty tough to crack, and collectively stronger than the opponent's wide defense when broken down in the same way. (But this argument mustn't be overdone either - Skizzo's central defensive square is plain great, and at least Best is a grafter.)
 
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A Mauro Silva compilation is something I wanted to do for this draft. And fittingly, this is the only game Mauro and Baggio played against each other - incidentally the by far biggest game of both their careers.

Mauro Silva vs Italy | 1994 World Cup final
https://sendvid.com/9w57pdsg

Mauro's and Dunga's defensive performance was instrumental in Brazil's World Cup victory, and is rightly regarded as the defining impression of the 1994 team, alongside the Romario/Bebeto partnership. Brazil defends zonally, but Mauro regularly picks up Baggio in the final third, taking him out for most of the encounter. Baggio has some dangerous moments later in the game, but overall the Italian star player is kept from making a decisive impact on this final.

Still, one game isn't a pattern, so the argument is not that Mauro and Dunga will shut Baggio down with certainty here. (Baggio also wasn't fully fit that day.) But this performance is nevertheless a showcase for how Mauro goes about defending him, and of the general defensive impact he has.
 
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I find it hard to pick a winner here. One side has a slight edge in terms of individual ability and the other feels a little more balanced. I probably lean towards Synco though, I feel like Platini may be more influential than Baggio in this scenario.
 
Skizzo said:
To you too mate! Running around a bit here before work but I’ll be around a bit later. First glance is a solid team you’ve got front to back, nice system.
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Great, we still have some time left. Looking forward to have some discussion on this match.

No idea about the score (prefer it that way), so I'll just focus on the game regardless.
 
Going back and fore on this one and struggling to settle on either side. Really like Synco’s build around Platini and the Mauro/Dunga partnership is gold. But then those are two juice-flowing flanks from Skizzo.
 
Alright, maybe it's not too late for one final push, laying out how I see this match, from a partisan standpoint of course. @Skizzo feel free to respond before or after the game ends. Much will be a repetition of things mentioned above in longer form:

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Skizzo has two ball-dominant wide players and no genuine midfield playmaker*, so I guess the natural mode of operation for his team will be to play out to the flanks. Especially if we can cover Baggio well with Mauro and Dunga. Of course that's also Skizzo's biggest strength, as he has two of the greatest dribblers of all time there.

While they'll always be dangerous, my individual & collective defense is very strong on both sides, and it can hold its own against them. (I made that case in a post further up).

As a consequence, I see Law and Baggio more in the role of finishers than creators. Especially Baggio may be less involved than he'd be with clearer off-the-ball runners to his sides. This gives Skizzo's side the characteristics of a 442 imo, but possibly even more of a 424, as the wingers are really wide attackers, not so much wide midfielders. Definitely strong enough to potentially win this match. But, in a game of margins, not entirely ideal for Baggio.

Platini on the other hand can play this game at his best – defending and distributing in CM, playing the attackers through, pushing up into the box with his great sense of timing. The front four has lots of synergies going on in general, each player being able to play each other on. Benzema will roam everywhere as the relay station between Platini, Blokhin, Boniek, and he'll look to both score and assist himself. The offensive unit is great for playing a transition/counter game, Blokhin and Benz being a menace in particular.

These counters will be my main weapon. Skizzo's central defensive four is great to face this kind of threat, but same as with his attackers, it's impossible to nullify it entirely. And there may be some opportunities on the flanks to exploit, which aren't quite as strong defensively in my view.

The natural disadvantage of a reactive game – giving the opponent more possession – is mitigated, as Skizzo has quite direct players who'll go for breakthroughs more than play a patient possession game. This is a constant source of danger, but will also give my side plenty of opportunities to play rapid counters after winning the ball. This is where we'll try to win this game.

So that's at least how my totally non-biased brain imagines this match.

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* Baggio, Edwards, Souness all have great qualities on the ball, but running the game in midfield general fashion isn't what they do best.
 
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Gio said:
Going back and fore on this one and struggling to settle on either side. Really like Synco’s build around Platini and the Mauro/Dunga partnership is gold. But then those are two juice-flowing flanks from Skizzo.
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Cheers, that Platini-Dunga-Mauro midfield was my plan from the start, but you took Dunga just when I was about to pick him. Glad I could make it happen at least for this match.
 
Skizzo said:
Didn’t realize this went up so long ago :lol: so my contributions will probably be after the match ends.

Sorry @Synco for not being more involved, I thought it just went up recently
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Damn :lol: But yeah, do leave your own thoughts on the game.

Extremely close result, which is a fair reflection of the match imo. Could have gone the other way just as well. Especially in the last reinforcements your team has turned into a monster side.
 
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