Biggest All-Time Draft - R1 - General vs Michael

Who will win this game?

  • Total voters
    15
  • Poll closed .

Šjor Bepo

Wout is love, Wout is life; all hail Wout!
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Messages
16,198
456303773_122107901786473080_8954715872984005011_n.jpg


vs

ZR9ezn8.jpeg



Team General

KsiqZB.gif



Team Michael

My team will play a 4-1-3-2 formation based on the Dynamo Kyiv teams managed by Valeriy Lobanovskyi in the 1970's and 1980's which will involve high intensity pressing and direct counter attacks when the ball is won back.

I'd also like to make the following points:

  • My side attacking midfielders (Nedved and Littbarski) have experience playing both centrally and out wide.
  • 3 of my players have experience playing under Lobanovskyi with Blokhin and Konkov playing in the Dynamo Kyiv sides I have based my tactic on and Chivadze playing under him for the USSR national team. Of the 3, Konkov is the least well known so I'll provide some details in the next bullet point.
  • Anatoliy Konkov played 47 times for the USSR between 1971 and 1978 and was included in the best 33 players in the USSR 9 times finishing 1st in his position in 4 consecutives years from 1975-78, 2nd in his position for 3 consecutive years 1979-81 and 3rd in both 1971 and 1973. In his book, Lobanovskyi said that “I still have no doubt that Konkov is a player of the level of Franz Beckenbauer. He is impeccable in tackling the ball, his passes are accurate, timely and directed to the right place.”
 
That's a great set up for Di Stéfano. And that team would be absolutely lethal on the break!
 
harms said:
That's a great set up for Di Stéfano. And that team would be absolutely lethal on the break!
Click to expand...

Is Konkov the right type for this position? Dont know anything about the player and the role here is crucial so if he is a imaginary DM like Rijkaard the whole concept could go to shit but if he is the right type that team really does look great!
 
Šjor Bepo said:
Is Konkov the right type for this position? Dont know anything about the player and the role here is crucial so if he is a imaginary DM like Rijkaard the whole concept could go to shit but if he is the right type that team really does look great!
Click to expand...
Yep, he literally played in this exact role (and prompted Lobanovsky to compare him to none other than Beckenbauer).
 
Interesting tactical battle here. If the General can keep Michael out, the Krol to Eusebio route on the counter could be lethal.
 
harms said:
Yep, he literally played in this exact role (and prompted Lobanovsky to compare him to none other than Beckenbauer).
Click to expand...
Is Konkov the one we all got our cocks out over in the dead drafters society? If it’s the same guy he was class.
 
Tony Pulis vs Valeriy Lobanovskyi

If it's a rainy night in Stoke, no way is Michael winning
 
I'm sorry for the delay and for not sending the tactics to @Šjor Bepo earlier. I've been extremely busy with my business commitments.

Tactical Talk:
Style of Plyaing: Counter Attacking/balance
Defensive line: medium/operate

Defensive Shape:

  • In the defensive phase, Dietz and Gemmell will stay wide and drop back to form a back five in a medium/moderate defensive line. The goal is to maintain a compact structure, with three hard-working midfielders, including Di Stefano. Given this setup, I’ve decided not to employ man-marking on him for this match. We all know how those 3 men will operate on the pitch.
Ball Distribution:

  • All three of my center-backs and the goalkeeper are highly skilled in ball distribution. If the opposition presses aggressively, my defense is capable of countering that pressure through various means—whether it be long balls, short passes, or even dribbling forward.
Overlapping Center-Backs (Lucio and Rudiger):


  • Lucio and Rudiger: Both center-backs have the license to push forward when your team is in possession. Rudiger, on the left, may carry the ball up the flank or cut inside into the half-space, creating numerical superiority in midfield or linking up with Van Hanegem and Eusebio.
  • Lucio, on the right, can overlap and combine with Gemmell or move into the half-space, looking for one-twos with Eusebio or quick combinations with Golcaves. His ability to join the attack makes him a key player in breaking down the opponent’s defensive structure.
  • This tactic is designed to force Micheal's wingers or midfielders to track back, thereby reducing their attacking threat. Lucio can move into the half-space and execute one-twos with Eusebio or Van Hanegem, which allows him to support the wing-back and increase aerial threat during duels against Chivadze (who will undoubtedly face a tough challenge in the air).
Offensive :

Long Ball : @GodShaveTheQueen may call me Pulis, and today, I fully accept it. Long ball and direct play are crucial in this match,

  • As Pulis might say, today is all about long balls and direct play. Drogba’s ability to hold up the ball is pivotal. He will not only retain possession but also bring our attacking wing-backs, Dietz and Gemmell, into play. Both wing-backs are highly skilled in attacking, particularly in finishing. Their forward runs will be crucial to our offensive efforts.
  • Eusebio will exploit the gaps between the opposition’s defenders with his pace. His positional fluidity is key; he thrives on roaming across the pitch, finding spaces to operate in, and creating wide overloads, which will enable the full-backs to push forward and ease the burden on Drogba.
Positional Fluidity:

  • Eusebio loves this style of play—hovering all over the pitch, always a threat. His movement will create wide overloads, allowing the full-backs on either side to get involved in the attack. This fluidity will give Drogba more space and opportunities to make the most of his physical presence.
  • Van Hanegem and Bremner are both exceptional with the ball at their feet. They will contribute through incisive through balls and key passes into the box. Van Hanegem’s ability in the air is noteworthy; his heading could be the deciding factor in tight situations within the box.
Set Pieces:

  • Set pieces will be crucial in this match, and we have the advantage here. With our aerial threats, particularly Rudiger, Eusebio, Lucio and Drogba, delivering quality balls into the box from corners and free kicks could well determine the outcome.
Easy money baby:

  • One of the simpler yet effective strategies will be utilizing our ball-playing defenders and goalkeeper. All three center-backs, along with Alisson, are proficient in long-range passing. They can initiate attacks directly by delivering accurate long balls to the forwards, particularly Eusebio and Drogba, bypassing the midfield to catch the opposition off guard.
Wing backs:

They will look to deliver some crosses into the box aimed my forwards(especially Drogba, who can use his aerial to feck up anyone) or other players. Additionally, they also can take some long rangers outside the box to disturb Chilavert. Both have very attacking mindset.

Quick Transitions:

If the possession is won by my team(especially from Nestor), the fast transitions should be happened here as fast and accurate as possible.


Pressing Triggers(not high press):

  • My team have some specific pressing triggers, such as a bad touch from by an opposing defender or a weak pass. When triggered, Eusebio, Drogba, and the midfielders should press aggressively, aiming to force a turnover high up the pitch and capitalize on the disorganization. Everyone on my team is a hard worker in real life. Eusebio and Drogba possess the ability to press center-backs effectively, while my midfielders are industrious and well-versed in pressing and strong tackling. They know exactly how to apply pressure and make robust challenges. My team can do both ways of pressing(high and in my half).
  • I possess flexibility in pressing, which means I can switch between pressing styles, whether it’s applying pressure in our half or executing a high press, particularly focusing on pressing the opposition’s center-backs. My pressing strategy is primarily triggered when Michael’s team misplaces a pass or plays a ball with poor weight.

    When pressing, we focus on pressing the receiver of the ball, with the nearest player immediately closing down. My midfielders are already well-versed in pressing tactics and will operate as a unit. Throughout this, we maintain our shape in a medium block within a 5-3-2 system.

    After the press, we transition swiftly into a counter-attack, utilizing a variety of direct and efficient methods to exploit the opposition’s disarray(direct passing, exploiting spaces, wing play ).
 
Last edited:
Physiocrat said:
Interesting tactical battle here. If the General can keep Michael out, the Krol to Eusebio route on the counter could be lethal.
Click to expand...
Not only Krol, if we talk about direct passes.

We have 3 defenders who can distribute the ball well and spray the long passes to my forwards. Alisson: he doesn’t need that description, we all know him about his direct passing abilities( although could be sloppy at times).
 
Gone for Michael. I see goals in this game but I don't think the General's defence is good enough to keep out that attack from scoring a few. Nice setup though from the General, it reminds me, in a good way of Southgate's England of 2016 with the more attacking LCB and RCB with the central sweeper staying back.
 
Physiocrat said:
Gone for Michael. I see goals in this game but I don't think the General's defence is good enough to keep out that attack from scoring a few. Nice setup though from the General, it reminds me, in a good way of Southgate's England of 2016 with the more attacking LCB and RCB with the central sweeper staying back.
Click to expand...


In all honesty, the quality of our attackers can equally pose a threat to their defense. We possess both power and aerial strength with Eusebio and Drogba. You may be right regarding the quality of my defense (I don’t consider it the best in this draft), but I believe that my defense is still of a high standard. Rudiger is currently one of the best stoppers in the world, and Lucio was among the top defenders globally during his career. Krol’s reputation speaks for itself. Both full-back are very solid players. Alison Becker is one of the best gks in the world in last 5 years. On the other hand, while Michael has a strong defense, I believe he will have concerns about Drogba’s aerial prowess, Eusebio’s overall strength, and the potential for late runs from deep by our center-backs, wing-backs, or even midfielders like Van Hanegem (who is excellent in the air and the ground) or Bremner, who is known for his ability to make timely runs into the box. Furthermore, I am not employing a high defensive line or a gung-ho approach; I am maintaining a standard, compact line to effectively manage space for Blokhin.

I also believe that our back six, including Alisson, are highly adaptable and possess the necessary skills to handle pressing(hardcore) without significant issues. (Rudiger, Alisson, or even Lucio might occasionally be prone to mistakes such as misplaced passes or poor clearances). However, if I can successfully break Michael's press, it could lead to a beautiful counter-attack. These could be initiated by direct balls from Alisson, Krol, or Rudiger. If we manage to bypass the press, Van Hanegem, Breitner, or Nestor all possess excellent direct passing abilities (whether it be one-touch passes, through balls, long balls, short passes, or direct passes), and our forwards are more than ready to capitalize on these opportunities. You can observe this approach in Inzaghi’s Inter when they counter high presses or man-to-man pressing; they often string together a few quick passes that immediately transition into a threatening attack. I can see this potential clearly in my team. There are numerous ways we can exploit Michael’s defense with ease.
 
Last edited:
General_Elegancia said:
In all honesty, the quality of our attackers can equally pose a threat to their defense. We possess both power and aerial strength with Eusebio and Drogba. You may be right regarding the quality of my defense (I don’t consider it the best in this draft), but I believe that my defense is still of a high standard. Rudiger is currently one of the best stoppers in the world, and Lucio was among the top defenders globally during his career. Krol’s reputation speaks for itself. Both full-back are very solid players. Alison Becker is one of the best gks in the world in last 5 years. On the other hand, while Michael has a strong defense, I believe he will have concerns about Drogba’s aerial prowess, Eusebio’s overall strength, and the potential for late runs from deep by our center-backs, wing-backs, or even midfielders like Van Hanegem (who is excellent in the air and the ground) or Bremner, who is known for his ability to make timely runs into the box. Furthermore, I am not employing a high defensive line or a gung-ho approach; I am maintaining a standard, compact line to effectively manage space for Blokhin.

I also believe that our back six, including Alisson, are highly adaptable and possess the necessary skills to handle pressing(hardcore) without significant issues. (Rudiger, Alisson, or even Lucio might occasionally be prone to mistakes such as misplaced passes or poor clearances). However, if I can successfully break Michael's press, it could lead to a beautiful counter-attack. These could be initiated by direct balls from Alisson, Krol, or Rudiger. If we manage to bypass the press, Van Hanegem, Breitner, or Nestor all possess excellent direct passing abilities (whether it be one-touch passes, through balls, long balls, short passes, or direct passes), and our forwards are more than ready to capitalize on these opportunities. You can observe this approach in Inzaghi’s Inter when they counter high presses or man-to-man pressing; they often string together a few quick passes that immediately transition into a threatening attack. I can see this potential clearly in my team. There are numerous ways we can exploit Michael’s defense with ease.
Click to expand...
They are all fair points. I just see Michael having quite a lot more of the ball which is why I think he'd win. If I were to guess he would win 3-2.
 
One thing I always wondered about these Lobanovskyi 4132 formations:

In central midfield, they look kind of undermanned when the three AMs are true attacking guys. Is this a "live and die by the high press" formation that counts on not letting the opponent getting into midfield in the first place? If not, what's the plan for sufficient presence in & control of the deeper midfield areas?
 
gone with general, think the team is well equiped to play against the press and eusebio would be deadly on the counter
 
I originally went with Michael but changed my vote to General after some further thinking. That defensive unit of Krol, Lucio, Rudiger, and Goncalves will be difficult to crack in a low block. I can see Michael's team getting a goal, but they will be a bit too open on the break.
 
Synco said:
One thing I always wondered about these Lobanovskyi 4132 formations:

In central midfield, they look kind of undermanned when the three AMs are true attacking guys. Is this a "live and die by the high press" formation that counts on not letting the opponent getting into midfield in the first place? If not, what's the plan for sufficient presence in & control of the deeper midfield areas?
Click to expand...

I guess that would depend on how faithful a recreation of those teams it's supposed to be or if it's just a modern, high-pressing team interpretation of that sort of formation. Lobanovsky's teams, particularly the '70s ones that had issues getting to grips with the butal training regime needed to implement his ideas, weren't constant high pressing machines like the bigger teams of the last 10 years can afford to be. Beyond the basic differences in fitness and these tactics being refined to a granular level with the analytical resources available now, you simply couldn't play like that week in and week out with the small squads (often with quite big dropoff in quality on the bench) and comparatively terrible pitches of 70s-90s, which was always a big issue in late autumn/early spring Soviet football.

He had to manage the activity levels a lot more and deal with some players that were maybe not even that suited to what he wanted to do but were also too talented to leave out or effectively replace in the internationally isolated system of the time. So, things had to be quite versatile by necessity; there was plenty of less demanding lower-block press and counterattacking stuff, especially in the more competitive away games, where he was criticised at times for being too calculatedly cautious if things backfired. For home and otherwise crucial/must-win games, higher (and/or more sustained) pressure was definitely a preferred tactic. Players that were probably more inclined to be attacking, on the ball focused attacking-mid/playmakers like Muntyan, Veremeev (both were already at Kyiv in more typical creative roles) and Buryak were forced to become more universal and tactically disciplined rather than be accommodated defensively, but that naturally led to a more balanced midfield game.

I think you're spot on, though, that if you tried to recreate his 4-1-3-2 variant with too many players of an outright attacking/on the ball focused mindset, and especially also a high press, it could become really unbalanced in midfield. That said, I think Nedved and Di Stefano are fine...Di Stefano was a stamina monster and highly involved over a wide area by nature, though you could definitely argue that he would be even better in the withdrawn forward position. Nedved is more midfield than he is forward, plus he also has iron lungs and great off the ball involvement. I'm less sure of Littbarski, but he did adapt very well to deeper roles during the second half of his career, albeit in different systems.
 
Demyanenko_square_jaw said:
I guess that would depend on how faithful a recreation of those teams it's supposed to be or if it's just a modern, high-pressing team interpretation of that sort of formation. Lobanovsky's teams, particularly the '70s ones that had issues getting to grips with the butal training regime needed to implement his ideas, weren't constant high pressing machines like the bigger teams of the last 10 years can afford to be. Beyond the basic differences in fitness and these tactics being refined to a granular level with the analytical resources available now, you simply couldn't play like that week in and week out with the small squads (often with quite big dropoff in quality on the bench) and comparatively terrible pitches of 70s-90s, which was always a big issue in late autumn/early spring Soviet football.

He had to manage the activity levels a lot more and deal with some players that were maybe not even that suited to what he wanted to do but were also too talented to leave out or effectively replace in the internationally isolated system of the time. So, things had to be quite versatile by necessity; there was plenty of less demanding lower-block press and counterattacking stuff, especially in the more competitive away games, where he was criticised at times for being too calculatedly cautious if things backfired. For home and otherwise crucial/must-win games, higher (and/or more sustained) pressure was definitely a preferred tactic. Players that were probably more inclined to be attacking, on the ball focused attacking-mid/playmakers like Muntyan, Veremeev (both were already at Kyiv in more typical creative roles) and Buryak were forced to become more universal and tactically disciplined rather than be accommodated defensively, but that naturally led to a more balanced midfield game.

I think you're spot on, though, that if you tried to recreate his 4-1-3-2 variant with too many players of an outright attacking/on the ball focused mindset, and especially also a high press, it could become really unbalanced in midfield. That said, I think Nedved and Di Stefano are fine...Di Stefano was a stamina monster and highly involved over a wide area by nature, though you could definitely argue that he would be even better in the withdrawn forward position. Nedved is more midfield than he is forward, plus he also has iron lungs and great off the ball involvement. I'm less sure of Littbarski, but he did adapt very well to deeper roles during the second half of his career, albeit in different systems.
Click to expand...
Thanks, great insight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.