Team Balu & Crappy
The idea behind the team is really easy. We tried to get the best out of the two all time great players we picked first. 1. The attack is set up so that Eusebio can play the direct football he loved and has the space and freedom to roam freely, run down that right channel with or without the ball as he sees fit. 2. The defense is set-up the way Scirea played all his career with a smart covering centerback on his left and a defensive rightback on his right, who's comfortable to tuck in and allow Scirea to move forward. The rest of the team is filled with elite players, who balance the side perfectly.
Tactics:
Nothing too complicated. We defend with two banks of four in a disciplined and well organised manner. We play a direct game going forward, trying to exploit the pace of Eusebio in that right inside channel with support of Seeler centrally and Czibor down the left. In attack we make full use of our versatility in all areas. We can score down the wings, down the middle, from set pieces, with headers or long range shots or just poach a goal in the box.
The forwards: Seeler is the perfect all around centerforward, who can keep the centerbacks busy, linking up play and offers a massive aerial threat additionally to Eusebio's physical and dynamic game. They're a match made in heaven. I'll post a video of Seeler's performance against Santos further down the page that shows how wonderfully he suits Eusebio's style of play. It's so easy to imagine how they'd move forward together, how they'd play off each other, complement each other.
The wings: It's all about balance. The left is a rather traditional wing pair. Czibor as the brilliant attacking wing forward, who can dribble, cross and score with Lizarazu behind him, who's pretty much the archetype of a well balanced fullback. He knows how to defend, has endless stamina and is still a great threat going forward (which might be a bit limited here if Messi plays on the wing). The right wing is built to get the best out of our star players. A clear defensive rightback in Burgnich to balance Scirea's play and in front of him with Beckham arguably the greatest crosser of all time, who can also tuck in to help the central midfielders. The beauty of Beckham is that he can stay deeper without his delivery losing any impact, dragging the opposing fullback out of defense and opening up a gap in that right channel between centerback and fullback for Eusebio to exploit.
The central midfield: It's a brilliant two man midfield lead by the wonderful Josef Masopust, one of only two central midfielders to win a Ballon d'Or, which he fully deserved for his overall impact from defense to attack, when he dragged the clear underdog Czechoslovakia to a World Cup final. Next to him Duncan Edwards, who needs no introduction. Both should balance each other wonderfully, take turns going forward and with Beckham tucking in or Scirea stepping forward make for a fantastic midfield battle against the excellent competition in that area. If you don't know much about the genius that is Josef Masopust, here's a great article about him to get started and it's hopefully worth following the discussion in this thread to learn more about him:
http://www.czefootball.com/2015/08/josef-masopust-the-czech-knight
The defense: The 3 generations of Italian excellence in defense should work perfectly with each other. Burgnich is basically the original Gentile, so there shouldn't be any questionmark around his fit next to Scirea. Costacurta's performances next to Baresi in what was probably the greatest defense of all time suggest that he's also a perfect partner for a libero. Behind them in goal Gordon Banks, arguably the greatest British goalkeeper of all time.
Substitution: On the bench, Nemanja Vidic cheers the team forward and is ready to come in to turn the side into even more of a defensive fortress, which might be an option to kill off the game on the counter towards the end.
A few thoughts on our opponent:
There's really one major flaw we see in their team. It sounds a bit like a cliche, but it's really true in this case. It lacks width. The best player on the pitch is Messi, we won't deny that. But he's the only one in Sjor&Viva's side who can provide true width and is therefore limited in his freedom. Their attack is built with central players, who maybe can do a job as inside forwards cutting in or wide midfielders, who actually prefer to play central, but it's incredibly narrow nevertheless. And both his fullbacks are foremost defensive players. I don't want to downplay the technical ability of Djalma Santos and Schnellinger, because I think both were excellent players, no doubt greats of the game, and both had good ability on the ball in the build-up from deep. But they didn't have an attacking game based on running down the wing and stretching the play, they're simply a bad fit for what his side needs. It further increases the problem of the attack being too narrow and it plays in our hands, because with Scirea we have the most intelligent defender of all time, who excelled in perfect organisation. It gets much easier to execute that perfectly against a narrow side. If Enrique starts on the wing, it helps a little bit to counter that problem, but he's individually not a big enough threat to solve the issue.
While we built a side that gives Eusebio all the freedom he enjoyed throughout his career to excel, Messi is really limited in his game through the set-up in his side. He either runs into a heavily crowded central area defended by a flawless Italian defense or he drifts out wide and plays as a provider for a set of forwards that will struggle quite a bit against our excellent defense.
Here's the link to our short player profiles to give you a bit more information on the players.
Balu and Crappy
Sjor and Viva
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No problem