MJJ
A strong defensively solid 4-3-3, the defence is led by Scirea. A man who never received a red card, who kept the legendary Baresi out of the italian national side and upon whose retirement the prestigious france football magazine described him as better than Pele,Cryuff and De Stefano. Partnering him in defence is vierchowod, one of the fastest defenders of all time and a great reader of the game.
Maradona on Vierch., "He was an animal, he had muscles to the eyelashes. It was easy to pass by him, but then when I raised my head, he was in front of me again. I would have to pass him two or three more times and then I would pass the ball because I couldn't stand him anymore"
On the flanks, I have McGrain and Lizarazu. Two good all-around fullbacks who are defensively and offensively capable, both of them will push forward and create overlaps on the flanks.
My midfield is a perfect mix, the defensive greatness of makelele is balanced by two of the finest box to box midfielders in brietner and seedorf.
In attack I have Bello di notte, Boniek, who excelled in Serie A often playing against a 5-3-2 formation and the little bird Hamrin. Bit more on Hamrin here:-
He was fast and direct, sturdy, skilful and courageous with superb powers of dribbling and acceleration, fantastic opportunist and brillant finisher. He was also blessed with a centre forward’s nose for goal and explosive reflexes, only Filippo Inzaghi could react quicker than Hamrin in whole Serie A history. Hamrin's speed in first 5-6 meters was unbelievable, surpassing human capacities and was never seen before or after Hamrin. His tricks were legendary, he could do everything with the ball, many times embarassing his markers.
To partner them, I chose suarez who will drop deep, is blessed with exceptional dribbling ability and can kill the game in a blink of an eye.
Why I will win:-
- While Theon does have the legendary juve defense, from an all-time perspective the defense wouldn't be ranked too highly. I know it is a tendency to underrate modern players and theon might argue that history will remember this trio more highly but lets compare them to our legendary defenders, vidic and rio. Rio and Vidic conceded 0.77 goals per match compared to 0.83 for the Juve trio despite playing in a more attacking league and with less protection(playing with scholes or giggs in front of them). This shows that despite the juve defence being the best in a long time they really cant be comparable to the legends of the game.
- A better midfield and defense, mascherano spent the prime of his career playing at centre back and maradona is not really going to be helping the midfield a lot.
- Boniek and Hamrin have both played in Serie A, against a 5-3-2 formation the majority of their careers. The directness and dribbling of both helped them dominate the respective leagues with Hamrin finishing with a one in two goal scoring record from the wings. With my fullbacks creating overlapping opportunity, I can see my side having a lot of joy here.
TACTICS
A balanced and complimentary 3-5-2 designed to get the best out of Diego Maradona. In offence the front three are provided the perfect platform to impact the match, with a midfield filled with leadership/workrate and a world-class defence capable of keeping a clean sheet against any attack.
In possession Maradona provides the focal point, equally capable of running through the opposition or releasing Rivaldo, Batigol or Cafu/Marinho with his exquisite passing range. The Argentine boasts the highest peak of any player and elevates the performances of those around him – given the calibre of his supporting cast he should be too hot to handle for the opposition midfield.
WHY WE HAVE THE EDGE:
- DIVERSE AND RUTHLESS ATTACK – The attacking trio is complimentary and built to get the best out of our star man. Rivaldo is arguably the greatest of all time as a left sided second striker, offering an exceptional goal-threat whilst providing a natural presence presence out wide which creates space in the middle. Spearheading the attack is the quintessential #9 in Batistuta – a technical and physical colossus who scored 85 in 117 games during 90’s Serie A and 54 goals in 77 games for Argentina.
- MIDFIELD PLATFORM FOR MARADONA – In midfield we opted for two industrious warriors to shield the defence and stamp authority across the middle of the park, with Mascherano playing a more restrictive role whilst Bastian expresses himself box-to-box. In Schweinsteiger we have undoubtedly the most complete midfielder of the last decade – the midfield lynchpin who led Bayern to a historic treble and Germany to the ’14 World Cup (with a MOTM virtuoso performance in the final).
- PROVEN BACK LINE – Two Brazilian fullbacks flank the back three from Juve’s historic run of six Serie A’s in a row and two CL finals in three years. When the dust settles and players start retiring this defence is guaranteed to go down as an all-time great and (for my money) the best of the last 20 years. Achievements in six years include an unbeaten 2011/12 and a record breaking 102 points in 2013/14 (two more than Man City). Across those titles the foundation was a defence which conceded the least number of goals in every single season and never conceded more than 27 goals. In the six years of Chiellini / Bonnuci / Barzagli only one other team ever conceded less than 30 goals (Roma in 13/14) whilst Juve did so in every single one (20, 24, 23, 24, 20, 27). On average during this six year period they conceded one goal every 1.7 games - which is exceptional and stands as the best six year record of any defence at any time from any of the big three European leagues (Serie A, La Liga and the Premiership).
