Pardew Draft R1 - Gio vs EAP

With players at their peak, who would win?

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    12
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Physiocrat

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Gio

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EAP

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Gio

THE TRANSITION TEAM

Recognising there are some quality teams out there and Edgar's is no exception, I have tried to build a team that can defend compactly, be hard to break down, and then devastate teams on the break. With a number of counter-attacking specialists on the park, there are a number of scenarios where the team can transition in the blink of an eye:

  • Sammer spotting his opportunity to surge forward into midfield and beyond
  • Carlos tearing into space down the flank
  • Gerrard bursting forward
  • Pirlo picking out Ronaldo and Haaland with his early rangy passing.
  • The front two's extreme pace and power on the break.

A few tactical features worth highlighting:

  • Good off-the-ball discipline and work rate. Litmanen and Haaland offering high-intensity pressing through central areas.
  • Gerrard/Haaland link-up that should mirror the De Bruyne/Haaland partnership in the quality of delivery into the box
  • Sammer covered by Mascherano with his own experience of playing centre-half.
  • Sammer and Pirlo in familiar tactical environments to where they played much of their best football (the 352s of Germany at Euro '96, Dortmund of 95-97, Italy at Euro 2012, and Juve of the mid-2010s)
  • Bergomi moving across if Gerrard horses on into goalscoring areas
  • Bergomi on Blokhin and Terry on Shevchenko to carry out traditional man-marking duties
  • Haaland's more traditional penalty box presence creating space for Ronaldo to roam across the front line finding spaces to attack.
EAP

Defence:

One of the greatest GK of all time Rinat Dasayev mans the goal. Nicknamed "The Iron Curtain" and "The Cat" he's a proven shot stopper and a leader in defence.

Elias Figueroa needs no introduction. One of the top GOATs. Roberto Matosas was an archetype of a modern CB, physically strong yet a cultured ball players who was comfortable stepping out of the defence and making plays in the midfield. Stylistically he's very similar to Ruggeri, with his no nonsense defending, ariel ability and a top notch support for Figueroa.

Anatoily Demyanenko & Volodymyr Bezsonov are similar one man flank fullbacks. Able to run up and down all day, solid defensively but able to contribute to attack too.

Midfield:

Nestor Goncalves & Obdulio Varela are possibly two of the greatest defensive midfielders ever to come out of South America.
- Varela was a defensive mastermind, a solid shield in front of the defence.
- In addition to being defensively strong, Goncalves was a proper game manager too. Dubbed "Captain of Captains" he was a midfield leader, absolutely class player. I watched @harms compilation of him and he reminded me of Keano.
- To complete, we have Jose Leandro Andrade. Nickname "The Black Marvel", he was a very attacking halfback (in old 2-3-2-3 formation) which ideally translates into a hybrid between RB and RCM in modern tactics. Defensively solid for NT, he showed his flair at clubs mostly Nacional and then at Penarol. Gifted on the ball, able to move up and contribute to attack, I have likened him to Junior/Brietner type players in earlier draft. He provides defensive solidity and creativity from the deep.

Attack:

Juan Alberto Schiaffino - I can't say nothing that antohan hasn't already said here. Subline with ball at his feat, highly creative with ability to score himself and bring others into play, he's the mastermind for the attack.

Oleh Blokhin & Andriy Shevchenko need no writeups. Balon d'Or winners and top of their positions.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
All the best @Gio I thought you'd go for a traditional diamond with Pirlo at bottom, flanked by Masch and StevieG.
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All the best too.

No diamond here, certainly not against the diamond master. Did consider it, but wasn't totally convinced about Mascherano as a left-sided CM expected to peel wide. I suppose I'd have the same reservations about Goncalves on your left side, doesn't quite look natural to me, with him likely to regularly check back onto his favoured right foot.
 
Gio said:
No diamond here, certainly not against the diamond master. Did consider it, but wasn't totally convinced about Mascherano as a left-sided CM expected to peel wide. I suppose I'd have the same reservations about Goncalves on your left side, doesn't quite look natural to me, with him likely to regularly check back onto his favoured right foot.
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Fair. Though I don't think it'd matter that much given he's facing Gerrard rather than a tricky dribbler type winger. When Gerrard usually moves in to a Inside Right position, he'd be right in Goncalves space.

Re your defence...Terry is placed between two extremely aggressive defenders in Sammer & Carlos. He doesn't have the pace or athleticism to pull that off. Given his best years were between Gallas & Carvalho, your team is as far away as you can get from his comfort zone. I think he's entirely unsuitable for the role he gets to play here and frankly a liability.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
Fair. Though I don't think it'd matter that much given he's facing Gerrard rather than a tricky dribbler type winger. When Gerrard usually moves in to a Inside Right position, he'd be right in Goncalves space.

Re your defence...Terry is placed between two extremely aggressive defenders in Sammer & Carlos. He doesn't have the pace or athleticism to pull that off. Given his best years were between Gallas & Carvalho, your team is as far away as you can get from his comfort zone. I think he's entirely unsuitable for the role he gets to play here and frankly a liability.
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Re-Terry - given he is playing a transition style I don't think it is much of an issue except if Bobby and Sammer are high on a break but then there is a turnover, that's the problem but the question is how frequently does that occur?
 
Physiocrat said:
Re-Terry - given he is playing a transition style I don't think it is much of an issue except if Bobby and Sammer are high on a break but then there is a turnover, that's the problem but the question is how frequently does that occur?
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Given the first two bullet points in Gio's writeup are about Sammer & Carlos breaking forward, I'd assume fairly frequently. Else it won't be their usual game.

In a one vs one situation I'd definitely take Schiaffino over Masch and either of Sheva/Blokhin over Terry. Schiaffino will definitely probe Masch's capabilities and I expect him to come out on top more often than now.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
Fair. Though I don't think it'd matter that much given he's facing Gerrard rather than a tricky dribbler type winger. When Gerrard usually moves in to a Inside Right position, he'd be right in Goncalves space.
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I'd fancy Gerrard being a great out-ball in this game up against a diamond. He has that De Bruyne/Beckham-esque abiilty to whip it around the back of the defence early and from deeper positions. He certainly doesn't need to come inside to influence this game. His role is very much about staying wide to exploit his athleticism and rangy passing and crossing. He's certainly assisted plenty from that area in his career.



Re your defence...Terry is placed between two extremely aggressive defenders in Sammer & Carlos. He doesn't have the pace or athleticism to pull that off. Given his best years were between Gallas & Carvalho, your team is as far away as you can get from his comfort zone. I think he's entirely unsuitable for the role he gets to play here and frankly a liability.
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Nah, Terry is just about as good as it gets as a stopper in a slightly deeper-lying. counter-attacking set-up.
Physiocrat said:
Re-Terry - given he is playing a transition style I don't think it is much of an issue except if Bobby and Sammer are high on a break but then there is a turnover, that's the problem but the question is how frequently does that occur?
Click to expand...
Well yeah clearly we don't send everyone forward at once - Ballon D'Or winners like Sammer are smart enough to know when.
 
Gio said:
I'd fancy Gerrard being a great out-ball in this game up against a diamond. He has that De Bruyne/Beckham-esque abiilty to whip it around the back of the defence early and from deeper positions. He certainly doesn't need to come inside to influence this game. His role is very much about staying wide to exploit his athleticism and rangy passing and crossing. He's certainly assisted plenty from that area in his career.
Click to expand...

Demyanenko plays a big role here. With Bergomi playing a tucked in role, the lack of overlapping fullback means his primary opponent out wide will be Gerrard. I can't think of many better players for that role. Add in that Figueroa, Matosas & Varela are all good in the air, we have enough protection against crosses.

Gio said:
Terry is just about as good as it gets as a stopper in a slightly deeper-lying. counter-attacking set-up.
Click to expand...

I don't see your team as built that way. You do mention transition, but then Sammer and Carlos are very individualistic ball carriers rather than pass and cover transition type players. Both are more likely to run ahead with the ball themselves....and that will be a problem for Terry.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
I don't see your team as built that way. You do mention transition, but then Sammer and Carlos are very individualistic ball carriers rather than pass and cover transition type players. Both are more likely to run ahead with the ball themselves....and that will be a problem for Terry.
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To be fair I was clear in the intro that these are a number of different scenarios where we can transition (pasted below for reference).

That aside, I'm not sure I agree with your characterisation of Sammer. When he chose his moments to overload, he would do so in tandem with other players, was highly team-orientated in his mindset, and would happily sit back for the 90 if that was what was required (often the case in Dortmund's successful Champions League win in 1997). In addition he has the natural pairing here with Mascherano who should fulfill much the same cover and insurance job that Dieter Eilts did for him for Stuttgart and Germany.

Physiocrat said:
THE TRANSITION TEAM

Recognising there are some quality teams out there and Edgar's is no exception, I have tried to build a team that can defend compactly, be hard to break down, and then devastate teams on the break. With a number of counter-attacking specialists on the park, there are a number of scenarios where the team can transition in the blink of an eye:

  • Sammer spotting his opportunity to surge forward into midfield and beyond
  • Carlos tearing into space down the flank
  • Gerrard bursting forward
  • Pirlo picking out Ronaldo and Haaland with his early rangy passing.
  • The front two's extreme pace and power on the break.
Click to expand...
 
Gio said:
Good game. Right outcome that as I think your side has more of a theme and greater room to grow with the upgrades available here.
Click to expand...
Hard luck, Gio. Looking at your team it was pretty impressive the mechanics offered on the pitch and how you combined Gerrard, Masch, Litmanen and Piti as it was a bit of a head scratcher for me initially how you are going to line up.

Edgar just edged it for me with that Ukrainian duo and the pace they offer on counter, whilst forming a pretty solid midfield core (albeit the non-footage turd at RCM) and defence marshalled by Figueroa - probably the best Cb to limit Fenomeno grip of the game.
 
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I loved the novel use of Gerrard by Gio as an advanced, aggressive RWB. It seems like a great use of his athletic and technical abilities while keeping him well out of Pirlo's domain as the orchestrator. Masch looked a good foil to both of them (and Sammer too) as the disciplined, hard-working foil who will want minimal time on the ball. Haaland and R9 is a bit of a head-scratcher in that there won't be anywhere near the champagne football interplay of Ronaldo/Romario or Ronaldo/Rivaldo, but equally having Haaland on the shoulder of the defenders should free up so much space for Ronaldo.

Lovely drafting from Edgar. I was personally hoping to see the sexy, expansive Chivadze alongside Figueroa. Goncalves on the left of a diamond didn't look like the cleanest fit, and I never have the first clue how to assess the 20s/30s players when they appear so Andrade didn't really resonate with me despite seemingly being well-placed by Edgar.
 
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