This is a Pre Premier League draft from 1971/72 to 1991/92 where managers assemble their squads by selecting players based on their playing performance during this time period only. Performances that fall outside this time period should not be considered. Neither should the players performance for their country/international tournaments be considered. As in any team, team tactics and balance also play a part.
Team Oaencha
vs
Team Enigma/Red Viper
Tactics Oaencha
Let me start off by saying I know none of these players were in their prime by 1992. However.. they were all considered very hot prospects and were performing to a high standard for their respective clubs. They went on to have successful careers and some became PL legends.
Kind of irrelevant but I also saw each player live before 1992 (last criteria).
I will go into more detail during the match and answer any questions that come up.
Tactics
We’re setup as a traditional 4-4-2 with advanced wingers.
Formation: 4-4-2
Defensive line: normal
Style: direct, fast tempo. Two excellent goalscoring wingers in Trevor Francis and Kevin Sheedy, to open up and stretch the opposition defence. Worthington as a SS and one of the best strikers in the pool in Lineker to finish off chances.
Short team profiles:
(GK) Jim Leighton - One of the very best Scottish keepers with 91 international caps to his name. Reached his peak at Aberdeen where he won number of silverware. Dependable and solid keeper who can be relied on.
Scottish Premier League (2): 1983–84, 1984–85
Scottish Cup (4): 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86
Scottish League Cup: 1985–86
European Cup Winners' Cup: 1982–83
European Super Cup: 1983
(LB) Nigel Winterburn - Top notch defensively, but no stranger going forward Winterburn was an integral part of Arsenal's defence for over a decade amassing more than 500 caps for Arsenal during that time. He was highly rated at Wimbledon as well, even before moving to Arsenal, winning the Wimbledon supporters Player Of The Year in each of the four seasons he spent at Plough Lane. Winterburn proved to be a fantastic crosser of the ball when be bombed forward to support an Arsenal attack, and his defensive virtues were frequently extolled, as he flanked a fantastic central defensive partnership of Tony Adams and Martin Keown.
(RB) Pat Rice - Arsenal's player of the year in 1972 and captained the team to three consecutive F.A. Cup Finals- in 1978, 1979 and 1980, as well as the 1980 Cup Winners Cup Final. As a right back, Rice was an ever-present and a leader for the Arsenal sides of the 1970s and appeared in an Arsenal record five FA Cup Finals, defeating Manchester United in the famous 1979 victory. Tough and tenacious, Rice was handed the captain's armband toward the end of his 14-year Gunners career and had amassed almost 400 league appearances for Arsenal when he left at the age of 31.
(CB) Norman Hunter - Norman Hunter was a key part of a scary Leeds team in the 1970s, with a very physical—and direct style - and certainly one of the more imposing defenders ever seen in English football. After all, his nickname wasn't "Bite Yer Legs" for nothing.
Hunter, now 73, was a titan of a defender in an era when defenders lived up to their job title. He bullied opponents alongside Jack Charlton. With goalkeeper Gary Sprake, they formed a Bermuda Triangle where strikers just disappeared. Hunter developed a superb understanding with Jack Charlton that would serve the club for a decade. After winning the Division Two title, Hunter won Division One, FA Cup, Fairs Cup and League Cup honours. Named Leeds Player Of The Year in 1970/71 and PFA Player Of The Year in 1973, Hunter was quick, totally committed and possessed terrific positional awareness. He could also slice a defence open with a long raking pass and had a thunderous shot, as several goalkeepers discovered. Although not as “dirty” as a defender as his reputation suggested, Hunter was a hardman who never shirked a challenge. This attitude led to the odd spat, most famously with Derby County’s Francis Lee in 1975 when the pair were sent off for fighting in days when even bookings were rare. Hunter won 28 full caps (including one which made him the first England player ever to be capped as a substitute), scoring twice.
(CB) Des Walker - He is probably the best defender English football has produced since Bobby Moore at the time. We saw it proved a hundred times. A red-shirted shadow moving at top speed, a brush of the shoulder and a sudden deft flick of the boot. The perfect tackle: swift, silent and conclusive. It was Des Walker's speciality.
YOU'LL NE-VER beat Des Wal-ker. You'll ne-ver beat Des Wal-ker.
That's what they sang at the City Ground, with a matter-of-factness that mocked the efforts of the most renowned visiting forwards. To many of Nottingham Forest's fans, he was the finest player ever to pull on the Garibaldi shirt. They came to love his silent efficiency, the lack of wasted gesture, the erasure of emotion from his play.
In the 1990 World Cup, he was so outstanding that Gianni Agnelli was said to have bid up to pounds 8m to take him to Juventus.
(RM/RW) Trevor Francis -He took the English football by storm scoring all four goals against Bolton Wanderers aged 16, February, 1971, on only his ninth start.“An astonishing player," says Bolton general manager Nat Lofthouse.
Shortly after arriving to take over as manager in 1977, Sir Alf Ramsey — a man not given to hyperbole —said of the Birmingham No 8: ‘There is no better player in the country than Trevor Francis.’ Trevor Francis was one of the best players of his generation who enjoyed a long and successful playing career. He was a forward with acceleration and style who was always very dangerous around the penalty area. He was the first Britain £ 1 million player when moving to Nottingham Forest in 1979. He also had a great record when playing for Detroit Express, where he scored 36 goals in 33 matches. He had previously scored 128 goals for Birmingham before his move to Forest.
Trevor Francis was one of the most respected and feared forwards in English football during his heyday, scored two goals at the World Cup in 1982, including the opener in England's 2-0 win over Czechoslovakia in the group stage.
(CM) Osvaldo Ardiles In the modern game, the Premier League has established itself as one of the top destinations for foreign football talent. Back in 1978 when a young Huracan midfielder named Osvaldo Ardiles was weighing up his options, however, the English game was far more parochial and closed off to outside influences.
Ardiles, perhaps more than anybody, helped to change that perception. The 1978 World Cup winner with Argentina represented Tottenham for four excellent seasons, winning the FA Cup in 1981 and establishing himself as a fans' favourite for years to come. One of the finest midfielders in the pool.
(CM) Frans Thijssen - A hard-nosed but extremely skillful player, Thijssen was your archetypal Dutch midfielder during his playing days. Along with compatriot Arnold Muhren, he joined Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town and helped them become not only one of the leading clubs in England but also one that made waves in Europe. The achievement – and his superb performances – saw Thijssen win the prestigious English Footballer of the Year award. That was a golden period of his career, and after leaving Ipswich in 1983 he went on to play another eight seasons at Nottingham Forest, Vancouver, Fortuna Sittard, FC Groningen and Vitesse before hanging up his boots.
(LM/LW) Kevin Sheedy - Kevin Sheedy a man the Blues consider to have one of the best left pegs ever seen in top-flight football - 97 goals in 357 starts, from midfield - and countless, countless assists. In all, the tricky winger with a supreme left foot managed just five appearances for Liverpool before braving the short trip across Stanley Park, where he was a revelation.
Accolades:
Football League First Division (2): 1984–85, 1986–87
FA Cup (1): 1984
European Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1985
FA Charity Shield (4): 1984, 1985, 1986 (shared), 1987
(SS) Frank Worthington - It doesn’t matter who you support, the mere mention of Frank Worthington is guaranteed to bring a smile to all who saw him play. A showman in football boots Worthington was an outstandingly gifted forward with his vision and verve shone out in the late ’60s and early ’70s of grey old England. He was far better than the largely honest workhorses that played for Huddersfield and Leicester – his first two clubs, and the only ones where he enjoyed real stability – and he didn’t half know it. “Other players control the ball further than I kick it,” he mocked.
(CF) Gary Lineker - Gary Lineker is by far and away England's greatest ever World Cup striker, having managed to double the number of goals scored by his closest challenger. Very few England players have possessed Lineker's instincts inside the box, with his ability to score goals, particularly from close range, his defining skill.
Lineker was an English striker who veered far from convention. He wasn’t particularly physical, and his shots weren’t laced with power. Instead, he relied upon his technical and mental characteristics to find the net. He was, quintessentially, brain over brawn.
Often found lingering on the shoulder of the last man, his positional sense and concentration were second to none. As a result he was able to find space in even the tightest of penalty boxes; getting on the end of crosses to bag innumerable tap-ins, his job may have seemed easy, but that’s only because he made it look so.
An opportunist with a sophisticated touch, Lineker was nimble, fast of thought and foot, and an unerringly precise finisher. One chance was all he needed, and his ability to deceive defences to create room for those chances saw him aptly earn the nickname ‘El Matador’.
His individual records speak for itself:
English Second Division Top Scorer: 1982–83
English First Division Top Scorer: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1989–90
PFA Players' Player of the Year: 1985–86
FWA Footballer of the Year: 1985–86, 1991–92
FIFA World Cup Golden Boot: 1986
FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1986
Onze de Bronze: 1986
Ballon d'Or: Runner-up 1986
FIFA Fair Play Award: 1990
FWA Tribute Award: 1997
FIFA World Player of the Year: Bronze award 1991
FIFA 100
English Football Hall of Fame: 2003
PFA Team of the Century (1977–1996): 2007
Team tactics and style:
Defence - our defence has it all - two tough and defensively sound full backs in Winterburn and Rice and one of the finest CB's in the pool at their very best in Walker and Hunter. All possess pace, agility and intelligence to keep the fort and protect Leighton.
Midfield - Ardiles and Thijssen both have starred for their teams with Ardiles one of Spurs best players of all time, and Thijssen winning the player of the year award. They are great on the ball but also sound defensively. Sheedy possesses top notch work rate, whilst Francis skillfulness and eye for the goal would see him occupy more the attacking third when we have the ball.
Attack - lead by one of the best #9's in the pool and with Worthington ability on the ball and eye for the pass, our attack doesn't lack creativity or finishing ability.
Advantages:
- All players are at their best and their prime. Oaencha has a theme of picking players in their young years before they reached their peak levels, so our team has undeniably the experience and peak level to take this game.
- Variety in attack and full of great goalscorers with respectable record - Francis, Worthington, Lineker and Sheedy.
- very solid defensive unit composed well known and recognized names in the period we have in question.
Team Oaencha
vs
Team Enigma/Red Viper
Tactics Oaencha
Let me start off by saying I know none of these players were in their prime by 1992. However.. they were all considered very hot prospects and were performing to a high standard for their respective clubs. They went on to have successful careers and some became PL legends.
Kind of irrelevant but I also saw each player live before 1992 (last criteria).
I will go into more detail during the match and answer any questions that come up.
Tactics
We’re setup as a traditional 4-4-2 with advanced wingers.
- Pallister and Bruce will form a (proven) rock solid partnership in defence.
- Staunton and Jones are your stereotypical full backs who will contribute to both defence and attack.
- Keane will take control of the midfield, allowing Lee to get forward and attack from his favoured right side.
- Wallace and Houghton will attack the wings, supplying crosses into the box.
- Sheringham is the second striker, looking to setup Wright or shoot when in position.
Formation: 4-4-2
Defensive line: normal
Style: direct, fast tempo. Two excellent goalscoring wingers in Trevor Francis and Kevin Sheedy, to open up and stretch the opposition defence. Worthington as a SS and one of the best strikers in the pool in Lineker to finish off chances.
Short team profiles:
(GK) Jim Leighton - One of the very best Scottish keepers with 91 international caps to his name. Reached his peak at Aberdeen where he won number of silverware. Dependable and solid keeper who can be relied on.
Scottish Premier League (2): 1983–84, 1984–85
Scottish Cup (4): 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86
Scottish League Cup: 1985–86
European Cup Winners' Cup: 1982–83
European Super Cup: 1983
(LB) Nigel Winterburn - Top notch defensively, but no stranger going forward Winterburn was an integral part of Arsenal's defence for over a decade amassing more than 500 caps for Arsenal during that time. He was highly rated at Wimbledon as well, even before moving to Arsenal, winning the Wimbledon supporters Player Of The Year in each of the four seasons he spent at Plough Lane. Winterburn proved to be a fantastic crosser of the ball when be bombed forward to support an Arsenal attack, and his defensive virtues were frequently extolled, as he flanked a fantastic central defensive partnership of Tony Adams and Martin Keown.
(RB) Pat Rice - Arsenal's player of the year in 1972 and captained the team to three consecutive F.A. Cup Finals- in 1978, 1979 and 1980, as well as the 1980 Cup Winners Cup Final. As a right back, Rice was an ever-present and a leader for the Arsenal sides of the 1970s and appeared in an Arsenal record five FA Cup Finals, defeating Manchester United in the famous 1979 victory. Tough and tenacious, Rice was handed the captain's armband toward the end of his 14-year Gunners career and had amassed almost 400 league appearances for Arsenal when he left at the age of 31.
(CB) Norman Hunter - Norman Hunter was a key part of a scary Leeds team in the 1970s, with a very physical—and direct style - and certainly one of the more imposing defenders ever seen in English football. After all, his nickname wasn't "Bite Yer Legs" for nothing.
Hunter, now 73, was a titan of a defender in an era when defenders lived up to their job title. He bullied opponents alongside Jack Charlton. With goalkeeper Gary Sprake, they formed a Bermuda Triangle where strikers just disappeared. Hunter developed a superb understanding with Jack Charlton that would serve the club for a decade. After winning the Division Two title, Hunter won Division One, FA Cup, Fairs Cup and League Cup honours. Named Leeds Player Of The Year in 1970/71 and PFA Player Of The Year in 1973, Hunter was quick, totally committed and possessed terrific positional awareness. He could also slice a defence open with a long raking pass and had a thunderous shot, as several goalkeepers discovered. Although not as “dirty” as a defender as his reputation suggested, Hunter was a hardman who never shirked a challenge. This attitude led to the odd spat, most famously with Derby County’s Francis Lee in 1975 when the pair were sent off for fighting in days when even bookings were rare. Hunter won 28 full caps (including one which made him the first England player ever to be capped as a substitute), scoring twice.
(CB) Des Walker - He is probably the best defender English football has produced since Bobby Moore at the time. We saw it proved a hundred times. A red-shirted shadow moving at top speed, a brush of the shoulder and a sudden deft flick of the boot. The perfect tackle: swift, silent and conclusive. It was Des Walker's speciality.
YOU'LL NE-VER beat Des Wal-ker. You'll ne-ver beat Des Wal-ker.
That's what they sang at the City Ground, with a matter-of-factness that mocked the efforts of the most renowned visiting forwards. To many of Nottingham Forest's fans, he was the finest player ever to pull on the Garibaldi shirt. They came to love his silent efficiency, the lack of wasted gesture, the erasure of emotion from his play.
In the 1990 World Cup, he was so outstanding that Gianni Agnelli was said to have bid up to pounds 8m to take him to Juventus.
(RM/RW) Trevor Francis -He took the English football by storm scoring all four goals against Bolton Wanderers aged 16, February, 1971, on only his ninth start.“An astonishing player," says Bolton general manager Nat Lofthouse.
Shortly after arriving to take over as manager in 1977, Sir Alf Ramsey — a man not given to hyperbole —said of the Birmingham No 8: ‘There is no better player in the country than Trevor Francis.’ Trevor Francis was one of the best players of his generation who enjoyed a long and successful playing career. He was a forward with acceleration and style who was always very dangerous around the penalty area. He was the first Britain £ 1 million player when moving to Nottingham Forest in 1979. He also had a great record when playing for Detroit Express, where he scored 36 goals in 33 matches. He had previously scored 128 goals for Birmingham before his move to Forest.
Trevor Francis was one of the most respected and feared forwards in English football during his heyday, scored two goals at the World Cup in 1982, including the opener in England's 2-0 win over Czechoslovakia in the group stage.
(CM) Osvaldo Ardiles In the modern game, the Premier League has established itself as one of the top destinations for foreign football talent. Back in 1978 when a young Huracan midfielder named Osvaldo Ardiles was weighing up his options, however, the English game was far more parochial and closed off to outside influences.
Ardiles, perhaps more than anybody, helped to change that perception. The 1978 World Cup winner with Argentina represented Tottenham for four excellent seasons, winning the FA Cup in 1981 and establishing himself as a fans' favourite for years to come. One of the finest midfielders in the pool.
(CM) Frans Thijssen - A hard-nosed but extremely skillful player, Thijssen was your archetypal Dutch midfielder during his playing days. Along with compatriot Arnold Muhren, he joined Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town and helped them become not only one of the leading clubs in England but also one that made waves in Europe. The achievement – and his superb performances – saw Thijssen win the prestigious English Footballer of the Year award. That was a golden period of his career, and after leaving Ipswich in 1983 he went on to play another eight seasons at Nottingham Forest, Vancouver, Fortuna Sittard, FC Groningen and Vitesse before hanging up his boots.
(LM/LW) Kevin Sheedy - Kevin Sheedy a man the Blues consider to have one of the best left pegs ever seen in top-flight football - 97 goals in 357 starts, from midfield - and countless, countless assists. In all, the tricky winger with a supreme left foot managed just five appearances for Liverpool before braving the short trip across Stanley Park, where he was a revelation.
Accolades:
Football League First Division (2): 1984–85, 1986–87
FA Cup (1): 1984
European Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1985
FA Charity Shield (4): 1984, 1985, 1986 (shared), 1987
(SS) Frank Worthington - It doesn’t matter who you support, the mere mention of Frank Worthington is guaranteed to bring a smile to all who saw him play. A showman in football boots Worthington was an outstandingly gifted forward with his vision and verve shone out in the late ’60s and early ’70s of grey old England. He was far better than the largely honest workhorses that played for Huddersfield and Leicester – his first two clubs, and the only ones where he enjoyed real stability – and he didn’t half know it. “Other players control the ball further than I kick it,” he mocked.
(CF) Gary Lineker - Gary Lineker is by far and away England's greatest ever World Cup striker, having managed to double the number of goals scored by his closest challenger. Very few England players have possessed Lineker's instincts inside the box, with his ability to score goals, particularly from close range, his defining skill.
Lineker was an English striker who veered far from convention. He wasn’t particularly physical, and his shots weren’t laced with power. Instead, he relied upon his technical and mental characteristics to find the net. He was, quintessentially, brain over brawn.
Often found lingering on the shoulder of the last man, his positional sense and concentration were second to none. As a result he was able to find space in even the tightest of penalty boxes; getting on the end of crosses to bag innumerable tap-ins, his job may have seemed easy, but that’s only because he made it look so.
An opportunist with a sophisticated touch, Lineker was nimble, fast of thought and foot, and an unerringly precise finisher. One chance was all he needed, and his ability to deceive defences to create room for those chances saw him aptly earn the nickname ‘El Matador’.
His individual records speak for itself:
English Second Division Top Scorer: 1982–83
English First Division Top Scorer: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1989–90
PFA Players' Player of the Year: 1985–86
FWA Footballer of the Year: 1985–86, 1991–92
FIFA World Cup Golden Boot: 1986
FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1986
Onze de Bronze: 1986
Ballon d'Or: Runner-up 1986
FIFA Fair Play Award: 1990
FWA Tribute Award: 1997
FIFA World Player of the Year: Bronze award 1991
FIFA 100
English Football Hall of Fame: 2003
PFA Team of the Century (1977–1996): 2007
Team tactics and style:
Defence - our defence has it all - two tough and defensively sound full backs in Winterburn and Rice and one of the finest CB's in the pool at their very best in Walker and Hunter. All possess pace, agility and intelligence to keep the fort and protect Leighton.
Midfield - Ardiles and Thijssen both have starred for their teams with Ardiles one of Spurs best players of all time, and Thijssen winning the player of the year award. They are great on the ball but also sound defensively. Sheedy possesses top notch work rate, whilst Francis skillfulness and eye for the goal would see him occupy more the attacking third when we have the ball.
Attack - lead by one of the best #9's in the pool and with Worthington ability on the ball and eye for the pass, our attack doesn't lack creativity or finishing ability.
Advantages:
- All players are at their best and their prime. Oaencha has a theme of picking players in their young years before they reached their peak levels, so our team has undeniably the experience and peak level to take this game.
- Variety in attack and full of great goalscorers with respectable record - Francis, Worthington, Lineker and Sheedy.
- very solid defensive unit composed well known and recognized names in the period we have in question.
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