TEAM P-NUT
Playing style
I intend to play quick direct football with a deep defensive line. The team is built on a solid defensive structure. Juanfran is the best defensive fullback of the modern era, Montero a complete no nonsense defender takes on Godins role in that Atletico side, Campbell is a more than capable partner, with a bit of speed to cover when the line gets broken, and finally Sandro is up there with the best left backs of this era.
Guti, Schweinsteiger and Di Stefano* make for a formidable midfield trio both on and off the ball. Schweinsteiger will play in his deeper role that he adopted later in his career and dictate play as necessary.
* - Di Stefano doesn't really have a set position, but I want him to start a little bit deeper in order to help run the game when we've got the ball.
The front 3 have a bit of everything, Gento is an excellent traditional winger, supplying ammo for the attackers. Figo a more playmaking winger to aid with the build up. Drogba as a target man to help hold onto the ball when we have it and build attacks further up the pitch.
vs.
Vs.
TEAM DON
I am very proud to have assembled this side because it is a remake of Klopp’s Dortmund, for many neutral observers the most exciting team of this decade.
They dominated German football for 2 years and just fell short in the CL final against Heynckes‘ Treble Bayern. Bayern (and other clubs) picked them off afterwards so they couldn’t possibly repeat their success. Still I loved to watch them play and I wanted to give it a go to build an even better version because they are one of the few teams in history who are both uber-defensive and uber-attacking.
The hardest part to get right was to find suitable upgrades for the playmakers, because if you don’t have those, you lose yourself in endless pressing battles like Klopp did at the end of his tenure. I like to think that I did really well in upgrading Götze and Gundogan, in fact the midfield combination of Iniesta and Modric is my favourite part of the team. Iniesta is a hard working needle player, specialist at passing, dribbling in tight spaces and through balls to set up the attackers. Modric is the perfect upgrade to Gundogan in my book, you can’t find another silky playmaker with the same work rate and defensive quality that he possesses.
Between Vidal, Modric and Iniesta I should have enough work rate to combat any midfield in the world and we also have to take into account that every single one of my players is defending and preventing attacks from the get-go, which means that the requirements regarding the midfield are much different compared to your usual draft side, who just chucks a Makelele behind 5 Galacticos to do all the dirty work.
Replicating Klopp’s Dortmund meant that I had to settle for a 4231 and look out for 2 hard-working and skilful wide players. I think I found 2 good ones, Bruno Conti is the perfect combination of grit and creativity from a wide midfield position and Marco Reus is proven to be one of the best attackers in Europe in this system.
I am particularly excited about my newly formed defence. The hard-tackling Roberto Rosato comes in and replicates the Subotic role to a tee while Krol is my favourite choice to play the Hummels role. A classic sweeper with great individual defensive quality and experience in pushing up and bringing the ball out of defence, like Hummels did many times and what gave a huge advantage at dominating the match. Demyanenko and Bezsonov are not the shiniest names, but in this system they are absolute gold. Two physical specimen who thrived in pressing tactics like few other fullbacks in history did, and this should push them above being merely some names on the teamsheet, but being actual match-winners through their quality both in offence and defence, not limited to individual battles vs the wingers but in their influence all over the pitch. We see it in modern football day to day that having great fullbacks can make all the difference and Klopp knows that, if you see how Robertson is regularly the deciding factor on the pitch.
Jorge Campos is in in goal, one of the best sweeper keepers ever and one of the greatest keepers of his generation. Genuinely outstanding on the line and very good nonetheless when coming out of his goal because of his athletic attributes and his experience of playing as a full-time striker.
Playing style
I intend to play quick direct football with a deep defensive line. The team is built on a solid defensive structure. Juanfran is the best defensive fullback of the modern era, Montero a complete no nonsense defender takes on Godins role in that Atletico side, Campbell is a more than capable partner, with a bit of speed to cover when the line gets broken, and finally Sandro is up there with the best left backs of this era.
Guti, Schweinsteiger and Di Stefano* make for a formidable midfield trio both on and off the ball. Schweinsteiger will play in his deeper role that he adopted later in his career and dictate play as necessary.
* - Di Stefano doesn't really have a set position, but I want him to start a little bit deeper in order to help run the game when we've got the ball.
The front 3 have a bit of everything, Gento is an excellent traditional winger, supplying ammo for the attackers. Figo a more playmaking winger to aid with the build up. Drogba as a target man to help hold onto the ball when we have it and build attacks further up the pitch.
vs.
TEAM DON
I am very proud to have assembled this side because it is a remake of Klopp’s Dortmund, for many neutral observers the most exciting team of this decade.
They dominated German football for 2 years and just fell short in the CL final against Heynckes‘ Treble Bayern. Bayern (and other clubs) picked them off afterwards so they couldn’t possibly repeat their success. Still I loved to watch them play and I wanted to give it a go to build an even better version because they are one of the few teams in history who are both uber-defensive and uber-attacking.
The hardest part to get right was to find suitable upgrades for the playmakers, because if you don’t have those, you lose yourself in endless pressing battles like Klopp did at the end of his tenure. I like to think that I did really well in upgrading Götze and Gundogan, in fact the midfield combination of Iniesta and Modric is my favourite part of the team. Iniesta is a hard working needle player, specialist at passing, dribbling in tight spaces and through balls to set up the attackers. Modric is the perfect upgrade to Gundogan in my book, you can’t find another silky playmaker with the same work rate and defensive quality that he possesses.
Between Vidal, Modric and Iniesta I should have enough work rate to combat any midfield in the world and we also have to take into account that every single one of my players is defending and preventing attacks from the get-go, which means that the requirements regarding the midfield are much different compared to your usual draft side, who just chucks a Makelele behind 5 Galacticos to do all the dirty work.
Replicating Klopp’s Dortmund meant that I had to settle for a 4231 and look out for 2 hard-working and skilful wide players. I think I found 2 good ones, Bruno Conti is the perfect combination of grit and creativity from a wide midfield position and Marco Reus is proven to be one of the best attackers in Europe in this system.
I am particularly excited about my newly formed defence. The hard-tackling Roberto Rosato comes in and replicates the Subotic role to a tee while Krol is my favourite choice to play the Hummels role. A classic sweeper with great individual defensive quality and experience in pushing up and bringing the ball out of defence, like Hummels did many times and what gave a huge advantage at dominating the match. Demyanenko and Bezsonov are not the shiniest names, but in this system they are absolute gold. Two physical specimen who thrived in pressing tactics like few other fullbacks in history did, and this should push them above being merely some names on the teamsheet, but being actual match-winners through their quality both in offence and defence, not limited to individual battles vs the wingers but in their influence all over the pitch. We see it in modern football day to day that having great fullbacks can make all the difference and Klopp knows that, if you see how Robertson is regularly the deciding factor on the pitch.
Jorge Campos is in in goal, one of the best sweeper keepers ever and one of the greatest keepers of his generation. Genuinely outstanding on the line and very good nonetheless when coming out of his goal because of his athletic attributes and his experience of playing as a full-time striker.
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