Stars and Reserves Draft Final: Gio vs Sjor / Pat - LIVE!

Who will win this match based on all the players at their peaks?

  • Total voters
    23
  • Poll closed .
Out wide up against Revaz Dzodzuashvili though:

dzodzuashvili.jpg


Revaz Dzodzuashvili is a former Georgian defender. He's one(if not the best Georgian defenders of all time) and one of the best Soviet full backs. Dzodzuashvili started his career as striker, moving on to midfield and eventually ended up in defence. First as center back but than due to his great speed started to play as right back. He was excellent man marker, famous for completely shutting out from the game some of the best players in that era like - Best, Lubanski, Džajić and Heynckes.

He was one of the best tacklers of that era, who also liked to join the attack, knew to make good cross from the flank and had fast legs able to cover a lot of distance. The pupil of the school football Torpedo (Kutaisi). In the ninth grade (1962) played for the team "Imereti". He was invited to Dinamo (Tbilisi) in 1963. There he played as a forward, he didn't make that position his own and returned to Kutaisi "Torpedo".

Afterwards he played in midfield for Dinamo (Sukhumi). At the same time, Torpedo (Kutaisi) led by Blinkov, began to build a new team. They were looking for a solid defense counsel and coach Yuri Gramatikopulo recommended the young player. In that team Dzodzuashvili started as a center back, but shortly after he was moved to the right to use his great speed and aggressive style.

Dzodzuashvili soon left Kutaisi. In 1968, he was invited to play for Dinamo Tbilisi led by Vyacheslav Solovyov. In that Dinamo team he spent his best years and was always among the top spots domestically - finishing 3rd in 69,71,72 and 76 and runners up for the Soviet cup.

Revaz had an excellent international career peaking in 1972 where he finished second at the EURO, along with fellow players Rudakov and Kaplychnyi, and winning the bronze in the Summer Olympics the same year - a tournament which was still in high regards at that time.

Dzodzuashvili excelled in the 72 EURO making it in the team of the tournament along with the goalkeeper Rudakov.

[credit to Enigma for the write up]

harms said:
The best defensive right-back in USSR history. When the Soviet team found out that they were to play North Ireland in the qualifications, they immediately started a competition for a right-back place in the national side. The main question was, obviously, who is going to man-mark the best player in the world, George Best. 9 right-backs were chosen from all over the country for a trial and Dzodzuashvili proved to be the best. He studied Best for 6 months by watching the same 20-minute film over and over again, and when the time did come, he was prepared. He kept Best quiet that day, and in their next fixture Best was almost non-existent because of Dzodzuashvili’s man-marking skills. On the verge of success he also played personally against Dzajic - and for the first 20 minutes everything went wrong, Revaz was too confident and Dzajic was using it for his advantage. But after that he managed to get back in the game and Dzajic was well-handled by him for the next 70 minutes and also for the next 4 games, even Dzajic said that he was in Dzodzuashvili’s pocket in that games.
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GOAT-slayer or not, Enzo is going to present a very tricky proposition for Dzodzuashvili. If he's sticking with the man-marking brief that he seems to have been most famous for, Francescoli is going to drag him all over the place, and Benarrivo will have the freedom of that flank when we're in possession. If he sticks to his zonal position he'll have to pass Enzo on to someone else anyway when he goes searching for pockets of space.
 
Pat_Mustard said:
GOAT-slayer or not, Enzo is going to present a very tricky proposition for Dzodzuashvili. If he's sticking with the man-marking brief that he seems to have been most famous for, Francescoli is going to drag him all over the place, and Benarrivo will have the freedom of that flank when we're in possession. If he sticks to his zonal position he'll have to pass Enzo on to someone else anyway when he goes searching for pockets of space.
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Well serial GOAT slayer to be honest, twice against Best, several times against Dzajic. And Heynckes too, who presents a different and more mobile brief but one which Dzodzuashvili passed successfully, again.
 
Šjor Bepo said:
2 midfielders that like to stay near the center circle and control the game from there we think that would be relatively "easy" to stop his front 4 purely from tactical standpoint
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Didn't stop Souness the only time he met Tardelli, cutting through the Juve midfield and scoring this 30-yarder.



That's deciding a game despite facing directly against Platini (what a strike btw) and Tardelli.
 
Speaking of game-deciding interventions from midfielders, Tardelli has had a few memorable moments himself, scoring twice in Italy's victorious 1982 WC campaign.

vs Argentina:



and his iconic strike and celebration in the final against West Germany:



That's twice as many World Cup goals as Hugo ever managed by the way ;).

Nils Liedholm also has impresive international tournament pedigree, leading Sweden to the 1958 World Cup final and scoring a peach against a great Brazil team:



as part of an impressive overall resistance act (credit to @Joga Bonito for the video):



With David Villa top-scoring at a Euros and joint top-scoring at the following World Cup, Mauro anchoring a World Cup-winning midfield and Enzo leading Uruguay to 3 Copa Americas, that's quite a body of work our lads have compiled on the big stage.
 
Pat_Mustard said:
Time to belatedly wheel out the heavy artillery, and quote our biggest Enzo supporter:

A typically creative and effervescent display from late-career Enzo against Maradona's Boca:



and reigning world champions Brazil having to resort to hacking him to pieces in a losing effort to control him:

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Those two clips are quite telling. Look at the vertigo in the first one in a team with good players, good movement, he is very dynamic, has a go, drags defenders and creates space for the others to exploit. Then move to the other with a bunch of useless agricultural players constantly making hospital passes and absolutely terrible crosses. He slows everything down, tries to keep hold of the ball as long as possible even without any hope an opportunity will materialise.

You would think he is about 5-10 years older in the second but they are roughly around the same time (maybe even older in the River one iirc). You would also think there's absolutely no chance that Uruguay team could win that Copa America, yet it did. All Enzo.

Unfortunately I do think the other team wins this Pat.
 
@Gio has a nice team - as usual - but would have voted for @Šjor Bepo and @Pat_Mustard whose team has really improved since last game.

1 dynamic striker
1 punchy winger who can cut inside ahead of the B2B
1 advanced hard-working playmaker
1 deep-lying playmaker very collective
1 box-to-box
1 defensive midfielder
2 offensive FB: Maicon is fantastic

Not convinced by the partnership Laudrup & Savicevic but I have to say I tend to under-appreciate players like Savicevic/Prosinecki... who tend to slow down the game.

Hum, also the feeling that Hugo Sanchez would be a bit isolated so more easily neutralized than David Silva.

I have a clear opinion now but too late
 
Congrats on the win and congrats on producing the next generation of draft winners!
 
Well done @Gio, great team you have assembled and good use of Dzodzuashvili. Congrats on the win!
 
Gio said:
Good effort @Pat_Mustard and @Šjor Bepo - always a test and an enjoyable back-and-forth regardless of result. Thanks for running @Don Alfredo - sound concept based around team and squad building.
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Congratulations and well played mate! It was a tough and enjoyable debate as usual.

Ecstatic said:
@Gio has a nice team - as usual - but would have voted for @Šjor Bepo and @Pat_Mustard whose team has really improved since last game.

1 dynamic striker
1 punchy winger who can cut inside ahead of the B2B
1 advanced hard-working playmaker
1 deep-lying playmaker very collective
1 box-to-box
1 defensive midfielder
2 offensive FB: Maicon is fantastic

Not convinced by the partnership Laudrup & Savicevic but I have to say I tend to under-appreciate players like Savicevic/Prosinecki... who tend to slow down the game.

Hum, also the feeling that Hugo Sanchez would be a bit isolated so more easily neutralized than David Silva.

I have a clear opinion now but too late
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Cheers mate! I've got a worse record in draft finals than Klopp does in real life so I'm just happy it was a competitive match :D

antohan said:
Those two clips are quite telling. Look at the vertigo in the first one in a team with good players, good movement, he is very dynamic, has a go, drags defenders and creates space for the others to exploit. Then move to the other with a bunch of useless agricultural players constantly making hospital passes and absolutely terrible crosses. He slows everything down, tries to keep hold of the ball as long as possible even without any hope an opportunity will materialise.

You would think he is about 5-10 years older in the second but they are roughly around the same time (maybe even older in the River one iirc). You would also think there's absolutely no chance that Uruguay team could win that Copa America, yet it did. All Enzo.

Unfortunately I do think the other team wins this Pat.
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No problem Anto and cheers for the post! Hopefully Enzo begins to appear a bit more frequently in the drafts now.
 
Congratulations @Gio both on the draft and personal front.

Last two drafts I have lost to the eventual winners. The path to victory seems to be through me :lol:
 
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Oh boy, my vote settled this and I didn't even explain it.

Basically I see the midfields about even, with Gio obviously going for the frontfoot approach with Laudrup and PatBepo for the containment with Mauro Silva (and that somewhat tilts it as Laudrup on song is a more compelling proposition).

In attacks vs defences what immediately stands out is how good a match Schnellinger is for Robben. I'm in two minds over Savicevic. Lovely player but if he doesn't show up that entire right flank could get very stale. But then, the odds of both Laudrup and Savicevic blowing cold aren't all that, most likely they would enjoy themselves and take the piss really against a team conceding them the initiative. Keizer is a great fit as well.

Overall it seems to me the chemistry across the frontline is more relevant than comparing personnel between either defence. Can't really find fault in either. Never filled with confidence by Maicon, but don't hold a strong opinion about that.

To top it off, I rate Sanchez higher than Villa, let alone in that company. To paraphrase @Gio Laudrup-Sanchez would be like Laudrup-Zamorano on steroids.
 
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