......................................... TEAM SJOR .......................................................................................... TEAM 2MUFC0 .........................................
TEAM SJOR
Was lucky enough to pick top 5 player of all time so would be very foolish of me not to have him as the central figure of my team - Diego Armando Maradona. The whole team is built around him, he is surrounded with complementary support cast which should give him the perfect foundations to shine on the stage. Movement, technical ability, selflessness, workrate, football brain are the ingredients I was looking for. All the while, the defense is extremely strong with the likes of Serie A legends in Paolo Maldini, Ciro Ferrara and Gigi Buffon. Perfect base to build on.
Without the ball
The plan is to stay compact and pressure when opponent steps over a certain line on the pitch. Throughout the whole team there is abundance of hard work and unselfishness starting with two willing runners up front in Shevchenko and especially Thomas Muller, supported by bundle of energy that is Edgar Davids and the legendary Paul Breitner, coolest man ever to step foot on a football pitch.
Stielike will be the link up man, switching between DM and SW position as needed, if you ignore the GOATs you can hardly find a better fit for the job. Considering the quality of my defence and work rate above them, opponent will need something special to score against this lot.
With the ball
Maradona. He is the main force of this team, has complete freedom to do anything he wants and i think i provided him a very good platform to do so. Two unselfish strikers with great movement and hold up play, both will stretch the pitch both vertically and horizontally. Behind has security in Breitner and Davids but also two players that wont mind sacrificing their own game for his benefit but in the same time Breitner will provide that touch of class and second creative option through the middle.
In addition to Diego(not that he needs help) id like to use two GOAT wingbacks to the best of their potential. As an example id use Sampaoli's Chile from WC and COPAs, both Isla and who ever played on the left were a constant threat and a big part of their creative force behind Vargas and Alexis.
And here is match compilation of Isla from the Copa just to understand the role better in a bigger sample.
TEAM 2MUFC0
With this lineup i am looking at the way to get the best out of my two star players in defence and midfield Scirea and Platini. Looking at their career peaks was for Juve in the early 80's which ultimately led to European dominance in 1985 and for Scirea world dominance with Italy in 82, i have emulated the 'Zona Mista' tactic which was perfected by Giovanni Trapattoni.
Zona mista (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdzɔːna ˈmista]; in English language: "Mixed Zone"), often referred to as Gioco all'italiana ("The Game in the Italian style"), is a tactic used in Italian association football mainly from the second half of 1970s to the mid-'90s. The introduction of this system has been attributed to Luigi Radice and Giovanni Trapattoni, then coaches of Torino and Juventus, respectively.[1] The tactic reached the highest sporting level with Trapattoni's Juventus becoming the first club in history to reach the European Treble having won the three seasonal UEFA competitions and, in 1985, the first European side to win the Intercontinental Cup since it was restructured since years before,[2] and the Italian national team, managed by Enzo Bearzot, which won the FIFA World Cup in 1982, for the first time since 1938, with outstanding participation from the Blocco-Juve;[3] making both teams between the greatest in sport's history.[4]
Regarded as the tactical evolution of catenaccio,[5] zona mista requires each outfield player to perform, systematically and simultaneously, the zonal marking and continuous attack on the spaces characteristic of totaalvoetbal, but also engaging in the defensive individual marking characteristic of Italian football. In this system, a player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus retaining the team's intended organisational structure, and each player performs a different function. Several players, such as the libero, the wing-back (terzino fluidificante), the winger (ala tornante) and the box-to-box midfielder (mezzala) simultaneously play roles in both defense and attack, while the playmaker (regista/trequartista) (e.g. Michel Platini, Lothar Matthäus or Roberto Baggio) regularly runs to the opponents' box to try and score. This flexibility made it much more versatile, fluid and offensive than the rigid standard scheme used in Italy at the time.[5][6] Although it is one of the first to use four defenders, zona mista is aesthetically more related to formations which succeeded it: 3–5–2 and an asymmetric 4–3–3 system.[7][8]
Zona mista proved highly successful at national and international level: with it, Torino won the 1975–76 Serie A, its first after the Superga air disaster; Juventus played some of its finest football ever, setting the most enduring record in the history of Italian football by winning six league titles and two cups in ten years.[9] Juventus then extended this success to the international arena, starting in 1977 when the club won the UEFA Cup without foreign footballers, an unprecedented achievement for any country's team.[10] Subsequently, it lifted the Cup Winners' Cup, the European Champions Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, making it the first, and so far only, club to have won all possible official international competitions.[11] These achievements lifted the Serie A for the first time to the top of the confederation ranking at the end of the 1985–86 season, a position maintained for the following three seasons.[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zona_mista
Regarded as the tactical evolution of catenaccio,[5] zona mista requires each outfield player to perform, systematically and simultaneously, the zonal marking and continuous attack on the spaces characteristic of totaalvoetbal, but also engaging in the defensive individual marking characteristic of Italian football. In this system, a player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus retaining the team's intended organisational structure, and each player performs a different function. Several players, such as the libero, the wing-back (terzino fluidificante), the winger (ala tornante) and the box-to-box midfielder (mezzala) simultaneously play roles in both defense and attack, while the playmaker (regista/trequartista) (e.g. Michel Platini, Lothar Matthäus or Roberto Baggio) regularly runs to the opponents' box to try and score. This flexibility made it much more versatile, fluid and offensive than the rigid standard scheme used in Italy at the time.[5][6] Although it is one of the first to use four defenders, zona mista is aesthetically more related to formations which succeeded it: 3–5–2 and an asymmetric 4–3–3 system.[7][8]
Zona mista proved highly successful at national and international level: with it, Torino won the 1975–76 Serie A, its first after the Superga air disaster; Juventus played some of its finest football ever, setting the most enduring record in the history of Italian football by winning six league titles and two cups in ten years.[9] Juventus then extended this success to the international arena, starting in 1977 when the club won the UEFA Cup without foreign footballers, an unprecedented achievement for any country's team.[10] Subsequently, it lifted the Cup Winners' Cup, the European Champions Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, making it the first, and so far only, club to have won all possible official international competitions.[11] These achievements lifted the Serie A for the first time to the top of the confederation ranking at the end of the 1985–86 season, a position maintained for the following three seasons.[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zona_mista
This system allows Scirea to orchestrate from the back (known as one of the best of all time in this respect) and Platini space in the middle able to create chances for the attackers and he will also be able to make runs into the box and score himself. One of his best qualities was bringing in goals from the no.10 position, he was Serie A top scorer for 3 seasons in a row, quite an accomplishment for an attacking midfielder in one of the best defensive leagues at the time.
Not sure how Sjor will lineup but a key to winning is stopping Maradonna, and i believe i have the defensive juggernaughts to stop him, Desailly if comes centrally, Gentile who is known for keeping him quiet if he comes down the left supported by Nedved/Matthaus and i have Kohler if he comes down the right.
Gentile and Matthaus are know for giving Diego a tough time, in his own words: "Diego Maradona said of Matthäus, "he is the best rival I've ever had. I guess that's enough to define him", in his book Yo soy el Diego (I am the Diego).[2]"
Team overview:
GK: Oliver Kahn at his peak level he is probably around the top of the pile when it comes to GK's, winning the golden ball in WC2002 over the likes of R9, Rivaldo etc.
CB: Gaetano Scirea one of the best ball playing CB's off all time and one of Italy's finest.
CB: Jurgen Kohler considered by some Germany's best defender of all time.
RCB/RB: Claudio Gentile the man who nullified two of the greatest no.10's on the world stage Zico & Maradonna, Gentile is more defensive minded this will allow more freedom for Cabrini to get forward
LB: Antonio Cabrini one of one of the best LB's of all time.
B2B CM: Lothar Matthaus arguably the greatest CM of all time and probably the most complete, he will link defence with attack.
DM: Desailly one of the best midfield destroyers known for his tenacity and high work rate providing screening for the defence allowing Matthaus to get forward.
RW: Pavel Nedved on the left known for his incredible work rate combined with dribbling, shooting and passing going forward, will be the workhorse going up and down the right side
LW/LF: Zbigniew Boniek pacey and tricky forward and is famous for the great link up play he had with Platini which is recreated in this side, he will also have Cabrini making overlapping runs supporting him.
AM: Platini who needs no introduction.
ST: Upfront i have one of the best no. 9's in the history of the game Marco van Basten capable of scoring impossible goals and an allround CF. He will have world class service from the Platini/Boniek/Nedved
I'm sucker for great ones.
this is a mix between a diamond and 352 tbf so its not really a classic diamond.