The Fourth RedCafe Sheep Draft

[Annahnomoss]

I'll be honest, this is one of the better attacks I've ever put together in a draft.

I wanted to build a replica of the Glory Days Real Madrid team and at least the attack ended up near perfect (Oh, if only I had Messi for the Kubala role!)

- Top draw wingers with pace, trickery and goal scoring ability.
- World class playmakers in Bobby Charlton and Laszlo Kubala. Both are in free roles and are comfortable drifting out wide too. Charlton orchestrating play and Kubala supporting the attach. Juicy!
- And Denis Law reprises his link-up with Bobby C. With such talent all around him, I'm sure this offence will be unstoppable.

Would have loved Messi in the Di Stefano role as well even if both would be great.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

On my useless phone, can't get either SMT or footballuser to work at the moment, so would appreciate some help.

Lineup is as follows:

Zoff

Back four: Vogts, Rijsbergen, Ondruš, Facchetti.

Arrow on Facchetti.

Defensive midfielders: Zito, Haan.
Offensive midfielder: Rivera.

Right winger: Lato. Cuts inside.
Left winger: Boniek. Drifts across.

Striker: Altafini.

@The Stain @antohan

 

[Chesterlestreet]

I stuck up for you while that crafty fecker was trying to have you kicked out! Consider this reparations for winding you up with GIFs and memes yesterday.

You're a gent and a scholar, I've always said so.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

@Edgar Allan Pillow Thanks, man - that'll do.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

Would have loved Messi in the Di Stefano role as well even if both would be great.

That was my plan, but when I bounced it off Balu, he felt that a CF would be better than Messi leading. Someone who can take advantage of all the talent. and Messi is better in free role on the right. I agreed, but then Messi got stolen.

 

[Annahnomoss]

That was my plan, but when I bounced it off Balu, he felt that a CF would be better than Messi leading. Someone who can take advantage of all the talent. and Messi is better in free role on the right. I agreed, but then Messi got stolen.

Fair point but a shame that Di Stefano is so irreplaceable in that formation that nobody really goes for it you are always going to be one off somewhere. Messi in a false-9 dropping deep would have been pretty close with that goalscoring record as well.

Messi in the LAM/RAM role is a great fit too though and he'd play that similar to Sivori and Liedholm style wise. A great dribbling playmaker, so a great fit to represent that era.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

Fair point but a shame that Di Stefano is so irreplaceable in that formation that nobody really goes for it you are always going to be one off somewhere. Messi in a false-9 dropping deep would have been pretty close with that goalscoring record as well.

Yeah, AdS is pretty much a unique player. He is not exactly a true false 9 (). That RM team had Puskas to support the attack and Kopa dropping back to create. AdS being the spine all through. If I had Messi there, then maybe someone who can play deeper on the right would be better (like Rui Costa maybe).

 

[antohan]

I'll be honest, this is one of the better attacks I've ever put together in a draft.

I wanted to build a replica of the Glory Days Real Madrid team and at least the attack ended up near perfect (Oh, if only I had Messi for the Kubala role!)

- Top draw wingers with pace, trickery and goal scoring ability.
- World class playmakers in Bobby Charlton and Laszlo Kubala. Both are in free roles and are comfortable drifting out wide too. Charlton orchestrating play and Kubala supporting the attach. Juicy!
- And Denis Law reprises his link-up with Bobby C. With such talent all around him, I'm sure this offence will be unstoppable.

It's brilliant. And the other half ain't too shabby tbh.

 

[antohan]

@The Stain @antohan

Nice, Facchetti owning the flank gives Boniek complete freedom to pop up anywhere.

 

[antohan]

Yeah, AdS is pretty much a unique player. He is not exactly a true false 9 (). That RM team had Puskas to support the attack and Kopa dropping back to create. AdS being the spine all through. If I had Messi there, then maybe someone who can play deeper on the right would be better (like Rui Costa maybe).

You don't need Messi there.

 

[Annahnomoss]

Yeah, AdS is pretty much a unique player. He is not exactly a true false 9 (). That RM team had Puskas to support the attack and Kopa dropping back to create. AdS being the spine all through. If I had Messi there, then maybe someone who can play deeper on the right would be better (like Rui Costa maybe).

Added this after. "Messi in the LAM/RAM role is a great fit too though and he'd play that similar to Sivori and Liedholm style wise. A great dribbling playmaker, so a great fit to represent that era." Messi being a lot better as a player of course.

Yeah it is a bit hard if you want modern players, as the old ones were specialized in doing that particular job. Charlton would do a great job, but sort of his own take on it with a lot of pace.

*Sorry for the ugliest looking post ever.

 

[harms]

I'll be honest, this is one of the better attacks I've ever put together in a draft.

I wanted to build a replica of the Glory Days Real Madrid team and at least the attack ended up near perfect (Oh, if only I had Messi for the Kubala role!)

- Top draw wingers with pace, trickery and goal scoring ability.
- World class playmakers in Bobby Charlton and Laszlo Kubala. Both are in free roles and are comfortable drifting out wide too. Charlton orchestrating play and Kubala supporting the attach. Juicy!
- And Denis Law reprises his link-up with Bobby C. With such talent all around him, I'm sure this offence will be unstoppable.

Yeah, it's quite simply brilliant. Law himself quite often played as an inside right but the overall balance is spot on.

The other part of the team though

 

[Annahnomoss]

You don't need Messi there.

It is already one hell of a front five of course. Near perfection and I'd be happy if Gento got a longer run in this draft.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

20 managers for 16 spots.

The 5 managers with most sheep battle it out for the one spot.

@Moby @crappycraperson @Gio @Edgar Allan Pillow @harms

Post your best teamsheet here ASAP. Deadline 11pm GMT.

All managers submit a numbered ranking of those 5 teams by 11am GMT.

The team with least points goes through.

Then we randomise the R16 matchups.

Does this still apply?

See, that's what I was reacting to yesterday. Seems logical to me that the number of sheep should be decisive here, it being a sheep draft and all.

But if the actual game, presently, is to decide which of those five teams grabs the last spot - then I don't see why everyone else has to post formations.

Anyway, if we are completely free to pick the worst 4, I will just stick to the above as a starting point.

 

[Deleted member 101472]

Does this still apply?

See, that's what I was reacting to yesterday. Seems logical to me that the number of sheep should be decisive here, it being a sheep draft and all.

But if the actual game, presently, is to decide which of those five teams grabs the last spot - then I don't see why everyone else has to post formations.

Anyway, if we are completely free to pick the worst 4, I will just stick to the above as a starting point.

That's what I did, just went out of the teams with the most sheep.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

The other part of the team though

It's not that bad. Kastendeuch may not be stellar, but he still a very good player. Has been solid for both FC Metz and ASSE and the mainstay of their defence. 450+ matches with no read card, he is well regarded. Style-wise, he is not a aggressive player and you won't see him doing the libero role like Kaizer. This was rumoured to be the main cause of him not be selected more often to the National Team.

He is a nuanced defender with excellent reading and intelligence and here he is flanked by two of the best stoppers in the game. Aided by Junior ahead and the destructive shield of Dinho, I don't frankly see him as a liability. True, there are better players available...but a weakness, he is not.

As to Dinho, I've posted a profile on him and he's a suitable partner for Junior. A physical destroyer who can do the dirty work defensively and has enough passing ability to backup Junior when we have the ball. Balanced and tactically perfect. Again one to be upgraded, but not a liability.


Side Note: Kastendeuch really was well loved by fans and during his last match, the players and fans had organized a farewell party. But unfortunately 8 minutes into his sending off match, he gets got KO'd receiving the ball during a header and wakes up 2 hours later in a hospital missing his own party

 

[antohan]

Does this still apply?

See, that's what I was reacting to yesterday. Seems logical to me that the number of sheep should be decisive here, it being a sheep draft and all.

But if the actual game, presently, is to decide which of those five teams grabs the last spot - then I don't see why everyone else has to post formations.

Anyway, if we are completely free to pick the worst 4, I will just stick to the above as a starting point.

We simply couldn't be arsed having the aggro. See last couple of threadmarks from The Stain.

We are just taking the long route to the same place roughly. Having seen the teamsheets I expect at least three to be sheep teams, with one that was squeezing through and may be in trouble now.

Meh.

 

[antohan]

It's not that bad. Kastendeuch may not be stellar, but he still a very good player. Has been solid for both FC Metz and ASSE and the mainstay of their defence. 450+ matches with no read card, he is well regarded. Style-wise, he is not a aggressive player and you won't see him doing the libero role like Kaizer. This was rumoured to be the main cause of him not be selected more often to the National Team.

He is a nuanced defender with excellent reading and intelligence and here he is flanked by two of the best stoppers in the game. Aided by Junior ahead and the destructive shield of Dinho, I don't frankly see him as a liability. True, there are better players available...but a weakness, he is not.

As to Dinho, I've posted a profile on him and he's a suitable partner for Junior. A physical destroyer who can do the dirty work defensively and has enough passing ability to backup Junior when we have the ball. Balanced and tactically perfect. Again one to be upgraded, but not a liability.


Side Note: Kastendeuch really was well loved by fans and during his last match, the players and fans had organized a farewell party. But unfortunately 8 minutes into his sending off match, he gets got KO'd receiving the ball during a header and wakes up 2 hours later in a hospital missing his own party

To be honest, Dinho looked the most out of sorts there. Good job explaining that one.

 

[Ecstatic]

Side Note: Kastendeuch really was well loved by fans and during his last match, the players and fans had organized a farewell party. But unfortunately 8 minutes into his sending off match, he gets got KO'd receiving the ball during a header and wakes up 2 hours later in a hospital missing his own party

 

[P-Nut]

That's what I did, just went out of the teams with the most sheep.

I just picked my teams that I didn't think would function too well. Didn't even check the amount of sheep actually which I probably should have done.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Sent.

A bit random, really, but based on what I said above. Can't spend a lot of time here scrutinizing every team, that is for an actual match stage as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Deleted member 101472]

I just picked my teams that I didn't think would function too well. Didn't even check the amount of sheep actually which I probably should have done.

It's what everyone should do otherwise it defeats the whole point.

 

[P-Nut]

It's what everyone should do otherwise it defeats the whole point.

But the whole point of the draft was to build the best side not get the least sheep

 

[Chesterlestreet]

But the whole point of the draft was to build the best side not get the least sheep

The two has to go together to some extent, though.

This isn't about determining which teams are the best, but which four are the worst. Sporting a sheep in an all-time context has to be fatal. Sporting multiple even more so.

You can always say that Goat X is good enough to balance Sheep X out, or that the manager has done well to accomodate multiple no-marks in his XI, but I personally won't consider that here. Like I said above, I'm not going to scrutinize 20 formations the way I would when looking at a regular draft match.

 

[P-Nut]

The two has to go together to some extent, though.

This isn't about determining which teams are the best, but which four are the worst. Sporting a sheep in an all-time context has to be fatal. Sporting multiple even more so.

You can always say that Goat X is good enough to balance Sheep X out, or that the manager has done well to accomodate multiple no-marks in his XI, but I personally won't consider that here. Like I said above, I'm not going to scrutinize 20 formations the way I would when looking at a regular draft match.

Yeah obviously a team riddled with sheep I'll think won't work. As it stands I've got hardly any sheep but, I'm not certain people will appreciate what I am trying to do so I'm potentially putting myself at more risk by judging the way I do. It seems fair to judge which are the worse sides not just which have got most sheep otherwise, we should have just put up the teams with the most sheep as first suggested.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Yeah obviously a team riddled with sheep I'll think won't work. As it stands I've got hardly any sheep but, I'm not certain people will appreciate what I am trying to do so I'm potentially putting myself at more risk by judging the way I do. It seems fair to judge which are the worse sides not just which have got most sheep otherwise, we should have just put up the teams with the most sheep as first suggested.

I'm talking about XIs, though. Not squads. Five XIs were to be considered, originally, because they contained sheep.

Which made sense to me - and those five were what I looked at. Didn't consider anything else.

Partly to make it easy to come up with a list, partly because I genuinely think it makes sense given the context.

ETA Another fact to consider is that these are not XIs set up against a particular opponent. How much of a liability Sheep X or No-Mark Y will be in an actual match obviously depends greatly on what he is up against. And we do not know that here. So the players' general sheep/no-mark status weighs all the more heavily.

 

[RedTiger]

On a serious note, something like this? Not sure how to solve his fullback "problem"

I don't think I'm seeing what you guys are, what fullback problem?

 

[Chesterlestreet]

I don't think I'm seeing what you guys are, what fullback problem?

Probably referring to having more FBs than I need. Gerets on the bench, etc.

«Problem», in other words.

 

[RedTiger]

With his goalscoring record, he'd have been our Larsson had that move not fallen through due to the work permit issue in 1996.

We were in for him?

 

[Chesterlestreet]

We were in for him?

He means Rangers.

 

[RedTiger]

He means Rangers.

That makes sense. I couldn't remember us being interested and that's good because I always thought he was a flat track bully, just like Gio Elber.

 

[Deleted member 101472]

Yeah obviously a team riddled with sheep I'll think won't work. As it stands I've got hardly any sheep but, I'm not certain people will appreciate what I am trying to do so I'm potentially putting myself at more risk by judging the way I do. It seems fair to judge which are the worse sides not just which have got most sheep otherwise, we should have just put up the teams with the most sheep as first suggested.

Every draft you're never sure that people will understand the ideas you are going for and I expect some 3-4-0.75-0-75-.5-1 formation but it's really a quite easy to interpret lineup, carlos will own the left flank as iniesta starts from the left but cuts inside. Lahm is the perfect right back when you have an only attack minded winger in Robben the same side.

 

[P-Nut]

Every draft you're never sure that people will understand the ideas you are going for and I expect some 3-4-0.75-0-75-.5-1 formation but it's really a quite easy to interpret lineup, carlos will own the left flank as iniesta starts from the left but cuts inside. Lahm is the perfect right back when you have an only attack minded winger in Robben the same side.

Yeah it's literally the current United side flipped and with upgrades in pretty much every position with only Ibra and Suarez being debatable really.

Edit: But yeah next draft I'll probably be back to my crazy self trying something that no one has seen before.

When I did my 3313 formation a while ago I took days researching how it would work just for it to be discounted but I really enjoyed making that.

As for my 343 diamond I thought I was about to revolutionise football

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

Going forward, I think we need to stick with 16 managers.

Whatever the process is, imo it's not proper if any manager is forced to drop out without even playing a match. And the elimination is more headache than just restricting to 16. Good that we were able to experiment in this draft. Thanks to Stainanto!

In future, I'd be happy to AM if anyone is really interested.

 

[P-Nut]

Going forward, I think we need to stick with 16 managers.

Whatever the process is, imo it's not proper if any manager is forced to drop out without even playing a match. And the elimination is more headache than just restricting to 16.

In future, I'd be happy to AM if anyone is really interested.

Only other option if we're having more managers is introduce byes for round 1.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

Only other option if we're having more managers is introduce byes for round 1.

How? Bye's will only work if we have less managers, say 12. You give bye to 4 and let the other 8 compete for the rest 4 positions.

 

[harms]

Probably referring to having more FBs than I need. Gerets on the bench, etc.

«Problem», in other words.

Yeah, that's why I put quotes on it. A good problem to have

 

[Deleted member 101472]

How? Bye's will only work if we have less managers, say 12. You give bye to 4 and let the other 8 compete for the rest 4 positions.

Or 20 managers and give byes to 12

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Going forward, I think we need to stick with 16 managers.

Whatever the process is, imo it's not proper if any manager is forced to drop out without even playing a match. And the elimination is more headache than just restricting to 16.

I don't think we need to stick with 16. The problem here is that kicking out just 4 out of 20 looks terribly harsh, not least since all those managers have shown plenty of interest, i.e. they haven't gotten into their current predicament by not being arsed. More down to bad luck than poor drafting, etc.

My original suggestion was to jump straight from the drafting to the q-f stage. Cut down on the number of matches. I'm a bit sick of 'em, to be honest.

 

[Ecstatic]

I have the solution! Let's expand the draft to 48 managers.

Spoiler: The FIFA Solution

FIFA council agrees to expand World Cup to 48 countries from 2026

An additional 16 countries will qualify for the tournament, with the group stage comprising 16 groups of three nations.

14:02, UK, Tuesday 10 January 2017

Image Caption: The number of countries competing for the World Cup will increase from 32 to 48

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By Wil Longbottom, News Reporter

FIFA has unanimously decided the World Cup will be expanded to feature 48 countries from 2026.

The football body's ruling council said on Tuesday the tournament would see 16 groups of three nations.

Approval for the increase from 32 teams meets President Gianni Infantino's election pledge to expand the World Cup and could help fund extra money for FIFA's 211 members.

It will mean the current tournament format of 64 matches increasing to 80, which FIFA has forecast will equate to $1bn (£823m) of extra income from broadcasting and sponsorship deals as well as ticket sales.

The 2018 World Cup in Russia is expected to generate $5.5bn (£4.5bn) in income.

Image Caption: Gianni Infantino pledged to expand the World Cup in his campaign to become FIFA president
FIFA's six confederations will find out in May how many extra places they will get for the competition.

UEFA has said it wants 16 European teams in the 2026 tournament, which will likely be held in North America.

The CONCACAF region - which also includes Canada and Central America - has not hosted the World Cup since it was held in the US in 1994.

Football bodies from the US, Canada and Mexico have held initial talks about co-hosting a bid for 2026.

Africa and Asia could also benefit from the expansion, with up to nine places each. Africa had five and Asia only four at the 2014 World Cup.

Image Caption: Germany celebrate winning the 2014 World Cup after beating Argentina in Brazil
But FIFA has admitted it expects the standard of the tournament to drop with an additional 16 teams.

In a research document sent out to members last month, it said the "absolute quality" of play - defined by high-ranked teams facing each other most often - is achieved by 32 teams.

Three-team groups mean one country will be left idle for the final group matches, and concerns have been raised over collusion between the two remaining teams.

FIFA has said it could guard against result rigging by introducing penalty shootouts if group games end in draws.