The Millennium Draft: QF - Mazhar vs Gio

With players at their career peak, who would win?

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Physiocrat

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Mazhar

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Gio

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Mazhar Tactics

The team largely remains the same as the last round except for the reinforcements at left back and keeper. Manuel Neuer comes in as a significant upgrade on the shot-stopping and box presence whilst not compromising on his ability on the ball. Alaba comes in to add in more athleticism and legs to the left wing as well as a greater attacking prowess when pushing forward. Against a team as strong as Gio's, my team needs the added legs and a much stronger keeper. The back line is going to get added support from two full backs in Carvajal and Alaba, both of whom are terrific defensively and unable to tire out. Xabi Alonso and van Bommel will make the midfield very difficult to get through, whilst Marchisio will offer the added legs to support the flanks and midfield. On the attack, Xabi Alonso will be key with his distribution, and if there is a risk of him being closed down, then Marchisio becomes the guy to free him up with his terrific movement and underrated skill on the ball. He was also crisp with his shorter passes and often able to get his #10s involved in dangerous areas, and this is where Totti will come into his element and really start to do the damage. With two great forwards in Villa and Eto'o, both of whom were comfortable drifting wider, Totti will have the freedom to play his game and cause havoc to Gio's side.

Gio Tactics

The team shifts into a 4-2-2-2 shape to exploit the talents of Kevin De Bruyne and Dani Alves.

COMPLEMENTARY PARTNERSHIPS THROUGH THE TEAM
  • At the base of midfield providing a physical and technical presence is Marcos Senna who was such a commanding pivot for Spain at Euro 2008, renewing his partnership with Iniesta here. Alongside him in a double-pivot is Marco Verratti, whose extreme press-resistance provides shades of Xavi and dovetails ideally with Iniesta.
  • The two attacking midfielders are Andres Iniesta and Kevin De Bruyne. Both look at home in the inside-left and inside-right slots - both capable of controlling centrally and smoothly shifting into wider spaces. Together they offer a full package of attacking midfield threats, possessing excellent ball retention, with Iniesta's slipperiness and agile dribbling, contrasting with De Bruyne's more direct punchy style.
  • Neymar and Shevchenko are paired as a front two. Both have plenty of experience in peeling wide, with Shevchenko having done so in textbook style for Milan in narrower shapes. Nonetheless Neymar is most likely to drop wide to replicate classic 4-2-2-2s of the past, drifting across to target Carvajal 1v1, a well as cutting inside to threaten the goal (averages from 1 to 1.6 goals and assists per game)
  • The wing-backs in Alves and Sorin provide the requisite end-to-end energy to make the formation work. In particular Alves hurtling beyond De Bruyne will force defenders to back up, which will play into KDB's hands.
  • The defensive unit is built on Van Dijk and Boateng, with Allison sweeping behind. Each proven to the very highest level and together they will enable us to play high and on the front foot to get the best out of the technical players ahead.
 
Good luck, Gio! This match should get interesting. This feels like a straight-up man-for-man battle between our teams.

Whilst you have various press-resistant players in your team, I'd like to highlight the press resistance of Claudio Marchisio.


He can become particularly useful in the wide overloads on the right involving Carvajal and Eto'o/Totti and unlock their attacking potential even more.
 
I also want to highlight Mark van Bommel here. His reputation as a dirty player seems to have taken away from his overall intelligence and ability on the ball in the eyes of the average football fan. However annoying he may have been, he was no slouch on the ball, and his reading of the game and man-marking made him so difficult to escape. In particular, he was great at cutting off the passing lanes as well as closing down the spaces, making it so that someone like Wesley Sneijder had no immediate forward passing options when he got on the ball at 3:20 of this video:


Mind you, this version of van Bommel was just past his peak, yet he still put in a terrific performance in that Milan derby.
 
mazhar13 said:
Good luck, Gio! This match should get interesting. This feels like a straight-up man-for-man battle between our teams.
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And good luck to you too. Yes, that was part of my thinking in moving to the 4-2-2-2. That there were a few narrower teams who were overloading the centres and I needed to fight fire with fire in the midfield. So aiming for synergy and on-the-ball cohesion in the quartet. Part of it too was also about giving Shevchenko a more familiar set-up in which to shine, with Neymar to his left operating as a creative roaming partner, with Iniesta and De Bruyne in behind.
 
Gio said:
And good luck to you too. Yes, that was part of my thinking in moving to the 4-2-2-2. That there were a few narrower teams who were overloading the centres and I needed to fight fire with fire in the midfield. So aiming for synergy and on-the-ball cohesion in the quartet. Part of it too was also about giving Shevchenko a more familiar set-up in which to shine, with Neymar to his left operating as a creative roaming partner, with Iniesta and De Bruyne in behind.
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I get that. Sheva's at his best when he has a strike partner with him. I'm not sure if Neymar's necessarily his best partner, especially in a matchup like this where the finest of fine margins may make a difference. Sheva was always better when he had another striker be the focal point in the middle, typically a target man, but he's also worked well with poachers like Inzaghi and Gilardino. Neymar isn't either of those, stylistically, and I don't know if Sheva can be at his very best by leading the attack. If they had a second-striker-like #10 behind them, then I can see this working, but neither Iniesta nor de Bruyne are those kind of players despite their immense talents.
 
mazhar13 said:
I get that. Sheva's at his best when he has a strike partner with him. I'm not sure if Neymar's necessarily his best partner, especially in a matchup like this where the finest of fine margins may make a difference. Sheva was always better when he had another striker be the focal point in the middle, typically a target man, but he's also worked well with poachers like Inzaghi and Gilardino. Neymar isn't either of those, stylistically, and I don't know if Sheva can be at his very best by leading the attack. If they had a second-striker-like #10 behind them, then I can see this working, but neither Iniesta nor de Bruyne are those kind of players despite their immense talents.
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Nah I don't agree at all. Just because Shevchenko played in an era of 4-4-2 and 4-3-2-1, it does not mean that he is not capable of playing in tactical variations. It's a bit like saying Keane can't play in a 3-man midfield, or Yorke or Cantona could only play in a front two.

When Shevchenko won his Ballon D'Or in 2004 he regularly spearhead the attack as a lone striker. He had no winger support and he had an old Rui Costa behind him who operated more as an 8 by that stage of his career, and Kaka who was closer to Shevchenko as a 10 but was still a midfielder for that team. Our set-up isn't that different here but we also have Neymar who will float around the attack and share the frontline creative duties.

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Part of this is because Shevchenko was multi-faceted. At his best a tremendous goalscorer, regularly banging in 30 goals a season for Milan when Serie A was still a hard league to rack up the numbers in. But also rounded which allowed him to play equally well with different types such as Inzaghi as you indicate. For me his best strike partner was Rebrov who took on more of the deeper creative duties (like Neymar and others would here). I would fancy his chances here with this sort of service against Hummels/Rudiger/Alaba.
 
Gio said:
Nah I don't agree at all. Just because Shevchenko played in an era of 4-4-2 and 4-3-2-1, it does not mean that he is not capable of playing in tactical variations. It's a bit like saying Keane can't play in a 3-man midfield, or Yorke or Cantona could only play in a front two.

When Shevchenko won his Ballon D'Or in 2004 he regularly spearhead the attack as a lone striker. He had no winger support and he had an old Rui Costa behind him who operated more as an 8 by that stage of his career, and Kaka who was closer to Shevchenko as a 10 but was still a midfielder for that team. Our set-up isn't that different here but we also have Neymar who will float around the attack and share the frontline creative duties.

osmrAPp.jpg


Part of this is because Shevchenko was multi-faceted. At his best a tremendous goalscorer, regularly banging in 30 goals a season for Milan when Serie A was still a hard league to rack up the numbers in. But also rounded which allowed him to play equally well with different types such as Inzaghi as you indicate. For me his best strike partner was Rebrov who took on more of the deeper creative duties (like Neymar and others would here). I would fancy his chances here with this sort of service against Hummels/Rudiger/Alaba.
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That's true, but I want to highlight that the majority of his matches had him play with a strike partner (Inzaghi, Tomasson, or Borriello for one match). Don't get me wrong, he was still very good as a lone striker, and I wouldn't undersell him in that role. However, in a match like this, my concern is that he'll have a whole lot to do and needs to go off of another forward/goalscoring player who'll look to frequently get into those positions. Against Inter, when AC Milan came back to win 3-2, it was Jon Dahl Tomasson who came in for Rui Costa and made the difference in the second half. In the 1-1 draw against Lecce, Sheva scored the equaliser thanks to Tomasson coming in for Rui Costa.

Against my team, Sheva will have a tough time finding the time to settle onto the ball with so little space and time. Neymar likes to get the ball to his feet and isn't the sort of guy to stretch the back line by looking to run in behind or put his back into a defender in order to take up his attention. As you said in the OP, he'll often be drifting out left to deal with Carvajal, who is tough to beat.


In this video, notice how quickly Carvajal engages with Luis Díaz and prevents him from having the time and space to do his thing. This puts Díaz in a tough spot where he hesitates and struggles to put Carvajal on the back foot. In transition, notice how close Carvajal keeps himself to Díaz and, more often and not, wins the ball off of his counterpart. There's a reason Carvajal finished 4th in the recent Ballon d'Or ranking as the only defender in the top 20. Neymar's going to have a very tough time here. In order for Sheva to thrive here, Neymar needed to have an easy matchup, but he doesn't have that against Carvajal.
 
Gio looking overwhelmingly strong here, albeit I seem to rate Neymar and Verratti higher than most. Putting together a Neymar/Shevchenko attack with his third and fourth picks was great drafting - compares favourably with pretty much any attack in the draft whereas most of us spunked a first or second pick on an attacker and didn't necessarily come out looking stronger for it.
 
Gio said:
Game @mazhar13. Really liked your front 3 and the way you sold Marchisio, an underrated favourite of mine.
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Thank you. I wanted to really put a spotlight on Totti but failed to do so here. I'm glad that you appreciate Marchisio as he was a player who I enjoyed watching.

Your team is incredible, and it sucks for me that I had to face your team. Maybe a back 3 would've been better for me in hindsight.
 
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