The Modern / Current Players Draft

Pat_Mustard said:
I'm really happy to get him as he was on my mind since the draft started. I couldn't really risk picking him early as his career was cut so badly short, but what an exceptional talent. 134 league games and 36 international caps too, sadly punctuated by injuries obviously but a substantial enough body of work to prove his ability.
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I was actually considering dropping hints here, as I began suspecting nobody would pick him up - either out of pure oversight or because they'd consider him a risk because of the way his career panned out (or rather failed to pan out).

But Jaysus, looking at the teams here, it's a no brainer. Immensely talented player who can dance with anyone in this pool.

I'd go as far as saying that he's above anyone in the current, golden German crop in terms of talent. Pick of the draft for me - he's an absolute steal this late in the process.
 
BorisDeLeFora said:
1. Vicente had a solid three years without injuries, and was world class in at least one of them.
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Yep. The other 2, though he was a wonderful dribbler and very good crosser, he only scored 3 in 78 appearances, which will probably be the lowest goal return of any front 3 or 4 player in the draft. 6 in 48 the year before is more normal winger stuff, though.

Boris has Hamsik and Rakitic behind Cavani, so lots of overall goal threat and a good aerial 9 to convert Vicente's crosses.
 
I also have to leave my pick if I'm not up in 90 minutes. Who's around?
 
Kolo Toure - He was an excellent defender and lightening quick at his peak. I remember him striking up an excellent partnership with Campbell during the Invincibles era.

 
De Jong
Gundogan Isco
Park Higuain Ronaldinho​

how does that look guys?
 
Probably the ones who stand out slightly above the rest for now IMO, which means nothing until teams are finished. Not ranked between them though, just went off the list so the numbers came with it.
  1. Physiocrat: 1. Robben 2. Fabregas 3. J. Boateng 4. Wilshere 5. Alba 6. Nani 7. Rafael 8. Berbatov 9. Vermalean
  2. MJJ: 1. Kaká 2. Torres 3. Essien 4. Matic 5. Pique 6. Neuer 7. Baines 8. Sokratis 9. Piszczek
  3. Theon: 1. Schweinsteiger 2. Ibrahimovic 3. Sánchez 4. Sneijder 5. De Gea 6. Koscielny 7. Khedira 8. Robinho
  4. NoPace: 1. Kroos 2. Reus 3. Ramos 4. Di María 5. Ledley King 6. Falcao 7. Casillas 8. Filipe Luis
  5. crappycraperson: 1. Ribery 2. Agüero 3. Varane 4. Carrick 5. Vertonghen 6. Cech 7. Lavezzi 8. Coentrao
 
Raees said:
De Jong
Gundogan Isco
Park Higuain Ronaldinho​

how does that look guys?
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Will depend partly on opponents. I'd switch Park and Isco. Isco will find holes coming backwards into midfield and Park will burst forward better than they'd do the opposite tasks.

If you're set on this, I'd push the fact you're using 05-06 Park who was great playing wider in the CL for PSV and not United peak, 07-09 Park.
 
NoPace said:
Will depend partly on opponents. I'd switch Park and Isco. Isco will find holes coming backwards into midfield and Park will burst forward better than they'd do the opposite tasks.

If you're set on this, I'd push the fact you're using 05-06 Park who was great playing wider in the CL for PSV and not United peak, 07-09 Park.
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I'm watching some Park footage from that era now. We really miss someone with his drive and energy in the side now, can imagine him doing well with our spaniard.

Thanks Annah, be nice to see him get some draft love.
 
Right then, so my pick is Theo Walcott. I was considering someone else, but this guy does do goals when fit, and he runs quick. Yes.
 
  1. Pat_Mustard: 1. Xavi 2. Villa 3. Dani Alves 4. Barzagli 5. Verratti 6. Laporte 7. Tevez 8. Kwadwo Asamoah 9. Deisler
  2. Raees: 1. Ronaldinho 2. Hummels 3. Chiellini 4. De Jong 5. Gundogan 6. Isco 7. Carvajal 8. Park Ji Sung 9. Higuain
  3. Physiocrat: 1. Robben 2. Fabregas 3. J. Boateng 4. Wilshere 5. Alba 6. Nani 7. Rafael 8. Berbatov 9. Vermalean
  4. MJJ: 1. Kaká 2. Torres 3. Essien 4. Matic 5. Pique 6. Neuer 7. Baines 8. Sokratis 9. Piszczek
  5. Stobzilla: 1. Lahm 2. Alaba 3. Vidal 4. Rooney 5. Turan 6. Özil 7. Griezmann 8. Luiz 9. Bonucci
  6. The Red Viper: 1. Iniesta 2. Terry 3. Neymar 4. Van Persie 5. Hargreaves 6. Marcelo 7. Cahill 8. Lichtsteiner 9. Ramsey
  7. Isotope: 1. Suárez 2. Eto'o 3. Mascherano 4. Pepe 5. Koke 6. Chivu 7. Marchisio 8. Sagna 9. Mata
  8. Theon: 1. Schweinsteiger 2. Ibrahimovic 3. Sánchez 4. Sneijder 5. De Gea 6. Koscielny 7. Khedira 8. Robinho 9. Kolo
  9. BorisDeLedFora: 1. Vidic 2. Kompany 3. De Rossi 4. Cavani 5. Rakitic 6. Hamsik 7. Arbeloa 8. Vicente 9. Walcott
  10. Snow: 1. Hazard 2. Modric 3. Busquets 4. Azpilicueta 5. Adriano 6. Thiago 7.Srna 8. Garay
  11. VivaJanuzaj: 1. Thiago Silva 2. Yaya Touré 3. Ivanovic 4. Pogba 5. Gotze 6. Alex Song 7. Clichy 8. Diego Costa
  12. NoPace: 1. Kroos 2. Reus 3. Ramos 4. Di María 5. Ledley King 6. Falcao 7. Casillas 8. Filipe Luis
  13. Barney: 1. Gerrard 2. Alonso 3. Martínez 4. Benatia 5. Zabaleta 6. Ricardo Rodriguez 7.Valencia 8. Benzema
  14. Skizzo: 1. Müller 2. Evra 3. Godín 4. D. Silva 5. Miranda 6. Sterling 7. Lewandowski 8. Matuidi
  15. crappycraperson: 1. Ribery 2. Agüero 3. Varane 4. Carrick 5. Vertonghen 6. Cech 7. Lavezzi 8. Coentrao
  16. NM: 1. Bale 2. Cole 3. Maicon 4. Cambiasso 5. James Rodriguez 6. Courtois 7. Subotic 8. Dante
@Snow
 
So, basically, I have this kind of a set up in attack, depending on what happens with my nineties pick;

----De Rossi---Rakitic----
Walcott--Hamsik--Vicente
----------Cavani-----------

So basically, with a very strong defence as it stands, De Rossi and Rakitic have enough about them to get quality forward passes to my frond 4. Also, in terms of pressing from the front and taking advantage of transitions, the workrate of Hamsik and Cavani in particular, combined with the pace of Walcott and the class of Vicente, means that any lapse by the opposition would more than likely be punished, so that's nice.

Hamsik is a player people may not see as a particular stand out, but he is very good at spreading the play out wide, which is important in this set up, and he is a relatively consistent goalscorer, thus adds a reliable threat from his position.
 
  1. Pat_Mustard: 1. Xavi 2. Villa 3. Dani Alves 4. Barzagli 5. Verratti 6. Laporte 7. Tevez 8. Kwadwo Asamoah 9. Deisler
  2. Raees: 1. Ronaldinho 2. Hummels 3. Chiellini 4. De Jong 5. Gundogan 6. Isco 7. Carvajal 8. Park Ji Sung 9. Higuain
  3. Physiocrat: 1. Robben 2. Fabregas 3. J. Boateng 4. Wilshere 5. Alba 6. Nani 7. Rafael 8. Berbatov 9. Vermalean
  4. MJJ: 1. Kaká 2. Torres 3. Essien 4. Matic 5. Pique 6. Neuer 7. Baines 8. Sokratis 9. Piszczek
  5. Stobzilla: 1. Lahm 2. Alaba 3. Vidal 4. Rooney 5. Turan 6. Özil 7. Griezmann 8. Luiz 9. Bonucci
  6. The Red Viper: 1. Iniesta 2. Terry 3. Neymar 4. Van Persie 5. Hargreaves 6. Marcelo 7. Cahill 8. Lichtsteiner 9. Ramsey
  7. Isotope: 1. Suárez 2. Eto'o 3. Mascherano 4. Pepe 5. Koke 6. Chivu 7. Marchisio 8. Sagna 9. Mata
  8. Theon: 1. Schweinsteiger 2. Ibrahimovic 3. Sánchez 4. Sneijder 5. De Gea 6. Koscielny 7. Khedira 8. Robinho 9. Kolo
  9. BorisDeLedFora: 1. Vidic 2. Kompany 3. De Rossi 4. Cavani 5. Rakitic 6. Hamsik 7. Arbeloa 8. Vicente 9. Walcott
  10. Snow: 1. Hazard 2. Modric 3. Busquets 4. Azpilicueta 5. Adriano 6. Thiago 7.Srna 8. Garay 9. Badstuber
  11. VivaJanuzaj: 1. Thiago Silva 2. Yaya Touré 3. Ivanovic 4. Pogba 5. Gotze 6. Alex Song 7. Clichy 8. Diego Costa
  12. NoPace: 1. Kroos 2. Reus 3. Ramos 4. Di María 5. Ledley King 6. Falcao 7. Casillas 8. Filipe Luis
  13. Barney: 1. Gerrard 2. Alonso 3. Martínez 4. Benatia 5. Zabaleta 6. Ricardo Rodriguez 7.Valencia 8. Benzema
  14. Skizzo: 1. Müller 2. Evra 3. Godín 4. D. Silva 5. Miranda 6. Sterling 7. Lewandowski 8. Matuidi
  15. crappycraperson: 1. Ribery 2. Agüero 3. Varane 4. Carrick 5. Vertonghen 6. Cech 7. Lavezzi 8. Coentrao
  16. NM: 1. Bale 2. Cole 3. Maicon 4. Cambiasso 5. James Rodriguez 6. Courtois 7. Subotic 8. Dante
@VivaJanuzaj
 
Seems a tad unfair the people who picked early do so again in the final starting players round (11th), meaning they got first crack at stars and will pick earlier in 6/11 rounds.
 
Stobzilla said:
There are 12 picking rounds...
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Yep, but round 12 is clearly the least important. Some people will find a good option to let them change tactics against another opponent or bench a player it turns out is causing them a ton of grief, but most will just sit them on the bench.

I do think changing things mid-draft is problematic, though.
 
Cutch said:
Think

----Gundogan---De Jong----
Park-----Isco----Ronaldinho
----------Higuain------------

is how it should look. Lookin good!
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Yep. I'm too sleepy too put em in the right position on my phone. Rest assured.. on my formation graphics its looking more like that.
 
Am here.
I'll take Pedro

Pedro-Arsenal.jpg
 
NoPace said:
We should probably have clarified that injury records do or don't matter.

This is a short tournament we're playing out, so I don't think they're so important. Or just put out our teams and instead of just a tournament voted on who would a full season and then had a cup tournament too.

I'm biased because I took Ledley King, but I had Vicente and Deisler pretty well ranked on my list, too, though nationalities (and them not falling to become massive steals) got in the way.

The other way, and this should be planned out by someone with some experience with this sort of thing (does D and D work like this?), but maybe just take the number of games a player played in his peak (2 or 3 years seems to be the consensus) and use a random number generator online/a dice or some shit to figure out if anyone is unavailable due to injury. Probably need to pick 14 or 15, though.
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To be honest with injury records as bad as Deisler and Vicente's I think it will count against them, not least because younger/more casual fans will barely remember them. I know that Deisler's career won't neatly fit with the '3 seasons' guideline for assessing peak either, whereas as Gio points out King's probably will, but I do think he's got enough proven quality to argue a case for.

Giving voters strict criteria on how to vote never really works as we all have our own biases and ideas about peak etc, but that dice/number generator idea in your final paragraph does sound interesting, albeit time-consuming.

Chesterlestreet said:
I was actually considering dropping hints here, as I began suspecting nobody would pick him up - either out of pure oversight or because they'd consider him a risk because of the way his career panned out (or rather failed to pan out).

But Jaysus, looking at the teams here, it's a no brainer. Immensely talented player who can dance with anyone in this pool.

I'd go as far as saying that he's above anyone in the current, golden German crop in terms of talent. Pick of the draft for me - he's an absolute steal this late in the process.
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Balu said:
:drool:
You're my hero. Was really hoping someone would pick him.
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Thanks chaps! I was very unsure how he'd be received by the voters but I'm glad to see he's getting such a good reception. I love seeing somewhat forgotten players getting some recognition in these drafts, especially ones with a story as sad as Deisler's. I've still got my work cut out selling his peak and trying to use him properly, but I agree he's a supreme talent. It somewhat depends on my remaining picks, but I'm looking at using him in a withdrawn inside right role, with Tevez as a much more advanced inside left and Villa playing centrally. Basically:

-------------MIDFIELD--------------
------Deisler-------------------------
-----------------------Tevez--------
----------------Villa------------------
 
Not many vote winners in my team, but it seems really balanced to me:


GK
Ivanovic --- T.Silva -- CB --- Clichy
Alex Song
Yaya Toure ---- Pogba
Pedro ---------------- Gotze
Diego Costa​

Gotze on the free role on the left to run the show upfront, Pogba-Yaya-Song will pretty much dominate physically every midfield you put against them, with Yaya-Pogba bursting runs forward and Song in a BWM role but not as a "Makalele" as he'll get the freedom to go forward.
The thing I love about it is the amount of goal threat between Costa & Pedro in the box, to Gotze-Yaya-Pogba outside it to the aerial threat of Costa-Yaya-Pogba from Gotze/Clichy/Pedro/Ivanovic cross, while at the same time a midfield so physical with three very capable defensively midfielders that won't be run over by anyone. Yaya will thrive under this setup and show why he's one of the best midfielders in the world and the best in the PL for the last 2-3 years.
 
  1. Pat_Mustard: 1. Xavi 2. Villa 3. Dani Alves 4. Barzagli 5. Verratti 6. Laporte 7. Tevez 8. Kwadwo Asamoah 9. Deisler
  2. Raees: 1. Ronaldinho 2. Hummels 3. Chiellini 4. De Jong 5. Gundogan 6. Isco 7. Carvajal 8. Park Ji Sung 9. Higuain
  3. Physiocrat: 1. Robben 2. Fabregas 3. J. Boateng 4. Wilshere 5. Alba 6. Nani 7. Rafael 8. Berbatov 9. Vermalean
  4. MJJ: 1. Kaká 2. Torres 3. Essien 4. Matic 5. Pique 6. Neuer 7. Baines 8. Sokratis 9. Piszczek
  5. Stobzilla: 1. Lahm 2. Alaba 3. Vidal 4. Rooney 5. Turan 6. Özil 7. Griezmann 8. Luiz 9. Bonucci
  6. The Red Viper: 1. Iniesta 2. Terry 3. Neymar 4. Van Persie 5. Hargreaves 6. Marcelo 7. Cahill 8. Lichtsteiner 9. Ramsey
  7. Isotope: 1. Suárez 2. Eto'o 3. Mascherano 4. Pepe 5. Koke 6. Chivu 7. Marchisio 8. Sagna 9. Mata
  8. Theon: 1. Schweinsteiger 2. Ibrahimovic 3. Sánchez 4. Sneijder 5. De Gea 6. Koscielny 7. Khedira 8. Robinho 9. Kolo
  9. BorisDeLedFora: 1. Vidic 2. Kompany 3. De Rossi 4. Cavani 5. Rakitic 6. Hamsik 7. Arbeloa 8. Vicente 9. Walcott
  10. Snow: 1. Hazard 2. Modric 3. Busquets 4. Azpilicueta 5. Adriano 6. Thiago 7.Srna 8. Garay 9. Badstuber
  11. VivaJanuzaj: 1. Thiago Silva 2. Yaya Touré 3. Ivanovic 4. Pogba 5. Gotze 6. Alex Song 7. Clichy 8. Diego Costa 9. Pedro
  12. NoPace: 1. Kroos 2. Reus 3. Ramos 4. Di María 5. Ledley King 6. Falcao 7. Casillas 8. Filipe Luis
  13. Barney: 1. Gerrard 2. Alonso 3. Martínez 4. Benatia 5. Zabaleta 6. Ricardo Rodriguez 7.Valencia 8. Benzema
  14. Skizzo: 1. Müller 2. Evra 3. Godín 4. D. Silva 5. Miranda 6. Sterling 7. Lewandowski 8. Matuidi
  15. crappycraperson: 1. Ribery 2. Agüero 3. Varane 4. Carrick 5. Vertonghen 6. Cech 7. Lavezzi 8. Coentrao
  16. NM: 1. Bale 2. Cole 3. Maicon 4. Cambiasso 5. James Rodriguez 6. Courtois 7. Subotic 8. Dante
 
Skizzo said:
Great spine...only thing it might struggle with is breaking down a team dug in deep defensively.
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Cheers, I get why you'd think that but I'm hoping that the aerial threat and Gotze in the free role will be the solution to this problem - if the opponent parks the bus, I have a very good long shot threat with Yaya & Pogba, and the aerial threat of them and Diego Costa from random(Moyes-like) crossing :)
 
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