The Modern / Current Players Draft

Really interesting pick @The Red Viper , at first glance it made perfect sense bringing Xavi & Iniesta together, but that will probably mean tiki-taka style play, and I'm not sure the rest of your team is up for it.
I think Xavi is an instant upgrade to any team but maybe a bit premature.
 
Doesn't have to be tiki-taka. Spain in 2008 Euros didn't play tiki-taka and were brilliant. Iniesta had a great tournament even though he played out wide and Xavi was awarded the best player in the tournament. The idea that Xavi can only do well in a tiki-taka system is a myth. The key is, you need to play possession based football with him. Obviously, you can't have him in a out and out counter-attacking unit because even though he can spread passes as well as anyone else, it will be restricting him.
 
Luka Modric and Danielle De Rossi.. dropping De Sciglio and Nigel De Jong.
 
Reinforcement Pool:
  1. Pat_Mustard: 1. Xavi 2. Villa 3. Dani Alves 4. Barzagli 5. Verratti 6. Laporte 7. Tevez 8. Kwadwo Asamoah 9. Deisler 10.Mandanda 11. Lars Bender 12. Michel Bastos
  2. Physiocrat: 1. Robben 2. Fabregas 3. J. Boateng 4. Wilshere 5. Alba 6. Nani 7. Rafael 8. Berbatov 9. Vermalean 10. Igor Akinfeev 11. Gustavo 12. Sturridge
  3. Stobzilla: 1. Lahm 2. Alaba 3. Vidal 4. Rooney 5. Turan 6. Özil 7. Griezmann 8. Luiz 9. Bonucci 10. Valdes 11. Otamendi 12. Kondogbia
  4. BorisDeLeFora: 1. Vidic 2. Kompany 3. De Rossi 4. Cavani 5. Rakitic 6. Hamsik 7. Arbeloa 8. Vicente 9. Walcott 10. Ter Stegen 11. Richards 12. Kehl.
  5. Snow: 1. Hazard 2. Modric 3. Busquets 4. Azpilicueta 5. Adriano 6. Thiago 7.Srna 8. Garay 9. Badstuber 10. Lloris 11. Cuadrado 12. Diego.
  6. NoPace: 1. Kroos 2. Reus 3. Ramos 4. Di María 5. Ledley King 6. Falcao 7. Casillas 8. Filipe Luis 9. T.Rosicky 10. Motta 11. Debuchy 12. Donovan.
  7. Barney: 1. Gerrard 2. Alonso 3. Martínez 4. Benatia 5. Zabaleta 6. Ricardo Rodriguez 7.Valencia 8. Benzema 9. Demichelis 10. Hart 11. Podolski 12. Benayoun.
  8. NM: 1. Bale 2. Cole 3. Maicon 4. Cambiasso 5. James Rodriguez 6. Courtois 7. Subotic 8. Dante 9. Strootman 10. Mario Gomez 11. Malouda 12. Darren Fletcher.
Dropped Players: 1. Lavezzi 2. Lassana Diarra 3. Błaszczykowski 4. Coleman 5. Rojo 6. Cazorla 7. De Sciglio 8. Nigel De Jong


Reinforced Teams:
  1. Raees: 1. Ronaldinho 2. Hummels 3. Chiellini 4. De Jong 5. Gundogan 6. Isco 7. Carvajal 8. Park Ji Sung 9. Higuain 10. C Bravo 11. Marquinhos 12. M. De Sciglio 13. Modric 14. De Rossi
  2. MJJ: 1. Kaká 2. Torres 3. Essien 4. Matic 5. Pique 6. Neuer 7. Baines 8. Sokratis 9. Piszczek 10. Pjanic 11. Cassano 12. Saviola 13. Bale
  3. The Red Viper: 1. Iniesta 2. Terry 3. Neymar 4. Van Persie 5. Hargreaves 6. Marcelo 7. Cahill 8. Lichtsteiner 9. Ramsey 10. Sirigu 11. Cazorla 12. Höwedes 13. Xavi
  4. Isotope: 1. Suárez 2. Eto'o 3. Mascherano 4. Pepe 5. Koke 6. Chivu 7. Marchisio 8. Sagna 9. Mata 10. Keylor Navas 11. Balzaretti 12. Rojo 13. Vidal
  5. Theon: 1. Schweinsteiger 2. Ibrahimovic 3. Sánchez 4. Sneijder 5. De Gea 6. Koscielny 7. Khedira 8. Robinho 9. Kolo 10. Kolarov 11. Coleman 12. Raul Abiol 13. Robben
  6. VivaJanuzaj: 1. Thiago Silva 2. Yaya Touré 3. Ivanovic 4. Pogba 5. Gotze 6. Alex Song 7. Clichy 8. Diego Costa 9. Pedro 10. Mertesacker 11. Begović 12. Błaszczykowski 13. Lahm
  7. Skizzo: 1. Müller 2. Evra 3. Godín 4. D. Silva 5. Miranda 6. Sterling 7. Lewandowski 8. Matuidi 9. Juanfran 10. Handanovic 11. Lassana Diarra 12. Seydou Keita 13. Cambiasso
  8. crappycraperson: 1. Ribery 2. Agüero 3. Varane 4. Carrick 5. Vertonghen 6. Cech 7. Lavezzi 8. Coentrao 9. Joaquin 10. Moutinho 11. Oscar 12. Cáceres 13. Vidic
 

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MARCO REUS
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MJJ said:
I will take hazard @The Red Viper.
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Are you kidding me? Kaka-Torres, Bale and then Hazard on top of that. :drool: I love it. Before Hazard it didn't make too much sense though but now you have enough dribbling to break down teams who defend organized and deep as well.

Bale-Kaka-Torres bursting away behind the defense will drag every defender with them, then you have Hazard and preferably Kaka using the space. Great upgrades.
 
Annahnomoss said:
Are you kidding me? Kaka-Torres, Bale and then Hazard on top of that. :drool: I love it. Before Hazard it didn't make too much sense though but now you have enough dribbling to break down teams who defend organized and deep as well.

Bale-Kaka-Torres bursting away behind the defense will drag every defender with them, then you have Hazard and preferably Kaka using the space. Great upgrades.
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Thanks Annah, glad you approve. I almost went with modric and adriano as my two subs but thought this would make my attack more flexible.
 
Annahnomoss said:
Are you kidding me? Kaka-Torres, Bale and then Hazard on top of that. :drool: I love it. Before Hazard it didn't make too much sense though but now you have enough dribbling to break down teams who defend organized and deep as well.

Bale-Kaka-Torres bursting away behind the defense will drag every defender with them, then you have Hazard and preferably Kaka using the space. Great upgrades.
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Hazard-Baines is a hideous defensive left-side though.
 
NoPace said:
Hazard-Baines is a hideous defensive left-side though.
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Azpilicueta and Hazard is Chelsea's best side by a mile, probably one of the best "flanks" in EPL and it works defensively as well. Baines is slightly worse there defensively but offensively he's even better.

So it will depend on who he plays, the right opponent can of course be seen finding opportunities against that duo.

There is a trade-off of course with Baines great offense which I think works very well with Hazard's desire to cut inside.
 
Annahnomoss said:
Azpilicueta and Hazard is Chelsea's best side by a mile, probably one of the best "flanks" in EPL and it works defensively as well. Baines is slightly worse there defensively but offensively he's even better.

So it will depend on who he plays, the right opponent can of course be seen finding opportunities against that duo.

There is a trade-off of course with Baines great offense which I think works very well with Hazard's desire to cut inside.
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I don't trust Baines at all defensively against decent attacking talent and Hazard doesn't really track fullbacks. They are brilliant offensive players both, but I think it's all a bit diminishing returns.
 
Reinforcement Pool:
  1. Pat_Mustard: 1. Xavi 2. Villa 3. Dani Alves 4. Barzagli 5. Verratti 6. Laporte 7. Tevez 8. Kwadwo Asamoah 9. Deisler 10.Mandanda 11. Lars Bender 12. Michel Bastos
  2. Physiocrat: 1. Robben 2. Fabregas 3. J. Boateng 4. Wilshere 5. Alba 6. Nani 7. Rafael 8. Berbatov 9. Vermalean 10. Igor Akinfeev 11. Gustavo 12. Sturridge
  3. Stobzilla: 1. Lahm 2. Alaba 3. Vidal 4. Rooney 5. Turan 6. Özil 7. Griezmann 8. Luiz 9. Bonucci 10. Valdes 11. Otamendi 12. Kondogbia
  4. BorisDeLeFora: 1. Vidic 2. Kompany 3. De Rossi 4. Cavani 5. Rakitic 6. Hamsik 7. Arbeloa 8. Vicente 9. Walcott 10. Ter Stegen 11. Richards 12. Kehl.
  5. Snow: 1. Hazard 2. Modric 3. Busquets 4. Azpilicueta 5. Adriano 6. Thiago 7.Srna 8. Garay 9. Badstuber 10. Lloris 11. Cuadrado 12. Diego.
  6. NoPace: 1. Kroos 2. Reus 3. Ramos 4. Di María 5. Ledley King 6. Falcao 7. Casillas 8. Filipe Luis 9. T.Rosicky 10. Motta 11. Debuchy 12. Donovan.
  7. Barney: 1. Gerrard 2. Alonso 3. Martínez 4. Benatia 5. Zabaleta 6. Ricardo Rodriguez 7.Valencia 8. Benzema 9. Demichelis 10. Hart 11. Podolski 12. Benayoun.
  8. NM: 1. Bale 2. Cole 3. Maicon 4. Cambiasso 5. James Rodriguez 6. Courtois 7. Subotic 8. Dante 9. Strootman 10. Mario Gomez 11. Malouda 12. Darren Fletcher.
Dropped Players: 1. Lavezzi 2. Lassana Diarra 3. Błaszczykowski 4. Coleman 5. Rojo 6. Cazorla 7. De Sciglio 8. Nigel De Jong 9. Cassano 10. Ramsey 11. Blazeretti 12. Kolarov 13. Saviola


Reinforced Teams:
  1. Raees: 1. Ronaldinho 2. Hummels 3. Chiellini 4. De Jong 5. Gundogan 6. Isco 7. Carvajal 8. Park Ji Sung 9. Higuain 10. C Bravo 11. Marquinhos 12. M. De Sciglio 13. Modric 14. De Rossi
  2. MJJ: 1. Kaká 2. Torres 3. Essien 4. Matic 5. Pique 6. Neuer 7. Baines 8. Sokratis 9. Piszczek 10. Pjanic 11. Cassano 12. Saviola 13. Bale 14. Hazard
  3. The Red Viper: 1. Iniesta 2. Terry 3. Neymar 4. Van Persie 5. Hargreaves 6. Marcelo 7. Cahill 8. Lichtsteiner 9. Ramsey 10. Sirigu 11. Cazorla 12. Höwedes 13. Xavi 14. Rues
  4. Isotope: 1. Suárez 2. Eto'o 3. Mascherano 4. Pepe 5. Koke 6. Chivu 7. Marchisio 8. Sagna 9. Mata 10. Keylor Navas 11. Balzaretti 12. Rojo 13. Vidal 14. Boateng
  5. Theon: 1. Schweinsteiger 2. Ibrahimovic 3. Sánchez 4. Sneijder 5. De Gea 6. Koscielny 7. Khedira 8. Robinho 9. Kolo 10. Kolarov 11. Coleman 12. Raul Abiol 13. Robben 14. Cole
  6. VivaJanuzaj: 1. Thiago Silva 2. Yaya Touré 3. Ivanovic 4. Pogba 5. Gotze 6. Alex Song 7. Clichy 8. Diego Costa 9. Pedro 10. Mertesacker 11. Begović 12. Błaszczykowski 13. Lahm
  7. Skizzo: 1. Müller 2. Evra 3. Godín 4. D. Silva 5. Miranda 6. Sterling 7. Lewandowski 8. Matuidi 9. Juanfran 10. Handanovic 11. Lassana Diarra 12. Seydou Keita 13. Cambiasso
  8. crappycraperson: 1. Ribery 2. Agüero 3. Varane 4. Carrick 5. Vertonghen 6. Cech 7. Lavezzi 8. Coentrao 9. Joaquin 10. Moutinho 11. Oscar 12. Cáceres 13. Vidic
 
Annahnomoss said:
Azpilicueta and Hazard is Chelsea's best side by a mile, probably one of the best "flanks" in EPL and it works defensively as well. Baines is slightly worse there defensively but offensively he's even better.

So it will depend on who he plays, the right opponent can of course be seen finding opportunities against that duo.

There is a trade-off of course with Baines great offense which I think works very well with Hazard's desire to cut inside.
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The biggest drawback I'd see is that now he has a huge gulf between the attacking four, and the rest of the team. Basically the same criticism I came in for in the first game, except he has 4 attackers who won't put in a shift defensively. Depends on the opponent as to whether or not that will be a huge hinderance or not, but it could be putting all the eggs in the ol' proverbial basket.
 
Isotope said:
Welcome home: Jérôme Boateng
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Still so underrated :(. He was again absolutely fantastic in recent weeks. I'm thinking about making a thread for him and call him the best centerback in the world for about 2 years now, but I'm scared that I jinx his career :nervous:. And he has his peak years still ahead of him, so I need to be careful.
 
Skizzo said:
The biggest drawback I'd see is that now he has a huge gulf between the attacking four, and the rest of the team. Basically the same criticism I came in for in the first game, except he has 4 attackers who won't put in a shift defensively. Depends on the opponent as to whether or not that will be a huge hinderance or not, but it could be putting all the eggs in the ol' proverbial basket.
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I don't see that as a weakness especially with Essien,who can play link up role with his attack.
 
Balu said:
Still so underrated :(. He was again absolutely fantastic in recent weeks. I'm thinking about making a thread for him and call him the best centerback in the world for about 2 years now, but I'm scared that I jinx his career :nervous:. And he has his peak years still ahead of him, so I need to be careful.
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Do it!! :D

He's just a beast. I personally think he was the best CB in the last WC. And his defending style reminds me of Nesta at his peak.
 
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Isotope said:
He's just a beast. I personally think he was the best CB in the last WC. And his defending style reminds me of Nesta at his peak.
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I'd argue he was the best defender overall, yes. He only played half the games at centerback, but then his performance in the final was terrific. His jobs at fullback are often a bit underrated. Even though he had terrific defensive displays there as well, including twice keeping Ronaldo from scoring at tournaments (Euro 2012 and World Cup 2014). I also remember an outstanding performance at leftback, when he was still at Hamburg. When Robben was destroying Bundesliga defenses for fun in 2009/10, Boateng kept him in his pocket in Hamburg's 1-0 win, easily Robben's worst game that season. He's so quick and can easily keep up with tricky and pacy wingers, which makes him such a fantastic overall defender.

He was always incredibly talented, outshone Hummels and Höwedes (to be fair to Hummels, he played DM, next to Khedira and behind Özil) in the u21 Euro win in 2009 (with the wonderful 4-0 final win against England). Since he moved to Bayern, he got more and more mature, added consistency to his game and often stepped up in big games for Bayern and Germany. He's definitely a huge reason along with Neuer, why we broke every defensive record in the league.

And he's only 26, like I said, his peak years as a defender should still be ahead of him. He's definitely still improving. Since Guardiola took over, his ability on the ball reached a whole new level and his reading of the game got better and better. It's a joy to have him play for Bayern and Germany, wouldn't trade him for any other defender in the world.
 
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  1. Pat_Mustard: 2. Villa 3. Dani Alves 4. Barzagli 5. Verratti 6. Laporte 7. Tevez 8. Kwadwo Asamoah 9. Deisler 10.Mandanda 11. Lars Bender 12. Michel Bastos
  2. Physiocrat: 2. Fabregas 4. Wilshere 5. Alba 6. Nani 7. Rafael 8. Berbatov 9. Vermalean 10. Igor Akinfeev 11. Gustavo 12. Sturridge
  3. Stobzilla: 2. Alaba 3. Vidal 4. Rooney 5. Turan 6. Özil 7. Griezmann 8. Luiz 9. Bonucci 10. Valdes 11. Otamendi 12. Kondogbia
  4. BorisDeLeFora: 2. Kompany 4. Cavani 5. Rakitic 6. Hamsik 7. Arbeloa 8. Vicente 9. Walcott 10. Ter Stegen 11. Richards 12. Kehl.
  5. Snow: 3. Busquets 4. Azpilicueta 5. Adriano 6. Thiago 7.Srna 8. Garay 9. Badstuber 10. Lloris 11. Cuadrado 12. Diego.
  6. NoPace: 1. Kroos 3. Ramos 4. Di María 5. Ledley King 6. Falcao 7. Casillas 8. Filipe Luis 9. T.Rosicky 10. Motta 11. Debuchy 12. Donovan.
  7. Barney: 1. Gerrard 2. Alonso 3. Martínez 4. Benatia 5. Zabaleta 6. Ricardo Rodriguez 7.Valencia 8. Benzema 9. Demichelis 10. Hart 11. Podolski 12. Benayoun.
  8. NM: 3. Maicon 5. James Rodriguez 6. Courtois 7. Subotic 8. Dante 9. Strootman 10. Mario Gomez 11. Malouda 12. Darren Fletcher.
@VivaJanuzaj I believe that's the remaining pool
 
Reinforcement Pool:
  1. Pat_Mustard: 2. Villa 3. Dani Alves 4. Barzagli 5. Verratti 6. Laporte 7. Tevez 8. Kwadwo Asamoah 9. Deisler 10.Mandanda 11. Lars Bender 12. Michel Bastos
  2. Physiocrat: 2. Fabregas 4. Wilshere 5. Alba 6. Nani 7. Rafael 8. Berbatov 9. Vermalean 10. Igor Akinfeev 11. Gustavo 12. Sturridge
  3. Stobzilla: 2. Alaba 3. Vidal 4. Rooney 5. Turan 6. Özil 7. Griezmann 8. Luiz 9. Bonucci 10. Valdes 11. Otamendi 12. Kondogbia
  4. BorisDeLeFora: 2. Kompany 4. Cavani 5. Rakitic 6. Hamsik 7. Arbeloa 8. Vicente 9. Walcott 10. Ter Stegen 11. Richards 12. Kehl.
  5. Snow: 3. Busquets 4. Azpilicueta 5. Adriano 6. Thiago 7.Srna 8. Garay 9. Badstuber 10. Lloris 11. Cuadrado 12. Diego.
  6. NoPace: 1. Kroos 3. Ramos 5. Ledley King 6. Falcao 7. Casillas 8. Filipe Luis 9. T.Rosicky 10. Motta 11. Debuchy 12. Donovan.
  7. Barney: 1. Gerrard 2. Alonso 3. Martínez 4. Benatia 5. Zabaleta 6. Ricardo Rodriguez 7.Valencia 8. Benzema 9. Demichelis 10. Hart 11. Podolski 12. Benayoun.
  8. NM: 3. Maicon 5. James Rodriguez 6. Courtois 7. Subotic 8. Dante 9. Strootman 10. Mario Gomez 11. Malouda 12. Darren Fletcher.
Dropped Players: 1. Lavezzi 2. Lassana Diarra 3. Błaszczykowski 4. Coleman 5. Rojo 6. Cazorla 7. De Sciglio 8. Nigel De Jong 9. Cassano 10. Ramsey 11. Blazeretti 12. Kolarov 13. Saviola 14. Alex Song.

Reinforced Teams:
  1. Raees: 1. Ronaldinho 2. Hummels 3. Chiellini 4. De Jong 5. Gundogan 6. Isco 7. Carvajal 8. Park Ji Sung 9. Higuain 10. C Bravo 11. Marquinhos 12. M. De Sciglio 13. Modric 14. De Rossi
  2. MJJ: 1. Kaká 2. Torres 3. Essien 4. Matic 5. Pique 6. Neuer 7. Baines 8. Sokratis 9. Piszczek 10. Pjanic 11. Cassano 12. Saviola 13. Bale 14. Hazard
  3. The Red Viper: 1. Iniesta 2. Terry 3. Neymar 4. Van Persie 5. Hargreaves 6. Marcelo 7. Cahill 8. Lichtsteiner 9. Ramsey 10. Sirigu 11. Cazorla 12. Höwedes 13. Xavi 14. Rues
  4. Isotope: 1. Suárez 2. Eto'o 3. Mascherano 4. Pepe 5. Koke 6. Chivu 7. Marchisio 8. Sagna 9. Mata 10. Keylor Navas 11. Balzaretti 12. Rojo 13. Vidal 14. Boateng
  5. Theon: 1. Schweinsteiger 2. Ibrahimovic 3. Sánchez 4. Sneijder 5. De Gea 6. Koscielny 7. Khedira 8. Robinho 9. Kolo 10. Kolarov 11. Coleman 12. Raul Abiol 13. Robben 14. Cole
  6. VivaJanuzaj: 1. Thiago Silva 2. Yaya Touré 3. Ivanovic 4. Pogba 5. Gotze 6. Alex Song 7. Clichy 8. Diego Costa 9. Pedro 10. Mertesacker 11. Begović 12. Błaszczykowski 13. Lahm 4. di Maria
  7. Skizzo: 1. Müller 2. Evra 3. Godín 4. D. Silva 5. Miranda 6. Sterling 7. Lewandowski 8. Matuidi 9. Juanfran 10. Handanovic 11. Lassana Diarra 12. Seydou Keita 13. Cambiasso
  8. crappycraperson: 1. Ribery 2. Agüero 3. Varane 4. Carrick 5. Vertonghen 6. Cech 7. Lavezzi 8. Coentrao 9. Joaquin 10. Moutinho 11. Oscar 12. Cáceres 13. Vidic
 
I'm really surprised with some team's reinforcements picks. MJJ & TrV are going extremely gung ho here unless I'm missing something. Theon keeping Kolo & Koscielny is also pretty mind blowing.
All out attack?
 
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