The Redcafe Champions League Draft

[Jayvin]

Ours so far :

GK​

RB/Lahm Cannavaro Chiellini LB/Lahm​

Guardiola​

Baraja - Petit​

McManaman------Hagi​

Romario​

Thoughts?

Did Romario ever play as a lone striker? Looks strange to me seeing him up there by himself.

 

[Moby]

Did Romario ever play as a lone striker? Looks strange to me seeing him up there by himself.

He did at Barca. He had Txiki, Laudrup and Stoichkov with him with Pep and Amor in midfield.

This formation looks a bit fecked up with Hagi so much out wide, it is nowhere near like that. He's gonna be playing much centrally and hence a lot closer to goal, same with Macca.

 

[Brwned]

Romario could only really have been the lone striker in the Barca side because he had Stoichkov essentially supporting him as a second striker and getting through most of the dirty work. Hagi can be your Laudrup substitute but I don't see McManaman playing the Stoichkov role very well.

 

[Gio]

Mauro Silva

Along with Dunga, Brazil's most influential central midfielder of the last 30 years. Together their midfield-anchoring ability changed the way Brazil played with a host of copycat-but-not-quite-so-good midfielders following in their considerable footsteps. At club level, Mauro Silva remains a legend at Deportivo and it's no coincidence that his time at the club aligns exactly with the rise and best years of Super Depor.

 

[Annahnomoss]

He did at Barca. He had Txiki, Laudrup and Stoichkov with him with Pep and Amor in midfield.

This formation looks a bit fecked up with Hagi so much out wide, it is nowhere near like that. He's gonna be playing much centrally and hence a lot closer to goal, same with Macca.

Well it is more complex than so. In theory he did play as a lone striker but that Barcelona team played a 3-3-3-1 where even the LCB and RCB were offensive. So they really dominated games which meant Romario was never very alone.

So if your team is being dominated in the midfield then one could definitely say Romario would be in a very unusual situation. Romario would probably fit the current Barcelona system better than Brazilian Ronaldo due to that. If you dominate a game Romario is outstanding but if you are being dominated you want someone who can do more on his own someone like Ronaldo.

 

[Moby]

Woah. That is the steal of the draft right there.

 

[Annahnomoss]

Mauro Silva

Along with Dunga, Brazil's most influential central midfielder of the last 30 years. Together their midfield-anchoring ability changed the way Brazil played with a host of copycat-but-not-quite-so-good midfielders following in their considerable footsteps. At club level, Mauro Silva remains a legend at Deportivo and it's no coincidence that his time at the club aligns exactly with the rise and best years of Super Depor.

<

Brilliant pick, can't believe he went this late as he deserved to be pick ages ago. In terms of energetic defensive midfielders he is absolutely great.

 

[Moby]

Romario could only really have been the lone striker in the Barca side because he had Stoichkov essentially supporting him as a second striker and getting through most of the dirty work. Hagi can be your Laudrup substitute but I don't see McManaman playing the Stoichkov role very well.

Yep, its not the same setup at all. Macca is closer to the Txki role than the Stoichkov role IMO. We'd be missing a player of Hristo's ilk surely.

 

[Nighteyes]

Giovanni Van Bronckhorst

 

[Brwned]

Haven't had a good look through all of them but Gio's team is ridiculously well-balanced right the way through. Getting the fullbacks in early has paid off very nicely judging by some of the recent picks.

 

[Annahnomoss]

Haven't had a good look through all of them but Gio's team is ridiculously well-balanced right the way through. Getting the fullbacks in early has paid off very nicely judging by some of the recent picks.

It was a brilliant tactical decision to snap up those full-backs just before everybody else started, but he obviously got lucky to get someone like Mauro Silva that late. Maura Silva could easily have been a 4th 5th round pick and almost everybody has someone worse than Mauro in their midfield regardless of picking before him.

What I am really impressed with is his master stroke of picking a striker late. As people currently just go for a lone striker that means even at the 12th pick there will be world class strikers available as most teams the last 20 years had two top notch strikers. Even after the draft is over there will be a lot of strikers left.

 

[Cutch]

I'm not sold on it. Ozil on the right wing doesn't make sense to me, and Kaka and Ronaldinho didn't work together in 2006. I see them getting in each others way more often than not - definitely a case of too many cooks spoil the broth. Also, if Ozil is cutting inside, then who is providing width on the right flank? They've already stated that Gallas won't be going forward (not that he is capable of a meaningful attacking contribution anyway). Sensational left side though, and a quality midfield.

Not at all. There'll be loads of room for the 3 of them to work their magic. It will be pretty much how Chelsea's 3 of Mata, Oscar and Hazard currently operate. Ozil has played many times for club and country coming in from the right but not as an out and out winger. With a lot of the other sides employing diamonds we'll not be coming up short in the centre or in wide areas. But you're right that the left will be probably the side that does the most damage.

 

[Ralaks]

The Game: 1. Zidane 2. Seedorf 3. Shevchenko 4. Frank De Boer 5. Pires 6. Cocu 7. Ze Roberto 8. Lopez 9. Simic
JakeC: 1. Messi 2. Cantona 3. Buffon 4. Roberto Carlos 5. Xabi Alonso 6. Puyol 7. Mascherano 8. Sagnol 9. Ljungberg
kps88: 1. Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Kohler 3. Davids 4. Vieri 5. Riquelme 6. Costacurta 7. Cambiasso 8. Salgado 9. Gonzalez
Thisistheone: 1. Ronaldo 2. Desailly 3. Rui Costa 4. Blanc 5. Essien 6. Dani Alves 7. Rooney 8. Paulo Sousa 9. Grosso
Ralaks: 1. Keane 2. Del Piero 3. Effenberg 4. Beckham 5. Overmars 6. Ramos 7. Trezeguet 8. Piqué 9. Rafael
nahealai: 1. Xavi 2. Raúl 3. van Nistelrooy 4. Ballack 5. Busquets 6. Lizarazu 7. Irwin 8. Abidal 9. Kahn
Stobzilla: 1. Henry 2. Stam 3. Totti 4. Gerrard 5. Veron 6. Mata 7. G. Neville 8. Mijatovic 9. Mihajlovic
Feeky: 1. Maldini 2. Scholes 3. Bergkamp 4. Deschamps 5. Ibrahimovic 6. Y. Touré 7. David Silva 8. Lúcio 9. Marcelo
akash02: 1. Romario 2. Cannavaro 3. Hagi 4. Guardiola 5. Lahm 6. McManaman 7. Petit 8. Chiellini 9. Baraja 10. van Bronckhorst
Gio: 1. Rivaldo 2. Nedved 3. Ferdinand 4. Zanetti 5. Fabregas 6. Zambrotta 7. Montero 8. Joaquin 9. Owen 10. Mauro Silva
Snow: 1. Ronaldinho 2. Kaka 3. Mendieta 4. Terry 5. Carvalho 6. A. Cole 7. Ozil 8. Gallas 9. Cech 10. Albelda
Isotope: 1. Redondo 2. Ribery 3. Eto'o 4. Albertini 5. Campbell 6. Boban 7. Forlan 8. Angloma 9. Kompany 10. Coentrao
EDogen: 1. Nesta 2. Giggs 3. Hierro 4. Van Persie 5. Enrique 6. Robben 7.Evra 8. Ferrara 9. Deco 10. Simeone
Theon: 1. Iniesta 2. Pirlo 3. Cafu 4. Gattuso 5. De Rossi 6. Crespo 7. Aguero 8. Silva 9. Candela 10. Nadal
Fergus'son: 1. Batistuta 2. Thuram 3. Ayala 4. Makelele 5. Schweinsteiger 6. Moller. 7. Villa 8. Muller 9. Aimar 10. Samuel
BD/NM: 1. Vieira 2. Figo 3. Vidic 4. Drogba 5.Lampard 6. Popescu 7. Maicon 8. Gilberto 9. Giulyu 10. Sergi

 

[Moby]

The Game: 1. Zidane 2. Seedorf 3. Shevchenko 4. Frank De Boer 5. Pires 6. Cocu 7. Ze Roberto 8. Lopez 9. Simic
JakeC: 1. Messi 2. Cantona 3. Buffon 4. Roberto Carlos 5. Xabi Alonso 6. Puyol 7. Mascherano 8. Sagnol 9. Ljungberg
kps88: 1. Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Kohler 3. Davids 4. Vieri 5. Riquelme 6. Costacurta 7. Cambiasso 8. Salgado 9. Gonzalez
Thisistheone: 1. Ronaldo 2. Desailly 3. Rui Costa 4. Blanc 5. Essien 6. Dani Alves 7. Rooney 8. Paulo Sousa 9. Grosso
Ralaks: 1. Keane 2. Del Piero 3. Effenberg 4. Beckham 5. Overmars 6. Ramos 7. Trezeguet 8. Piqué 9. Rafael
nahealai: 1. Xavi 2. Raúl 3. van Nistelrooy 4. Ballack 5. Busquets 6. Lizarazu 7. Irwin 8. Abidal 9. Kahn
Stobzilla: 1. Henry 2. Stam 3. Totti 4. Gerrard 5. Veron 6. Mata 7. G. Neville 8. Mijatovic 9. Mihajlovic
Feeky: 1. Maldini 2. Scholes 3. Bergkamp 4. Deschamps 5. Ibrahimovic 6. Y. Touré 7. David Silva 8. Lúcio 9. Marcelo
akash02: 1. Romario 2. Cannavaro 3. Hagi 4. Guardiola 5. Lahm 6. McManaman 7. Petit 8. Chiellini 9. Baraja 10. Van Bronckhorst
Gio: 1. Rivaldo 2. Nedved 3. Ferdinand 4. Zanetti 5. Fabregas 6. Zambrotta 7. Montero 8. Joaquin 9. Owen 10. Mauro Silva
Snow: 1. Ronaldinho 2. Kaka 3. Mendieta 4. Terry 5. Carvalho 6. A. Cole 7. Ozil 8. Gallas 9. Cech 10. Albelda
Isotope: 1. Redondo 2. Ribery 3. Eto'o 4. Albertini 5. Campbell 6. Boban 7. Forlan 8. Angloma 9. Kompany 10. Coentrao
EDogen: 1. Nesta 2. Giggs 3. Hierro 4. Van Persie 5. Enrique 6. Robben 7.Evra 8. Ferrara 9. Deco 10. Simeone
Theon: 1. Iniesta 2. Pirlo 3. Cafu 4. Gattuso 5. De Rossi 6. Crespo 7. Aguero 8. Silva 9. Candela 10. Nadal
Fergus'son: 1. Batistuta 2. Thuram 3. Ayala 4. Makelele 5. Schweinsteiger 6. Moller. 7. Villa 8. Muller 9. Aimar 10. Samuel
BD/NM: 1. Vieira 2. Figo 3. Vidic 4. Drogba 5.Lampard 6. Popescu 7. Maicon 8. Gilberto 9. Giulyu 10. Sergi

Looks like Iso has gone to bed unfortunately.

 

[Moby]

Nice timing, Ralaks.

 

[Feeky Magee]

I select Iker Casillas.

 

[Feeky Magee]

The Game: 1. Zidane 2. Seedorf 3. Shevchenko 4. Frank De Boer 5. Pires 6. Cocu 7. Ze Roberto 8. Lopez 9. Simic
JakeC: 1. Messi 2. Cantona 3. Buffon 4. Roberto Carlos 5. Xabi Alonso 6. Puyol 7. Mascherano 8. Sagnol 9. Ljungberg
kps88: 1. Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Kohler 3. Davids 4. Vieri 5. Riquelme 6. Costacurta 7. Cambiasso 8. Salgado 9. Gonzalez
Thisistheone: 1. Ronaldo 2. Desailly 3. Rui Costa 4. Blanc 5. Essien 6. Dani Alves 7. Rooney 8. Paulo Sousa 9. Grosso
Ralaks: 1. Keane 2. Del Piero 3. Effenberg 4. Beckham 5. Overmars 6. Ramos 7. Trezeguet 8. Piqué 9. Rafael
nahealai: 1. Xavi 2. Raúl 3. van Nistelrooy 4. Ballack 5. Busquets 6. Lizarazu 7. Irwin 8. Abidal 9. Kahn
Stobzilla: 1. Henry 2. Stam 3. Totti 4. Gerrard 5. Veron 6. Mata 7. G. Neville 8. Mijatovic 9. Mihajlovic
Feeky: 1. Maldini 2. Scholes 3. Bergkamp 4. Deschamps 5. Ibrahimovic 6. Y. Touré 7. David Silva 8. Lúcio 9. Marcelo 10. Casillas
akash02: 1. Romario 2. Cannavaro 3. Hagi 4. Guardiola 5. Lahm 6. McManaman 7. Petit 8. Chiellini 9. Baraja 10. Van Bronckhorst
Gio: 1. Rivaldo 2. Nedved 3. Ferdinand 4. Zanetti 5. Fabregas 6. Zambrotta 7. Montero 8. Joaquin 9. Owen 10. Mauro Silva
Snow: 1. Ronaldinho 2. Kaka 3. Mendieta 4. Terry 5. Carvalho 6. A. Cole 7. Ozil 8. Gallas 9. Cech 10. Albelda
Isotope: 1. Redondo 2. Ribery 3. Eto'o 4. Albertini 5. Campbell 6. Boban 7. Forlan 8. Angloma 9. Kompany 10. Coentrao
EDogen: 1. Nesta 2. Giggs 3. Hierro 4. Van Persie 5. Enrique 6. Robben 7.Evra 8. Ferrara 9. Deco 10. Simeone
Theon: 1. Iniesta 2. Pirlo 3. Cafu 4. Gattuso 5. De Rossi 6. Crespo 7. Aguero 8. Silva 9. Candela 10. Nadal
Fergus'son: 1. Batistuta 2. Thuram 3. Ayala 4. Makelele 5. Schweinsteiger 6. Moller. 7. Villa 8. Muller 9. Aimar 10. Samuel
BD/NM: 1. Vieira 2. Figo 3. Vidic 4. Drogba 5.Lampard 6. Popescu 7. Maicon 8. Gilberto 9. Giulyu 10. Sergi

 

[Thisistheone]

Looking forward to Stobzilla finally landing his trequarista

 

[Annahnomoss]

Looking forward to Stobzilla finally landing his trequarista

 

[Stobzilla]

Sami Hyypia


The Game: 1. Zidane 2. Seedorf 3. Shevchenko 4. Frank De Boer 5. Pires 6. Cocu 7. Ze Roberto 8. Lopez 9. Simic
JakeC: 1. Messi 2. Cantona 3. Buffon 4. Roberto Carlos 5. Xabi Alonso 6. Puyol 7. Mascherano 8. Sagnol 9. Ljungberg
kps88: 1. Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Kohler 3. Davids 4. Vieri 5. Riquelme 6. Costacurta 7. Cambiasso 8. Salgado 9. Gonzalez
Thisistheone: 1. Ronaldo 2. Desailly 3. Rui Costa 4. Blanc 5. Essien 6. Dani Alves 7. Rooney 8. Paulo Sousa 9. Grosso
Ralaks: 1. Keane 2. Del Piero 3. Effenberg 4. Beckham 5. Overmars 6. Ramos 7. Trezeguet 8. Piqué 9. Rafael
nahealai: 1. Xavi 2. Raúl 3. van Nistelrooy 4. Ballack 5. Busquets 6. Lizarazu 7. Irwin 8. Abidal 9. Kahn
Stobzilla: 1. Henry 2. Stam 3. Totti 4. Gerrard 5. Veron 6. Mata 7. G. Neville 8. Mijatovic 9. Mihajlovic 10. Hyypia
Feeky: 1. Maldini 2. Scholes 3. Bergkamp 4. Deschamps 5. Ibrahimovic 6. Y. Touré 7. David Silva 8. Lúcio 9. Marcelo 10. Casillas
akash02: 1. Romario 2. Cannavaro 3. Hagi 4. Guardiola 5. Lahm 6. McManaman 7. Petit 8. Chiellini 9. Baraja 10. Van Bronckhorst
Gio: 1. Rivaldo 2. Nedved 3. Ferdinand 4. Zanetti 5. Fabregas 6. Zambrotta 7. Montero 8. Joaquin 9. Owen 10. Mauro Silva
Snow: 1. Ronaldinho 2. Kaka 3. Mendieta 4. Terry 5. Carvalho 6. A. Cole 7. Ozil 8. Gallas 9. Cech 10. Albelda
Isotope: 1. Redondo 2. Ribery 3. Eto'o 4. Albertini 5. Campbell 6. Boban 7. Forlan 8. Angloma 9. Kompany 10. Coentrao
EDogen: 1. Nesta 2. Giggs 3. Hierro 4. Van Persie 5. Enrique 6. Robben 7.Evra 8. Ferrara 9. Deco 10. Simeone
Theon: 1. Iniesta 2. Pirlo 3. Cafu 4. Gattuso 5. De Rossi 6. Crespo 7. Aguero 8. Silva 9. Candela 10. Nadal
Fergus'son: 1. Batistuta 2. Thuram 3. Ayala 4. Makelele 5. Schweinsteiger 6. Moller. 7. Villa 8. Muller 9. Aimar 10. Samuel
BD/NM: 1. Vieira 2. Figo 3. Vidic 4. Drogba 5.Lampard 6. Popescu 7. Maicon 8. Gilberto 9. Giulyu 10. Sergi

 

[Balu]

Not at all. There'll be loads of room for the 3 of them to work their magic. It will be pretty much how Chelsea's 3 of Mata, Oscar and Hazard currently operate. Ozil has played many times for club and country coming in from the right but not as an out and out winger. With a lot of the other sides employing diamonds we'll not be coming up short in the centre or in wide areas. But you're right that the left will be probably the side that does the most damage.

But that's not really a brilliant combination, is it? It works, because all 3 are individually great, but not because they complement each other very well.

I'm not really a fan of Özil out wide either. He's best centrally with a very direct player with great off the ball movement towards the goal (Ronaldo at Real, Müller with the nationalteam) next to him. Play through Özil, let him open up space with his movement and find the players who are moving inside. That won't happen a lot in your team, imo. Like Jayvin said, Ronaldinho and Kaka didn't work well back in 2006 and Kaka with Özil never worked at Real (of course Kaka is past his best, but it looked tactically wrong everytime I saw it, imo). Why should it work with all 3 together?

I think it could work, because of their individual brilliance. One of them will create something out of nowhere, but I really don't like it. I'm always a sucker for the cohesive unit though, others will disagree.

 

[Cutch]

But that's not really a brilliant combination, is it? It works, because all 3 are individually great, but not because they complement each other very well.

I'm not really a fan of Özil out wide either. He's best centrally with a very direct player with great off the ball movement towards the goal (Ronaldo at Real, Müller with the nationalteam) next to him. Play through Özil, let him open up space with his movement and find the players who are moving inside. That won't happen a lot in your team, imo. Like Jayvin said, Ronaldinho and Kaka didn't work well back in 2006 and Kaka with Özil never worked at Real (of course Kaka is past his best, but it looked tactically wrong everytime I saw it, imo). Why should it work with all 3 together?

I think it could work, because of their individual brilliance. One of them will create something out of nowhere, but I really don't like it. I'm always a sucker for the cohesive unit though, others will disagree.

Its giving all 3 the platform to weave their magic. Its about being able to soak up the pressure at the back, use the ball quickly and destroy the opposition on the counter which all 3 of those will do. A lot of the other sides in this are looking to boss the centre midfield so its trying to find the balance with trying to counter that and not leaving ourselves exposed in there. I'm hoping we've found that balance, with a strong defence and enough matchwinners in attack.

 

[antohan]

Neville---Stam--?????---Mihajlovic

---------Veron--Gerrard--------

Mata---------Totti-------Mijatovic

--------------Henry

I think that is quite strong myself....thoughts/rip apart at will.

It's a good looking side which hopefully can get away with lack of ball winning for now. There are still some massive ones ut there, why not as subs at least?

I find it odd your wingers are both wrong footed.

 

[antohan]

Why do people keep talking about this strange Theon post?

EDIT: The picture shows now

 

[Stobzilla]

Neville--Stam-Hyypia--Mihajlovic

---------Veron--Gerrard--------

Mata---------Totti-------Mijatovic

--------------Henry

I hope my last two survive I have a feeling they might.

 

[Theon]

Why do people keep talking about this strange Theon post?

Why is it strange?

Fergus picked him.

 

[antohan]

ok.. my next pick..

Sergi Barjuan

Aldo/akash, none of the teams after you (bar arguably Fergus'son) needed Baraja. Bad sequencing that. This fella would have been immense with Guardiola.

 

[antohan]

Why is it strange?

Fergus picked him.

I see a PC, a bracket and IM

 

[Theon]

Oh feck it's disappeared again

 

[Theon]

It was a picture of Aimar, but he keeps coming back and then fecking off again. Really wierd.

 

[antohan]

PC[IM

Cracking player... I take it is Aimar given the Frodo Baggins comment

 

[Theon]

Yup, very nice pick up this late. There are still a few quality number 10's available - thinking of getting one as a sub.

 

[Cutch]

Neville--Stam-Hyypia--Mihajlovic

---------Veron--Gerrard--------

Mata---------Totti-------Mijatovic

--------------Henry

I hope my last two survive I have a feeling they might.

Did Mijatovic ever play there?

 

[antohan]

Thoughts on my team?

Very strong, some interesting themes. Unless you want Figo on a particularly weak fullback I would have Giuly on the right.

 

[Stobzilla]

Did Mijatovic ever play there?

He definitely had a tendency to play coming off of the left from what I have seen of him, especially from Valencia and Fiorentina footage.

 

[antohan]

I will give myself more options, I will take Diego Simeone.

Gio screwed by someone looking for tactical options

 

[Cutch]

He definitely had a tendency to play coming off of the left from what I have seen of him, especially from Valencia and Fiorentina footage.

I think you'd be better swapping him and Henry.

 

[Theon]

Gio screwed by someone looking for tactical options

That was my initial reaction as well, but then he comes in with Mauro Silva! Gio has drafted so well once again.

 

[Cutch]

That was my initial reaction as well, but then he comes in with Mauro Silva! Gio has drafted so well once again.

He's been a nightmare to go after. Has taken so many players off us. Seems to have planned this exactly the same way

 

[antohan]

I got a lot of shit the last time I played Hagi slightly wide. A lot of people have no memory of him playing wide at all and think he was a CAM only. Just want to point it out for you guys. You guys could remove that factor by moving Hagi centrally and playing Guardiola and Petit behind.

That's why they needed Sergi, he was basically the left flank, with Chiellini covering. He very much did that for many a Barca side, with Guardiola pinging the balls.