This is actually a good thing because it means big names are less worth and tactics, cohesion and balance are starting to mean more in the eye of the voters. 2 of those "surprising wins" have been by Jim Beam, who built a fantastic pressing side build around Cruyff. He also followed the previously established idea of how to build a great Cruyff side:
1. pick Cruyff
2. pick Gullit
3. profit
There is another tendency where managers draft high quality in many positions and have 1 or 2 weak spots left in the hope of getting by the first few rounds and reinforce those positions afterwards. We have seen this to become a disadvantage in Gio's match with Gamarra vs Stoichkov/Cruyff, and also in this match with Muller vs Ferrara. I thought Moby's match was a bit similar, where he drafted Zidane who he didn't need and still had Gerets in fullback position defending against Stoichkov or Cruyff.
@oneniltothearsenal @Gio I didn't want to address this during the match, but I obviously disagree with your rating of Vieira and instead of discussing individual names, I want to put forward a general explanation. It was mentioned many times that I can't compare these midfielders like Kroos, Scholes etc to Vieira because of their different playing style. I think this has been a general trend of midfield play in recent years, where your midfielders need to be fantastic passers with great strategic vision. Those are the ones considered to be the best in the world today and the reason is that "Superteams" like Barca, Real, City, Bayern have like 70% possession every match and they need the midfielders to open up tight defences.
This is obviously different to the requirements of earlier days and you can see a trend where good players with less "playmaking/passing" technique are looking worse in possession sides. See Kante under Sarri, see Khedira at Madrid being replaced by Modric and Kroos gradually. Arturo Vidal was championed big time during his time at Juve, but at Bayern he had to play in a possession side and he was a disappointment. The same at Barcelona, where he has to sit on the bench and Arthur plays, despite Arthur being inexperienced and very shit defensively. Arthur is preferred because of his technique and passing ability. Busquets replacing Yaya at Barcelona is another big example of this.
This tendency for sides with 70% possession, where the pressing tactics had the same effect as having a physical ball winner in midfield, really started to take off under Guardiola in the late 2000s and at the same time there were some outstanding CMs in the PL like Essien, Ballack, etc., playing a much more physical style, but it was never in question that Xavi and Iniesta were the best midfielders in the world because of what they could do with the ball. Barcelona struggled to reach their previous greatness in recent years because they couldn't find 2 midfielders with the same playmaking quality like Xaviesta, despite Rakitic being a great CM himself. Box-2-Box-CMs are less worth today and the "playmaking" ones are the better midfielders, that is what I am trying to say.
I have shat on Kroos in another match for being bad defensively and the easy solution for managers would be to take him out and replace him with someone more physical and less lazy. Au contraire, managers at Madrid and Germany try to reshuffle the midfield to have him play his role because of what he gives to the side is so much more than what any physical Box-2-Box CM could offer instead. This is not restricted to having just 1 "playmaker/passing CM" in the side, managers want to have as many as possible and make it work (Zidane 's Madrid has been at his best in 16/17 because of the diamond formation with Kroos-Modric-Isco in the same side worked beautifully).
If this logic transpires to All-Time encounters is a whole nother debate