Transfer fantasy draft

I cannot believe Figo didn't get picked - 6TP points or not. I'm glad someone is picking him up.

Aye - but the TP restrictions make it hard to incorporate wingers (the few of 'em that are TP rated). I bought Giggs only to realize that playing him would be impossible given my system. Great as these players are they'll never win a match for you - unlike a TP rated striker or playmaker.

In fact, some of the non-TP players who could pass for wingers are more obviously match winners than either Giggs or Figo, I'd say.
 
Aye - but the TP restrictions make it hard to incorporate wingers (the few of 'em that are TP rated). I bought Giggs only to realize that playing him would be impossible given my system. Great as these players are they'll never win a match for you - unlike a TP rated striker or playmaker.

In fact, some of the non-TP players who could pass for wingers are more obviously match winners than either Giggs or Figo, I'd say.
That's why I was sure about getting at least of Conti or Boniek. Then got greedy and got both.
 
That's why I was sure about getting at least of Conti or Boniek. Then got greedy and got both.

Hehe, can't hurt to have the pair of 'em.

There were two reasons why I didn't fight it out with you over Conti: Price (he went for 35m, didn't he?) and the fact he isn't much of a goal scorer. I needed someone in - roughly - that role who is more prolific.
 
My auction draft would be like WW games. No PMs allowed between the participating managers. All the deals to be thrashed out in open in the thread

This is the issue though, it would never work in reality even if the thought is good. People PM with other managers all the time, regardless of if a draft is going on or not. So kicking out two managers randomly for naming the draft in their PM's is extreme and bad.
 
Any more comments? Weaknesses? Strengths? drooling? :D

depends: how much am I allowed to criticize the big names in your team without getting crucified?:lol: I guess I am not making any new friends with my comment. :nervous:

I dont know if Matthäus and Tigana offer enough cover for your defense. Both have great workrate, but in their prime they were both rather offensive b2b player, while other players (Fernandez/Girard/Matteoli/Baresi) covered for them. One obvious downside of Riquelme is his non existing defensive contribution. Italy/Juve/(Inter) always played with a back5 with steal in the central defense to balance their defense. Your center looks really vulnerable despite having all-time greats on the pitch.
I also doubt the defensive quality of your wings. Individually and systematically.

You play very very gung ho with many players, that like to have the ball on their feet. I dont see too much synergy between many of those players. You really depend on Riqueleme(Enrique) to organize your offense and offer the necessary linkage. If any team is capable of containing him, your offense is limited to dribblings/dynamic while the other team can easily exploit your defensive gaps.
The indivudual quality of your players is on of the highest in the draft, but I am not sure your team would actually work.

I am already sorry, if that sounds a bit harsh, but I obviously want to win the competition, so I have to hammer the competition, right? :lol:
 
This is the issue though, it would never work in reality even if the thought is good. People PM with other managers all the time, regardless of if a draft is going on or not. So kicking out two managers randomly for naming the draft in their PM's is extreme and bad.
It's not that difficult. If you want to play, you play by the rules. If you don't want to play, do something else and comment from the outside. I'd love it and would agree to the rules.
 
I am already sorry, if that sounds a bit harsh, but I obviously want to win the competition, so I have to hammer the competition, right? :lol:
Excellent. I hate to hammer the competition and am usually way too nice and not competitive enough. We're an awesome team.
 
depends: how much am I allowed to criticize the big names in your team without getting crucified?:lol: I guess I am not making any new friends with my comment. :nervous:

I dont know if Matthäus and Tigana offer enough cover for your defense. Both have great workrate, but in their prime they were both rather offensive b2b player, while other players (Fernandez/Girard/Matteoli/Baresi) covered for them. One obvious downside of Riquelme is his non existing defensive contribution. Italy/Juve/(Inter) always played with a back5 with steal in the central defense to balance their defense. Your center looks really vulnerable despite having all-time greats on the pitch.
I also doubt the defensive quality of your wings. Individually and systematically.

You play very very gung ho with many players, that like to have the ball on their feet. I dont see too much synergy between many of those players. You really depend on Riqueleme(Enrique) to organize your offense and offer the necessary linkage. If any team is capable of containing him, your offense is limited to dribblings/dynamic while the other team can easily exploit your defensive gaps.
The indivudual quality of your players is on of the highest in the draft, but I am not sure your team would actually work.

I am already sorry, if that sounds a bit harsh, but I obviously want to win the competition, so I have to hammer the competition, right? :lol:
No mate, the criticism is alright, and its a fair assumption, because me and crappy thought about it too.

The thing I explained to Crappy, is that Tigana at his prime was incredible in covering for defense for that France side as the CM, yeah he had a DM behind him but he's contribution to defense was still fecking superb. As for Matthaus, as you said I don't think anyone can doubt his workrate and power in defense and attack, so you don't really need better than that.

I am reluctant to agree with the general thinking that you must have a water carrying DM like Makalele Busquets Cambiasso Martinez Dunga Mauro Silva etc to stop top AMs, these all round CMs like Matthaus are well familiar with playing against top class AMs who appear in this draft and its all a question of tactics. In their respective teams, they sometimes had DMs to do the "dirty work" so they can play more offensively, but I don't think its a must, plenty of teams cope without the "ball winning midfielder", that way of thinking guides plenty of people around these discussions and I think its pretty much shows a lack of football understanding imo(no offense). It's a really short-sighted a way of thinking of football - a good AM - need a good DM. No, it doesn't work like that, if you got a winger vs a weaker full back, you can use your own winger to help him, football is not as one dimensional as this.
 
It's not that difficult. If you want to play, you play by the rules. If you don't want to play, do something else and comment from the outside. I'd love it and would agree to the rules.

That is what I would most likely do instead, start another different draft. One of the main interests for me in drafts is the PM's where you learn a bunch of stuff from researching players, hearing others talk about players they know a lot about or have researched or giving you critique and ideas for your team.
 
depends: how much am I allowed to criticize the big names in your team without getting crucified?:lol: I guess I am not making any new friends with my comment. :nervous:

I dont know if Matthäus and Tigana offer enough cover for your defense. Both have great workrate, but in their prime they were both rather offensive b2b player, while other players (Fernandez/Girard/Matteoli/Baresi) covered for them. One obvious downside of Riquelme is his non existing defensive contribution. Italy/Juve/(Inter) always played with a back5 with steal in the central defense to balance their defense. Your center looks really vulnerable despite having all-time greats on the pitch.
I also doubt the defensive quality of your wings. Individually and systematically.

You play very very gung ho with many players, that like to have the ball on their feet. I dont see too much synergy between many of those players. You really depend on Riqueleme(Enrique) to organize your offense and offer the necessary linkage. If any team is capable of containing him, your offense is limited to dribblings/dynamic while the other team can easily exploit your defensive gaps.
The indivudual quality of your players is on of the highest in the draft, but I am not sure your team would actually work.

I am already sorry, if that sounds a bit harsh, but I obviously want to win the competition, so I have to hammer the competition, right? :lol:

You're not going to find a player capable of playing that role who is particularly useful in purely defensive terms. That goes with the territory. You may argue - as you do, in fairness - that the Lothar/Tigana combo behind him ain't solid enough - but that's another matter. Riquelme is there to orchestrate, not to defend. In theory you could call Romario a liability because he's not a particularly impressive figure in terms of defensive capabilities. You may also claim that Beethoven didn't excel at composing punk rock masterpieces - and you'd be right. But the relevance is questionable.
 
I can see the point of both VJ and PM but I think the truth is somewhere in between. I can't see a Matthaus who gets to utilize his dribbling the best way possible if he is asked to remain deeper in the pitch - but he is still bloody good in a more defensive role. Tigana suffers the same fate of course, you can play him lower down but you lose some of his offensive skill sets.

Of course the benefit of someone like Matthaus is that if there is a situation where he gets space in front of him he can dribble past a few and score a screamer. Whereas Makelele wouldn't have nearly the same skills when the opportunity arises.
 
With Riquelme in the team, you don't really get the best out of prime Matthäus anyway, in my opinion and he definitely can do a more defensive job. It's just not the worldcup 90 or Inter Matthäus, but he's rarely used in one of these drafts in his best role anyway for some strange reason.

I remember @Annahnomoss basically playing him as a DM in the worldcup draft :(.
 
Excellent. I hate to hammer the competition and am usually way too nice and not competitive enough. We're an awesome team.

good cop bad cop. Always works. :drool: I enjoy the draft a lot and you make it really easy for me to contribute. I waste way too much time in this forum during the last week. :lol:

@ viva/crappy/(Chester):
Its surely possible to play without a DM/holding midfielder or with a couple of players that dont contribute defensively (e.g. Riqueleme), but its getting a problem when your whole midfield and your forwards are all well known to favor the offense. Your back4 isnt necessarily the "who-is-who" of all-time greats to make up for this imbalance either.
Personally I think your team would have been better with a more balanced winger or a slightly different midfield. Still I have little doubt, that you´ll do great. People look primarily at names and everyone of your front 6 is a legend, eventually ignoring that not every single one of your players is able to show his best in your system.
 
I can see the point of both VJ and PM but I think the truth is somewhere in between. I can't see a Matthaus who gets to utilize his dribbling the best way possible if he is asked to remain deeper in the pitch - but he is still bloody good in a more defensive role. Tigana suffers the same fate of course, you can play him lower down but you lose some of his offensive skill sets.

Of course the benefit of someone like Matthaus is that if there is a situation where he gets space in front of him he can dribble past a few and score a screamer. Whereas Makelele wouldn't have nearly the same skills when the opportunity arises.
Tigana has an incredible range of passing, so I don't think he'll have a problem with staying a little deeper, but again, not him nor Lothar needs to stay deep, as I don't think every team needs a DM.
 
With Riquelme in the team, you don't really get the best out of prime Matthäus anyway, in my opinion and he definitely can do a more defensive job. It's just not the worldcup 90 or Inter Matthäus, but he's rarely used in one of these drafts in his best role anyway for some strange reason.

I remember @Annahnomoss basically playing him as a DM in the worldcup draft :(.

Why do you recon he wouldn't work with Riquelme?
 
To me Tigana is actually more of a DM than a CM, all things said and done. In the great French quartet of Fernandez-Tigana-Giresse-Platini, I'd have 'em down as something like this:

Luis Fernandez: DM
Jean Tigana: DM (CM)
Alain Giresse: AM (CM)
Michel Platini AM

Or something close to that.

Whether Lothar and Tigana - with Riquelme - make for an ideal combo, though, is another question entirely.
 
good cop bad cop. Always works. :drool: I enjoy the draft a lot and you make it really easy for me to contribute. I waste way too much time in this forum during the last week. :lol:

@ viva/crappy/(Chester):
Its surely possible to play without a DM/holding midfielder or with a couple of players that dont contribute defensively (e.g. Riqueleme), but its getting a problem when your whole midfield and your forwards are all well known to favor the offense. Your back4 isnt necessarily the "who-is-who" of all-time greats to make up for this imbalance either.
Personally I think your team would have been better with a more balanced winger or a slightly different midfield. Still I have little doubt, that you´ll do great. People look primarily at names and everyone of your front 6 is a legend, eventually ignoring that not every single one of your players is able to show his best in your system.
Thats why we have Luis Enrique if we're facing a team with a harder midfield.
 
Tigana has an incredible range of passing, so I don't think he'll have a problem with staying a little deeper, but again, not him nor Lothar needs to stay deep, as I don't think every team needs a DM.

Of course not, but Lothar in his box to box role can get extremely out of position if that is how you play him. His dribbling was magnificent and his ability to carry the ball in to space, so if that is the type of player you want you will have 5 players all as far up as by the opponents box with a lonesome Tigana left to do the defensive work for 2-3 men himself.

Suddenly his defensive repertoire isn't that impressive and you would have wanted a purely defensive player instead.

Scholes-Keane is a poor midfield defensively, not because they were bad defensively but because their style of play meant they either both pushed up high at the same time - or one of them did leaving the other doing a near impossible defensive job. Even with Beckham and Giggs next to them who are outstanding defensively - they were a team leaking in goals.

Matthaus is much better than Scholes or Keane at bursting in to the open space with the ball at his feet and dribbling past a few which is great - but means he will be offensively positioned very often.

A box to box player is exactly what it is, a player who moves from one box to the other. That is why 4-4-2's where popular before, in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-4 you can't afford having two midfielders who both love pushing in to the box or just outside it in most attacks.

Matthaus and Tigana would be outstanding for a 4-4-1-1, where the wide midfielders would do a great deal defensively. But in a 4-2-3-1 without the support, the team looks very gung-ho if you play them in their peak offensive box to box role.
 
Tigana has an incredible range of passing, so I don't think he'll have a problem with staying a little deeper, but again, not him nor Lothar needs to stay deep, as I don't think every team needs a DM.

"Incredible range of passing" is going a bit too far if you compare him to similar types. I'd say his ability to play precise short passes of the "keep-it-ticking-over" kind was more characteristic - he wasn't a consistently brilliant long passer, of the Pirlo or Albertini school. Not in my opinion anyway.
 
Why do you recon he wouldn't work with Riquelme?
I didn't say it wouldn't work, just that you don't play him in his Ballon d'Or winning role. If you look at Germany in '90, he had a back five and Buchwald as an additional DM in midfield behind him. He had all the freedom he wanted and his workrate in midfield was more a brilliant addition than a necessary requirement. It was similar for Inter. He pulled the strings in attack for both teams despite being a box to box midfielder, after all he had the number 10 shirt for a reason in both teams. But like I said before, no one really plays Matthäus in his best role in these drafts, it's fancier to include another big attacking name and use the big name Matthäus in a more defensive role.

If we look at German 'all action' midfielders post Beckenbauer, you'd want Sammer in the libero role, Breitner in the more defensive box to box role and Matthäus in the more attacking box to box role. Of course that doesn't mean, you can't use them slightly out of position ;).
 
Thinking of getting a new non-TP striker. Any suggestion via PM? Thanks!!
 
With Riquelme in the team, you don't really get the best out of prime Matthäus anyway, in my opinion and he definitely can do a more defensive job. It's just not the worldcup 90 or Inter Matthäus, but he's rarely used in one of these drafts in his best role anyway for some strange reason.

I remember @Annahnomoss basically playing him as a DM in the worldcup draft :(.

I was close to have Rijkaard and Matthaus, and the 'arrogant one' would surely my box-to-box kind of guy.
 
I didn't say it wouldn't work, just that you don't play him in his Ballon d'Or winning role. If you look at Germany in '90, he had a back five and Buchwald as an additional DM in midfield behind him. He had all the freedom he wanted and his workrate in midfield was more a brilliant addition than a necessary requirement. It was similar for Inter. He pulled the strings in attack for both teams despite being a box to box midfielder, after all he had the number 10 shirt for a reason in both teams. But like I said before, no one really plays Matthäus in his best role in these drafts, it's fancier to include another big attacking name and use the big name Matthäus in a more defensive role.

If we look at German 'all action' midfielders post Beckenbauer, you'd want Sammer in the libero role, Breitner in the more defensive box to box role and Matthäus in the more attacking box to box role. Of course that doesn't mean, you can't use them slightly out of position ;).
Yep. In any fantasy XI Matthaus is often used in midfield as a defensive foil for a top-heavy attack, whereas in practice you'd really want to free him up to burst forward whenever possible.

"Incredible range of passing" is going a bit too far if you compare him to similar types. I'd say his ability to play precise short passes of the "keep-it-ticking-over" kind was more characteristic - he wasn't a consistently brilliant long passer, of the Pirlo or Albertini school. Not in my opinion anyway.
I'm looking forward to reading more of these player profiles for a taste of the legendary draft hyperbole which tends to be most common with players of yore.
 
Lothar was well rounded enough to be effective at the highest level in several roles. And he was disciplined enough to do a marking job on Maradona in '86. Which perhaps tends to give people the impression he was more of a defensive midfielder than he actually was. I'd have him down - among a select few others - as a truly complete midfielder.

But what Balu says above is spot on. It was as an offensive box-to-box, rather than a defensive box-to-box, that he was at his absolute best.
 
Lothar was well rounded enough to be effective at the highest level in several roles. And he was disciplined enough to do a marking job on Maradona in '86. Which perhaps tends to give people the impression he was more of a defensive midfielder than he actually was. I'd have him down - among a select few others - as a truly complete midfielder.

But what Balu says above is spot on. It was as an offensive box-to-box, rather than a defensive box-to-box, that he was at his absolute best.
One of the worst tactical decisions ever :(. We almost turned the game around after we changed it at halftime.
 
Strikers/Finishers:

Cantona-10m-MJJ
(TP) Henry - 10m - rpitroda - 11:11
Drogba - 15m - Sammer's Hammer - 17:00 - @walkinhop

Wingers/Side midfielders:

Ljungberg - 10m - Walkin - 10:12
(TP) Figo - 15m - rpitroda - 11:11



Trequartistas/Attacking midfielders:




Playmakers:


Krasimir Balakov - 10m - Walkin - 10:04


Defensive/Central midfielders:



Dunga - 10m - Walkin - 09:55
Mascherano - 10m - Walkin - 09:55
Steven Gerrard - 10m - Sammer's Hammer - 10:00
Gascoigne - 10m - rpitroda - 11:16


Full-backs:


Juan Pablo Sorin - 10m - Walkin - 09:35
Zabaleta - 10m - Walkin - 09:35
Camacho - 30m - Sammer's Hammer - 10:00
Benarrivo - 10m - Isotope - 11:00
(TP) Dani Alves - 10m - rpitroda - 11:11



Centre-backs:


Carles Puyol - 10m - Walkin - 09:35
Pique - 10m - Walkin - 09:35
Chiellini- 10m - Walkin - 10:24

GKs
 
One of the worst tactical decisions ever :(. We almost turned the game around after we changed it at halftime.

Yeah, well. He kept Maradona fairly quiet, though. Which was my point.

I don't think you'd have fared any better going for a more direct approach, for what's it worth. Who knows what would have happened if you'd left Maradona largely to his grand self in that first half.
 
Can't believe Henry will go for 10m. Would have been perfect for me if he wasn't TP.

Edit - And Figo for 15m! :mad:

Severe lack of top wingers when you see Ribery and Robben in a list of four.
 
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Yeah, well. He kept Maradona fairly quiet, though. Which was my point.

I don't think you'd have fared any better going for a more direct approach, for what's it worth. Who knows what would have happened if you'd left Maradona largely to his grand self in that first half.
Förster took over at halftime, think he did a better job and it meant that Matthäus was free to influence the game more. We definitely had more control of the game in the 2nd half. Difficult to say how it would have panned out if we started with Förster on Maradona. In the end Schumacher's mistake for the first goal probably cost us the game.

Regarding Matthäus in a more defensive role. I consider post-injury libero Matthäus still an excellent player, which says a lot about how complete he actually was in his prime. He was 38 when he went off the pitch in '99 and still highly influential in a team that should have won that one missing trophy in his almost perfect career :(.
 
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Riquelme all day long. He's got the perfect platform infront and behind to strut his stuff. Beautiful.

It depends who the other team fields, though. If they`ve got Redondo or Pirlo back there, I`d be tempted to play Enrique.
 
Förster took over at halftime, think he did a better job and it meant that Matthäus was free to influence the game more. We definitely had more control of the game in the 2nd half. Difficult to say how it would have panned out if we started with Förster on Maradona. In the end Schumacher's mistake for the first goal probably cost us the game :(.

Hehe - you keep believing that, mate. You weren't meant to win that match - Schumacher or no Schumacher.

Granted, it played out differently than one might've expected. But Maradona decided it in the end, with his pass to Burruchaga - and he might have decided it earlier too with another pass, when he played Giusti free in a brilliant sequence which ended with a great Burruchaga chance.

Anyway - we'll never know how it would've panned out with Förster on Maradona from the first minute - but we do know he didn't manage to contain Maradona any better than Lothar did, all things said and done. Which is the salient point when discussing Lothar, specifically.
 
With Riquelme in the team, you don't really get the best out of prime Matthäus anyway, in my opinion and he definitely can do a more defensive job. It's just not the worldcup 90 or Inter Matthäus, but he's rarely used in one of these drafts in his best role anyway for some strange reason.

I remember @Annahnomoss basically playing him as a DM in the worldcup draft :(.

It is because an attacking CM is much lower rated than a Maradona or a Pele instead. So almost always it is better to play the CM pushed down in to a 4-2-3-1 as if you want to stick with Matthaus there instead of Pele/Maradona you won't be likely to win.

Matthaus suffers especially as he is so highly rated defensively as well.
 
Hehe - you keep believing that, mate. You weren't meant to win that match - Schumacher or no Schumacher.

Granted, it played out differently than one might've expected. But Maradona decided it in the end, with his pass to Burruchaga - and he might have decided it earlier too with another pass, when he played Giusti free in a brilliant sequence which ended with a great Burruchaga chance.

Anyway - we'll never know how it would've panned out with Förster on Maradona from the first minute - but we do know he didn't manage to contain Maradona any better than Lothar did, all things said and done. Which is the salient point when discussing Lothar, specifically.
Yeah, I really meant it as a bad tactical decision mainly because it hurt us so much to basically loose Matthäus, not because Matthäus was bad at the job.