Which club has the best XI of players who aren't "theirs"?

V.O.

Last Man Standing finalist 2019/20
Joined
Jan 12, 2019
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Bit of an international break type thread in the spirit of talking about something other than the current disaster and/or impending future disasters. Idea nicked from here and here.

Which team can put together the best side made out of players that played for them but peaked elsewhere and otherwise just aren't really associated with that club? All pretty subjective of course, but I'd say a player can be associated with more than one club, so even though (non-fat) Ronaldo peaked with Madrid, he's obviously seen as a United player as well, so I wouldn't have him in a United XI.

Can anybody beat AC Milan?

Lehmann
Reiziger Bonucci Ayala Ziege
Vieira
Beckham Davids
Rivaldo
Ronaldo Baggio
​
Maybe Baggio is cheating a bit as he was there a couple of years, but I can't picture him in anything other than a Juve (or maybe Brescia) shirt at club level. If so, they could do a straight swap for Vieri or stick Essien in midfield and do a flat 4-4-2 with Davids on the left and Rivaldo up front. Stam wasn't there long, but it's too easy for me to picture him in a Milan top so he's out. It's also too easy to see past it Ronaldinho with his hair band and that.

I'd guess Madrid, Chelsea, or one of the other big Italian teams might be able to match or better it?
 
V.O. said:
Bit of an international break type thread in the spirit of talking about something other than the current disaster and/or impending future disasters. Idea nicked from here and here.

Which team can put together the best side made out of players that played for them but peaked elsewhere and otherwise just aren't really associated with that club? All pretty subjective of course, but I'd say a player can be associated with more than one club, so even though (non-fat) Ronaldo peaked with Madrid, he's obviously seen as a United player as well, so I wouldn't have him in a United XI.

Can anybody beat AC Milan?

Lehmann
Reiziger Bonucci Ayala Ziege
Vieira
Beckham Davids
Rivaldo
Ronaldo Baggio
​
Maybe Baggio is cheating a bit as he was there a couple of years, but I can't picture him in anything other than a Juve (or maybe Brescia) shirt at club level. If so, they could do a straight swap for Vieri or stick Essien in midfield and do a flat 4-4-2 with Davids on the left and Rivaldo up front. Stam wasn't there long, but it's too easy for me to picture him in a Milan top so he's out. It's also too easy to see past it Ronaldinho with his hair band and that.

I'd guess Madrid, Chelsea, or one of the other big Italian teams might be able to match or better it?
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Ibra, Falcao/Larsson, AdM, Varane, Pique, Casemiro, Schweinsteiger, is a really good spine. Just needs a GK and fullbacks.

E - Valdes
 
Chelsea... playing a 2-3-5 formation

Thibault Courtois
Marcel Desailly
Thiago Silva
Kevin De Bruyne
Juan Sebastian Veron
Scott Parker
Mohammed Salah
Fernando Torres
Samuel Etoo
Romelu Lukaku
Andriy Shevchenko

I originally included Vialli but he became a bit of a Chelsea legend I guess... They're spoilt for choice there with Mark Hughes and Pierluigi Casiraghi there too
 
Gazza said:
Chelsea... playing a 2-3-5 formation

Thibault Courtois
Marcel Desailly
Thiago Silva
Kevin De Bruyne
Juan Sebastian Veron
Scott Parker
Mohammed Salah
Fernando Torres
Samuel Etoo
Romelu Lukaku
Andriy Shevchenko

I originally included Vialli but he became a bit of a Chelsea legend I guess... They're spoilt for choice there with Mark Hughes and Pierluigi Casiraghi there too
Click to expand...
Gullit definitely warrants a spot too.
 
berbatrick said:
Ibra, Falcao/Larsson, AdM, Varane, Pique, Casemiro, Schweinsteiger, is a really good spine. Just needs a GK and fullbacks.

E - Valdes
Click to expand...

Premier league winning fullbacks in a 4-4-2 (no woke nonsense formations)

Valdes
Simpson - Pique - Varane - De Laet
Di Maria - Casemiro - Bastian - Zaha
Ibra - Falcao
​
Bench: Owen, Cavani, Larsson,Smith

Lots of strikers. Does RVP qualify too?
 
Squeaky_Bum_Time said:
Premier league winning fullbacks in a 4-4-2 (no woke nonsense formations)

Valdes
Simpson - Pique - Varane - De Laet
Di Maria - Casemiro - Bastian - Zaha
Ibra - Falcao
​
Bench: Owen, Cavani, Larsson,Smith

Lots of strikers. Does RVP qualify too?
Click to expand...
Owen is a great call, totally forgot about him. Probably deserves to start.

RvP had one good year but it was so iconic I think he's properly associated with the club now.

Also reading PL winning fullbacks and then seeing those names :lol:
I guess Simpson was not terrible!
 
Squeaky_Bum_Time said:
Premier league winning fullbacks in a 4-4-2 (no woke nonsense formations)

Valdes
Simpson - Pique - Varane - De Laet
Di Maria - Casemiro - Bastian - Zaha
Ibra - Falcao
​
Bench: Owen, Cavani, Larsson,Smith

Lots of strikers. Does RVP qualify too?
Click to expand...
Why not Ronaldo?
 
Squeaky_Bum_Time said:
Premier league winning fullbacks in a 4-4-2 (no woke nonsense formations)

Valdes
Simpson - Pique - Varane - De Laet
Di Maria - Casemiro - Bastian - Zaha
Ibra - Falcao
​
Bench: Owen, Cavani, Larsson,Smith

Lots of strikers. Does RVP qualify too?
Click to expand...
Surely we include Ronaldo and RVP over Zaha and Falcao as they both had their peaks elsewhere, surely we could find a place for Veron, Stam & Heinze who arguably peaked elsewhere?
 
AngeloHenriquez said:
Surely we include Ronaldo and RVP over Zaha and Falcao as they both had their peaks elsewhere, surely we could find a place for Veron, Stam & Heinze who arguably peaked elsewhere?
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Hammondo said:
Why not Ronaldo?
Click to expand...

I understood the question as players the casual fan would be surprised to know they played for United. To @berbatrick ‘s point, even someone like RVP might not qualify then because it was short at United but iconic.

From the op:
I'd say a player can be associated with more than one club, so even though (non-fat) Ronaldo peaked with Madrid, he's obviously seen as a United player as well, so I wouldn't have him in a United XI.
Click to expand...
 
It gets more challenging if you only look at players who reached their peak after their time at the club in question. A lot of clubs basically made signing washed up superstars their bread and butter (AC Milan in particular).

Southampton's XI of former academy players who are at best barely associated with their first team is simply outrageous.

Lezama
White - Mings - Shaw - Bridge
Oxlade-Chamberlain - Wise
Walcott - Musiala - Bale
Shearer​
 
Gazza said:
Chelsea... playing a 2-3-5 formation

Thibault Courtois
Marcel Desailly
Thiago Silva
Kevin De Bruyne
Juan Sebastian Veron
Scott Parker
Mohammed Salah
Fernando Torres
Samuel Etoo
Romelu Lukaku
Andriy Shevchenko

I originally included Vialli but he became a bit of a Chelsea legend I guess... They're spoilt for choice there with Mark Hughes and Pierluigi Casiraghi there too
Click to expand...

Gullit, Weah, Deschamps, Falcao.
 
Red Stone said:
It gets more challenging if you only look at players who reached their peak after their time at the club in question. A lot of clubs basically made signing washed up superstars their bread and butter (AC Milan in particular).

Southampton's XI of former academy players who are at best barely associated with their first team is simply outrageous.

Lezama
White - Mings - Shaw - Bridge
Oxlade-Chamberlain - Wise
Walcott - Musiala - Bale
Shearer​
Click to expand...

Can we really count Musiala for Southampton? He spent 1 year in their academy aged 7-8. That's literally it. If that counts, then it opens up the door for many clubs. John Terry spent a few years (aged 10-13) in West Ham's academy for example.
 
West Ham
David James
Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand, Javier Mascherano, Stuart Pearce
Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick, Paul Ince, Joe Cole
Tevez, Jimmy Greaves
 
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duffer said:
Courtois
Ferrer Silva Desailley Luis
Hoddle Deschamps Deco
Robben Greaves Gullit

Spoiled for choice in attack, not so much in the full back positions.
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As a Chelsea fan, do you not consider Desailly/Gullit/Robben/Silva & maybe Courtois (okay, him probably not) a significant part of your history? I'm trying to establish standards for myself of who fits into this criteria and who doesn't.

Obviously Chelsea isn't the first club that you think of when you think of those players but they left their pretty significant mark there. Not sure about Greaves too... ~ 130 goals in 4 seasons surely should disqualify him from this scenario, especially when you have the likes of Shevchenko, Torres, Falcao, Crespo etc. (even Sturridge although he would look out of place).
 
harms said:
As a Chelsea fan, do you not consider Desailly/Gullit/Robben/Silva & maybe Courtois (okay, him probably not) a significant part of your history? I'm trying to establish standards for myself of who fits into this criteria and who doesn't.

Obviously Chelsea isn't the first club that you think of when you think of those players but they left their pretty significant mark there. Not sure about Greaves too... ~ 130 goals in 4 seasons surely should disqualify him from this scenario, especially when you have the likes of Shevchenko, Torres, Falcao, Crespo etc. (even Sturridge although he would look out of place).
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I just went with "peaked elsewhere" as the only qualifier.
 
Southampton would give some of the big guns a game!

Shilton

Clyne
van Dijk
Fonte
Shaw

Case
Lavia

Keegan

Shearer
Mane
Bale
 
Hazard - L. Ronaldo - Robben
Kaká
Essien - Schuster
Alaba - R. Carvalho - Cannavaro - Hakimi
Illgner

Eto'o - Owen
Didi - Seedorf - Cambiasso - Beckham
T. Hernández - W. Samuel - Ruggeri - Panucci
Cañizares

Puskás
Mata - Sneijder - Ødegaard
Breitner - Kovačić
Zé Roberto - Heinze? - Woodgate? - Fabinho
Kepa​

Netzer, Hagi, Laudrup, Prosinečki, Morata, Saúl, Bale, Cassano, van Nistelrooy, M. Llorente, Makélélé (not sure about his actual peak, but nowadays he's usually linked with Chelsea), van der Vaart...

Made three teams for Real Madrid and there were still so many left! But the quality of defensive players started deteriorating too quickly. Tried to walk the fine line between players who still had brilliant careers with them and obvious flops and excluded those who are way too synonymous with Madrid in the public opinion despite not spending their best years there (Zidane, Figo... arguably L. Ronaldo & Puskás should count too but they were on the course of becoming GOATs at their actual peak and at Madrid they were just world class).

An XI of great players that left almost no mark on Madrid history:

Eto'o - Owen
------------------------------------------------------------------ Hazard - Essien - Fabinho - Didi (I keep shoehorning him on the wings!)
T. Hernández - W. Samuel - Carvalho - Hakimi
Cañizares (harsh)
​
Objectively the greatest that weren't quite as great as they were at their absolute peak (with preference to underperformers when possible):

Puskás - L. Ronaldo
Didi - Kaká/Netzer
Breitner/Schuster - Seedorf
Alaba - R. Carvalho - Cannavaro - Hakimi
Illgner​
 
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Aside from Milan (probably the the numero uno, if you include players who are missing in the original post like Redondo, Vierchowod and Gerets), Internazionale was the among first clubs that came time to mind for this theme. Lots of veteran signings who were a bit over-the-hill, as well as elite players who underperformed or peaked before and after joining them. Particularly during eras where the club was a bit of a basket-case and evidenced a helter-skelter approach in the mercato. Additionally, top Italian outfits have traditionally employed a laissez-faire attitude to players hop-skipping from one of 'em to another, which bolsters the selection pool.

Baggio—Batistuta
Carlos—Davids—Pirlo—Tardelli—Figo
Vidić—Sammer—Cannavaro
Peruzzi

Bench: Pelé, Bergkamp, Godín, Seedorf, Scifo, Vidal, Vieira, Bonucci, Panucci et cetera.
​
Quite the balanced, quintisentially Serie A, Starting XI from a tactical perspective. And there are 4 Ballon d'Or winner in there, so it's certainly not lacking in terms of quality and “stardust” either.
 
harms said:
Eh? The forgettable midfielder from the noughties or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
That selection was only made in jest, of course.

ezgif-5-3cc9dce9d8.gif
 
Don't have enough players in mind to form a full XI, but Fulham have a tasty list of players by reputation alone - VDS, Saha, Montella, Berbatov and even George Best.
 
Kaos said:
Don't have enough players in mind to form a full XI, but Fulham have a tasty list of players by reputation alone - VDS, Saha, Montella, Berbatov and even George Best.
Click to expand...
Good shout, much more interesting than obvious one like Internazionale.

By the way, this little known fella could be added to the selection pool as well (contingent on how rate his Fulham stint vis-à-vis his much more celebrated and enduring body of work at West Ham)...

ezgif-5-3cff3732b1.jpg


On a personal level, I'm not 100% sure. As he did quite well at Fulham (even guided them to an FA Cup final, which was rather unexpected); but so did some of the selections made thus far for other clubs.
 
Lewandowski
Simonsen - Maradona - Griezmann
Davids - Fabregas
van Bommel
F. de Boer - Blanc - Thuram
Onana​

I'd say Cruyff too but he's too iconic for Barça — a bit like Zidane for Madrid from above but even more so.

Icardi, Rakitić, de Jong, Neeskens, Thiago, Ibrahimović, Coutinho, Dembélé, Pjanić, Sánchez, Gündoğan, Vidal, Touré, Cucurella, Riquelme, Motta?, Szczęsny, Todibo, van Bommel, Vermaelen, Koeman??, Larsson, Overmars, Litmanen, Kocsis, Czibor, Lineker?, Hughes, Prosinečki, Enke?, Mendieta, Krankl?, Grimaldo, Reiziger
 
Invictus said:
That selection was only made in jest, of course.

ezgif-5-3cc9dce9d8.gif
Click to expand...
I thought so but figured that if anyone knows about some obscure story of Pelé playing one exhibition game for Inter for a bazillion liras that would be you!
 
Invictus said:
Baggio—Batistuta
Carlos—Davids—Pirlo—Tardelli—Figo
Vidić—Sammer—Cannavaro
Peruzzi
​
Click to expand...
That’s a lovely team.
V.O. said:
​
Maybe Baggio is cheating a bit as he was there a couple of years, but I can't picture him in anything other than a Juve (or maybe Brescia) shirt at club level.
Click to expand...
Id say Baggio fits for Milan here, definitely peaked elsewhere.
 
harms said:
Eh? The forgettable midfielder from the noughties or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Hardly forgettable. Key figure for an iconic team(with a cheating scandal attached!) and scorer of the goal that ended the hegemony of Sacchi's Milan in CL...

Plus his kids played in the PL for years

Wait no it's not him. Didn't remember him at inter and after checking he didn't play for them in fact(he played for Torino). I'm stumped...
 
Barcelona get both Cruyff and Maradona, along with players like Kocsis and Czibor, and Fabregas, Thiago, etc. just from their own youth ranks. They otherwise suffer from getting the most out of R9 and Michael Laudrup, who've traveled so widely they're fairly crucial to the meta.

Reina
Thuram Blanc (Vermaelen? Couto?) Zambrotta
Davids
Fabregas Thiago/Toure
Cruyff Maradona
Lewandowski/Kocsis​
Bench: Riquelme, Sanchez, Prosinecki, Czibor, Hagi, Aguero, Henry et al.

Juventus' core would be something like Cristiano, Henry, M. Laudrup, Van der Sar, Vierchowod, Boksic, and arguably Kohler, Moller, Hassler, Dybala, Higuain, etc.

Tottenham exported a fair amount of talent in recent years - Kyle Walker, Sol Campbell, Bale, Modric, Carick, and probably others I'm forgetting - on top of hosting players like Davids, Lineker, Van der Vaart, and Berbatov.

I'm not sure Puskas for Madrid really meets the thread requirements at all, but like Pele for Inter or Valencia, there's probably a very cheeky argument Di Stefano should count for Barcleona.
 
giorno said:
Hardly forgettable. Key figure for an iconic team(with a cheating scandal attached!) and scorer of the goal that ended the hegemony of Sacchi's Milan in CL...

Plus his kids played in the PL for years

Wait no it's not him. Didn't remember him at inter and after checking he didn't play for them in fact(he played for Torino). I'm stumped...
Click to expand...
I didn't reply immediately since I couldn't decide on whenever you've mixed him up with Abedi in continuation of Invi's jest or not... yeah, Abedi was a great player and certainly not a forgettable one.
 
Invictus said:
Baggio—Batistuta
Carlos—Davids—Pirlo—Tardelli—Figo
Vidić—Sammer—Cannavaro
Peruzzi

Bench: Pelé, Bergkamp, Godín, Seeforf, Scifo, Vidal, Vieira, Bonucci, Panucci et cetera.
Click to expand...

Hell, Inter had Passarella for a minute, didn't they? They've generally been a true footballer's graveyard for as long as I've been watching.

What would a Valencia or Sevilla lineup look like?
 
These players peaked elsewhere even if they famously played for us.

Haaland—Lewandowski
Perisic—Bellingham—Pulisic
Votava—Gündogan
Akanji—Rüdiger—Hakimi
Lehmann

Immobile, Isak, Merino, Sousa, Fink, Rosicky, Bartra, Ginter, Witsel on the bench.
 
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Gullit ---------- van Nistelrooy ---------- Robben
Romário ------- L. Ronaldo
Cocu ---------- Lerby
Branthwaite -------- Alex ------------- Stam
Menzo

​
PSV aren't half bad! You have to go with the 1950's formation but still...
 
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