Chelsea & Liverpool players named in fans' team

Lemlin

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=355365&cc=5739

Liverpool duo Steven Gerrard and Luis Garcia have been named in the uefa.com Team of the Year 2005 alongside Chelsea's John Terry and Petr Cech.

Following a poll of users on the European governing body's website, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was selected as coach for the third year, with more than 1.5million votes were registered.


Arsenal captain Thierry Henry has finally been omitted after featuring in the fantasy XI every year since its inception in 2001. The France striker missed out by less than 0.4%.

Gerrard and Luis Garcia were among five newcomers to the side and the Reds captain narrowly beat England colleague Frank Lampard to a place in the midfield.

FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho and Barcelona team-mates Samuel Eto'o and captain Carles Puyol all made the XI, as did AC Milan's Andriy Shevchenko, Paolo Maldini and Cafu.

Juventus' Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved was placed in the left-midfield berth for the third year in succession after helping them lift the Scudetto last season.

The poll demonstrates the strength of Europe's `big three' leagues with all 11 players and one coach working in either the Barclays Premiership, Serie A or Primera Liga.

And the team in full is:

Petr Čech (Chelsea FC)
Cafu (AC Milan)
John Terry (Chelsea FC)
Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona)
Paolo Maldini (AC Milan)
Luis García (Liverpool FC)
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC)
Ronaldinho (FC Barcelona)
Pavel Nedvěd (Juventus)
Samuel Eto'o (FC Barcelona)
Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan)
Coach: José Mourinho (Chelsea FC)

Vokes

Can't argue with that (maybe Kaka instead of Garcia) - all excellent players.

Big Nelly

Good team but wasn't sure how Garcia got into the team. Maybe on performances in Europe but last season domestic form was very patchy to say the least.

I would rather Carra instead of Puyol.

TheDoc

Dont agree with Garcia i nthere at all at all at all.

I bet every vote for him was a liverpool fan, cause it cant be a REAL choice.

I prefer viewing the football pundits in media to give their 11, cause i feel its a better more neutral selection.

So how does that midfiled actually figure out?

Rhonaldhino

---

Gerrard

---

Nedved

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Garcia

I'd take Kaka i nthere anyday please, and Franky Lampard, or even Xabi Alonso who i feel is the best distributor and apsser of the ball since the prime bergkamp.

redspider

Petr Čech (Chelsea FC)
Cafu (AC Milan)
John Terry (Chelsea FC)
Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona) <---- I wouldnt agree with this
Paolo Maldini (AC Milan)
Luis García (Liverpool FC) <---- I wouldnt agree with this
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC)
Ronaldinho (FC Barcelona)
Pavel Nedvěd (Juventus)
Samuel Eto'o (FC Barcelona) <---- I wouldnt agree with this
Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan)
Coach: José Mourinho (Chelsea FC)


Nesta was better than Puyol. Indeed Carragher is better than Puyol.
Garcia is the weakest selection of the 11, and I'm a Liverpool fan! Beckham at RM would be better, or indeed Gerrard and put Lampard in CM. van R if he is on form would be better than Eto'o, arguably Rooney too, but there's also the likes of Crespo, the swedish lad at Juve, the young french striker at Juve also .... cant recall the names at the mo.

Kaka, also has a strong shout to get a place, and Messi is a talent. Ronaldo is still brilliant.

The problem with Henry is if you were picking a team, you'd have to set it up around him, as Arsene has done. But in a 4-4-2 system, where do you play him, not as a central striker, thats for sure. You could play him wide left in midfield, but you would need a very good left back who can cover 1.5 positions.

World-11 or Uefa-11's are all hypothetical, a stimulus for idle chat although perhaps football and Uefa or G-14, like the major US sports, should create an "All-Star" game, a once-off game for charity, two teams displaying the best there is in football on a once off occasion.

It would be ideal for those players that dont have a platform in their international teams, such as the George Weah's and arguably the George Best's. Maybe even the Damien Duff's?

I'm sure there would be a lot of fans, advertising, media interests in such an annual match.

redspider

The Rooster

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote:

Dont agree with Garcia i nthere at all at all at all.

I bet every vote for him was a liverpool fan, cause it cant be a REAL choice.

On the contrary, I bet very few of his votes came from England at all. As a Liverpool fan I probably wouldnt have him in a Liverpool XI, never mind a World XI.

However, the European public would have voted based mostly on his European form - which was excellent. Liverpool's 3 most important players on route to the final were, unquestionably, SG, JC and LG. To cap it off Garcia scored a critical hat-trick for Spain in the world cup playoff - probably securing his place on this team.

Nunu

Once again no Andrea Pirlo . He's constantly overlooked despite the whole Milan team being built around him. Was he even nominated? Also Zambrotta is unrivalled as the best full back in world football. The rest of the team I couldn't really argue with, although I do rate Coupet as the best goalie in europe but Cech was always going to get the nod with his goals conceded record. Also Juninho deserves a mention, I'd pick him or Pirlo over Garcia and push Ronaldinho out to the right.

zAbbo

Garcia would have got the nod from the Spanish public,who were following Liverpool, a team with a hugely popular spanish coach and 4 spanish players, of course Garcia was going to get in.

Not that it really matters of course

Fighting Irish

Lemlin wrote:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=355365&cc=5739



And the team in full is:

Petr Čech (Chelsea FC) Yes
Cafu (AC Milan) Yes
John Terry (Chelsea FC) Yes
Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona) Yes
Paolo Maldini (AC Milan) Yes
Luis García (Liverpool FC) No
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC) Yes
Ronaldinho (FC Barcelona) Yes
Pavel Nedvěd (Juventus) Yes
Samuel Eto'o (FC Barcelona) No
Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan) Yes
Coach: José Mourinho (Chelsea FC)

fixed :v:

Davei141

Atleast Garcia contributed immensely to us winning the champions league, what on earth did puyol do to merrit being on that list?

dr zoidberg

Why is José Mourinho the coach of the year? Rafael Benítez did unbelievably in managing to win the CL final with the players at his disposal. Mourinho has incredible resources whatever about his achievements, unlike Benítez. I would say that any half decent manager could win the Premiership with those resources. No matter how good he is there's always going to be question marks unless he takes over a mediocre team in a top league and transforms them into title contenders à la Wenger, Ferguson etc.

I'm not even a fan of Liverpool, but I can see that Benítez is a fantastic coach.

PiE

dr zoidberg wrote:

Why is José Mourinho the coach of the year?

I was wondering that myself... If it's based on CL only (and judging by Garcia's inclusion, it must be) that choice boggles the mind.

Lemlin

dr zoidberg wrote:

Why is José Mourinho the coach of the year? Rafael Benítez did unbelievably in managing to win the CL final with the players at his disposal. Mourinho has incredible resources whatever about his achievements, unlike Benítez. I would say that any half decent manager could win the Premiership with those resources. No matter how good he is there's always going to be question marks unless he takes over a mediocre team in a top league and transforms them into title contenders à la Wenger, Ferguson etc.

I'm not even a fan of Liverpool, but I can see that Benítez is a fantastic coach.

He Champions League title with Porto. And, chances are, he'll win it again with Chelsea in the foreseeable future.

wheres me jumpa

garcia and puyol are the two surprises. garcia in particular should never be mentioned in the same breath as the rest of the players.

Pepe LeFrits

I think there are 95 reasons why Mourinho got it last season.

Guy:Incognito

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

I think there are 95 reasons why Mourinho got it last season.

So if the guy who bought prtsmouth gives harry redknapp £200m and he buys Barce's Midfield, Real's Strikers and the 4 best defenders and best goalkeeper in the world, is he then teh best manager in the world?

Pepe LeFrits

Stekelly wrote:

So if the guy who bought prtsmouth gives harry redknapp £200m and he buys Barce's Midfield, Real's Strikers and the 4 best defenders and best goalkeeper in the world, is he then teh best manager in the world?

Don't know about manager, but if he can get that lot for £200m, then he's pretty damn good negotiator!

Guy:Incognito

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

Don't know about manager, but if he can get that lot for £200m, then he's pretty damn good negotiator!

I'm sur eMike Newell would put him in touch with someone who could help "grease the wheels".

FYI i picked the firure out of my head, Billionaires are fickle like that.

dr zoidberg

Lemlin wrote:

He Champions League title with Porto. And, chances are, he'll win it again with Chelsea in the foreseeable future.

That was 2004. This is the 2005 team.