All Time XIs

Mark

I've collated the various club/country/other XI's I've seen around the internet here because I enjoy that sort of thing. Personally I prefer the sort of XIs that would practically function (as a rule of thumb if there's defensive midfielder) rather than the strictly eleven best players as seems to infest the back of FourFourTwo. Edification on your club of choice would be welcome. Let's crack on.

World Team of the 20th Century (from wiki)

Lev Yashin

Carlos Alberto Torres | Franz Beckenbauer | Bobby Moore | Nílton Santos

Johan Cruijff | Alfredo Di Stéfano | Michel Platini

Garrincha | Diego Maradona | Pelé

In case you're unaware of what a badass The Lev was, read below.
"Lev Yashin is the only goalkeeper ever to win the European Footballer of the Year Award (1963). He is also believed to have blocked around 150 penalty kicks during his career; far more than any other goalkeeper in history. When asked for his secret, he would say the trick was "to have a smoke to calm your nerves, then toss back a strong drink to tone your muscles."


All Italian XIs taken from Football Italia, check it out for detailed player information.

AC Milan
Lorenzo Buffon

Tassoti - Baresi - Maldini

Trapattoni - Rijkaard - Liedholm

Rivera

Altafini - Van Basten - Nordahl

Internazionale

Zenga

Zanetti - Bergomi - Burgnich - Fachetti

Orialli - Matthaus - Suarez

Meazza - Ronaldo - Angelillo

Juventus

Zoff

Currureddu - Scirea - Gentile - Cabrini

Tardelli - Platini - Zidane - Boniperti

Sivori - Baggio


FC Bayern Munchen
S. Maier

K. Augenthaler - G. Schwarzenbeck - F. Beckenbauer - P. Breitner

M. Scholl - S. Effenberg - L. Matthäus

K. Rummenigge - G. Müller - G. Elber

Italy
Zoff

Scirea

Gentile - Baresi - Maldini - Facchetti

Conti - Rivera/Mazzola - Antognoni

Baggio - Riva

The Rivera/Mazzola thing is a joke at the perennial difficulty in picking between them for the national team. In the 1970 World Cup Italy would habitually start with one of them and then sub him off for the other at half time.


FA Cup team I've just found
Manager - Alex Ferguson

Schmeichel

S. Pearce - T. Adams - B. Moore - D. Irwin

Giggs - T. Brooking - S. Matthews

Cantona - Rush - Lineker

Steve_o

Manchester United all star XI in my view is:

.......................................1.Peter Schmeichel

2.Tony Dunne........4.Paul McGrath..........5.Steve Bruce........3.Denis Irwin

.........7.George Best...............6.Roy Keane..............11.Ryan Giggs

........................................10.Eric Cantona

...................9.Bobby Charlton.................. 8.Ruud Van Nistelrooy

leninbenjamin

Steve_o wrote:

Manchester United all star XI in my view is:

.......................................1.Peter Schmeichel

2.Tony Dunne........4.Paul McGrath..........5.Steve Bruce........3.Denis Irwin

.........7.George Best...............6.Roy Keane..............11.Ryan Giggs

........................................10.Eric Cantona

...................9.Bobby Charlton.................. 8.Ruud Van Nistelrooy

no Duncan Edwards or Dennis Law?

PiE

You don't have Savicevic in your Milan XI, thread is void.

DerekD Goldfish

PiE wrote:

You don't have Savicevic in your Milan XI, thread is void.

he didnt pick it channel 4 did

St. Pats Athletic al time 11
1. Anto Murphy
2.Anto Murphy
3.Anto Murphy
4.Anto Murphy
5.Anto Murphy
6.Anto Murphy
7.Anto Murphy
8.Anto Murphy
9.Anto Murphy
10.Anto Murphy
11.Anto Murphy

we all dream of a team of Anto Murphy's

PiE

Yea I noticed that after I posted, was just too lazy to edit. Apologies.

bucks73

Schmeichel
Neville Stan Johnson Irwin
Backham Keane Scholes Giggs
Yorke Cole

Think it was 442 readers that voted the treble winners as greatest team of all time.

Nalz

.......................................1.Peter Schmeichel

2.Tony Dunne........4.Paul McGrath..........5.Steve Bruce........3.Denis Irwin

.........7.George Best...............6.Roy Keane..................11.Ryan Giggs

........................................10.Paul Scholes

...................9.Bobby Charlton.................. 8.Eric Cantona

Steve_o

leninbenjamin wrote:

no Duncan Edwards or Dennis Law?

Don't get me wrong Duncan Edwards was good but Ryan Giggs is better, and Ruud Van Nistelrooy is probably not as skillful as Dennis Law was but he scored a hell of a lot more goals, and if i'm not mistaken that would make him a better striker!

patmac

bucks73 wrote:

Schmeichel
Neville Stan Johnson Irwin
Backham Keane Scholes Giggs
Yorke Cole

Think it was 442 readers that voted the treble winners as greatest team of all time.

I don't remember Stan playing for Utd and who's that Backham fella.:)

tdv

PiE wrote:

You don't have Savicevic in your Milan XI, thread is void.

No Donadoni either.

tdv

The "World Team of the 20th Century" is really stupid

Steve_o

tdv wrote:

The "World Team of the 20th Century" is really stupid

Bloody good team tho!!!:D

ROCKMAN

FA Cup team I've just found
Manager - Alex Ferguson

Schmeichel

S. Pearce - T. Adams - B. Moore - D. Irwin

Giggs - T. Brooking - S. Matthews

Cantona - Rush - Lineker[/QUOTE]

Now that's a team, with that back 4 (5) would you need a midfield? Giggs and Matthews running and crossing wow. Cantona pulling the strings and playing just behind the front two, a great finisher Rush and one of the greatest poachers in Lineker

Steve_o

ROCKMAN wrote:

FA Cup team I've just found
Manager - Alex Ferguson

Schmeichel

S. Pearce - T. Adams - B. Moore - D. Irwin

Giggs - T. Brooking - S. Matthews

Cantona - Rush - Lineker

No George Best??

bucks73

patmac wrote:

I don't remember Stan playing for Utd and who's that Backham fella.:)

Dunno how I made those typos.

Jimboo_Jones

Nottingham Forest

Peter Shilton

Burns - Walker - Viv Anderson - Pearce

McGovern - Keane - O' Neill - Robertson

Collymore - Francis

stovelid

MUFC (no use in going on about players not in my era, so no Best, Edwards, , Law etc)

Schmichael

Irwin, Bruce, McGrath, Neville
Coppell, Keane, Robson, Giggs,
Hughes, Cantona

subs: Van Nistelrooy, Rooney, Stovelid

ROCKMAN

Steve_o wrote:

No George Best??

i was quoting ordinal post
but yessss , no "greatest of all time team" can be name without Best.

iregk

I'd have to disagree with putting Steffano and out and out striker in central midfield. That said, its a hell of a team.

As for Milan, I'd personally go for Cudicini in goal and replace Trap with Savic...

Its an extremely close call between Rivera and Donadoni in my opinion. Both as good as each other.

Salmon

No Ruud Gullit in the Milan team?????????????

iregk

Well to be fair salmon, great player that he was Milan have had some amazing talent over the years. Gullit for me is a sub in this team.

Kind of like the way people are questioning Edwards omission from the united team. Lets not forget we never saw the best of him, he was cut down before he peaked so had he gotten another few years without a doubt yeah. As it stands he isn't up there with the all time greats.

Mitch Connor

iregk wrote:

As it stands he isn't up there with the all time greats.

Carefull, i know people that would hunt you down and gut you for saying that!

therecklessone

Tottenham XI:

GK: Pat Jennings
SW: Dave Mackay
CB: Danny Blanchflower
CB: Gary Mabbutt
RWB: Cliff Jones
DM: Steve Perryman
CM: Glenn Hoddle
CM: Ossie Ardiles
LWB: Cyril Knowles
CF: Jimmy Greaves
CF: Gary Lineker

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Jennings

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McKay

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Blanchflower

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Mabbutt

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Jones

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Knowles

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Hoddle

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Perryman

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Ardiles

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Greaves

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Lineker

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jem

Liverpool:
Clem
neal hansen lauro nicol
houton souness molby barnes
king kenny ian rush

subs aldridge, crazy horse,ronnie W, gobb.

Bodhidharma

My world XI (last 15 - 20 years)

4 - 4 - 1 -1
GK:Schmeichel
RB: Irwin
LB: Maldini
CB: Sammer
CB: Baresi
LM: Giggs
RM: Figo
CM: Keane
CM: Zidane
CF: Maradona (C)
CF: Batistuta

Subs: Casillias, Nesta, Romario, Stoichkov

United XI (same time period)

GK: Schmeichel
RB: Neville
LB: Irwin
CB: Pallister
CB: Bruce
LM: Giggs
RM: Beckham
CM: Keane
CM: Scholes
CF: Rooney
CF: Cantona (C)

Subs: Van Der Saar, Stam, Hughes, Robson

stovelid

therecklessone wrote:

Tottenham XI:

GK: Pat Jennings
SW: Dave Mackay
CB: Danny Blanchflower
CB: Gary Mabbutt
RWB: Cliff Jones
DM: Steve Perryman
CM: Glenn Hoddle
CM: Ossie Ardiles
LWB: Cyril Knowles
CF: Jimmy Greaves
CF: Gary Lineker

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Jennings

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McKay

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Blanchflower

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Mabbutt

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Jones

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Knowles

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Hoddle

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Perryman

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Ardiles

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Greaves

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Lineker

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Christ, good team when you think about it

raven136

Liverpool 11
Clem
Neal Hansen Carra Kenneddy

Liddel Sounsess Callaghan Barnes

King Kenny Rush

subs
Lawro
ian st john
Tommy smith
Molby
nicol

jem

raven136 wrote:

Liverpool 11
Clem
Neal Hansen Carra Kenneddy

Liddel Sounsess Callaghan Barnes

King Kenny Rush

subs
Lawro
ian st john
Tommy smith
Molby
nicol

While Carra is a good defender and puts his heart into everything he does , iMHO he doesn't come close to Lawro. Thst was some partnership he had with hansen.
I never saw liddle playing or indeen ian callaghan so i cant comment on them

raven136

i think for what carra has done consistently over the past 4 seasons puts him up there but its a tight call with lawro.
Hypia and henchoz had a hell of a partnership for a while under g.h.

Callaghan had a hell of a career at pool and to move from right wing to centre midfield and excell is amazing.
Never seen anything of Liddel myself but i know someone who regularly seen him in his heyday and said he was a genius.His stats and the fact the team was nicknamed "Liddelpool" when he played says it all

jank

World XI (last 20 years)
3-5-2
GK:Schmeichel

RB: Cafu
LB: Maldini
CB: Sammer

LM: Giggs
RM: Figo
CM: Keane
CM: Zidane
CM: Maradona (C)

CF: Ronaldo
CF: Van Basten

Subs: Buffon, L Mathaus, Bergkamp, Vieria, R Baggio

Royale with Cheese

Scew it I'll do an Arsenal one, beats studying.

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Premiership Arsenal XI

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Semen

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Dixon--Adams--Campbell--Cashley
Pires----Vieira---Cesc---Overmars

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Bergkamp--Henry

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Right I picked a Premiership XI cos I'm too young to remember pre Premiership days and don't want to be picking players based on one or two clips I've seen or on their reputations.

Classic Arsenal 4-4-2

Don't think there can be many arguments about the defense. Ok Cashley and Sol aren't looked upon too fondly by Arsenal fans now but they were the best in their position at their peak.

Ok Pires never really played right mid for Arsenal but he probably did on a few occasions and it'd be just stupid to have an Arsenal Premiership XI and not include both Pires and Overmars. Cesc could be replaced for Petit I suppose if you wanted to argue Cesc is still young etc, but to be honest I think he's a better player than Petit already.

Up front no room for Ian Wright. Bergkamp and Henry absolute geniuses at their peak.

tdv

World XI last 20 years

..............................Schmeichel..................................

Pessotto............Costacurta........Baresi...................Maldini

...............................Albertini......................................

Figo.......................................................................Zidane

.........................Maradona..........................................
...............................................Romario.......................

Subs. Cafu, Ayala, Keane,Van Basten, Ronaldo

iregk

Tauren wrote:

Carefull, i know people that would hunt you down and gut you for saying that!

And they would be fully entitled to. Just in my opinion a lot of people base their views on Edwards on what he could have been rather than what we actually got of him. Now we got a fantastic player, but a player we only saw for a few years until he was 21. Had it not been for the accident then we could/would be putting him in an all time world 11 never mind a united one.

kinaldo

Who needs defenders anyway, this is NEWCASTLE!

Given
Woodgate
Moncur
Keegan
Beardsley
Waddle
Gascoigne
Ginola
Solano
Shearer
Asprilla

subs: Milburn, Ferdinand, Cole, Lee, Speed

ROCKMAN

Bodhidharma wrote:

My world XI (last 15 - 20 years)

4 - 4 - 1 -1
GK:Schmeichel
RB: Irwin
LB: Maldini
CB: Sammer
CB: Baresi
LM: Giggs
RM: Figo
CM: Keane
CM: Zidane
CF: Maradona (C)
CF: Batistuta

Subs: Casillias, Nesta, Romario, Stoichkov

United XI (same time period)

GK: Schmeichel
RB: Neville
LB: Irwin
CB: Pallister
CB: Bruce
LM: Giggs
RM: Beckham
CM: Keane
CM: Scholes
CF: Rooney
CF: Cantona (C)

Subs: Van Der Saar, Stam, Hughes, Robson

good united team just one thing, Keane has to be captain in any united team from this time period IMO

Ronan|Raven

Longford Town

Sean Prunty
Sean Prunty
Sean Prunty
Sean Prunty
Sean Prunty
Sean Prunty
Sean Prunty
Sean Prunty
Sean Prunty
Sean Prunty
Sean Prunty

We all dream..

Galvasean

Team

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Pat Jennings

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Lee Dixon--Tony Adams--Paul McGrath--Roberto Carlos
Marc Overmars----Roy Keane---Zinedine Zidane---George Best

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Romario--Thierry Henry

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Mr.Nice Guy

How about an all-Ireland XI? Here's mine:

G: Pat Jennings

Denis Irwin
Paul McGrath
David O'Leary
Johnny Carey

M: Danny Blanchflower
M: Roy Keane
M: Johnny Giles
M: Liam Brady

F: George Best
F: Frank Stapleton

Mitch Connor

ROCKMAN wrote:

good united team just one thing, Keane has to be captain in any united team from this time period IMO

agreed, and in addition to that, i don't think Cantona was a good captain. He was a fantastic leader on the pitch and around the club, and seemed like the perfect choice, but some players don't handle the captaincy well. I thought his game suffered when he became captain. I also don't think captaincy has suited Neville, or Henry at Arsenal.

Bodhidharma

Being a captain isnt all about leading a team on the pitch. Captains are a symbol of the team and what the manager whats to show the opposition. In reality strikers or goalkeepers cannot be influential in terms of telling players what to do brcause they are too far away from most of them.

As a midfielder, Keane would have the most communication and influence on the pitech but Eric is the talisman, in much the same way as Maradona or Shearer was. Lets also not forget that Eric was Keane's captain.

jank

Cantona was way over rated IMO

iregk

jank wrote:

Cantona was way over rated IMO

I'd second that.

marius

tdv wrote:

World XI last 20 years

..............................Schmeichel..................................

Pessotto............Costacurta........Baresi...................Maldini

...............................Albertini......................................

Figo.......................................................................Zidane

.........................Maradona..........................................
...............................................Romario.......................

Subs. Cafu, Ayala, Keane,Van Basten, Ronaldo

Anyone else see anything wrong with this?

Trippie

ye, i think it is a problem with all greatest teams, people pick the players for that position but if all the greats are together there is no balance i think the modern day version of this is the milan mid-field individually pirlo and gattuso are ok but when they play together they complement each others strengths and weaknesses perfectly to become greater than the sum of their parts.


what makes these great players able to be great is the journey-men in the team, when maradona went to napoli he found it difficult in the beginning because the coach was picking the best players instead he went and changed it so that the players playing complemented his style of play thus making him able to play more effectively.

the team below has no balance and it would end up with romario up front on his own isolated from zidane, maradona and figo who again would be isolated from the defensive unit that is behind them, they would have no option of playing the long ball although the creative talents of the midfielders are unquestionable they would struggle against teams who pressurise them as there is no-one willing to do the treking back.

maldini always said that he was made look good as van basten made more tackels per game than anyone else and by the time the ball got to me the attackers were knackered and in the attacking part of this team i cant see anyone willing to get back and help out the defence

marius

Trippie wrote:

ye, i think it is a problem with all greatest teams, people pick the players for that position but if all the greats are together there is no balance i think the modern day version of this is the milan mid-field individually pirlo and gattuso are ok but when they play together they complement each others strengths and weaknesses perfectly to become greater than the sum of their parts.


what makes these great players able to be great is the journey-men in the team, when maradona went to napoli he found it difficult in the beginning because the coach was picking the best players instead he went and changed it so that the players playing complemented his style of play thus making him able to play more effectively.

the team below has no balance and it would end up with romario up front on his own isolated from zidane, maradona and figo who again would be isolated from the defensive unit that is behind them, they would have no option of playing the long ball although the creative talents of the midfielders are unquestionable they would struggle against teams who pressurise them as there is no-one willing to do the treking back.

maldini always said that he was made look good as van basten made more tackels per game than anyone else and by the time the ball got to me the attackers were knackered and in the attacking part of this team i cant see anyone willing to get back and help out the defence

Excellent analysis....however I was more referring to the fact that there is only 10 players....:D

quarryman

marius wrote:

Excellent analysis....however I was more referring to the fact that there is only 10 players....:D

brilliant

tdv

marius wrote:

Excellent analysis....however I was more referring to the fact that there is only 10 players....:D

There so good they only need 10. Eh stick Keane in there beside Albertini.

tdv

Trippie wrote:

ye, i think it is a problem with all greatest teams, people pick the players for that position but if all the greats are together there is no balance i think the modern day version of this is the milan mid-field individually pirlo and gattuso are ok but when they play together they complement each others strengths and weaknesses perfectly to become greater than the sum of their parts.


what makes these great players able to be great is the journey-men in the team, when maradona went to napoli he found it difficult in the beginning because the coach was picking the best players instead he went and changed it so that the players playing complemented his style of play thus making him able to play more effectively.

the team below has no balance and it would end up with romario up front on his own isolated from zidane, maradona and figo who again would be isolated from the defensive unit that is behind them, they would have no option of playing the long ball although the creative talents of the midfielders are unquestionable they would struggle against teams who pressurise them as there is no-one willing to do the treking back.

maldini always said that he was made look good as van basten made more tackels per game than anyone else and by the time the ball got to me the attackers were knackered and in the attacking part of this team i cant see anyone willing to get back and help out the defence

Yes very good post. But look at the World XI on in the first page. What balance dose that team have?

Pepe LeFrits

tdv wrote:

World XI last 20 years

GK: Zubizarreta
LB: Maldini
CB: Baresi
CB: Hierro
RB: Cafu
DM: Desailly
DM: Matthaus
AM: Zidane
AM: Maradona
AM: Baggio
CF: Ronaldo

aidan24326

Here's my world 11 from last 25 years or so (my memory goes back to about 83/84)

Rinat Dasayev

Lothar Matthaeus Paul McGrath Franco Baresi Paolo Maldini

Zinedine Zidane Michel Platini Roy Keane Diego Maradona

Marco Van Basten Romario


subs:

Neville Southall/Peter Schmeichel

Andy Brehme
Frank Rijkaard
Fabio Cannavaro
Paul Gascoigne
Hristo Stoichkov
Ronaldinho
Dennis Bergkamp
Jurgen Klinnsman
Ronaldo