Boards.ie World XI - Left Back

Morzadec

Voting for centre-back closes tomorrow.

Maicon joined Casillas as the second member of the team yesterday.

Next up is Left-Back. One vote only. I've put in 9 options, and I've tried to give enough choice without including too many outside shots. Some of you are going to bitch and moan about someone being in, or someone being left out. All I can say is that whoever I have put in/left out is not going to make any difference to the outcome of the poll. The winner is clearly amongst the above 9 players so if we could keep the complaining to a minimum...

Poll will close in 3 days time.

If anyone has any suggestions of how else to organise the voting for the midfield/attacking mid/striker positions, feel free to suggest. I think the way I have suggested (in the GK poll OP) probably makes the most amount of sense, but if you disagree with it speak up now before we move on to these positions.

Raskolnikov

Marcelo should be in there - certainly more so than Abidal.

ChumpStain

Think people were critical of the right back vote being very premier league centric but you can't argue that Cole and Evra are up there in world football terms. It's between those two and Lahm for me.

ShoulderChip

Balls why could we not have had Dani Alves?

Also abidal being there ahead of Santon is a disgrace.

but seriously well done on keeping this up OP

eddiehead

I went for Cole, he had a fantastic season IMO, this time last year I'd have said Evra, I just don't see enough of Lahm(same as the rb vote re Maicon)

ChumpStain

ShoulderChip wrote: »

Balls why could we not have had Dani Alves?

Also abidal being there ahead of Santon is a disgrace.

Alves is a right back though. As for Santon he didn't play many games for Inter last season did he, not more than 20 surely? He'll probably be in these types of polls for years to come though.

Seconded on the well done OP, good job!

JPA

Santon is a RB as well though.

Smegball

Evra for me

Pro. F

Evra got my vote. His defensive positional play, his strength and his attitude for me are what set him apart. He gets up and down the line all day, the amount of work he gets through is unreal. He is often one of United's most important attacking threats as games wear on and everybody else tires -in spite of the fact that he has been getting forward from fullback all game - this shows his attitude and physical ability imo.

He went through a dip in form earlier this year, along with the entire United defence, and during that time he was often left with no cover from the midfield. but he came back strong to finish out the season. And over all in the last two seasons he has been at the top of the world game. The best leftback in the world imo.

Morzadec

For me its Ashley Cole. Fullback is a position where defending and attacking are in many ways equally important, and for me he's the most consistently solid LB in attack and defence. It's rare that a winger will get the better of him and I've rarely seen him make a terrible mistake/have a shocker (that slip for Liverpool's second goal at Anfield this year is the only exception I can think of).

Mr. Guappa

Ashley Cole by a distance for me, and I'm a Spurs fan!

Seaneh

ShoulderChip wrote: »

Balls why could we not have had Dani Alves?

Also abidal being there ahead of Santon is a disgrace.

but seriously well done on keeping this up OP

I'm calling you on this one tbh.

Santon is very good for an 18 year old, and will b a great player, but he is a right back who played out of position a few times last season, he started feck all games and was a sub a few times, he isn't even Inters first choice at either left or right back and won't be for a while yet as they are lucky enough to have two very good Brazilians (Maxwell and Maicon).

Seaneh

I picked Evra, for me he has been, over the last 2 and a half seasons, the best left back in the world.
Pace, good positional sense, strong in the tackle, great with the ball at feet and good distribution.
Only weakeness is his height but even with that he has an alright spring and can compete with most players in the air.

Pro. F

Yeah, well done op. This is all going very smoothly. and as you say, nobody important has been left out with scope for people to vote for the more out-there options that they might want (that goes for all the polls so far btw).

I liked your first suggestion of 4231 with a varied type of player to choose from in the AM slots.
Sure if there are any big problems we could have re-worked poles if they're needed afterwards. (Eg if a cb pairing gets picked that obviously lacks speed we could then vote to keep one or the other of the slow centre backs and pair him with the third choice.) imo there won't be any problems with the 3 AM slots.

Xavi6

Abidal?! Might as well have Djimi Traore.

Morzadec

Xavi6 wrote: »

Abidal?! Might as well have Djimi Traore.

He beats (or at least did beat) both Evra and Clichy to the France left-back slot. He starts for the best team in Europe. Didn't really feel like I could leave him out to be fair.

chalad07

Got to be Cole, with Evra a close second.

There's no way Abidal should be included - consistently one of Barca's weakest links.

Seaneh

Barca's second weakest player infact.

their captian being the weakest.

titan18

Lahm is the best left-back here.Fifa and Uefa think so too, as he's on their teams of the year.Evra was shown at times last year to be weak defensively, and whilst I love him as a player, I wouldn't rate him above Lahm, and I think Clichy would push him.

Only reason why Lahm won't get in as I doubt many people here see him play too much.

~Rebel~

I actually thought Abidal had quite a good season. (not picking him, but deserves to be in the list imo)

postalservice

Zhirkov and Jankulovski are class whenever I see them.
Going to pick Lahm though. He's always on my Dream Pro Ev team:pac:

PHB

Ashley Cole at Arsenal was the best full back I've ever seen imo. When he went to Chelsea, he lost a lot of his attacking ability I think.

Evra for me personally. Defensively and offensively strong, a good solid balance.

Much more top class LB's than there are RBs.

gustavo

Went for Ashley Cole in the end

Pro. F

I'll be very interested to see how evenly, or not, the votes are spread amongst Evra, Lahm, Clichy and Cole. Those four are a level above the rest imo and they are each great players.

Eire-Dearg

Much stronger competition here then the right back spot. Glad to see Zhirkov in there, class player, and he's just as good if not better for Cole's spot next season. I like Evra, despite me being a Liverpool fan but he's a decent defending and attacking, but after the season he had I went for Ashley Cole. Unfortunately.

evil_seed

Capdevilla for me. Very good defender, great going forward and always a danger from set pieces

curry-muff

Hands down evra

Bobalicious93

Went for Cashley, as much as I hate him.

This time last year I would have picked Evra without a moments hesitation, but after he came back from his injury this season, he really wasn't the same player at all.

Clichy came into consideration aswell, but Cole shades it for me.

Bubs101

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

Much stronger Premiership competition here then the right back spot..

Fixed, Maicon and Alves are better than all the choices here. Went for Cole but if I were picking a world XI I'd just put Chiellini there and two other centre halfs

Eire-Dearg

Bubs101 wrote: »

Fixed, Maicon and Alves are better than all the choices here.

Don't know about Alves Bubs, but Maicon definately if he was an out and out left back. Evra, Cole and to a lesser extent Clichy all happen to play in EPL but tbh are all class. And why did you add "Premiership" in there? Lahn and Jankulovski are fair game, don't know about Abidal though.

RE: Djimi Traore, he's now a free agent - bring him back for the laugh.

Pro. F

Bubs101 wrote: »

...Maicon and Alves are better than all the choices here. Went for Cole but if I were picking a world XI I'd just put Chiellini there and two other centre halfs

That's crazy crazy talk. How you could say that Alves is a better full back than Evra, Cole, Lahm and Clichy is beyond me.
And Chiellini as the best leftback in the world..?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Bubs101

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

Don't know about Alves Bubs, but Maicon definately if he was an out and out left back. Evra, Cole and to a lesser extent Clichy all happen to play in EPL but tbh are all class. And why did you add "Premiership" in there? Lahn and Jankulovski are fair game, don't know about Abidal though.

RE: Djimi Traore, he's now a free agent - bring him back for the laugh.

Because the right back option had no Premiership frontrunners, I assumed that's what made you say competitive. The fact that O'Shea got 20 votes is a joke in itself

As for Chiellini at left back, it's where he started out with Juve and gained attention in the first place, where everyone else noticed him at first in the national fold and he'd be top 3 in this list at least with Cole and Lahm

Eire-Dearg

Bubs101 wrote: »

Because the right back option had no Premiership frontrunners, I assumed that's what made you say competitive.

It's competitive because I could've gone for more than one worthy enough option, at right back, for me, Maicon was a dead cert. That's what made me say competitive.

Warper

I'm goin with Ashley Cole here.

I dont why people are lambasting Abidal - he is France's/Barca's first choice LB and is a quality player.

Zhirkov is quality too but is he not more a left-sided midfielder?

PHB

Because he was really ****e in the one game most people saw him in Like really really ****e

titan18

Bubs101 wrote: »

Fixed, Maicon and Alves are better than all the choices here. Went for Cole but if I were picking a world XI I'd just put Chiellini there and two other centre halfs

Nah, Lahm is a better player than Maicon or Alves, and I'd have voted for him in over Maicon at RB.

Glico Man

It was between Zhirkov and Lahm for me. Both excellent at getting forward and also defending.

I would have probably picked Chiellini if he was there because he was excellent for Juve when he was at LB.

And because I see Zhirkov more as a left mid or winger than LB, I plumped for Lahm.

Eire-Dearg

Zhirkov will get loads of recognition at Chelsea, and this time next year be one of the best left sided players in the world.

enviro

Evra gets my vote

Morzadec

Bubs101 wrote: »

Because the right back option had no Premiership frontrunners, I assumed that's what made you say competitive. The fact that O'Shea got 20 votes is a joke in itself

As for Chiellini at left back, it's where he started out with Juve and gained attention in the first place, where everyone else noticed him at first in the national fold and he'd be top 3 in this list at least with Cole and Lahm

I decided to have players only contending for one position. No double ups. And I'm putting people in where they have predominantly played recently. So that's why Alves and Chiellini are missing here, they have there shot at their own respective positions and aren't going to be given 2 chances to get in. Plus, while being unlikely, it could lead to a messy situation of seeing Chiellini in both the CB and LB slot, or Alves in both the LB and RB slots. So I think it makes sense just to leave them to challenge one position.

As for Zhirkov, I realise he can play further up the field, but this is where I have seen him play for Russia. And he possibly wouldn't warrant a nomination in the AMF/Winger category considering the amount of top top players in these positions. So I decided that he should contest the LB spot.

JPA

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

Zhirkov will get loads of recognition at Chelsea, and this time next year be one of the best left sided players in the world.

He won't be playing Left back, thats for sure.

carlop

Sentiment got the best of me. When the results are in and Evra, Cole or Lahm win, and deservedly so, people will notice that some idiot voted for Grosso.

I am that idiot, and am now going to watch his goal against Germany in 2006 again.

witnessmenow

I voted for cole, dont like him but he's a good player. Evra had quite a poor finish to the season imo, if you asked me this time last year it would have been him but i dont think he deserves it this year

flahavaj

Paddy Evra.

Pro. F

Bubs101 wrote: »

As for Chiellini at left back, it's where he started out with Juve and gained attention in the first place, where everyone else noticed him at first in the national fold and he'd be top 3 in this list at least with Cole and Lahm

I wouldn't rate him anywhere near the top 3 at left back that's for sure. But it would be boring if nobody disagreed and all that.

redzerdrog

last year would have been easilly evra but i taught he was **** last season and went really backwards.

automaticflare

redzerdrog wrote: »

last year would have been easilly evra but i taught he was **** last season and went really backwards.

i wouldnt have said ****e, bit of a rocky patch after the carling cup final but regained most of his form toward the back end of last season.....

Evra for me

JPA

I think Evra was exhausted last year, does he have any cover in that position?

fkt

So Clichy and Abidal are better than Aurelio? Where's Marcelo?

From that lot I have to go for Lahm.

JPA

fkt wrote: »

So Clichy and Abidal are better than Aurelio? Where's Marcelo?

From that lot I have to go for Lahm.

Clichy is, Marcelo is crap. Abidal debatable.

Nalz

Evra is probably the most balanced LB, but he had a rocky 4 weeks with United last season.

Liability infact for that peroid.