World Cup Draft Round 2: Mr. Guappa v curry-muff

The Volt

Round 2 is underway. Best of luck to all. Feel free to copy and paste the bulk of your original post from the previous round and then tamper with it a little based on your opponent.

Mr. Guappa

curry-muff

My Team:


Curry-muffs Team:


I think curry-muff has a team of mainly good players, but I don't see how they will knit together as a unit. I think my midfield will pass the ball and link the play a lot more effectively than my opponents. Gerrard has never been a central midfielder who will control the tempo of a game, while Busquets and Melo are not creative, with no full backs as an out ball, I can see the ball been knocked to the back and then hit long, which will suit my back 4 down to the ground. He basically has a 5-0-5 formation.

I don't like the shape of his team. His defence is very narrow and I feel Mueller and Dempsey, with assistance from Cole and van der Wiel will be able to exploit this space and drag his defence out of position, creating problems in the centre with attackers arriving form the opposite flank. The movement and pace of my attacking quartet of Eusebio, Fabregas, Mueller and Dempsey will pull this 3 man backline all over the pitch, creating plenty space for my team to score. The defensive work of Kalou and Sanchez will also be less than stellar, so I think I can score plenty.

I think my defence will be able to deal sufficiently well with curry-muffs attack. Cole and van der Wiel, assisted by Mueller and Dempsey will take care of Sanchez and Kalou, while Chiellini and Bruno Alves will have enough to deal with the long balls coming up to van Basten and Suarez. With Zokora and van Bommel in and around Gerrard, its left up to Busquets and Melo to pierce my defence with a through-ball, which is something I am confident they won't be capable of.

I would also like to point out that van Basten was a poor pick in the World Cup Legends round. He played in one World Cup, and failed to score. In fact his international record is a fairly ordinary 24 goals from 58 appearances. I think this should be taken into account when gauging the potency of curry-muffs attack.

I think I will win this game 3-0.

curry-muff

Right lads here goes:

As Guappa pointed out my team lines out like this:



No changes from the first round as I am playing against a somewhat similar formation.

Id first like to dispell the bull**** misconceptions that were posted about my team, I picked my team based on how they would work as a unit and I believe I have a good balance in all honesty, my two defensive midfielders I would rank in the top 10 defensive midfielders in International football and although he claims Gerrard is there to control the game, that is quite untrue, it will be left to the passing and distributional quality of Busquets and Melo who have their choice of Gerrard, Kalou or Sanchez to give it to.

Giving it to either Kalou or Sanchez will pose a huge threat down the wings causing problems to Cole and Van der Wiel as im not so sure that his plan of them being assisted by Dempsey or Muller will help much, from watching both players they simply aren't the sort to track back, while passing to Gerrard will leave him to do the job he does best, picking out a killer pass to the forwards.

In the forward line, I had a chuckle to myself while reading that van Basten isn't a threat, himself and Suarez both have an unbelievable eye for goal and would certainly threaen any defense in this game.

In defence Im glad that Im facing another one man forward line and although it may be Eusebio im sure that an on form Ferdinand would do a decent job at limiting his threat. Im also under the opinion that Fabregas shouldnt be played so far up the field as he would need to be supported by outstanding passing players like he is in the Spanish jersey, van Bommel and Zokora while good at breaking up play I dont see as good passers, hence leaving all the work of bringing the ball forward to the two full backs, who will have their hands tied by Kalou and Sanchez.

Im not going to be drawn in and predict an outlandish score like 3-0, my prediction would be a very close game but I think that my team would edge this one either 2-1 or 3-2 in a very open game.