World Cup Draft Rd 3: Frisbee v redzerdrog

The Volt

Match 1 of 2 in the third round. Necronomicon receives a bye.

redzerdrog

Frisbee

My Team:
Goalkeeper:
Minding the net for me is Denmarks Thomas Sørensen. He has a wealth of experience both at club and international level with 90 Caps for Denmark since coming into the the Danish side he had big boots to fill and he didnt let anyone down. At 6ft 5in he is a massive presance about him and is an all round solid player.

Defence:
My 2 Centre Backs are Germanys Per Mertesacker and Argentinas Martin Demichelis. This is close to a perfect partnership in Mertesacker I have a 25 year old that has played 69 times for germany. He is also 6ft 6in tall so to have a good footballing CB like Demichelis (6ft 1in) playing beside him I think they will make a great partnership at the heart of my defence.

My Fullbacks are Guy Demel and Geal Clichy. Both players are physically strong and very quick. They are Both very comfortable on the ball and also 2 very good defenders. Clichy has been arsenals regular LB for a number of years and he is only 24 and Demel is after having a great year playing RB for Hamburg.

Midfield
In centre Midfield are another 2 player I think would make a great partnership and compliment eachother very well. Schweinsteiger and Veron will both play as center Midfielders. Both players are comfortable with Both feet and they are both Great passers of the ball and should get plenty of assists between them. When defending both players will turn into DMs with Schweinsteiger in particular excelling in this role during the world cup. It will also be an advantage that either player can demand the ball and act as playmaker and dictate the pace of the game.

My Attacking Midfield trio of Kuyt, Platini and Ronaldinho I have everything a manager could Dream of. In Platini i have 1 of the best AM to have ever played the game this is the player that zidane always looked up too and rates him as France's Greatest ever footballer. Many of the French supporters will tell you the same and that isn't bad for a country that produced Zidane. Platini captained france the the europen championship and score 41 goals in 72 for his country. He is also a Freekick specialist.

Kuyt and Ronaldinho are both Big game players. Ronaldinho is after having a great season with Milan Scoring 15 goals and pitching in with 16 assists. Kuyt is in here as an amazing 8th round pick. He is now a World Cup Runner up having played a crucial role in holland getting there.

Centre Forward:
Fernando Torres when fit is the best centre in the world. Injuries dount count in this game and Torres was clearly not fit during this world cup and he still played a crucial part for spain in the earlier games with his clever running and flick ons he created a lot for others round him. He has everything in my opinion pace, power, heading, control and most of all finishing.

The 1st thing that stands out about my team is how well balanced the team is and the partnership throughout the team will make my team tick with so many players complimenting eachother. My team is also vastly experienced with plenty of club and international experience and well used to playing on the biggest stage.
We are solid defensively with plenty of help from midfield and that same midfield will be the platform to build attacks and with an the attacking quartet of torres, platini,rondaldinho and Kuyt getting supply from Schweinsteiger and veron I cant see scoring being a problem.

Captain: Platini
Vice Captain:Schweinsteiger
Penalties:Ronaldiho
Freekick:Schweinsteiger/Veron (outside shooting distance)
Freekicks: Platini/Ronaldinho
Corners:veron/Schweinsteiger

Frisbee

Here's my generic write up to start:


Pick 1: Wayne Rooney
Pick 2: Gerard Piqué
Pick 3: David Silva
Pick 4: Igor Akinfeev
Pick 5: Rafael van der Vaart
Pick 6: John Heitinga
Pick 7: Pelé
Pick 8: Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Pick 9: Raul Meireles
Pick 10: Emmanuel Eboué
Pick 11: Sulley Muntari


Team Line-up:

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Akinfeev

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Eboué

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Heitinga

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Piqué

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van Bronckhorst (C)

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Meireles

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Muntari

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van der Vaart

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Silva----

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Pelé

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Rooney

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My team is based on being compact, working well as a unit across the whole pitch and getting attacks started from the back with direct play and counter attacking football.

Akinfeev is a top keeper who will help keep me in games by himself, he has brilliant reactions and is well capable of spotting the right ball and launching my team onto the front foot with a quick kick out or long throw.

Piqué and Heitinga are a centre back pairing that I think is going to work very well together. Piqué will play in the more sweeper role, using his intelligence and reading of the game to mop up any balls that are put through over the top or inside the full backs to an overlapping attacker and he also has the pace, height and strength to go head-to-head with any striker and use these attributes to win the ball back. Heitinga on the other hand will be the 'attacker' of this pairing, man marking the opposition centre forward and using his strength and leap to match them in the air or on the ground. If the other team is playing two centra forwards Piqué is perfectly capable of stepping forward from the 'sweeper' position and man marking the other centre forward.

Neither Eboué or Gio are the most attacking of full backs but they both give me solidity and dependability. Eboué is the more attacking of the two, having often been utilised at right wing for Arsenal when defending a lead to give them more defensive cover. He has pace, power and stamina and will take on board any instructions given to him and stick to them. He will have licence to get forward when the opportunity presents itself, thus allowing van der Vaart to step slightly more central and closer to Pelé and allow them to use their skill in there.
van Bronckhorst will have less attacking licence than Eboue mainly as I want a minimum of three at the back at alll times. Gio is an experienced campaigner and someone of his experience will be a brilliant calming influence on my team and he will reprise the captains armband he holds at both Feyenoord and with the Dutch national team here again. He also scores cracking 30 yard stunners in World Cup semi-finals.

Meireles and Muntari were two players I was hapy with for the position I got them in the draw as both can do the job I require of them very well and both are established midfielders. Neither will be playing as the typical anchorman style of defensive midfielder, but rather they will be used to chase and hassle any opposition players on the ball and once again both have very high levels of physical fitness to keep this up throughout an entire game. Muntari is all about pace and power, has a good tackle and is not afraid to get stuck in. Meireles also gives me an outlet in front of Pique for ball distribution, he is a very good passer of the ball and can easily spray balls forward for the onrushing wingers and forwards.

In my two wide men I will be getting different styles of play. van der Vaart on the right will be playing as less of an out and out winger, rather cutting inside more onto his left foot to have a pop, in turn this space he leaves will be open for Eboué to make an overlapping run into. The idea of playing left footers on the right wing and vice versa allows for more shots on goal and getting van der Vaart to cut inside anywhere inside 25m of the goal can easily have disastrous effects for the other team.
Silva will be operating as a slightly more standard wide man, using his pace and trickery to go past his man and deliver quality service into the box, something he is undoubtedly capable of doing. There is also the unpredictability value when it comes to Silva too, if a defender is sick of seeing him go past him down the line constantly he may try and block the line off in which case allowing Silva to cut inside where he is equally dangerous either shooting or supplying Pelé.

Pelé. To be honest I don't think there's a whole lot I can do to describe this one for you. Recognised the world over ans one of the greatest players of all time and by FIFA as joint best player of all time this guy is going to bring something really different to my team. 1087 goals in 1120 games for his hometown club Santos is a crazy scoring record and that was not even him playing as an out and out striker, but rather playing in the hole behind the frontman which is the same role he will be occupying in my team. A player of his skill is certainly someone who needs to be rigorously marked for an entire game and by my than one player. IF anyone does try and do this it leaves more time and space for the likes of Rooney, VDV and Silva which is something no team wants to be doing. Operating between the opposition midfield and defence is going to see him get a lot of the ball with time to turn at it and drive straight at the heart of the opposition defence which is where he can really hurt a team.

Rooney has the ability to be a match winner all of his own and will cause trouble for any defence in this competition. He's not had a great World Cup but he's just had his best ever season with United and with a fantastic goal return too, however Rooney brings so much more than goals to a team. His willingness to chase down every lost cause and not give any opposition defenders any time whatsoever on the ball as putting defenders under pressure will often lead to you regaining possession in some shape or form. Lethal in the air, running at defenders and inside and outside the box Rooney is the complete forward and brings a work rate that is second to none to my team also. His intelligence in making runs will also be a huge factor to the success of my team, if he chooses to drop deep he will drag a defender out of position and leave space for Pelé to drift into or even VDV or Silva to cut in from the flank and drive at the exposed gap in an oppositions defence. He also has the pace to match any defender in reaching a ball played over the top.

In total five of my players made it to this years World Cup Final in total with two receiving Gold Medals.


vs. redzerdrog

As was highlighted in the last game my Xavi6, rebzerdrog's CB pairing is very poor imo. Demichelis had a mediocre season for Bayern and looked better than he did through van Buytren having a great season alongside him aswell as having the benefit of having Schweinsteiger and van Bommel in front of him. Schweinsteiger is there to help out this time but Veron is going to offer very little cover. Also Demichelis was shown to be week once he slotted into the Argentina team and was very poor, constantly caught out of position and showed a lack of concentration.

Mertesacker had a better World Cup and season with Werder and is a decent player, however I've seen buses that can turn faster than him and the pace of my forward line is going to rip that central defensive partnership a new one. Pelé in particular will love running at the heart of that defence as neither are good enough technically to keep him out of a game or physically to catch him if he does go past them.

At full back redzerdrog has solid if unspectacular player. Clichy gets forward a lot but there is very rarely an end product (unfortunately ) he is also coming off one of his poorest seasons to date with Arsenal, having missed several months through injury along with never reaching top form and being caught out a lot. Silva and VDV have more than enough in the tank to exploit these players and I'll be focusing a lot of my attack down that left hand side against Demel.

Platini was a great player and will certainly be a real threat, however having a solid back of four in the middle of the pitch in:

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Puyol----Heitinga----
---Meireles

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Muntari----

will severely limit the space he has to cause any problems. Heitinga will be man marking Torres also leaving Pique to sweep up any balls that break through (his best position imo) or go out and aid one of his full backs against a threat coming down the flank.

Eboué I admit will probably have a tough time against Ronaldinho, however I expect his fitness to come into play in a big way here, even if Ronny can get by him he certainly won't be able to out run him, leaving Piqué to a free role i the centre means he can come out to assist also.

Kuyt is a decent player, but not a great forward, he's not, imo, creative enough to be a proper out and out winger and I have absolutely no worries on van Bronckhorst's ability to keep him quiet out there.

Overall I think redzerdrog's team will certainly score once, maybe twice, but with a forward line like I have and a defence like he does I can't see him limiting me to less than three goals.

redzerdrog

Frisbee

The first advantage i see that my team has over frisbees is that mine is better balanced and no player playing just to fit them in.

Eboue was a RB but rarely plays there anymore for either club or country. The majority of the time we see him as a right midfielder these days probobly because he is just not very good at defending. I expect ronaldinho toi give him a torred time of it.

At left back is van bronkhurst while he is still solid enough he is now 35 years of age and nowhere near his prime and he wont have the legs to keep with kuyt who will run all day long. Van bronkhurst will also stay at home much of the match meaning that kuyt will be able to help out demel in stopping your only real creativity from a wide area.

At CB I am a big admirer of pique but his centre back partner is heitinga a player who I have seen buses turn quicker and has played everywhere EXCEPT CB for everton over the past year. IMO torres will get plenty of chances against these 2.

centre midfield I feel is by far the weakest part of frisbees team. you have meireles and muntari that will offer absolutely zero creativity. they will both spend the day chasing platinis shadow thus giving veron the pace to spray passes and dictate the pace of the game. Muntari inperticular is also a liabilty he is a headcase and liable to get sent off. We are at least cartain to get plent of free kicks off these.
With 6ft 6in mertesaker going up for the quality delivery into the box and platini and ronaldiho the free kick specialist i can see this being a major problem for frisbees team.

on the right wing you have van der vart who is the furthest thing from a right winger imo he is a central player and will cause major imbalance to the team. If he stays out wide he will be ineffective and if he comes inside schweinsteiger will be there to pick him up while clichy can bomb forward and heap even more pressure on eboue at RB

on the left is silva and i think he will be relied on for the majority of the creativity. I am glad I have kuyt on this side aswell as he can double up with demel when needed and also veron will be able to get over to help out so hopefully we can cut him out.

up front is awesome the only critisism is you could maybe have them the opposite way round.

all in all frisbees team is lethal up front but you cant score if dont have the ball. I cant see them keeping possesion for any period of time and also there is little to none creativity to set up attacks for the front men.

Frisbee

redzerdrog wrote: »

The first advantage i see that my team has over frisbees is that mine is better balanced and no player playing just to fit them in.

Eboue was a RB but rarely plays there anymore for either club or country. The majority of the time we see him as a right midfielder these days probobly because he is just not very good at defending. I expect ronaldinho toi give him a torred time of it.

Eboué played at RB for numerous times last season for Arsenal. Ronaldniho certainly has the skills to beat him. However Ronaldinho's commitment and attitude ceratinly have to be questioned a lot. As I said he will get by Eboué on occasion, but not as much as you might think.

redzerdrog wrote: »

At left back is van bronkhurst while he is still solid enough he is now 35 years of age and nowhere near his prime and he wont have the legs to keep with kuyt who will run all day long. Van bronkhurst will also stay at home much of the match meaning that kuyt will be able to help out demel in stopping your only real creativity from a wide area.

van Bronckhorst kept his place in a Dutch side that made it to the WC Final, dealing admirable with the likes of Robinho and Suarez along the way. Kuyt is nowhere close to the ability of these playes and while his running may cause problems for Gio, that's about all that will cause him problems, Kuyt offers you zero creativity and Demel coming in behind him isn't much of a threat.

redzerdrog wrote: »

At CB I am a big admirer of pique but his centre back partner is heitinga a player who I have seen buses turn quicker and has played everywhere EXCEPT CB for everton over the past year. IMO torres will get plenty of chances against these 2.

Lol, way to take my 'buses turn faster than him' line
Heitinga will be charged with man marking Torres. At times his decision making isn't great but he has pace, strength, a good leap and a ruthless competitive streak and I'd be perfectly happy knowing that with Heitinga shadowing him for the game that Torres won't be able to replicate his best form.

redzerdrog wrote: »

centre midfield I feel is by far the weakest part of frisbees team. you have meireles and muntari that will offer absolutely zero creativity. they will both spend the day chasing platinis shadow thus giving veron the pace to spray passes and dictate the pace of the game. Muntari inperticular is also a liabilty he is a headcase and liable to get sent off. We are at least cartain to get plent of free kicks off these.
With 6ft 6in mertesaker going up for the quality delivery into the box and platini and ronaldiho the free kick specialist i can see this being a major problem for frisbees team.

I chose my CM options for the very reason that they will be more than happy to sit back. I didn't want my CM's bombing on when I already had 4 players up top more than capable of dealing with the attacking part of the team. I also think you are very much underestimating Meireles. He has a great eye for a pass and his distribution is excellent, just because he plays for Porto people only seem to rate him as a clogger in the middle, which really isn't true.

redzerdrog wrote: »

on the right wing you have van der vart who is the furthest thing from a right winger imo he is a central player and will cause major imbalance to the team. If he stays out wide he will be ineffective and if he comes inside schweinsteiger will be there to pick him up while clichy can bomb forward and heap even more pressure on eboue at RB

I purposely played VDV out on the right so he could cut inside onto his favoured left foot and have a crack, it's a fairly well known tactic tbh. Also as I've said before Clichy can bomb forward all he want's, his crossing and distribution are woeful and he's coming off the back of one of his worst ever seasons for us. In fact I'd be happy to let Clichy have the ball all day as he represents literally zero attacking threat.

redzerdrog wrote: »

on the left is silva and i think he will be relied on for the majority of the creativity. I am glad I have kuyt on this side aswell as he can double up with demel when needed and also veron will be able to get over to help out so hopefully we can cut him out.

If that happens I'll be delighted, because as soon as Veron steps out it leaves Pelé 1-on-1 with Schweinsteiger.

redzerdrog wrote: »

up front is awesome the only critisism is you could maybe have them the opposite way round.

Why would I play them the other way around? Pelé best position was in the no. 10 role, he was never an out and out striker, it baffles me why you think I should play him there and play a striker in the support role?

redzerdrog

Frisbee

kuyt is a very important player in any team he plays for he played a crucial part in holland getting to the final and was one of their best players throughout the whole tournament. He is also a big game player that puts up with plenty of crucial goals he may not be the most skillfull but he certaintly is effective.

So you have said that you expect ronaldiho to give eboue a hard time yet you are still happy with clichy bombing forward to make it 2 on 1 on a player that is already being seen as a weak link. I can really see eboue getting destroyed and he is already liable to do something stupid.

You are also happy to leave one of the best centre forwards in the world to be man marked by an average centre half who's decion making isnt great. Well I am delighted to hear that and I am sure torres would have a field day.

you are right on pele and rooney i was just looking for something about them to give out about:)

With the exception of them two silva and pique the rest of the team is very average with zero creativity and not much hope of holding possession to set up attacks for the the front men. I can see my team passing around them all day and putting them under so much pressure till they break.

Frisbee

redzerdrog wrote: »

With the exception of them two silva and pique the rest of the team is very average with zero creativity and not much hope of holding possession to set up attacks for the the front men.

You keep saying this. Have you watched Raul Meireles play?

He's not just some clogger who sits in the middle making tackles, that's Muntaris job. Meireles has a great range of passing and can pick the right pass a lot. Just because he sits deep doesn't mean he isn't creative. Sure when we played Porto in the CL earlier this year he was MotM in the first leg by a mile imo. And not only that he is more than capable of weighing in with goals when he needs to.

And as for zero creativity:

Pique - One of the best passing Centre Backs around.
Meireles - See above.
Silva - Valencia's playmaker for the last four years.
VDV - Technically brilliant and a great range of passing and shot.
Pelé - One of the greatest of all time. Nuff said.
Rooney - Not as creative as the rest but his work rate creates chances more than most other forwards.

redzerdrog

Frisbee

Frisbee wrote: »

You keep saying this. Have you watched Raul Meireles play?

He's not just some clogger who sits in the middle making tackles, that's Muntaris job. Meireles has a great range of passing and can pick the right pass a lot. Just because he sits deep doesn't mean he isn't creative. Sure when we played Porto in the CL earlier this year he was MotM in the first leg by a mile imo. And not only that he is more than capable of weighing in with goals when he needs to.

eh he has only 16 goals in over 200 games in hus career id hardly call that weighing in with goals and it is a terrible return for a cm

Frisbee

redzerdrog wrote: »

eh he has only 16 goals in over 200 games in hus career id hardly call that weighing in with goals and it is a terrible return for a cm

For a CM whose primary concern is defensive solidity and playing passes from deep I reckon a goal every 13 games at club level is pretty good. And a goal every 5.57 games at international level isn't to be sniffed at.

The Volt

Congrats Frisbee. Comiserations to redzerdrog, good contest.

redzerdrog

Frisbee

congrats frisbee, wp, gg

Frisbee

Cheers redzerdrog and hard luck.