Premier League Draft Match 9: Blatter v Ares

Blatter

This match will decide a place in the SF and will last for 48 hours, in which time the participants will need to outline their team, basic strategy, and strategy against their opponent.

There will be a poll but only votes with answers developed in a post will be taken into consideration. This development doesn't have to be paragraphs long, even a single sentence is fine. But don't vote until the competitors have had a chance to outline their teams.

Blatter

Ares

My Team:




In goal I have a quality keeper who is a very good shot stopper and has excellent distribution. He will help start many attacks more swiftly and accurately than most other keepers.

My two central defenders are not household names but Hangeland and Distin are very reliable and have been for years. I think my two fullbacks, Assou-Ekotto and Richards, are two of the better ones in the league. They are relatively reliable defensively and are very good going forward. They will provide a great source of width.

Makélélé is without doubt one of the best DMs of all time and will be crucial to my team. He will largely nullify any AM he will come up against in the draft and will also provide great cover to my fullbacks who will get forward more as a result. He also has a magnificent first touch and control, which is vital when it comes to receiving the ball in tight spaces and starting attacks. Beside him will be Rosický, who is a tidy player and will get the ball forward to the others as well as putting a shift in defensively.

Ahead of the CMs are Oscar, Cazorla and Nasri who will all interchange which will cause a lot of confusion to any defence. They will link up with Assou-Ekotto and Richards and provide great service to Adebayor.

Adebayor himself will be much more than just a goalscorer in this team. He will make plenty of diagonal runs which will drag CBs out of position which will in turn create space for Oscar, Cazorla and Nasri to exploit.

Best of luck to Ares.

Ares

Goalkeeper De Gea. Great value in the 10th round of the draft and is one of the outstanding goalkeepers in the league. Great shotstopper and his distribution skills allow me to utilise the pace of the likes of Young and Dembele on the counter.

Defence Naughton, Nastasic, Agger and Jose Enrique.Two attacking full backs and two excellent centre halves. Nastasic is first choice centre half for the league champions and Agger is the man who they tried to buy during the summer. Agger is definitely in the top three centre halves in the league. In the six games Nastasic has started City have conceded two goals. That's not coincidence. Enrique and Naughton are both very attacking full backs and will give good width and balance, with one going forward and the other other holding back depending on where the attack is.

Centre Midfield Sandro, Granero and Dembele. One of the best balanced central midfields in the competition. Its a kind of a 1-2 midfield. Sandro sits deep protecting the back four, slotting into centre of the defence and pushing one of the Agger or Nastasic wide if being hit on the counter while Granero acts as the metronome in midfield, the Xabi Alonso/Xavi role. He's done well since coming to England and has stood out in a bad QPR team. If they get relegated don't expect him to stay there too long. Dembele is the rampager, box to box midfielder. He's destroyed United's midfield on two seperate occasions by September and in his first game back from injury himself and Sandro have formed an immediate understanding in real life which will be easily transfered into this simulation, something which can't be overlooked.

Forward three; Milner, Young, Shearer. Shearer, best striker, with Henry, in the history of the premier league. 260 premier league goals. He ain't gonna be firing any blanks. Milner and Young give nice balance on the wings, both will have ample support from the full backs and both are well able to socre and create goals. Young in particular is finding form and had an excellent display against City recently.

Tactics; Naughton and Enrique are both attacking full back with license to get forward. Both Young and Milner like to cut inside so the true width will come from the full backs. The full backs and wingers compliment each other very well as both Young and Milner track back willingly and help their full backs when without the ball. I think Makalele will have his hands full dealing with the ball retention and runs through the middle from Granero and Dembele. I don't see Rosicky helping him enough and I see my midifeld overrunning them. The defence will be zonal as opposed to man marking, and Naughton and Enrique have plenty of pace to keep with Nasri and Oscar out wide, neither of whom are wide players. I think that they will get in each others way as they all like to occupy a central space. Wide deliveries from Milner and Young with width from the full backs to Shearer is how I'll score goals and I fancy Dembele through the middle to wreak havoc.

Form is very important and to my mind I have the form players, Nastasic, Agger, Enrique, Sandro, Dembele and Young are all in good form while looking at Blatter's team I would say that Cazorla and Hangeland, at a stretch, are in good form. Vorm, Richards and Assou Ekotto are all out with a long term injury and this leaves big question marks over his defence, with neither Hangeland or Disin having particularly good seasons.

I feel that my team is stronger in goals, in defence, in centre midfield and up front. Shearer will score goals on that defence while I think I'm strong enough at the back to contain Adebayor and the attacking midfield trio.



The very best of luck to Blatter.

Morzadec

This is very close and I can't decide yet. 2 strong teams...

curry-muff

Ares

Blatter for me wins this one, and it's nothing against Ares, just Blatters team is really impressive in both attack and defence, there's not a weak link in his whole team.

Neil3030

Ares

Hmmmm.... Which way around are the team-sheets supposed to be? Because if Ares is playing Shearer in goal and DeGea up front, I'd probably vote for the other guy....

Ares

Neil3030 wrote: »

Hmmmm.... Which way around are the team-sheets supposed to be? Because if Ares is playing Shearer in goal and DeGea up front, I'd probably vote for the other guy....

I always list my team from the top down. Then again you knew that.

Ares

I'm gonna boost this back up to the top of the forum. I'd hate to lose 1 vote to nil. In all seriousness if people could vote one way or the other it would be great as both myself and Blatter have put in some effort inot this, particularly Blatter.

eagle eye

You get my vote Ares. I think your team is a lot better given the injury prone nature of Blatter's team.

IncognitoMan

Ares

Im going to go with Blatter. His team offers a greater goal threat. The front four players should play together well. While Ares has Shearer will he be offered enough from the right hand duo of Milner and Naughton.

Blatter for me

ThunbergsAreGo

Ares

Blatter just shades it for me, think hes team are better overall while im not entirely convinced of Ares back line

Jam-Fly

Ares

Blatter just takes it for me. I think Shearer will be too heavily relied upon for goals (at least if there is one man to rely upon for goals, it would be Shearer) but with the (imo) unreliability of Milner and Young, he may struggle for supply. In Blatter's team, there are more options up front. With Nasri/Cazorla/Oscar and a good striker like Adebayor, the team shouldn't struggle for goals while at the same time not leaving themselves open at the back with the mighty Makelele and a solid defence. Defensively, there's not much to separate the back 5 of either team. I'd side very slightly with Blatter's defence, but that'd be more personal preference as I'd be a fan of Blatter's 4 defenders than most. Quality wise, it'd be very, very tough to make a convincing argument one way or the other for either defence being markedly better (goalkeepers would also be of fairly similar quality imo).

Donnielighto

Ares for me and for proper reasons unlike ee. Makelele would have buckets of work imo and shearer is an all round threat. 2-1 ares. Batters team is class as well btw.

DoctorGonzo08

Ares, by a hiar. Two very evenly matched teams, with nothing between the back 4 really. Makelele will clean up that central midfield and distribute excellently, but I don't think the width is there for him, other than the full backs to exploit. The Central three of Oscar, Nasri and Carzola are very talented but none are suitable widemen. I think the Milner/Young widemen of Ares will make the difference in the game, allowing the team to bypass that central battle, with Milner also offering alot doubling up defensively. I think you would have a repeat of the derby game at the weekend where the width will be the difference.

eagle eye

Donnielighto wrote: »

Ares for me and for proper reasons unlike ee. Makelele would have buckets of work imo and shearer is an all round threat. 2-1 ares. Batters team is class as well btw.

My reasons are fine based on the part of this that says 'current ability'. Players who are constantly on the treatment or who have been out for a lengthy amount of time this season have to be considered weak.

If this stipulation wasn't part of the draft we would all have taken the more well known players as its the easy way to get votes.

Chucky the tree

Ares for me. This could be the hardest match to call I feel. I think if Blatter had a decent wide man he'd nick it, but I can see his side being pretty narrow which will suit Ares with Makele in there.

Pepe LeFrits

Ares

Blatter's team is brilliant, massive flake that is Adebayor aside. Immense midfield and solid defence. I don't get what people's obsession with wingers is; it's not 1995. It's pretty obvious that the width comes from Richards and Assou-Ekotto, who'll be well covered by Makelele (sublime choice). Between Oscar, Rosicky (who is in his best position, in my opinion), Cazorla and Nasri, he's going to monopolse the ball and create a lot of good angles. Richards in particular I'd imagine would spend much of the game near the opposition penalty area.

Looking at Ares' team... Naughton, Nastasic, Milner, Granero, Enrique?

Very surprised that this is even close.

Blatter

Ares

And I make out that I win by 1 vote.

Unlucky Ares, thanks for participating.

Ares

Well done Blatter.

For my mind, the two best teams met at the quarter final stage and one had to be the winner. Shaded it by a hair.

I'll be very surprised if you don't go on to win the competition.