Draft Quarter Final: LuckyLloyd vs Pudsy33

Frankie Lee

Poll will be added when both teams are up, but votes in the thread with a little reasoning will be the ones that count towards the winner.
Voting finishes 24 hours after the second player's team is announced. Best of luck to both.

LuckyLloyd

My XI:

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Friedel

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Arbeloa---Terry (C)---Walker

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Pearce

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Mascherano

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Ince

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Silva

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Beardsley

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Kewell

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Van Nisteelroy


Subs:

Berbatov
Kinkladze
Djorkaeff

I am very happy with the finished product. I think my team:

- is well balanced
- will be strong at setpieces
- has plenty of creativity
- has a clutch goalscorer to finish what we create

The spine of the team is very solid I think. Friedel / Terry / Walker are a very solid and dependable center back and keeper combination and will be excellently protected by Mascherano and Ince infront. Those two should establish a base of possession against the vast majority of opponents meaning Beardsley should be able to get on the ball and help present chances for Ruud and if Ruud gets a chance in the opposition box he'll generally score.

But the flanks of my team are very strong also. Pearce and Arbeloa are fullbacks who defend well but can get up the pitch to contribute to the attack also. I expect that with Ince and Mascherano winning the battle in the middle they will have chances to get up the pitch. Kewell and Silva provide pace and guile respectively and have the ability to come inside to link up with Beardsley and / or get down the line depending on the weaknesses of the opposition.

Being honest, I'm not hugely worried about tweaking things for specific opponents. Masch and Ince in the middle give me the confidence that I'll have a platform to inflict my game on opponents and the belief that I have enough quality to capatilise on the platform. I also have no worries about set pieces and don't feel I have a weak point in my backline or in terms of the structure of my team.

Finally, I think my team has the 'X Factor' of experience and big game ability throughout the eleven. Players like Terry / Pearce / Mascherano / Ince / Silva are tried and tested big game characters. And Beardsley and Van Nisteelroy just tended to product the goods consistently across a league season. If you want to make it a physical battle I'd fancy my players all day long and in a game of chess I think we have the solid structure and experience to grind it out and rely on the quality in the side.

LuckyLloyd

What's the story here?

brevity

Pudsy playing mindgames Lloyd...keeping them in the changing room as long as possible.