Premier League Draft - Semi Final 1

dr.kenneth noisewater

Welcome to Semi Final 1 of the 2020 Premier League Draft voting thread.

- Voting is to be based on players' peak time spent in the Premier League only.

- Votes without a reason/comment will not be counted unless in the case of a tiebreak.

- Voting will commence when the final manager has posted their team/write up and will last for 24 hours.

- Winner of the semi final progresses to the final.

- Voting is open to everyone.

Your contenders:

Group A winner - Bounty Hunter

Came through a tough group, including yours truly, with ease. Attack the strength on paper but plenty more to this team.

Group D winner - IncognitoMan

Came through a very tight call against MNG in his group, a very well balanced team with top talent at either end.

May the best team win!

Bounty Hunter

Cheers Dr.Ken... here we go!

From my group A post:

The Bounty Hunters


Forwards

Thierry Henry - Harry Kane - Ayoze Pérez

Thierry Henry is argueably the best player/forward in the history of the premiership, meanwhile this is a current premiership draft and I'd argue that Harry Kane is in the top 2 CFs currently in the league (Aguero the other one). The two of those players alone would see most defenses struggle but add Ayoze Pérez who no doubt would get a huge amount of space with defenders focusing on the other two and I have goals in this team.

Midfielders
Mesut Özil - Jorginho - Lucas Torreira

The criteria for this draft said players were being judged at their Premierleague peak, my man Mesut had 16 assists before New Years day during his 2015/16 Arsenal season. The man was a creative assist machine and with players like Henry & Kane ahead of peak Özil things could get very interesting when my lads take the field.

To allow Özil play this creative role however you need other midfielders willing to do the hard graft and thankfully I don't just have one, I have two of those including a guy who knows him well from Arsenal in the form of Lucas Torreria and Jorginho who can play the DM role so well Chelsea have actually played him there ahead of Kante the past two seasons.

Defenders
Ben Chilwell - Aymeric Laporte - Antonio Rüdiger - Serge Aurier

I'm not sure if there is a better CB pairing in the draft than Laporte/Rudiger I'd confidently put them up against any pairing from the other sides in my group anyway. Both good with the ball at their feet but with both being 6ft3 they will have an aerial presence too. Neither man is a slouch either but thankfully I also have two quite pacy men at FB. Those men are Spurs starting RB (Aurier) and Englands current starting LB (Chilwell) who also seems to be constantly linked to clubs like Chelsea & City in circa 60m pound moves. The presence of 2 quality DMs will allow both of these men fulfill the modern role of a fullback and get forward and give my team great width as they do for their clubs also.

Goalkeeper
Kasper Schmeichel

There may not be a lot between a lot of the keepers in this draft but one big positive with Schmeichel is that people never talk about him being error prone unlike some others. He is also a leader from the back (Leicester's captain) and has very good distribution.

Today's Semi Final match up

... vs ....

My opponents forward 3

Silva despite playing for Man City has scored less than 1 goal in every 5 games he plays so despite being a very good footballer may not provide the attacking threat many may suspect here.
Martial in five seasons at Man Utd has only scored 45 league goals for united and therefore averages less than 10 goals a season.
RVP is a great goal threat but really his front three don't compare to Kane (2 time premier league golden boot), Thierry Henry (4 time premier league golden boot winner) and Ayoze Perez

Who are these forward 3 up against ?

Like RVP up front I will not argue against the quality of Van Dijk but his supporting cast might struggle against my front three.

I've never really been too impressed with Luke Shaw tbh and maybe I missed him tearing up the league this year (Transfermarkt says he only played 48% of the time and spent a big chunk out injured again) but even he says he had “a difficult couple of years” at Utd prior to this one in a recent interview.
He also has Utd defender Victor Lindelöf in his team and although he may be a fine defender he has not exactly gotten people talking about him during his 3 seasons at the club and has also had his injury problems. Plus lets be honest whenever anyone says something positive about Uniteds defence it is always Maguire or AWB being mentioned not these two lads.

Laporte is as close as you can find to Van Dijk's equal in a current premier league draft and I would take his (my) CB partner Rudiger over Lindelof any day of the week. Similarly I would take my and England's current LB Chilwell over Shaw every single time. You could argue his RB Sidibe might be preferred to mine despite my guy being Spurs starting RB but I'd argue that Aurier would be more likely to handle Martial than the Everton man would against a prime Thierry Henry. Speaking of who they have to handle it is relevant that as outlined above his team have one major goal threat in RVP while mine has both Kane & Henry and therefore I would posit that my defense would definitely be better equipped to handle his attack than vice versa.

The midfield battle

Both teams have 2 DM types and a more attacking midfielder. In such a scenario a lot rests on the shoulders of said AM to be the creative outlet of the team. This is where I think my team will be elevated above my opponent for the midfield battle. As outlined above I have peak Ozil filling this role, (remember Peak Ozil not today Ozil aka as pointed out earlier the guy who had 16 assists before new years day) as apposed to Watford's Doucore who despite being good is not on that level and tbh you could have a discussion as to whether his prefered position is even AM (transfermarkt for example say his main position is CM and he is as adept at DM as AM). In fact despite liking all 3 of his CMs I would not exactly consider any of them attacking and think defensively this would suit my team. Even if he pulled Silva back into an AM role he would then have to contend with two DMs on my side including one whose form was good enough for Chelsea to displace Kante from that role and this move would just further deplete what he has upfront.


TDLR: To put it simply I think despite my opponent having a very good side, I have more of a goal threat, my defenders would be in a better position to deal with his strikers and my midfield trio offers more creativity and therefore my side would prevail.

IncognitoMan

IncognitoMan wrote: »

Best of luck lads, may the best side win.

I feel like the group I have selected are able to move into a couple of different shapes depending on the state of the game, I'll cover my thoughts on this later.

First though I'll just go over quickly why I picked each player and the role they will typically be asked to fill.

Forwards -

Here I just knew I wanted a goal scorer and players to link with him

RVP - My sides main goal thread, his peak in his last season at Arsenal and first at United was as good a level as we've seen from a striker in the league.

Martial - Inverted winger/Inside forward. Has filled this role plenty of times at United and has a good understanding with Shaw who will be overlapping.

B.Silva - Was so good last season that City still won the league without their main play-maker. He will be used to find that killer ball through to either RVP or Martial coming in behind.

Midfield -

I thought about the balance here, I wanted a ball winner, a passer / deep lying play-maker and someone who could make a run to support the goal scorer.

Doucoure - This is my midfielder to support the attack when necessary and to drop into the minefield when we are under some pressure. Doucoure has done both these jobs at Watford and has excelled in the support role.

Gundogan - This is my sides deep lying playmaker / passer. A role Gundogan has done to a high level for years now. Very comfortable on the ball, won't give it away much that's for sure.

Ndidi - My side's ball winner. All great midfields seem to need them and I the leagues best at present. He will offer huge protection to both Gundogan and the centerbacks.

Defence -

Shaw - Gets a lot of stick but truth is for a 18-24 months now he's been excellent. No doubt he has had rough patches before but at present he's up there as one of the leagues better left backs.

Van Dijk - The key man to my defence. He has elevated players around him at Liverpool and can offer the same here.

Lindelof - Improvements made when he got a stable partnership going with Maguire with them keeping 8 cleans sheets in their last 10 games. Lindelof needs a leader with him and I don't think he can do much better. Once he has that he's a very tidy defender.

Sidibe - This I knew would be a target but this is a defender good enough to get into the french squad for world cup wins and is currently taking the role of Everton right back from Coleman. He's a little underrated.

Ederson - Maybe 2nd/3rd best keeper in the league. Don't think I need to cover much else. Best with the ball at his feet though.

Formation / Team Shape

4-2-3-1



This is my sides basic shape, it is where I feel each player are in their best position apart from maybe Martial who has shown huge improvement this year as a striker.

The main focus here is link up play with an overlapping fullback and Doucoure getting a little further up the pitch to support RVP.

Gundogan then is the playmaker in the middle.


4-3-1-2



Useful against side who might be strong in the middle but who aren't great out wide. Also useful to get Martial's pace running directly at goal.

If a team looks like it could keep the ball well I think I would use this shape.

4-3-3 / 4-5-1



Then for defence, compacting the space with this to make it very difficult to break down. Think this would be the shape we would fall into when protecting a lead late on.

Conclusion

So that's my side, the reasons for selecting, tactics/shapes and the roles assigned to those players.

I will go over my opponents in the next post.

On phone so have just copied this post.

I'll talk about BH later on after work but ye can start voting if ye want. Don't want to hold the show up

dr.kenneth noisewater

Voting will be open until 10:30AM tomorrow 11th June

IncognitoMan

Just to quickly add, I feel midfield and defence on my side are stronger.

While Henry and Kane are class the midfield is lightweight to say the least and missing balance imo. It should have been either Jorginho or Ozil. It's far too much to expect Torriea to carry both of those who are more on the ball players.

Best of luck BH

Ferris_Bueller

Ah very tough decision and two similar standard teams. I don't think there are any major obvious areas where they could exploit in one another and it would probably a close battle. I think I will have to go with Bounty Hunter though simply because I think it has just a bit more quality in almost all areas for me. It could be argued that IMs team would work better together but outside of Van Dijk the defence is a bit weak for me and up against Henry, Kane and Ozil it is not an area you can afford to be light in.

I do think BHs midfield is a bit lightweight but I don't think that IM has a designated attacking threat from midfield who would cause them problems. I really like IMs midfield but in terms of overall quality I don't think any of them are world class players. It's a tough one as I think both teams are fairly alike in terms of their strengths in weaknesses but I'll say BH just about.

Morzadec

Very tough, looked at this a long while. Voted for both of these in the groups, both good well balanced teams.

Overall though I'm giving it to Bounty Hunter. His really potent left side of Henry and Chilwell overlapping is matched up with the weakest part of IM's team (Sidibe and Lindelof on the right). Not sure if VVD can do enough to save this being exploited.

dr.kenneth noisewater

I'm going with IncognitoMan here, I just think his midfield will out run and over power BH's. If that happens then I just dont see Henry and Kane getting enough chances against VVD and then Ederson is there if they do.

redzerdrog

Incognito man for me. I think BH will struggle to get supply to what is effectively a front 4

Mr.Nice Guy

I see this as a tight affair. I feel IM would win the midfield battle as I really like that trio, though I also think BH's defence and keeper can repel much of the damage as it's one of the better ones I've seen.

Going to give the nod to Bounty Hunter as I think the Thierry Henry factor helps decide the contest. I think BH can do damage on the break with his attacking quartet, and Van Dijk will have his hands full dealing with Kane.

martyos121

Going for IncognitoMan here, just. That midfield trio will work tirelessly and break up a lot of BH’s play, and it might be enough to stop a lot of the supply to Henry and Kane. IM’s defence is also just a bit better too and there are no weak links in his attack with three very talented players, and having a playmaker in Bernardo Silva that high up the pitch will help create for Van Persie and Martial.

Not much between them at all though, a tough match to call.

GLaDOS

Going with Bounty Hunter as I feel his supercharged attack will get him through this. IM has the edge in defence, but I don't think his midfield does enough to get the upper hand and win the the tie.

Mitch Connor

Vote to Bounty Hunter in this.

I think both sides are faily well matched up, but BH takes it.

Henry, Kane and Ozil in the front 4 nick it for me. Where there is more of an argument in midfield, I would give IM the edge in the 2 remaining CM battles.

Shaw vs Chillwell is a toss up. Chilwell is a btter player in real life now, but at peaks, its a toss up. VVD is the best defender of the two teams, but as a pairing I think it is close and at RB i could go either way. Same for keepers, Ederson and Schmeichel, i wouldn't see much between them.

Its close overall, but i think BH's attack carries the day.

dr.kenneth noisewater

Bounty Hunter wins a tight contest 5-3, Congrats!

Bounty Hunter

Fair play IncognitoMan, you put together a very good side and I honestly was not very confident I could take that one.

IncognitoMan

Henry and Kane was always gonna be tough to argue against.

Fair play and good luck in the final