Premier League Draft - Grand Final

IT'S TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME, FOR THE MAIN EVENT OF THE TOURNY!!


Bounty Hunter vs. Ferris_Bueller


- 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.

- Voting is open to everyone.

Ferris_Bueller

I'll start again by copying and pasting my own team before going on to speak about Bounty Hunters.

Attack
Overall I am happy with my team, up top I have one of the best PL strikers of all time and I would argue only Henry was better than Aguero, who has broken the 20 goal mark six seasons for City and was on course to do so again this season. He is supported by Dele Alli in behind who from 2015-2017 was one of the best players in the league and had a phenomenal knack for scoring goals and arriving late into the box almost as a support striker.

Midfield
On the wings I have gone for two different types of players, Willian is more of a proper winger who will run at the full back, work relentlessly, track back, and chips in with goals and assists. He will stretch the play on this side and will be a nuisance for any full back. Willian won Chelsea players player of the year twice in 2016 & 2018 and also held down a starting role for Brazil. On the other side I've Juan Mata who was too good to pass up. At Chelsea he was phenomenal and won their player of the season two years on the spin, in the 2012/13 season he registered 29 assists and 20 goals and was one of the most creative players in world football at the time. On the right side he will cut in and act as the sides primary playmaker.

Not sure what needs to be said about Yaya Toure. The man was a beast of a box to box midfielder and such a key player for City winning their first two PL titles, Yaya of course named in PFA TOTY both times. He scored 20 goals in the league in that second title winning campaign. He is such a powerful, influential player who can shoot, pass, tackle and drive at teams. Beside him then I have Moutinho as the deeper lying player. He was Wolves player of the year last year and arguably their most important man. This season he has the 5th most tackles in the league and is in the top 10 interceptions for midfielders. His intelligence and positioning on the pitch will be crucial.

Defence & GK
At centre half I am very happy to have two lads picked who have a bit of a partnership from playing with Spurs. Two very different types of defenders, Vertonghen has been one of the most consistent and reliable defenders in the league and has become Belgiums most capped player ever. He is good at reading the game, playing out from the back and is a really cool head. Sanchez is more aggressive, strong, quick and will act as a good foil. At left back Bertrand has won trophies with Chelsea and been very reliable for Southampton, always linked with a move to a bigger club and has won 19 England caps, I think he will link up well with Willian down the left and they will be a handful. Clyne was brilliant at Southampton and early in his Liverpool career, he is first and foremost a solid defender (which is important with Mata ahead) but also has great pace and fitness to offer he overlap down the right. Patricio then is as solid as they come outside of maybe the top 3 or 4 keepers.

First of all I am not surprised that Bounty Hunter has made it to the final because he has a very well assembled team with two of the PLs best ever strikers and an extremely solid defence.

BH Attack
When you have Kane and Henry up top there is not much you can say against that, they are both elite level PL goalscorers and it is impressive that BH got two of them into his team when some people didn't even have one.

Where I view his weaknesses here:
- Width: Henry is a centre forward really. I know he drifted to the left but he isn't a winger and will make the team very reliant on Chilwell here to provide width.
- Tracking back: You are not going to get much tracking back with these 3 and Ozil behind. I would very much view the front 4 as their own unit and the other 7 as defensive players.
- Ayoze Perez - a decent pick for your last pick, but I would question how good he is at this level of a draft. Good for Leicester this season, but prior to that he has been at a poor Newcastle team.

BH Midfield
If I am going to win this match this is where it will be. I think there are question marks over both Torreira and Jorginho, neither have set the league alight since joining in 2018. Jorginho in particular has been only okay and there have been big doubts about him playing in a midfield two (because Ozil is not going to support much here), he has played better for Chelsea with a Kante and Kovacic or Mount in beside him in a three.

- Dirty work: A lot of this will be left for Torreira and he won't be able to stop Yaya and Alli.
- Physicality: BHs midfield trio are all short and slight players under 5'10", Alli and Toure are physical, strong and tall battlers who will have a big advantage over them here.
- Supply: I think overall my midfield is better, stronger, more consistent and proven at this level and if BHs midfield struggle then I would wonder will he be able to supply his front 3.

BH Defence
Every time I look at BH defence I think it is very solid, but when you break it down I would question it's peak. Laporte has had one season where he has played over 10 games. Rudiger has been decent for Chelsea but not top level. Aurier has been dodgy for Spurs and only really this season has he been first choice. Chilwell very good lately in fairness to him.

Possible weakness:
- Experience: This defence has a combined 270ish PL games played, for comparison my defence has over 700 games played. Right now I would say they are all (bar maybe Aurier) good PL defenders but they don't have much of a peak to judge from.
- Aurier: As I stated before I feel he is a weak link, he has been in and out at Spurs, made some errors including sendings off and is injury prone too. Willian will take advantage of his inexperience.
- Width: As I said earlier, he will be very reliant on these full backs to provide width for his narrow team, but I just don't see how Chilwell and Aurier can bomb on with Mata and Willian occupying them. Mata thrives on any pockets of space he can find and I can see him being a real headache especially when Torreiras hands are full with Alli and Toure.


Overall:
It will be a close battle and I rate BHs team, obviously I am trying to look for weaknesses here. But I think overall my team offers more PL experience and a higher peak. My team has around 600 PL apps more than BHs team, which is almost 20 individual seasons worth of games. In my team Bertrand, Vertonghen, Mata, Toure, Aguero have all appeared in the PL TOTS at least once (multiple occasions for all bar Bertrand), in his team I think it is just Kane and Henry (edit: and Laporte). In terms of major trophies won during their PL careers, I have 9 titles compared to BHs 5, I have 2 Champions Leagues to his 0 and 4 Europa Leagues to his 2 (although he has 2 more FA cups than me!).

I think my midfield will dominate his physically and will really restrict supply to his front 3, then I feel like my combination of attacking players offer too much of a goal and creative threat for his defence to stop.


Thanks for organising the draft 2D and best of luck in the final Bounty Hunter!

Bounty Hunter

First off, Best of luck Ferris and Cheers for running this 2D, always enjoy drafts.

Now as it was in my group A/Semi-Final 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.

Voted for Ferris' team in his Semi final so I do appreciate how good they could be but I suppose we gotta point out any flaws we spot so my apologies but...

Aguero is pure class but I think this quote from my opponent is worth noting

I have one of the best PL strikers of all time and I would argue only Henry was better than Aguero

So I have a striker in my side my opponent says is better than his best striker... and I also have Harry Kane up front beside him :pac:

Isn't William primarily a RW? Isn't Mata at his best centrally?

Alli seemingly peeked at age 20 but even then despite getting a good goal haul had a worse than 1/4games assist ratio for that season which surely would be hugely important with him filling the AMC slot in Ferris' team.

I never really thought of Joao Moutinho as a DM so I checked transfermarkt.com and have Moutinho down as a CM who can play in AM. He is Ferris' main defensive presence in midfield. In fact they have him down has having not played a single match in DM this season and only ever playing there around 5 times for Wolves in the premiership all in his first few months in the league. Might be worth noting that he was already 2 months shy of 32 by the time he joined wolves too so despite me thinking he has been a very good player for him peak premiership Moutinho is not peak Moutinho nor is he a DM.

Vertonghen at his peak was pretty good but that really does not read like a draft winning defense to me. Players like Davinson Sanchez would struggle massively trying to contain his clubmate Harry Kane not to mention Thierry Henry and that is before you even take into account that they are actually up against three forwards and being supplied by Ozil prime.

I'd also have Kasper Schmeichel ahead of Patricio in terms of the keepers highlighted by the fact that I did in fact draft him while Patricio was still available but I don't think the keepers will be the deciding factor here but the guys in front of him might be and although I am very very biased I'd take Chilwell > Bertrans Laporte > Vertonghen, Rudiger > Sanchez & even Aurier > Clyne... but I did admit I'm biased :pac:

How the sides match up

...vs...

My Forwards vs His Defense

Perhaps his weakest area vs a three man attack that includes Henry & Kane and prime Ozil supplying them with opportunities, I can't see anything but my team scoring and his defense struggling big time, especially as his midfield does not really offer much defensive support/

His Forwards vs My defense

He has some real top quality players up front but Mata and William aren't being played in their best positions and he only has one out and out striker against imo one of the best CB partnerships in the whole draft in Laporte & Rudiger. Aguero is good enough to score but I'd certainly suggest he would have to work a lot harder to do so than my trio would against his defense.

The Midfield Battle

He has zero defensive minded midfielders while I have 2 including the guy who Chelsea play in that position in stead of Kante. Despite that he still does not have an attacking midfield with the creative ability of Ozil. If Yaya does not have an incredible game or 20 year old Alli (when he peaked in the prem) does not really step up (and often if he isn't scoring he isn't great for Spurs) then I think he could really struggle here.

Overall

I rate my opponents team and think he is a worthy finalist although I do think he seems to have put a lot of stock in stats such as premiership appearances when comparing our sides because put simply no matter how many games they have played none of his defenders are as good as Laporte, none of his midfielders are as creative as prime Ozil and no premiership forward is as good as Henry (especially not when he also has Kane beside him). Add to that that he has no real defensive midfielder and has some of his best players not playing in his best position and I think there is only one winner here. Team BH

A CHAMPION WILL BE CROWNED AT 3PM ON SATURDAY JUNE 13TH.

dr.kenneth noisewater

I'm going with Bounty hunter here, that attack is too strong for Ferris defence imo. I think Ferris is stronger in midfield but BH has a better defence as well.

Interesting that neither finalist has a dedicated DM (Torreira/Jorginho/Moutinho are more passing CM's and Ozil/Alli/Yaya are attacking MF), I felt that was a really important position to fill in picking my team but should have went more for attackers!

redzerdrog

Really wish they both didn't have the same jerseys, I am struggling enough to separate the teams

Mr.Nice Guy

Two strong sides that should make for an entertaining final.

I would give the edge to Ferris in midfield. I don't rate Jorginho and Torreira much. The former isn't on Kante's level really, whatever Sarri may think. Moutinho can operate well enough in a two-man midfield, although Toure will likely have his attacking influence curtailed with Ozil to contend with.

I like the defences on both teams, yet feel each have enough attacking quality to breach the back line.

For me, it's the Henry factor that tips it for Bounty Hunter. He's one of the PL's greats and I just don't see Clyne and Sanchez stopping him. I fancy he would be the match-winner. (I was sceptical of that pick at the time as I thought BH had enough in attack and should look to bolster another position, but it has worked out very nicely for him. Like dr. ken said, I'm wishing I focused more on attack!)

Ferris_Bueller

Better overall balance. Great GK, two good fullbacks, class Vertonghen beside solid Sanchez.

I think Moutinho and Yaya would muller Torreira and Jorginho. Ozil would be essentially useless as BH's front three aren't the type to get the best out of him.

Up front Ferris has plenty of fluidity and cleverness between Willian, Mata and Dele in behind the lethal Aguero.

I said in the first round that I didn't like Henry and Kane together and against a better team it'd cost Bounty. Hazard would have been the better pick.

GLaDOS

My vote goes to Bounty Hunter, just about. I think FB would have the upper hand in midfield but I can't see his defence keeping BHs attack out

Heartiest of congratulations to the 2020 Premier League Draft winner, the Champ-Champ...

Bounty Hunter

Bounty Hunter

Cheers 2D, Ferris and anyone who voted

Honestly thought I might not get through this one and that maybe I made a few mistakes in drafting, dunno if people rate Torreria that highly and maybe I'd have been better off not going for a front three and instead drafting a midfielder to complete a diamond instead of Perezfor example but wahey I made it anyway and somehow followed up winning the PW draft (hense 2D dubbing me Le Champion at the beggining of the draft) with this draft... whose up for a tiddlywinks draft :pac:

anyway time to celebrate

Ferris_Bueller

Fair play Bounty Hunter! I had to argue my corner but I would have been very surprised if I won this one. I think you had the strongest team in the draft overall and deserved to win it. I was actually surprised I got to the final myself, if I was to judge my team impartiality I would agree with you and say William and Mata are both out of position and moutinho not a true DM!

Fair play for organising it all 2D, enjoyed it!

Mr.Nice Guy

Congrats, BH. This year you're not one to be messed with when it comes to drafts!