Rivalries Draft: Group A

[aRdja]

Stig

John102

 

No2

 

viRdjil

Dynamite

[Lee909]

Dynamite first then viRdjil

 

Stigs not got the goals. Kluivert never really lived up to what he looked he might be at Ajax. Baggio is great, one of my alltime favourites but isn't a out and out goalscorer

 

John

Will get overrun in midfield. I don't think you always need a ball winner but with Hagi and Riquelme but offering fuck all without the ball you do. Gallas would be fucked as Riquelme isn't a winger and won't track

 

No2

Best of those not picked but never a big Ronald de Boer fan and Demichleas was bang average

[lifetime fan]

Dynamite and viRdjil. 

[lifetime fan]

Stig: Very good side. 
Just gonna be short of goals compared to others and the fullbacks are more ‘functional’ than world class. 
 

John: Good side. 
Midfield let’s you down, Gallas isn’t a RB in my opinion but loved the Irwin pick. 
 

No2: Very good side. 
Demichelis is a big weak point for me though. Maybe unfair but I’ve only seen highlights of de Jong play half a dozen times a tops too sorry mate. 
 

viRdjil: Brilliant side. 
Only weakness is RB, but what a team. 
 

Dynamite:...

Just give the cunt the trophy now. 

[Bjornebye]

No goals in my side. Yeah ok. 

[lifetime fan]

8 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

No goals in my side. Yeah ok. 

Fucking hell mate, don’t be such a little princess about it. 
 

Look at the scoring records of the forwards on this side of the draw. It’s just a fact your side wouldn’t keep up. 

[Bjornebye]

14 minutes ago, lifetime fan said:

Fucking hell mate, don’t be such a little princess about it. 
 

Look at the scoring records of the forwards on this side of the draw. It’s just a fact your side wouldn’t keep up. 

Shut up or I'll shag you. 

[lifetime fan]

13 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Shut up or I'll shag you. 

Bends over...

[No2]

Stig, no pace and fuck all width. 

 

John 102 again lacks width and pace.

 

viRdjil good side, third best in the group.

 

Dynamite, Centre of the pitch including Koeman lack mobilty but the rest of the team more than make a up for it. Serious side.

[Elite]

Ardja and Dynamite

[aRdja]

Stig - Agree with No2 with regards to pace. Brilliant midfield though

 

John - Three playmakers too many. Full backs not attacking enough to provide the width.

 

No2 - Nice balanced team. That attack with Gerrard behind them is frightening. Not sure the rest of the midfield matches up to it though. 
 

Dynamite - I’ve never heard of Telles and not familiar with McStay. The rest of the team however lives up to his name. 
 

 

[Bjornebye]

1 hour ago, viRdjil said:

Stig - Agree with No2 with regards to pace. Brilliant midfield though

 

John - Three playmakers too many. Full backs not attacking enough to provide the width.

 

No2 - Nice balanced team. That attack with Gerrard behind them is frightening. Not sure the rest of the midfield matches up to it though. 
 

Dynamite - I’ve never heard of Telles and not familiar with McStay. The rest of the team however lives up to his name. 
 

 

McStay was fucking brilliant. The maestro. 

[aRdja]

2 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

McStay was fucking brilliant. The maestro. 

Don’t think I ever got to watch him. I watched this video earlier. Looked like a decent player.

 

 

[Bjornebye]

6 minutes ago, viRdjil said:

Don’t think I ever got to watch him. I watched this video earlier. Looked like a decent player.

 

 

One of my Dads favourite ever players. 

[lifetime fan]

2 hours ago, viRdjil said:

Stig - Agree with No2 with regards to pace. Brilliant midfield though

 

John - Three playmakers too many. Full backs not attacking enough to provide the width.

 

No2 - Nice balanced team. That attack with Gerrard behind them is frightening. Not sure the rest of the midfield matches up to it though. 
 

Dynamite - I’ve never heard of Telles and not familiar with McStay. The rest of the team however lives up to his name. 
 

 

Irwin was a fucking brilliant fullback. 

[aRdja]

Just now, lifetime fan said:

Irwin was a fucking brilliant fullback. 

He was solid, but a right footed full back on the left with Gallas on the right I don’t think provide the proper width the team needs.

[lifetime fan]

7 minutes ago, viRdjil said:

He was solid, but a right footed full back on the left with Gallas on the right I don’t think provide the proper width the team needs.

Gallas is out of position I agree. He was a centre back who could play LB. 

 

Doesn't stop Irwin being a great pick though. 
 

 

[lifetime fan]

The complete lack of a midfield fucked John up, not having a class LB like Irwin. 

[Bjornebye]

Irwin was world class. 

 

 

[Bjornebye]

2 hours ago, viRdjil said:

Don’t think I ever got to watch him. I watched this video earlier. Looked like a decent player.

 

 

This is brilliant. 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Alex_K]

Review:

 

Stig: Pretty narrow side. One-paced. This side would be slow across the ground. Lots of nice technicians.

 

John102: A lot to like here. However, can't take Riquelme in that wide position. Most of these players would look to occupy the same space. Nice to see Gallas pop up in one of these - what a top defender he was. Probably the Alderweireld-esque player of his day: one of the worlds finest at the time but not really celebrated like some others were.

 

No. 2: It was between this team and Virdjils. I'm going with No. 2 as I think it has better balance comparitively. Man for man I think 3 from the back 5 are superior (Cole, Desailly, Allisson - though ask again in a year and Robertson + Alisson may have displaced in those stakes!), then Gerrard Messi & Bale from the front 6. What takes this is that Bale + Messi properly function here in their positions and could easily see Anelka as an Eto'o-type bringing that Barca formation to life. De Jong, De Boer, Gerrard also suit that Barca style somewhat.

 

Virdjil: The right side lets this one down for me, as I don't see De Bruyne as a wide player and Grygera was mediocire - dont know why hes popped up here. The balance is therefore just a tad off and the star power of Messi + Bale + Gerrard carries this over for me (my top 5 players from these combined sides would be Messi, Gerrard, Alonso, Bale, Henry -- Messi is way out in front too so that gives No. 2 the nod)

 

Dynamite: Outright winner in the group though I was a bit disappointed at how the team selection ended; was trying to guess who the last picks might be and thought they'd come out a little more interesting. However the first half of the draw was terrific  -- pipped me to 3 consecutive picks -- and the remaining still work functionally. What a spine.

[John102]

A bit harsh on my midfield. It has the best midfielder in the draft? Dynamites team is probably the one im going to pick to win, but does Sammer and McStay compare to Xavi and Pirlo? Granted Riquelme was scraping the barrel but Ardja got De Bruyne when i was going to pick him that round.

[Sugar Ape]

Stig

 

Not the best keeper in the draft and quite a weak full back pairing. Great centre back pairing which is obviously going to get a lot of love. Good midfield though I perhaps would have swapped De Rossi to the DM and had Vieira as a box-to-box. I've never been the biggest fan of Kluivert but Baggio is an all-time great and one of my favourite players. Overall I think there may be a bit of a lack of goals in your team compared to some of the others as Iniesta was never a big goalscorer.

 

John

 

Great keeper and two very good centre backs, I just think they are perhaps a touch too slow as a pairing. Irwin was never the fastest either, though he was a very good player, leaving just Gallas out of your defenders who has pace. I also thought Gallas was a much better left back than a right back but no doubt he was a very good player. Two exceptional players in centre mid but, again, I think the lack of pace between them or a physical player to do the donkey work for them like Busquets or Vidal could be a problem. Riquelme is out of position and the team would have looked a lot better if you swapped him and Hagi around imo.

 

No2

 

Neuer and Desailly are top notch picks and Cole was a very good player too. Demichellis and Zabaleta are weak picks relative to others in their position in the draft though giving the defence an uneven look. I like De Jong and obviously Gerrard in your midfield but De Boer was always better as a right mid for me, and he was never anything special anyway so think he'd struggle in centre mid there. Great wide players but Anelka is weak in comparison as a focal point.

 

Ardja

 

Fantastic ultra sexy keeper and a genuine world class player in Cannavaro and one approaching world class in Robertson. Never the biggest fan of Samuel personally but think he'd go well with Cannavaro. Not sure why you would pick Grygera. One of the weakest picks in the draft. Really good midfield two who would compliment each other well but not sure on the position of De Bruyne, would have been better moving him into a midfield three and shooting Ribery into the moon and getting a ten. Great pairing up front and Raul is always a little underrated in these drafts, and often not picked at all, but he was a top class player. Also, the kit you've picked is fucking atrocious.

 

Dynamite.

 

Superb keeper and a great centre back pairing, both world class and would compliment each other well. Top quality right back tempered by a pretty poor left back. I really don't like the midfield two and think it lets down an otherwise excellent team, in the main. Sammer was a stone cold world class defender but was never as good in midfield imo and McStay... for all this 'maestro' talk he is right up there as one of the weakest players in the whole draft. He spent his whole career in a very poor league and actually had a poor record in terms of honours with Celtic. Just three league titles in 15 years. Probably the best attack in the whole draft though. Maradona behind Torres is mindblowingly good and much as I think Neymar is a cheating cunt you can't deny him and Overmars alongside Maradona and Torres is pretty special.

 

Dynamite for sure. Struggled with a second choice but going to go with Ardja.

[Allan]

Just a word on Paul McStay. Now I suspect I've seen far more of the Maestro than anyone else in the draft, so I can understand why some/most are a little underwhelmed by him.

 

However, as a player, McStay was to Celtic what Gerrard was to us. McStay carried the Celtic team in the late 80s/early 90s when Aberdeen & Rangers were the better teams in Scotland.

 

It can't be understated how important McStay was to Celtic during that period. If not for him they certainly wouldn't have won the honours they did in that time. He had plenty of offers to play outside Scotland, but chose to stay at his boyhood club, much like Gerrard.

 

McStay wasn't as good as Gerrard, but he was a very fine midfielder and is the only Celtic player of his era to be included in Celtic's greatest ever XI which is testament to what a good player he was considering the Celtic legends that had gone before him.

[Sugar Ape]

He played in a very poor league though in comparison to the other top European leagues. That can’t be denied. Almost all of the other Celtic/Rangers picks were picked on their achievements outside of Scotland, McStay is the only one I think to spend his whole career there.

 

He may have been able to replicate his abilities in a top league but he never did and I just can’t judge highly a player who played his whole career in a weak league and for a relatively weak national team.