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UEFA Cup/Europa League Draft Semi Final 2


Lee909
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Pick 2  

12 members have voted

  1. 1. Pick 2


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  • Poll closed on 22/05/20 at 20:00

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No2

 

Nice one for getting Partey spelt right but then managing to spell Simeone wrong. Party and Hughton weak links in anotherwise spectacular side. Has Phil Neal got the legs? 

 

Lee

 

Careca and Sanchez in the same side is sex. Decent enough midfield but arguably one of the weakest in the draft. Great defence and keeper. I'd have swapped Babbel and Vogts around but still superb. 

 

Alex

 

IMO would have done better sacrificing Simonsen for another midfielder and pushed Baggio up a bit. If you had a better striker then yeah leave it as it is. I think it lets your front line down. Great midfield and full backs. 

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Stig- gets my first vote, as a team it looks like it work well.

 

Lee - I don't know enough about 4 of that team to vote for it.

 

Alex - the midfield makes up for my lack of knowledge of a couple of these lads. I'll also gave you the benefit of the doubt that the banger is included accidentally. 

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I went with Lee and Alex. Stig was close 3rd.

 

No 2 - Lots of excellent players, but too attaching for me and not enough balance. The formation appears to be quite a fluid one, partly i expect to try and shoehorn in so many great attackers. Chris Hughton sticks out like a sore thumb in this team too. It may work out to be fantastic, however, just too many attackers doing the same job for me.

 

Stig - This team is actually a lot better than i gave it credit for on first glance. If i hadnt already voted earlier i may have included this in the top 2. My big concern with this team is i imagine Zidane coming inside a lot and taking up the positions that Lampard likes to get into. Also, i dont rate some of those defenders particularly highly. They were all very good, but fall just short of the others for me. That is nitpicking though, as i do think its a pretty good side.

 

Lee - I mentioned the lack of height in this defence previously, however, Babbel does add a bit of height. Ignoring the height concern, the back 6 is fantastic, particularly the centre backs and goalkeeper. Similarly the front 3 is great too, with plenty of goals and creativity. The big issue for me with this team is the 2 in the middle. I dont remember either being particularly mobile, particularly Carrick, and as a two i think they could get dominated by other midfields in this draft. They do add solidity to an already great defence though and as said, with a great front 3, will nick goals.

 

Alex - Im the same as some others, i havent seen a great deal of Simonsen and Stielike, however ignoring those for a while, the rest of the team is extremely well balanced and has very few weaknesses. Midfield has pace, power, goals. Cant really fault it. The 2 full backs are quality and add width, with Kante covering both well. Baggio and Van Persie, whilst not as highly rated by myself as Alex (I think you said Van Persie is an all time great?) are clearly excellent players. Its a strong side, with, an albeit illegal defender

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Guest Alex_K

I took more of a look at Van Persie as he feels like a striker whose career goes 'under the radar' perhaps. His scoring stats are pretty identical to Henry on a per game basis: at international level he had more goals in less games, at club level Henry played more & scored more. Annoyingly had a very good record against us: brace with volley at Anfield, absolute rocket he scored when Robbie Keane scored at the Emirate, goals for United ..

 

As left-footed forwards go there haven't been too many better as they are a rare breed -- Wenger probably messed him around positionally a bit too much earlier on and he was so injury prone in his early 20s. 2010-14 he was a machine.

 

 

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No 2 is my first pick. Brilliant team, if set up correctly as I mentioned in the draft discussion thread.


The other three are very very close. Goalies are probably the same level. Lee and Alex have the better defence, but I feel Stig’s team has a bit better midfield-attack balance. Tardelli plays the tackling role, Veron plays the Alonso/Pirlo role, Lampard box-to-box, Zidane plays the advanced playmaker from the left (like he did for Real), and Heighway provides the width, behind Torres who plays best on his own upfront, with the freedom to roam around. 

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36 minutes ago, aRdja said:

No 2 is my first pick. Brilliant team, if set up correctly as I mentioned in the draft discussion thread.


The other three are very very close. Goalies are probably the same level. Lee and Alex have the better defence, but I feel Stig’s team has a bit better midfield-attack balance. Tardelli plays the tackling role, Veron plays the Alonso/Pirlo role, Lampard box-to-box, Zidane plays the advanced playmaker from the left (like he did for Real), and Heighway provides the width, behind Torres who plays best on his own upfront, with the freedom to roam around. 

In my opion, Heighway should start on the left. Whilst he could play either side, he definitely favoured his left foot. Zidane, on the other hand, was truly two footed.

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11 minutes ago, Tony Moanero said:

In my opion, Heighway should start on the left. Whilst he could play either side, he definitely favoured his left foot. Zidane, on the other hand, was truly two footed.

I didn’t know Heighway was a left winger. That could’ve been a vote changer...

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Big fan of Alex's team - even with Aldair in over Kohler, I still pick this side first in this group. Balance is excellent throughout. For me, it's between Alex & John for the best side in the draft.

 

Lee's side is way too defensive for me. A side that for me didn't need to have a back 3. I'd have had Vogts at right back and used the 00's pick for a box-to-box type midfielder, Ruben Baraja at Valencia for example. Really like all the older era picks in this team, but the picks from more the more modern era don't compliment what had already been picked, in my opinion.

 

Tough separating No2 & Stig. Both good sides with some truly World class players in each, but both sides also have areas that could have been better. 

 

No2's midfield isn't great, I've never been a fan of Carvalho and Hughton was the best of a limited selection. That front 4 would be a handful - Don't think the formation used helps No2 from the initial visual standpoint. I'd have probably gone Henry starting as the 9, with him drifting to the left as he did naturally, allowing Bergkamp to ghost in from a deeper area - Diego and Hagi do like to play in the same spaces, so how those 2 would co-exist would be interesting.

 

Stig's side could probably have been better served with a more specialist right back - Had he been available, then Markus Babbel would have been an excellent pick for this team. Sadly for Stig though, Lee decided to go uber defensive. I like the midfield and forwards trios, both well balanced, and despite me talking of a specialist right back, the positioning of Heighway & Zidane actually plays to the strengths of the selected full backs. Carra is no overlapping full back, so Stevie Heighway would be needed to give width on the right, while Ziege was at his best bombing forward, and would occupy the space left by Zidane as he came inside to influence the game more.

 

Stig just gets my second vote. Just.

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Guest Alex_K

No. 2 I took as first pick -- Hughton & Partey are journeymen & formationally there is a lot of occupying of the same spaces, but Maradonna/Hagi/Bergkamp/Henry may be the coolest 4 forwards ever compiled into a team, so what can you do?

 

Next pick a bit trickier. Carrick is a midfielder I actually really rated - remember Dalglish' first game back at Old Trafford where he had a particularly good game against us. Just really good positionally, defensively and with a mixture of passing. Simple stuff. Tymoshuk on the other hand was an utter journeyman - v surprised to see him included here. Carsten Jancker-esque territory. The team definitely is too defensive as you've got 7 defenders/DMs, but because of that it'd probably be a pain to play against and you've got 2 good forwards to nab a goal with some great defenders there.

 

Stig's team I really liked in the first half of the draft (elegant 80s picks which were tough), but the defence just doesn't sit well with me. Popescu/Ziege/Carragher(full back) sounds like the type of defence Middlesborough would have had in the early 00s and maybe gone down with. Just a bit dodgy. Would have put Ferrara at RB and Carragher centrally. Loads of quality on the attacking front but also quite similar. Zidane wasn't a wide player in the conventional sense - not when you've got Lampard/Veron/Tardelli occupying the middle too. Would have dropped Veron or Lampard, moved Zidane more central and brought in a proper wide player. Its a really attacking team and I'm not sure the defence can handle that.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Tony Moanero said:

The bizarre formation meant that I couldn’t vote for No2. Presumably, Bergkamp would be playing with his back to goal a fair bit, which wasn’t his forte at all.

 

I went for No2 as the players would just ignore him and play in their natural positions anyway.

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Guest Alex_K

Drogba, Blanc, Overmars, Petit, Voller, Aldair, Suker, Adams were a few other notable ones left over.

That Arsenal side that lost to a fairly ordinary Galatasary team on paper in the UEFA final was stacked -- the George Graham defence plus Bergkamp/Henry/Petit/Viera. Wenger's impotence in Europe means he can never be considered on the level of some other greats

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1 hour ago, Alex_K said:

Drogba, Blanc, Overmars, Petit, Voller, Aldair, Suker, Adams were a few other notable ones left over.

That Arsenal side that lost to a fairly ordinary Galatasary team on paper in the UEFA final was stacked -- the George Graham defence plus Bergkamp/Henry/Petit/Viera. Wenger's impotence in Europe means he can never be considered on the level of some other greats

Lizarazu was probably the biggest omission from the wildcard possibilities, purely based on the quality of other eligible left backs.

 

A young Christian Vieri on the bench for Torino for both legs in '92 when they lost to Ajax.

 

Alessandro Del Piero on the bench for Juve when they lost to Parma in 1995. Came off the bench in the last 15-20 minutes of each leg.

 

Also, Dunga for Fiorentina in 1990.

 

Those were the names I was quite surprised not to see taken as wildcards. 

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Guest Alex_K

Ah, saw Vieri but missed Lizarazu & Del Piero. Missed Dunga too but was never too convinced by him so wouldn't consider. Generally the 90s through to early 2000s seems to have been a nice period for the UEFA Cup. Moving to the Europa format really did fuck it.

 

Was a bit surprised not to see more "all-time greats" present in the 70s and 80s winning teams given how the tournament was generally much more prestigious/elite then.

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20 minutes ago, Alex_K said:

Ah, saw Vieri but missed Lizarazu & Del Piero. Missed Dunga too but was never too convinced by him so wouldn't consider. Generally the 90s through to early 2000s seems to have been a nice period for the UEFA Cup. Moving to the Europa format really did fuck it.

 

Was a bit surprised not to see more "all-time greats" present in the 70s and 80s winning teams given how the tournament was generally much more prestigious/elite then.

I was surprised how much a shit show the 80's was in this competition. 

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4 hours ago, Alex_K said:

No. 2 I took as first pick -- Hughton & Partey are journeymen & formationally there is a lot of occupying of the same spaces, but Maradonna/Hagi/Bergkamp/Henry may be the coolest 4 forwards ever compiled into a team, so what can you do?

I was beginning to lose faith in the forum, finally someone who can see. People are seeing formations and Chris Hughton when Maradona, Henry, Bergkamp and Hagi are in the team. It's like looking the looking at Rita Ora with a few spots and turning you're nose up at her.

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6 minutes ago, No2 said:

I was beginning to lose faith in the forum, finally someone who can see. People are seeing formations and Chris Hughton when Maradona, Henry, Bergkamp and Hagi are in the team. It's like looking the looking at Rita Ora with a few spots and turning you're nose up at her.

Fuck you, I said the same 

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