All-Time Fantasy Draft

NM

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Oh the crossfire has begun in the tunnel itself. :lol:
Btw - Iso - just to be clear - I don't want to start the match-thread arguments here so I'll stop now if you want. I feel bad criticizing United players. I struggle to do it!!
 

NM

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I just gave my two cents on Irwin as you mentioned it here. I thought (and still think - have to check) that you picked somebody else after him.
 

Isotope

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No problem, mate. I'm the one who ask opinion. Different opinion is alright. When I asked you about watching United in 90's, it was a genuine question, not looking to have slight dig or else. I needed to know how you based your opinion on.

It's funny how memories play trick on people about some players.
 

crappycraperson

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Let me put it this way - if this was not a Unite forum - there was no way Irwin would be in this draft. That's just my opnion.
That's irrelevant. Would Keane have been picked so early on another forum?

Irwin at his peak was better than Evra for me who has never been top class when it comes to defending. Even attacking wise, one could argue Irwin was more effective since his end product was more consistent. Evra is possibly the best dribbling left back around but his crossing most of the time is woeful. It is a closer one between him and Cole.
 

NM

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No problem, mate. I'm the one who ask opinion. Different opinion is alright. When I asked you about watching United in 90's, it was a genuine question, not looking to have slight dig or else. I needed to know how you based your opinion on.

It's funny how memories play trick on people about some players.
True that. I actually think I'm being harsh on Irwin in my criticism. I genuinely loved him as a player. But the memory does play tricks. People remember the Schmeichel of the late 90s. I remember some of the howlers when he joined. I spend a lot of my time travelling - and when I travel I watch old football and especially old United games. I'm a lot harsher on our own players, which is why I oft stay out of those threads here.
 

NM

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That's irrelevant. Would Keane have been picked so early on another forum?

Irwin at his peak was better than Evra for me who has never been top class when it comes to defending. Even attacking wise, one could argue Irwin was more effective since his end product was more consistent. Evra is possibly the best dribbling left back around but his crossing most of the time is woeful. It is a closer one between him and Cole.
It is relevant though - as the Keane point will also be made in the debates in the threads. I wouldn't have had him that early in the draft. I disagree about Evra never being top class when it comes to defending, but agree on Irwin's end product being superior.

Evra provides a different kind of threat though. His runs, dribbling and threat often open up space for other players. Seen a lot of that this season 2.. Anyway its 2 am here so im out!
 

Isotope

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True that. I actually think I'm being harsh on Irwin in my criticism. I genuinely loved him as a player. But the memory does play tricks. People remember the Schmeichel of the late 90s. I remember some of the howlers when he joined. I spend a lot of my time travelling - and when I travel I watch old football and especially old United games. I'm a lot harsher on our own players, which is why I oft stay out of those threads here.

:lol: See. I actually struggle to think that anyone can be a better Gk than Schmeichel. That's how I remember him. The closest ones that can get to him are Buffon and Pagliuca.
 

NM

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:lol: See. I actually struggle to think that anyone can be a better Gk than Schmeichel. That's how I remember him. The closest ones that can get to him are Buffon and Pagliuca.
All perception then. No worries mate. Let's have a good game. I still think Schmeichel is the best keeper I've seen a lot of. Just that people don't remember his mistakes. The same way people forget about VDS' weaknesses as well. Hopefully in a decade or 2, DDG will be remembered the same way - and not as a guy who can't punch the ball!
 

Isotope

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All perception then. No worries mate. Let's have a good game. I still think Schmeichel is the best keeper I've seen a lot of. Just that people don't remember his mistakes. The same way people forget about VDS' weaknesses as well. Hopefully in a decade or 2, DDG will be remembered the same way - and not as a guy who can't punch the ball!
Well, if he's good enough for Barcelona, he's good enough for United.
 

lunchforthesky

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Keane also spent his entire career in this poor league, and played for 'small' country. Was EPL really a poor league in the 90's that Irwin an undisputed leftback for United for 10 years wasn't worth a recognition?
Except keane bossed other world class midfielders regularly on the big stage. Irwin is just our Michel Salgado or Wily Sagnol and like Salgado and Sagnol has no place in this draft.
 

Isotope

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Except keane bossed other world class midfielders regularly on the big stage. Irwin is just our Michel Salgado or Wily Sagnol and like Salgado and Sagnol has no place in this draft.
United main fullback for 10 years (played 368 games), while winning these:
Premier League (7): 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01
FA Cup (3): 1994, 1996, 1999
UEFA Champions League (1): 1999
Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1991
European Super Cup (1): 1991
Intercontinental Cup (1): 1999

not even deserve in this draft?

Mood point, this. Some people rate him, some don't. Shit happened.
 

antohan

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I don't think I saw Wolfgang Overath or Karlheinz Forster in any of the sides, either, both of which are amazing omission for me.

Piet Kiezer, Faas Wilkes, Barry Hulshoff from the Dutch contingent off the top of my head, too.

Not going to go through each nation as it's too much bother, also think anto's list of omissions is pretty good.
Thought about him, but I had my German colours nailed on a different mast.

The list I posted still misses out on several players since when I made it as soon as I got to a few picks from a country which I definitely wanted/expected to get one I stopped listing. Greaves being an excellent example of that.

Will try to post some tidbits on some of the more obscure names later.
 

antohan

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So when will the first game start lads?
People take forever to ready up for these things and many have probably been running into domestic/study trouble with the draft. JakeC doesn't seem to have a laptop...

I would suggest we take up to Monday/Tuesday to ready up the player profiles and all that, then start games on Wednesday.

Otherwise what happens is halfway through it someone isn't ready and it drags on, Brwned gets nothing sent, etc.

Let's target all player profiles being up by Tuesday.
 

Cling Bak

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Sindelar, Hideguti, Blanchflower, Dalglish...
Not one squad in this entire game, in my opinion, can excuse this omission. Absolutely criminal. He is one of the top bracket greats and had he played for United, he'd have been a first or second round pick.

I can perhaps forgive the couple of teams that included Scots (Hansen, Souness - though neither are as quality), but for the rest he's not just an oversight.
 

Thisistheone

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Not one squad in this entire game, in my opinion, can excuse this omission. Absolutely criminal. He is one of the top bracket greats and had he played for United, he'd have been a first or second round pick.

I can perhaps forgive the couple of teams that included Scots (Hansen, Souness - though neither are as quality), but for the rest he's not just an oversight.
I agree. Utd fans hey.

I wanted him but could not afford to drop Bremner who is absolutely vital to the way I'm going to set-up with Maradona, Charlton & Coluna.
 

paceme

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Not one squad in this entire game, in my opinion, can excuse this omission. Absolutely criminal. He is one of the top bracket greats and had he played for United, he'd have been a first or second round pick.

I can perhaps forgive the couple of teams that included Scots (Hansen, Souness - though neither are as quality), but for the rest he's not just an oversight.
It took me a lot not to pick him on my last go. I didn't need a striker though and Batistuta never really played with a partner so I decided to get a midfield name a few may know as being quality.
 

paceme

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People take forever to ready up for these things and many have probably been running into domestic/study trouble with the draft. JakeC doesn't seem to have a laptop...

I would suggest we take up to Monday/Tuesday to ready up the player profiles and all that, then start games on Wednesday.

Otherwise what happens is halfway through it someone isn't ready and it drags on, Brwned gets nothing sent, etc.

Let's target all player profiles being up by Tuesday.
Yeah I wasn't expecting it to begin until next week. I've already started making my profiles and it will take some time to get them looking concise and as convincing as possible.
 

Brwned

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Not one squad in this entire game, in my opinion, can excuse this omission. Absolutely criminal. He is one of the top bracket greats and had he played for United, he'd have been a first or second round pick.

I can perhaps forgive the couple of teams that included Scots (Hansen, Souness - though neither are as quality), but for the rest he's not just an oversight.
He plays in the most heavily populated position in the draft and there's at least 16 better players in his position. Yes he was the best player in the league for a long while but this was in an era when Kevin Keegan won the Ballon d'Or twice, yet he's widely regarded as not even being one of England's top 5 players. There are still plenty of United fans that will say Cantona was more influential and I reckon there's Arsenal fans that say Bergkamp was the better player, Dalglish just stood out in an inferior league.

Dalglish was a very good player in a great team. Cantona made a a good team great.
But as someone who saw him play for Celtic, Liverpool and Scotland i can tell you he was a very good player for Celtic and Liverpool.

Generally it was considered he underperformed for Scotland, at a time when Scotland probably had as good as squad of players as they ever had.
Can't really work out Dalglish's place in football. Good footballer, some Liverpool people of my age say top class, however, I only saw him live playing against United and I never felt that he got the better of Martin Buchan (top class defender from that era).
From antohan's list of unpicked players I'd still take Sívori, Tostão, Overath, Rivera, Sindelar, Liedholm, Deyna and Stojkovic over Dalglish.

I'm sorry - but that's just false. If anything, Zambrotta wasn't good going forward!

Maicon and Alves I won't comment on, as the role of fullbacks has also evolved over time.
Zambrotta started off his career as a left winger I think. Certainly played there various times throughout his career anyway. Very much an attacking fullback and very reliable too,
 

Gio

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Except keane bossed other world class midfielders regularly on the big stage. Irwin is just our Michel Salgado or Wily Sagnol and like Salgado and Sagnol has no place in this draft.
Let me put it this way - if this was not a Unite forum - there was no way Irwin would be in this draft. That's just my opnion.
Agree with both of these points. There's an element of romanticism with Irwin on this forum, partly because of the Irish/United contingent on here and the fact he was under-rated during his career. He was in a similar class bracket to Michel Salgado, Wily Sagnol or Manuel Pablo which isn't a criticism because all were among the better full-backs of their generation and solid picks in a 70s draft for example. For the purposes of this draft, Irwin is nevertheless a strong pick: the nationality rule means that his versatility (both LB/RB) and his country of origin are priceless. After all the top 25 full-backs in the history of the game are almost entirely comprised of those from Germany, Italy, France and Brazil, so any quality that can be sourced from second or third tier nations such as Ukraine, Belgium or Ireland is vital.

2nd draft in a row for Greavesy to miss out, strange given the lack of top quality Englishmen. Here's a small list of those that missed out from the newbies, I suspect at least 3/4 of the same players are missing in this one:

Helmut Rahn, Danny Blanchflower, Raymond Kopa, Juste Fontaine, Dragoslav Šekularac, József Bozsik, Nándor Hidegkuti, Zito, Billy Wright, Omar Sívori, Jimmy Greaves, Silvio Marzolini, Amancio, Antonio Rattín, Wolfgang Overath, Tarcisio Burgnich, Sandro Mazzola, Gigi Riva, Teófilo Cubillas, Günter Netzer, Martin Buchan, Arie Haan, Willem van Hanegem, Rob Rensinbrink, Kazimierz Deyna, Mario Kempes, Osvaldo Ardiles, Marius Tresor, Hans Krankl, Toninho Cerezo, Bruno Conti, Franco Causio, Karlheinz Forster, Jan Ceulemans, Peter Shilton, Jean Tigana, Sócrates, Liam Brady, Alan Hansen, Anatoliy Demyanenko, Oleg Blokhin, Enzo Scifo, Romerito, Jean-Pierre Papin, Junior, Careca, Josimar, Emilio Butragueño, Preben Elkjaer, Enzo Francescoli, Hans-Peter Briegel, Paul Gascoigne, Paulo Futre, Giuseppe Bergomi, Oleksandr Zavarov, Jorginho, Thomas Ravelli, Thomas Häßler, Dragan Stojković, Robert Prosinečki, Jürgen Kohler, Jürgen Klinsmann, Krasimir Balakov, Demetrio Albertini, Dennis Bergkamp, Roberto Ayala, Zvonimir Boban...and that's only including players that played in the World Cup between 58-98!
Some massive omissions in there, particularly Kopa, Kohler, Bergomi and Shilton.
 

Brwned

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Shilton and Kopa I understand to some degree given Zidane/Platini and Banks overshadowed them, I was more shocked with Greaves. Rudi Voller was picked instead of him for christ's sake. Bergomi and Kohler were just very strange oversights. I am surprised that no-one picked up Juste Fontaine in either.
 

Gio

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I don't think I saw Wolfgang Overath or Karlheinz Forster in any of the sides, either, both of which are amazing omission for me.
I went for Kohler in round 4 thinking that by the time round 5 came back down the list both him and Forster could've been snapped up.

Shilton and Kopa I understand to some degree given Zidane/Platini and Banks overshadowed them, I was more shocked with Greaves. Rudi Voller was picked instead of him for christ's sake. Bergomi and Kohler were just very strange oversights. I am surprised that no-one picked up Juste Fontaine in either.
Yes surprised with Greaves given his pedigree and nationality.
 

Fergus' son

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I think Irwin is a better full back than both Cole and Evra personally.
 

Theon

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I think he's better than Evra, but saying he's better than Cole is pushing it.
 

Fergus' son

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I think he's better than Evra, but saying he's better than Cole is pushing it.
I think Irwin is the best left back in PL history.

Better technique than his counterparts, better passing, better crossing, better set pieces, better shooting, more discipline, better decision making, more versatile. Cole has more pace and arguably is better in the tackle but overall Irwin is the better player, imo of course.
 

lunchforthesky

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I think Irwin is the best left back in PL history.

Better technique than his counterparts, better passing, better crossing, better set pieces, better shooting, more discipline, better decision making, more versatile. Cole has more pace and arguably is better in the tackle but overall Irwin is the better player, imo of course.
All demonstrated by playing against the teams of the 4th or 5th best league in Europe.

Ashley Cole would look like a God playing in current Ligue 1 during his prime.

The bias for 90s Premiership players is extremely strong on here, no one would dream of picking a current Ligue 1 player for any best of anything lists (aside from Zlatan), same for Serie A except for the absolute cream of the crop (which Irwin certainly wasn't).

Yet apparently we're to believe Irwin was better than players like Cole who've consistently held players like Ronaldo and Ronaldinho at bay and been the best left back in the world for a number of years.
 

Moby

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Hey! My assistant manager is getting poached already! Or is it him sniffing around for other clubs?

If so, he has no idea how strong we are. :devil:
:lol: Me and Isotope go a long way back in playing drafts, from the newbs, so it was just two old friends catching up for a late night ice cream. :D
 

NM

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:lol: Me and Isotope go a long way back in playing drafts, from the newbs, so it was just two old friends catching up for a late night ice cream. :D
Well if he beats me, I know who to blame now! I thought we were friends Aldo. :(
 

Isotope

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Hey! My assistant manager is getting poached already! Or is it him sniffing around for other clubs?

If so, he has no idea how strong we are. :devil:
Well if he beats me, I know who to blame now! I thought we were friends Aldo. :(
:lol: I just need my ego messaged; someone to tell me I made the right choice.

Joking aside, I had a couple of strong formations: one that look good and would be more than likely get casual observer votes, and another that actually would work in real game. Aldo wrote solid convincing analysis on picking up the latter.

You should be proud, NM. Against you, I have to resort taking advice from other.
 

NM

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:lol: Me and Isotope go a long way back in playing drafts, from the newbs, so it was just two old friends catching up for a late night ice cream. :D
:lol: I just need my ego messaged; someone to tell me I made the right choice.

Joking aside, I had a couple of strong formations: one that look good and would be more than likely get casual observer votes, and another that actually would work in real game. Aldo wrote solid convincing analysis on picking up the latter.

You should be proud, NM. Against you, I have to resort taking advice from other.
also - gayers. :p

On a serious note - I have been thinking about the different formations you can play a lot. But don't worry. I have a couple of tricks too.