This is my first time in draft football, and I find the assumption of all players playing at their peaks really annoying.
I know its supposed to even things out, but I feel it actually makes things unbalanced simply because of the vast difference in the definitions of "peaks".
For example, Nani at his 'peak' is definitely world-class. He'll take on his man and beat him every time, deliver pin-point crosses and through balls, and make any striker look like Messi with his assists. His peak consists of individually brilliant performances - a straight 10 in a series of 5s and 6s.Whereas for someone like Walcott, the peak signifies a series of brilliant performance - 8s and 9s in a row. You could say Nani's peak is arguably better than Walcott's peak. Which is completely against the lopsided answer that the question "Nani or Walcott?" will elicit. Same for Berbatov, Balotelli, Townsend and the likes.
My point is - in the lineups above, Polaroid's team clearly has most of the '10' players. We've assumed that they will be at their peaks, so it means that this is a game when Eto'o will be in a hat-trick mood; Bale will have two assists; and let fly 3 from outside the box; Zidane will score 2 and assist 4; Redondo will get 2 and set up 1 and Petit will chip in, too. From set-pieces, Rio and Hummel will get a goal each.
Kahn at his best will stop half of those all by himself, and Balu's defence may stop half of the remaining. Crudely speaking, Polaroid's team will still have a minimum of three goals. Lets call it a 3 goal/attack team.
For Balu, his attacking players' peaks will be mostly in the 8s and the 9s. Muller and Kroos will set up 2 each and score two each. Klinsmann gets a hat-trick, and Scholl gets two. An assist each from Ziege and Effenberg. That's it. Even though Pol's defence is relatively weaker, Balu has at max a 2.5 goal/attack team.
And since we've already established that Polaroid will have majority possesion, we can assume that he will have more attacks and win by outscoring Balu. Balu's team might do a truly magnificent job containing Pol's attack most of the time but it still won't be enough.
Perhaps I was tired of thinking of all the mini-battles involved, and simplified it down too much. Anyway, I think I need more 'XP' in these drafts. So though I think it should be Polaroid winning it, I dislike my approach to the conclusion, and so I won't vote.
So much for my efforts and arguments. It was fun, nonetheless.
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