Destabilise each team as best you can by removing one player

Fortitude

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I.E. let's take Messi out of Barcelona - that's a collapse for the them, right? No longer challengers for anything etc.

The idea is based on the notion of them [the team in question] having to work with what they have remaining in the squad.

Messi is about the easiest one to remove and expect calamity in his wake, but how do things pan out for other clubs?

Do Liverpool plummet further via the removal of Mane or Van Dijk? Or does neither player carry that much weight to destabilise the team?
 

padr81

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Liverpool - VVD
City - KDB
Chelsea - No clue, they all look interchangeable
United - As above
Arsenal - Already not stable. Remove Auba and they become West Ham so maybe him.
Spurs - Kane
Barca - Messi
Real - Casemiro
Juve - CR7
PSG - Veratti
 

Tom Cato

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Leicester - Jamie Vardy
Manchester United - Paul Pogba (o wait - this happened)
 

Dumbstar

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padr81 said:
Liverpool - VVD
City - KDB
Chelsea - No clue, they all look interchangeable
United - As above
Arsenal - Already not stable. Remove Auba and they become West Ham so maybe him.
Spurs - Kane
Barca - Messi
Real - Casemiro
Juve - CR7
PSG - Veratti
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KdB was removed and the league was won. He returned and the league was lost. Not his fault obviously but shows he wasn't the reason either way. Laporte for me.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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City - Clearly Laporte. Different side without him.

VVD missing would be the biggest backwards step in the league.
 

Annihilate Now!

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Anyway, without Grealish, Villa would probably be bottom.

Danny Ings is also the main reason why Southampton aren't in the relegation zone.

I think in terms of Premier league, they're the two most important players to their respective clubs.
 

padr81

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Dumbstar said:
KdB was removed and the league was won. He returned and the league was lost. Not his fault obviously but shows he wasn't the reason either way. Laporte for me.
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Yeah but he's more important now. David Silva and Fernandinho were beasts then, sadly now not so much. KDB is much more important with Rodi and Gundogan being in there running in slow motion than he was with peak Silva and Fernandinho. I blamed Pep for playing Fernandinho in defence but I believe now, his legs might be gone. He's 34 and ran about 1bn miles a game for 5 seasons. He can't run around kicking people like he could so thats why he's CB. Our midfield is not even remotely what it was the last 2 seasons. All our problems this season stem from midfield.
 

wrepdrep

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padr81 said:
Juve - CR7
Click to expand...
The team was doing well before CR7's arrival and they haven't been any worse without him this season.

I'd say their most important player is Chiellini. He has carried their defense for years. He wasn't there to carry them against Ajax last season, or last night against Lyon, and it showed. They've always struggled without him, regardless of coach.


Milan - Bennacer or Ibra.
Inter - Brozovic
 

KirkDuyt

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Feyenoord - Steven Berghuis

Feck off Kirk, no one cares about Feyenoord.

okay :(
 

UpWithRivers

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Utd - Fernandes. Yeah its only been 3 games but without him we play Periera or Lingard. A three legged dog would be better
Shef Utd - Dean Henderson. I think he is only behind Alisson in saves and clean sheets stats. Should be England number 1.
Liverpool - Trent Alexander - Guys a machine. everyone says Van D. But I think he is more crucial. Contributing to 14 goals - 2 goals and 12 assists! Ridiculous.
 
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Skills

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Liverpool is Van Djik because they have another two WC forwards.
 

Ramshock

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padr81 said:
Liverpool - VVD
City - KDB
Chelsea - No clue, they all look interchangeable
United - As above
Arsenal - Already not stable. Remove Auba and they become West Ham so maybe him.
Spurs - Kane
Barca - Messi
Real - Casemiro
Juve - CR7
PSG - Veratti
Click to expand...
There ya go, he hogged the thread all to himself. Not much more to be said.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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Rashford out and we struggle to score goals.
Lewandowski out and Bayern will struggle.

We will see how both these things hold in the next couple of weeks.
 

bosnian_red

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Tom Cato said:
Leicester - Jamie Vardy
Manchester United - Paul Pogba (o wait - this happened)
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Leicester is for sure Ndidi IMO. They have decent cover for any position, ndidi is a top player who holds it together in midfield though.
 

harms

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If I know anything about physics, removing Luke Shaw should cause the biggest effect.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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padr81 said:
Yeah but he's more important now. David Silva and Fernandinho were beasts then, sadly now not so much. KDB is much more important with Rodi and Gundogan being in there running in slow motion than he was with peak Silva and Fernandinho. I blamed Pep for playing Fernandinho in defence but I believe now, his legs might be gone. He's 34 and ran about 1bn miles a game for 5 seasons. He can't run around kicking people like he could so thats why he's CB. Our midfield is not even remotely what it was the last 2 seasons. All our problems this season stem from midfield.
Click to expand...
KDM is this generations Paul Scholes. Massively underrated. He had a flourish of exposure, but he remains the best midfielder in world football. By a huge margin.
 

Invictus

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Immobile for Lazio, in my opinion. For what it's worth, Simone Inzaghi is a good organizer and they have other important players like Alberto (one of the best creators in Serie A if not European football as a whole and the brain of the midfield operation), Milinković-Savić, Strakosha and Acerbi — and are by no means a one man show, but Immobile is pretty much indispensable as the cutting-edge/focal-point in attack. To put his ruthlessness and raw output into perspective, he has scored as many Serie A goals as the other forwards and midfielders combined — and I have a hard envisioning them in the title race without him producing a year where he is almost certain to eclipse Rossetti/Higuaín as the highest scorer in a single Divisione Nazionale / Serie A season.
 

Thunderhead

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people saying KDB for City but look at the difference Laporte makes, he's out and we concede a daft goal every game, he's in and we generally win and keep a clean sheet.
 

AltiUn

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Pogba - United.

Our form in the first half of the season was chaotic, does seem to be stabilising a bit now.
 

JB7

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Has no one said United - Maguire yet? Did nobody watch us against City?
 

AltiUn

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JB7 said:
Has no one said United - Maguire yet? Did nobody watch us against City?
Click to expand...
While that was bad it also had a lot to do with Pereira playing CM, Lingard at 10 and Fred having to run a midfield by himself leaving Williams over exposed, we did much better in the second half when Matic came on the DM role.
 

Zehner

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UnrelatedPsuedo said:
KDM is this generations Paul Scholes. Massively underrated. He had a flourish of exposure, but he remains the best midfielder in world football. By a huge margin.
Click to expand...
I think he scores far too much to be underrated. Players with good scoring stats are usually the center of attention. It's midfielders that aren't too spectacular but really important for their teams which are underrated by the public, opinion, IMO. Like Xavi and Iniesta used to be for a few years and somewhat still are. I prefer the latter kind, personally, and in current form, my first pick as a CM would probably be Thiago, not de Bruyne. Don't get me wrong, de Bruyne is great, though.
 

Falcow

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Chelsea miss Kante as evidenced by the Bayern result the other night.
 

do.ob

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For most of the season I would've said Bayern would be a top 4 team instead of the league winners without Lewandowski, but since Flick took over and they got grooving I'm not so sure about that anymore. They don't have anyone close to replacing him 1 for 1, but the team would probably still dominate games without him and therefore win. Taking out Thiago or Kimmich at the moment might be just as or perhaps even more damaging to them, as those two are the players that make them tick imho.
 

SilentWitness

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We already achieved it by selling Gueye. :( After that it's quite tricky really as we didn't have Richarlison for a few games and still did alright. Nobody is really standing out miles above anyone else for Everton right now. Overally you'd probably say Richarlison though if you had to.

Deeney at Watford. Before he came back they looked really poor. He isn't the greatest player but injects a lot of belief into that squad I reckon. Grealish at Villa is an obvious one. Aubameyang for Arsenal. Most are just a case of removing the top creator/goalscorer from a side this season as most defences have been terrible.
 

MackRobinson

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United - Bruno
Spurs - Son
Dortmund - Haaland
PSG - Neymar
Everton - Richarlison
Liverpool - Firmino
Schlake - Serdar
Bayern - Lewa
 

The Original

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Liverpool - Mane
Man City - Laporte
Leicester - Ndidi
Chelsea - Jorginho
Tottenham - Kane
Man Utd - Fred
Everton - Richarlison
 

Freak

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I actually think Trent Alexander Arnold has more impact on this Liverpool side's overall gameplay than VVD. Take him out and their game plan suffers because he's so crucial in creating chances for the front three.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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JB7 said:
Has no one said United - Maguire yet? Did nobody watch us against City?
Click to expand...
Last year we got more points. Thus hard to claim he is that important.
Think Rashford is our main man and most important player.
After him Pogba and Bruno might compete for second most important. Since we have never seen them together it is hard to know.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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Freak said:
I actually think Trent Alexander Arnold has more impact on this Liverpool side's overall gameplay than VVD. Take him out and their game plan suffers because he's so crucial in creating chances for the front three.
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Agree. Although VVD is such a big leader that inspires those around him. Think that is the main factor with him over the rest. Henderson a leader too of course.
 
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