The Virgin League Draft - Indnyc vs. Edgar Allan Pillow (GROUP C)

With players in their 3 year career peak, who would win?

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    16
  • Poll closed .

Invictus

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Indnyc...............................................................................................................................Edgar Allan Pillow
..........VS..........



Team Indnyc (G. Gattuso dropped for G. Lineker)

Team Shape - 4-4-2 Diamond

Platform is nicely set for Rui Costa to supply for 2 great goal scorers in Lineker and Lewandowski. Lampard and Toure are 2 Box to Box midfielders with Fernandinho sitting.

Defense is solid with Ayala and Bruce. Width provided by the fullbacks




Team Edgar Allan Pillow (Gilberto S. dropped for B. Auld)

Formation:

Good ol' 4-4-2 mostly from the classic United side, great Lisbon Lions, a bit of Arsenal and some other teams sprinkled in.

Defence:

Ronnie Simpson kept the Lison Lions all the way to their success. With synergy of having McNeill ahead of him, he'll be the final guardian of the goal. Balanced fullbacks in Denis Irwin and Sandy Jardine, solid defensively and able to provide attacking contribution too. Billy McNeill was captain and anchor for Lisbon Lions and Tony Adams was a standout defender for the Arsenal. Between them they'll provide a solid base for the team to be built on.

Midfield:

The great combo of right half Bobby Murdoch and left half Bertie Auld were the engine room of the legendary Lisbon Lions team. The relentless combativeness of Auld compliments well with the sublime play making of Murdoch. Both are capable of getting on the scoresheet themselves too. A change from the 4-2-4 of the lions will be the extra support they'll get from the wide men here.

David Beckham and Robert Pires, classic wingers who were brilliant for their respective team. Beckham's passing/crossing and Pires's playmkaing in final third will complement each other well. Not just sticking by the sideline, they'll drift in and provide additional manpower to the middle too.

Attack:

Perfectly in sync, telepathic understanding, great workrate and comes up big in needed situations, they are one of the top tandem attacking duo in UK if not the best of all time.

Why I'll win:

+ Players proven in the tactics and formation.
+ Lots of synergy with many duos having played together in real life.
+ Workrate, creativity abundant all through and won't need any specific person to pull strings. Attack can originate from anywhere and so hard to defend against.
 

Physiocrat

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Well constructed 442 EAP. Great winger choices (although I do hate Pires) and full-backs. Plus a proven front two.

I like what you have tried to do in the 442 diamond Indnyc but Yaya and Lampard are not suitable for RCM and LCM. Lampard was hard working but his peak was in a goalscoring CM position. Yaya could play AM or DM but never had the engine for B2B.
 

Gio

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Quite useful to see the peak years here, moreso for Toure and Rui Costa @Indnyc, as they were different players at different stages of their careers.
 

GodShaveTheQueen

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Indnyc's team looks much better than I thought it was while ranking teams. I do agree with physio that the side midfielders probably arent ideal, but I dont think it will be that big an issue looking at the opposition's playing setup.

Edgar wins my vote here for not just pulling off a wonderful theme, but with quality and the right tactics which is very difficult in a draft like this with constraints.
 

Šjor Bepo

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Van Dijk and co. get slated for the longevity of their peaks, think its only fair to mention Yorke who is pretty much in the same boat but will be ignored cause it didnt happen in last few years.
Saying that, great team edgar and a clear winner in this game.
 

Edgar Allan Pillow

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Šjor Bepo said:
Van Dijk and co. get slated for the longevity of their peaks, think its only fair to mention Yorke who is pretty much in the same boat but will be ignored cause it didnt happen in last few years.
Saying that, great team edgar and a clear winner in this game.
Click to expand...
1995-96 to 1999-00 is pretty solid for a peak. His partnership with Cole was extra special.
 

Physiocrat

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GodShaveTheQueen said:
I do agree with physio that the side midfielders probably arent ideal, but I dont think it will be that big an issue looking at the opposition's playing setup.
Click to expand...
Do you think that because EAP would be quite counter attacking? Even so Lampard and Yaya would have to try and stop Beckham and or Pires.
 

Fortitude

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Physiocrat said:
Well constructed 442 EAP. Great winger choices (although I do hate Pires) and full-backs. Plus a proven front two.

I like what you have tried to do in the 442 diamond Indnyc but Yaya and Lampard are not suitable for RCM and LCM. Lampard was hard working but his peak was in a goalscoring CM position. Yaya could play AM or DM but never had the engine for B2B.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's 3 midfielders in indy's side all best suited to one role, and that's the one Rui Costa is in. Lampard was an offensive midfielder rated for his ability to work backwards, but he wasn't much of an actual 2-way CM. Yaya hasn;t got the legs to do that job and I don't think he has the inclination either. Even in his younger days, his enery came in bursts from DM, so if he's going to run for 90 minutes, he'll be half the player by full time.

Lineker wants a partner who supplies him; he'll not take too kindly to a striker who can outshine and also will take up positions he wants to be in.

Edgar has a solid portion of a proven attack and Pires was an absolute menace when allowed to do his thing - he's going to require legs tracking him and if left open will make a solid impact on the game. Irwin is not his ideal partner, but having said that, will also have something to say in terms of influence if he's left open and allowed to follow in behind Pires. Further to that, the energy and drive of Edgar's CM pair is going to make Indy's midfield play at a pace that it doesn't want to. Rui Costa will need two CM's who can supply him between the lines on the half-turn; that's not a forte of Lampard's and Yaya's energy levels to keep up with play going beyond the 60minute mark are highly questionable when he's been run so hard by Pires and the CM inside of him.
 

GodShaveTheQueen

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Physiocrat said:
Do you think that because EAP would be quite counter attacking? Even so Lampard and Yaya would have to try and stop Beckham and or Pires.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't expect them to hold the ball for long like United 99 didn't used to. So ball winners in midfield wouldn't be my concern.

The 2 vs 1 probably is a problem.
 

Theon

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GodShaveTheQueen said:
I do agree with physio that the side midfielders probably arent ideal, but I dont think it will be that big an issue looking at the opposition's playing setup.
Click to expand...
Beckham and Pires are two of the most creative players on the park - those side midfielders need to be competent defensively in terms of closing down and ball-winning. The fact they’re not is the biggest tactical mismatch in the game.
 

Gio

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Edgar's team is well crafted and cohesive with natural partnership that are both proven and, if not, high quality (eg the Adams/McNeill duo).

That left side of the team looks somewhat stunted Indync. Don't mind Lampard as a side CM in a diamond, he's got the legs for it at least. And same for Panucci has a versatile defender. But the overall impact of 11 right-footed players and no natural left-sided player in the team will narrow the park when in possession. Pity you had to drop Gattuso as him in the RCM role and Toure dropping back into the pivot would make it all come together quite nicely IMO.
 

Zlatan 7

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I didn’t even see this game at started, any chance we can have links to the matches in the main virgin draft thread
 

Pat_Mustard

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A never-nude? I thought he just liked cut-offs.
Lewandowski/Lineker doesn't look like a particularly complementary duo, and the side CMs and FBs don't look ideal for the system either. Combined with the general lack of width Gio mentioned it meant I voted for Edgar with little hesitation here.

Nice 4-4-2 from Pillow, and good to see that he's slowly learning from his superiors @Skizzo and I by pairing up Murdoch and Auld in midfield. Only slight balance issue is the two right-footers Irwin and Pires on the left wing. Not a huge issue of course, particularly at this early stage of a draft.

Yorke is so tough to assess for drafts. That partnership with Cole was just phenomenal in the Treble-winning season, and that year you could credibly have rated him as highly as any attacker in the world bar Rivaldo and maybe Shevchenko. He had a fair few other excellent domestic campaigns as well, but never hit the same heights at Champions League or even UEFA Cup level, and obviously doesn't have a strong international career portfolio given his country of birth. That Treble-winning season was something else though...prolific, clinical, creative, great in the air and obviously one of the most famous footballing synergies ever with his partner up front here.
 
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