All time British/Irish fantasy draft, Q-F: Edgar Vs Annah

Based on the players' peak, who will win this match?


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    18
  • Poll closed .

Annahnomoss

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Both the Wolves and England managers decided to use him as a defensively minded player in some of their most difficult games. If he was worse by any means they'd not have decided to play him there, especially Wolves where he was one of/the star of the team.

One thing is very sure though. That passing range and general ability in possession is certainly something he has above Stiles and it can lead to some difficult-to-prevent chances here.
 

Chesterlestreet

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Yes, I read that 10 times too. Permit me to disagree here. I'll quote below some excerpts from the book 'Three Lions vs the World'.

"with Left Half Slater tightly marking Didi"
Quote from Slater himself "I enjoyed playing as attacking wing half normally, but I had to discipline myself not to let..."

Yes, He has played on the right. But I'm still leaning towards his best position as a box-to-box/left sided MF, not a defensive pivot.

Can understand if you disagree, but lets just agree to disagree.
Probably best.

Keep in mind, though, that those quotes pertain to his England career - and he only played a dozen times for England (and his most memorable performances came in a specialized man marking capacity).

For Wolves his most memorable performance was without question the match against Honved, where he played as a right half alongside Ron Flowers.

Whether he's an ideal "pivot" or not is not for me to comment on (I detest that term), but I think it's quite obvious that given Slater's characteristics as a player (a versatile midfielder with a decent foot who is strong defensively) he isn't out of place here at all.
 
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MJJ

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In fairness, it's largely EAP arguing that. :lol:

What most others have argued was that it could hold its own and there's two stances there: 1) that sitting deep hampers how fluidly he can go about things and/or 2) that sitting back may be a function of his defence requiring constant protection.

The way I see it, he is better off riding his luck and banking on his superior firepower, as you say.
not to mention some questionable tactics like no one actually holding their place in midfield and just following the ball
 

Annahnomoss

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not to mention some questionable tactics like no one actually holding their place in midfield and just following the ball
That is a very very extreme conclusion from what I said. No midfield trio stays in the same position whether the opponent attacks on the left, right or centrally. The entire team, which includes the midfield will adjust to try and limit the space on the side the ball is at. The better the midfielders are defensively in their positioning, reading of the game and work rate/tackling the better they'll be able to do this. People were talking about my right side as if this principle didn't apply, as if it was a static one vs one match up.

I tried to point out the fact that the midfield will move towards the right when the ball is there, like any midfield which will mean that Slater will be helping out Blanchflower a lot and Keane will be working in sync with Blanchflower.

Rather than Blanchflower defending 1 vs 1 out wide right all game regardless of where the ball is then they pass it to (my) left side and Blanchflowers starts whistling and playing poker with McCracken because "the ball is on the other side".
 

MJJ

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I understand that annah but you have normally people in the middle as well to limit passing options, you can't say everyone is moving to the right without it having a counter effect like eaps picture earlier was a weird post.
 

MJJ

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and I can't really remember when was the last time a world class fullback got taken to the cleaners but in this draft its kinda customary to assume that a world class winger will be destroying his opposite number with no solution available to the defence which I find weird.

good positioning can neutralize most threats.
 

Annahnomoss

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Not as extreme as pinning EAPs fullbacks to the corner flags :p
Was a parody based on how EAP told me I played Blanchflower as a box to box, which I responded "No I don't" and then he responded by making a bullet point on how me using Blanchflower as a box to box was negative for me.
 

antohan

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Was a parody based on how EAP told me I played Blanchflower as a box to box, which I responded "No I don't" and then he responded by making a bullet point on how me using Blanchflower as a box to box was negative for me.
I know it was, thus the :p
 

Annahnomoss

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and I can't really remember when was the last time a world class fullback got taken to the cleaners but in this draft its kinda customary to assume that a world class winger will be destroying his opposite number with no solution available to the defence which I find weird.

good positioning can neutralize most threats.
Normal when Matthews is arguably the best ever at beating his full back. That was how he made his name, skinning his full backs, cutting in/crossing. Whether you were one of the worlds best ever in Nilton Santos didn't matter much.

If he didn't have a bad game then he'd be guaranteed to beat your full back more than a few times. The question is whether it will lead to goals or not, which very likely it would considering how great he was.

He created all four goals for England against Brazil with Santos against him who almost always had sufficient help and Matthews rarely had his full back overlapping to create the successful chance.

Two times FWA player of the year, Ballon d'Or winner and was capable of absolutely dominating matches like in the "Matthews final" where he created goal after goal in one of the best FA Cup performances ever. Lead to a hattrick by Mortensen too.

Then there is Best on the other side, who is even better. With the relatively weak full backs available in this draft comparison to the very best ever it was bound to be a draft where wingers would be relatively strong in comparison to their full backs.

Where even if I have Blanchflower in the midfield, I am facing Scholes here. The relative advantage is far from as big between their peaks as Best VS Cohen and Matthews VS Gemmell.
 

Joga Bonito

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30 more mins and it's a deadlock atm. Another close game going down the wire in this draft.
 

antohan

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Eh? That's the most retarded thing I've seen in drafts. Ever. Use your useless invalid vote to make it look like you are ahead.

Guess what? I don't audit votes and brought it back to parity, and I can't remove it now.

 

antohan

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:confused: Didn't your vote just decide the match?
No, Annah's did! The feckin' moron... I was refreshing checking if some numpty had decided to leave it late, saw 9-8, voted for EAP, then read Annah had tried to be clever. Somehow, have no idea how that was clever in any way shape or form.
 

Annahnomoss

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I voted for myself as a last chance to win(with almost complete chance of losing due to it of course). Can't see my team accepting a draw here, was win or lose!
 

antohan

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I suppose @crappycraperson can rule on whether my vote can be withdrawn, it certainly wasn't intended as anything other than a vote for parity and penos.

This draft needs some right-centre-left drama!
 

Annahnomoss

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I suppose @crappycraperson can rule on whether my vote can be withdrawn, it certainly wasn't intended as anything other than a vote for parity and penos.

This draft needs some right-centre-left drama!
I overrule this. Edgar goes through, I am not interested in penalties. Was win or lose here, my team was always going for the win and it was bound to lead to a goal back or forth. Good game Edgar.
 

antohan

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I overrule this. Edgar goes through, I am not interested in penalties. Was win or lose here, my team was always going for the win and it was bound to lead to a goal back or forth. Good game Edgar.
You don't overrule jack you giant tit! If anything you should have voted EAP to bag a win!

Feck off, we want penos!
 

Joga Bonito

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I overrule this. Edgar goes through, I am not interested in penalties. Was win or lose here, my team was always going for the win and it was bound to lead to a goal back or forth. Good game Edgar.


We want penalties
 

antohan

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Best and Matthews undermined by a makeshift defence - couldn't really separate it.
Aye, very much the same here, which is why despite emphasising the makeshift defence I never got around voting. Looked a 1-1 to me.