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PAT MUSTARD TACTICS
Formation: 4-4-2
Philosophy: "I'm looking forward to seeing some sexy football" Ruud Gullit
There were safer lineups for me to field here in terms of winning votes, but in light of our respective injury lists I couldn't resist giving Gullit his draft debut (I think) in the libero role. Harms has produced some wonderful videos recently demonstrating his abilities there, and having watched bits and pieces of competitive matches vs Spain and Ireland I was highly impressed with the influence Gullit wielded from that position. Sumptuous long-range passing, some seemingly effortless bursts through the lines from unpromising starting positions for a mere mortal, and he seemed to have an instinct for snuffing out danger in defensive phases on top of his ridiculous athletic advantages. Obviously I can't make any remotely sweeping statements about his defensive game without even watching those matches in their entirety, and in the interests of full disclosure he conceded a penalty against Ireland, but...Gullit. As soon as the idea entered my head I was always going to take the gamble here.
Aside from simply wanting to field Gullit in that position, with Voronin on the injury list Beckenbauer and Falcao are clearly the most compelling midfield duo available to me, and the more obvious Kaiser deputy Maxime Bossis is also unavailable. Pnut's casualties also factored into my decision. With Crespo and Batistuta both ruled out, Cruyff looks like he'll cut an isolated figure up front, compounded by the lack of either a Stoichkov-esque goalscoring wide attacker or a specialist penalty box threat from midfield in the Robson or Lampard mould offering regular support. Clearly, a lineup containing the likes of Cruyff, Figo, Beckham and Gerson will still pose a substantial threat, but I feel that it won't be coherent or sustained enough to put an unmanageable burden on our defence.
More broadly:
- We're fairly confident in our defence's ability to cope with the tasks at hand. Pnut's wing duos are excellent, but Pavoni and McGrain are both strong, resolute defenders, and Luis Enrique is a great fit for tracking Facchetti and preventing him from running rampant. Counterintuitively, perhaps, we're quite happy to funnel the opposition's attacks into the wide areas anyway, as we're highly confident in Gullit and Samuel's ability to deal with any deliveries into the box.
- A 4-4-2 with two expansive B2B midfielders AND an attacking libero is risky and cavalier, there's no denying that. The risk is mitigated by the intelligence of the key players: Beckenbauer is about as tactically perfect as it gets to cover for Gullit's forward incursions (and there's no way that I'm playing Gullit there and trying to downplay the importance of those libero tendencies), and Falcao himself has performed admirably when he played as the deepest midfielder. All four of our midfielders, including Beckenbauer probably, are more famous for their attacking abilities than their out-of-possession work, but every one of them will defend diligently.
- More importantly, any defensive vulnerabilities are more than made up for by the sheer creativity and range of goal threats in our team. Don't really need to elaborate on the likes of Kaiser and Falcao, but I would like to highlight the left flank of Pavoni and Brady, and the quality of delivery they'll provide for Spencer.
P-NUT TACTICS
Schmichel in net brings that dominance of anything coming into the box from out wide.
A back 3 of Puyol, Santamaria and Gamarra provide the pace to cover out wide when the wing backs need assistance, accompanied by the obvious leadership skills their trophy hauls indicate.
Wing backs of Carlos Alberto and Facchetti are hard to top no matter who you have in those positions.
Central midfield is patrolled by Schweinsteiger and Gerson. Both defensively solid and provide that solid block in front of the back 3. Box to box skills prevent us from becoming too defensively minded.
Beckham and Figo out wide, ideally Figo would be on the right, but on the left of a 343 he can use his dribbling and play making skills cutting inside and linking sublimely with the other attackers and midfielders. Beckham being on the right allows Alberto to bomb on even more, knowing he's got a grafter in front of him.
Cruyff ties the whole thing together, creator and chief he's tasked with running the game, giving the CBs no one to mark at times, before darting in behind during link plays. Hell drop deep, drift wide and basically do as he pleases.
