Would pick Dani Alves head of him. Probably the best fullback I've seen.
Yeah I'd say if you judge by
career but weighting peak level higher (say double) than other years, Alves is the #4 player of the post-Zidane and Ronaldo era, only below Messi, Cristiano then a huge gap then Xavi and then Alves. Apologies to Modric, Ronaldinho (maybe even the #3 peak ahead of Xavi, I'd need to go back and watch tape to feel comfortable having a take there), Henry, Iniesta and Ramos who all make the 21st century XI:
Ronaldinho-Cristiano-Messi (Henry, Zlatan, Robben)
---------Iniesta------Xavi----------- (Modric, Vidal)
-------------------Pirlo----------------- (Busquets)
Alaba-------------------------Alves (Lahm, Cole)
---------Ramos--Ferdinand----- (Pique, Godin)
------------------Neuer--------------- (Buffon)
feels like my first and 2nd team unless I'm forgetting someone. Probably biased a bit against 2000-2005 because of my age. And obviously if it was a real team you'd want a midfielder who weighs over 150 pounds in there at presumably Pirlo's expense (though you could also try Pirlo sitting and Xavi and someone with incredible energy like Kante or Vidal as the 3rd man) and maybe Ronaldinho off the bench and just ask Messi and Cristiano to pick a 9 (or RW if Messi wants to play there and presumably Robben out right) who they prefer to play with and if they pick Totti or Suarez or Henry or Ronaldinho or David Villa then feck it let them give it a go.
feck it, 3rd, 4th and 5th teams:
3rd
Lewandowski---------Suarez
------------------Totti----------------------
---Schweinsteiger--Kroos-------
-----------------Makelele-----
Marcelo--------------------Zanetti
--------Silva---Puyol---------------
-------------Casillas-----------------
4th:
--------------E'too---------------------
Ribery-----------------Kaka---------
------Lampard----Gerrard-------
---------Xabi Alonso---------------
Evra--------------------------Maicon
--------Chiellini--Nesta-------------
-------------Cech-------------------
5th:
--------------Shevchenko----------
Neymar------------------------Zidane
--------------David Silva---------------
Zambrotta--De Rossi-----Kimmich
--------Vidic-Bonucci-Pepe-------
-------------Van Der Sar-------------
6th team couldn't be bothered but David Villa, Varane and Terry were probably on it.
Tried not to cheat with positions too much. Zidane people will scream about but 6 final club seasons vs 14 for say Lampard is just too big a gap, but hey 2000 is an arbitrary start date so that's why these things end up cheating guys and should just be players who debut after 2000 (or in this era's case probably 1995) and so he makes the 90s team too and is probably the only guy along with Nesta on this team to do that, though Kimmich would be favored too if he stays at RB and does have a shot at DM though probably a worse one.