Reality-Monopoly Draft - R1: harms vs Ecstatic

[Šjor Bepo]

@Ecstatic thats why i said its just a random guess and asked for anto to help, cheers for that btw

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

Will somebody break the tie?

And no penalties. I'll randomly 'toss a coin' for the winner.

 

[SirMattBugsby]

Will somebody break the tie?

And no penalties. I'll randomly 'toss a coin' for the winner.

That's cruel. Why not ask them to bring on the sub? We can review our vote then..

 

[SirMattBugsby]

Why? Do you have doubts about Cabrini's defensive game? He was a key part for one of the best defensive units ever.
Here's full match compilation (the second part will be in the suggested video), Cabrini was absolutely amazing from the defensive point of view.

Nice video that, thanks. I hadn't seen much of him and he looks like a no-nonsense defender, which is good vs Jairzinho. But he'll be under immense pressure since Xavi will be playing in Jairzinho.

At this point I'm nitpicking really.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

That's cruel. Why not ask them to bring on the sub? We can review our vote then..

Too much work/time. Both managers need to be online to submit formations with subs. You need voters to review revise, extend poll timings..... and it could still be a tie.

Here are the full teams, if you wish to chane your votes based on subs....

Ecstatic/MDFC - 1. M. Laudrup (5) 2. Xavi (10) 3. O. Varela (19) 4. [DROPPED] 5. G. Bailey (1) 6. A. Shevchenko (19) 7. M. Reiziger 8. R. Krol (25) 9. Jairzinho (4) 10. L.Kubala (9) 11. D. Godin (14) 12. [DROPPED] (16) 13. Amancio Amaro (16) 14. Dunne (3) 15. Lucio (9) 16. O. Blokhin (21) - [finished drafting in Box 21]

harms - 1. [DROPPED] (10) 2. G. Donnarumma (20) 3. L. Figo (1) 4. R. Marquez (7) 5. L. Riva (12) 6. R. Giggs (18) 7. Carvajal 8. B. Robson (27) 9. V. Voronin (6) 10. [DROPPED] 11. A. Cabrini (23) 12. T. Müller (1->14) 13. R. Ayala (9) 14. M. Kaltz (12) 15. F. Toldo (16) 16. K. Keegan (24) [finished drafting in box 24]

 

[antohan]

In your last last game,I was surprised to see a lot of negative comments about your player Makélélé: I guess they have considered him as "pure destroyer" who has nothing to do with technical players like Luis Suarez Miramontes

Let's take the case of Makélélé with Real Madrid: he played a key role in the golden era of Del Bosque. When he left the club, the team lost his balance and struggled to deliver consistent performances on a weekly basis. Makélélé was more than a destroyer: he was capable to play with simplicity, accuracy and rapidity.

I don't expect Varela to run the show but:

1. to control the midfield
2. to protect the defence
3. to play with simplicity and rapidity

From what I've read about Varela, he had proper technical skills but his Uruguayan teammates were clearly better technically.



Thanks for your insights. What do think about this link and the map

https://www.imortaisdofutebol.com/2012/10/02/selecoes-imortais-uruguai-1950/

Exactly.

By the way, I could have taken Busquets but it would have been boring to fully duplicate a team.

Yeah, I thought you wanted him to do a Makelele one-man midfield heavylifting job. Far more technically adept than Makelele though. Did you read what you just sent me? They are Brazilians of course, and thus in awe of the man, but for Brazilians to say someone was a good footballer with the right brain and passing skills to execute transitions... You are not talking Gerson, but the same Brazilians called Gilberto and Kleberson "cabezas de bagre" (a really ugly fish, i.e. technically inept shit on a stick midfielders).

I dug up the stuff I mentioned from the chain draft:

The man who silenced the Maracanã. Beastly midfielder, dominant, capable of executing the most influential and game-defining World Cup Final individual performance. He could sit and protect the defence, passing the ball short and long to good effect, or operate as a box-to-box midfielder with a thunderous long range cannon of a right peg.

He imposed respect -not fear- among his teammates. He imparted wisdom, never raised his voice or needed to speak out of turn. He kept quiet most of the time, listening, observing, and when he made the slightest motion indicating he was about to speak everyone would shut up and stay expectant to what would be no doubt a lesson worth learning.

He had the power of synthesis, the ability to dissect a game and occasion and home in on what was wrong, what was the root cause, with laser precision. And then he acted and directed on his insights, expertly.

Over the years I would witness time and again that remarkable quality in Schiaffino: the power of synthesis. He would poke and probe, test every component of a defence, every combination of defensive players, observe their instinctive reactions, what made them uncomfortable, how they made decisions, and then he computed it all and drew conclusions. Once he did, he would know how to tear up any defence. In the course of his testing his team often scored, but if they didn’t, you knew Schiaffino was building up more knowledge on the rival defence than even they or their manager had. He would wait for half-time, and then after it he would unleash his learning upon his helpless victims. Both that Uruguay team and Milan could completely turn a game around in a second half thanks to the God of Football.

Schiaffino was a universal midfielder, he could do everything and read ahead the development of the game. He didn’t chase the ball, the ball ran towards him. Which brings us to another characteristic: he was silent, inscrutable but possessed an immense confidence in his own abilities, which often made him a bit stubborn and lippy. He was once suspended for five games after signalling at a ref with his hands that he was on the take, in front of the entire stadium.

He was also the only player known to talk back at captain Varela. The competitive tension between those two was the stuff of legend. One synthesised defensive play, the other synthesised attacking play, so it often resulted in orders/directives being barked in either direction. In 1950, during the final against Brazil and with the game still at 0:0, Varela demanded Schiaffino stopped fannying around the frontline testing defenders and made a more disciplined defensive effort by picking up a certain Brazilian player. “When you can pass the ball to me like I pass the ball to you I’ll take orders on my positioning”, he replied. Then against England in 1954, after Schiaffino moaned about poor service from the centrebacks Varela barked back “Take a woman” (basically, have a shag and chill the feck out).

Of course, there was nothing other than immense respect between the two, with Obdulio having overseen the formation and coming of age of the Death Squad. Schiaffino’s older brother, Raúl (NT and Peñarol forward) brought him to the club aged 16, and he tore up the reserves. As Raúl insisted he should be promoted, Varela argued the opposite: “they are very promising, but like a good wine we must let them come of age. Juan is ahead of the others, with the seniors he will be behind... and then they will be gone, and he will be alone. Let him stay with that frontline that’s forming around him and bring them all up when they are ready”. The outcome: he got his first cap aged 18, before even playing for Peñarol’s first team, but when he finally got promoted he no longer was a talented skinny little kid. He was boss, and went on to win five national titles and score 88 goals in 227 games.

 

[antohan]

Giggs vs. Reiziger is the biggest mismatch on the pitch.

That said, I can see Lucio and Godín dealing with Riva... Müller could pop up to make the difference.

At the other end, I can see why people could have issues with Sheva and not a more classic CF... but Blokhin brings that to the table not having to mind the flank as a winger given Krol is there.

Going with Xavi-Laudrup exerting a controlling influence on the flow of the game.

 

[antohan]

Oops, closed before I voted. Seems it would have made no difference anyway @Ecstatic.

 

[harms]

Good game @Ecstatic. I went a bit defensive like in my early drafting days after Müller's credentials in 4-4-2 got questioned and with that Bailey-Toldo comparison
Anyway, it was as close as it gets and deservingly so, I especially liked Blokhin's inclusion and his role here. With Krol, Laudrup and Xavi supplying/overlapping etc. him, even though I really rate Carvajal

 

[SirMattBugsby]

Good game @Ecstatic. I went a bit defensive like in my early drafting days after Müller's credentials in 4-4-2 got questioned and with that Bailey-Toldo comparison
Anyway, it was as close as it gets and deservingly so, I especially liked Blokhin's inclusion and his role here. With Krol, Laudrup and Xavi supplying/overlapping etc. him, even though I really rate Carvajal

Games like these are a clash of philosophies and sometimes the vote comes down to the voter's current preference when it is this close.

I fount it quite interesting that Marquez-Ayala was your CB partnership while Godin-Lucio was Ecstatic's. Went against the playing style of your teams but, in a strange way, I thought it would work because they would 'get' how the opposition was building attacks (Marquez intercepting Ecstatic's Barca-like moves, Godin proving to be the ultimate obstacle for Muller).

It's like you guys had contrasting styles of attack and pressing in midfield but adopted your opponents' tactics in the last line of defense. Not sure if it was intentional but I found it interesting in the psychological aspect.

Anyway, nice game and congrats @harms . Hard luck @Ecstatic and thanks for introducing me to Blokhin

 

[Ecstatic]

Good game @Ecstatic. I went a bit defensive like in my early drafting days after Müller's credentials in 4-4-2 got questioned and with that Bailey-Toldo comparison
Anyway, it was as close as it gets and deservingly so, I especially liked Blokhin's inclusion and his role here. With Krol, Laudrup and Xavi supplying/overlapping etc. him, even though I really rate Carvajal

@harms

You have a great team. Great involvement also as usual. Good luck for the rest of the tournament

 

[Ecstatic]

@antohan

Thanks for your contributions

Games like these are a clash of philosophies and sometimes the vote comes down to the voter's current preference when it is this close.

I fount it quite interesting that Marquez-Ayala was your CB partnership while Godin-Lucio was Ecstatic's. Went against the playing style of your teams but, in a strange way, I thought it would work because they would 'get' how the opposition was building attacks (Marquez intercepting Ecstatic's Barca-like moves, Godin proving to be the ultimate obstacle for Muller).

It's like you guys had contrasting styles of attack and pressing in midfield but adopted your opponents' tactics in the last line of defense. Not sure if it was intentional but I found it interesting in the psychological aspect.

Anyway, nice game and congrats @harms . Hard luck @Ecstatic and thanks for introducing me to Blokhin

Thanks. I can't say Lucio/Godin was my initial plan

- I had to choose a player born in the 80s and did need a central defender so the most obvious choice for me was Godin
- Krol was expected to be the Sweeper (version 1978) but was rarely in a position to secure a top LB
- Lucio was chosen because he was comfortable with the ball, tall and strong. Definitely the right player to negate Muller on the air.

and thanks for introducing me to Blokhin

Good to know this game has attracted the interest of 3-4 posters at least

 

[Ecstatic]

@Mani @Edgar Allan Pillow @Moby @milemuncher777 @Theon @2mufc0 @Tuppet @Arbitrium @SirMattBugsby @BlackShark_80

Congratulations and thanks for your vote despite the outcome. You haven't voted for or against a poster, but simply for an ideal of beauty materialized here by the most entertaining and brilliant team in terms of creativity and unpredictability. 83 minutes of Art below


You have also chosen the smartest team with a central comprised of 3 brains. A team that would have set the tempo of the game and "stretched" the opposing midfield IMO. I don't have powerful and generous midfielders like Robson but a trio who would have taken the ascendant with their art of moving and ball control under pressure. And if the 4-4-2 is no longer popular amongst contemporary coaches, it's certainly because the battle midfield is more challenging with 2 central midfielders and because this system requires some profiles tricky to find.

Smart team sophisticated and refined tactical system with the tactical manoeuvres explained earlier and with:

Central Midfield:
- Varela: 100% organizational skills
- Xavi: 50% organizational skills 50% Creativity
- Laudrup 100% Creativity

Left-Flank:
- Blokhin: 70% Offensive 30% Defensive
- Krol: 30% Offensive 70% Defensive

Right-Flank:
- Jairzinho: 80% Offensive 20% Defensive
- Reiziger: 20% Offensive 80% Defensive

Back:
- Offensive LB
- Conservative LCB
- Offensive RCB to provide support in the build-up
- Conservative RB even if Reiziger was going forward


You truly belong to the elite of this forum

 

[oneniltothearsenal]

Wussed out of voting here as everytime I tried to play match in my head, it worked out different. Couldn't really decide and didn't want to "vote for draw" as no real tactical weaknesses lept out at me.

 

[oneniltothearsenal]

Congratulations and thanks for your vote despite the outcome. You haven't voted for or against a poster, but simply for an ideal of beauty materialized here by the most entertaining and brilliant team in terms of creativity and unpredictability.

You truly belong to the elite of this forum

No one schmoozes their voters like Ecstatic. Should be President of the FFF

 

[sajeev]

Sad, I missed voting for this. Fantastic match, my vote would have made it 13-12. So not much in it at all

 

[Enigma_87]

Wussed out of voting here as everytime I tried to play match in my head, it worked out different. Couldn't really decide and didn't want to "vote for draw" as no real tactical weaknesses lept out at me.

Aye did the same basically up to the final hours. Really tough to separate and was going back and forth with either harms or DC. At the end Lucio/Godin seemed a bit off to me along with the keeper as I rate Toldo above Bailey.

Really fine margins as I liked Ecstatic midfield more, especially Laudrup, but he drew one of the other teams in the draft along with RT and Tuppet who had a magnificent midfield themselves.

was 12-11 at the time, so at least my vote wasn't decisive as it was really a tossup and both sides deserved to go forward.

 

[Joga Bonito]

Really hated voting against @Ecstatic as it was truly an excellent side but harms side was a thing of a beauty too, and tbh also had some of my favorite players.

Ultimately, though I just found harms side a tad more cohesive but there was nothing wrong with Ecstatic side at all. Perhaps Kubala instead of one of his forward trio might have made me vote for him (was that close), as it'd have brought better connectivity between midfield and attack imo. In the sense that a creative yet direct goalscoring forward to dovetail with the midfield and potentially elevate them. However on the other hand I can understand it being hard to drop any one of that trio, as they are all top notch and they provide the firepower to convert Xavi-laudrup's craft into goals.