Reserves Draft | green_smiley 10-9 mazhar13 & Marty1968

Who will win based on all the players at their peaks?


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Moby

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Team green_smiley's Tactics

Team Instructions

Formation : 4-2-4

Attacking Play :
  1. Fast, counter-attacking football down both flanks
  2. Both athletic and strong full-backs supporting attack behind wingers
  3. Both fast and skillful wingers are capable of putting pin-point crosses into the box, playing one-two passes, or cutting inside while dribbling past the opponent's defense and score
  4. Two tactical center midfielders dictating attacking play from the deep: provide accurate passes to forwards, and always on the look-out for any opportunity to score from long-range
  5. Two complimentary forwards up-front: Magico Gonzalez capable of starting counter-attack from any way on the field with his demon-speed and dribbling skills; Dixie Dean with monstrous physical attributes, superb aerial ability and high scoring efficiency (349 goals in 399 appearances with Everton)
Defensive Play :
  1. Fast and constant pressing when opponent has the ball, closing down their space and time, and getting ball as soon as possible to counter attack
  2. Both wingers defend against opponent's full backs
  3. Magico Gonzalez traces back as far as half-way line only; and Dixie Dean stays up-front
Preferred Zone of Action : 70% Out wide; 30% Through the middle

Player Roles
  1. Vladimir Beara - Goalkeeper
  2. Jorginho - Attacking right-back
  3. Antonio Benarrivo - Attacking left-back
  4. Luis Pereira - Stopper
  5. Rinus Israel - Defensive sweeper
  6. Romeo Benetti - Defensive box-to-box midfielder
  7. Ferenc Bene - Right winger
  8. Agostino Di Bartolomei - Defensive playmaker
  9. Dixie Dean - Centre forward
  10. Magico Gonzalez - Free-role forward
  11. Mario Corso - Left winger
 

Moby

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Team mazhar13 & Marty1968's Tactics

Team Instructions:
Formation: 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1/4-4-2
Playing Style: fluid, flexible attack; fluid zonal defending with tight marking
Defensive Line: slightly deep
Preferred Zone of Action: flanks with a few middle approaches

Player Roles:
Walter Zenga
- Goalkeeper - Shot Stopper

Mauro Tassotti - Right Full Back - Balanced
Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck - Centre Back - Defensive Stopper
Klaus Augenthaler - Centre Back - Supporting Libero
Amedeo Carboni - Left Full Back - Balanced

Horst Szymaniak - Defensive Midfielder - Ball-Playing Anchor Man
Wolfgang Overath - Central Midfielder - Box-to-Box Playmaker

Franco Causio - Right Winger - Winger
Helmut Haller - Attacking Midfielder - Trequartista
Lennart Skoglund - Left Attacking Player - Free Role

Hernan Crespo - Centre Forward - Complete Forward

Hans Schäfer - Substitute - Wide Forward/Wide Striker

Our team will look to take a proactive approach to the game and try to take on GS's team. With all-rounded players at almost every position on the pitch, we have players who will be comfortable in all situations and will be able to handle whatever GS could throw at us.

Defence:
At the back, we have a solid unit that will give any attack a tough time. In Zenga, we have a keeper who showed himself to be one of the best shot-stoppers ever. His cat-like reflexes and flexibility will make sure that no shot on goal will get in. Ahead of him is a solid, consistent defensive unit that is also comfortable on the ball.

In Mauro Tassotti, Klaus Augenthaler, and Amedeo Carboni, we have defenders who are very comfortable on the ball, solid and consistent defensively, and great going forward. Katsche may not have been as good on the ball, but he was good at the fundamental art of defending, making sure that the ball never reached his team's goal. In our defence, I have one defender who'll always cover for whoever goes forward in Katsche, who's playing in a familiar setup (similar to Bayern's defence when he played there). Plus, if any of our defenders go forward, the other 3 have the discipline and tactical ingenuity in them to stay back and not leave their team too open. This ensures that our defence remains solid even if one of our players go forward. GS' front line will have a tough time outsmarting, outrunning, or overpowering my defence. All of Corso, Bene, and Dean are central players, and all of my defence are comfortable defending in the middle and are strong readers of the game. If all else fails, we at least have Zenga at the back who pretty much covers the goal with his acrobatics, reflexes, and presence.

Midfield:
Our midfield is as complete as complete could be. All 3 central midfielders are great on the ball, and all 3 can make defensive contributions. With Szymaniak staying back, he will allow Overath and Haller to focus more on opening up their opponents, but Overath's hardworking, box-to-box nature will mean that Szymaniak won't be doing all of the defensive work by himself. Plus, with Haller in the team, I have 3 midfielders who can all contribute defensively compared to GS' 2 midfielders (even di Bartolomei wasn't that hardworking in midfield, relying on his midfield teammates to do more of the hard work). Even with graceful midfielders like di Bartolomei and Dobrin/Magico, the bite, energy, and defensive nous in my midfield will make sure that his midfielders won't get much time and space to do their thing.

Going forward, all three are great passers with excellent vision and technique. If Overath and Haller ever do get closed down, Szymaniak will always be an outlet for them, and his gifted technique, vision, and accurate passing will keep GS' team pegged back and under pressure (his successful time as an inside forward with Catania shows that he's no mug on the ball). Overath and Haller both have excellent close control that makes them perfect to handle any sort of pressure from the opposition, so Benetti's aggressive game won't fluster them at all. With two midfielders who'll be defensively passive in di Bartolomei and Magico/Dobrin, my more dynamic and energetic midfield will run them ragged and open up his midfield a number of times.

Attack:
My attack really has all of the tools in its locker to open up any sort of defence. Our wingers and forward are tactically versatile, creative, strong, fast, quick on the dribble, and scorers of spectacular goals. On the big occasions, Causio, Crespo, and Skoglund have all performed when it really mattered, causing problems for any and all defences. Causio's hardworking, energetic game will be useful in keeping tabs on Benarrivo, making sure that he doesn't have a free reign on his side. Going forward, he will constantly test Benarrivo with his close control and fast dribbling. His accurate and powerful long shots and crosses will keep Israël, Pereira, di Bartolomei, and Beara on their toes.

With a great crosser of the ball in Causio, Crespo will have the perfect supply for him from the right wing. His strength in the air is unquestionable, and whilst Pereira and Israël are not too bad defensively, Crespo has done it all against the best of defenders in the Serie A, becoming the Serie A top scorer in the 2000/01 season as well as scoring 154 Serie A goals in 336 Serie A appearances against defenders like Ferrara, Thuram, Montero, Costacurta, and Maldini, all top-notch defenders. His dribbling skill, predatory instinct, and a knack of scoring crazy long-rangers/acrobatics will make him difficult to contain for GS' defence.

On the left, with Skoglund, I honestly feel sorry for Jorginho. Skoglund is a player who was a nightmare for any defender facing him, and Jorginho, a more attacking right back, will honestly struggle to go forward and support attacks with Skoglund on his shoulder. He doesn't even need to take on his marker to just cause mayhem; his intelligent movement and positioning will drag GS' defence all over the place and allow him to always be in space to get on the ball and split open defences. Not only that, but his finishing from the left angle gives us another tool to open up GS' defence with. His quickness, pace, magnetic feet, and Einstein-like footballing brain will make him uncontainable, and him running riot with the teammates he has will guarantee us goals and a victory here.

Final comments:
Ultimately, I don't see how GS' team can really beat us. Dean needs a good supply to cause us issues, and with the midfield that we have, that supply can become very limited, leaving him isolated and ineffective. With defenders who are comfortable defending in the middle and wide areas, GS' will have a tough time breaking us down particularly as he doesn't have the players to stretch us on both sides (Bene may have been a good winger for Hungary, but Carboni's athleticism, energy levels, and defensive consistency will make it tough for him to really threaten us). His midfield will have a tough time asserting themselvse as our midfield can cover much more ground and read the game well enough to prevent any spaces from opening up. Going forward, I have too many players comfortable on the ball for GS' team to contain, especially since he does not have enough players to really contain my threats and outlets. Our complete attack will keep GS' team on their toes and keep them pegged back, leaving us with control of the match and, ultimately, a win.
 

mazhar13

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Yup, pretty much as I expected. That midfield looks too reliant on Benetti to keep it solid. Di Bartolomei cannot really provide enough of a work rate to really support Benetti defensively (there was a reason he wasn't picked for the national team in the 1980's).

Honestly, you will never see the best of Di Bartolomei in a midfield 2. He is too passive for a role in such a setup, and this favours us heavily, especially since we have Haller roaming around and making Benetti do more work.
 

mazhar13

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Also, Corso was never really a left winger. He always preferred playing more centrally, linking up with Miramontes frequently whilst letting Facchetti utilize the left flank. I struggle to see his team really have that much width on the left unless Benarrivo pushes up, and that will be suicidal for him as he cannot afford to open up any more spaces for me to exploit.
 

mazhar13

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Speaking of Corso, Bene brings pretty much the same problem as Corso. Naturally a striker, Bene was forced to play on the right side as a side forward to make way for Albert. He frequently played in the more inside areas on the right side than on the outside, and as the outside right in a 4-2-4/4-4-2, he needs to stretch the play to create spaces in the middle.

On the contrary, our wingers do exactly that as well as have the ability to cut inside, leaving our team with more options and possibilities going forward than GS' team.
 

mazhar13

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Before I leave for work, I would like to make one final point.

GS's team only has one proper creative threat through the middle in Di Bartolomei. We, on the other hand, have two proper creative outlets in Overath and Haller. With the midfield that our opponent has, I struggle to see how they would contain our creative threat let alone our goalscoring threat.
 

green_smiley

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OK, need to add a post or two, else I will trail too far behind

Benetti, as famous for his hard-tackling, energetic, and combative style, he is also a tactician with good vision and range of passing. This helps by the fact that he was initially deployed as winger during his early days

 
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green_smiley

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Another gif showing his ball-playing ability: picking his teammates with one-two passes, running into space, and creating goal-scoring chances

 

mazhar13

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New name added to my own Drafts shortlist :lol:

But seriously though, that's all well and good about Benetti, but no one player can really carry the midfield by himself defensively (inb4 Roy Keane vs. Juve: Scholes himself was good at applying pressure to the opposition with his decent energy levels along with United applying strong pressure to Juve then).

Here, di Bartolomei cannot be expected to do what Scholes did off the ball as he was too passive and reserved. Benetti is going to be overworked against my midfield.

Okay, now I cannot be involved in this match anymore. @Marty1968 take over for me.
 

harms

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Di Bartolomei is a strange one. From what I've seen of him, he was a rare type of a luxury libero - being the second creative outlet of Roma after Falcao. But the role in a midfield two requires too much positional discipline which I'm not sure he has. You can argue that libero's are more akin to deep-lying playmakers of today, but still, I have my doubts about him working in this set-up. Feel free to disagree with me though - I've only seen him in the games which I watched for Falcao so I wasn't paying too much attention to his playing style.

And I don't like the midfield balance in m&ms team. Overath should be higher, but then against, Szymaniak would be wasted as a pure defensive midfielder.

Also I'm not a huge fan of Crespo, I think that there are some unpicked strikers that are better than him. But this one is just a subconscious opinion, I have it about some players.
 

green_smiley

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Di Bartolomei is a strange one. From what I've seen of him, he was a rare type of a luxury libero - being the second creative outlet of Roma after Falcao. But the role in a midfield two requires too much positional discipline which I'm not sure he has. You can argue that libero's are more akin to deep-lying playmakers of today, but still, I have my doubts about him working in this set-up. Feel free to disagree with me though - I've only seen him in the games which I watched for Falcao so I wasn't paying too much attention to his playing style.
From what I see, Di Bartolomei would stay behind and let Falcao and co do the running and attacking, not because he doesn't have the capability to do so (he used to be the team's AM before Falcao arrived), but there were better attacking playing available in his team. All he needs to do, is to dictate play from deep, control the game tempo, picking up his teammates with accurate passings, and he has great long-range shots too. He is also good at closing down spaces with his positioning and supports defensive play

My team has an array of fast attacking players especially down the flanks. Magico Gonzalez plays a crucial role in attacking, as he is very mobile, fast and hard to defend against. All Benetti and di Bartolomei need to do, is to keep the shape in midfield and feed the ball to the attacking players

Even in defensive phase, Benarrivo and Jorginho have great recovery speed and athleticism. Corso certainly can defend, and Bene also tracks back (gifs to be provided later)
 

green_smiley

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Also, Magico Gonzalez won't stay stationary upfront. He will create space for himself and can even dribble past his opponents from the halfway line

 

Enigma_87

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Di Bartolomei is a strange one. From what I've seen of him, he was a rare type of a luxury libero - being the second creative outlet of Roma after Falcao. But the role in a midfield two requires too much positional discipline which I'm not sure he has. You can argue that libero's are more akin to deep-lying playmakers of today, but still, I have my doubts about him working in this set-up. Feel free to disagree with me though - I've only seen him in the games which I watched for Falcao so I wasn't paying too much attention to his playing style.

And I don't like the midfield balance in m&ms team. Overath should be higher, but then against, Szymaniak would be wasted as a pure defensive midfielder.

Also I'm not a huge fan of Crespo, I think that there are some unpicked strikers that are better than him. But this one is just a subconscious opinion, I have it about some players.
To be fair if you look at GS formation the transition from 4-2-4 is pretty easy to spot. If Gonzalez drops back it's transformation to 4-2-3-1 with Di Bartolomei and Benetti holding and as support midfielders. I pretty much expect to defend in that line.

He'll be more likely playing in the hole between Dean and the two holding midfielders while obviously running into the box when he has the chance. Can he do that role? Probably - he has the pace, agility and movement to back it up.

I agree with your sentiment on Overath - he'd be best on the left side of a three man midfield, I'm not sure how supporting role with Szymaniak will work here to be honest.
 

green_smiley

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Also, Corso was never really a left winger. He always preferred playing more centrally, linking up with Miramontes frequently whilst letting Facchetti utilize the left flank. I struggle to see his team really have that much width on the left unless Benarrivo pushes up, and that will be suicidal for him as he cannot afford to open up any more spaces for me to exploit.
Speaking of Corso, Bene brings pretty much the same problem as Corso. Naturally a striker, Bene was forced to play on the right side as a side forward to make way for Albert. He frequently played in the more inside areas on the right side than on the outside, and as the outside right in a 4-2-4/4-4-2, he needs to stretch the play to create spaces in the middle.
It doesn't change the fact that both Corso and Bene are still brilliant wingers. I can see good link-up with their fullbacks, can dribble, can cross and score. Gifs will explain everything (later)
 

Ecstatic

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Joga Bonito

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It was 4-1 a few minutes ago and I could check who voted, but now it's 11-2 and I can't check the list of voters?
 

harms

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Clearly, the vote is rigged! They don't want us to see that the system is corrupt and that they use dead people's accounts to create the favorable result
 

Chesterlestreet

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Re: Corso

He wasn't an orthodox winger in the sense that he was stuck out wide at all times, but it seems odd to use his penchant for drifting centrally as an argument against him. He had all the tools of a traditional winger (speed, trickery and an outstanding foot for crossing), and frequently used those tools as a traditional winger would: His penchant for cutting inside comes on top of this, which only makes him a more complete player (he was a playmaker as much as a trickster/crosser for that Inter team).
 

Vato

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Anyone else remembers Magico's volley in the 1956-57 season that hit the post? I think it was in a cup final but I'm not sure. I'll always remember him for that moment.
 

mazhar13

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Oh joy. I come back during a lunch break to this. :lol:

Oh well, it's the least it deserved after pushing it all the way past the first week.

@Aldo I think MF wants me to get knocked out, so he's sabotaged the game to an unrecoverable state. If you want, we can restart the match, but if you don't want anymore delays, give me and Marty a DQ since it's my fault in particular that this match started so late.