Sheep Draft QF: Cal? v Sjor/Physio

[Gio]

TEAM CAL?​

Tactic:

A fluid 4-4-2/4-3-3 that allows everyone to play in their best position. My side will be looking to keep possession and starve any supply to Law, whilst at the same time, my attack is perfectly balanced with Cristiano Ronaldo starting the game on the left but allowed the freedom of the pitch; whilst Beckham will remained disciplined on the right, sending in crossed for Zlatan & Cristiano and tuck into midfield if required.

Defense:
Schmeichel is a arguably the best goalkeeper ever, needs no introduction here.
Vidic one of the best defenders ever in the Premier League and Thuram with over 140 caps for France, World Cup and Euro winner form a formidable partnership that can match up against the best of the best.
The fullbacks G Neville and Irwin probably the best fullbacks to ever in the Premier League era. G Neville in particular has a perfect understanding with Beckham and times his overlapping runs to perfection. Irwin on the other hand was one of the most solid defenders and also very capable of supporting the attack.

Midfield:
Anchoring the midfield will be De Rossi who takes up his regular position for Italy, for whom he was a key player in their World Cup win in 2006, next to him Guardiola, who was the key man for Barcelona back when they weren't the superclub they are, winning their first ever Champions League and 6 La Liga titles.
Ahead of them, one of the best attacking midfielders of all time in Zidane, and probably the ultimate big game player. On the right,Beckham, the best crosser the world has ever seen and can be disciplined to help in midfield.

Attack:
Cristiano Ronaldo, the best player ever at the 2 biggest clubs in the world, holder of multiple scoring records across all sorts of competitions, and the only player that rivals him is blocked in this draft.
Ibrahimovic, wherever he goes, he wins, one of the best finishers in modern times, shooting, heading, left foot, right foot, he can do it all.

Sub:
Reus gets to sit around waiting for his turn once the team is in full control of the game.
Carragher gets to sit in the studio to provide commentary on the game.
Lama keeps Reus company...


The opposition:
With no reinforcements, I suppose they'll play the same formation, tactics as the previous round. To put it bluntly, I'd say Law is the only player who may get into my side.

TEAM SJOR BEPO / PHYSIOCRAT​

Tactics
With both Hoddle and especially (old) Scholes we will have the the majority of the possession. The aim will be to play a mixed passing style but with emphasis on risk and chance creation (the anti-LVG method). With Johnstone providing the width on the right and Holebas on the left we can stretch the play horizontally and also vertically with Law's intelligent movement. This will create space for Hoddle, Scholes and Johnstone to play in Law to finish - he was a complete striker who could score with his head, left and right foot.


Defence:
Every good defence starts with a gk so we will do the same. Between the sticks is seargent Bert Trautmann. FWA Footballer of the year in 56 - first gk and the first foreigner(outside UK) to ever win the award. The great Lev Yashin himself believed that Trautmann and himself were the "only ... two world-class goalkeepers".
In front of him we have two italian giants, Giuseppe Bergomi and Claudio Gentile. Gentile will play on the right next to Steve Finnan, CL winner and member of PFA Team of the Year in 01/02 season. Finnan will have no attacking duties and will be focused only on defence. Next to him is our leader of defence Bergomi, will hold this unit like a glue, one of the best defenders of all time and left of him is another great, Claudio Gentile on left side as he played there before and he offers good protection for our flying fullback with his good positioning and reading of the game. Next to him is Holebas, will run up and down all game. A lovechild of Kolarov and Bale. Fantastic athleticism, fast and strong with a great left peg.


Midfield:
We will have Jaime Pacheco in a Makelele role. He had good positional sense, good work rate and was also a very professional player in his approach to football and he played in the first league till his late 36 years of age. Was European champion for Porto in 87, played 25 times for national team and went to the Euro 1984 and the 1986 World Cup. On the ball was decent and could hold his own so in this system where his job would be to keep the ball and play a simple game he would be like a fish in the water.
In front of him we have the great Paul Scholes, we all know everything there is about our ginger genius. His football brain is second to none. We will use the "older" version of Scholes, deep-lying playmaker that controlled game with ease and we expect the same. His third midfield partner is Bernd Schneider. Proper team player, unselfish and always worked hard for the team even though for majority of his career he was the best player in his teams. Great use of the ball which is probably the reason why they called him White Brazilian. Him and Johnstone would have a great partnership. The plan is to isolate the latter one 1v1 against sheep Aranzabal as often as we could and with Scholes, Schneider and Hoddle in the team that wont be a problem.
On the left is Glen Hoddle, When the team is in possession he will have a free role, he can go where ever he wants but when we lose the ball we expect him to put a shift on which isnt going to be a problem as he played in midfield before where he wasnt allowed to be a passenger.


Attack:
Jimmy (Jinky) Johnstone, Celtic's greatest ever player, will own the right wing and torment his full-back all game with his incredible dribbling ability. Going inside and outside, he can do it all. So Johnstone will be able to play in Law either by cross or pass on a consistent basis. At his peak Law scored 81 league goals in 106 games for Utd; he also scored 9 goals in 7 European Cup matches one season. He was not only a poacher though he a had a great all-round game: an excellent first touch and quality short passing. He will be involved in the build up making him more difficult to mark, not just hanging on the shoulder of the last defender. There is absolutely no way Law will not score in this set-up.

 

[Gio]

@Rado_N Can you set up a poll please?

Title is "What do you think the score will be?" Options are:

Cal? 1-0 Sjor
Cal? 2-1 Sjor
Cal? 3-2 Sjor
Cal? 3-0 Sjor
Sjor 1-0 Cal?
Sjor 2-1 Cal?
Sjor 3-2 Cal?
Sjor 3-0 Cal?

@Šjor Bepo
@Physiocrat
@Cal?

 

[Šjor Bepo]

To put it bluntly, I'd say Law is the only player who may get into my side.

@Cal?
yeah.....its obvious you have better players as we have 2 sheeps and you managed to upgrade 2 players while we feck it up but my God do you ever watch football? I thought you cant say nothing more ludicrous then "Ronaldo is best ever, or second best ever" but you managed to find the way....

 

[Šjor Bepo]

back to the game....what i dont like about Cal's team:
1. no chance in hell that a duo of Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo would work, even if we dont look at both characters and their egos they are a complete mismatch. Ronaldo needs a hardworking striker who will do the running and work for him(Tevez, Rooney, Benzema) and he got Ibra lol

2. De Rossi and Pep....dont like it, dont think its a good setup for Pep and i just dont rate De Rossi highly.

So while defence is pretty good the midfield and attack is a mess IMO even though he got the big names in there, but big names dont guarantee trophies(Galacticos, Inter Milan before fixing scandal etc.)

 

[Physiocrat]

Also I think Zidane and Ibra is a problem. Ibra is really a false 9/ creative second-striker. What you don't want is an attacking midfielder who will occupy this space getting in his way which is precisely what Zidane will do.

 

[Rado_N]

@Gio sorry for the delay mate, poll added.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Also I think Zidane and Ibra is a problem. Ibra is really a false 9/ creative second-striker. What you don't want is an attacking midfielder who will occupy this space getting in his way which is precisely what Zidane will do.

Yeah, I agree. It's been clear from the very beginning. Your problem, however, is that the individual quality of the players will overshadow this - say - structural weakness until the set-up crashes against a team with a similar kind of undeniable individual quality. You being sheep riddled here is very unfortunate, but it is what it is.

ETA Cal? has also done very well to assemble a highly plausible looking back five, with added Caf appeal - so there's that too. If he sported a shaky defence behind that structurally unsound offensive foundation, it'd be something to assault - but that isn't the case.

 

[Šjor Bepo]

Yeah, I agree. It's been clear from the very beginning. Your problem, however, is that the individual quality of the players will overshadow this - say - structural weakness until the set-up crashes against a team with a similar kind of undeniable individual quality. You being sheep riddled here is very unfortunate, but it is what it is.

ETA Cal? has also done very well to assemble a highly plausible looking back five, with added Caf appeal - so there's that too. If he sported a shaky defence behind that structurally unsound offensive foundation, it'd be something to assault - but that isn't the case.

i know im a minority but i would rather have a well balanced team with few poor players then a poor team with great players.
As for Cal's team, yeah the back 5 looks very good indeed but both of his fullbacks are marching up and combine that with weak protection from his midfield and attacking players and it doesnt look so great.....

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

Cal's defence is competent, if a bit uninspiring apart from Thuram. I'm not convinced on effectiveness of Ibra/Ronaldo/Zidane attack. Ibra's not the right type of striker for this set up. This would be a perfect game for Sjor to use Gentile to man-mark CR outta this game.

Cal has better players to make the tactical imbalance less of a factor.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

i know im a minority but i would rather have a well balanced team with few poor players then a poor team with great players.

Oh, I agree - absolutely.

In fairness, though, his team can't be labeled directly poor in terms of balance - flawed, definitely, but not poor. The Zidane-Ronaldo-Ibra axis doesn't work for me - it's off, simply put. But you have to look at that in comparison with the overall strength - both tactically and individually - of the opposition. And then you have to factor in the balance and quality of his defensive set-up.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

This would be a perfect game for Sjor to use Gentile to man-mark CR outta this game.

Aye - that would've been a very plausible move. The sheep situation makes it very difficult, not to say impossible, though.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

Aye - that would've been a very plausible move. The sheep situation makes it very difficult, not to say impossible, though.

Interesting though. In a no-sheep situation, what would voter reaction to such a mark job would be?

 

[Šjor Bepo]

In fairness, though, his team can't be labeled directly poor in terms of balance - flawed, definitely, but not poor. The Zidane-Ronaldo-Ibra axis doesn't work for me - it's off, simply put. But you have to look at that in comparison with the overall strength - both tactically and individually - of the opposition. And then you have to factor in the balance and quality of his defensive set-up.

in my eyes its poor, its not because of the draft game i said it way before the draw was announced. Attack doesnt work, midfield doesnt work and while defence is very good its has very little support from players in front of them. So tactically cal did an awful job, individually he has the upper hand but even the greatest players need support and need to be in the right system to shine. But lets ignore that for a second. We have Ronaldo who is basically a finisher and with the state of his team and his attacking partners he wont be able to shine. Ibrahimovic shrinks under pressure, just look at his record in CL knockout fase and that will tell you the story, and most of those games he was in a team that was built around him.
Zidane is probably the only guy that i fear, he can do something out of nothing.

As for our team, i think we got it right tactically. Individually we have attacking trio in the right system and all 3 can do magic on the football pitch. The lack of quality in my team is down in defence, fullbacks are a mess for this kind of a game....

@Edgar Allan Pillow if i had the roster to change few players and give Gentile the freedom to man mark for 90 minutes i would use it on Zidane and not on Ronaldo.

 

[harms]

We have Ronaldo who is basically a finisher

Why do you assume that it's today's Ronaldo? And not late United/early Madrid one, for example?

Cal has a few tactical problems but so do you and he is miles ahead in individual quality

 

[crappycraperson]

I don't see anything wrong with Cal's front 4. Ibra is the kind of striker who will vacate the forward area for a wing forward. Also this notion that any striker who drops deep can never work with a number 10 is absurd. We are in an era where teams play multiple forwards who like to converge towards the middle.

Cal's midfield is the obvious weakness. But Zidane is a big factor here. He is not a Ozil type luxury midfield player. He will be part of that midfield battle. Add to it Beckham's midfield input and it is not a match-losing weakness by any means.

Tactically cal is well set up. Replace Pep with another DM/B2B and upgrade Zlatan or Neville; then that's a final ready team.

 

[Šjor Bepo]

Why do you assume that it's today's Ronaldo? And not late United/early Madrid one, for example?

Cal has a few tactical problems but so do you and he is miles ahead in individual quality

because i know cal, he wanks on numbers so if he doesnt change his mind after reading this its going to be Madrid Ronaldo that scores shitload of goals....

 

[Balu]

I don't really get the harsh criticism for the Ronaldo - Ibra - Zidane triangle. Ibra is nowhere near as selfish as some portray him and he's a brilliant false 9ish striker who loves to drop deep and play wide forwards through on goal. Why wouldn't that work with Ronaldo?

Zidane + Ibra might be a bit of a problem, but with Ronaldo making off the ball runs inside the box and Zidane often drifting to the left, it's not a big enough problem to make me dislike the attack. And Beckham gives it a lot balance.

Pep looks like the one player who doesn't fit into Cal's side in my opinion.

 

[Balu]

This would be a perfect game for Sjor to use Gentile to man-mark CR outta this game.

I'd argue that if there's a need for a man-marking job, then it should be on Zidane. You don't really man-mark a player like Cristiano, because he doesn't see enough of the ball anyway and the last few years have shown that it works much better to starve him of the ball, cut off his supply. You want to nullify the ones passing him the ball, because that inevitably also nullifies Ronaldo.

I'd argue that Gentile has a much better chance to annoy Zidane and limit his influence on the ball than he's suited to keep track of Ronaldo's runs off the ball or beat him in the air for one of Beckham's crosses.

 

[Cal?]

@Cal?
yeah.....its obvious you have better players as we have 2 sheeps and you managed to upgrade 2 players while we feck it up but my God do you ever watch football? I thought you cant say nothing more ludicrous then "Ronaldo is best ever, or second best ever" but you managed to find the way....

Do please elaborate who at United or Real Madrid can claim to be better than Cristiano Ronaldo?

I don't see anything wrong with Cal's front 4. Ibra is the kind of striker who will vacate the forward area for a wing forward. Also this notion that any striker who drops deep can never work with a number 10 is absurd. We are in an era where teams play multiple forwards who like to converge towards the middle.

Cal's midfield is the obvious weakness. But Zidane is a big factor here. He is not a Ozil type luxury midfield player. He will be part of that midfield battle. Add to it Beckham's midfield input and it is not a match-losing weakness by any means.

Tactically cal is well set up. Replace Pep with another DM/B2B and upgrade Zlatan or Neville; then that's a final ready team.

Thanks for making my point for me, that really is the plan, I thought about a midfield upgrade, but decided benching Lama/Carragher has more Caf appeal.

 

[Enigma_87]

Interesting though. In a no-sheep situation, what would voter reaction to such a mark job would be?

I think Gentile can mark him out of the game. Gentile has done the job on Maradona and generally is one of the best markers known in the game. I think it could work for me at least it does make sense.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

I'd argue that if there's a need for a man-marking job, then it should be on Zidane.

Fair enough. Agree with your reasoning. It would be better on Zidane.

 

[Physiocrat]

I don't see anything wrong with Cal's front 4. Ibra is the kind of striker who will vacate the forward area for a wing forward. Also this notion that any striker who drops deep can never work with a number 10 is absurd. We are in an era where teams play multiple forwards who like to converge towards the middle.

I don't see a problem with Ibra and CR7, it's Zidane with CR7 and Ibra. CR7 is best in a 433 where he has complete freedom to cut in, not in a quasi 4231 which is what it is with Zidane. Ibra is a ball hog who wants to make things happen- he'll drop deep and try to dictate attacks thus get in Zidane's way.

Are there any false 9s who play with an orthodox 10? I can think of mobile forwards and attacking midfielders working together but not a false 9 and 10.

I actually think Cal's midfield isn't that bad. Tactically speaking I think this is his best setup with his players:

---------------Ibra------------
CR7----------------------Reus---
----De Rossi---Becks
---------------Pep----------------
-------------Back 5--------------

De Rossi and Beck's b2b. Pep spraying it to CR7 and Ibra dropping deep creating near the box with Reus stretching the play out right

 

[Enigma_87]

in my eyes its poor, its not because of the draft game i said it way before the draw was announced. Attack doesnt work, midfield doesnt work and while defence is very good its has very little support from players in front of them. So tactically cal did an awful job, individually he has the upper hand but even the greatest players need support and need to be in the right system to shine. But lets ignore that for a second. We have Ronaldo who is basically a finisher and with the state of his team and his attacking partners he wont be able to shine. Ibrahimovic shrinks under pressure, just look at his record in CL knockout fase and that will tell you the story, and most of those games he was in a team that was built around him.
Zidane is probably the only guy that i fear, he can do something out of nothing.

As for our team, i think we got it right tactically. Individually we have attacking trio in the right system and all 3 can do magic on the football pitch. The lack of quality in my team is down in defence, fullbacks are a mess for this kind of a game....

@Edgar Allan Pillow if i had the roster to change few players and give Gentile the freedom to man mark for 90 minutes i would use it on Zidane and not on Ronaldo.

I'm not sure why did you go for left back in the reinforcement round mate. In Gentile and Bergomi you would have excellent back four if you could've replaced your two CB. You put McGrath and Hansen with Gentile and Bergomi and that's an excellent back 4.

I agree to some extend that Cal? can do better than Ibra up front and possibly De Rossi in midfield, but his side has no obvious weakness and no sheep. There are questions when it comes to balance in midfield and attack, but it would be a hard battle to overcome the two sheep full backs and the defence you were forced to put up.

 

[Šjor Bepo]

Do please elaborate who at United or Real Madrid can claim to be better than Cristiano Ronaldo?

it was a comment for your posts in "Where does Ronaldo rank with all-time list?" but ok i can elaborate for Real and United as well its not a problem. So you say he is the best player ever that played for Real Madrid/United.....i say you can find better for both teams and you dont even have to leave the stadium! You have one better in your team that covers Madrid, i have the other that covers United.

 

[Šjor Bepo]

I'm not sure why did you go for left back in the reinforcement round mate. In Gentile and Bergomi you would have excellent back four if you could've replaced your two CB. You put McGrath and Hansen with Gentile and Bergomi and that's an excellent back 4.

An attacking leftback was a must as i really needed one from the tactical point of view. Hoddle on the left without an outlet on the left wing would be to easy to handle.

 

[Cal?]

it was a comment for your posts in "Where does Ronaldo rank with all-time list?" but ok i can elaborate for Real and United as well its not a problem. So you say he is the best player ever that played for Real Madrid/United.....i say you can find better for both teams and you dont even have to leave the stadium! You have one better in your team that covers Madrid, i have the other that covers United.

Madrid's all time topscorer in under half the number of games it took Raul to do it, winning the Champs League which also happens to be Zidane's biggest achievement at Madrid? Before you go on about Zidane scoring in the final, Cristiano was the topscorer in that CL when they won La Decima.

As for United, he didn't stay long enough for the records, but I don't think you'd find anyone matching up to the season he had in 07/08.

 

[Physiocrat]

I'm not sure why did you go for left back in the reinforcement round mate. In Gentile and Bergomi you would have excellent back four if you could've replaced your two CB. You put McGrath and Hansen with Gentile and Bergomi and that's an excellent back 4.

We tried to get both Nilton Santos and Hansen in the reinforcements round and kept being blocked

 

[Enigma_87]

An attacking leftback was a must as i really needed one from the tactical point of view. Hoddle on the left without an outlet on the left wing would be to easy to handle.

The left back was a big issue for me and EAP as well and there were only 5 options(3 top options) while I think there were more options to get a quality CB, but yeah was a bit crap situation...

 

[Šjor Bepo]

Madrid's all time topscorer in under half the number of games it took Raul to do it, winning the Champs League which also happens to be Zidane's biggest achievement at Madrid? Before you go on about Zidane scoring in the final, Cristiano was the topscorer in that CL when they won La Decima.

As for United, he didn't stay long enough for the records, but I don't think you'd find anyone matching up to the season he had in 07/08.

numbers and individual awards are everything.....

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

The left back was a big issue for me and EAP as well and there were only 5 options(3 top options)

And the funny thing was none of us went for Breitner. You blocked him in R1 and he went ignored totally after that.

 

[Enigma_87]

And the funny thing was none of us went for Breitner. You blocked him in R1 and he went ignored totally after that.

I thought he would be a sure block given how he could be used in midfield as well. Oh well, that didn't go well in the end..

 

[Mani]

I don't see any issues with Cal's attacking ,zidane would move into space left behind by Ronaldo and Zaltan can pull one day of the defenders down allowing Ronaldo to finish off crosses from Beckham or Neville.Imo he should replace pep /de rossi when he gets his chance.

 

[Snow]

A team with a few sheep against a team without any. It's a slam dunk.

 

[Šjor Bepo]

congrats @Cal?

 

[Physiocrat]

congrats @Cal?

Indeed @Cal?

Your sheep avoiding abilities are impressive

 

[Cal?]

congrats @Cal?

Indeed @Cal?

Your sheep avoiding abilities are impressive

Thanks guys.

Happy NY soon...