The Modern / Current Players Draft

NoPace

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Countering with skill 11:

---------------Mandzukic-----------
--------------De Bruyne------------
------Valbuena---------------------
----------------Gabi--------Navas
---------------Tiago-----------------
Mathieu------------------Torosidis
----BrunoAlves--Manolas------
--------------Reina------------------

Lots of creativity and skill in attack. A proven midfield partnership with one presser and one holder. 2 Solid CB's and Mathieu is comfortable in a back 3 when Maggio pushes up.

Another option, playing as Liverpool do:


--------------Sturridge-------------
--------Pastore---Arshavin------
Bernat-Schneiderlin-Inler-Maggio
---Mathieu-Coloccini-Jagielka---
--------------Reina------------------

2 lazy geniuses who could really dribble in their heyday behind a pacy striker. Power and passing in the midfield and 2 classic wing-backs out wide. Mobile defense with 2 wider CB's who've played a lot at fullback in their career and a leader in the middle.
 

Golden Nugget

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@Edgar Allan Pillow
you should edit the final teams in the threadmarked post and add Raul Abiol as Theon's 12th pick.

-----------------------

4. Barzagli 5. Verratti
3. Chiellini 12. M. De Sciglio
11. Cassano
9. Bonucci
10. Sirigu
7. Marchisio 11. Balzaretti
3. De Rossi
10. Motta

I hope I didn't miss anyone. Is this the worst generation of Italian footballers ever? It's shockingly poor. And with the exception of Verratti the post '90 born players don't look impressive either so far.

/edit: I don't mean that all those players are poor, just that Italy really lacks top top players since the World Cup winning generation.
El Shawaraay and Balotelli ar missing, but I agree, doesn't look too bright at the moment.
 

Isotope

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A racist bastard, but Emre was a good player. For his worth, he's even named in 100 top footballer by Pele.

Then there's Nainggolan who could do the job.
 
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Snow

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No one has mentioned Schurrle, Alex (CB), Lucas, Willian, Eriksen, Ox, Bernat, Draxler, Raul Garcia or Borja Valero?

So many Spanish players.
 

Snow

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Why? Kuyt was Liverpool Park Ji Sung.
No. He scored a lot more goals. With him you have a hard worker who was always giving it is all both in attack and defense for 90 minutes. Very good in the air. They guy is Netherlands 6th most capped player. He's no slouch. His peak is a lot better than Young's and I'd rather have him as a striker than Balotelli, a player without a peak.
 

Edgar Allan Pillow

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No. He scored a lot more goals. With him you have a hard worker who was always giving it is all both in attack and defense for 90 minutes. Very good in the air. They guy is Netherlands 6th most capped player. He's no slouch. His peak is a lot better than Young's and I'd rather have him as a striker than Balotelli, a player without a peak.
If you have a high opinion, why put him as worst case scenario? Personal dislike?
 

BorisDeLeFora

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I was surprised Navas didn't get picked. He was so good at Sevilla.
I had him, Vicente, and Joaquin earmarked as wingers from early on, then had a rush of blood to the head and picked Arbeloa.

His form at City would definitely have gone against him though.
 

NoPace

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I had him, Vicente, and Joaquin earmarked as wingers from early on, then had a rush of blood to the head and picked Arbeloa.

His form at City would definitely have gone against him though.
Agreed, but it's silly. A pacey winger peaking at 24 or 25 is totally normal.
 

NoPace

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I had him, Vicente, and Joaquin earmarked as wingers from early on, then had a rush of blood to the head and picked Arbeloa.

His form at City would definitely have gone against him though.
I thought I would end up with Vicente or Joaquin on one wing and a goalscorer on the other, but Casillas was too good to pass up with the other first tier keepers gone, though people ignore keepers in this draft.
 

Gio

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Zhirkov is a big miss - he was better than at least 6 of the left-backs. Lugano an improvement on I'd say around half (16-18?) of the centre-halves chosen. For their post-1990 picks, it's understandable that a few have gone for wingers given it's the place of least responsibility and youngest peaking. Nonetheless, fair to say that Arshavin is a little under-appreciated for doing a lot of his best work in Eastern Europe despite tearing up a lot of teams circa 2007/08, with Joe Cole another surprising omission given his level for Chelsea and England.


Subs: Van der Vaart (NED), Ramires (BRA), Nasri (FRA), Kagawa (JAP), Meireles (POR), Metzelder (GER)

Honorable mentions to Eboue (just because) and O'Shea (legend)

Tons of decent strikers, yet no outstanding one.
Really surprised that Bosingwa wasn't picked - especially with his unique nationality and overall fullback quality.
Arshavin is a lazy feck, but an underappreciated one, he was fantastic in Russia and was voted 6 in 2008 Ballon D'Or, only behind Torred and 4 players that can be considered as a GOAT material.
Zhirkov was fantastic for CSKA and NT and was unlucky to have Cole as his competition - probably the best LB in the world at this point + english.

And what's with Milito? Even Koscielny went before him :wenger:

Edit: Gabi is a good call for a defensive midfield.
Yeah, that's a decent team. Gabi into the midfield.
 

Isotope

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L. Fabiano - Mandzukic
VdV
Emre------- Tiago---
Gabi
Schmelzer------------------Maggio
----Agger---Papadopaulos-
Reina​
 
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NoPace

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Joe Cole had a great peak, but it was so Mourinho driven he'd have been dinged for it, I think.

I thought Agger would get picked. Short peak, but such a lovely passer for a CB.
 

NoPace

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Reina was overrated and Spanish, but I still don't know how he didn't get picked with 16 teams. He was the 8th or 9th best keeper in this draft, surely.
 

Raptori

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Mandzukic
Nasri---V.d. Vaart
Emre------- Tiago---
Gabi
Schmelzer------------------Maggio
----Agger---Papadopaulos-
Reina​
Like it. I had van der Vaart, Nasri and Agger higher on my list than some of the players that got picked. :p
 

Pat_Mustard

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A never-nude? I thought he just liked cut-offs.
Zhirkov is a big miss - he was better than at least 6 of the left-backs.
I lost my bottle a bit with Zhirkov. Outside of that Zenit UEFA Cup run and Euro Championships in 2008 where he was incredible I just felt I wasn't familiar enough with him as a player, especially as alot of the discussion I found when researching him strongly suggested he was more left winger or even left attacker than left back.

I'm happy enough with my options on that flank though. Now there's a strong argument that Asamoah is really best suited to a box to box midfield role rather than left back/left wing back, but I'm more confident in his defensive capabilities than I would have been with Zhirkov, and Bastos provides excellent productivity from the left wing.
 

NoPace

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Zhirkov was probably a casualty of the lack of CB's and general dislike here of 3 at the back. Stob losing so strongly only goes to show people were right to be scared of using it.

I think in his prime he was a nice fit at LWB.
 

Edgar Allan Pillow

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Barney

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Joe Cole had a great peak, but it was so Mourinho driven he'd have been dinged for it, I think.

I thought Agger would get picked. Short peak, but such a lovely passer for a CB.
I considered Agger, but didn't know how he would be rated on here. Definitely would have taken him over Demichelis if I had known he was rated. Was class in his prime (though his passing has always been overrated!).
 

Gio

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Handanovic is a good pick for his nationality. Was surprised at the picks of Neuer, De Gea and Casillas in the earlier rounds given the pool of outfield talent Spain and Germany have.
Aye, imagine, in a nations-draft, filling up your keeper spot(s) with Germans or Spaniards... :wenger:
 

Physiocrat

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Is anyone having any trouble with trying to put line-ups in PMs from This11 or Sharemytactics? I've tried Firefox and Opera but none will appear in the PM box after trying to insert image which is getting rather frustrating. I'm I being an idiot and missing something really obvious?
 

Edgar Allan Pillow

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Is anyone having any trouble with trying to put line-ups in PMs from This11 or Sharemytactics? I've tried Firefox and Opera but none will appear in the PM box after trying to insert image which is getting rather frustrating. I'm I being an idiot and missing something really obvious?
Sometimes, there's a delay of a couple of mins before the image appears. If using sharemy tactics, just use the IMG tags and delete the rest of code (which just hyperlinks the image to the site)
 

NoPace

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Aye, imagine, in a nations-draft, filling up your keeper spot(s) with Germans or Spaniards... :wenger:
For me, it ended up being Iker Casillas + Rosicky OR Handanovic + Cazorla. It's narrow, but I think I made the right choice, though I'm not sure it will help me as Rosicky + Casillas peaked a long-time ago and may have their current form held against them, whereas Cazorla is having a very good season.
 

Physiocrat

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Another question do some of you get awol arrows when you got to submit on sharemytactics? It seems to add them at will. I add them by right clicking on the players in the line up.