Round 1 - Gargamel vs @Billy__Mac.

Mark Schwarzer. Schwarzer was never the most spectacular goalkeeper, but when the greatest Premier League goalkeepers are listed he's often mentioned. Known for his shot-stopping abilities and extreme consistency, only three players have kept more Premier League clean sheets than Schwarzer. Played an important part in Middlesbrough's run to the 2006 UEFA Cup final, highlighting his capabilities. One of six goalkeepers to be named Premier League Player of the Month.

Álvaro Arbeloa. Predominantly a right-back, Arbeloa has capably filled in at left-back for all his clubs and national team. First caught people's attention on his Liverpool debut when he was played to the left specifically to shackle Messi's inside runs, which he did. First teamer in arguably the greatest national side of all time, winning two Euros and one World Cup. Stronger defensively than attackingly, but good on the ball. Singled out by Mourinho shortly after his transfer to Real Madrid for being one of his best performers, because 'he is always between a 7 and a 9'.

Gary Kelly. A very good right-back who has perhaps not been as appreciated as he should. Racking up over 500 appearances for his only club, he played a big part in Leeds finishing third, fourth(twice) and fifth(three times) in the Premier League and reaching the semi-final of the Champions League. Very solid defensively, but good enough on the ball to play a significant number of games in midfield. Twice named in the PFA Team of the Year.

Jaap Stam. One of the best centre backs to ever play in the Premier League. Won the league in all his three seasons, and an FA Cup. Played a big part when Manchester United won the Champions League in 98/99. Made the PFA Team of the Year in all his three seasons in England. Twice won UEFA Best Club Defender of the Year during that spell. Sir Alex Ferguson famously admitted that selling Stam was a bad mistake when asked about the regrets he had as a manager. Voted into the Overseas Team of the Decade in the Premier League 10 Season Awards.

Ricardo Carvalho. The perfect partner for the more combative Stam. Carvalho was known for being an intelligent centre back who rarely lost his man. Singled out by the back then brilliant Fernando Torres as the best defender in the league for his brilliant positioning. Excellent on the ball he'd often be the one to bring it out of the Chelsea defence. Helped Chelsea to three Premier League titles, only conceding fifteen (15. Yes, really) goals in the 04/05 season. Also won three FA Cups and two League Cups. Won an obscene amount of titles and awards throughout his career, including a Champions League.

Claude Makélélé. Frequently mentioned as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, Makélélé played his holding midfield role so well that it's now popularly called 'The Makélélé role'. Won two Premier League titles, one FA Cups and two League Cups with Chelsea. Makélélé didn't offer much going forward, but was second to none in breaking up play, winning the ball back and making his teams tick. Big part of the aforementioned team that conceded fifteen goals in a whole Premier League season.

Paul Scholes (c). Quite possibly the greatest Premier League player of all time. I'll let Xavi describe his style - 'For me, and I really mean this, he's the best central midfielder I've seen in the last 15, 20 years. He's spectacular, he has it all, the last pass, goals, he's strong, he doesn't lose the ball, vision.' Ten Premier League titles, two Champions Leagues, three FA Cups, two League Cups and a number of individual awards. Scored over 100 Premier League goals as a midfielder. You all know how good he was, so I'll just let Zinedine Zidane finish this - ''One of my regrets is that the opportunity to play alongside him never presented itself during my career.'

Tim Cahill. A forceful, strong running midfielder, Cahill was remarkably good in the air for a player of only average height. Scored a highly respectable 56 goals in 226 league starts for Everton, to go with a 30ish number of assists. His transfer to Everton strongly helped to make them what they are today. In the period 92-04 their average league finish was 13.8, compared to 6.6 after Cahill joined. In 2011 David Moyes said that Tim Cahill was the best thing to happen to him at Everton.

David Silva. The crown jewel in Manchester City's big spending project. Voted City's player of the year when they won their first Premier League title last season. Mostly deployed to the left, Silva likes drifting inside or basically whereve he feels like, to help build up play. A truly creative player who is good enough to unlock any defence. When it comes to passing and ability to find space Silva is one of the best. Key figure in Spain, playing basically all their games in both their Euro wins. Voted into a bunch of PFA teams and such.

Freddie Ljungberg. Ljungberg made over 200 apperances for Arsenal in their most successful Premier League period. Providing endless energy on the right flank he helped his club win two Premier League titles and three FA Cups. Ljungberg managed 71 goals for Arsenal which is highly respectable in itself, but many remember him for his knack of scoring in the important games. He is one of very few players to score in consecutive FA Cup finals. Surprisingly good defensively for a player with his goal and assist stats. First teamer in the famous invincibles who went unbeaten throughout the 03/04 season. Named Barclaycard Premier League Player of the Season in 01/02.

Les Ferdinand. The seventh highest Premier League goalscorer, with 150 goals. A natural finisher, he scored serious amounts of goals predominantly for QPR, Newcastle and Tottenham. While Les Ferdinand is well known to have been one of the best headers of the ball to ever play in the Premier League, he was also rather quick and a very composed finisher with both feet. Almost fired Newcastle to the Premier League title. Voted PFA Players' Player of the Year in 95/96

Solid core. The idea I had in mind when I drafted this team was to build the strongest foundation I could, and then add different types of wide players depending on how the team shaped up. There is no doubt that the strengths of this team lie in defensive solidity, power and ability to dominate games. Stam and Carvalho form a nearly ideal centre-back partnership with Stam being the more powerful one and Carvalho more agile. Carvalho has the ability to bring the ball out of defence, which is important in modern football.

Ahead of them is the trio of Scholes, Makélélé and Tim Cahill. Again these are three powerful players, with Makélélé obviously sitting a bit deeper in the Makélélé role with the sole aim to break up attacks and quickly move the ball on. Paul Scholes is the captain of the team and the man everything will ideally go through. He will, along with the combative Cahill, help and win balls back and maintain superiority centrally, but also spray balls to the wide players and the striker.

Ideas. Ljungberg out on the right side will be the perfect target for that famous cross out right that Scholes loves to play. With his speed and extraordinary energy he should get the better of plenty of left-backs and will then look for the cross or cut-back. Here Cahill and Scholes come into play again. With only one pure striker being played they will have to bomb forward into the box quite a bit. Cahill probably had his main strength doing this, which is why I found him fitting for the team from the start.

To the left David Silva will help build up play and hopefully form a lovely partnership with Paul Scholes. Two of the best passers around, they will combine to good effect. Up front Les Ferdinand will have to do a lot of running in behind, to make most use of the passing ability of Silva and Scholes.

The two full-backs - Arbeloa and Kelly - were handpicked because they are first and foremost good defensively. With no real wingers to help them out it could have been a weakness to have overly attacking full-backs, so I opted for solidity. This does of corse come at a price, and the width that full backs ideally provide might be missing at times. Still - these are good enough full backs to help out in attack and those who remember Gary Kelly will testify that he was a good crosser of the ball.

Ideally this team will play their football on the ground, but any weak centre-back will struggle with the aerial threat Ferdinand and Cahill bring if the chances comes up.

Set pieces. David Silva (left foot) and Paul Scholes (right foot) will share corners and free-kicks. Cahill, Ferdinand, Stam and Carvalho are all brilliant headers of the ball so this will be a real threat that might bail this team out of the odd tricky situation. These guys will also help defending set pieces and should do it well. With Mark Schwarzer nog being a very commanding keeper but more of a shot stopper, this is a good combination.

Short on Billy_Mac. I will not try to put his team down in any way or compare my team player for player for his. Firstly because it sounds like no fun, and secondly it's a great team he has assembled and the voters can decide regardless. All I will say is that I will instruct Gary Kelly to rather push Ronaldo outside than let him cut in and shoot. Good luck Billy_Mac!

Team
Reina – In his first season he broke Liverpool’s record for consecutive cleansheets with 11. He then went on to be Golden Glove winner for all 3 seasons 2005-08 as well as sharing the award with Cech 09-10. In his pomp he was a super shot-stopper and a brilliant distributor of the ball.

Dixon – One of the greatest defenders in Arsenal’s history with over 600 appearances. A consistent part of one of the meanest defences in Premier League history.

Ferdinand – The most expensive defender in British transfer history. Twice. Numerous titles both domestic and European. A rare blend of ball playing confidence and aerial prowess.

Terry – From 2005-09 FIFA rated Terry as one of the top 2 central defenders in the world. In 2005, 08 and 09 UEFA awarded him as the best defender in any position. He may be a questionable human being but arguably the finest leader aside from Tony Adams.

Pearce – The scariest player Matt Le Tissier said he’s ever played. Your fancy modern diving wingers would take two looks at Psycho, shit themselves and ask to be subbed off so they could go home for a cuddle from Mummy.

Gilberto Silva – 93 cap Brazilian, World Cup winner and key member of The Invincibles. A subtle defensive midfielder able to break up the play without diving in and conceding a foul.

McAllister – A consistent presence at Leeds and Coventry for the early part of the Premier League era. In 2000 the veteran joined Liverpool and won the treble. His expansive range of passing compliments Gilberto Silva’s focus on short sharp passes.

Valencia – In his first and third seasons at Man United Valencia was a revelation. Complimenting Nani’s flair Valencia works his high-waisted shorts off. Tracking back he’s a right-backs dream. Going forward he’s no slouch with pace and power and simple but effective crossing has been devastatingly effective and even turned Rooney into an aerial threat.

Gudjohnsen – One of the few players to be kept in the side when Roman took over. Gudjohnsen exuded quality; speed, skill, versatility, composure and finishing he had it all.

Ronaldo – Speed demon. Set-piece master. Great in the air. Great on the deck. Only Premier League player to win the FIFA World Player of the Year. Scored 42 goals in one season (from the wing!). Ronaldo is the best player ever to grace the Premier League.

Hasselbaink – Twice winner of the golden boot for Leeds and Chelsea. Formed a devastating partnership with Gudjohnsen that saw them plunder a whopping 70 league goals in two seasons (2000-02). Ridiculously good striker of the ball, able to create something from nothing.

Tactics
The two teams are set-up as polar opposites in many ways. With Scholes, Makelele and Silva the battle for majority possession is barely worth contesting. The main tactics will be therefore to sit back and control where Gargamel’s team has the ball before springing the counter.

Key to this will be the huge experience and character of the back four. With 1447 Premier League appearances between them there will be no fear and no panic or loss of concentration when playing without the ball for long periods. Inspired by the legendary leadership qualities of Terry and Pearce as well as the ability of Ferdinand and the stalwart Dixon the back four will be able to marshal the threat posed by Garg’s attackers. In the sticks Reina is an experienced and excellent shot stopper but also an excellent distributor of the ball. This will be used both to relieve pressure and to diver balls quickly and accurately to the wings.

In the engine room The Enforcer McAllister and Gilberto Silva will compliment each other. McAllister’s rougher and ready tackling and longer range passing is suited well to Gilberto Silva’s subtle positioning, interceptions and short passing. This variation in passing ability will be essential in picking the right pass to start a counter attack. Valencia and Gudjohnsen are also no strangers to putting in a shift and will be expected to drop back much deeper during sustained periods of pressure.

Offensively counter attack and set-pieces will be the key to my team’s success in this tie. Valencia, Ronaldo and Gudjohnsen are all adept at running at defences and scaring them silly with intelligent movement and speed. Of the trio Valencia will be expected to operate as a wide forward fulfilling the more traditional duties delivering crosses into the box for Hasselbaink and Ronaldo to feed off of. Ronaldo will be expected to cut inside, run at full backs and do those fancy stepovers until Kelly’s head explodes and he gives away a penalty.

With a wide variety of set-piece takers and styles this team will also aim to create havoc with both deliveries into the box and direct attempts whenever possible. With Scholes tackling shielding the defence from on-rushing counter attacks plenty of opportunities for Ronaldo, McAllister, Pearce and Hasselbaink to fire at Schwarzer