Semi-final 2 - Gargamel vs @apple_bonkers

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, which is an outstanding achievement for any player, let alone somebody in a club not as fancied as the biggest ones.

Jaap Stam (c). 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 Decad in the Premier League 10 Season Awards. The leader and organiser of this defence, and also the captain of the team.

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. 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.'

Cristiano Ronaldo. Probably the best player to ever play in the Premier League, ability wise. Great goalscorer, great dribbler, quick at short and long distances. Good passer, good crosser, good set piece taker. Scorer of many goals, and also scorer of important goals. Also scorer of different type of goals, with his great shooting, heading and eye for a tap-in. In his six seasons in England he won three league titles, one FA Cup, two League Cups, one Champions League (scoring in the final). Individually during this spell he was voted Players’ Player of the Year twice, Fans Player of the Year twice, Writers Player of the Year twice, won the golden boot once, won the ultimate prize in world football – the Ballon D’Or – once, and was voted FIFA World Player of the Year. Oh and he was in the PFA Team of the Year four times. That’s not nearly all, but I won’t bore you with every award and title. You know how good this man was and is. Did play well in all attacking positions as well – even if he was a right winger mostly he also played to the left and centrally with good success.

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 wherever 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.

Robin van Persie. One of the very best strikers in world football, and the undisputed best current player in the Premier League. Blossomed into a spectacular player the minute he overcame his injury problems. Scored about one in two during his Arsenal career before moving to Manchester United where he is doing even better. Fans’, Writers’ and Players’ player of the Year in 11/12. Golden boot winner. Provider of plenty of assists. Excellent at linking play. Expert corner kick taker. Got more votes than any other current Premier League player in the Ballon d’Or 2012. Perhaps most importantly he achieved all this while playing as a lone striker in the same system that this team is using.

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 duo of Scholes and Makélélé. Again these are two powerful players, with Makélélé obviously more defensive minded with the sole aim to break up attacks and quickly move the ball on. Paul Scholes will have license to join in the attacks when possible but will have to be very active in winning the ball back. Those two will win balls back and maintain superiority centrally, but also spray balls to the wide players and the striker. David Silva sits in front of those two and while he has no combative side to his game he is a very good player to have centrally because he is hard to get the ball off and helps relieve pressure by providing a quick outlet and combining with the other two. Having three players centrally so good on the ball is an important idea of this team.

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 Scholes come into play again. With only one pure striker being played they will have to bomb forward into the box quite a bit. When Ljungberg is on the ball Ronaldo will arrive from the left on and add great strength and ability both aerially and on the ground.

Centrally 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. What should be noted here is that Silva tends to drift a bit where he wants to help overload and create situations of 2 vs 1, which makes it a bit hard to pinpoint his position on a diagram like this. It’s clear however that it’s good for the team to have him see much of the ball, being one of the outstanding creators in world football.

The two full-backs - Arbeloa and Kelly - were handpicked because they are first and foremost good defensively. With no classic 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 course 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. I want to stress one final time too that Arbeloa is a very very good player defensively.

Ideally this team will play their football on the ground, but any weak defender will struggle with the aerial threat Ronaldo brings if the chances comes up. The thing Ronaldo will do is look up a full back and basically force him, rather than a central defender, to mark him. Then he jumps. Van Persie will play a bit deeper than I had Les Ferdinand doing in the last round and be more involved in holding the ball and playing Ljungberg and Ronaldo in. With his sensational movement to run in behind the defenders he’ll then be available for through balls and cut backs too.

Set pieces. Van Persie (left foot), Paul Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo(right foot) will share corners and free-kicks. Ronaldo, 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.

Variation. Finally, before I move on to AB’s team, I want to add that a real strength of my team is the different ways it can score goals. It has great pace in wide areas from Ljungberg and Ronaldo. It has perhaps the best header of the ball in the world in Ronaldo. It has extraordinary long range shooting with both feet in Ronaldo, van Persie and Paul Scholes. It has expert corner and set piece takers in van Persie, Silva, Scholes and Ronaldo (have a look at how many United score from van Persie corners). It has good possession play and can also break very very quickly with Ronaldo and Ljungberg if AB overcommits. On top of that it has great creative players and passers in Scholes and Silva to help create all these opportunities, and world class finishers in Ronaldo and van Persie.

So what can I expect from Applebonkers? After almost sending himself out of the tournament last round with that by now infamous crazy windmill formation I think he will revert back to something more tested. Probably a variation of 433 or 4231 or similar, with the recently acquired Gerrard the more attacking of the central midfielders. I think it is likely that his main threats will come from central positions so I’ve opted to move Arbeloa and Kelly just a little bit more centrally. I’ve also dropped Makélélé a little bit deeper and closer to the original Makélélé-role, to further strengthen that area of my team. I’ll also have my players sit a bit deeper compared to the ultra-high pressing that we’ve seen from some teams here. The reason is that I’d rather intercept the easy passes up to midfield rather than use up the energy of my players while trying to force the odd hoof. I’ll also instruct my players to try and stay very tight to Cantona, and try and prevent him from getting too much time on the ball. For all the other strengths of AB’s team, Cantona is clearly the player to stop. Makélélé and one central defender will be the main people to do this. I’ve also moved Makélélé over to the left side of Paul Scholes, so he can help handle Anelka if he for some odd reason has a spare moment.

In attack I won’t adapt much specifically for this game, but rather try and play the normal quick and varied game that I’ve described above. What I can say however is that I think there will be space between the full-backs and central defenders to exploit for Ljungberg and Ronaldo. I also think this will be a good game for the long range shooting of Ronaldo, van Persie and Scholes, as I think there might be space for that if they drift just a little bit wide. With the exceptional individual quality my team has now, to go with the solid core and great passing, Jens Lehmann will have his work cut out.

Good luck AB.

Jens Lehmann. He was the invincibles keeper in his 1st season. In his 2nd season he won the FA Cup saving a Scholes penalty in the shoot-out after a 0-0. In his 3rd season he won UEFA goalkeeper of the year and set the Champions League record for minutes without conceding. He had 1 more full season but by the end of it mistakes were starting to creep into his game so at 38 he returned to Germany for a well-earned pint of Beck's.

Ashley Cole. Leagues, cups, PFA team of the years, UEFA team of the years, an invincible, Cheryl Cole.

Gary Pallister. In his 6 Premier League seasons with Man Utd he was voted in the PFA Team of the Year 4 times, only Rio Ferdinand has been in more as a CB. An amazing 18 home clean sheets in 94/95. Tall and aerially dominant, but also composed on the ball, Pallister is the zonal defender of this partnership. He chipped in with some important goals too including a brace in what was labelled the title-decider at Anfield in 96/97.

Paul McGrath. In 92/93 he won the big one, PFA Player of the Year, an award voted for by all the players who faced him. Only John Terry has won the award since as a defender. Won the League Cup in 93/94 and 95/96. I’ll finish with a quote from Dennis Irwin, “The best centre-half I ever played with – and I played with some very good ones, including Bruce and Pallister, and Jaap Stam. Outstanding natural talent and he could head the ball further than I could kick it.”

Markus Babbel. Defensively he was the same player who won Euro 96 as a first-choice CB. Attacking wise he’s the man who chipped in with 6 goals in Liverpool’s treble winning season and 3rd place league finish. He was able to play right back due to surprising pace for his height & great stamina. A sudden illness cut his PL career short but his performances in 00/01 remain untouched. www.youtube.com/watch?v=g427DLBEJv0

Patrick Vieira. I’d argue the captain of the invincibles was the best PL midfielder ever in terms of importance rather than just pure ability. 6 straight PFA Team of the Years, Premier League Player of the Season in 00/01, 3 Leagues, 4 FA Cups & won everything with France while at Arsenal. A superb blend of beastly yet elegantly talented. Arsenal haven’t won a thing since he left whilst he went and won 5 Serie A titles in his 5 seasons in Italy…with 2 different teams. Vieira = a winner.

Steven Gerrard. We all know Gerrard so you’re probably not even reading this, so I’ll reveal a secret instead. That glass that got smashed in the kitchen years ago that you thought was the cat? That was actually me with a tennis ball, sorry Daisy. Just click this and scroll to the bottom to see his huge personal honours list: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Gerrard

Yaya Toure. $urpri$ingly left a successful Barcelona to join Man City. A top 4 place & the winning goal in the FA Cup final in his first season, last season it was the league title and an overdue place in the PFA team of the year. Like Vieira a blend of skill/technical ability and athleticism which has rarely been seen in the PL.

Robinho. In his one full season Robinho showed bursts of real talent. He finished 4th top scorer as a winger with 14 goals in 31 games. He’s also picked here due to his ability to pick-out a pass. 5 assists in that season suggests otherwise but the context is the bizarre merry-go-round of forwards he was trying to feed: Caicedo, Ched Evans, Sturridge, Benjani, Jo, Vassel & Bojinov. Here it’s Cantona and Anelka at their best.

Nicolas Anelka. Extreme pace which only the likes of Henry could rival, for this reason he excelled as an off the shoulder player. Also had the touch & skill to play wide as he did at Chelsea, reaching double figures for assists in 09/10 as they won the league. He’s the only attacking player to win the Premier League with 2 different teams. 2 PFA Team of the years, a PFA Young Player of the Year, 3 FA Cups & a golden boot.

Eric Cantona. These were his 5 seasons.

1 – Joins a Utd side in 10th having scored just 14 goals in 15 games. ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hDxoYMqsGI#t=5m47s ). They score 31 goals in Cantona’s first 15 games and win the League. He finishes with 9 goals and 13 assists in his 22 games there. Comes 3rd in the 93 Ballon D’or.

2 – The League title, the winning goal in the FA Cup final and named the PFA Player of the Year. 34 games 18 goals and 15 assists.

3 – The famous kung-fu kick meant he was banned from January onwards, Utd win nothing.

4 – The League title, the winning goal in the FA Cup final and Football Writer’s Footballer of the Year. 30 games 14 goals and 12 assists.

5 – The League title and retires. 36 games 11 goals and 18 assists. Later named in the Premier League Team of the Decade as the Overseas Player of the Decade.

He was a big game player who regularly produced against Newcastle, Arsenal and Blackburn and in cup finals. A prolific assister from his deep striker role behind Hughes, Cole then Solskjaer. A player to lead through sheer aura as well as ability. Safe to say the penalty taker is sorted too.

The formation.

I fell in love with this formation when I read about it and worked out how suitable it would be for my specific XI. It’s Roma’s formation from 2007 ( www.zonalmarking.net/2010/03/05/teams-of-the-decade-5-roma-2007/ ). I’ll take a few sentences from the article and apply it to my players here:

“rather than remaining upfront alone and waiting for service, Totti (Cantona) effectively played his usual trequartista role, moving into the gap between opposition defence and midfield and receiving the ball to feet. Perhaps 4-6-0 is an exaggeration, but it was certainly 4-5-1-0.”

“this created an entirely new problem for opposing defences (because their centre-backs were suddenly left without anyone to mark) and opposing midfielders (who found Roma effectively playing four players in the centre of midfield, and yet still using two wingers). It was almost impossible for Roma not to dominate possession, and with the midfielders flying forward to exploit the space left by Totti (Cantona), the Roma side almost played exclusively on the counter-attack, regardless of where the side won the ball.”

This counter-attacking element is a key factor I want with the speed of Anelka and Robinho, and the running power of Gerrard and Vieira/Yaya Toure from midfield. I also believe it’s just about the only way to hurt Makelele, his lack of real pace. I anticipate Garg will give Makelele a key role in shackling Cantona so I want to really test him to the limit, almost blackmail him into choosing to stick to Cantona and have to watch on helplessly as runners power forward, or try and help deal with these runners but leave Cantona in the process.

As for possession Yaya Toure and Gerrard sometimes clock up 100 passes in a match this season, whilst Cantona was more than comfortable with the ball at his feet and Vieira was the core of arguably the finest passing side in Premier League history.

“The system worked so well that even when Roma’s fit forwards returned, Totti (Cantona) continued to be deployed as the furthest forward central player, with Mirko Vucinic (Anelka) – a striker in any other team in the world – converted to an outside left to ensure a goal threat from the wings.”

Cantona and Totti have very similar goal records apart from this one season where Totti exploded and won the European golden boot. The hope is the formation maintains Cantona’s prolific assist rate but boosts his more uninspiring goal record. The wingers can swap round during a match if things need mixing up a bit. I have Robinho starting on the right so he can square the ball first-time on the run, whilst with Anelka I liked the idea of him going inwards towards goal on his stronger right foot. This cutting in also invites Ashley Cole to be the Arsenal version of Ashley Cole. I’ve tamed him so far but now want to give him freedom to try and do things like this www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDLnbFwBtZc .

Free kicks and corners: Gerrard. Penalties: Cantona.

His team.

My best chance with Ronaldo is that the current Ronaldo is ignored by voters. The Man Utd Ronaldo was an amazing player who could score 15-30 a season; the Real Madrid Ronaldo is a superhuman player who scores 40-50 a season.

…OK I’ll be doing a bit more than that; I can’t exactly rely on Robinho defensively. This picture shows my set-up when not in possession:



The three middle men each shift slightly. It basically becomes a 4-2-3-1 but instead of the 1 (marked X on the diagram) a spare Vieira is there to help Babbel with Ronaldo. This will be a physical test for the middle three to cover the ground but consider the engines of all 3, I think only Ray Parlour can rival them of the centre mids left in the draft.

Ashley Cole had a great record against Ronaldo (his only goal against Chelsea or England was his Champions League final header when marked by Essien, thanks Janie), so I had debated switching Cole to right back. However I think this is too big an overhaul with Babbel having to move too, and something there is no evidence for working as Cole has never played right back. Damn you Garg! I think I’ve been a bit unlucky here; I’m blaming the Swedish brotherhood between manager and right winger. However where I have been fortunate in this respect is I'll have the 1m91 Babbel marking Ronaldo in the air rather than Cole.

Another area I have been lucky is possessing a rare beast, an almost mythical creature, a Jaap Stam bogey-man. Early doubts were raised over Stam purely because of what Anelka did to him in the 98 Charity Shield and then again in both league games that season (3-0, 3-0 and 1-1, Anelka scoring in all 3 games). The caveat here is was it just Stam settling in to his first season in England? That’s up for debate, what isn’t up for debate is that Anelka made him look like Ronnie Stam for a season. Anelka then signed for Real Madrid so they never faced up again in the Premier League.

I don’t want my defence too deep as I don’t want to encourage Ronaldo and Scholes to try their luck from range. Van Persie running in behind is maybe not quite his game nor do I think his pace is scary enough to force me to back-off (he’s no slouch of course but he’s no Anelka either).

The 3 biggest roles are being given to my 3 biggest heavyweights. Firstly Vieira, combine his normal game with paying special attention to Ronaldo. Secondly Cantona, he needs to link yet spearhead, he needs to be an artist yet a fighter. Finally Ashley Cole, he’s on Garg’s weaker flank giving him some freedom to be a factor at both ends of the pitch.

Finally set-pieces. There will be 10 outfield players over 6ft tall in this match and 7 of them are mine. I make Anelka, Vieira and Yaya Toure my 5th, 6th and 7th choice aerial threats. Beyond his top 4 (Stam, Carvalho, Ronaldo, Van Persie) it's hard to find 3 more players to compete in this area.


Summary of key goals:

(1) Try to control possession in the middle of the pitch with the 4 men.

(2) Create counter-attacks regardless of where the ball is won.

(3) Squeeze Ronaldo and make it hard for him to get on his right foot.

(4) Try to overwhelm his key creative talents Scholes and Silva with my midfield dynamism.

(5) Set-pieces.

That’s me, good luck to Gargamel.