FINAL - KK vs Gargamel

Bergkamp:
Bergkamp has been described as having "the finest technique" of any Dutch international and a "dream for a striker". With Arsenal, he won three Premier League titles, four FA Cup trophies and reached the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final. With the Netherlands national team, Bergkamp surpassed Faas Wilkes's record to become the country's top goalscorer of all time in 1998, a record later eclipsed by Patrick Kluivert. In 2007, he was inducted into the FIFA Hall of Fame, the first and so far only Dutch player ever to receive such a honor.

RVN:
Following his move to United, Ruud Van Nistelrooy won the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup ,FA Community Shield and was awarded the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award, hitting 150 goals in just 219 games leading to him being United's all time European record goal scorer. In addition, he won the Dutch footballer of the year twice, a spot in the PFA team of the year twice and several other accolades.

Desailly:
For only £4.6m, Marcel Desailly was quite the bargain for the Blues. Even though the French powerhouse only managed to win an FA cup during his time at Chelsea, his performances were anything but lacking. Chelsea's captain at the time, along with Frank Lebouef formed one of the most formidable CB partnerships the Prem has ever seen.

Bale:
His move from left back to left winger was basically the key to unlocking Bale's "treasure chest" of skill. The heir to the label of "The Flying Welshman", Gareth Bale showed his true quality against Italian giants Internazionale in the group stages of the 10/11 Champions League when he skinned, then best right back in the world, Maicon not once, not twice, but three times to bag a hattrick. Since then, the Welshman has been putting in impressive performances week in week out, attracting the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid in the process. (Please appreciate the fact that, even though it pains me, I highlighted his massacre of Maicon)

Hamann:
As consistent and reliable as can be, "Didi" contributed in the achievement of numerous trophies including the FA cup twice, the League Cup twice, the UEFA cup, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup twice.


Keown:
3 Premier League trophies, 3 FA cups, 3 FA Community Shields, 1 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and 311 appearances for Arsenal mark this tough Centre Back's career.

Petrescu:
A gloomy day at the Bridge, Petrescu backheels the ball to Dennis Wise who immediately gives it back to the Romanian, Dan Petrescu takes on a Southampton player before impressively chipping the ball over the goalkeeper from a distance of approximately 19 yards. A goal which reflects the Romanian's raw talent and effectiveness at Chelsea which resulted in Chelsea winning the FA cup, League Cup, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup.

David James:
784 appearances, 53 caps and the record for most clean sheets (173). Ever-present.

Nemanja Vidic:
4 Premier Leagues, 3 League Cups, 4 times in the PFA TOTY, 2 times Barclays Player of the Year and voted as the Players' Player of the year in 08/09. What more can I say? Powerhouse.

Parlour:
The "Romford Pele" as he was infamously labeled, Parlour was a prime example of an 'unsung hero'. 339 appearances with Arsenal proved to be fruitful as they won the Premier League 3 times and were runners-up 4 times. In addition, Parlour won the FA cup 4 times, the League Cup, the FA Community Shield 3 times and the European Cup Winners' Cup.

Fabregas:
His ability not only to string wonderful passes to his teammates but to also be on the receiving end, slotting in goals, are the two significant attributes that make Fabregas the player he is. The then Arsenal captain concluded his fruitful time with the Gunners with an FA cup win, two times PFA Team of the Year spot, two Premier League Player of the Month awards, two times UEFA Team of the Year spot and PFA Young Player of the Year award, bagging 35 goals and providing 77 assists in the process.

Tactics:

Desailly is being played as a left back as I see him being a more than capable fit in that position given his pace and physical presence, which is rare to find in full-backs these days (having both attributes). Hamann and Parlour will aid them when needed and if at any circumstance both Didi and Ray are out of position helping out the full backs, Fabregas will drop deep to make sure Scholes does not enjoy much space. However, Cesc's role will be to mainly spray out passes to the offensive trio of Dennis Van Bale. Despite my slack odds in this match-up, I see one facet where I could really gain some ground in and that is on the wings. I have purposefully told Bale and Bergkamp (who both have somewhat of a free role) to focus a good amount of their play on the wings. The reason is, I view Arbeloa and Kelly as two of Garg's weaker players and ones who, with the pace and trickery of B&B, could get exposed. That being said, B&B will still also try to move forward into shooting positions. I have also informed Bertil's assistant that if he ends up being the victor (no Anichebe jokes please), he will have to invite me over for a taste of his infamous 'potato with roaming thyme grains' soup. May the best FPLian (im a legal alien, im an Englishman in New York) win!

Hello! For those already familiar with my stuff, or tired of reading, I’ve written a short version of what I’ve changed since last round below my normal tactics that might help.

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. 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. The leader and organizer of this defence.

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.

Patrick Vieira (c). 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. I borrowed this from AB and I doubt anybody will even read it anyway. My captain.

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.


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 Vieira and Makélélé. Again these are two powerful players, with Makélélé the slightly more defensive-minded with the sole aim to break up attacks and quickly move the ball on. Vieira will have license to join in the attacks when he thinks it’s right but will have to be very active in winning the ball back. When he does either Paul Scholes or David Silva will be careful to not overcommit.

Those two will win balls back and maintain superiority centrally, but also spray balls to the wide players and the striker. Paul Scholes sits in front of those two and while he also does have a combative side to his game he is also 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. Ronaldo 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 we all know what he can do if given space to shoot. 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 Ronaldo is on the ball Silva will arrive from the left to try and get on the end if the cross comes, van Persie will obviously be in the middle and Scholes (or at times Vieira) will arrive late looking for the cutback or rebound.
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. 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 Silva 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, Vieira, 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 KK’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 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 Silva if KK 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 KK? He’s been lining up with a 352 formation this far and his swap was Poyet->Hamann. I’m not entirely sure how he will arrange his formation with that, but I think there is a fair chance he’s tried to move Bale into a more central position, trying to make him do what he’s done so well for the last few weeks. To take care of that, and the general great strength KK has centrally I’ve chosen to draft in Patrick Vieira. This makes me stronger in the area I feel KK has his main threat, and Vieira and Makelele will try and stop Bergkamp, Fabregas and Bale from playing in that area of the pitch. I’ve also kept my full backs tucked in a bit, as I’d rather let KK try and cross than risk them linking up too much with Bergkamp. Vieira will be the leader of the team and of the central midfield in particular, which will benefit Makelele and the team in general, since it has been mentioned on a few occasions that my team has not had enough leaders in it.

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. I’ll also give my players license to swap positions in attack a bit more than in previous games, and I encourage Silva and Ronaldo to swap wings if they struggle for some reason. I also want van Persie to occasionally drop deeper to drag a centre-back out with him and make space for wingers, Scholes and occasionally Vieira to run into. I will also try and play low crosses/cut-backs rather than high ones on most occasions as KK’s central defenders are very strong in the air.

What I can say however is that I think there will be space out wide to exploit for Silva 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. To use this to my advantage I will also let my full backs attack a little bit more than in previous games. With the exceptional individual quality my team has now, to go with the solid core and great passing, David James will have will be tested a lot and I hope it will be too much.

Short recap of my changes from last round!
Vieira was drafted in for Ljungberg. He takes Scholes’ place in the double pivot. That sees Scholes move into Silva’s previous CAM position, and Silva moving to left wing. That in turn sees Ronaldo moving over to the right wing. The purpose of this is that it a) makes me defensively stronger in central areas b) frees up Scholes, Silva and Ronaldo to play in their standard positions and c) lets Scholes have the ball more to control the game, provide the killer passes and shoot from distance.

Good luck KK.