Round 1 - Orpheus Jones vs Applebonkers

Tactics





The Formation - It is a cross between the popular 4-3-3 and the Diamond with emphasis on retaining possession, keeping things tight in the middle, and counter attacking when possible.

Key Roles
Essien - Box to box Midfielder, use his power and pace to contribute in both attack and defence.
Totti - No 10. Trequartista, it will be his job to link play, create chances and score goals. 
Xabi Alonso - Deep Lying Playmaker, he will dictate the tempo and look for long diagonal balls to Suarez.
Srna - Wingback, he has a great engine and can get up and down the pitch so his role will be to provide width in attack so Seedorf can come inside to flood the midfield.
 
Tempo
Without the ball - Squeeze the midfield with the dynamism and power of Essien and Seedorf. Alonso stays deep and looks to break up play and quickly set up counter attacks.
With the ball - Control, short-quick passes. In Valdes i have one of the best distributing keepers around so i plan to pass out from the back. Use Alonso to dictate the tempo of the game, if he is being man marked, Marquez who is another brilliant passer can stride out from defence. Get the ball to Totti and Suarez as much as possible, look for through balls to Ronaldo. If Essien pushes on, Seedorf needs to stay back and vice versa.

Set Pieces
Direct Free Kicks - Totti, Srna
Indirect Free kicks - Alonso, Srna
Corners - Srna
Penalties - Ronaldo

His team
With Ribery, Messi & Villa i think AB will play with a fluid front three with the wingers looking to cut in. To counter this, the LB (Montero) who is also a solid CB, will stay back and tuck in to almost make a back 3 at times. It will be the midfields job to press the likes of Ozil, Messi and Ribery into making mistakes and then counter attack using the skill of Totti and pace of Suarez & Ronaldo. Without the ball, i want Totti to close Schweinsteiger as he'll likely be the 'go to' distributor.   

Gameplan
- Control possession in the middle with Alonso, Essien, Seedorf & Totti.
- Without the ball, look to press the opponent into making a mistake and then use the pace of Suarez and Ronaldo and the running power of Essien and Seedorf to counter.
- Test the keeper from range (Totti, Seedorf, Essien)
- Look for the diagonal runs of Suarez as Cafu pushes on.
- Try through balls to Ronaldo often.

Messi:
His first Ballon D’or came on the right and his 4th has come more as a number 9, with false 9s & counterfeit 10s in between. In reality his managers know they can play him in any position in the opposition half and get a goalscorer-playmaker hybrid like no other. He’s even making it impossible to argue against him for Argentina recently.
Stat: Last 2 seasons in La Liga = 96 goals and 28 assists (124 combined) in 69 games.
Preferred judging period: 2008-today.

Cafu
Lifted the 2002 world cup as Brazil’s captain; however his most impressive achievement may be winning the league with Roma in 00/01 as Roma simply don’t win Serie A titles normally. In this season he was their leading assister with 10 assists. AC Milan then bought him in 2003 and in his first season there he helped them to their only league title of the decade. He made the UEFA team of the year in 2004 and 2005. He was still at AC Milan for their Champions League win in 2007 but at 36/37 he was no longer starting every game. Received votes for the 2001 and 2002 Ballon D’or, as well as for the 2004 and 2005 FIFA World player of the year.
Stat: In the 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year voting Paulo Maldini was the only defender to finish ahead of Cafu.
Preferred judging period: 2000-2005.

Schweinsteiger:
Bayern and Germany owe Louis Van Gaal a lot of credit for the man who now looks a good bet to get in every team of the year going for 2013 and have a real chance of party-pooping the Xavi and Iniesta dominance of 3rd place in the Ballon D’or behind Messi and Ronaldo. Van Gaal switched a temperamental wide player to the centre of the pitch in 09/10 and the rest is history. Team of the Tournament in World Cup 2010, 3 Champions League finals in the last 4 seasons, and now at the core of a truly incredible Bayern team, they actually won the quadruple if you count the season opening Super Cup win against Dortmund. It was Schweinsteiger’s 6th League title. Attribute wise he’s a real all-rounder.
Stat: Schweinsteiger made the joint most tackles in last season’s Champions League.
Preferred judging period: 2010-today.

Rio Ferdinand
We all know Rio and his Man Utd achievements but what may be his most impressive achievement is helping Leeds to a Champions League semi-final in 2001 in his first season there. A Rolls Royce CB who until a few years ago had supreme pace when needed too. Made the FIFA world XI in 07/08, 3 Champions League finals in 4 years. Holds the record for a CB with 6 PFA team of the years. Formed formidable CB partnerships with Sol Campbell then John Terry for England.
Stat: In 10 World Cup appearances Ferdinand has 7 clean sheets.
Preferred judging period: 2000-2009.

David Villa:
Is currently fading at Barcelona, breaking your leg then having to come back and compete with Lionel Messi for a central position in your thirties is a pretty good excuse though.
Before that Villa was Spain’s go to man for sticking the ball in the back of the net to give meaning to the dominant possession football of those behind him. Thanks to that and Barcelona then coming calling he’s won everything. Individually he was nominated for the Ballon D’or every year between 2006 and 2011. At Valencia he scored 108 goals in 166 La Liga games.
He added positional flexibility to his game in 2010-2011, in WC 2010 he played on the left until the semi-finals; of the 6 goals scored at this point he’d scored 5 and assisted the other. In the Champions League final in 2011 he put in a goalscoring performance on the right of a front 3.
Spain’s record goalscorer with 53 goals since 2005, 36 of which came in competitive matches, and none of which came against San Marino, Andorra, Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg etc. There’s far too much to write, UEFA team of the year 2010, Team of the Tournaments in 2008 and 2010, golden boots, silver shoes, bronze balls, platinum paellas.
Stat: in 06/07 Villa was the top assister in La Liga playing up alongside Morientes.
Preferred judging period: 2006-2011.

Ribéry
In 2006 he came 13th in the Ballon D’or on the back of a break-out season for Marseille which got him in the French team who came agonisingly close to World Cup glory that year. In 2007 he moved to Bayern and found instant success, a domestic treble, French Footballer of the Year and German Footballer of the Year. This got him a place in the UEFA team of the year for 2008 too.
A fourth successive Ballon D’or nomination came in 2009, then in 2010 Ribéry won another domestic treble win Bayern. In 11/12 he was the Bundesliga’s top assister then again in 12/13 and 2nd top assister in Europe’s “big 5” leagues. Created all 3 goals in Bayern’s win in the Camp Nou this year. In the campaign Ribéry showed a new defensive discipline too. All in all he now has 74 goals and 81 assists (155 combined) in 224 games for Bayern.
Stat: Ribery’s 4.5 successful dribbles per match was the best in Europe’s top 5 leagues last season. Also possessed an 87.7% passing accuracy 9th best in the league, as a winger!).
Preferred judging period: 2006-today.

Özil
The main playmaker in Real’s record breaking La Liga season in 11/12 where he was the top assister in Europe’s big 5 leagues and made the UEFA Team of the Year, for Germany he made the Euro 2012 Team of the Tournament and was the joint highest assister in the 2010 World Cup.
In 12/13 he was the 2nd highest assister in La Liga and 4th highest in Europe’s big 5 leagues. In 10/11 he was 2nd highest in La Liga (behind Messi) and 3rd highest in Europe’s big 5 leagues. If you’re thinking it’s more a Real Madrid thing than an Özil thing, in 09/10 at Bremen he was the top assister in the Bundesliga and 4th in Europe’s big 5 leagues. Finished 13th, 7th and 14th in the last 3 Ballon D’ors.
Stat: 66 assists in his 3 seasons at Real Madrid (in all comps).
Preferred judging period: 2010-today.

Iván Córdoba
In 13 seasons at Inter Milan Córdoba won everything. He was a dogged man-marker, a no nonsense South American stereotype and played CB, RB or LB. He was a regular every season until 2009 where at 33 and having torn his cruciate ligament the year before he started drifting out into a squad player.
He was the anti-Mertesacker, shorter than the strikers he was marking but usually quicker than them too, a very unique centre back in that respect. His recovery speed meant you’d almost have to beat him twice. He compensated for the lack of height with an explosive leap. The most famous example of which was his winning goal in the 2001 Copa America final.
Stat: In their 6 matches in the 2001 Copa America Colombia kept 6 clean sheets.
Preferred judging period: 2001-2008.

Javi Martínez
Martínez has taken the hipster-arousing promise of Bilbao and really kicked on now. €40m raised a lot of eyebrows last summer but his impact has been instant. How often does a team win their league by 25 points (ahead of the Dortmund side everyone is raving about), with no away losses, with just 7 away goals conceded, win both domestic cups, win the Champions League with a 7-0 semi-final win over Barcelona and a 4-0 quarter-final win over Juventus? This is why I chose Martínez to go with Schweinsteiger, a proven partnership in an incredible season. You don’t have passengers in seasons that good, especially not in the engine room where he operates. A powerful player, yet extremely intelligent and positionally astute. The partnership also has experience of linking up with Ribéry, and in Schweinsteiger’s case Özil too.
Stat: Martínez made the most interceptions in last season’s Champions League.
Preferred judging period: 2010-today.

Frank de Boer
An intelligent defender with a wand of a left foot, he played CB, LCB in a back 3 and LB in this era. He may be best remembered in this time period for his semi-final penalty miss against Italy in Euro 2000 but the fact he made the UEFA Team of the Tournament despite this is testament to his performances. He got injured in their Euro 2004 quarter-final in what turned out to be the last of his 112 caps.
These Euro near misses reflected his time at Barcelona post 2000 too. They were runners up in the league in 2000, semi-finalists in the Champions League in 2000 & 2002, semi-finalists in the UEFA Cup in 2001, then lost out in extra-time to Juventus in the Champions League quarter-final in 2003.
Stat: de Boer started 7 matches in Euro 2000 and 2004 in which the Netherlands conceded just 3 times. In the 3 matches he missed they conceded 6 times.
Preferred judging period: 2000-2003.

Coentrão
Ketchup or mayo? Boobs or bum? Coentrão or Marcelo? The general consensus seems to be Coentrão if you want a more defensively sound player, Marcelo for a bigger attacking threat.
He helped break the Porto dominance with Benfica in 09/10 winning the league and cup double as the ‘Portuguese League Breakthrough Player of the Year.’ He then went to the world cup and was viewed by some as the left back of the tournament as Portugal conceded just once. In 11/12 he played 20 times in Real Madrid’s record breaking La Liga winning season, started in Real’s Supercopa win over Barcelona then capped it off in Euro 2012 where he made the UEFA Team of the Tournament in another impressive defensive showing from Portugal.
Stat: Benfica conceded just 6 home goals in 09/10.
Preferred judging period: 2009-today.

Rogério Ceni
Since 2000 he has won 3 League titles, a Copa Libertadores, a Copa Sudamericana and a Club World Cup as Sao Paulo’s long time captain. His individual achievements though are even more impressive. Voted best keeper in Série A in 00, 03, 04, 06, 07 and 08, best PLAYER of the 05 Copa Libertadores, best player of the 05 World Club Cup thanks mainly to his performance in the 1-0 win over Liverpool in the final, the Brasileirão Best Player Award in 06 and 07, and the Golden Ball for the best player in Série A in 08. In 2007 he was nominated for the Ballon D’or where he received 3 votes, the only keepers to get more were Buffon and Cech.
Stat: Ceni has scored 58 free kicks and 51 penalties for Sao Paulo.
Preferred judging period: 2000-2008.

Tactics:

I’m struggling to put my finger on what Orpheus will do due to a lack of wide midfielders or wingers in his 12. He can play Suarez wide but that would be as a very attacking winger in a 3, in which case Seedorf looks like he’d have to be the one to play the other side as a winger, I feel that’s too attacking for him. Srna could play as a winger but then I can’t see who would play right back instead. A 4-4-2 diamond would suit his players well, in which case the full backs become essential to provide attacking width, so Montero benched and Ziege at lb. A 3-5-2 would also suit his players well but would mean Alonso, Essien, Seedorf or Suarez benched, so I’m not sure he’ll go there. A 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 brings up the lack of wingers issue, what I think he might do is compromise (a bit like myself with Messi and Cafu) and play Seedorf as quite a central/narrow wide man, knowing in Srna he has an excellent overlapping full back to compensate.

Anyway, what have I gone for? I’ve gone for quite a flexible 4-2-3-1 type of formation which I hope brings the best out of my players and gives Messi the most space possible.
The arrows around Villa, Messi and Özil simply mean if Messi drifts in to be a number 10 then Özil can drift to the right (he sometimes plays on the right for Real Madrid to accomodate Modric), or if Villa drifts across to try and drag centre backs with him then Messi moves into that spot as a centre forward. Whichever of the 3 takes that right hand role though I want slighty narrower, knowing in Cafu (nicknamed the express train in Italy) I have a guy to make use of that space on the right. Javi Martínez is then the man to cover if possession is lost with Cafu in attack, albeit I can’t see Montero attacking too much as more of an old-school pure defender. The left winger however would need covering.

Messi is starting in this role for a couple of reasons, firstly I want his playmaking ability knowing that he’ll still be a huge goal threat from any role. Secondly I’ve tried to put him in a spot where he’ll be in an awkward position for any opposition formation, too deep for the CBs, too central for the left back and left mid, and too wide for the centre mids. Between as many lines as possible.

I’ve played Córdoba over de Boer at CB for his extra pace and more aggressive marking style as I think I’ll need that against Ronaldo and Suarez.
Coentrão is at left back over de Boer just in case Seedorf is wide right for Orpheus. As Seedorf should be a bit deeper than a normal winger I want the extra athleticism of Coentrao to be able to get right up to him and make him worry about the quick counter.
Other than that not much to say really, just want my players to do what they do/have done for their clubs/countries, all are in their primary positions other than Messi who I’ve explained above. Only tweak would be if he plays 3 at the back I want Ribéry and Messi to push right up as high and wide as they can go. Any crosses I want mainly fired in low and hard, as anything floated high should get gobbled up by Marquez and Thiago Silva.

Good luck to Orpheus, without sounding biased I think we both have excellent teams.

(all stats from whoscored.com who use OPTA data, and ESPN soccernet)