[FOOTBALL] Your Best Ever XI

[Lee]

Obviously feeling nostalgic today. I was thinking about this earlier this week and was surprised at just how many completely brilliant footballers I've seen. In the end I've settled on this as an eleven, in a 4-2-3-1, simply for the variety of positions it offers:

GK: Gianluigi Buffon

DR: Cafu
DL: Paolo Maldini
DC: Alessandro Costacurta
DC: Fabio Cannavaro

CM: Andres Iniesta
CM: Clarence Seedorf

RW: Lionel Messi
LW: Cristiano Ronaldo (This pair playing as inside forward, I suppose. They had to be in somehow)
AM: Zinedine Zidane

CF: Ronaldo

I did come up with a subs bench of seven players but I won't post as I don't want to steal anybody's thunder. Needless to say their are countless players who could easily fit in to the above side. Incidentally, I think only Gazza and Alan Shearer came under consideration at any point of the English players I've seen. What's the best XI of your football watching life?

[John Arne]

I'll do a Premier League/Div 1 one.

GK: Peter Schmeichel

DR: Rob Jones
DL: Ashley Cole
DC: John Terry
DC: Jaap Stam

CM: Steven Gerrard
CM: Patrick Vieira
CM: Paul Ince

AMC: Matt Le Tissier (just beats Zola)
CF: Alan Shearer
CF: Thierry Henry

[simon]

Gianluigi Buffon

Cafu
John Terry
Paolo Maldini
Ashley Cole

Claude Makelele
Xavi
Zinedene Zidane

Lionel Messi
Thierry Henry
Cristiano Ronaldo

----

Probably something like that. Honorable mentions to Ronaldo, Drogba, Iniesta, Casillas and Nesta.

[Giggles]

Schmeichel

Dixon
Adams
McGrath
Evra

Davids
Keane
Scholes

Klinsmann
Shearer
Ronaldo (Fat)

Wouldn't work in a million years, but still.

[niko_cee]

I'd probably put Redondo and Guardiola in as holding midfielders.



So to be a bit different, playing my CM2 classic 4-2-1-3:

GK: Pagliuca

LB: Koeman
CB: Adams
CB: Sammer
RB: Thuram

DMC: Redondo
DMC: Guardiola

AMC: Hagi

SC: Stoichkov
SC: Romario
SC: Batistuta

Obviously should probably have Ronaldo and Zidane and the like in there, or Julen Guerrero, Diego Simeone and Robert Taylor, but variety is the spice of life etc.

[Kikó]

Best I've watched live:
Buffon (sub keeper Schmiechal)
Irwin (rb)
Stam
Ferdinand
Maldini (lb)
Keane
Scholes
Beckham
Kaka
Ronaldinho
van Nistelrooy

Probably missed a number of great players I've seen but that will do for me.

[Giggles]

Shit I forgot van Nistelrooy. He gets Klinsmanns place.

[Ian]

Buffon; Cafu, Ferdinand, Cannavaro, Maldini; Zidane, Keane, Iniesta; Messi, Ronaldo, Ronaldo.

That midfield would probably be undone by a Mourinho special with a load of shit-kickers.

[Trancemeister]

-------------------------Henry----------------------
----C.Ronaldo-------Zidane-----------Messi
------------------Xavi-------------Iniesta----------
---Lahm----Maldini----Cannavaro---Cafu--
-------------------------Neuer-------------------------

[Lewis]

Peter Schmeichel

Paolo Maldini
Alessandro Nesta (I think people have forgotten about him a bit)
Rio Ferdinand
Philipp Lahm

Zinedine Zidane
Roy Keane
Xavi

Ronaldo
Fat Ronaldo
Lionel Messi

[Jimmy Floyd]

I was going to put Nesta in as well.

Gianluigi Buffon

Cafu
Roberto Carlos (Maldini can do one, the good looking bastard, I want free-wheeling entertainment)
Alessandro Nesta
Marcel Desailly

Claude Makelele
Xavi

Cristiano Ronaldo
Zinedine Zidane
Lionel Messi

Ronaldo

Only Buffon and the bad suit pair still playing. Not sure why I went for Desailly but fuck it, he's a geezer.

[Lewis]

Football365 had an ICON profile of Roberto Carlos the other day. I only remember him being shit at defending (admittedly for a Madrid side who never bothered with it) and wasting free-kicks, so what did I miss? Cafu always struck me as miles better, yet he never seemed to get his due until he was old and doing it at Milan.

[Jimmy Floyd]

He tried mental stuff, and occasionally it came off. He was also basically another attacker. Full backs are boring, and he wasn't, so yeah.

[Reg]

I'm with you there, Jim. I'll have the more boring Lahm to balance it out.

Buffon
Lahm, Ferdinand, Cannavaro, Carlos
Busquets, Pirlo
Iniesta
Messi, Ronaldo (Brazil), Ronaldinho

[Reg]

Football365 had an ICON profile of Roberto Carlos the other day. I only remember him being shit at defending (admittedly for a Madrid side who never bothered with it) and wasting free-kicks, so what did I miss? Cafu always struck me as miles better, yet he never seemed to get his due until he was old and doing it at Milan.

He was great at attacking and I always thought he was underrated at defending. He could run all day too, great athlete. I remember reading he liked to play full back so he had more time to get up to his full speed.

[simon]

Busquets over Makelele is a crime. THE WORST KIND OF CRIME.

[Reg]

He's so good on the ball under pressure. Knows exactly what to do whenever somebody is within half a yard of him.

[John]

Carlos was a winger until Roy Hodgson let him go to Madrid for fifteen pence and a goalkeeper who never played a minute.

[niko_cee]

He's so good on the ball under pressure. Knows exactly what to do whenever somebody is within half a yard of him.

Fall over and hold his face?

[Shindig]

GK: Schmeichel

LB: Ashley Cole. On the basis that I've seen a lot more of him than Lahm and the man was pretty evergreen til he left for Italy.
CB: Fabio Cannavaro.
CB: Franco Baresi
RB: Cafu

CM: Xavi
CM: Iniesta

They're a package deal. Pirlo might've got in otherwise. Or Beckham. Or Zidane.

LW: Cristiano Ronaldo
CF: Mario fucking Jardel. Actually, nah. He'd get nothing from those flanks. Ronaldo.
RW: Messi

Bit of a hodge-podge but whatever.

[Reg]

Fall over and hold his face?

I'd ban him from doing that since I'm presumably the manager / all powerful chosen one in this dream XI.

edit - you can have another player, @Shindig.

[Manc]

Casillas

Zanetti
Nesta
Terry
Cafu

Redondo
Mascherano

Ronaldinho
Kaka
Zidane

Baggio

[simon]

Mascherano?

[Manc]

Too right. Hodgson knows.

[SincereTheRebel]

Buffon

Zanetti
Thuram
Desially
A.Cole

Davids
Vieira
Iniesta

Henry
Messi
Ronaldinho

[Shindig]

Then my extra player would be Zidane.

[CJay]

Busquets over Makelele is a crime. THE WORST KIND OF CRIME.

[simon]

Busquets exists because of Makelele, basically.

And Makelele was better at it, as well.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Claude would laugh Busquets out of a plane on any count. One of those players whose every career move mysteriously coincided with a surge in his new team's fortunes, whilst equally unaccountably seeing his former employers go downhill.

[Reg]

Makelele wasn't the first defensive midfielder ever, and I wouldn't pick a player for a reason like that anyway. Busquets has always been better on the ball than Makelele ever was.

[simon]

He essentially killed the 4-4-2 all by himself and he was better off the ball than Busquets has ever been. And I'd prioritise defensive ability over being a ball player as a sitting midfielder.

Don't get me wrong, I think Busquets is a phenomenal player. But he's not Makelele.

[Reg]

Of course he didn't. He was maybe the most important influence in more teams in England playing three in the middle, but it's not like he was the first ever holding midfielder.

When you can keep the ball as well as Busquets, you don't need to win it so often. Him and Pirlo are the two best deep midfielders I've ever seen on the ball.

[simon]

Of course he didn't. He was maybe the most important influence in more teams in England playing three in the middle, but it's not like he was the first ever holding midfielder.

Not the first, but the most important and influential. Not just on England, but everywhere.

When you can keep the ball as well as Busquets, you don't need to win it so often. Him and Pirlo are the two best deep midfielders I've ever seen on the ball.

When you keep the ball as well as Barcelona, you don't need to win it so often.

Wouldn't disagree with the second statement though. I did think about whether I should have shoehorned Pirlo in there somehow. But I wanted BALANCE.

[Magic]

Seen live? It will be the team from our #gloryyearsv2

Unfortunately I haven't phyiscally been treated to any 'great' games of football starring world class footballers.

[Lee]

Nah, full stop. On the telly, mostly. As if I've seen all those fuckers in the flesh.

[Magic]

GK: Kahn
DR: Zanetti
DL: Maldini
DC: Cannavaro
DC: Ferdinand
MC: Messi
MC: Pirlo
MC: Viera
FC: Fat Ronaldo
FR: Gay Ronaldo
FL: Henry

Or something. It really is quite difficult to pick a team that would work together.

[Lewis]

Didier Deschamps did so well in the 'Makelele Role' that he kept Claude Makelele out of the France side. The fact English pundits had never heard of specialist defensive midfielders (since 1992 at least lol) doesn't mean he ruined 4-4-2.

[Reg]

Yeah, he got overhyped here because we were behind the rest of the world.

[Magic]

The noughties players are well better than the 90s players, as a rule of thumb though.

Though in saying that there are exceptions, such as fat Ronaldo, and Maldini.

[simon]

Defenders were better in the 90's.

[Magic]

They had to be. Anti-football wasn't a thing back then.

[Lee]

George Graham was the true heir to Michels.

[Baz]

Edwin van der Sar

Rob Jones
Rio Ferdinand
Alan Hansen
Ray Deakin

Luis Figo
Jamie Redknapp
Roy Keane
George Best

Cristiano Ronaldo
Luis Suarez

[QE Harold Flair]

Schmeichel

Lahm
Adams
Ferdinand
Carlos

Vieira
Keane
Iniesta

Henry
Ronaldinho
Messi

[Jimmy Floyd]

Didier Deschamps did so well in the 'Makelele Role' that he kept Claude Makelele out of the France side. The fact English pundits had never heard of specialist defensive midfielders (since 1992 at least lol) doesn't mean he ruined 4-4-2.

Claude was still donning it at Celta Vigo when Deschamps was around, hardly fellow travellers.

He was the sole reason that Mourinho's 04/05 and 05/06 Chelsea sides were so good, should have been Footballer of the Year both seasons. Most intelligent footballer I've ever seen.

[The Merse]

Buffon

Lahm
Maldini
Cannavaro
Cole

Zidane
Vieira

Messi
Bergkamp
Ronaldo

Henry

[Magic]

Christ I forgot about Zidane.

[Lewis]

Claude was still donning it at Celta Vigo when Deschamps was around, hardly fellow travellers.

He was the sole reason that Mourinho's 04/05 and 05/06 Chelsea sides were so good, should have been Footballer of the Year both seasons. Most intelligent footballer I've ever seen.

Maybe. The point is that he didn't invent what he did.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Maybe. The point is that he didn't invent what he did.

Nobody has invented anything in football in the last 40 years. Well, except when Pires and Henry tried that penalty routine.

[The Merse]

Christ I forgot about Zidane.

I'm amazed a few have to be honest. I'm a sucker for touch and vision hence fitting both him and Bergkamp in. I'd have liked Laudrup too for the same reason.