Topic: The 'Built in their Image' Football Draft - Discussion Thread

[mikey_LFC]

Welcome to the ‘Built in their image’ draft, or the ‘We all dream of a team of ….s’ as I’m sure it’ll informally grow to be known as.

Pick a player, any player who you'd like to be the inspiration for your team in this draft. Once you've all picked your moulds, I will reveal the categories for the rest of the draft, but they will not be in your XIs.

The draft will then follow standard rules, whereby you can pick any player in the world who has not been picked previously in the draft, including those in the first round (i.e. you can't pick somebody else's inspiration, which also means any inspirations picked are ruled out of contention for being picked to play in the draft). By the end of the draft you must have picked your XI with players who fill the categories, with only one category crossed off per player (please say which category they fulfill and post evidence where necessary).

Sign up now!


List of those signed up (I'll double check with everyone that they are still up for it.)

Confirmed

Me
Draex
Nick
Nicholls
Robbie
Betty
Samie
Max_Powers
Red1977
Tubby
Drinks Sangria
PoetryInMotion
VivaBobbyGraham

We'll start once the basketball draft has finished and we have enough people for the draft.

Right so the categories are, (examples using Robbie Savage in brackets):

1. Someone of the same height as your inspiration pick (If you'd picked Robbie Savage you'd have to pick a player who was 1.85m)

2. Someone born in the same year as your inspiration pick (If you'd picked Robbie Savage you'd have to pick a player born in 1974)

3. Someone who shares their birthday with your inspiration pick, only the date not the year - wikipedia is a helpful tool for this (If you'd picked Robbie Savage you'd have to pick a player born on the 18th October e.g. finding footballers listed on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_18#1901%E2%80%93present_2)

4. One of the top 25 teammates who your inspiration pick played most with, all this data can be found on transfermarkt.co.uk (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/robbie-savage/gemeinsameSpiele/spieler/3797)

5. One of the top 25 opponents who your inspiration pick played most against, all this data can be found on transfermarkt.co.uk
(https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/robbie-savage/spieleGegeneinander/spieler/3797)

6. Someone who came through the same academy as your player. I'll accept any academy they played in up until their professional debut. (Robbie Savage's academies would include Brickfield Rangers, Lex XI, Manchester United and Crewe Alexandra)

7. Someone your inspiration pick played with in their professional debut season (For Robbie Savage this would include anyone in Crewe Alexandra's 1994-95 squad)

8. Anyone who played for your inspiration pick's national side when they were between the ages of 0 and 10. This is supposed to find someone your player was inspired by as a kid. (For Robbie Savage this would be anyone who played for the Welsh National Team between 1974 and 1984).

9. Anyone who played in your inspiration pick's International Debut (For Robbie Savage this would be anyone who played in the game between Wales and Albania on the 15th November 1995)

10. Anyone who played during your inspiration pick's final International cap (For Robbie Savage this would be anyone who played in the game between Wales and Poland on the 13th October 2004)

11. Anyone who played in a club cup final with your player, so major domestic cup finals and european finals, they don't have to have won the final (For Robbie Savage this would mean picking any member of the Leicester City side's who played in either the 1999 or 2000 cup final).


You can pick from any category in any round, but you must have crossed off all the categories by your last pick, or your teams will be void and the rest of your spaces will be filled up with Robbie Savages.

Hope that all makes sense. Any questions, let me know in here, or drop me a PM.

[mikey_LFC]

There is a discussion to be had around whether we limit the Inspiration pick. I had it in my mind originally that it could just be limited to Liverpool players, but that could cause too much overlap (although that could be a good thing for the competitiveness of the picks).

Happy to hear any thoughts on this.

[NICHOLLS]

Are we submitting our 'inspiration' players to you via PM? Or drafting them?

Like a top 5...? Then you select the player from our top 5 to make sure there are no cross-overs?



Could include a rule for the inspiration pick: no World Cup finalist / European Cup finalist?

[Betty Blue]

If it starts in the next 10 days I should be good

There is a discussion to be had around whether we limit the Inspiration pick. I had it in my mind originally that it could just be limited to Liverpool players, but that could cause too much overlap (although that could be a good thing for the competitiveness of the picks).

Happy to hear any thoughts on this.

Obviously don't want you to spoil things, but it's difficult to know what kind of player we should be picking. i.e. Will the era we pick them in matter? The number of clubs they played for? The trophies they've won? Their nationality? etc etc.

If all these have an influence, maybe it would work better if you drew up a list of recommended players that could then be randomised and we all got assigned one.

Otherwise I might be tempted to just pick Torben Piechnik.

[mikey_LFC]

Are we submitting our 'inspiration' players to you via PM? Or drafting them?

Like a top 5...? Then you select the player from our top 5 to make sure there are no cross-overs?



Could include a rule for the inspiration pick: no World Cup finalist / European Cup finalist?

PMs might work best actually good shout. I do want to leave the inspiration pick open to anyone. It can just be one person, but then if two people pick the same person, then I'll get them just to pick another one.

If it starts in the next 10 days I should be good

Obviously don't want you to spoil things, but it's difficult to know what kind of player we should be picking. i.e. Will the era we pick them in matter? The number of clubs they played for? The trophies they've won? Their nationality? etc etc.

If all these have an influence, maybe it would work better if you drew up a list of recommended players that could then be randomised and we all got assigned one.

Otherwise I might be tempted to just pick Torben Piechnik.

Cool, I'd imagine it'll start around then, once the basketball draft has run its course.


I don't think anyone is going to be snookered by the categories, they should leave enough leeway for people to be inventive and put together a good side.

I could publish the categories prior but I think it takes a bit of the fun out of it. There are only so many things that you can pick when looking at categories related to a footballer though, so I'd imagine most people could guess close enough what might come up.

[Samie]

Yes Michael!

[red1977]

Sent you a pm Mikey, but confirming i'm in here too.

[Crosby Nick]

I’m not sure I understood any of the  rules as per!

[mikey_LFC]

I’m not sure I understood any of the  rules as per!

Basically the XI you pick will all be players who fit into 11 defined categories. The exact players available in each category would be determined by the player you pick in the first round, your inspiration pick, and how they relate to the category.

For instance, if your inspiration pick was John Arne Riise, and one of the categories was a player with the same natural hair colour, then you could pick Paul Scholes but you couldn’t pick Lionel Messi for that particular category.

That’s just a silly example that be used, but hopefully you get the point.

The 11 categories can be fulfilled at any point during the draft but the category you are fulfilling must be defined at the time of selection.

[mikey_LFC]

Sent you a pm Mikey, but confirming i'm in here too.

Cool we’ve got 10 confirmed then. Hopefully we can get six or so more, then we can have four, four team groups.

[Crosby Nick]

Basically the XI you pick will all be players who fit into 11 defined categories. The exact players available in each category would be determined by the player you pick in the first round, your inspiration pick, and how they relate to the category.

For instance, if your inspiration pick was John Arne Riise, and one of the categories was a player with the same natural hair colour, then you could pick Paul Scholes but you couldn’t pick Lionel Messi for that particular category.

That’s just a silly example that be used, but hopefully you get the point.

The 11 categories can be fulfilled at any point during the draft but the category you are fulfilling must be defined at the time of selection.

Cool, thanks. I wouldn’t have to pick 11 ridiculously one footed players then?!

[Draex]

Cool, thanks. I wouldn’t have to pick 11 ridiculously one footed players then?!

Scholes would prefer two feetsworth of toes please.

[mikey_LFC]

Cool, thanks. I wouldn’t have to pick 11 ridiculously one footed players then?!

Haha, I picked the example as I assumed nobody would want to use him!

[Sheer Magnetism]

Cheers for the invite but it looks quite complicated. Happy to vote once the teams are done though!

[tubby]

Premise seems a bit sus to me but I'm in.  Been too long.

[Drinks Sangria]

Perhaps it’s just because I’m getting stupider because I’m getting older, or my attention span has been decimated by the advent of smartphones, but I haven’t followed at all what this draft is.

And for that reason, I’m in.

[mikey_LFC]

Could do with recruiting 4 more in for the draft before it starts? Anyone know if anyone who would be up for this?

Will start after the basketball draft, so probably the start of July i think.

[Betty Blue]

Could do with recruiting 4 more in for the draft before it starts? Anyone know if anyone who would be up for this?

Will start after the basketball draft, so probably the start of July i think.

Have you PMed all the usual suspects? I usually look through the previous footy drafts and send seductive love letters to them all.

Not sure I'll be around as much by beginning of July, but we'll see. Work is usually busier at the beginning of the month for me.

[Samie]

I've sent out PM's mate, we'll see who turns up. 

[PoetryInMotion]

Still can't follow what this is about. Will the categories change for every pick?

If so, why did Nick say he has to pick 11 one-footed players? If that's a category (based on the footedness of the selected player), he would have to pick only one one- footed/left footed player and the category for next player would change?

Edit: he said he wouldn't. Cool. Still can someone clarify?

[mikey_LFC]

Still can't follow what this is about. Will the categories change for every pick?

If so, why did Nick say he has to pick 11 one-footed players? If that's a category (based on the footedness of the selected player), he would have to pick only one one- footed/left footed player and the category for next player would change?

Edit: he said he wouldn't. Cool. Still can someone clarify?

Yeah it’s 11 separate categories. Not 11 criteria that need to apply to all players haha.

And it’ll be 11 categories posted at the start of the draft so you can pick from any of the categories in each round. I think that’ll help create more strategy to the draft.

[Betty Blue]

Still can't follow what this is about. Will the categories change for every pick?

If so, why did Nick say he has to pick 11 one-footed players? If that's a category (based on the footedness of the selected player), he would have to pick only one one- footed/left footed player and the category for next player would change?

Edit: he said he wouldn't. Cool. Still can someone clarify?

As far as I can tell, it's basically a shopping list draft. See here -

https://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=341005.0

Where instead of all jumping off from the same player, we all (secretly) choose one player and then the categories are revealed afterwards. Then we draft as normal linking our player to each category while having no idea who else is likely to steal your players.

It's a tricky one as you can't do any research in advance for the best player to choose as your jumping point and you won't be able to start on your shortlist of players until after round 1. That's if I've understood the draft right 

[Hazell]

Could do with recruiting 4 more in for the draft before it starts? Anyone know if anyone who would be up for this?

Will start after the basketball draft, so probably the start of July i think.

Don't think I'll be able to do this now mate given we're probably not gonna start for a few days. Be in for the next one hopefully!

[mikey_LFC]

As far as I can tell, it's basically a shopping list draft. See here -

https://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=341005.0

Where instead of all jumping off from the same player, we all (secretly) choose one player and then the categories are revealed afterwards. Then we draft as normal linking our player to each category while having no idea who else is likely to steal your players.

It's a tricky one as you can't do any research in advance for the best player to choose as your jumping point and you won't be able to start on your shortlist of players until after round 1. That's if I've understood the draft right 

Yep exactly right. The reason I don’t want to reveal the categories is because I want people to have to do more drafting on the fly, having set the basis for their draft in having chosen their player.

I’d also note, that although the initial picks will be done first, they won’t be secret to everyone else throughout the draft, so by knowing other people’s draft criteria, it should help people draft more strategically, since they’d also know where they might be able to steal someone else’s picks and where they should theoretically have a free run at a player.

[mikey_LFC]

Don't think I'll be able to do this now mate given we're probably not gonna start for a few days. Be in for the next one hopefully!

No worries. Let me know if that changes at all. Still don’t have an exact date for it starting, since it’s really just about when the basketball one concludes.

[mikey_LFC]

Don’t know what people think, but I’m wondering whether to say that the inspiration picks can be anyone except players who’ve played for Liverpool? There could still be Liverpool players picked in the draft after that but it would limit the teams being too Liverpool centric. We could go the other way, but think this would make for a more fun concept.

[Crosby Nick]

Still can't follow what this is about. Will the categories change for every pick?

If so, why did Nick say he has to pick 11 one-footed players? If that's a category (based on the footedness of the selected player), he would have to pick only one one- footed/left footed player and the category for next player would change?

Edit: he said he wouldn't. Cool. Still can someone clarify?

Draft rule #1 - don’t listen to what I say FFS.

[PoetryInMotion]

Draft rule #1 - don’t listen to what I say FFS.

 

[PoetryInMotion]

Yep exactly right. The reason I don’t want to reveal the categories is because I want people to have to do more drafting on the fly, having set the basis for their draft in having chosen their player.

I’d also note, that although the initial picks will be done first, they won’t be secret to everyone else throughout the draft, so by knowing other people’s draft criteria, it should help people draft more strategically, since they’d also know where they might be able to steal someone else’s picks and where they should theoretically have a free run at a player.

Thanks Mikey and BettyBlue. I'm in.

[Hazell]

No worries. Let me know if that changes at all. Still don’t have an exact date for it starting, since it’s really just about when the basketball one concludes.

Sound mate. No doubt I'll be following it and commenting on which players everyone should have picked.

[mikey_LFC]

Think the basketball draft is about to enter the final soon. Anyone know of some last people we could add in to try and make a nice round 16 people?

[Samie]

I've sent PM's mate. 

[mikey_LFC]

I've sent PM's mate. 

Thanks!

[NICHOLLS]

My friend Josh is registering / signing up this weekend, please reserve a spot for him

[mikey_LFC]

My friend Josh is registering / signing up this weekend, please reserve a spot for him

Will do.

[Sheer Magnetism]

I'm out of this one but I'll vote when the teams are in.

[vivabobbygraham]

Have you PMed all the usual suspects? I usually look through the previous footy drafts and send seductive love letters to them all.

I've never received one you slag

[mikey_LFC]

I've never received one you slag

Would you like to take part?

[Draex]

Would you like to take part?

Send him a pm

[Betty Blue]

I've never received one you slag

Blame Samie