I don't blame you for conveniently forgetting Fernandinho in all your deliberations and how he would impact on all the fancy stuff you envisage from an unbalanced midfield. Nothing on the left to cover Van Aanholt, Bale and Hudson Odoi marauding down there. On Bale, he was playing LM or LWB for that season so my strength on the left is palpable and you have no answer to it. Dismissing Hudson Odoi as overhyped is a cheap shot forgetting he is also an England international. Richarlison played in the final of the Copa America and they will stretch your overworked back four. The average Sanchez who was barely trusted by Poch in the big games unless injuries forced him into it and Materazzi who was not 'great' that season for the mighty blues but error strewn and ill disciplined are your achilles heel. He would be off by half time.
I'm surprised, as I've always considered you well informed and astute, by your reluctance to appreciate the merits of De Bruyne as a right back in my team. I can only put it down to "methinks he doth protest too much" syndrome, a prerequisite in drafts. Nice try but the football aficionado's in this draft will see it as a masterstroke and a game changer with said Belgian and Richarlison exposing an inexperienced Tielemans not yet up to speed with the British game. Poor old Masch will be having to put out fires all over the pitch. Then the big Drog comes on and absolutely rinses your two centre backs, begging for Pogba to come on and take control!!!! Good luck with that, mate.
It's close but no cigar, Mikey, my friend. A close game but Drogba gets the winner, as he always does, late on.
Haha love it!
Fernandinho is great but is covering too many players who don’t put a defensive shift in, unlike in the City side he’s in.
And nothing protecting the left? What, other than the trio of Mascherano, Montoya and Sanchez with a Wijnaldum press in front. Anybody who gets past Gini has Mascherano to deal with and that’s a brick wall for most.
If you push Bale out into left mid, as you seem to be suggesting, you leave Fernandinho exposed, like we were to central breaks just last night in the Super Cup with Henderson and Milner operating close to the flanks. Gini and Suarez would have a field day.
Hudson-Odoi has played just over one game for England, I think Dave Nugent tops him to date! And he wasn’t getting near the Chelsea line up until he threw his toys out the pram. Getting kept out by Hazard, Pedro and my man, Willian.
Richarlison’s done well too, but if you ignore age and focus on quality I know which Brazilian winger Id rather have out of him and Lucas Moura.
You also keep conveniently forgetting you’re starting Mitrovic until you fall behind as your tactics dictate, so mentioning Drogba assumes you agree that you’ll “fall behind early” in this one. At that point we can sit protect the back four and pick you off on the counter.
Mascherano will cope just fine as Tielemans showed he can be outstanding against top opposition at the end of last year conceding only 1 across three successive games against Chelsea, City and Arsenal - the one being that Kompany thunderbolt.
All this attacking play and width gives loads of scope for Suarez to tear Lascelles to shreds, time and time again.
You’ll need to go long as any passing from the back will be terrorised by Suarez, Willian, Moura and Gini. Four players who’ve shown their ability to pressurise defenders into submission. If they get the ball through that it’ll be loose and out of control allowing Mascherano and Tielermans to sweep in and take back control of possession. So then you can try and go long which plays into the hands of Materazzi and Sanchez with Marco taking the lead on headers and Sanchez sweeping with his pace.
De Bruyne is great but is a tackler on par with Scholes and isn’t blessed for pace. He also doesn’t know the position at all which should see him playing a poor line that can be exposed. Van Aanholt lacks discipline that could also be exposed.
You’ve got great players and quality in your side. It’s definitely up there with the best in the draft, but you’re just unfortunate that your weaknesses play straight into my teams strengths!