UF Losing the Plot: What Is Your Best XI?

Normally a photo would go here, but there's no way I can top the last two.

Seeing as how we are in the middle of the Interlull (tm) and are desperate for any sort of fun and/or interesting content, we here at UF decided to put together a little poll:

Pick your best starting XI. Any player in the world, criteria is who do you want in your team right now. Any formation, but the lineup has to work (i.e. you could put them on the field now). Essentially, if you were playing fantasy football, what would your lineup look like?

Check out our responses after the jump, along with a little bit of commentary thrown in for good measure. And, of course, give us your picks in the ol’ comments box.


Precious Roy

Julio Cesar - Keeper
Gael Clichy - Left Back
EBJT - Center Back
Vidic - Center Back
Sagna - Right Back
Michael Essien - Defensive Mid
Cristiano Ronaldo - Left Winger
Lionel Messi - Right Winger
Kaka - Attacking Mid
David VIlla - Striker
Alexander Pato - Striker

We get a sub? Ibrahimovich.... just to annoy someone I'm sure.


Spectator

GK: Casillas
LB: Evra
CB: Puyol
CB: Ferdinand
RB: D. Alves
DM: Essien
LM: C. Ronaldo
CM: Kaka
RM: Ribery
#10: Messi
S: Torres

Spectator: I was tempted to leave out C-Ron and include Ibrahimovic instead, but Ronaldo does things that no other player can do and he still has room to improve.
Lingering Bursitis: "Do things no other players can do." You mean suck d*ck for cash?
Spectator: I was thinking make passes and get past defenders, but yeah suck d*ck too.


The Fan’s Attic

Torres - Messi
Gerrard - Xavi - Mascherano - Ronaldo
Lahm - Vidic - Puyol - Alves
Buffon

Mascherano would be replaced by Essien if he were 100% healthy and had played all season. Alves is the one in Spain not the one in Russia. I almost put Ibra up top with Torres and Messi on the wing and sliding Gerrard to the middle for Mascherano. Just didn't think a Torres - Ibrahimovic partnership would work well.

Revised Squad. I think this squad could survive without a true center mid....

Torres - Messi
Ribery - Gerrard - Mascherano - Ronaldo
Lahm - Vidic - Puyol - Alves
Buffon


Lingering Bursitis

GK - Casillas
LB - Maicon (normally an RB, he can play both sides well)
CB - Puyol
CB - Ferdinand
RB - Dani Alves
DM - Mascherano
LM - Ribery
RM - Messi
AM - Gerrard
ST - Torres
ST - Fredi Kanoute (the guy is in ridiculous form, so why not?)

The Fan’s Attic: Really, you can justify leaving C Ronaldo off this list?
LB: He's my sub. He's been off the boil for long stretches this year, and honestly, having watched all those "big" games with LFC and the CL games against inter, I wouldn't trust him on that biggest stage. Sorry. Also, I am pleased I managed to restrain myself to just 3 LFC players.


The NY Kid

Here is my vaunted 4-5-2 formation:

GK: Casillas
DEF: Lahm, Puyol, Clichy, Sagna
MID: Essien, Messi, Ribery, Kaka
ST: Torres, Eto'o



Bigus Dickus

Ok people. Here is Bigus’ World 11...

--------------------------Casillas--------------------
Corluka-------- Vidic------ Ferdinand----Zhirkov
Ronaldo-------Gerrard-------Kaka--------Simao
--------------------------Messi----------------------
--------------------------Torres---------------------
Bench of 7: Villa, Rooney, Silva, Fabregas, Gago, Abidal. Ribery.

Bigus: Ok. I stuck to players in their rightful positions so I get to include my bench. If i'd played middies anywhere across the middle, not in their position then Gago would have trumped Simao. But the above is how teams work, so went that route. Just missed out...Terry, Capdevila, Robben. Buffon..
The NY Kid: My nan could beat Vidic [Ed: You can guess where the discussion went from there.]


The Likely Lad

The Likely Lad: Does it have to be best XI? Or can we do XI we'd like to see. Obviously it'd be a great XI, but let's say I wanted to pick Modric... he's not the best, but with the team I put around him, they could be...
Lingering Bursitis: As Spectator said, pick "Your best XI". Make of that what you will.
The Fan’s Attic: If we're going to go the Likely Lad’s route, I think I'll put myself in at left back. That's a side I would most like to see.

Iker
Sergio Ramos -- Rio -- Terry -– Evra
Mascherano
Messi -- Modric -- Ronaldo
Rooney
Torres

The Likely Lad: Solid back 4, beastly def mid, basically four strikers, with Rooney playing deep with Modric. A bit small yea, but we'd score more than we gave up.
The NY Kid: That’s quite EPL-centric.
[Ed: Whereupon the Likely Lad’s decision to include Rooney is mocked, leading to a discussion of Max Bretos and the Setanta puppets that I have chosen to omit.]


Sven

Casillas
Ramos, Ferdinand, Puyol, Evra
De Rossi, Silva, Gerrard, Mascherano
Messi, Torres

Sven: I tried to inject some fresh faces into the discussion via my back four... but I'm more than willing to admit fault on Ramos.
The Fan’s Attic: I'm not sure it matters because wikipedia says Silva can play anywhere.
Sven: If that's the case, I suppose I could have them swap. Or drop one for Sneijder... or Ronaldo. I do value wingers who can play on either flank.


Ian

GK - Buffon
D - Lahm, Puyol, Vidic, Sagna
M - Messi, Fabergas, Senna, Ronaldo
F - Villa, Ibrahimovic

This team is probably a little leaky in the back but it would be pretty sweet going forward.


ü75

Casillas
Vidic, Puyol, Sagna, Lahm
Ronaldo, Essien, Kaka, De Rossi
Messi
Drogba


Ian: Given the fancypants nature of everyone's squads here, I wonder if I should resubmit a team of hard men.
The Fan’s Attic: I always wonder if you have that much talent on a team, whether it would be possible to actually succeed, or if you would need two gameballs.
Ian: Ok... the all "world class players who actually tackle" XI (it's a 4-5-1 obviously):

Cech
Chielinni, Marquez, Materazzi, Zambrotta
Mascherano, Essien, Gattuso, Sneijder, Gerrard
Drogba

Bigus: Drogba tackles? He tackles the floor sometimes.
The Likely Lad: Thats my bench! Probably hurt my first XI in training...
[Ed: Which led to a spirited discussion about the French and the 1986 World Cup.]


Precious Roy: Seeing how the Power Poll is basically us rearranging the same 12 teams, pretty surprised by the variety here.
Lingering Bursitis: I'm not as surprised. Here we're all going a lot more on personal preference than the cold, hard fact of "form" and Wins/Losses. That said, everyone but me is loving Ronaldo.
Precious Roy: Next, can we get a 'fro XI? Assou-Ekotto, Fellaini, the other Ferdinand...

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Behold The Power of Democracy!

Voting rules. Ahh... see what I did there?

Anyway, this was mentioned in Backpasses (see post below) but The Offside is asking for your input. They want to know which is the most exciting league in Europe.

We're mostly EPL over here, with a smattering of France and the Scots but we're actively trying to consume more Italy and Spain (Mmmmm... Spain).

And frankly we all should. Why? Because Spain has been awesome this season. Easily the two most exciting matches I've seen this season were the 3-3 Valencia v. Villarreal tilt, and this past weekend's 4-3 win by Atlético over a suddenly shaken Barcelona side.

On top of that, having less emotional attachment seems to make watching, uhm... what's the word? Enjoyable. That's it. Watching Spanish football is kind of fun. They score even (fucking Arsenal).

We're not big believers in the "scoring = excitement" premise, but the EPL does lag behind Spain by about a half goal per match.

More interesting, the EPL is barely ahead of Italy, which gets abused for its supposed boring and defensive football. That link above takes some going through, but if you scroll down you'll see the current scoring hierarchy goes: Germany > Spain > England > Italy > France.

Our cursory theory on the low EPL output is threefold: A) The relegation battle is so tight with so many teams, they they are playing to not concede anything to anyone. A 0-0 draw is a fantastic result for a bottom-table team. B) Arsenal alone is responsible for this low average scoring. C) There is no need to explain, this season's average is pretty much in line with the scoring averages for the last 3-4 EPL seasons.

Anyway, go vote (*cough* Spain *cough*), it's your duty as a Netizen. And if you don't, the terrorists win.

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How Bad Is Too Bad?

The UF teletype machine was busy yesterday with a vigorous discussion about the watching soccer. The question is: What is the lowest level of soccer you can stomach watching?

Will you watch MLS? How about USL? Do you support your local team by watching like Greg Lalas declares you must? Are you a soccer junkie who watches whatever (USL-2, South African soccer) and whenever on Sopcast? Or are you a soccer snob only watching EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga or Serie A?

Read more on "How Bad Is Too Bad?"...