Stage 2 Picks babaorum - Josef Bican Baggio in Turin - No Pick benni... - Diego Maradona Bestie - Romario El Mata - Ronaldo La-Maquina - Silvio Piola nicephoras - Alfredo Di Stefano Sammer's Hammer - Eusebio Stud83 - Paolo Maldini thebigman - Ronaldo Twenty26Six - Nilton Santos Vasu - Lothar Matthaus Stage 2 Blocks babaorum - Ferenc Puskas Baggio in Turin - No Block benni... - Paolo Maldini Bestie - Ronaldo Breitner'sWig - Paolo Maldini cr7torossi - Ferenc Puskas El Mata - Lothar Matthaus Excape Goat - Eusebio frasermc - Frank Rijkaard Karloski - Frank Rijkaard La-Maquina - Gabriel Batistuta Lucas Gomes - Diego Maradona Michaelf7777777 - Lothar Matthaus nicephoras - Eusebio PDG1978 - Alfredo Di Stefano Peru FC - Eusebio Polemarch - Ferenc Puskas Sammer's Hammer - Alfredo Di Stefano soccernutter - Ferenc Puskas Stud83 - Diego Maradona thebigman - Thierry Henry Twenty26Six - Silvio Marzolini Vasu - Obdulio Varela
Stage 3 Picks Baggio in Turin - Roberto Ayala benni... - Alfredo Di Stefano El Mata - Thierry Henry nicephoras - Eusebio Sammer's Hammer - Ronaldo Stud83 - Duncan Edwards thebigman - Roberto Ayala Vasu - Obdulio Varela Stage 3 Blocks babaorum - Gordon Banks Baggio in Turin - Lothar Matthaus benni... - Ferenc Puskas Bestie - No Block Breitner'sWig - Paul Breitner cr7torossi - Eusebio El Mata - Diego Maradona Excape Goat - Diego Maradona frasermc - Diego Maradona Karloski - Cristiano Ronaldo La-Maquina - Eusebio Lucas Gomes - Alfredo Di Stefano Michaelf7777777 - Obdulio Varela nicephoras - Paolo Maldini PDG1978 - Ferenc Puskas Peru FC - Lothar Matthaus Polemarch - No Block Sammer's Hammer - Diego Maradona soccernutter - Diego Maradona Stud83 - Eusebio thebigman - No Block Twenty26Six - Diego Maradona Vasu - Ferenc Puskas
I expected the stage 3 blocks to be much like that, full of the superstar names in the attacking positions. Not that Varela isn't a superstar, but I genuinely expected it to go through. Oh well.
Nicephoras. His GK was a sheep so I thought he would go for either Banks or Jennings to replace him. But he went for Eusebio instead.
Then, I nominated a blocked player. My nominations were: 1) Ruud Gullit 2) Socrates 3) Dennis Bergkamp
Crazy third round. Going to three rounds was the smartest move ever, lanman. The 5 round finale was too easy if you played it correctly.
I realised actually that instead of blocking Maradona and picking Wilkes, if I'd done the opposite, I would have drafted Maradona on pick 1. Surprising. Although I did block him on that pick just in case others were saving their Maradona blocks or leaving it to others - I thought there was a slight chance someone else might sneak him though. Kasparov or some great Chess player would maybe have picked Maradona and blocked Laudrup then followed up with blocks on Piola and Ronaldo or something like that . Nicephoras did try Di Stefano on pick 2 but someone else had the block covered so mine was 'wasted' in theory. Or maybe not even Kasparov could work the picks out as it's impossible! Like I say, I was just generally playing safe and blocking off the major players, like soccernutter did and between us we'd have nearly stopped attempts on them - others did block them off completely I think. It would have been harsh to aim to stop certain drafters in their tracks, but blocking Laudrup, Piola and Ronaldo or something like that would have been perfect tactically in my position I suppose, if those were the calls I made (I might have guessed La Maquina was after an Italian but which one on which pick would be a tricky call!). Anyway, I like my team and wanted Wilkes (tried him in round 1 but Vasu blocked me). But if I'd got Maradona I'd have had to have a think about my setup with him and Cruyff together! Probably first choice would have been to stick Rocheteau up front with Kempes and have Cruyff and Maradona coming from behind them in a 4-2-2-2; Johan and Diego with the task of playing in unison/combining with each other, or at least separately carving up the opposing defences for the forwards. With both happy to play alongside each other and in form like this it could have been brilliant: Or it could have been a disaster, when they run into each other and start arguing
I actually thought of drafting Maradona too. I do not know if he could play on the left behind Cubillas. I did not know what to do with Dirceu or Julinho. As I mentioned before, Pele never won a draft before. And I do not know if Maradona ever wins one before. Rivelino at least played on the left false wing position before. And I did not take the blocking seriously. I blocked C.Ronaldo on my 1st attempt because he was going to be my second pick. I intended to draft Gento for my third attempt if C.Ronaldo failed. After I took Rivelino, I started to think about the great players.
Ernst Needham -one of my picks- is probably somewhat unknown to many so here is how writer Alfred Gibson described him in 1906: "There is one thing which has made Earnest Needham stand out of the common run of halves; he is neither a constructive nor a destructive half-back alone; he is both at once. One moment you will see him falling back to the defence of his own goal, or checking the speedy rush of his wing; the next, he is up with his forwards, feeding them to a nicety, and always making the best of every opening. Where he gets his pace from is a mystery. He never seems to be racing, yet he must be moving at racing pace; he never seems to be exhausted, yet in a big game he is practically doing three men's work." "This is one of the secrets of his greatness for very seldom when he has the ball is he deprived of it, whilst the accuracy of his wing passes, and the telling force of his punches straight across the field to an unprotected wing, spell danger to any kind of defence." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ernest_Needham_(ca._1901).jpg
Another of my 'unknown' picks is Chelsea's first oversea's star : the Great Dane' Nils Middelboe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Middelboe
@comme I have to say that your 100 greatest X players of all time lists were quite helpful to find these two particular players.
I look up those lists to ensure I am not missing someone very often during the all-time drafts. Arguably the best such compilation on the internet so kudos to @comme Not sure whether I have already mentioned it here but I am looking to start a second premier league/CL era (so approx the last 25 years) sheep draft soon. Anyone interested in signing up, please do so here - https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/pl-era-sheep-draft-main-thread.1945486/page-85
I would like to join, but I will be traveling. In fact, I probably will delay the judging part of this draft. I will be back on April 26th. I will see if I can do it with my smart phone.
@frasermc - don't worry about that line! My first attempt also had two lines I thought I'd deleted around Cafu! The website has changed a bit and it took me several efforts to produce my line-up (I got the hang of it but preferred to write my backup formations directly on Big Soccer). It seems we now click on the line option then click where it starts and finishes for each player. I can understand your formation anyway, no problem.
Close. But it's actually a month by month graph of Tottenham's attempted Champions League placing for next season.
That's six tactics in - can I get a commitment from the rest as to when they will have their's up. I don't want to set an unrealistic deadline, but I don't want this to drag on.
Honestly, I've got a busy weekend....so not until after Easter weekend (Tuesday onwards). I think I've got a real shot at 1st this year...so don't want to rush it.