Steve Nicol's MLS Perfect XI- Four Four Two

[Bill Urban]

June Four Four Two, My Perfect XI by Steve Nicol, MLS edition, which in itself is kind of nice. Predictably, many of the players that played in MLS and England both get picked, McBride being one notable exception, Friedel another.

Steve's Side:

3-5-2

Tim Howard
Steve Ralston
Eddie Pope
Ryan Nelson(sic)
Carlos Bocanegra
Hristo Stoichkov
John Harkes
Peter Nowak
Carlos Valderrama
Landon Donovan
Mo Johnston

Subs:

Marco Etcheverry
Jaime Moreno

Coach:

Bruce Arena

[Sandon Mibut]

So, how do ya line that team up? I think you’d have to go 3-5-2 but I wouldn’t be too comfortable with the tracking back of my wide mids.

Obviously, Nelsen is your sweeper with Los on the left and Pope right.
Harkes and Nowak play behind Pibe centrally in MF. Ralston is one of the flank mids, preferably on the right.

That leaves MoJo, Lawnchair and Leg-breaker, two of whom play up top and one of whom has to play on the flank. Stoitchkov has the best left foot and he loves to drift wide and whip in balls anyway but even in his prime he played NO defense and that makes him a liability at left mid.

Or you could play Lawnchair on the right, where he’s played some for the Nats, and move Ralston to the right and pair Stoitchkov up top with Johnston. Even though it doesn’t put make the best use of Donovan, I think I’d go this route.

At the end of the day, Stoitchkov is still gonna drift wide a lot anyway so it would be a pretty modified 3-5-2 so I might keep Ralston on the right and have Donovan be the left mid on paper but have him play centrally a lot, just under MoJo and have Harkes cover the left flank defensively.