Who are your guys starting 11's of the future? Just make a starting 11 of players you think will make it big or if they already have made it big, stay consistently good. Only rule is they must be 23 years old or younger. My team: GK - Rene Adler RB - Gonzalo Castro CB's - Micah Richards & Raul Albiol LB - Gael Clichy RW - Lionel Messi CM's - Cesc Fabregas & Ibrahim Afellay LW - Nordin Amrabat ST's - Sergio Aguero & Karim Benzema
I have a problem with the eligibility criteria. What that age enables you to do is create an XI that could easily contain half of the players you would normally expect to find in most current XIs (at least from an attacking pespective). It is far too broad. Surely a starting XI of the future should contain young prospects not some of the best players currently active? I suppose someone will make the claim that they would still be starting in the future but it depends entirely on what your intention originally was. To quickly prove a point you included: Castro over Ramos Richards over Mertesacker (to use a German example) Afellay over Anderson or Hamsik Amrabat over countless options including some guy called Ronaldo
Why do people continue to think that Micah Richards is some sort of wonder defender. He is awful as a central defender. He has no positional sense, he can't mark and can't read the game. He is not a footballer, just a lump of muscle that can run fairly fast. Anyway, for the team. Under 23? GK: ManuelNeuer RB: Rafael CB: Jonny Evans CB: Slobodan Rajkovic LB: Clichy RM: Lionel Messi DM: Ever Banega AM: Jack Wilshere LM: Cristiano Ronaldo ST: Mario Balotelli ST: Alexandre Pato
Yeah, I see what you mean, when I looked up ages of these players I thought the same thing. Shall we change it to 20 & under?
20 still includes the likes of Aguero, Benzema, Anderson, Higuain, Di Maria, Evans, Richards, Banega, etc. I'd be tempted to lower it to under-20 only so teams could only contain teenagers but it is your thread.
You can't really seperate Benzema, Aguero, Pato, Bojan or Balotelli to be honest. On another day I might have said Bezema instead of Pato, Bojan instead of Balotelii, ect. Judging who is the best out of them 5 would make a good thread in itself. I still love Pato though.
True. Yes it is but I should have done more research before actually making it. Rule Change: Players must be under 20. My new team: GK: Sergio Asenjo (Real Valladolid) RB: Sergei Parshivlyuk (Spartak Moskva) CBs: Breno (Bayern Munchen) & Neven Subotic (Borussia Dortmund) LB: Gareth Bale (Tottenham) RM: Theo Walcott (Arsenal) CM: Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal) LM: Toni Kroos (Bayern Munchen) Fwds: Bojan Krkic (Barcelona), Alexandre Pato (Milan), Giovani Dos Santos (Tottenham)
Aguero and Benzema are on an different level. They have proven that they are top class players and done so consistently at the highest level. The other three have not moved beyond being talented youngsters with a lot of potential yet.
Agreed. They are also more important to their respective teams than any of those other players. Side note: Everyone check out the bicycle kick goal Aguero scored yesterday.
------------- Pato -- Piatti - Sulejmani - Walcott ----- Possebon - Zuculini Fabio - Rajkovic - Subotic - Rafael ------------ Asenjo
He would not get in ahead of either Piatti or Sulejmani. I had considered Marin on the left and Piatti on the right but I felt the latter was better operating on the left side. Although since Sulejmani turned 20 years old 2 days ago, which I had forgotten about, then I suppose I could include Marin after all. I do not rate Bale defensively at this stage and given the impact the lesser rated twin has made I felt I might as well take a punt on Fabio. I cannot wait to see the two of them in the same side. Hopefully this ridiculous Evra ban might see him get a chance providing he has fully recovered from his shoulder injury.
This thread is not about how proven they are at the highest level or how good they are now. It is the starting level of the future, and I think that Pato and Balotelli can match and get better than both Aguero and Benzema.
------------------------- Sergio Asenjo (19) --------------------------- ----------------- Breno (19) ---- Mamadou Sakho (18) ---------- Rafael (18) ---------------------------------------- Gareth Bale (19) ------------------------- Jack Wilshere (16) --------------------------- Theo Walcott (19) - Toni Kroos (18) ---- Marko Marin (19) ---------- Alexandre Pato (19) ---- Bojan Krkic (18) ----------- Substitutes: David De Gea (18); Slobodan Rajkovic (19), Fábio (18); Aaron Ramsey (18), Giovani dos Santos (19); Carlos Vela (19), Mario Balotelli (18).
Jack Wilshere is an attacking midfielder. Swap him and Kroos and that will be a great team. Also, get rid of Bale, he is awful. Does any one no if that Nigerian fella at Sporting Lisbon is any good and worthy of this thread? USA fans. Is Charles Renken of the standard of the players above? I have heard great things about him.
I haven't heard anything about him but I have a friend that is a keeper for FC Porto's U-19 team and he is only 15. He is an up-and-comer, look for him in a few years at FC Porto.
They will have a hard task reaching the current level of Aguero and Benzema and that is before we take into account any improvements that the latter duo could make. Required rule change. As for Marin his position is the most stacked.
He doesn't have great football knowledge defensively. He is not particularly strong or fast, a necessity among modern full backs. His attacking instincts are too strong. He should get forward less and concentrate more on defending. His attacking skills themselvses are incredibly overrated. He doesn't have the dribbling skills to beat a man, his crosses hit the first man more often than not and can't play the 'give and go', one touch football that the truly great full backs like Evra does. He also hasn't developed in two years and doesn't look like developing further.
It's true on the paper, but I've the impression ever when he's playing in the centre midfield or including in a side in the League Cup he's going to mature more like a mixed midfielder.
I hope not. Only England could and would turn a brilliant number 10 like him into a rounded midfielder. I would be very pleased if he never tracked a runner or made a tackle in his life. We need a brilliant creative player like him in the England side. We have enough players like Jenas and Barry who do the mixed job, we need our creator. I think Pato has more natural talent than both, and therefore has the highest potential. You're right though, it will be very difficult.
I dunno about that. Aguero at 16/17 was already doing things that were out of this world. His natural talent is incredible. Check out this top 10 goals video from his time at Independiente. This was all between the ages of 15-17. Some of those goals are ridiculous for a kid that age. You could already tell he was going to be special. [YOUTUBE]_k1QKGafthc[/YOUTUBE]