Has there been a better crop than 1987? Use #MyYear11 - UEFA Champions League - News - UEFA.com 76 of Ronaldo, Seedorf, Ruud Van, Kluivert, Inzaghi ,Ballack, Shevchenko, Totti, Nesta
This would be my XI for 1987: Incredible depth in the forward position with Benzema, Pedro and Cavani on the bench. Very strong midfield as well, and a very strong centreback pairing in front of a goalkeeper who can be unbeatable on his day. Very thin in the fullback positions though. But nevertheless I am struggling to think of a year that can create a better starting XI.
Maybe nostalgia but I think I might be able to find a better one if my thinking cap is on long enough. I don't think it will be from my own birth year of 1978 to be fair though - I can have Buffon in goal and I guess Lampard in midfield would get a place and Carvalho in defence but I'll need to think a while to complete a team I think for that one too. I like the thinking with 76, but I guess I might be going back further eventually, to find my nomination.
Well, a fair comparison would be to look for years with players standing out at international level for club and/or country. That is the only way for non-biased comparisons.
To complete a 1978 side (not putting forwards as my nomination or stating better than 1987 though) - maybe can be slightly improved with extra thought or different options, but for example went more on prime form and gave the nod to Bridges who helped me win a Fantasy Football league, and nearly put in Rommedahl who entertained in the 2002 World Cup. Gianluigi Buffon; Carles Puyol, Rio Ferdinand, Ricardo Carvalho, Lucio; Dejan Stankovic; Frank Lampard, Juan Roman Riquelme; Yildiray Basturk; Miroslav Klose, Michael Bridges
Actually, no I think Eidur Gudjohnsen gets in probably - instead of Bridges I guess unless others came to mind for attack and I re-shuffled midfield. But to be fair I think Messi makes 1987 trump 1978 without too much thought required, even though the latter's defence is better (despite Lucio out of his main position).
Perhaps other options are a proper left back in Capdevila, Edman or Babayaro, or even putting Carragher there as he did ok early this century in that position. Further forwards maybe Drogba, or I might favour Saha alongside Klose, meaning Gudjohnsen in midfield with Lampard and Riquelme moved into the hole. Or Rommedahl and Kewell as wingers in a 4-2-3-1. But I'll stop there as it's still not really a contender I think!
Maybe 1946: Jurgen Croy; Robert Sara, Berti Vogts, Elias Figueroa, Wim Jansen; Henryk Kasperczak, Colin Bell; George Best, Rivelino, Dragan Dzajic; Pierano Prati.
1972 must be in the mix too I think: Gregory Coupet; Markus Babbel, Lilian Thuram, Jaap Stam, Christian Ziege; Luis Figo, Rui Costa, Pavel Nedved, Zinedine Zidane, Rivaldo; Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
Not to take the thread off track but thought it would be cool to compare these to teams picked from active players in the year concerned (generally based current form of the time but maybe tending to give the benefit of the doubt to greats to counter the advantage the 'born in the year' team has in terms of players being judged on best form/years). I'll come back to 1978, and make some sort of nominal attempt for 1946. But in a minute 1987 itself and first 1972.... Gordon Banks/Dino Zoff; Wim Suurbier, Franz Beckenbauer, Bobby Moore, Ruud Krol; Kazimierz Deyna, Johan Neeskens, Gunter Netzer; Jairzinho, Gerd Muller, Johan Cruyff. Active players seem to have the edge in direct comparison! Maybe some doubt re: 1972 form for some like Moore, while on that basis I think Deyna/Rui Costa was close as was Neeskens/Nedved maybe and perhaps Suurbier/Babbel for example.
This advantage is more than cancelled out by the advantage of the active group at a particular time coming from many different years of birth of course! So maybe the best hope for a 'year of birth' XI to be better is if as discussed (and I'm generally on the opposite side) in the 'has technique improved' thread the game really moves on substantially between eras - but anyway maybe people would prefer to compare these teams in relative terms anyway otherwise modern ones would have the advantage by default if that theory is believed by any of us to a big extent. Still sort of fun to compare though to see birth year XI's alongside teams of the year they were born in terms of active players, and to redress the balance a bit I'll try to pick the 1987 XI in a diamond like Milan05 did for the birth year XI: Rinat Dasaev; Manuel Amoros, Pietro Vierchowod, Franco Baresi, Antonio Cabrini; Lothar Matthaus; Michel, Carlos Valderamma; Ruud Gullit; Emilio Butragueno, Marco van Basten/Gary Lineker (Having to leave out Barnes and Futre given the formation). From Milan05's XI at least Messi and Fabregas get in I'm sure, even if they or others move position a bit.
Maradona should probably have been in that team sorry (originally had it in mind even if as a year it wasn't perfect for him I don't think from January to December). Perhaps Careca too even but I'll say just Maradona for Butragueno, though Messi might then displace him in the combined XI, while Gullit stays in maybe (1986 and probably 1988 I'd go the other way), and a proper striker too although Messi up front with Gullit would seem ok of course.
I completely forgot that Arturo Vidal was born in 1987. He gets in my team over Adra Turan for sure. And Jan Vertonghen gets in over Drenthe at left back.
Just to come back to this after some more thought, I think 1960 could be a major contender actually: Walter Zenga; Mauro Tassotti, Gary Gillespie, Franco Baresi, Andreas Brehme; Ivan Gudelj; Chris Waddle, Diego Maradona, Pierre Littbarski; Careca, Gary Lineker Other options include Belanov or Voller up front to add a bit more general movement outside the box for one of the strikers, Wouters or Bein as a second CM/DM so that Littbarski and Maradona would roam in front of them and I considered perhaps Le Roux as CB with Gillespie playing RB or Christofte at LB and Brehme at RB (but I guess Tassotti merits the place if his 1994 WC elbow isn't penalised!)
I have tried to list the best players by year of birth until 1988. After that I have my ideas but prefer to wait after those have reached the age of 30. Between brackets I put some alternatives, when I felt that way, which are not in order. 1940: Pele 1941: Moore 1942: Eusebio 1943: Rivera 1944: Jairzinho 1945: Beckenbauer 1946: Best 1947: Cruijff 1948: Eddie Gray 1949: Cubillas 1950: Caszely (McGrain, Tresor, Yorath, Lato, Bettega, Ondrus, Brindisi) 1951: Keegan (Breitner) 1952: Blokhin 1953: Zico 1954: Kempes (Leo Junior, Tjorborn Nilsson) 1955: Platini 1956: Rossi (Boniek, Brady) 1957: Bryan Robson 1958: Hugo Sanchez 1959: Preud'homme (Schuster, McGrath, Chalana, Ruben Paz) 1960: Maradona 1961: Matthaus 1962: Gullit 1963: Schmeichel (Koeman, Molby, Barnes, Butragueno) 1964: Van Basten (M. Laudrup) 1965: Blanc (Hagi) 1966: Romario (Stoichkov, Cantona, Weah) 1967: Baggio 1968: Maldini (Suker, Djorkaeff) 1969: Bergkamp 1970: Shearer 1971: Roy Keane (Litmanen, Larsson) 1972: Zidane (Thuram, Nedved, Rivaldo, Figo, Rui Costa) 1973: Giggs (Roberto Carlos, Pires, Davids, Cannavaro) 1974: Del Piero (Scholes) 1975: Beckham (Juninho, Veron) 1976: Ronaldo 1977: Henry (Raul) 1978: Buffon (Lampard, Drogba, Rio Ferdinand) 1979: Pirlo (Forlan) 1980: Ronaldinho (Xavi) 1981: Ibrahimovic 1982: Kaka (Cech) 1983: Yaya Toure (Ribery, Lahm, Dani Alves, Van Persie) 1984: Iniesta (Robben) 1985: Cristiano Ronaldo 1986: David Silva (Neuer, Ramos, Godin, Falcao, Kompany, Dzeko) 1987: Messi 1988: Lewandowski (Aguero, Alexis, Ozil, Marcelo, Busquets) After this I prefer to stop but for now I tend to think 1991 and 1992 look stronger than 1989 and - more so - 1990. 1948 is one of the weakest years I think. Main alternatives are Anastasi, Clemence, Delio Onnis, Colin Todd, McFarland, Koncilia, Haan, Sparwasser, Tomaszewski, Van Beveren, Geels, Stan Bowles, Panenka (who is actually an underrated player), Ancheta, Dietz. However, it can also be the case that Best et al. simply overshadowed the years that came after them, both at the time itself and in the decades after. There is no objective standard to say it is a weak crop. Anastasi had a strong start of his career (he was the first of his year to be included in Glanville's 'World Football Handbook') but then suffered from successive injuries after the age of 25. 1950 has also Hartford, Currie, Ruben Ayala, Szarmach, Humberto Coelho, Nelinho. Not mentioned in this thread is the year 1966 with Romario, Stoichkov, Cantona, Weah, Savicevic, Balakov, Zola, Yeboah, Scifo, Sheringham, Futre. Great depth there. The more so when one contrast it with 1968, when there is not much choice. 1969, the summer of love, is better again with also Batistuta, Redondo, Kahn, Lizerazu, Brian Laudrup, Mihaijlovic, Prosinecki, Leonardo and other folks.
On youtube there are a few of those attempts and discussions. I'll show the most watched/liked one and highlight the differences with mine. 'Footchampion' (1.8 million views, over 19000 likes) 1940: Pelé 1941: Moore 1942: Eusebio 1943: Rivera 1944: Carlos Alberto (my pick: Jairzinho) 1945: Beckenbauer 1946: Best 1947: Cruijff 1948: Clemence (my pick: Eddie Gray) 1949: Shilton (my pick: Cubillas) 1950: Bettega (my pick: Caszely - maybe I was wrong here yes) 1951: Dalglish (my pick: Keegan - yes, I personally prefer Dalglish too) 1952: Simonsen (my pick: Blokhin) 1953: Zico 1954: Kempes 1955: Platini 1956: Rossi 1957: Hoddle (my pick: Bryan Robson) 1958: Hugo Sanchez 1959: Carlo Ancelotti (my pick: Preud'homme, Schuster) 1960: Maradona 1961: Matthaus 1962: Gullit 1963: Koeman (my pick: Schmeichel) 1964: Van Basten 1965: Hagi (my pick: Blanc or Hagi) 1966: Stoichkov (my pick: Romario - this was a strong year) 1967: Baggio 1968: Maldini 1969: Bergkamp 1970: Shearer 1971: Henrik Larsson (my pick: Roy Keane - but I do rate Larsson very highly) 1972: Zidane 1973: Giggs 1974: Scholes (my pick: Del Piero - this year hasn't much depth for creative players) 1975: Beckham 1976: Ronaldo 1977: Henry 1978: Buffon 1979: Pirlo 1980: Ronaldinho or Xavi 1981: Ibrahimovic 1982: Kaka 1983: Lahm (my pick: Yaya Toure) 1984: Iniesta 1985: Cristiano Ronaldo 1986: Neuer (my pick: David Silva) 1987: Messi 1988: Alexis Sanchez (my pick: Lewandowski) There is also 'TalkSPORT' - above channel had actually copied it all from them. So it is actually TalkSport their list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talksport
There must be something to do with the year 1976 indeed. Also, all of these were born within 7 days : Ronaldo – 22.09.1976 Ballack – 26.09.1976 Totti – 27.09.1976 Shevchenko – 29.09.1976
1976 has indeed several notable ones. Ronaldo, Ballack, Seedorf, Shevchenko, Kluivert, van Nistelrooy, Morientes, Nesta, Totti, Vieira, Emerson, Camoranesi, Edmilson, Kuffour, Recoba That's (in part) the relative age effect. At this time Brazil (the Rio de Janeiro state) had the cut off date at 1 September 1976 too.
1948 looks kinda weak but 1947 is not too bad: Cruijff, Deyna, Lubanski, Tostao, Rensenbrink, Emlyn Hughes, Oblak, Dobias, Nicolae Dobrin, Mifflin, Baylon, Chinaglia, Fazekas, Bonev, Archie Gemill Are there sites that might be helpful with this? edit: Giuseppe Savoldi is also from 1947. This might be next to 1972 the only (babyboomer) birthyear with two players who went for a world record fee. 1949 is also stronger again, especially defensively with Krol, Luis Pereira, Morten Olsen, Hellstrom among others.
I seem to remember trying to put a 1947 XI together in my head, but 1946 seemed slightly more feasible for a balanced-ish team I think in the end. I wasn't using any specific websites myself. Maybe when we just talk of the best batch of players as opposed to trying to make teams out of them some options stand out even moreso (eg 1947 and 1966).
Yep, I was thinking of 1966 too. Cantona (of course), Romario, Stoichkov, Savicevic, Weah, Doll, Hässler, Nadal, Reuter, Povlsen, Rob Witschge, Taffarel Costacurta Scifo Sheringham Zola Garde Génésio (wo is of course right now the OL coach)... second gk Agbonavbare (Nigeria '94)... -----------------Taffarel------------- Reuter----Costacurta----Nadal----Garde -----------Scifo--------Hässler Savicevic---Weah-------Romario--Stoichkov ... This is very good in attack. I used wiki (fr. and eng.) only. Cantona came to mind at first...
Yes, I agree but it is also logical. In almost any era there are more top level strikers than there are top class left backs (in particular). And also figures like Stoichkov and Savicevic indeed who can be placed at many positions in the attack. It makes some sense that many years are lop sided towards midfielders/attackers. Now I think about this, I'll redo my own exercise and make one for defensive players (goalkeepers, defenders, defensive midfielders) and creative players (central midfielders to strikers). Wim Jonk is also from 1966. I think he was at all competitions a higher level player than Rob Witschge (and sustained it for longer).
At the top end (less sure about the depth) 1972 is probably the best. Four different Ballon d'Or winners, two players who held the world transfer record (1947 is the only other year), the most expensive defender in the world. Add all those type of things up, and 1972 is for the first six players or so a very good candidate. In depth also not bad, but not as outstanding.