It is up to you how you want to play it. The purpose of the thing was to put together a balanced team rather than pure fantasy so in that way you could put together a pairing who you think would be best rather than the two best players. Perhaps I fudged it by placing Baresi among the CBs rather than the sweepers, mea culpa. On the likes of Luis Perreira and Stam, they were considered, but i chose not to include them.
I asked the same question--Bob Moore was a center-half, not a sweeper. And he was absolutely fantastic.
its not an issue of him getting beat in the air all that often because if paired with a burly CB like he often was, the toughest marking assignment in terms of physical strength and aerial prowess would go to the other cb, unless that player was also a technical genius who needed to be shut down on the ground as well. A better question would be how often did he face the type of forwards DS described with the responsibility of shutting them down without the aid or a CB parnter who was a destructive force.
Baresi was about as athletic as defenders get, and he was great in the air. Since Klose and Ferguson, as far as I know, have only ever scored with their heads (even on penalty kicks they use their heads) I don't see where the problem would lie. By the way the idea of Duncan Ferguson scoring on a back- line of Maldini, Baresi, Beckennauer, Cafu, and Yashin is so funny that I'd like to photo-shop it. What an image.
Duncan Ferguson is just one of those guys who drinks too much scotch. He's very temperamental. I hear stories about him being a tough guy and he's a guy that you wouldn't wan to mess with. Honestly, when you have a name like Maldini or Baresi, why would you need to be scared of a pisspot like Ferguson?
Koeman for me on this one. Think some fantastic players are being missed here because due to the nature of their country's status they never were considered. I have not seen many traditional defenders with the hard edge, tackling ability, and sheer grit that Willie Miller had for Aberdeen and Scotland. He was also a European Cup winner let's not forget.
Desailly was really fast and good, i won't say that he was better than Baresi because i never saw the latter play, but i think Mr. Baresi would've been proud of the job Mr. Desailly did in containing the Brazilian juggernaut in 1998.
So would players like Varela and Ocwirk be considered as a central defenders in modern day formations?
It's difficult to say and would depend more on the player. Somebody like Ocwirk would not be a defender, he would be a midfielder. Someone like Santamaria or Varela would I think be a central defender. Equally for the wing-halfs someone like Blanchflower would be a midfielder, someone like Nestor Gonsalves (the great Uruguayan right-half) would be a right-back probably or possibly a centre back.
What would Bozkik be? He was a technically brilliant player, so would he be a midfielder in the modern game as well?
i always thought that rijkaard played his best, in midfield, alongside another dm like ancelotti but what do i know on another note, where is krol? hmmm
I bet anyone who has seen Carlos Gamarra in the brazilian league in the nineties is itching to post his name. Too late now, I already did.
Ive already stated quite a while ago that bobby moore was my favourite for the sheer lake of raw talent and how he made up for it by having the best football brain to date. In my opinion of course
Larf! Duncan Ferguson an oaf? A rare example of a big guy with skill. Yes, he was a physical player, and you won't see a more dominant player in the air. However, he also had skill. Having said that, you're right in that Baresi and Beckenbauer would struggle with him.
Given decent service and a fair referee I think Big Dunc would have given them nightmares. Every YouTube monatge shows as many goals with his feet as with his head.
I see that Bobby Moore doesn't feature. However, an equally glaring ommission is the player that I would have voted for - John Charles. World class at both centre back and striker.