Thursday 3 June 2010

Bloggers of the Round Table 2: Top 4 Pretenders

Following on from the first Bloggers Round Table on Liverpool (which you can read over on FantasyEPL) is our second discussion. A reminder of the people involved in this project
  1. Mike Hynter - Writer at EuroSport and part of the team that produces The Fantasist;
  2. Nik Argiropoulos - Me! Author of the YFF Assistant Manager blog;
  3. Susiendran Karunananthan - Author of the YFF Scout blog;
  4. Mohamed Kileeny - Reader of FantasyEPL and Top 100 finisher in the YFF game this season;
  5. Jeremy Spitzberg - Co-blogger at Fantasy EPL;
  6. Neal Thurman - Co-blogger at Fantasy EPL;
I'll leave it to Neal to introduce what I thought was a really interesting topic....

Neal: I am going to nominate James Milner as the topic of this next post and even get more specific about what he means as a symbol of the ability of each of the current pretenders - AST, MAC, LIV - to challenge for a Champions League spot for next season OR the ability of England's highest profile club - MAN - to attract and pay top level talent given their financial situation, their location, and the higher taxes imposed on footballers in the UK compared to elsewhere in Europe.

I don't mean to ascribe THAT much importance to one player who is, in my opinion, definitely above average but certainly not a game-changer week in and week out but the question of where he will play his football next season seems that it will say a lot about the future of the Premier League on a number of fronts.

-----------
Nik (AM): Very interesting questions and a clever way of approaching a complex issue.

Clearly Milner is not a world class midfielder, but he's just had an outstanding season (his first in centre midfield), he's still learning his new position, is only 24 years old, yet has 8 seasons of Premier League experience, and is on the verge of breaking his way in to England's starting XI.

In my opinion the only way is up for Milner, and the fact all this transfer speculation has left him refusing to commit his future to Aston Villa (referring to his time at the club in the past tense) is pretty worrying. After just a couple of season at Villa Park does he already feel Villa have hit their ceiling? They have the smallest squad of all the Champions League challengers & Randy Lerner has stated that Martin O'Neil must sell before he can invest any more in the team. O'Neil's decision to switch him to the center seem to have been the making of Milner and I'd say he owes them another season, but if he already sees his future elsewhere then perhaps that tells us something of Villa's ambitions.

That brings me to Liverpool, who despite all their problems (talked about in depth in our last round table) I would still consider a step up from Aston Villa & I'd put them ahead of the Midlands club if I made a list of the teams I believe will challenge for 4th next year. I also think Martin O'Neil would feel the same, which is why I'd be even more worried for Villa if Benitez was to leave.

As for Man City, their current ability is skewed by the ridiculous wages they can offer, but like Milner they are on the up & I think he could do a superb job for them - he'd certainly be better than any of their current midfielders (including Gareth Barry). City's pulling power and "lessons learnt" from this campaign will put them top of the teams challenging for 4th next season and unfortunately (for me anyway) it could be Spurs who find their stay in the elite short-lived.

Finally, Man United. If I was Milner I would forget the money on offer at City & head to Old Trafford. I don't actually think United going for Milner is any sort of slight on their (or the Premier League's) ability to attract world class players. Manchester United are one of the top 3 club destinations in the world and I still feel they could attract/pay top players top dollar if they really needed to. However, Alex Ferguson has always loved a British/Irish central midfield (Robson, Keane, Butt, Scholes, Fletcher, Hargreaves, Carrick etc) and has had his best success when building his teams around players approaching their peak rather than established (see Veron, Berbatov). Milner knows the league (8 seasons as mentioned), and has his best years ahead of him, he's hard working, seems to have the right attitude and I think he'd be perfect for Manchester United, while Ferguson would be perfect for the next stage of his career.

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Mohammed - James Milner will cost you 25M ? You must be kidding! Its amazing how those English players can cost you these days, if the lad was Spanish or Italian he will cost you max 10-15 M, but he is10M plus because he is English and he is a bit overated.

No doubts that the guy is a good player but for god sake how can he cost 25M? For Man City it will be just a good additional player to the squad as they got plenty of money and can waste it everywhere to anybody but the guy wont do anything, he is not a match winner or even like a commanding presence in the middle of the park not someone like Gerrard, Old Vieira, Roy Keane.

For Liverpool, I dont think they need a player like Milner, they dont have the money to pay for him and I would NEVER pay for him 25M for him, its better to go and buy two good players with pace and skill or a top Striker with that money instead of wasting it.

Man United? Also i dont think they need him, they got plenty of players that plays in that role and they have Owen Hargreaves (injury free) which is a bit similar to Milner for next season.

So mark my words, I think Milner will be a Man City player for next season.

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Jeremy - Is 25mil a reflection of his nationality, or just the fact that it's Citeh making the offer?

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Nik (AM) - Bingo. Look at Lescott - a £7m defender will always cost more if he's English, but maybe £10m would've been expected...he goes for £18m+ because it was City. It's very possible Milner (worth £15m-ish) could've ended up going for £18m-£20m, but City started things at £20m. Naturally Villa will reject the first offer so now the bidding war begins at a price it should've ended at.

------
Neal - I agree that it is really the Citeh factor in play here.  If you think back to some of the silly offers that Chelsea made for above-average (but not great) English players when they were trying to establish themselves as legitimate contenders (think Scott Parker, Wayne Bridge, SWP, etc.) the same thing happened.  If you don't have the prestige of being Manchester United, Arsenal, or Liverpool or the lure of a Champions League spot then you're going to have to pay way over the odds until you CAN offer those things.  Even then we see that Chelsea still has to break the bank to attract top talent in a way that Barcelona never does because players crave the chance to play for Barca but they probably grew up thinking about Chelsea as a nice little club if they even thought about them at all. 

Funny to think that so many of the cast-offs from Chelsea's first buying spree have ended up as part of Citeh's first buying spree as well.  I guess we can call Wayne Bridge and SWP the nuveau riche starter kit of the footballing world (and good for them for being in the right place at the right time). 

I will take issue with Mohamed's opinion that ManYoo don't need a player like Milner.  If I were them I'd want someone BETTER than Milner to play attacking central midfield (the "Scholes Role") but they certainly need someone to replace Scholes' corpse and the ill-fitting combination of Giggs, Fletcher, Carrick, and Park who are all good players but poorly suited to that role.  Hargreaves is a defensive midfielder and there is nothing in his injury history that indicates that he's going to stay healthy for more than 10 straight minutes even if he is entering the summer on a positive note from a health standpoint.  That would be like Arsenal saying "RvP is a great striker and he's healthy now, why would we need another striker?" (Oh wait, they DID say that last summer and how did that work out again?)
------------------------

This discussion took place 2 weeks ago but this was as far the conversation went, with some of the blogger's (Mike & Sus) unavailable for this discussion, and there are some areas we didn't get to discuss in much depth as we went off on a Man City tangent! 

I'd therefore like to throw it open to reader's of the blog to give their opinions on the above topic, especially regarding the future of the Premier League. With lots of the big names now favouring Spain, has the financial meltdown meant England's top tier has reached and passed it's peak?

Cheers,
AM

32 comments:

rwlwhite said...

First off, I love this idea of inter blog blogging. Genius. Gets a whole load of different opinions.

Moving on: Milner and the 'top 4 pretenders'.

I'll start with Milner. He is a player of substantial quality for teams attempting to break into the top 4 and champions league football. Yes there is always the chance that he and villa will be tempted by the megabucks of Man City, and I think if he was to end the summer at any out of the list of AST, MAC and LIV, it will be Citeh. I think his time at Villa is done, as he would have definitively stated otherwise if that were the case. Liverpool, it is a no-brainer NOT to go to anfield. The club is in shambles, has no money to spend, no CL football, and will not get it next year either. Problem is that he wouldn't be guaranteed to start at Man City as they will no doubt bring in a whole host of expensive talent this sumer.

What everyone seems to have been focussed on is the potential contenders for breaking into the top 4, but nobody has mentioned (besides Man U) those teams trying to stay in the top 4. Namely, Spurs. Now, I know people don't normally like suggestions from outside the box, but bear with me. I know this is an extremely long shot in the dark, but with Jenas not playing much, Huddlestone still improving etc, couldn't Spurs do with a player of Milner's quality? And which team is backed by the 3rd richest owner, and has spent probably the 3rd or 4th highest amount in recent years (behind Man U, Chelsea and Man City)? Yes, spurs.

I'm not saying this will happen, he will probably end up earning £140k a week at City and starting only 25 out of 38 prem games, but from a sensible point of view, I think Spurs would be a better move for Milner, and I'm pretty sure Harry could develop him into an even better player, and the fans would adore him!

Bojan said...

0. SAF played Veron all over the place because he didnt need Veron with Keane,Giggs,Scholes and Backham in Man Utd midfield... Veron was there 8 years ago and all of them(Giggs,Scholes and Backham) except retired Keano would play in England starting 11 today if they are fit(Beckham), non retired (Scholes) and not-Welsh(Giggs)... And Keane with 33 years old is bettter then Barry today... SAF played Veron as second striker for most of time and that is like you play Defoe as central defender or something like that...

1. This season in Europe will be all about Barca-Real clash... Mourinho will take care for that... Only Chelsea can mix up in that story in CL...

2. And Barca and Real buys will dictate a flow of transfer window this summer... I Pool place i would sell Gerrard,Torres,Masch and Reina for right amount of money... 50M + 70M + 40M + 20M = 180 M pounds buy you a lot of players if you know who do you want to buy...

3. If City won CL spot they would have a chance to buy big names but they failed and now they only could buy money-hungry players or great players with bad last season(my 1st pick is Kaka - if Jose says he dont need him City will buy him)

4. It is crunch transfer window for Tottenham they have to buy 2 big players and 2 young players with great prospect in front of them... Like Atletico Madrid bought Aguero, or Milan bought Pato or Sevilla bought Dani Alves from Bahia... 18-20 year old players that will worth 40M after 2 seasons and potential best players on their positions in the world...

5. All English players are overated by English clubs and that is the reason why they mostly stay in England... 10M for Doyle,or Steven Flecher or 18M for Glen Johnson, 20M for Keane,5M for Chopra, all City buys, Lescott for 22M, Warnock for 8M, Andrew Johnson for 13M and 100 more transfers in EPL are insane... You can buy player like Lescott for 1M in lots of countries... SAF bought Vidic and Evra for 13M and if they names were Rio and Ashley they would cost 70M... English clubs spent a lot of money in vain... Tottenham before Harry, Sunderland, WHU and now City would spent 100M or more in two seasons and do nothing with that...

6. And Milner is ok player and he would be adittionn for Man utd midfield for sure becuse SAF needs to buy 4 or 5 players(2-3 in midfield) to be close to Chelsea... But 25M is over the top...

7. I would buy Pazzini if i am SAF... And Romelu Lukaku(17 years old) if i am Carlo... Drogba would made that guy fantastic player in 2 years...

Bojan said...

Joe Cole for free of 25M for Milner? Million dollar question...

Neal Thurman said...

Great comments so far - to RWLWHITE - do Spurs really need more midfielders? Isn't Modric really the guy they've purchased for the role that Milner would play at Spurs? In my mind, Milner is more consistent than Modric in that role but Spurs seem to be very high on Modric and I have a hard time seeing them letting go of him and spending big on Milner as a replacement when there are still healthy central defenders and consistent strikers to be acquired (and maybe a better right back as well).

Cheers - Neal

Backcountry Dave said...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jun/03/rafael-benitez-leaves-liverpool

Adios, Rafa

Anonymous said...

http://www.premierleague.com/page/Headlines/0,,12306~1797582,00.html

english players are going to be more expensive due to homegrown issue.

~Newbie

rwlwhite said...

Neal - that's a valid point about Modric, but you can say that about Man City too. But if Spurs are to maintain their current level (i.e. top four and a decent run in the champions league) I don't believe they can do it with their current midfield. I would suggest that Jenas is or should be on his way out, and it could possibly work in their favour (Jenas to Villa as part of any deal). A midfield of a DM (Huddlestone or Palacios), a CM (Milner), Modric left of centre and Lennon right of centre would be stronger than what they currently deploy, and then they have the likes of (either) THud of Palacios, Bentley, O'Hara and Kranjcar as a decent back up for their starting midfield.

Also, look at other clubs. For example, Arsenal have Nasri, Rosicky and Arshavin who all play the same role. And they seem to have CL football every year and are there or thereabouts at the top all year round. I think adding Milner to the spurs squad at the expense of Jenas would improve their squad depth which will help them maintain their current standing

But like I said, I am just putting the idea out there, and I think it would be a better move for milner as he would automatically get CL football, rather than simply striving to get it at a club where he doesn't play week in week out (Man City), or at Villa where he will not get it in the near future.

N.B. I am an Arsenal fan, not a Spurs fan, so I am not simply making a point for Milner to come to my club, but my rival club

Assistant Manager said...

I would certainly take Milner at Spurs!! Jenas is going this summer & O'Hara will probably go somewhere to get 1st team football, so a midfield quartet of Modric, Hudd, Milner & Palacios to choose from would be outstanding. Won't happen though as I'd agree that he's probably Man City bound, and a world class striker has to be priority for Spurs.

Slightly OT I've heard a rumour that Palacios is considering retirement from football altogether. He blames the death of his brother last year on himself as had he not been a footballer the kidnapping would never have happened. He's become disillusioned with the game & has no interest, has found it hard to motivate himself in training & this has led to understandably poor performances. Would be a a real shame, but at the end of the day life is more important than football.

Bojan said...

Milner would be great for Spurs... But Spurs already bought Sandro - he supposed to be great - but he is a big ???...

Anonymous said...

milner will be good for those mentioned clubs.
positives:

english.
energetic.
played in PL.
don't seem injury prone.
don't look like media hogging player.
decent cross.
willingness to track back and defend.
think i did saw him using his left before; decent left(being good either footer will help him in future)

hope the club that get him will play him in a cm~amc role(and not a cm~dm role).

~Newbie

Assistant Manager said...

I'd forgotten about Sandro...we definitely don't need to spend £25m on him then! :)

Anonymous said...

My take, and I will divide it be the different teams:

Villa - They are the underdogs. They have already a thin squad, and you could see right through it during the last months of the season - they have only 4 starting defenders with only Luke Young as a backup, and besides Carew (whom I really don't appriciate) and Gabby, Villa have on the bench Delfouneso who is not experienced and Heskey who is just poor (really, how could Fabio take him instead of Bent? If there's anything that can ruin this World Cup for England, that is one of the top contenders for the job).
Now, if it is true that O'Neil has to sell in order to buy, that is a real problem for him. Of course he needs to strengthen his squad, but let's face it - no one will buy the likes of Carew, Heskey, Dunne, Collins, Cuéllar, LYoung, Friedel or Petrov, and selling the backups won't bring him a lot of cash either. So he has to sell Young, Milner or Gabby, Maybe even Downing who joined only this season. He could get a lot of money for them, but it will surely be hard for him to buy replacements. I must agree with Nik about the other option - Martin has enough of it and leaves, maybe for Liverpool.

Man City - Not as complicated. Again they will bring middle-class players (and yes, Adebayor, Toure and Barry ARE middle-class), with a likely topping of a player with a higher stature - Kaka seems right. Their defence is awful even at full strength, and I believe Mancini will target that first, in spite of all the reports about him focusing Dzeko. The top-class players again won't work together (you saw what happened with Robinho and Tevez in the same team), and the others will just make more mistakes. The only bright spots I see there are Tevez (because he's great), AJohnson (very talented and ambitious) and Given (no need of excuses).
I can't believe Milner will go there, because if he moves it will be for a CL playing club - Man City and Liverpool aren't worth all the bother. Man City can't attract the biggest names no matter how much money they have, and I believe Mancini will take them to 5th or 6th only next season. I hate that manager.

Spurs and Everton - I put them together because I believe one of these teams will take the 4th spot next season. Moyes is working on a very balanced and deep squad that can compete on many competitions, and there's a lot of talent there. I personally love the Beckford move, by the way. They may seem quiet right now, but their signings have a lot of potential, and if moyes buys one more defender he can have a fantastic squad - they may have finished fifth, but the way the looked in the second half of the season is admirable.
Spurs are more interesting, because it is a very important season for them. By looking at their squad, it might seem already good enough, but if they count on the same squad of this year (I'm not so sure how much difference Sandro is going to make) they might miss out on the 4th spot next year - it was very close this year, it's not like they insured the spot in January, and it can be as tight and close. On the other hand, if the use their CL stature this season, they might be able to attract better players than they are used to, and replace the weaker sides - another striker (because Crouch, Pavly and Gud are only avrage) and a couple of defenders (intead of Dawson and BAE). They can establish themselves as a top four club, or lose it all over again.


It's going to be a very interesting summer...

SF

Anonymous said...

Everton 4th next season?! you havin a laugh?!

Bojan said...

http://en.mcdonalds.fantasy.fifa.com/M/home.mc

starts today... they have nice rules...

Bojan said...

shirts of a new champion!!!

http://www.24sata.hr/sport/everton-prvi-kandidat-za-najgori-dres-iduce-sezone/176083/

Anonymous said...

@Anon 11:36PM

Well, yes, and I'm not kidding. Everton have had a disasterous start for their season with loses to Arsenal, Burnley, Fulham, Bolton, Hull and Spurs. When looking at their form on the months December-March, when they also had a lot of injuries, you can not only see better results but also a better way of football. If they once have a good start for the season (and I believe they can beat most of the teams they lost to above), they might challenge the fourth spot, especially after buying great prospects like Beckford, and after great players like Yakubu or Arteta came back from injuries.

Continuing my last response, the Daily Star reports that Spurs want Diego Forlan. This was exactly the thing I was talking about - taking advantage of the CL stature and building the team now rather than waiting for next year.
I also want to state that I don't think sacking Rafa was the right choice for Liverpool. He should've gone earlier, but doing it now isn't a good move - whom will they bring? I can't see any available manager right now that suits the job. When the speculations were about Mourinho it might have been a good move, but I can't see now any manager that is good enough who is either free from work or not interested in his own job - O'Neill, Hughes and Hodgeson just don't seem capable of changing the picture there.

SF

rwlwhite said...

SF - I have to agree with 'Anon. I don't think Everton have the squad to break into the top 4 above City or Spurs. They have Arteta, Pienaar, Bily and Cahill, yes, but a: will pienaar still be there if he has a good world cup? and b: saha, yakubu, vaughan, anichebe and beckford (unproven in the prem so can't comment on his quality) are not top 4 strikers in my opinion. Saha maybe was once, but they are all too injury prone or erratic.

It's funny how this has fast become a spurs topic, but I am looking forward to seeing something of Sandro. Not seen him play but I hear good things about him. I also really think Spurs need to take advantage of the extra CL cash and the pull of CL football to bring in big names. Forlan would be great up from with Defoe (crouch as supersub) and I'm sure he wants to prove himself in England again after a quite frankly disastrous time at Old Trafford. If they hold onto Gomes (as there were rumours a while back about a lot of interest in him) get their defenders fit, and bring in say a world class midfielder and someone like forlan, they could well be challenging for 4th again next season (not top 3 mind. That'll be Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea again - sorry Citeh fans, just don't think top 3 is viable yet)

Bojan said...

mcdonald's fantasy game has started

Bojan said...

MUCHA GKP 3.0 0 0 NZL 15/06
Algeria View player information BELHADJ DEF 3.0 0 0 SVN 13/06
Brazil View player information MAICON DEF 8.0 0 0 PRK 15/06
England View player information JOHNSON DEF 7.5 0 0 USA 12/06
Australia View player information CAHILL MID 6.0 0 0 GER 13/06
Slovakia View player information HAMSIK MID 6.0 0 0 NZL 15/06
England View player information LAMPARD MID 9.5 0 0 USA 12/06
Germany View player information SCHWEINSTEIGER MID 8.5 0 0 AUS 13/06
Argentina View player information MESSI FWD 10.0 0 0 NGA 12/06
Argentina View player information HIGUAIN FWD 8.5 0 0 NGA 12/06
Brazil View player information Captain LUIS FABIANO FWD 10.0 0 0 PRK 15/06
Bench
Honduras View player information ESCOBER GKP 1.0 0 0 CHI 16/06
Spain View player information CASILLAS GKP 8.0 0 0 SUI 16/06
Italy View player information CHIELLINI DEF 7.0 0 0 PAR 14/06
Italy View player information ZAMBROTTA DEF 6.0 0 0 PAR 14/06
Honduras View player information MENDOZA DEF 1.0 0 0 CHI 16/06
New Zealand View player information MULLIGAN DEF 1.0 0 0 SVK 15/06
France View player information GOURCUFF MID 6.5 0 0 URU 11/06
Korea DPR View player information K. KYONG IL MID 1.0 0 0 BRA 15/06
Portugal View player information SIMÃO MID 7.5 0 0 CIV 15/06
New Zealand View player information BROCKIE MID 1.0 0 0 SVK 15/06
Portugal View player information RONALDO FWD 10.0 0 0 CIV 15/06
Spain View player information DAVID VILLA FWD 10.0 0 0 SUI 16/06

Bojan said...

1st draft... very tricky game with all rulez...

chrism said...

Yikes Bojan. Your selection looks complicated as hell. I am having password issues with Macs and haven't gotten on yet complicated. Looking at your team, it looks like 10 pts is the max price-messi, ronaldo, villa etc. It looks like there are fillers- your Honduran defender at 1.0. I think by looking at your selections I get the idea. I am sure you don't know Brockie, Mendoza, and Kyong Il all at 1.0. Whole lot of filler going on. This is going to be weird.

Now to the subject at hand. Milner. The only team with a need for him in the top 5 is ManU. Giggs is a year older. Valenicia and Nani really haven't panned out. There is a need there for an attacking midfielder with an incredible engine and work rate. At City he duplicates AJ who had an equally impressive season. Remember Steven Ireland 2 seasons ago he was the best player on the club but got lost in the shuffle last season. I think he would be a great cheap pick up for someone. Spurs is awash with MF's. I actually see O'Hara sticking there as a sub. I am a huge Modric fan. His problem is, and this kills him from a fantasy perspective, is he doesn't get assists, goals and SOTs. He makes the pass before the assist. But you want him on your team. Huddlestone is emerging as a defensive MF. They are loaded. Everton doesn't have the money Villa would ask. Liverpool is a clusterf*ck right now. So I bet he stays.

BTW the big news today is that Rio F is out of the Cup and the Captains armband went to Gerrard and not back to Terry. I wonder the implications of this. Terry must be crazed.

cheers
chrism velvet underground allstars

Skillitsnot said...

Hi Bojan
Like your WC team.
How did you get a 3-4-3 formation?
It gave me 4-4-2 and i could not find how to change it.
Any ideas? Best of luck in the competion.
Ken

Ian Sanderson said...

@skillitsnot drop and drag to change your formation.

Welcome back AM - your blog disappeared for a while....thought my world had come to an end...don't do that again, lol.

Anonymous said...

i have a question here, since yahoo also have fantasy worldcup now, are we gonna play there or not?

-rocco-

Anonymous said...

@Ian S

Hi Ian - I tried drag/drop to change my formation but that seems only to exchange the players - please can you explain the subtle bit !!?
Thankyou
Pauly

Anonymous said...

@Pauly

try to drag/drop one of your defender to another forward on your bench squad..then the formation will be 3-4-3..

Anonymous said...

Searched the entire yahoo ..couldn't locate the fantasy football.

Ian Sanderson said...

Yahoo are just doing a prediction game.

Pauly - hope anon answered your question.

Anonymous said...

@ anon & Ian

Yes, thanks guys.
In fact I needed to drag the defender's shirt (on the pitch) and place him in the forward's section on the bench, and bingo, the formation changed to 3 4 3! (Just to help anyone else who is in the same predicament!)

Finding fillers is going to be a bit of a headache though for the WC game, but at least there seems to be enough time (deadline 15 mins before kick-off) to check out who's in the starting line-up for the teams you fancy.

Looking forward to AM's first WC selection blog now!

Pauly

greginho said...

samaras at $4 is a good filler

Bojan said...

MY WC FF TEAM:

1ST ROUND

3-4-3 formation

GK

Mucha (SVK - 3M) - he is Slovakian 1st choice GK and they play against New Zealand... Maybe the best pick of 1st round

DEFENDERS

Glenn Johnson (ENG - 7,5M) - i think that England will concede just 1 or 2 goals in first round so England defender is a good pick... i will go with him because of his attacking abilities

Maicon (BRA - 8M) - he is 3rd in assists in Serie A this season and Brazil plays very defensive with 2 defensive midfielders... he will get CS in 1st game and after that i don't care

Belhadj (ALG - 3M) - listed as defender and plays in midfild/winger role for Algeria

------------------------------------------------

MIDFIELDERS

Cahill (AUS - 6M) - plays and striker sometimes even as lone striker for his team... this could be high scoring group and he will do good

Hamshik (SVK - 6M) - captain, best player, and PK shooter in his team... They play against New Zealand and i think he will score for sure in that game... World class midfielder, just 23 years old

Lampard (ENG - 9,5) - no good reasons for picking him... choose not to pick rooney(becuse of injurie doubts, that is main reason i pick Frank... picked him becuase he will take PK's and England play against Slovenia and Algeria in 2nd and 3rd round so he may get goal or two in that proces

SCHWEINSTEIGER (GER - 8,5M) - With Ballack injured he and Ozil will have to do all creative job for Germany... Pick him over Ozil because he played in last WC and he takes PK's for his team

------------------------------------------------

FORWARS

FABIANO ( BRA - 10M) - He will be mine captain in first round... Brazil play against North Korea and i think that he will score hattrick in that game...

Messi (10M) and Higuain(8,5 M) or any striker that will start for Argentina... Nice group to get some goals... But i have nice subs if this experiment goes wrong... they play on 2nd day of WC and if someone of them do bad i will pick Villa or CR7 as sub...

------------------------------------------------

SUBS:

GK: Casillas - ESP -(8M) - he will be my GK for 2nd and 3rd round
ESCOBER - filler - 1M

DF: CHIELLINI 7M
ZAMBROTTA 6M
i will pick them against new zealand and i have 2 fillers for 1M each - MENDOZA and MULLIGAN

MF: GOURCUFF and SIMAO as sure starters and set piece takes + 2 fillers for 1M K. KYONG IL nad BROCKIE

FW: RONALDO and VILLA - Spaim has nice group and Villa will take PK's... Stayed out in 1st round because Swiss team is very hard to break but he will have a lot of chances against Chile and Honduras

Anonymous said...

Not sure about the substitution rules.

Can i substitute my players after comparing their performances ?

Going by what Bojan said above, it seems you can sub a player based on performance

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