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Talk Football 365 All Time Starting XI


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9 minutes ago, Spike said:

Given that he was so natural playing in whatever position he likes, wouldn't it be insincere to vote for him as 'best' CM/LW/ST/ad nauseum? Seeing as he was none of those but a transcendence? 

The thing is that I don't like the formation and the midfield is unbalanced to really create something proper tactically to be honest. I just thought that from a football purism perspective he had to be in it somewhere.

If you take football globally and appreciating history too, then it is practically impossible to come to a just and coherent option for just XI footballers. I mean, we're gonna leave out people like Puskas, Kubala, Charlton, Best, Beckenbauer, Stanley Matthews, Garrincha and maybe people like Pelé, Eusebio, Bergkamp, Dalglish, Hagi, Stoichkov etc... etc...

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32 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

The thing is that I don't like the formation and the midfield is unbalanced to really create something proper tactically to be honest. I just thought that from a football purism perspective he had to be in it somewhere.

If you take football globally and appreciating history too, then it is practically impossible to come to a just and coherent option for just XI footballers. I mean, we're gonna leave out people like Puskas, Kubala, Charlton, Best, Beckenbauer, Stanley Matthews, Garrincha and maybe people like Pelé, Eusebio, Bergkamp, Dalglish, Hagi, Stoichkov etc... etc...

I wasn't talking about formation or something tactically coherent, I even posted up a little that I was against an 'XI'. 

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18 minutes ago, Spike said:

I wasn't talking about formation or something tactically coherent, I even posted up a little that I was against an 'XI'. 

The thing is that it's very easy to name 22 players or simply make a list of the greatest in each individual position.  The hard part is trying to make a coherent statement as to an XI which is where I agree with you.

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Just now, SirBalon said:

The thing is that it's very easy to name 22 players or simply make a list of the greatest in each individual position.  The hard part is trying to make a coherent statement as to an XI which is where I agree with you.

I find it even stupid to do an XI. Here are the best players I've watched live (I didn't really start watching football till I was a teenager, I only watched rugby league). I watched a lot of Barcelona from around 10-13 and they are the team I hold to the highest standard and I'm most critical of.  Not a club I particularly care for but I'm a huge fan of the team they had. 

Ten positions

GK; Gigi Buffon

CB; Carles Puyol

LB; Ashley Cole

RB; Javier Zanetti

DM; Sergio Busquets

CM; Frank Lampard

AM; Andres Iniesta

LW; Arjen Robben

RW; Critiano Ronaldo

ST; Lionel Messi

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2 hours ago, Spike said:

I find it even stupid to do an XI. Here are the best players I've watched live (I didn't really start watching football till I was a teenager, I only watched rugby league). I watched a lot of Barcelona from around 10-13 and they are the team I hold to the highest standard and I'm most critical of.  Not a club I particularly care for but I'm a huge fan of the team they had. 

Ten positions

GK; Gigi Buffon

CB; Carles Puyol

LB; Ashley Cole

RB; Javier Zanetti

DM; Sergio Busquets

CM; Frank Lampard

AM; Andres Iniesta

LW; Arjen Robben

RW; Critiano Ronaldo

ST; Lionel Messi

Robben on the right surely, cutting in on his left? (Or is it the other way round

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14 hours ago, SirBalon said:

That was the period but I stress, he wasn't a striker and if you speak to Real Madrid fans from that era, they'll be adamant he wasn't...  He would place himself deep in midfield and literally just play by intelligently moving around the field depending on what the scene was performance wise.

For the real football aficionado and those that speak real football they'll tell you to forget Pelé, Maradona, Cruyff, Messi or whoever... They'll say with the most serious believing face that Di Stéfano is the greatest player to have ever graced the field.

I've seen a hell of a lot of video footage of him, read books, watched documentaries and actually lived (remember it decently) through part of his managerial career.  It's not the same as watching players at the time they were performing for sure.  I mean, watching a player consistently enough at the ground has nothing to do with seeing him on tv.  I've seen players that look amazing until I see them a few times at the ground and then I'm not all that impressed while I've seen others that don't get much media protagonism and then they stick out to me when I see them play their on the pitch.

So I can't make a proper assessment which is why further up I said that I couldn't opt for players like that from the past even though I KNOW they should be in there.  There are even some that I don't have to have watched because it so bloody evident they were on a different stratosphere that leaving them out and talking real football is a sacrilege.

I would have had Di Stefano myself but I only included players from my time or that I have seen tons of material of to give a fairer judgement. There isn't enough out there available of Di Stefano to do so, atleast not that I have found as I spent a bit of a time a while back searching for material of players such as Di Stefano and others from his generation. It's easy with the likes of Maradona and Cruijff as there is a lot more out there to give you an idea of how truly great they actually were.

In general I tried to only really include players I lived, with a few exceptions of players from the past who I've seen a lot of material of.

 

 

 

 

 

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On 3/25/2017 at 3:31 PM, SirBalon said:

That was the period but I stress, he wasn't a striker and if you speak to Real Madrid fans from that era, they'll be adamant he wasn't...  He would place himself deep in midfield and literally just play by intelligently moving around the field depending on what the scene was performance wise.

For the real football aficionado and those that speak real football they'll tell you to forget Pelé, Maradona, Cruyff, Messi or whoever... They'll say with the most serious believing face that Di Stéfano is the greatest player to have ever graced the field.

I've seen a hell of a lot of video footage of him, read books, watched documentaries and actually lived (remember it decently) through part of his managerial career.  It's not the same as watching players at the time they were performing for sure.  I mean, watching a player consistently enough at the ground has nothing to do with seeing him on tv.  I've seen players that look amazing until I see them a few times at the ground and then I'm not all that impressed while I've seen others that don't get much media protagonism and then they stick out to me when I see them play their on the pitch.

So I can't make a proper assessment which is why further up I said that I couldn't opt for players like that from the past even though I KNOW they should be in there.  There are even some that I don't have to have watched because it so bloody evident they were on a different stratosphere that leaving them out and talking real football is a sacrilege.

All these days I was thinking he was a striker or winger. Some great information in this post

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4 hours ago, Asura said:

All these days I was thinking he was a striker or winger. Some great information in this post

Many people think that or that he was an attacking midfielder, but mainly outside Spain.  There are so many stories about him from both his colleagues and his rivals about him commanding practically the whole pitch.  He would even join in defensive work if there were games where Real Madrid weren't dominating like they usually did by slotting in as a centre halve.  That era wasn't what football is today and it all changed radically with Helenio Herrera when tactics became  extremely important with players fixed in their positions...  Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels would go onto change that later on with "Total Football".

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8 hours ago, SirBalon said:

Many people think that or that he was an attacking midfielder, but mainly outside Spain.  There are so many stories about him from both his colleagues and his rivals about him commanding practically the whole pitch.  He would even join in defensive work if there were games where Real Madrid weren't dominating like they usually did by slotting in as a centre halve.  That era wasn't what football is today and it all changed radically with Helenio Herrera when tactics became  extremely important with players fixed in their positions...  Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels would go onto change that later on with "Total Football".

Isnt what he (Di Stefano) was doing called as Total Football? A player playing in almost every possible position? 

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11 minutes ago, Asura said:

Isnt what he (Di Stefano) was doing called as Total Football? A player playing in almost every possible position? 

You could say that but wheras the theory of a player being able to cover everywhere was different with him. At that time he was the best in every position. 

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1 hour ago, Asura said:

Isnt what he (Di Stefano) was doing called as Total Football? A player playing in almost every possible position? 

Not really, Total Football would have players switch positions freely, there was always a set formation but no player was set in a single position.

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6 minutes ago, Asura said:

Anyways where do we stand on the main topic? Do we have a second midfielder yet?

Nope. You lot felt the need to post best all time XI rather than a second midfielder....

Maradona (5)

Zidane (3)

Xavi (3)

Ronaldinho (2)

Scholes (1)

Lampard (1)

Schweinsteiger (1)

Matthaus (1)

Pirlo (1)

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2 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Nope. You lot felt the need to post best all time XI rather than a second midfielder....

Maradona (5)

Zidane (3)

Xavi (3)

Ronaldinho (2)

Scholes (1)

Lampard (1)

Schweinsteiger (1)

Matthaus (1)

Pirlo (1)

Dont blame me, its the bible writer's fault  @SirBalon

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30 minutes ago, Inverted said:

I had already made my two votes in the one post, in my defence.

Or are we meant to vote again?

I guess he is waiting for more folks to vote before declaring the second midfielder

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12 minutes ago, Inverted said:

Well we've got Busquets down. 

Then we got asked to vote for the 2 #8s at the same time, and afaik everyone did. 

When I done an XI I did it out of curiosity and not to derail Cicero's thread. I think he then asked for a further midfielder and I've added Di Stéfano to Iniesta and Maradona. 

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Forgot about this. 

 

TalkFootball365 All time Centre Midfielder...

Diego Maradona

soc_g_maradona01jr_1296x729.jpg&w=738&si

 

ST

LW------------------------------RW

Iniesta---Maradona

Busquets

Maldini----Puyol---Nesta---Lahm

Buffon

 

We will begin the nomination of LW. 

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