Liverpool FC Forum

[JBG]

Ok, lads a controversial topic here, with plenty of scope for disagreement!

Remember 10 or 12 years ago the English League/Premiership played the Italian League a couple of times in exhibition matches where a squad of the top 22 or so players in England were pitted against their Italian counterparts?

Imagine if you could pick a squad of the top 22 players in England now. Who would you pick?

I have a squad of 3 keepers, 7 defenders, 7 midfielders and 5 forwards.

Keepers: Cuducini (Chelsea), Given (Newcastle), Howard (Man UTD)

Defenders: Ferreria (Chelsea), Carvalleho (Chelsea), Cole (Arsenal), Campbell (Arsenal) Ferdinand (Man UTD), Bridge (Chelsea), Carr (Spurs)

Midfielders: Vieira (Arsenal), Gerrard (Liverpool), Scholes (Man UTD), Pires (Arsenal), Lampard (Chelsea), Edu (Arsenal), Duff (Chelsea)

Forwards: Henry (Arsenal), Van Nistlerooy (Man UTD), Owen (Liverpool), Shearer (Newcastle), Rooney (Everton).

I know that's a controversial selection and there's only 2 Liverpool players there, but I think that reflects the form of the players of the past 2 years. Also, Carvalleho and Ferreria have yet to play in the Premiership, but both have probably been the best two players in Europe in their position for the past 18 months (despite Ferrieria's poor Euro 2004 showing). Vieria is also about to leave, but for the moment he is a Premiership player. I also ommitted Roy Keane as I think that both Gerrard and Vieira are now much better players than him. Shearer is very old, but he proved last season that he still has it, and there is no better player in England for holding up the ball and he and Angel of Villa are the best two headers of a ball in the Premiership. Owen is off form, but his overall class and past achievements put him in ahead of Saha in my opinion.

Pushing hard at the fringes of my squad are: Hyppia (Liverpool), Terry (Chelsea), Gallas (Chelsea), Woodgate (Newcastle), Kezman (Chelsea), Drogba (Chelsea), Toure (Arsenal), Ljunberg (Arsenal), Kewell (Liverpool), Giggs (Man UTD), G. Neville (Man UTD), Saha (Man UTD), Ronaldo (Man UTD), Angel (Aston Villa), Baros (LIverpool) and Cisse (Liverpool).

Its also depressing that almost all of the players picked here are from the top 4 or 5 teams, but realistically, would you pick James Beattie or Thomas Graveson in your best squad?

[stmichael]

Goalkeepers- Niemi, Cudicini, Howard

Defenders- Steven Carr? You must be having a laugh. Completely over-rated. Woodgate is better than Ferdinand. The problem is he's injury prone. I'd go for Volz, G Neville, Campbell, Woodgate, Terry, Cole, Bridge.

Midfielders- Gerrard, Scholes, Pires, Duff, Lampard, Ronaldo, Mendieta.

Forwards- Henry, Van Nistelrooy, Shearer, Owen, Drogba

[JBG]

What about Rooney, St. Mick?

Carr had a competent, if quiet, last 18 months but his performances for Spurs in the years before that were excellent.

There is a dearth of good right backs in England. It says it all when Gary Neville, a good solid, but unspectacular player, is one of the best in the Premiership.

Niemi is a class act, but Howard had a more spectacular season last year (well, until the Porto game at Old Trafford) and Shay Given is a very solid performer.

[stmichael]

rooney has the potential to become one of this country's greats but the fact remains that he's not even a regular in the everton side. ok he was superb at euro 2004 partly due to the great players around him, but he still has an awful lot to prove imo.

[JBG]

The same probably goes for Drogba.

Had a brilliant 8 months for Marseille, but achieved very little before that.

That said, I think Drogba is a fantastic player.

[stmichael]

oh he's good alright. very suited to the premiership aswell. i think chelsea will win the league this year if i'm honest.

http://leadersdufutur.free.fr/drogba.wmv

[JBG]

I agree. Look at my squad above and a fair few of them are Chelsea players.

I think Chelsea will win the League this year, and I cannot understand how a lot of people are writing them off saying that they will collapse and finish 4th. I think that is wishful thinking.

They have cleaned out the underachievers and their squad now looks very lean and impressive.

A lot of their signings last year were established stars, such as Veron, Crespo, Makelele, Mutu etc, but the problem was that these guys reckoned they had done it all and only wanted to line their pockets.

This season Chelsea have signed a lot of emerging stars (Tiago, Robben, Cech) and a few newly established stars such as Carvalleho, Ferreria, Drogba and Kezman. I think the squad, which was excellent last year, finishing second in the league and reached the SF of the CL, is now far better, more balanced and strengthened in key areas.

Chelsea will be a serious force, make no mistake in that, and in Drogba they have an animal of a forward (as we and Newcastle can testify) as well as a potential goal machine in Kezman.

I thought that had Ranieri stayed Abramovich would have attempted to sign the likes of Ronaldo, Totti, etc, but Mourinho appears to be his own man and I reckon that signing the likes of Drogba and Kezman will ultimately be more successful than signing bloated superstars.

[stmichael]

yeah everyone keeps banging on about drogba but kezman for 5 million? that's got to be the bargain of the summer. the guy absolutely smashed van basten and van nistelrooy's goalscoring records at psv. last season he scored 35 goals in 31 games. that's just phenomenal by anyones standards.

[JBG]

I agree.

Had PSV been a bit more successful in the Champions League lately Kezman would probably be valued by them in the £20million bracket, not £5m.

He could be a serious player next year.

Adrian Mutu's agent was quoted on teletext today as saying that Mourinho rates Kezman as his first choice striker.

[RED BEERGOGGLES]

Chelsea will be a serious contenders  this season but I don’t consider them strong enough to challenge Arsenal.
Wenger has retained the nucleus of his side and  the promise of some of his rawest recruits last season will surely  flourish in this campaign, ie Fabregas , Pennant  Senderos  even  Reyes has  yet to show his  extraordinary talent to its  full extent and then theres  Van Persie and Flamini one of the stars of the le Tournoi

Mourinho  seems capable of managing well enough but will he cope with the media pressure and the expectation ,and there is still a question mark as to whether his new acquisitions  will be able to integrate into the team  sufficiently  quickly enough to mount an assault on the title .

Chelsea’s  new signings  are good players , Kezman being the most impressive but  Robben  although a talented player seems very lightweight  and his crossing can be abysmal at times ,as for Mourinho’s
Defensive  buys  Ferreria was awesome for Porto  last season  whereas Carvalhio was less than impressive  albeit a good Euro 2004 .

My team would consist of :

Keepers Niemi ,Howard ,Van de sar .

Defenders Lauren,Finnan,Mellberg,Campbell Southgate,Cole,Riise .

Midfielders
Gerrard,Lampard,Parker,Duff,Smeurtin,Okocha Scholes .

Forwards Cisse,Pongolle,Angel,Owen,Henry

[JBG]

An interesting selection there BeerGoggles.

There's talk today of Vieira's move to Real Madrid breaking down, although I believe it will be pushed through eventually, as Arsenal have effectively given in to Vieira moving and are (rightly) trying to suck as much money from Madrid as possible.

Had Vieira stayed I doubt nobody could touch Arsenal again, but he would be a massive loss for them. True, they missed him for all of last October and November and did superbly without him, but having him injured on the sidelines os a different thing to having him strolling around the Bernabau in a Real shirt. I think his leaving will also be a pyschological blow to the club and might leave them prone to being caught this season.

Man UTD have a lot of problems as RVN is having an operation next week and will miss all of August and perhaps a week or two in September. Solskjaere's injuries show no sign of clearing up and they will miss Heinze and Ronaldo for the start of the season.

I think Chelsea will do extremely well next season, and will give Arsenal a real run for their money.

[RED BEERGOGGLES]

I think you have made well thought out predictions there JBG ,but I honestly  pray for the sake of English football Chelsea fail abysmally and Abramovic is disheartened  enough to  abandon  Chelsea  and the League he has tainted with his arrogance .

Roman Abramovic sounds the death knells for football in this country  ,clubs are motivated enough by greed without  managers  fearful there best players are about to be sold for an exorbitant price .

What next if Liverpool are ahead of Chelsea will Cisse be apprehended at all costs  afterall Abramovic can virtually put his name to blank cheques.

It will indeed be a sad day if Chelsea are Champions come May   
 

[JBG]

I agree BeerGoggles.

Unfortunately theres little we can do other than to beat Chelsea on the pitch.

[XSD]

I think I'll say:

Gk: Van der sar, Howard, Niemi

Defence: Ferdinand (if he counts atm), Hyypia, Terry, Campbell, A.Cole, Carvalho, G.Neville

Midfield: Lampard, Gerrard, C.Ronaldo, Kewell, Duff, Keane, Gilberto, Viera (if he stays, otherwise, dare I say Wright-Phillips)

Strikers: Owen, Henry, V'Nistelrooy, Kezman

[Gareth G]

GK: Dudek, Howard, Niemi.

DF: G. Neville, Hyypia, Terry, Campbell, Amoroso, A. Cole, Riise.

MDF: Wright-Phillips, Gerrard, Lampard, Viera, Duff, Ronaldo, Robben.

FDW: Henry, Cisse, Kezman, Van Nistlerooy, Drogba.