dylanjamesbelli'm follow the premier league so forgive me if the la liga team is not up to scratch.
please feel free to give me your thoughts&suggestions.
30.08.2011
brunosxtWhere is Sneijder ????? and the midfield of the la liga team is wrong , Xavi is most deffensive than Ozil and Iniesta!
30.08.2011
mojojojo101
Thats what I'd go for
EPL XI: Rafael-despite being much younger than Sagna I think he is much more reliable when fit.
Nani: Seems he is incredibly underated by a lot of people, he can cross and shoot with both feet and is especially dangerous when operating from the RHS.
Apart from that I picked the same side as you.
La Liga XI: Alves mived across to the RHS where he is strongest, and Marcelo in at LB... Abidal and Coentrao could also be considered as the best in the league.
Went for Javi Martinez in defensive midfield, Busquets, Mascherano, Alonso and Sahin come close but I reckon Martinez's all-round quality knicks it for him.
30.08.2011
david1993it looks like u watch madrid and barca only
30.08.2011
paadfoot
La Liga: @david1993, it looks like you're the one who doesn't watch La Liga, Barça and Madrid are by miles the best sides in Spain, and the only player who doesn't play for any of them and would fit in their sides is Giuseppe Rossi.
Of course there are other great players in Spain, like Roberto Soldado, Nilmar, Javi Martínez, Fernando Llorente, Falcao, Pablo Hernandéz... but they don't compare with the players from Barça and Madrid, which is quite the main reason that the La Liga champion will be the winner from El Clasico.
EPL: This is much harder a team to build than the spanish one, you have hard decisions in every position, and even to decide the best formation. I went with Johnson mostly because he has more experience than Rafael/Smalling/Kelly and both Zabaleta and Bosingwa aren't that big of a deal. I find Ferdinand and Vidic the best defence duo in the world, that's why they would make it to my top 11, even if there are other great defenders like Terry, Kompany, Agger, Dawson, Cahill...
Evra is purely a style choice, as I find people could go either with Ashley Cole or Gaël Clichy on the left.
Yaya Touré and Essien would give the dinamic the team needs on this 4-4-2, but of course there are other great players on this position, but in different styles, like Lucas/Anderson/Adam/Ramires/Modric/Meireles...
Nani and Young on the wings which is also more of a style choice than technichal one, as one could argue that Silva/Nasri/Downing could make the top 11.
Rooney and Suárez are, in my opinion, the best strikers in England now.
31.08.2011
lwl91Pique over Carvalho????? Has none noticed that Pique only can play good football in barca with barca teammates? Carvalho is the best defender i la liga!! (I am neither barca nor madrid fan)
31.08.2011
IceFalcon@ Paadfoot: Great team, I would only replace Ferdinand with Terry, Rossi with Villa (Why did you choose Rossi over Villa or Pedro?) and Busquets with Xabi Alonso (I know he isn't a true CDM, but his passing ability is undoubted and he has loads of experience in both leagues and he is just a classy player overall.)
31.08.2011
paadfoot@IceFalcon: I find Rossi an amazing player! He is a better goalscorer than Pedro, and I am not that big of a fan from David Villa (even though he obviously is a great player). Right winger isn't Rossi's natural position, but he could play there if needed, and he also offers the option to change positions with Messi and Ronaldo. Busquets over Xabi Alonso is also more of a personal option, both are amazing players, but I find Busquets better defensively and he is a good passer, even if not as good as Xabi Alonso.
31.08.2011
Peanut
Liga Zon Sagres XI beat that teams.
03.09.2011
IceFalcon@paadfoot: Yes, I guess whether Alonso is better than Busquets is mostly a personal preference. Anyway, it looks to me that the EPL team would have a really tough opponent in the La Liga team and would surely get beaten just because the La Liga XI have the 3 best players around ATM (Ronaldo, Messi and Xavi)... I never really watched Rossi play and wasn't aware that he's a great player and still young. He should definitely go to a bigger side than Villareal then. Perhaps Arsenal?
03.09.2011
04.09.2011
04.09.2011
david1993@mbillionton10 so agger is better than vidic,kompany,and other possibles that not right. nd i am united fan cole cud be selected over ervra but evra is gud
04.09.2011
mbillington10I was going for a Premier League team that would be good at keeping the ball.
Phrases like 'player x is way better than player y' are redundant. Some players are better at certain things than others. Aggressive defenders like Vidic, Kompany, or Terry, tend to struggle against Barcelona-type football. For example, Pepe keeps getting sent off, and Vidic was dragged out of position numerous times in the Champions League Final. Whereas defenders who do well against those types of teams tend to have greater positional sense, such as Ferdinand or Carvalho. I chose Agger and Vermalen because those two have very strong positional skills and offer better passing than the other defenders. As dominating as those defenders you suggested are in the Premier League, where they face numerous long balls and forwards such as Carroll, Kenwyne Jones, Crouch, a Spanish team would pose a different set of problems that would require a different skill set.
I wouldn't mind either of Evra or Cole to be honest, both excellent players, but the premier league did a statistical comparison of the performance of the left backs last season, and Evra's stats were better than Cole's defensively, he won more aerial duels and more ground duels whilst his attacking stats were very similar, so I went with him.
04.09.2011
paadfoot@IceFalcon: Yes, I find Rossi should really play in a bigger team, this season he almost went for Juventus, but i think that wouldn't be the right move in his carreer, he could do really well in England (Arsenal...)
@mbillington: I find your Premier League XI kind of emulates Barcelona style - mostly light players with pace and great passers. Even though I think that nowadays that is the best way to play football, you can't really win like that against the masters and "founders" of such style of play.
04.09.2011
david1993@mbillington u went for agger when gary cahill is much better and then u can switch vermalen to lcb and cahill to rcb to have better balance
04.09.2011
mbillington10Padfoot I agree totally, playing this way against a team who have perfected it would probably end in defeat. But I went with it as I'd rather see that style played than the catenaccio tactics of Mourinho. The only teams I can think of who went to Barcelona to try to emulate their passing game is Arsenal and Villareal. Arsenal ended up beating them despite being dominated for large parts of the game, and Villareal played really well and were unlucky not to win. Barcelona are known to work constantly on tactics designed to break down stubborn teams. I think it would be interesting to see if a team with players of a similar ability try to dominate possession, rather than just concede it and try counter attacking, would be a good game.
david1993...Cahill better than Agger? The only plausible reason I can think for you honestly believing that is a Manchester United bias. Agger is one of the best defenders in the world, no doubt. Liverpool's win percentage with him in the team is almost double that without him, and the team's performances are much better when he plays. He is one of the only defenders in the world who can dribble the ball out from defence, and his long range passing is a great weapon against teams who sit back. Gary Cahill is nowhere near Agger's level. He might be the man of the moment in the media, and I personally think he is a very good player, but he's not in Agger's class. In fact, Mancini, Villas Boas, and Wenger all refused to pay more than 10mil for him, and Wenger was said to have been put off by his performance in Bolton's 5-0 defeat to Stoke. He has no champions league experience and only a handful of international caps. I agree that having one right footer and one left footed player would give better balance, but many teams play with two right footed defenders, such as Ferdinand and Vidic, so I don't see that it would be a problem.
I'd have Agger over any defender the premier league has to offer, but that's my personal opinion. Either way, if you've watched him live and regularly then there's really no doubting that he's a world class defender. Only injuries have prevented him from being mentioned in the same breath as players such as Lucio and Puyol.
04.09.2011
david1993@mbilligton10 im not doubtin aggers ability he is a class defender(dnt like sayin it tho) he has his injurys i agree which prevents him gettin the credit he deserves he deserves his left leg is very class for a defender.
i didnt phrase that the way i ment to all i really ment for the balance of team cahill rcb wud give better balance
if agger wasnt injured as much it wud show in liverpool resluts they wud have more clean sheets
04.09.2011
mbillington10Ah I see, sorry I thought you were saying Agger didn't have the quality, my mistake. I did want to swap one of them for a right footed player, but didn't know if any other defenders had similar passing abilities as Vermalen and Agger. Both of them seem to join their team's attack which helps to add a new dimension to the teams play. If there is a right footer with these qualities I would happily swap them. Saying that, Vidic looked superb on the ball in the Community Shield, but sometimes I do worry about him picking up a red card.
04.09.2011
david1993agger is underated by lot of people. vidic isnt the best wit the ball or for long passin,
vincent kompany was a midfielder and he is a class defender now nd is gud on the ball
04.09.2011
06.09.2011
IceFalcon@ Ravenbarber: Great team, but are you sure Iniesta would feel comfortable playing so deep in midfield? Fabregas is a great player, but he has only played some matches in La Liga and IMO he doesn't deserve being in a La Liga XI.. yet.
Why did you choose Valdes over Casillas?
06.09.2011
king1319my 2 cents
11.09.2011
15.09.2011
manutdtillidieShould of been called pl x11 vs bacelona and real madrid
24.09.2011
