All time best XI

[Theon]

--------------Schmeichel/Kahn-------------

Cafu - Beckenbauer - Baresi - Maldini--------

---------------Keane ----------------------

------Iniesta-----------Xavi----------------

--Messi-------------------Maraddona-------

------------Fat Ronaldo--------------------

I really like this team. Although one change I would make is to drag Xavi back next to Keane and play them both as CM's, rather than Keane as a DM, and then swap Iniesta for Zidane.

-------------Schmeichel-------------

Cafu-------Nesta----Baresi-------Maldini--

--------Keane---------Xavi-------------

--Messi--------Zidane-------Maraddona---

------------Fat Ronaldo---------------

Edit - Also brought Nesta in just to carry on the theme of modern players.

 

[Revan]

Matthaus-Rijkaard would be a far better platform to let Messi-Maradona-Cruyff and Pelé/Ronaldo focus on what they do best.

Yeah definitely this would be far more balanced. That duo in midfield with the defense behind it would have made a team that would concede a goal every 2 months. Also the front 4 is amazing.

But a lot of great attacking players would have been out of the team.

 

[antohan]

Yeah definitely this would be far more balanced. That duo in midfield with the defense behind it would have made a team that would concede a goal every 2 months. Also the front 4 is amazing.

But a lot of great attacking players would have been out of the team.

Question is whether you want to win leagues and cups or run the football equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters

 

[Mr. MUJAC]

What is it about Carlos Alberto that impressed you so much Mujac, if you don't mind my asking? Did you think he looked better in '70 than any other Brazil right back you've seen? I think you're right in that any team without Di Stefano is incomplete, it's just where to fit him in.

Schmeichel

D. Santos Scirea Baresi Maldini

Beckenbauer
Cruyff---- Di Stéfano

Messi----Pelé----Maradona​

To be fair there isn't a lot in it...Cafu v Alberto....but Carlos always seemed to take my breath away when he went forward...maybe I was just an impressionable kid and if I analysed it it would be a harder call.

Di Stefano is a 'shoe-in' every day of the week.

 

[Dirty Schwein]

I really like this team. Although one change I would make is to drag Xavi back next to Keane and play them both as CM's, rather than Keane as a DM, and then swap Iniesta for Zidane.

-------------Schmeichel-------------

Cafu-------Nesta----Baresi-------Maldini--

--------Keane---------Xavi-------------

--Messi--------Zidane-------Maraddona---

------------Fat Ronaldo---------------

Edit - Also brought Nesta in just to carry on the theme of modern players.

Have some respect one of the greatest strikers in football history does not deserve to be called Fat Ronaldo. Call him The Original Ronaldo

 

[Ringo 07]

For me, Iniesta ahead of Cruyff is madness, as is Keane over Rijkaard or Matthaus.

Even in a modern version I'm not sure I'd have Keane in there, probably Redondo.

Well you could argue that having Iniesta ahead of Zidane, Zico, Cruyff, Platini, Pirlo etc is madness......all those players could claim to have been much better at beating a defender or scoring lots of goals or setting lots up but never before have 2 midfielders dominated opposition midfields at club and international level so much as Xavi and Iniesta so they both have to be in the best XI for me. Besides with Maradona, Messi and Luis Ronaldo up front then you don't really need another Messi type player in midfield like Zidane to run past people!

 

[Fergus' son]

I would argue that! Maybe not so much with Pirlo though...

For me, Cruyff has to be in an all time team.

 

[Revan]

I would argue that! Maybe not so much with Pirlo though...

For me, Cruyff has to be in an all time team.

Only Messi, Pele and Maradona deserves more than him to be in an all time team (talking only about attacking players). Even them are not that much ahead of him though.

 

[Ringo 07]

I would argue that! Maybe not so much with Pirlo though...

For me, Cruyff has to be in an all time team.

Brazilians would tell you Zico was on another level to Cryuff

 

[Claymore]

Luis Ronaldo is overrated.

98 caps for Brazil 68 goals, 2 World cups, 1 final, all time top scorer in WC, European player of the year and scored bucketloads for PSV, Barca, Real Madrid, Inter. You must be mental mate, Bobby Robson would be spinning in his grave!!

 

[Raees]

Ideally you would get something from his days at Peñarol or Inter PA as he was surrounded by better players than with Chile.

Below you can find a clip with his interventions in their game against Germany in 1974. Watch at ~1:20 or so, that was a classic Figueroa ruse. Sounds incredibly risky, but when closed down by a forward he would often knock the ball off him, just as you do if you want it to go out for a goal kick or outball, but the nutter would do that in the middle of the box.

It was supposed to confuse the other player, which I don't buy as a great trick. I was always of the opinion it was more a case of him dissing the forward and showing him how composed and in complete control he was.

Damn.. he's so easy on the eye, doesn't mind putting his foot in when he needs to either.

I've got full games of both the West Germany and Australia games posted plus his game v East Germany in the same World Cup + his appearances in '66 and '82 and a few games of him for Internacional (when he was reigning South American FOTY). The rapidshare links are dead but I can upload them myself if you're interested?

Yeah that would be great, but only if its not too much hassle.