One 2 Eleven

[ruud]

A game my mates and I like to play - those who watch Fantasy Football Club on Sky will be aware of how this works - is to pick the best eleven players of your (or another) football club.

The rules are as follows -

1. You must have seen them play for your club - so no picking Charlton, Edwards, Law & Best for me (or Matthews & Mortensen at Blackpool).
2. They must be in a plausible formation - otherwise we'd be mostly playing 1-3-6
3. Please state what time period you are picking from

Could work well on here - would be interesting to see Tighty's Leicester XI, Tal's Spurs or Tikay name the best Wanderers XI from their 5 FA Cup triumphs in the 1870's.

I'm a Man United fan, so the first one here might be a bit boring i'm afraid, but here goes. 1991 onwards....

GK - Schmeichel (close with Van der Sar, but big Pete was best in the world at his peak)

RB - G.Nev (only Ivanovic comes close in EPL over last 20 years)
CB - Stam
CB - Vidic (hard as nails this pairing - I loved Rio obv but Vidic shades it for me. Stam is best Centre-Half United have ever had in my opinion).
LB - Denis Irwin - no contest

RM - Ronaldo - Becks is my fave ever, but to leave out Ronaldo is impossible. Best Player ever to wear United Red.
CM - Keane (if I was 10 years older I am sure I'd be picking Robson here)
CM - Scholes - obv
LM - Giggs

CF - Cantona - the catalyst for all the 90's success. Best 1.1 million ever spent in football
CF - Van Nistelrooy - ridiculously efficient in front of goal (Rooney & Solskjaer very unlucky to miss out)

let's see what the rest of you come up with. you don't have to do your own club remember!

[TightEnd]

this won't be very exciting compared to some clubs or teams, as a provincial middling size club, but anyway

i first saw Leicester in 1974. My team when asked this question tends to be biased towards those players i revered when i was a kid, rather than recent players where i have the more jaundiced air of someone watching the team for 40 years

but anyway

GK Peter Shilton.

In my first match i sat with my uncle in the family stand at one end of Filbert street. Before kick off, a figure all in white strode towards us. No gloves. Black hair, thick built. Peter Shilton. Kept a clean sheet, caught everything. Waled off at half time without a grass mark on his kit.

Left for Stoke soon after



RB Steve Whitworth

Steve Whitworth, the right back from the Bloomfield team. All unhurried class. hardly ever missed a match, picked for Egland while playing for Leicester too, which is and was a rarity

CB Steve Walsh

Folk hero over 500 games. Hard man in the Little/O'Neill teams. Better footballer than given credit for, if he wasn't such a disciplinary liability as a left footed centre half would have been transferred to a big side and played for England. These days, would never see a full 90 minutes out without a red.

CB Graham Cross

Not the best footballer you'd see, but a legend as he holds the all time appearance record and when i first started watching he was a figure of awe, because he played first class cricket too.

Later, owned a post office and was sent to prison for fraud.

LB Dennis Rofe

A londoner signed by Bloomfield, and i just missed David Nish playing for Leicester so he will have to do. Maurauding left back. to be frank not a position with a lot of competition in this team

RM Keith Weller.

Proper flair midfielder, would glide past opponents. White tights on match of the day, if you remember. Legend has it that he was playing away on the Friday night before the Saturday cup tie and on the Saturday morning on the way back from the supermarket, his Mrs found the white tights under the front seat of their car. On the spot, Keith came up with that he was wearing the tights on the Saturday afternoon because of the cold. His wife bought it, but he was pot committed

Sadly died of Cancer a decade or so ago, after emigrating to the NASL and Seattle



CM Muzzy Izzett

It was Martin O'Neill's first game and we were 2-0 down at home to Sheff Utd. We had just got him on loan from Chelsea reserves, even then there was no route for youngster into the Chelsea team. We ended up signing him and he was brilliant for years. Classy ball player, and would get in front of the front two too.

played in a world cup semi for turkey

Scored the best goal i have seen for Leicester live, twice. the overhead speaks for itself, the spurs goal more for the occasion 





CM Neil Lennon

the real strength of O'Neill's Leicester sides, plucked out of Crewe for Peanuts and protected the back four for several years.

LM Lenny Glover

I can still remember the song now.

"Lenny Lenny Glover, Lenny Glover on the w-w-wing"

I only saw him when he was already 30 but he was a real get you out of your seat winger. Would knock it past the full back, and hare past him long hair flowing to try to cross for Worthington and the rest.

Sitting pitchside on my early games you could hear his broad cockney accent "oi ref, he ***ing pulled me back" Seemed exotic to me at the time

After he retired, got sent down for cocaine smuggling.

he just beats out the best left foot i have ever seen, Steve Guppy, for this spot


CF Frank Worthington.

We had him at his absolute peak 1972-77. For my birthday i was taken to a midweek night match against Leeds. The great Leeds side, all in yellow. We sat in the double decker and i couldn't see the goal at the kop end. Anyway direct from a Wallington goal kick Frank gets the ball on the far touchline and traps it out of the sky on his thigh. He is immediately surrounded by Hunter and McQueen with Bremner closing in. Frank knocks the ball up twice on the thigh and back heel flicks it over Hunter's head, turns past him and runs down the wing

A one off.



CF Gary Lineker

100 goals for us starting at 17 before Everton, Barcelona, Spurs and Japan. Lethal finisher even when he was very raw. Blistering pace and the partnership with Alan Smith, who created a lot of his goals with target man flick ons for Gary to run on to got us promoted
 

[Kmac84]

Artur Boruc - solid and reliable, great shot stopper and had heart of a lion.  

Danny McGrain - quite simply one of the best ever.  
Paul Eliiot - Came to Celtic at a time when we needed a commanding centre half and he was tough as old boots.
Marc Rieper - A superb centre back who could play a bit.   Career at Celtic cut short due to injury.
Tommy Boyd - could really fit him anywhere along the back 4, in hs early days he was a reliable and pacey full back as he got that bit older he moved to the middle and what he lacked in size made up for in positional sense.

Paolo Di Canio - Hated everything he stood for but as a footballer he was incredible.  So much talent and skill.
Paul Lambert - Incredible player for Celtic bossed the midfield and done the smple things effectively and banged in some proper strikes.  
Victo Wanyama - Simply awesome player for us, he was a slow starter but once he made his mark you could see what Celtic scouts seen when they first signed him.  
Lubo Moravcik - A genius, its a shame he signed for us at the back end of his career.  I wish we'd got him in his 20's.

Henrik Larsson - The greatest Celtic player I have ever seen.  The best foreign import to Scottish football.  He had it all.
Brian McClair - a very clever player who could play either up front or in the middle of the park, I think he'd have been an awesome foil fo Larrson.  

There are so many other players who would be unlucky not to make my team the likes of Aitken, McStay, Petrov, McNammara, Burns, Colins, Van Hooijdink.  But I have tried to have players who have either done it with us or went on to offer another team something so the allegations of soft SPL couldn't be levelled at them.  In some casses players had already proven their worth when before they came.

[celtic]

I'll pick my team later, but had to pull kmac up on wanyama>>><mcstay.

Just checked and wanyama played 60 games for celtic. Mcstay 515. Mcstay was a class above anybody else in that position for most of his playing career, and as you said, wanyama was a slow starter. Therefore I can't have that.

[Kmac84]

I'll pick my team later, but had to pull kmac up on wanyama>>><mcstay.

Just checked and wanyama played 60 games for celtic. Mcstay 515. Mcstay was a class above anybody else in that position for most of his playing career, and as you said, wanyama was a slow starter. Therefore I can't have that.

I remember more of McStay at the back end of his career and for me that was injury, lack of success, poor leadership.  It doesn't matter how many games he played, look at the number of games Peter the pointer and Mike Galloway played, neither fit to lace Wanyama's boots.  The big fella was 19 when he broke into the team but bossed the midfield in Celtic's biggest games. 

[celtic]

You don't remember paul mcstay but remember Danny McGrain and Brian mcClair?

[david3103]

Manchester United including those who came before the Premier League

Stepney - in another era he'd have got over 100 caps, but he played concurrently with Banks, Shilton and Clemence. His save from Eusebio in 68 kept us in the game.

RB - has to be Neville, G.
CB - Bill Foulkes. A Titan in a time when the game was substantially more physical than it is today.
CB - Nemanja Vidic. From the same mould as Foulkes two generations on.
LB - Dennis Irwin. Doubt anyone will find a better option and Ruud is absolutely correct.

Midfield - tough area, we have such a depth of history here, but let's have Ronaldo on the right, Scholes in the centre and Giggs on the left.

Up front? Can't leave out any of George Best, Denis Law, or Bobby Charlton.

We may concede a few with that line up, but I'm certain we'd score more.

[Kmac84]

You don't remember paul mcstay but remember Danny McGrain and Brian mcClair?

I remember more of McStay at the back end.

[maldini32]

I'm gonna do Italy team 1994 onwards.

Keeper:

Buffon - best keeper in the world for such a long time. I remember when he was at Parma thinking this guy is gonna be outrageous. He got sold for a world record fee for a keeper 32 mil, still stands I believe.

Gianluca Pagiluca deserves a mention, he was the keeper at the 94 world cup. Really good keeper, a moment that will always live in my memory was around the 84th minute Mazinho (i think, midfield partner of dunga) had a shot from around 25 yards out it was straight down pagilucas through but it popped out hit the inside of the post and bounced back into Pagilucas arms. I absolutely shat myself. This was the world cup final.

Right Back:

Gianluca Zambrotta - absolute machine up and down the right flank. One of the most versatile players to play at the absolute pinnacle of the sport, could play either full back or wide midfield role.

Left Back:

Paolo Maldini - The greatest defender I've ever watch play, graceful, elegant and an absolute rock. In 2006 really felt for him, he should have been part of the world cup winning team. One of the most unluckest players in major finals. Lost 94 world cup final on pens, lost euro 2000 final to golden goal after conceding late into injury time in normal time. My hero

Centre Back:

Fabio Cannavaro - Won ballon d'or in 2006ish, only defender to win it as far as im aware

Franco Baresi - Just absolute class. I remember 94 world cup final he'd been out injured for most of it came back in the final and maldini went back to left back (he'd been filliing in at centre back) and he put in absolute masterclass of a performance. I shed a tear when he missed the first pen.

Midfield:

Demetrio Albertini, Andrea Pirlo, Gattuso - the least talented player in this team but the one with the biggest heart. His partnership with Pirlo in 06 was pivotal to the cup win.

Forwards:

Roberto Baggio - Never desrved to miss the crucial penalty in 94 after he carried the team to the final.

Francesco Totti - Brilliant.

Christian Vieri - If he cared more he could have been the best forward of his generation.

Special mentions for Nesta, Costacurta and Del Pierro.

[Horneris]

GK Nigel Martyn
RB Sam Byram
CB Lucas Radebe
CB Johnathan Woodgate
LB Tony Dorigo
RM Lee Bowyer
CM David Batty
CM Gary McCallister
LM Harry Kewell (unfortunately)
ST Jermaine Beckford
ST Marc Viduka

[Mark_Porter]

A Southampton 11 post Le Tissier.

GK - Antti Niemi

RB - Jason Dodd
CB - Claus Lundekvam
CB - Michael Svensson
LB - Gareth Bale

RM - Theo Walcott
CM - Adam Lallana
CM - Matt Oakley
LM - Andrew Surman

F - Rickie Lambert
F - Marian Pahars

Lundekvam and Svensson were a fantastic partnership and will never forget Pahars lap of honour at the end of his final season. A true character.

[OverTheBorder]

Hearts - 1990-2015

GK - Craig Gordon - his video of saves from our almost year is just obscene.
LB - Takis Fysass - Euro Champ Winning Greek International, looked utter class even if we got him late
CB - David Weir - Mr reliable and long serving stalwart
CB - Craig Levein - Would have been a real star if injury didn't get him
RB - Thomas Flogel - played every position, great for the team
LM - Neil McCann - great youth product
CM - Gary McKay - got the tail end of him but club legend and still had it
CM - Colin Cameron - gave everything for the team. All action. Some great goals
RM - Rudi Skacel -  scored a barrel load. Came back, loves the club
FW - John Robertson - top scorer ever for the club. Must be
FW - Edgaras Jankauskis - Euro Cup winner with Porto, looked a touch above.

[Karabiner]

Arsenal 1957-2015

GK: Jack Kelsey. One of the world's top two 'keepers with the great Lev Yashin.
RB:  Lauren. Hard as nails with talent to match.
LB:  Ashley Cole. I know, but he was ever so good at footie.
CD: Tony Adams. Mr Arsenal.
CD:  David O'Leary. Great player in his day and record number of appearances.
RM:  Robert Pires. Swoon.
CM:  Patrick Vieira. Had it all and if we only had him in our tean today.
LM:  George Armstrong. The heartbeat of George Graham's double winners.
RM:  Charlie George. Incredible talent, nothing was beyond him
ST:  Dennis Bergkamp. aka God.
ST:  Thierry Henry. Record goal-scorer and sublime striker.

I can't believe that I've left out the likes of Ian Wright, David Seaman, Frank McLintock, Sol Campbell, Martin Keown, and The Romford Pele but unfortunately they'll have to be on my bench.

[DungBeetle]

Watford 1987 to 2015

Coton   Amazing keeper and prolific brawler in pubs
Gibbs   Mr Watford
Kennedy   Comedy long range shooting fullback
McClelland   Deceptively quick great anticipation
Angella   Rolls Royce of a defender great haircut
Abdi   Genius at keeping attacks going
Jackett   Consistent and amazing penalty taker
Barnes   Say no more
Young   Great when as a pacey fearless youth player
Loofa   Legend although I missed his best
Deeney   20 goals in consecutive 3 seasons

[Tal]

Nice thread. Will have a think.