AuthorBoth Outcasts After indicating what our all-time top 11 team would be, check it out if you haven’t already, we thought we would try our hand at coming up with another fantasy style team. With it being the year the British and Irish Lions rugby side come to the southern hemisphere we thought why not a football version? Again the only caveat was that we had to have watched these players play during our lifetime and this time we have requested fellow bloggers @SportingMad to submit teams. I shall let my fellow Outcast kick the teams off though, then the Sporting Mad team will provide their teams before I round off this top 11. So down to Sports Billy to start. Sports Billy - Fellow Outcast
Right, here goes, here my Top British and Irish First 11…and some subs! GK: Peter Shilton The obvious choice surely? If you earn 125 caps for England, play over 1,000 professional games and have won 2 European Cups you've got to be pretty useful in between the posts? RB: Gary Neville Thoroughly unlikeable bloke as a player, but an absolute winner, so makes the squad for his relentless commitment and reliability. CB: Paul McGrath Much like his team mate playing in midfield (who we’ll get to in a bit), he battled with inner demons off the pitch, but was a tough tackling no-nonsense central defender who played for some of England’s top sides and also for Ireland on the world stage. CB: Rio Ferdinand Although prone to lapses in concentration, Rio was an elegant centre back that was easily able to play out from the back and a great reader of the game. The closest player England ever had to a Beckenbaur? MF: Steven Gerrard If we can convince Stevie G that he is actually playing for Liverpool rather than a combined international squad then he will be awesome! An absolute engine room of a player who gave 100% every week and could score goals from anywhere on the pitch. MF: Paul Scholes The player that endless England managers failed to fully appreciate and utilise to the best of his abilities. Strange, especially given that the likes of Xavi and Zidane praise him as being one the best players they have ever seen play the game. MF: Paul Gascgoine One of the most talented players of his generation who could have gone on to greater things, if only he didn’t have to battle his inner demons. If you aren’t familiar with his work Youtube his performance against Scotland in Euro 96. MF: Ryan Giggs Its testament to the player that people would wish he had played for England during a time England lacked any quality left sided players. CF: Gareth Bale One word - Speed! Not the most skilful of players, but when he takes flight and goes direct, not many opposition defenders can catch him. The other two strikers in this side would love to feed off his of crosses into the box. CF: Mark Hughes Strong, powerful and angry! When Hughes came on the pitch he would battle to the death for the duration of the game. Also able to score goals from both inside and outside of the box. CF: Gary Lineker The ultimate fox in the box (literally as he is former player and supporter of Leicester City) he was a proven, prolific goal scorer wherever he went. He could also supply the team with crisps! Subs GK: Neville Southall – Cos every team should have an ex-bin man in it! DF: Dennis Irwin – The most “un-football player looking player” ever? Discuss. MF: Roy Keane – Do not cross this man! He could start a fight in a phone box, whilst in there on his own, but he is a determined and efficient midfield general. MF: Paul Lambert – Scotland’s most successful foreign export? CF: Alan Shearer – Dull pundit but powerful and exciting player. There is no rhyme or reason to the above and I am sure there are some glaring omissions, but these are some of the most interesting and exciting players from Britain and Ireland that I have seen in my time watching football. James – Sporting Mad podcaster Very tough one, and first of all, off the bat want to give honourable mentions to: Mark Hughes, Robbie Fowler, Robbie Keane, Paul Ince, Paul Gascoigne, Gary McAllister, David Seaman, Teddy Sheringham, Michael Owen, Denis Irwin, Owen Hargreaves, Gary Speed, Ledley King and Sol Campbell. Here goes…. I have opted for an attacking 4-1-3-2 formation. GK: Shay Given Mr consistency for 12 years at Newcastle. Yes he has played for Man City but can’t hold that against him. Gets in ahead of Seaman mainly due to having a sensible haircut and not getting beat from distance often. RB: Gary Neville A stalwart for club and country in the late 1990s and through the 2000s. Won lots of trophies. Often harshly criticised in his playing days as not being glamorous enough, Red Nev endeared himself to Utd fans. No greater RB playing in England at the time. CB: Rio Ferdinand A rock for club and country, also managed to win a fair few trophies. Not many better ball playing centre-backs. Also managed to get between the sticks occasionally when called upon. CB: John Terry I wrestled with this one, but he gets in ahead of Sol Campbell… just. While an utterly deplorable character he was also a very good footballer. Consistent and a mainstay for both Chelsea and England. LB: Ashley Cole Another deplorable character who also happened to be a good footballer in his day. Cashley Cole will always be a comic strip villain due to engineering his move to Chelsea, but was pretty successful and has a large trophy cabinet (and bank balance) to vindicate his decisions. DM: Steven Gerrard Pretty much the only Liverpool player any Utd fan will admit to secretly admiring. A player of his calibre really should have won the Premier League at least once. He was the engine room of a number of average Liverpool teams who never gave up and wore his heart on his sleeve. RW: David Beckham Who else? Free kick specialist, scorer of outrageous goals, poster boy of the late 90s Premier League. Becks had it all. Often derided by opposition fans for his off-field fame, and made a scape-goat by the press for England’s 1998 world Cup exit, he rebuilt his reputation to become one of the best footballers of his generation. There was not a schoolboy up and down the country that didn’t attempt ‘that’ half-way line goal vs Wimbledon in 1996. CM / AM: Paul Scholes Under-rated when playing but undoubtedly one of the best if not the best player of his generation. Footballing luminaries such as Xavi and Zidane looked up to and studied videos of Paul Scholes in action. Prematurely ended his International career due to frustrations on being shoe-horned into a team and pushed out to the left-wing. Amassed an incredible trophy haul and should go down as one of the greats. A nice guy too. LW: Ryan Giggs The poster boy of the Premier League before David Beckham. What is there to say about Giggsy that hasn’t already been said? An amazing career with an incredible trophy haul, that will unlikely be unbeaten for some time. A true one-club legend. FW: Gareth Bale Somewhat controversial, but you have to find a place for the Worlds most expensive player… especially if he’s Welsh! Set the world alight at Spurs (after a rocky start) following his move further up the field from left-back. Scored some incredibly goals and dragged the team kicking and screaming into the Champions League. Was a big fish in a small pond before his move to Madrid where he has gone on to win 2 Champions Leagues in 3 years, all while dragging Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016. FW: Alan Shearer Back in the day, Alan Shearer was one of the first names on any Fantasy team. He was guaranteed goals. Should have won more Premier League titles than his solitary one in 1994/95 while at Blackburn…. But that was all his own doing by turning down a move to Man Utd in favour of one to home-town club Newcastle. Remember him for his goal scoring ability in the 1990s and not the boring, miserable git we see on Match of the Day. Subs: Roy Keane – Keano, another play who wore is heart on his sleeve for club and country. Loses out to Gerrard only because Gerrard had a slightly better temperament. Frank Lampard – England proved that no matter how much you try, you just can’t shoe-horn Gerrard and Lampard into the same team, no matter how hard you try. For that reason, Lampard is on the bench. Wayne Rooney – Record England goal-scorer, record Man Utd goal-scorer. Often said he never lived up to his potential, but he’s done alright for himself. A marmite figure amongst fans due to some off-field indiscretions, constant rumours of his decline and his manoeuvring every few years at Utd asking for a move away in order to negotiate a better contract. But that’s modern football. Andy – Sporting Mad podcaster The other Sporting Mad creator is not a man of many writing words but he has provided us with his team which we here at Outcasts HQ know he will talk about on their podcast. Andy has gone for a standard 4-4-2. So here is Andys British & Irish team: GK: Shay Given RB: Gary Neville CB: Steve Staunton CB: Paul McGrath LB: Dennis Irwin RW: Steve McManaman CM: Roy Keane CM: Frank Lampard LW: Ryan Giggs CF: Alan Shearer CF: Robbie Keane JeffEyesRimmer - Fellow Outcast Ok so last on the list, I have also gone for a straight traditional 4-4-2, below is my team: GK: Neville Southall As my fellow Outcast indicated, he was a former bin man before becoming a Wales and Everton legend. A great goalkeeper that filled the goal, great moustache as well. RB: Gay Neville Put simply he was the best right back in Britain for a long time and won it all in the game. Always reliable and stepped up when needed. LB: Dennis Irwin Irwin was Mr dependable, so much so that Alex Ferguson once stated ‘Honestly, I would say Denis Irwin would be the one certainty to get in the team. I called him an eight out of 10,". "At Highbury in one game, he had a bad pass back in the last minute and [Dennis] Bergkamp came in and scored. After the game the press said: 'You must be disappointed in that pass back.' I said: 'Well, one mistake in 10 years isn't bad.' He was an unbelievable player. CB: Colin Hendry The Scottish defender was a tough tackling, no nonsense defender and was also a leader. Hendry was in the defence that won Blackburn the title in 1994-95 season and I think he would be a fantastic leader in this side. CB: Paul McGrath A man that battled the drink but was a beast of a defender on the pitch. Can you imagine the player he would have been if he hadn’t had such issues off the field? He was great with the ball at his feet, really an unheard of thing back in the day. John Stones should take note on how to be a ball playing centre ball but also know how to defend. RM: David Beckham Maybe not the quickest player to ever grace the right side of the midfield but certainly one of the best crossers of the ball ever. The man could put the ball exactly where it was needed with pinpoint accuracy. Backham putting crosses into the box for my two strikers below would be unreal. He wasn’t bad at free kicks either. CM: Roy Keane The midfield enforcer was a leader and made others around him fight tooth and nail to win games. Yes he went too far on occasions and his personality got him into trouble many times but he was one of the greatest defensive midfielders ever. CM: Steven Gerrard I always preferred it when Stevie G played in the more attacking role and that’s where I would have him here. He always seemed to be at his best when bombing forward to the edge of the area to strike a long ranger. One of the best midfielders of a generation. LM: Ryan Giggs The Welsh wizard is likely to be in everyone’s team really. I wrote more about him in the last fantasy list but his transformation from dribbling king to deep lying midfielder was truly fantastic and showed just how good he was. CF: Ian Rush I cant believe I’m the only one that thought about Ian Rush. He was coming to the end of his career really when I was growing up but he was a natural finisher and one that proved to be excellent for other strikers to learn off. CF: Alan Shearer What can you say about the all-time top scorer in the Premier league? The man was clinical and after injury changed from being about power and pace to instead utilising precision and movement to grab the goals. Yes he is a boring pundit but has there ever been a better goal scorer? I don’t think so. Subs: Michael Owen, Gary Speed, Paul Ince So that’s our picks, what do you guys think? Unfortunately, no Northern Irish players made any of our lists, can you name any that would make the squad? Which team would you rather manage? Who would you pick instead? Send us your teams and we will post them up. There are quite a number of players that we considered and had to leave out left out Also check out the Sporting Mad podcasts. |
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