Best World XI

[Chinners]

Surely Gareth Bale should be in there somewhere, he's worth 60mil apparently.

[Alan D]

Essien's been caught chasing shadows in far too many matches for Chelsea this season. Not writing him off because the entire Chelsea team has been fairly bog-standard but hes struggled to impose himself.

[Alan D]

GK - Casillas

LB - Ashley Cole
CB - Pique
CB - Kompany
RB - Alves

DM - De Jong
M - Iniesta
M - Xavi...but ill go with Xabi Alonso

AM - Hulk (or Silva)
ST - Llorente
AM - Messi

[Dameerto]

Should've just put 4 City players in and shut up shouldn't I?

Amazing how many of the best players in the world we have yet we're only competing for fourth!

Or you could have read the OP's post properly, particularly the bit where he says 'under OUR 4-3-3 system' - you've seen all our games as you mentioned earlier so you should know Nige isn't being asked by Mancini to be a complete DM, box to box DM or whatever other term is in fashion at the moment, he is asked to sit there in front of the back four (especially in the important games) and break up play, slow down their attacks, nudge the ball away from them, maybe occasionally win posession. (In games where we aren't expecting as much pressure on our back four he has a little more licence to get involved particularly when we're at home).

[petrov]

gk - Casillias
rb - Maicon
lb - Cole
cb - Vidic
cb - Chiellini
dm - Essien
mc - Xavi
mc - Ozil
aml - Ronaldo
amr - Messi
st - Villa

[theboltonianblue]

i dont understand how people can leave ronaldo out. yes hes a horrible greasy man, but he is amazing

[CityFanFromRome]

GK - Julio Cesar
LB - Lahm\Evra
RB - Dani Alves
CB - Piquè\Kompany\Juan
CB - Vidic\Thiago Silva
DM - De Jong\Essien\De Rossi
DM - Xavi\Xabi Alonso
M - Iniesta\Sneijder
WG L - Silva\Di Maria
S - Ronaldo\Villa\Tevez
WG R - Messi\Ronaldo

There are, as you can see, many positions where I don't have a clear favourite. It also depends on how some players are acting on the pitch. Ronaldo for example often acts as a striker, while Messi roams all around the attack; however in the past seasons he used to start as a right winger.

[Arjan Van Schotte]

GK - Julio Cesar
LB - Lahm\Evra
RB - Dani Alves
CB - Piquè\Kompany\Juan
CB - Vidic\Thiago Silva
DM - De Jong\Essien\De Rossi
DM - Xavi\Xabi Alonso
M - Iniesta\Sneijder
WG L - Silva\Di Maria
S - Ronaldo\Villa\Tevez
WG R - Messi\Ronaldo

There are, as you can see, many positions where I don't have a clear favourite. It also depends on how some players are acting on the pitch. Ronaldo for example often acts as a striker, while Messi roams all around the attack; however in the past seasons he used to start as a right winger.

Good list there mate. Could we get any of them this summer? Even if we were CL next season surely we'd struggle to get any of them (sneijder maybe - assuming CT is off).

[Mark Garrett]

GK - Casillas

RB - Alves
CB - Kompany
CB - Vidic
LB - A. Cole

CM - Xavi
DM - De Jong
CM - Iniesta

RW - Messi
CF - Villa
LW - Ronaldo

[Bridge'srightfoot]

As good as Dejong is, his passing is not good enough for a world XI, numerous times yesterday he misplaced 4/5 yard passes. Brilliant player but not the same level as Essien. Well not yet anyway.

[Slim]

As good as Dejong is, his passing is not good enough for a world XI, numerous times yesterday he misplaced 4/5 yard passes. Brilliant player but not the same level as Essien. Well not yet anyway.

But he is a goal scoring machine now as well.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

As good as Dejong is, his passing is not good enough for a world XI, numerous times yesterday he misplaced 4/5 yard passes. Brilliant player but not the same level as Essien. Well not yet anyway.

But he is a goal scoring machine now as well.

I like :)
he's brilliant I love him. But look at Barca, every player is so comfortable on the ball and can control and pass it. Dejong's passing and creativity to spot things opening up aren't quite good enough for a world xI.

[bigblue]

As good as Dejong is, his passing is not good enough for a world XI, numerous times yesterday he misplaced 4/5 yard passes. Brilliant player but not the same level as Essien. Well not yet anyway.

But he is a goal scoring machine now as well.

I like :)
he's brilliant I love him. But look at Barca, every player is so comfortable on the ball and can control and pass it. Dejong's passing and creativity to spot things opening up aren't quite good enough for a world xI.

But no one on Barca can tackle and break up play like De Jong (the role of a DM). Hes a key reason of why Holland beat Brazil and made it to the finals

[Bridge'srightfoot]

As good as Dejong is, his passing is not good enough for a world XI, numerous times yesterday he misplaced 4/5 yard passes. Brilliant player but not the same level as Essien. Well not yet anyway.

But he is a goal scoring machine now as well.

I like :)
he's brilliant I love him. But look at Barca, every player is so comfortable on the ball and can control and pass it. Dejong's passing and creativity to spot things opening up aren't quite good enough for a world xI.

But no one on Barca can tackle and break up play like De Jong (the role of a DM). Hes a key reason of why Holland beat Brazil and made it to the finls

Considering Barca are the best team on the planet it doesn't really matter. Also Barca don't need anyone to break up the play because the other team rarely has the ball!

[bigblue]

As good as Dejong is, his passing is not good enough for a world XI, numerous times yesterday he misplaced 4/5 yard passes. Brilliant player but not the same level as Essien. Well not yet anyway.

But he is a goal scoring machine now as well.

I like :)
he's brilliant I love him. But look at Barca, every player is so comfortable on the ball and can control and pass it. Dejong's passing and creativity to spot things opening up aren't quite good enough for a world xI.

But no one on Barca can tackle and break up play like De Jong (the role of a DM). Hes a key reason of why Holland beat Brazil and made it to the finls

Considering Barca are the best team on the planet it doesn't really matter. Also Barca don't need anyone to break up the play because the other team rarely has the ball!

And if the other team steals the ball they can start rolling around and get the ball back. Problem solved!

[Rae4685]

GK - ALAN
LB - ALAN
CB - ALAN
CB - ALAN
RB - ALAN
DM - ALAN
CM - ALAN
CM - ALAN
LW - ALAN
RW - ALAN
CF - JO

[Slim]

As good as Dejong is, his passing is not good enough for a world XI, numerous times yesterday he misplaced 4/5 yard passes. Brilliant player but not the same level as Essien. Well not yet anyway.

But he is a goal scoring machine now as well.

I like :)
he's brilliant I love him. But look at Barca, every player is so comfortable on the ball and can control and pass it. Dejong's passing and creativity to spot things opening up aren't quite good enough for a world xI.

I debate the notion that he isn't comfortable on the ball. Numerous times this season I have seen him trick his way clear of challenges, something completely unexpected from him. His passing has come along in monstrous leaps and bounds this season and having a bad day doesn't necessarily mean he can't pass. I think he is on par with anyone in the world in his position, hard to say who is the clear best and I suppose the easy answer is Essien, but de Jong is certainly on the right development arc to take the crown.

Re:Kompany. Stop it, he is a good defender, probably the best I have seen at City, but best in the world?

[CityFanFromRome]

Good list there mate. Could we get any of them this summer? Even if we were CL next season surely we'd struggle to get any of them (sneijder maybe - assuming CT is off).

To be fair I think the only one we have chance of buying is De Rossi if the new Roma owners decide to sell him and reinvest the money on the market in addition to their funds to rebuild the squad. But it has a really slim chance to happen. All the Barca players are off limits just like those from Real. Juan is 30 years old and I wouldn't go for him, Essien too is getting old imho, he's not worth a big spending.

Sneijder seems to prefer the rags if he were to move to England.

[Esky]

As good as Dejong is, his passing is not good enough for a world XI, numerous times yesterday he misplaced 4/5 yard passes. Brilliant player but not the same level as Essien. Well not yet anyway.

But he is a goal scoring machine now as well.

I like :)
he's brilliant I love him. But look at Barca, every player is so comfortable on the ball and can control and pass it. Dejong's passing and creativity to spot things opening up aren't quite good enough for a world xI.

I debate the notion that he isn't comfortable on the ball. Numerous times this season I have seen him trick his way clear of challenges, something completely unexpected from him. His passing has come along in monstrous leaps and bounds this season and having a bad day doesn't necessarily mean he can't pass. I think he is on par with anyone in the world in his position, hard to say who is the clear best and I suppose the easy answer is Essien, but de Jong is certainly on the right development arc to take the crown.

Re:Kompany. Stop it, he is a good defender, probably the best I have seen at City, but best in the world?

Agree with every single thing in that post. De Jong's passing was off against West Ham but has been generally fantastic this season.

Kompany's great but shouldn't, at present, be displacing Pique/Vidic/Carvalho et al from these lists.

[Avalon]

GK - Akinfeev

LB - Lahm
CB - Kompany
CB - Vidic
RB - Alves

DM - De Jong
M - Iniesta
M - Xavi

AML - Modric
S -Tevez
AMR - Messi

Modric, because I think he's a class player, if not him, I'd put Bale there. I think both players are better than Ronaldo. As for LB, I picked Lahm. I think he's a great player. Vargas from Fiorentina is pretty good too there. I placed Tevez as the striker, as I rate him better than Shrek and placed Xavi in the squad. Ozil is good, but not better than Xavi. Without Xavi, Messi wouldn't get his killer passes. One player I really wanted to place in the squad was Kuyt. I think he's a marvellous player and very underrated