All-Time Greats

English newspaper The Guardian was holding a poll last week, inviting people to vote for their all-time best XI. Their selection was as follows: Casillas, Cafu, Lucio, Beckenbauer, Lizarazu, Neeskens, Mackay, Matthaus, Tardelli, Maradona, Ronaldo. The reader's response went: Schmeichel, Cafu, Baresi, Beckenbauer, Maldini, Gerrard (no thanks), Maradona, Zidane, Cruyff, Pele, Ronaldo. Fair dos, but....... I've lined mine up in a big-small-big formation (with a big lug goller, obvs..) and only picked players from my lifetime:

GK: Schmeichel

CB: McGrath

CB: Desailly

free role: Zidane

MF: Matthaus

MF: Maradona

MF: Messi

MF: Kinkladze

MF: Juninho

CF: Le Tissier
CF: Ronaldo

I've put Zidane in a free role because he's too big for this team's midfield, but really there are seven free roles here. Bonus 'personality' points were awarded for idiosyncracies such as drinking, not being able to train and being the 'one man' in a one-man team. You might argue that the lads up front aren't all that big (big-small-fat?) but i was struggling for all-time great target men (it's a bit early to be talking about that guy Zigic in this context but, gosh, he's a big lad; if he keeps growing it's going to be hard to keep leaving him out). Why not mix up the formation facets for yours - you could go for a classic hard-hard-handsome, for instance, or a more outré and subjective sound-dead-overpriced.

Crunch pass dribble dribble pass dribble jink jink jink dink GOL!