TKP/Eds. Budget Available: £0m. Trades: Arsene Wenger to Speirz/Veri for £4m (Wenger originally bought for £3m) Marcelo to Prez/N11 to for Maxwell & £13m (Marcelo originally bought for £19m) Manager(s): Antonio Conte (£5m) Pep Guardiola (£5m) Squad: GK Rene Adler (£12m) GK Hugo Lloris (£15.5m) GK Morgan de Sanctis (£2m) RB Rafinha (£5.5m) RB Stephan Lichtsteiner (£4.5m) CB Mamadou Sakho (£21m) CB Raphael Varane (£15.5m) CB Thiago Silva (£29m) CB Neven Subotic (£8m) LB Maxwell (trade) LB Jordi Alba (£14.5m) DM Mikel Arteta (£12.5m) CM Arturo Vidal (£32m) CM Nuri Sahin (£13.5m) CM Claudio Marchisio (£10m) AM Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£9.5m) AM Mathieu Valbuena (£6.5m) AM Hernanes (£12m) AM Lucas Moura (£12m) LW Franck Ribery (£23m) ST Giuseppe Rossi (£14m) ST Seydou Doumbia (£7m) ST Edinson Cavani (£19m) ST Robert Lewandowski (£16.5m)
Bit of offensive class via Franck Ribery. I'd have him in that group of players below Messi and Ronaldo, but he's certainly high in that group IMO. Been just incredible this season. Will either sit behind the striker in a 3-5-2 or play out wide in a 4-3-3.
Yeah the 3-5-2 hasn't gone exactly as planned but we wanted to make sure we're covered for a 4-3-3 too, and we are. Just need a centre-back or two more and a decent RWB and we're sorted for a 3-5-2, though. Shouldn't have bid for Lucas but at £12m I couldn't pass it up.
Will swap you Lucas for Maggio? :ninja: Is the top 3 in the 4-3-3 three strikers over one striker and two wingers then? If that makes sense.
No, it's one striker. But of course we'll need 4 strikers anyway to cover the 3-5-2. Plus worst case scenario Ribery could play off a striker in a 3-5-1-1 anyway. We're actively looking to trade some CMs though. Particularly a CAM or two.
Valbuena and Lucas can both play on the wings, as well as obviously Ribery, and Cavani could stretch to it at an absolute push. But as 4-3-3 is our backup, we don't need too much depth. Maybe one more specialist right-winger would be nice.
..................................Lloris.................................. ........................................................................... ................Varane......Thiago Silva.....Sakho............... ...Rafinha......................................................Alba... ..........................Vidal..............Sahin...................... .................................Marchisio.............................. ............................................Ribery....................... .............................Cavani...................................... Bench: Rene Adler Marcelo Mikel Arteta Henrikh Mkhitarian Mathieu Valbuena Hernanes Lucas Moura Giussepe Rossi Seydou Doumbia Perhaps one more CB and we're done, unless someone goes for Ribery which would change things. Very happy with that. Better depth than I thought we'd have too.
Well Thiago Silva is nailed on, but who starts out of Varane, Sakho and Subotic. Hmmm. Absolutely delighted with that round. Licht was ridiculously cheap and Subotic is class.