The #BESTCFCXI2013 You Chose!

So yesterday I carried out a little poll to determine our Best XI for the season. Jose still seems to be making his final decisions (regretfully leaving Mata out), and I thought, why not ask the CFC family what they thought the Best XI of our team would be this season. The poll was carried out yesterday on Facebook, so there has been plenty of time to make the decision. Here’s what came out.

GOALKEEPER

First Choice: Petr Cech
Backup: Mark Schwarzer
Was there really a doubt to this position? Needless to say I wasted my time posting this part of the poll on the Facebook page. Petr Cech won the position with a staggering 97% votes, compared to the 3% that Mark got. Petr Cech had won over the no.1 position at Chelsea from Carlo Cudicini, and has been unchallenged for the starting spot ever since. He was so reliant that Chelsea never even looked to find a even decent backup, till this season that is. Mark Schwarzer had been for Fulham what Cech has been for us. He is a tall, experienced, surprisingly agile professional, just like Petr Cech and can be expected to rise to every opportunity he gets between the posts.

LEFTBACK

First Choice: Ashley Cole
Backup: Ryan Bertrand
Ashley Cole got 88% votes, and Ryan got 12% votes. Did Ashley win because he was superb? Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that for this season. He has been surprisingly poor somewhy. But the fact that we do not have a decent backup means that Ashley is going to be unchallenged for the spot. Yes, Ryan is a decent leftback, he has proved to be reliant at whichever chances that were presented to him, but still the fact is that we should had looked long term this summer and signed up Luke Shaw who would had been a perfect replacement for Ashley Cole. Or maybe we could still get him in the January window. Leighton Baines anyone?

CENTREBACKS

First Choice: David Luiz, Gary Cahill
Backup: John Terry
It wasn’t as close as I had expected it to be. Till the 10^th vote, Gary Cahill and John Terry were tied, the next time I checked John was lagging miles away from David and Gary. Luiz got 39% votes, Cahill got 33% votes, while John got 24% and young Kalas got 4% votes. It’s actually surprising that 40% votes went to David Luiz, who was called as a defensive liability by Jamie Redknapp just a week ago. Eitherway, my personal vote would also go to David, as I believe that there is only road ahead for him and Cahill, while John might be a fantastic captain, but his pace is almost Jamie Carraghar-ish already now. But then, a more than capable backup to rely on, isn’t he?

RIGHTBACKS

First Choice: Branislav Ivanovic

Backup: Cesar Azpilicueta

64% of the voters continued to believe that Brana is still the king to the righback position. I personally prefer Cesar Azpilicueta, who got the remaining 36% votes just because he is far more quicker than Brana is. It is time that we allowed the older guns to make way for the younger ones, well that’s according to me. But then, Branislav Ivanovic is one of the best rightbacks in the league over the past few years, and one of our best and consistent performers for quite a while now. Jose should make sure that Cesar would get to play atleast once in 3-4 games, so that even he can continue to work on his mission to seal a place in the Spanish squad.

CENTRAL MIDFIELDERS

First Choice: John Obi Mikel, Ramires
Backup: Frank Lampard
There were quite a number of options that we actually have for this position: Mikel, Ramires, Lampard, MvG, Oscar, De Bruyne, David Luiz and Essien.
33% and 34% of the votes went to Mikel and Ramires respectively, while Frankie, whom Jose seem to rely so much lately got only 12% votes, which was greater than every other candidate out there for the position. Mikel and Ramires are currently the best options for the pivot position that we have. While Ramires is a workhorse, Mikel prefers to stay back and give maximum protection to our back 4. Even though it can be clearly noted that Mikel is slowly but gradually making those advancements into goalscoring chances, there is not much confidence in him to help the cause. But after the goal against Fulham, it can be well expected that we can see a little more attacking Mikel from now on. Ramires has a clumsy touch in him now and then, but he makes up for that by covering every inch of the pitch. He has a good finish in him right now, showcased by the exquisite chip over Iker Casillas in the pre-season, and continuously manages to prove to everyone why he is so damn important to the team.

ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS

First Choice: MaZaCar
Backup: Willian
Was there any doubt here? Jose might be one of the very few people around that doesn’t think the MaZaCar combination is not impressive. The three makes sure that they rotate the positions among themselves, and the rotation is so smooth and efficient that opposition defenders almost go crazy keeping track of them. RDM relied heavily on these three to win games for him, but soon it became too readable for oppositions, but now Jose has a host of classy players under his disposal in the form of Willian, Schurrle and De Bruyne. People might say that we have one too many attacking midfielders, but every player provides a different style, and if rotated cleverly, there is no stopping any three of the six who would be deployed. About the percentages of votes that each of them got, 27% for Mata, 27% for Hazard, 25% for Oscar, 10% for Willian, the rest shared among De Bruyne and Schurrle.

STRIKER

First Choice: Fernando Torres
Backup: Samuel Eto’o
Torres won a remarkable 73% support from our Facebook page fans, while new striker Eto’o managed 16%, with the rest divided among Demba Ba and Andre Schurrle. A few weeks back, I wouldn’t have imagined this result to be like this. The poor form of Eto’o is somewhat shining bright light on what Torres provides into the game, and the fans now trust the offcolor Spaniard over the Cameroonian. Demba Ba continues to be left in the scraps, and he could really make use of a really good performance to impress both, the fans as well as Jose himself.
Final #BestCFCXI2013: Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Ashley Cole, Ramires, Mikel, Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Torres.
 
Do you agree with the Best XI that was voted by the fans on Facebook? Or do you have your own ideas about the team? Leave your thoughts and views in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you! Thank You for taking out your time to read this article.
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Cheers!
🙂