2018 Soccer Board Draft- Group A (Craafty16, kdawg32086, Foye, Spens1)

[kdawg32086]

Rules:
-Post your default lineup ASAP.
-Voting begins on Wednesday and we are voting for all 3 matches in each group at the same time. Please post your vote as a response in each group thread, along with any commentary that you feel might be helpful in explaining your choice (not required).
-Top two in each group advance to the round of 8, along with the two 3rd place squads with the most points.

Group A
-Craafty16
-kdawg32086
-Foye
-Spens1

Match Day 1:
-Craafty16 vs. kdawg32086
-Foye vs. Spens1

Match Day 2:
-Craafty16 vs. Spens1
-kdawg32086 vs. Foye

Match Day 3:
-Craafty16 vs. Foye
-kdawg32086 vs. Spens1

[Craafty16]

-- Hazard - Diego Costa - Mané --
----------------- Pogba ----------------------
----- Fernandinho - Jorginho -------
Alonso - Umtiti - Stones - Walker
----------------- Stegen ----------------------

Casillas. Brahimi. Danilo Pereira. Aboubakar.

[Foye]

---------------Firmino------------
Dembele----James-----Müller--
--------Modric----Thiago---------
Marcelo--Nacho-van Dijk-Roberto
-------------Courtois--------------

Subs
Mandzukic
Draxler
Barzagli
Fekir

[kdawg32086]

-------------Immobile------------
Memphis----Griezmann-----Bale--
--------Vidal----Nainggolan---------
Alba--Koulibaly-Pique-Carvajal
-------------Subasic--------------

Bench: Dzeko, Iniesta, Robertson, Jones

[Spens1]

Kane - Icardi
Perisic - Coutinho - Sanchez
Niguez - Dier
Laporte - Alderwiereld - Manolas
De Gea
Subs: Mkhi, Can, Hysaj, Morata

[entourage]

Since this group has all teams lineups posted, I figured I'd start off the voting!

My disclaimer- My picks are a reflection of my own personal knowledge on players, positions, and tactical lineups. No offense to anyone here when I justify why I made my selections. Like I said in the discussion thread, everybody picked very strong squads, but in the end, we can't just pick draws across the board.


Match Day 1:
-Craafty16 vs. kdawg32086 - draw on paper but slight edge to kdawg, i think Craafty's side would get outplayed in the middle of the park in this matchup.
-Foye vs. Spens1 - going with Foye. Spens has better players in the 11, but his setup just doesn't look effective to me. Sanchez and Perisic are not wing backs. Kane and Icardi offer too much of the same, no matter how good they are individually, there's just not enough room in the box for both.

Match Day 2:
-Craafty16 vs. Spens1 - Crafty for sure in this one. Again, Spens setup haunts him here. Nothing to stop Hazard and Mane from wrecking havoc on the wings.
-kdawg32086 vs. Foye - kdawg is the pick here. both teams are setup the same, but kdawgs got the better players in most positions. Modric and James can't win this one on their own.

Match Day 3:
-Craafty16 vs. Foye - tough pick but i'm going with Craafty. I think Foye will dominate in the midfield but Craafty has enough on the counter to nick one while I'm just not convinced by Foye's attack and backline.
-kdawg32086 vs. Spens1 - going with kdawg. again, Spens lack of ability to defend quality wings gets exploited by Bale and Memphis. Kane and Icardi play right into the hands of Koulibaly and Pique, and while they should have the majority of possession, they'll get burned on the counter.

[Matty]

How I'm rating lineups; 1 pt for forwards, 1 pt for midfield, 1 pt for defense, 0.5 for GK, 0.5 for bench.

Match Day 1:
-Craafty16 vs. kdawg32086 (1 - 3)
-Foye vs. Spens1(2.5 - 1.5)

Match Day 2:
-Craafty16 vs. Spens1 (2 - 2) TIE
-kdawg32086 vs. Foye (2.5 - 1.5)

Match Day 3:
-Craafty16 vs. Foye (2 -2) TIE
-kdawg32086 vs. Spens1 (3.5 - 0.5)