Picking school teams ..... with United players!

[Moon Utd]

Imagine you're one of six captains in a school physical education class, and you have to take turns picking players for your football team. Guess what? All the guys are lined up in the gym, and they just happen to be Manchester United players!

If you're "A" and the other captains are "B", "C", "D", "E" and "F", who do you think will end up on each team?

Let me guess that you'd choose Wayne Rooney first, but who would the other team captains choose? Remember each team needs one goalie, and enough defenders, midfielders and attackers to fill out a proper team!

GOAL--------------------------DEFENCE---------------MIDFIELD---------------WING------------------ATTACK
Edwin Van Der Sar--------Gary Neville-----------Owen Hargreaves-----Ryan Giggs--------------Dimitar Berbatov
Tomasz Kuszczak---------Patrice Evra-----------Anderson----------------Ji-Sung Park--------------Michael Owen
Ben Foster-------------------Rio Ferdinand--------Michael Carrick----------Zoran Tosic-------------Wayne Rooney
Ron-Robert Zieler---------Wes Brown-------------Paul Scholes-------------Luis Nani----------------Danny Welbeck
Ben Amos--------------------Nemanja Vidic---------Darren Fletcher-------Antonio Valencia--------Federico Macheda
Tom Heaton------------------Fabio Da Silva--------Darron Gibson----------Gabriel Obertan--------Mame Biram Diouf
-----------------------------------Rafael Da Silva--------Corry Evans-----------Cameron Stewart----------Josh King
-----------------------------------John O'Shea-----------Sam Hewson-----------Rob Brady------------------Febian Brandy
-----------------------------------Jonny Evans------------Rodrigo Possebon---Ravel Morrison------------Will Keane
-----------------------------------Ritchie De Laet--------Tom Cleverley----------Nicky Ajose----------------John Cofie
-----------------------------------David Gray---------------Magnus Eikrem
-----------------------------------Craig Cathcart----------Matt James
-----------------------------------Joe Dudgeon-----------Oliver Norwood
-----------------------------------Oliver Gill----------------Danny Drinkwater
-----------------------------------Scott Moffatt------------Ryan Tunnicliffe
-----------------------------------Reece Brown-----------Paul Pogba
-----------------------------------James Chester---------Davide Petrucci
-----------------------------------Ezekiel Fryers-------------Etzaz Hussain
-----------------------------------Alberto Massacci
-----------------------------------Scott Wootton
-----------------------------------Sean McGinty
-----------------------------------Michele Fornasier

Make your selections! Be honest, who would the other captains choose before you get to make your next selection?



Oh yeah, and who's the loser who gets picked last?

[Cantonaaa]

Etzaz Hussien get's picked last.

[reddwarf]

I'd pick Scholes first.

It's way too much effort and guess work to come up wth the XI I'd finish with.

I imagine Oliver Gill would be last pick. The curse of being the boss' son!!!

[Moon Utd]

Etzaz Hussien get's picked last.

Since I stipulated that every team has to select one goalie, then I think the captain picking last could either get in early for a top captain, or assume that he has to get maximum value from other selections, and just let Tom Heaton end up being the last pick!

Really what this game asks is what do you think the pecking order is at Old Trafford. Who would you rather have in your team to make the best XI? Berbatov or Carrick? Ferdinand or Giggs? Remembering back to sports games at school, especially when picking a team, the balance is always about not being able to have all the best guys on your team, so who becomes more important? The great keeper? The best defender? The most consistent goalscorer? Where does the major contribution come in a winning team? Could you take turns picking all the players so you have Rooney and a couple of quality forwards and midfielders, but then realise your back four is filled with Reserves and Academy players?

[HANDYMAN]

a lot of waffle and too much time and effort.
can't be bothered.

sorry, just my opinion.

[Moon Utd]

a lot of waffle and too much time and effort.
can't be bothered.

sorry, just my opinion.

Ha ha! It amuses me that you took the time to respond.

[NoxiousD]

No Conor Devlin or Sam Johnstone?

James Derbyshire no longer with us either?

[Moon Utd]

Derbyshire left last year I think. He's not a player I knew much about.

Yes Devlin and Johnstone are at United, but for the sake of the "little game" I left them off as we don't have enough players to fill out teams for every goalkeeper.

[hdcantona]

I'd pick Van Der Sar first, then the likes of Rooney, Vidic, Giggs, Evra and Rio would go, so my pick would come around, and I would choose Berba () and from then on it gets more tricky...

[dlan4327]

Scholes first. In training, the team that has Scholes, is the team that wins.

[Because I'm DC]

When we used to play football at school, almost every game the losing team would shout out "PRISON RULES!!", then we'd just kick the shit out of each other for 20 minutes. Good times. Anyway, wtih this being the case, ideally I'd have Rooney, Vidic, Neville, Fletcher and... Evans.

[abojodeh]

Rooney Fletcher Vidic Brown and Van Der Sar

[justboy]

but you cant just pick 5 players because another captain may have picked them?

this thread is a bit silly. if you want it to really work moon why not actually get 5 or 6 captains and then have them pick them teams and see what happens?

[Moon Utd]

but you cant just pick 5 players because another captain may have picked them?

this thread is a bit silly. if you want it to really work moon why not actually get 5 or 6 captains and then have them pick them teams and see what happens?

Yeah, could do, that's one way to do it. What I really imagined is that you might be objective, or at the very least be biaised!

Look at it in a different way. If you had to rank all of United's players in order of quality, what would your pecking order be? That's just the same as six imaginary captains picking teams.

So maybe Rooney's the best player? And maybe Evra would get picked ahead of Fletcher? Each person in his forum has their favourites, and also has a view on who is good and who is bad, and therefore should or shouldn't be at the club. It's actually tough to pick, I think, because you then have to consider if it's better to have one of our best defenders or best midfielders in a team. Plus you do need balance.

Picking first I'd go for Rooney because he contributes so much, and after that I'd choose the spine of the team. Therefore I believe you need a central core and can make do with lesser flank players (either wingers or fullbacks). But then imagine United without Evra and Valencia this season, and we'd be a much lesser team! It's hard to choose!

[Spoonman Red]

Owen Hargreaves gets picked last. . . Because even the likes of Gill or Hussein have to be more use than a player who gets injured between being picked and the game starting.

[RichardsReds]

VDS, Rooney, Scholes, Rio, Vidic

would be my first 5 picks in that order

[hdcantona]

I think some people have missed the point of this thread...

[Moon Utd]

I think some people have missed the point of this thread...

Maybe. Or they can't be arsed. LOL.

Maybe the NFL fans on the forum will get it, because the logic is rather like the annual college draft where teams take turns picking the new talent to fill their rosters.

In this case, reasons for selection are slightly different as you might balance picking experience with new talent. How do you compare an old warrior like Gary Neville with the Academy / Reserves right back, Reece Brown? Do you go for current ability, in which case you can still hope the offspring of Neville Neville is worth a place in your XI!

If you're taking turns with selections, players like Darren Fletcher or John O'Shea might be hot property for being able to fill a number of positions. Academy stalwart, Ryan Tunnicliffe, can do that too.

Hey, it's only a bit of fun.

[migueldadon]

Id pick Rooney, I dont have to explain why.

[Pinky]

1 (me). Scholes, Brown, VDS, Nani, Brandy, Fabio

2. Rooney, Evra, Kuszczak, Park, Gibson, De Laet

3. Berba, Fletcher, Macheda, Rafael, O'Shea, Cathcart

4. Rio, Owen, Anderson, Valencia, Amos, Gray

5. Giggs, Neville, Wellbeck, Obertan, Zieler, Chester

6. Vidic, Carrick, Foster, Diouf, J Evans, Keane

My money's on team 4 to win it all.

*edit* ha, fail, forgot to put a keeper on team 3....Sheasy can go in net....or last man back