Your Starting 11 (players, team)

[africanboy]

Suppose you were to start a team from scratch and had the first pick at a starting 11 (vintage or contemporary players), who would they be? Assuming all of these players were in their prime, I would go with a 4-4-1-1, and my lineup would be:

GK: Fabien Barthez
LB: Roberto Carlos
CB: John Terry
CB: Nemanja Vidic
RB: Maicon
LM: Cristiano Ronaldo
CM: Zinedine Zidane
CM: Wesley Sneijder
RM: Arjen Robben
CF: Alessandro Del Piero
ST: Ronaldo de Lima

There are plenty of players who I could have picked over some of these players (i.e Maicon), but I think this team would have great chemistry. Also the balance between offense and defence amongst my picks would be far too much for most starting 11s to handle. Who would you pick (no substitutes)?

[LondonUSA]

GK: Walter Zenga
LB: Roberto Carlos
CB: Lucio
CB: Nemanja Vidic
RB: Dani Alves
LCM: Ronaldinho
CM: Wesley Sneijder
RCM: Zidane
RF: Messi
CF: Christiano Ronaldo
LF: Maradona

This is playing as a 4-3-3 and is very attack minded.

[BrianH]

Spellings are prolly way off

GK: Peter Schmiechel
LB: Roberto Carlos
CB: John Terry
CB: Paul McGrath
RB: Cafu
LM: Ronaldinho
CM: Roy Keane
CM: Zidane
RM: Arjen Robben
ST: Alan Shearer
ST: Messi

I like physical players, midfielders and central defenders need to be able to get stuck in pretty hard. Having said that, if I look at this post tomorrow I could have a totally different team!

[Avondrood]

This squad is playing a 4 - 4 -2

GK : Peter Schmeichel
LB : Paolo Maldini
CB : Franz Beckenbauer
CB : Franco Baresi
RB : Carlos Alberto
LM : Ryan Giggs
DCM: Frank Rijkaard
OCM: Zinedine Zidane
RM : George Best
LF : Diego Maradona
ST : Marco Van Basten

Man, if only I could add some móre (Johan Cruyff, Michael Laudrup, Pele, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Ronaldo Number 1,...)

[BrianH]

Marco VanBasten and Jean-Pierre Papin are two I forgot about.

[paull805]

this is mines, all in their prime, i have loved to watch

gk- lev yashin (russia)
lb- ashley cole (england)
cb- franz beckenbuer (germany)
cb- bobby moore (england)
rb- cafu (brazil)
lm- ryan giggs (wales)
cdm- graeme souness (scotland)
cam- zinadine zidane (france)
rm- luis figo (portugal)
s- lionel messi (argentina)
s- kenny dalglish (scotland)

there may be better players than some of these in some of your opinions, but for me this is my best! and messi would play all over by the way

[Davy-040]

GK: Van der Sar

RB: Cafu
CB: R.Koeman
CB: Beckenbauer
LB: R.Carlos

RM: Messi
CM: Maradona
CM: Zidane
LM: Cruyff

ST: Ronaldo
ST: Pele