Greatest 11 you’ve seen live (in the stadium)

It has to be based on the quality of player you saw at the time. So - for example - I’ve seen Henry play live but he was old when I did

               Oblak

   Godin - Chiellini - Pique 

              Busquets 

   Iniesta - Toure - De Rossi 

                Messi

       Suarez - Ibrahimovic 

Honourable mentions to Gerrard, Neymar, Benzema, Ozil, Aubameyang…

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                Van der Sar
        Thuram - Chiellini - Desailly
            Makelele - E. Davids
         Overmars - Zidane - Alexis
            Henry - C. Ronaldo

Tough one, might be forgetting a couple obvious onces but this is still a decent line-up.

Edit: @SRCJJ I actually saw Chiellini in the Italy U21 side in 2007, I was amazed how much of a natural leader he looked at that time already. He was probably the oldest one of that team, but still.

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Edgar Davids is one of my favourite players ever.

Amazing team.

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  Neuer 

Lahm kompany Kos Alaba
Cazorla Schweinstieger Fabregas Ribery

   RVP Suarez 

Honourable mentions Kroos, Stevie G, Yaya Toure, Nasri, Rosicky, Sagna etc

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“play live” as in you’re in the stadium watching it live?

That’s the one bro :+1:t3:

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Fucking hell, this’ll take some serious thought. Will basically have to go back over 97 - 2015 and look through some of the great sides we played at home in the Champions League in that period.

Will be leaving names like Ronaldo, Zidane, Figo and Carlos off, as I saw them in 2006, rather than earlier, which will feel weird.

Actually, leaving Carlos off won’t feel weird, as I saw versions of Ashley Cole, Patrice Evra and Lahm that were much better left backs. Carlos is so overrated anyway.

Gonna do the dishes and think on this for a bit :grin:

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I had to play with 3 at the back because I haven’t seen many great full backs play live unfortunately.

But if I had the likes of Lahm and Cole, my RB and LB positions would be a lock haha.

Looking forward to yours. I know as a previous season ticket holder you’ve basically seen the worlds best year in year out.

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Good topic @SRCJJ bro! Like @JakeyBoy I’m gonna sit on my hands for a bit before I pull trigger on mine

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Hahah it was easier for me as I only had 7 or 8 games that had to take into account from my European trips in 2010 & 2013.

I didn’t include Arsenal’s pre season tour to Sydney.

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I’ve clearly lived a sheltered life

Buffon
Alves Keown Lucio Winterburn
Fabregas Vieira Pirlo
Bergkamp
Aguero v. Persie

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Courtois

Bellerin Vermaelen Dias Robertson

De Bruyne McGinn Özil

Aubameyang Lukaku Forrest

I had about 4 games I could pick from that had players I could actually pick from :joy:

Didn’t know who to pick for the LW so picked Forrest as he scored a hattrick in one of the Scotland games I was at :joy:

De Bruyne best player I’ve ever seen live. Got three assists and a goal when I watched him single handedly destroy Scotland :joy:

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My local team is a midtable/lower table Eredivisie team. Never saw those big names live. That is why the phrase ‘support your locals’ bothers me a bit. I paid to see shite. That is a choice I made I get that. But especially people who live in the vicinity of big clubs should refrain themselves of using that phrase I feel like :stuck_out_tongue:. For that reason I don’t get their frustration with big team football either.

Did you see all of them in the stadium?

Buffon
Zanetti Nesta Stam (or cannavaro in 2006) Maldini

Pirlo Seedorf kaka
Totti

Ibra Sheva

Special mention to Ronaldinho who wasn’t in his prime at Milan but still fucking fantastic to watch.

I actually think that team if it performed as well as it should is probably top 5 of all time. Serie A was a joke in the 2000s.

Also yeah as others have said great topic @SRCJJ

Did you not watch in 2012? I think it was, said it before but Djemal Mesbah… absolutely shut you guys down in the second half… Because he was playing alongside Thiago Silva who got his head back in the game

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Of all the players I’ve seen live in the stadium, I’d say Iniesta had the best performance though. Watching him was like art.

I went to Barcelona a few years ago to watch them trounce Real Sociedad 4-0 (Messi, Suarez and Neymar all scored) but that performance from Iniesta was something else.

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That’s a great idea.
This is really difficult as I’ve seen some great players over a long period so I’ll go with non Arsenal players I’ve seen at Highbury,

---------------------Shilton---------------
—Phil Neal—Staam-----Ferdinand----Denis Irwin—
-------------Keane----Davids--------
----Best--------Dalglish-------Barnes----------
-----------------Shearer-----------------------

Honourable mentions for Banks, Seaman, Pearce, Alan Ball, Lineker, Denis Law, Gerrard, Ginola, Beardsley, Bobby Charlton, Souness

I went to the Bergkamp testimonial game and there was a double substitution when Cruyff and Van Basten came on but I won’t include them as they were way past their best but still classy players.

For an Arsenal team from players I’ve seen at Highbury and the Emirates, I’ll go with,

------------------Seaman--------------------------
----Dixon----Adams-----Campbell-----Cole-------
-------------Vieira----Petit------------------------
—Overmars—Bergkamp----Henry----Pires-------

Honourable mentions go to, Wright, Lehman, Lauren, Ljungberg, Merson, Smith, RVP, Rosicky

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-------Courtois-------
Alves-Pique-Vermaelen- Giovanni van Bronckhorst
-Xavi-Kante-Iniesta
Ronaldinho - Hazard
----------Eto’o-------

Was very tempted to put the starting Barca 11 I saw, they were that good! Lol

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Buf, that’s really difficult. I’ve been lucky to see some great players. Would be harder if I did it for Arsenal tbh.

Alves-Piqué-Puyol-Marcelo
Diaby/Alonso/Kroos/Pirlo/Busquets-Xavi-Zidane (honestly have no idea how to pick a midfield 3 out of all those players)
Iniesta-Messi-Ronaldo (gay)

honourable mention: Neymar, Ronaldinho, Cesc, Ronaldo, Modric, Bergkamp, Özil, Overmars, Villa, van Persie, Falcao, Torres, Agüero, Forlán, di María, Cazorla, Eto’o, Robinho, Seedorf, Davids…surely forgetting a lot. (edit: Hierro, Suárez, Robben, Sneijder…)

And not even including players who I saw in the mid 90s when I was younger and couldn’t appreciate as much. One of my great regrets is never seeing Ronaldo live before he got injured/fat and never seeing Henry in London.

Edit: forgot about Riquelme :heart_eyes: That midfield is honestly impossible. And Figo but never really liked him haha guess it’s probably because he’s both a Barca and Madrid cunt, especially the latter.

Love these threads that get me all nostalgic and get my memory working about football. :heart:

@SRCJJ de Rossi in your XI that’s poverty m8, surely you’ve seen better

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Same. He just floated around the pitch, never had to break stride receiving the ball. Everything just done in natural body movement. Can’t explain it, he was phenomenal.

My 11

Cech

Sergio Ramos - Puyol - Campbell - A. Cole

David Silva - Xavi - Vieira - Iniesta - Pires

Henry

I was fortunate enough to see Spain live around 2008 and it was the best football I’ve ever seen live to this date.

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