Once again the subjective mind and short-term memory of the press emerged. L’Equipe came out with its Ideal starting XI and many of the players that were there deserved to be there.  The problem lied with the players that were many players that should have been there that weren’t.

The Premiership had the lion’s share of representatives from three of the big four.  La Liga had four representatives whole Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the lone representative from Serie A.

There were some big absences in this list that included Franck Ribery and Luca Toni from Bayern Munich. The biggest absence of this team was that of Villarreal’s Marcos Senna. His performance in Euro 2008 was more than worthy of getting recognition.  Right now he is the one of the best midfielders in the world and he was the vital cog that helped The Yellow Submarine obtain their best finish ever.  The nationalized Brazilian was the metronome of the Spanish national team and he is a threat from all over the field.

On the defensive side, it was proposterous to leave out Sergio Ramos over Patrice Evra.   How was it possible to leave out Iván Ramiro Córdoba.  The Inter back was the heart of the neroazzurri backline.  He is the heart of the Inter team for that matter.  It was most evident when he was absent.  He is arguably the best defender in Italy and right now is when he is lobbying this argument the hardest.

How is it possible for the last two pichichis (Dani Güiza and Ruud Van Nistlerooy)  and the reigning capocannonieri (Alessandro Del Piero) were snubbed?  The Dutchman’s absence in the Madrid lineup is being noticed after he was diagnosed with a knee injury and will be gone for the remainder of the season.  Fenerbahce’s newest acquisition was well over 40% of Mallorca’s scoring- those are 27 goals that Mallorca have not been able to replace since he left for Turkey.  Alessandro “Magno” needed to get some love.  After an illustrious career where he was ensured a place in the goalscoring lore at Juventus it was surprising to see him win his first-ever scoring title.  Del Piero became the oldest capo cannonieri since Gunnar Nordahl back in 1954-55.  Even his teammate, David Trezeguet got snubbed after scoring one less goal than Il Pinturicchio.
Iker Casillas is the lone Real Madrid representative while Barcelona  had three.   Casillas was the no doubter on this squad There are only two Latin American players in the ideal XI (Messi and Dani Alves).  There were players like Luis Fabiano (24 goals) that schould have been given a look, but unfortunately that was not the case.

Valencia’s David Villa was another player whose performance for both club and country that should have been looked at by the French publication.  Another goalscorer left behind was Emmanuel Adebayor who equalled as many goals as Fernando Torres and was one of the most important assets of an Arsenal side that made a great run to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.  It is hard to pick on Fernando Torres as he was the main man for Spain en route to vanquishing their 44-year jinx; but there are various other scorers taht should have been looked at as well.

Iker Casillas (Real Madrid-ESP); Dani Alves (Barcelona-ESP), Río Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic y Patrice Evra (todos de Manchester United-ENG), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool-ENG), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United-ENG), Xavi y Lionel Messi (Barcelona-ESP); Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter-ITA), Fernando Torres (Liverpool-ESP).

L’Equipe  Ideal XI

(4-4-2)

Casillas

 Dani Alves   Terry    Vidic   Evra

 C. Ronaldo      Gerrard    Xavi   Messi

 Ibrahimovic       Torres

 

Juan’s  Starting XI

(3-5-2)

Casillas

Dani Alves    Vidic   Sergio Ramos

C. Ronaldo  Fábregas    Senna    Xavi   Messi

    Güiza     Torres