If there’s anything better than a good old fashioned kickabout, it’s a completely hypothetical kickabout.
As we engaged in our daily bout of pondering today, we questioned the importance of age in football and the pros and cons of having a mixture of youth and experience in a successful team.
You want the peerless ambition of young players with their pace and lack of fear to try something creative but you also want the wily old fella … the crafty lad who can protect a lead, manage the momentum of a game and kill a match off with some practised time wasting.
The discussion got us thinking “who would win if we had the best XI in the world under 24 taking on the best team over 33?”
If you’re wondering why we picked those seemingly arbitrary ages… we just did. So deal with it. It also eliminates posers like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez.
The criteria for selection is that the player must have celebrated their 34th birthday or awaiting their 24th birthday and playing in one of the top five European leagues.
Masters XI
The Masters XI was a lot trickier to pick than the Young Bucks XI just based on the fact that we didn’t want to let down any legends.
Gigi Buffon in goal was a bit of a no-brainer as his only competition came from Iker Casillas who hasn’t had the best of seasons.
We had to cheat a bit at right-back by using Juventus’ Andrea Barzagli on the right of a centre-back pairing that was always going to feature John Terry and almost didn’t include Martin Demichelis. It was between Ashley Cole and Patrice Evra for a spot at left-back but the Frenchman got it just based on the fantastic season he’s had.
We’ve opted to flood the midfield because there are so few veteran wide men out there who can do a job so we’ve plumped for the legendary pairing of Andrea Pirlo and Xavi in the engine room with Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard more advanced.
Up front, we’ve gone for the ageless duo of Francesco Totti and Didier Drogba who can still cause trouble for any back four.
Young Bucks XI
The U24 XI wasn’t the easiest either due to the wealth of midfield and attacking options at our disposal and some stellar young talent like Alex Lacazette, James Rodriguez and Philippe Coutinho had to miss out.
David de Gea’s pesky 24th birthday made it an easy choice for Thibaut Courtois.
The right back slot was pretty nailed on for Dani Carvajal and our centre halves were a simple decision too with Marquinhos lining up alongside Raphael Varane. David Alaba completes our back four.
Midfield had us torn but we gave the nod to Koke, Paul Pogba and Isco who have all come on leaps and bounds this season.
Neymar was the first name on our teamsheet so his place up front will surprise few and he’s supported by the Bundesliga duo of Mario Goetze and Kevin de Bruyne.
Result:
While we think the Masters may boss possession with the likes of Xavi and Pirlo exchanging passes for fun and the crafty Totti and Drogba holding up play waiting for support, we reckon the flair of the attacking trio of our youngsters would be able to test the tiring legs of John Terry and Martin Demichelis.
We’d have this finishing 3-1 to the Young Bucks.
