I was having the age-old Gerrard/Lampard debate with some friends the other day, with reference to the discussion people seem to be having today about how to fit Foden, Saka, Palmer and Bellingham into the England team for the Euros.
The example of Francesco Totti and Alessandro Del Piero was brought up. Both world-class talents and both occupying a similar role for their clubs, and from memory the Italian approach was to start with Totti and usually bring Del Piero on as a substitute, rather than shoehorn both players in and dampen the performance of the whole team as a result. Italy did a similar thing in the 1970 World Cup when faced with a choice between Gianni Rivera and Sandro Mazzola – they called it the staffetta, or relay – they’d start with one and bring the other on fresh for the second half.
What other examples are there of international teams who had multiple world-class players in the same position, and how did they handle it? Pick one over the other, change the formation to accommodate both, play someone out of position, or institute some kind of jobshare?
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Scotland had Tierney and Robertson , arguably best Scottish players of their generation, both at left back. Adapted the system so robbo pushed forward more but Tierney still behaved a bit like a full back.
At one point
Brazil had Marcelo, Felipe Luis and Alex Sandro, Felipe was an elite Left back at one point but Marcelo is Marcelo bruv
Marcelo is dirty (in a good way).
Brazil with there keepers at the moment too Alison and Ederson either could start Alison seems to get the nod.
Same with Germany Neuer has been number one for years but Ter Stergan in another world would be number one.
I suppose goalkeeper is the one position where you can't force things via a formation change!
Van Persie and Huntelaar comes to mind for the Netherlands.
Van Persie was the starter and Huntelaar was not happy, that was it as for how it was managed.
Hunterlaar world class?
He made it to Real Madrid, but yeah its debatable (and probably not world class).
Yeah, I think RvP vs Huntelaar is a fairly easy choice
There was some controversy about it and some calls to start Huntelaar over RvP, and he did score 42 times for us (in 72 games, of which 33 as a sub).
But world class might be stretching it indeed.
Giroud and Benzema? France.
Obviously, you go with Giroud. He is the man. This is why he leads France in goals, even though he has been on the squad for less time than Benzema. He even leads Henry and Mbappe. He is a no nonsense hustler. He scores goals.
Doesn't benzema have 15 wc goals? Google benzema 15 you will see what I mean
Im well aware Benzema is a shitbag, yes.
Argentina had Batistuta and Crespo late 90s and early 2000s. I was young but I remember Bielsa was the coach and he refused to play them both at once. He was very criticized for that. I recall Batistuta starting most of the time and Crespo would sub in most of the time.
Ronaldo and Adriano for Brazil (after 2002) come to mind.
Brazil all the time. Look at their attacks, and more recently- alisson Ederson, neymar Vinicius
France has some good ones, giroud benzema, coman mbap, lloris maignan was a weird one last WC
Even the England’s of old, we had gerrard Lampard and scholes, but then beckham Rooney and Owen
Italy also had Roberto Mancini, Roberto Baggio, Gianluca Vialli, Salvatore Schillaci and Aldo Serena in the 1990 World Cup. I think in Mancinis biography he mentioned that him and Baggio would be substitutes for each other.