COACH: Josep GUARDIOLA


GOALKEEPERS:

Pepe REINA
David DE GEA

DEFENDERS:

IVÁN CAMPO
Carlos CUÉLLAR
Héctor BELLERÍN
Nacho MONREAL
MARCOS ALONSO
Aymeric LAPORTE
César AZPILICUETA 3rd ©

MIDFIELDERS:

RODRI
David SILVA ©
XABI ALONSO
Mikel ARTETA
Santi CAZORLA
Pablo FORNALS
Ander HERRERA
Cesc FÀBREGAS 2nd ©

FORWARDS:

PEDRO
Juan MATA
DIEGO COSTA
AYOZE PÉREZ
JESÚS NAVAS
Fernando TORRES


__________________________________________________


RESERVE PLAYERS:


GOALKEEPERS:
ADRIÁN
Vicente GUAITA
Manuel ALMUNIA

DEFENDERS:
KIKO
Jonny OTTO
Albert FERRER
Ángel RANGEL
JOSÉ ENRIQUE
Alberto MORENO
JAVI MANQUILLO

MIDFIELDERS:
PABLO
MICHU
THIAGO
Luis GARCÍA
Oriol ROMEU
Jordi GÓMEZ

FORWARDS:
RODRIGO
ADAMA TRAORÉ
Álvaro NEGREDO
Gerard DEULOFEU
José Antonio REYES
Fernando LLORENTE



MY BEST XI:



GK DE GEA
CB CUÉLLAR
CB LAPORTE
RB AZPILICUETA
LB MONREAL
DMF RODRI
CMF XABI ALONSO
CMF FÀBREGAS
RMF/AMF SILVA
LMF/AMF ARTETA
CF TORRES

Captain: David Silva
Short Free Kick: Juan Mata
Long Free Kick: Xabi Alonso/Cesc Fàbregas/Juan Mata/David Silva
Free Kick 2: Xabi Alonso/Cesc Fàbregas
Left Corner: Xabi Alonso/David Silva/Cesc Fàbregas/Juan Mata
Right Corner: Xabi Alonso/Cesc Fàbregas/David Silva/Juan Mata
Penalty: Cesc Fàbregas/Fernando Torres/Xabi Alonso
Players to go up in freekicks and corners: Aymeric Laporte, Carlos Cuéllar, Rodri

Xabi is a must for this team, there's no need to squeeze three fullbacks (especially not Bellerin and Marcos Alonso) in while leaving Xabi out. Formation should be a 4-2-3-1 IMO with either Azpilicueta/Bellerin as RB or Marcos Alonso/Azpilicueta as LB, Xabi/Rodri as DMF, Fabregas as CMF/AMF and Mata/Silva as RMF and LMF. And there's certainly no need for 9 defenders when you only have 5 strikers, two of them (IMO Ferrer and José Enrique/Monreal) should go out. Ayoze Pérez should be in as well, while guys like Ángel Rangel, Jordi Gomez, Luis Garcia and even Thiago should be in reserves..
And one thing I really ask myself, even as an Everton fan: Deulofeu as first team but no Pedro at all?

Monreal was better than Marcos Alonso for sure, really underrated player. He should be in the starting XI. You can see every player here, there’s definitely a few notable names missing.

You could consider skipping reserves or make a 26-man (2-8-8-8) or 30-man (3-9-9-9) squad, I don't know. I think this strict 23-man squad could work though: GK: Reina (please write him as Pepe), De Gea - DF: Azpilicueta, Monreal, Bellerin, M. Alonso, Cuellar, Campo, Laporte - MF: Cesc (not this Francesc joke), D. Silva, Arteta, Mata, X. Alonso, Rodri, Cazorla - FW: A. Perez, Torres, A. Traore, Pedro, D. Costa, Reyes, Deulofeu. Your starting line-up having 3 CBs isn't a bad idea. But if you stick with it, you could place M. Alonso at the LCB and Monreal at the LWB. There is plenty of options of course. Also an archive of player ratings from some reliable press or media could be helpful, shall you come across.

If I'm not mistaken, Marcos Alonso only started to play as CB under Xavi at Barça; I don't considered him to play as central defender at all.

4-2-3-1 will be the formation, thing is im.

I'll stick with 23 players on the first team, just to keep it consistent with the recently posted country-based League AS teams. I'll ditch Ferrer and Enrique for Ayoze and likely Pedro for Adama Traoré.

Anyway, who'll be the keeper?


EDIT:

Updated team, later I'll link the players.

It should be vice versa actually (Monreal LCB and M. Alonso LWB), if you went for a back-three. In fact M. Alonso could be even mentioned as a midfielder (hard to tell he was a defender), but let's not make it more complicated. My main objection is D. Costa's absence. He should definitely be concluded, maybe Rodrigo could make space for him. Fornals and Herrera don't deserve totally first-team. They are kinda imitations of the others, especially Pablo (of S. Cazorla), but I can understand they had a decent stint. I'm not so sure about J. Navas, I would choose Adama over him by a narrow margin. He could go past Reyes or Deulofeu though. About reserves it's Almunia over Kepa in my opinion.

So, who'll be the keeper?

Well, peak De Gea was better than peak Reina by some distance. And De Gea has 100 more appearances, and won the league. I don't think Reina has any argument over De Gea. He was a good goalkeeper but was even more prone to mistakes than the De Gea from the last few years. And while he made some incredible saves, De Gea was making those every game for a few years.

Also, I wouldn't have gone for Rodrigo over Diego Costa, Rodrigo has been inconsistent while Costa was crucial in winning two league titles. Also Costa is a proper CF which the team lacks apart from Torres. I also think Arteta has been better in the league than Mata. Mata was great for Chelsea but despite playing in the league for 11 years, he was only really relevant for about 5 of those, and only very good for about 2 or 3. Arteta was a consistent presence in the league and a leading player for Everton who were the 5th best team for most of his time there. So I'd pick him in the starting XI.

Formation would look odd to me, either Fàbregas or Arteta would play on the wing, unless we bring Cazorla..

Don't know what's odd about that, Arteta played on both sides of the field for Everton before he started to play in a more central role in the 2009/10 season.

All right, that solves everything!