Friday 6 January 2017 17:37, UK
West Ham United winger Michail Antonio chooses his #One2Eleven on The Fantasy Football Club.
The 26-year-old has played for a plethora of clubs during his eight-year career, including Tooting & Mitcham United, Reading, Cheltenham Town, Southampton, Colchester United, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest and now the Hammers.
Antonio has gone with a 4-3-2-1 formation and told The Fantasy Football Club who makes his XI...
I am going to start off in goal. I have a couple of people I could throw in there. I am stuck between Kelvin Davies, Darren Randolph and Adrian, who are all quality 'keepers. I was at Southampton with Kelvin Davies and he was unbelievable, commanding and takes charge in the box. I could say the same thing about all three 'keepers I have got here… I am thinking Darren, my gut is going Darren, but I think I am going to have to go Adrian. You know what, I am going Darren, I feel Darren is commanding, he knows his box and in every game I have played with him he is just reassuring. Like when you are in there for the corner, he is constantly speaking, in training the saves that he pulls off are just unbelievable.
Right back I am going to go for Jack Hunt. Defensively he is quality, but going forward he is always a threat. I played with him at Nottingham Forest and the amount of assists he gets a season and the amount of times he beats a player…definitely Jack Hunt is going to be my right back.
Winston Reid will be my left-sided centre half. Headhunter, that is what I call him! He just goes hunting for the ball and wins it every time. One-on-one defending, nobody beats him, and he definitely pops up with some important goals as well. So a quality centre half and up there as one of the best in the Premier League.
James Collins will be my right-sided centre half, an old-school centre half, commanding, you know what you are going to get. Ruthless, flies into challenges, throws his body on the line.
I will go for Aaron Cresswell, who has a magical left foot, balls into the box are quality. He's done it the way I've done it and has established himself as one of the best left backs in the league.
My holding (midfielder) is Morgan Schneiderlin, who I played with at Southampton. It may have been League One, but he has made his way up into the Premier League and is a quality player on the ball, calm, composed. You always can trust him and you always know he is going to find you with the ball.
Powerhouse Cheik! When he drives down the line, there is no one getting the ball off him. It does not matter how fast, quick or strong you are because you are not faster, quicker or stronger than him! He is box to box, scores goals, defensively breaks things up, he needs to be in the team.
Manu Lanzini, magical, a magical player. We have him and we have Dimi Payet and those two together have got all the tricks and the vision that we need. And if those two are on form, then we are going to win the game.
In training, if they are on the same team, then it is going to be hard and it is very hard to stop them, but we just double up on them! There is always going to be a spare man on their team!
On the right, I am going to have to go for Adam Lallana. It does not look like he is quick, but he manages to just glide past players, he does tricks so slowly, but it always works out! He just has got both feet, shoots with both feet, crosses with both feet and now and then he gets goals. So when we were playing in League One, all the Premier League teams were trying to sign him and he stayed with Southampton and worked his way up into the Premier League. And now he is at Liverpool and playing for England. A quality player who I enjoyed playing with.
Do I need to explain why Dimi is on my team? I do not need to explain! He is hands down the best player I have ever played with. His free kicks, feet, awareness, willingness to work for the team. The only thing I need to see him do is score a header!
My striker up top is commanding, I am going to have to go for Shane Long from my time at Reading. Not the biggest man, but somehow wins the majority of his headers, tireless worker who never stops running for the team and he gets goals.
