Who actually believes this. We used to laugh at our rivals for saying refs were paid by SAF and now we do the same?
Real Madrid 2017/18
- Thread starter Suedesi
- Start date
Who actually believes this. We used to laugh at our rivals for saying refs were paid by SAF and now we do the same?
I never said they are paying the refs. I meant that in all the crucial games they were favored, like in the CL final against Atletico. I dont know why of course though. Human mistakes is a reasonable reason. Then again in Euroleague they are always favored too.
Isco out for 2/3 weeks. Bale and Benzema will have a chance to save their real madrid careers, if they can outplay Asensio and Lucas
Think Bale's time at Madrid is up aslong as ZZ is there. He only sees him as an impact player or back-up and Bale isn't going to be happy with that but I honestly don't see anywhere he can go. So many clubs will be put off by his wages and injury record so the top clubs won't touch him and the next tier probably can't afford him when you factor in the transfer fee and wages.
Possibly a move to Bayern but it's not the type of move they make normally, maybe reminiscent of the time they got Robben from Madrid after an underwhelming spell? PSG he probably won't be a starter unless they play Mbappe as a number 9, and put Bale on the wings. Mourinho has said he is happy with his attacking options but even if we do buy an attacker, I wouldn't it to be Bale considering the above.
Spurs, Chelsea or Arsenal possibly?
Possibly a move to Bayern but it's not the type of move they make normally, maybe reminiscent of the time they got Robben from Madrid after an underwhelming spell? PSG he probably won't be a starter unless they play Mbappe as a number 9, and put Bale on the wings. Mourinho has said he is happy with his attacking options but even if we do buy an attacker, I wouldn't it to be Bale considering the above.
Spurs, Chelsea or Arsenal possibly?
Chelsea most definitely at this point. Especially if we ultimately move for Hazard, a swap deal would be on the cards
I think you can rule them out. Robben was younger when he joined and I cannot see Bayern paying what Bale is used to. The fee would be somehow worked out, since Real and Bayern are on good terms and have dealt Kroos, Xabi, James between them over the last years.
Are you watching the scouse, Madrid?
Will be a major bottlejob if you don't turn this lot over.
Put a marker on Salah and jobs a good'un.
Will be a major bottlejob if you don't turn this lot over.
Put a marker on Salah and jobs a good'un.
What are Liverpool playing for? If they have secured their CL position their motivation is saving legs and not picking injuries for the Roma game.
Last edited by a moderator:
They are playing for a secure spot in the Top4, Chelsea can still catch them.
If it didn't matter they wouldn't have played Salah for 97 minutes.
How are we even close to Spurs and Liverpool? We almost haven't won any games in the second half of the season.
They are very inconsistent despite this widespread belief that they are amazing teams.
Yes you are right, but still the sense of extreme urgency isn't there. If Chelsea gets, say, 10 points and Liverpool just 1 in the remaining games they would still make the top 4. In a CL final both their energy and motivation would be massive.
Seen a bit of it and they played at 1/5 the intensity they played at against roma and city in CL
Stop them feeding Salah to run behind your lines and much is done.
Their midfielders are not very good, and seldom are able to play the killer pass in the last third, it most often comes from the back or when the front 3 drop deep.
You'll dominate them in midfield, and they will commit errors. Set up to capitalize on them on the counter.
We literally can't unless Zidane drops the Modric-Kroos combo and plays Lucas/Asensio/Bale. We can't defend for shit even sitting deep and we have no pace to counter
There is a good article about Bale / Asensio / Lucas in El Confidencial. Among other things says that "Zidane puts Lucas Vázquez as an example, with numerous arguments, of what a footballer has to do on the pitch. Play every minute that is in the field with high intensity, mischief, liveliness, pressure the opponent, go to the divided balls, go up and down and have collective and solidary sense. The sacrifice, taken to the limit, of Lucas , that Bale does not have, according to the coach"
"The resistance of Lucas - called 'Iron Man' -Bale doesn´t have it and if it is a matter of giving more verticality and depth to the game , there is also Asensio, which is equal or more effective"
https://www.elconfidencial.com/depo...real-madrid-lucas-vazquez-florentino_1555664/
"Dani Ceballos has completed 95.2% of the passes he has tried in the 17/18 League (221 of 236), the highest accuracy percentage of any player (+5 matches)" (this was before this game)
Asensio and Lucas are much better options than Bale at this moment in time. They may not be as quick as Bale when he's 100 per cent fit but they are quick. They are also technically more accomplished as footballers.
Real Madrid needs to put Casemiro in behind Modric and Kroos, play Ronaldo at centre forward and go long to him with Lucas and Asensio feeding off the flick ons/knock downs. Its not exactly Real Madrid football but its the best way to get at Liverpool. Ronaldo can out jump any Liverpool centre back, up against Lovren it'd be a massacre. Madrid has the players to counter punch Liverpool over and over just like against Bayern under Ancelotti. However, Zidane has to be brave enough to do what's necessary not what's pretty.
Ironically if Simeone or Mourinho were in the Madrid dugout for the Champions League final I'd have absolute confidence in a Madrid win.
That's how we played against bayern, didn't stop them from creating chance after chance. All they had to do was pass it to ribery and watch him feck half our defence sideways. Juventus in Turin. PSG in madrid. We just don't defend well with those players, period. Sitting deep only invites pressure and leads to more mistakes. We are not comfortable on the pitch unless the ball is far away from our goal
Cristiano is a very poor target man, and our midfielders are slow. Our best chance to counter is to play through their press
We are far more likely to beat them playing the game we want to play, then to go with something we don't usually do and aren't built to do
Had Casemiro been on form, Madrid would have defended not so deeply and many of the attacks from the wings would've been avoided. The wingers don't receive the ball so comfortably in those situations, and that's what Ribery did the whole time last Wednesday.
Ronaldo needs Benzema to be the best Ronaldo. He's more free to take decisions and can surprise the defense with his superb off the ball movements that way. The problem is some defensive solidity is lost on the wings if you choose the Ronaldo-Benzema pair in a 4-3-3. Zidane has to decide between having his biggest star decimated or a more fragile unit when defending.
Another alternative would be playing 4-4-2 with just two of the Casemiro-Kroos-Modric trio and protect both wings.
Ronaldo needs Benzema to be the best Ronaldo. He's more free to take decisions and can surprise the defense with his superb off the ball movements that way. The problem is some defensive solidity is lost on the wings if you choose the Ronaldo-Benzema pair in a 4-3-3. Zidane has to decide between having his biggest star decimated or a more fragile unit when defending.
Another alternative would be playing 4-4-2 with just two of the Casemiro-Kroos-Modric trio and protect both wings.
Zidane ended the game with a 4-4-2 with Modric on the right of the midfield and Asensio on the left, I think he's going to try something similar
Bale won get a minute in the Bayern game unless Madrid is losing and needs a goal in the final minutes. The Kroos Modric partnership will never be dropped if they are fit.
Juventus in Turin and PSG in Madrid didn't made anything bro... 1 goal recieved in 180 minutes.
We don't defend well with any players this season, but they are the best option.
Madrid loves to have the ball but they also love to sit back and hit on the counter, we have seen that since a lot of years ago.
The only slow midfielders madrid has are Kross and Casemiro, still Casemiro recovers hundreads of balls and defends amazing. Modric, Asensio, Lucas, Kovacic are amazingly fast players.
And definitely can't agree with Ronaldo being a poor target man. He is the best goalscorer in the world, and one of the biggest reasons is that he has the best off the ball movement in the world. So I think he is as good a target for their teamates at anybody can be.
Still I agree that he performs better with Benzema on his side.
Zidane will definitely play with Asensio and Lucas on the wings, for helping Marcelo and the guy that takes Carvajal's position in the game.
I also think he will play Benzema and Cristiano on top.
The only doubt I have is who will play in Carvajal's place, Nacho is still injured.
From what we saw in today's game, he could put Casemiro as a CB and send Varane to the right, and play Kovacic in the middle with Kross and Modric.
Let's wait and see.
I think you'll start the game the way you ended it in Munich. 4-4-2 with Lucas Vasquez as rightback, Modric on the right of the 4-4-2 and Benzema + Ronaldo ahead.
Yeah, because they missed their chances. Just like bayern. They still created a lot
Which is why inviting pressure would be stupid
We used to, when we had the pace for it and the team had the spirit to sit deep and soak up pressure...how many times we you seen us play on the counter this season?
None of them can outrun liverpool's mids and win the second balls with them
That's not what target man means.
Juve created almost anything in Turin. It was more probable that the game ended 5-1 than 3-1 ...
This season, I've seen them play to hit in the counter succesfully a few times. For example, the first game vs PSG. We destroyed them with two counters when Asensio entered the match. They had total control of possesion and Madrid hit them on the counter.
It is false that you don't have the pace in a team that has Asensio, Lucas, Cristiano, Bale and even Modric.
Liverpool mids are crap, specially compared with Madrid's mod, so don't worry bro, and it will be seen in the final if Madrid wins Bayern.
I tthink I don't understand what are you refering to with target man, but talking about Cristiano as CF or Striker, I don't think you can find any better aption in the world for that position.
Everybody is worrying too much about Liverpool, but they are shite, a team that besides City they haven't played anyone this season.
I'm much more worried about Bayern, much stronger and experienced than Liverpool.
Let's see if we can get past them first.
Go look up the highlights. They had at least 3 sitters, and plenty more dangerous situations where they fecked up the easy final ball or the control. PSG created less than juve, but again, it was down to them fecking up rather than good defence on our part. They should have had a penalty as well, on a pretty clear intentional handball by ramos
Very rarely have we had success on the counter, always with some combination of Asensio, Lucas, Bale or Kovacic on the pitch, and usually against slower teams. Probably our best counter attacking performance was in dortmund, but it was early in the season and the keys to our success was the pressing and our ability to play through theirs.
Against PSG we actually didn't do much on the counter. For the second goal we won the ball back at the edge of their box, for the third we sliced through them, they were all behind the ball
We are usually very slow moving the ball from defence to attack
They are better athletes than ours, it's not even close.
Target man is the striker who stays up and fights for long balls to bring them down and allows the team to push forward. Benzema is the only striker we have who is good at that, but he's not going to dominate Lovren or Virgil the way Lukaku could. And if we play him we lose pace anyways...
Nah, I'm countering people calling for us to play like United against them. We won't, mainly because we can't.
Sorry bro, can't agree with anything you wrote. But at the end we will see in the final, IF we can get past Bayern that will be the hardest game in the season.
If we get past them, personally I'm not too worried. We can't play them like United, because with all respect, Madrid today is miles better and has much more quality, we don't need to sit back and counter.
We could, but we don't have to. If they were a team that loves possesion and that will dominate the midfield we should, but they won't and they can't.
Expect Liverpool to make that if the final is them vs Madrid.
At the end, we both want Madrid to win the UCL, that is all that matters.
I'm baffled, i'm really seeing people here saying Madrid would have trouble with Liverpool LMAO
I’m gonna quote you when they beat you in the final. I sincerely hope you’re right but I think you’re greatly underestimating them.
Liverpool have the momentum coming off that quarter against City and the first leg against Rome. I hope Rome pull one out though.
In a single game, Liverpool can be one of, if not the most dangerous team in Europe, they spanked City (twice), Roma, Arsenal, Porto... I remember the friendlies against Barcelona or Bayern past season too, it's just part of their identity now.
They're just mercurial, but Liverpool are one of the teams I'd rather dodge based only on how hot they can get once they get a game going. It doesn't mean that they're favourites vs Real or even on the same level 100 games out of 100, but they surely are one of the teams that can create more troubles against any European top team, in a UCL final I'd only put Barcelona, Bayern, Atletico and maybe United as tougher teams for Real Madrid than Liverpool.
I'm going to hunt you down if we lose now.
If you cnuts manage to waste this I'll officially hate you more than Barca.
Not even Cnuty Cackir obviously being handed a blowjob from Perez to wrongly send off Nani and hand you the tie against us made me hate you more than Barca. This will though.
Madrid will stop winning at some point in Europe, it's a matter of time. It might even happen tomorrow.
It's incredibly hard to win just one CL, and we are asking this team to get 4 out of the last 5. It's crazy.
Nacho is in the list for tomorrow. I wonder if he is ready to play from the beginning. I don´t like the idea of Lucas being right back.
He will run and give everything but there are certain concepts of position that are not solved with courage.
It's going to be a very complicated game, Bayern have nothing to lose, and they really shouldn´t care if we score first since they have to score two anyway.
Without Isco, the other position should be for Benzema, Bale or Kovacic.
In Marca they did a small survey and won Kovacic, but maybe because of fatigue with Benzema.
He can be criticized but without him, Cristiano was very alone in the attack.
He will run and give everything but there are certain concepts of position that are not solved with courage.
It's going to be a very complicated game, Bayern have nothing to lose, and they really shouldn´t care if we score first since they have to score two anyway.
Without Isco, the other position should be for Benzema, Bale or Kovacic.
In Marca they did a small survey and won Kovacic, but maybe because of fatigue with Benzema.
He can be criticized but without him, Cristiano was very alone in the attack.
If I could choose a midfielder from Real for United I'd pick Kovacic ahead of Kroos and Casemiro, he would be a ridiculously good fit for our midfield.
He has not been very good this season tbf. Last season he was great I thought.
With Kovacic I am not very objective because I liked him a lot, he seems a nice guy and good professional. I really want him to succeed, but the truth is that except for a good game in which he ran behind Messi during all the match, I think he has not exploded. He is very complete, but he does not have that naturalness with the ball that Kroos has, he needs half a second extra to think.
I do not know why Zidane did not give him more continuity, 5 or 6 games playing 90 minutes to show his full potential.
Casemiro has grown a lot as a player, and especially in this type of games he plays very well. In any case, how much would you pay for Kovacic?
He is probably a £50m midfielder in todays market.
Perez would most likely quote us £90m and then turn around and sell him to Chelsea for £35m though.
I think Florentino has rejected bigger offers for him. I would not be surprised if some Italian team reached 70 million euros.
The problem is that you will value each one of your players at 200 million, so I see it very complicated.
Negotiating with Madrid would mean talking about De Gea and maybe asking about Pogba or Rashford, so I do not think it's worth it. It would be better if you went to Italy and searched for your own Kovacic for a more reasonable price.