Real Madrid 2017/18

Didnt think Modric had that bad of a season? Ronaldo I agree found form later in the campaign and had some poor form early, enough to sell him though? Bale, yes I can agree due to injuries, although his returns were still ok 15 goals and 2 assists in only 1713 mins played. Benzema Yeah, but who would RM look to get in to replace him?

Kovacic has a future at RM, last I heard he was on the out? Interesting about Isco not seeing eye to eye with Zidane, id imagine Manchester City would be all over that if RM make it known they were listening to offers.

Modric has scored 1 goal in 26 league games this year. At 33, his legs are gone. Kovacic is being groomed to replace Modric. Influential director Angel Sanchez has rejected multiple offers for him. Zidane loves Kovacic too.
 
Hazard is the replacement for Bale. Ronaldo did not play better than Dybala when he was missing. And how has Modric (1 goal, 26 league games) had a better season than Eriksen (10 goals, 35 league games)? These "best" players are done now ... Next season will be a disaster if there is no surgery.

Seriously, how can you be so biased against your own players? It's insane.
 
How biased do you have to be to think that Ronaldo was better than Dybala from August to September?

How biased do you have to be to pretend August to September is the first half of the season? Not that you’d care but Ronaldo played 4 freaking games until September so yeah Dybala had definitely done more by then.

Do you agree with him then that selling Ronaldo and Modric and replacing them with Dybala and Eriksen is the way forward for Real Madrid? Or do you agree with me that it’s the most stupid thing they can do in the summer?
 
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This summer we need a major surgery similar to 2009. The team's cycle is OVER!!!
OUT: Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Modric, James
IN: Dybala, Hazard, Eriksen, Skriniar

GK: Navas, Casilla
RB: Carvajal, Nacho
LB: Marcelo, Theo
CB: Ramos, Skriniar, Varane, Vallejo
DM: Casemiro, Llorente
CM: Kroos, Kovacic, Ceballos
AM: Isco, Eriksen
WF: Hazard, Asensio, Vazquez
ST: Dybala, Vinicus Junior
Modric has scored 1 goal in 26 league games this year. At 33, his legs are gone. Kovacic is being groomed to replace Modric. Influential director Angel Sanchez has rejected multiple offers for him. Zidane loves Kovacic too.
Eriksen could be an option, but I don´t think that his performances will mean that he will be able to replace Modric(his influence), I mean the statistics that you exposed. I think that we need to sign a good midfielder but personally I´d prefer Thiago or try our luck with Pjanic, or in case we have to prioritize other positions, sign Fabián or someone cheaper, since I do not think Tottenham will sell for less than 60 or 70, and although he seems a good player, for that price I would feel a bit scammed.
Madrid will not sell Cristiano. It could happen in the summer of 2019 but this summer is impossible.
I do not know Skriniar but I would prefer a CB that knows la liga.
From your list I would rule out Dybala. I tried to convince myself but I don´t think he is good enough for Madrid, for Atlético perhaps.
From Hazard I like his desire to come to Madrid and that he is a request of Zidane, but I think I would also feel slightly ripped off talking about performance / price. I would certainly prefer to try Neymar until the last day, Mbappé, or wait to see what's in the World Cup.
 
This summer we need a major surgery similar to 2009. The team's cycle is OVER!!!
OUT: Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Modric, James
IN: Dybala, Hazard, Eriksen, Skriniar

GK: Navas, Casilla
RB: Carvajal, Nacho
LB: Marcelo, Theo
CB: Ramos, Skriniar, Varane, Vallejo
DM: Casemiro, Llorente
CM: Kroos, Kovacic, Ceballos
AM: Isco, Eriksen
WF: Hazard, Asensio, Vazquez
ST: Dybala, Vinicus Junior
If you do end up signing a top striker and get one of Neymar or someone similar to him while ditching Ronaldo, you’d be easily much much better, I’d fear facing you guys too, that’s the one thing I’m not afraid about at this moment of time.
 
How biased do you have to be to pretend August to September is the first half of the season? Not that you’d care but Ronaldo played 4 freaking games until September so yeah Dybala had definitely done more by then.
August to December actually. Paulinho had more La Liga goals than Ronaldo until Christmas. Ronaldo was missing so many sitters and had one of the worst conversion rates in Europe. Dybala was better than Ronaldo for about half the season.

Do you agree with him then that selling Ronaldo and Modric and replacing them with Dybala and Eriksen is the way forward for Real Madrid? Or do you agree with me that it’s the most stupid thing they can do in the summer?
Yeah it would be a good move actually.

Modric will be 33 in a few months, that’s around the age when Xavi really began to slow down. We replaced Xavi with Rakitic in 2014, and it made our team stronger despite the fact that Rakitic was obviously nowhere near Xavi in his prime.

Anyway, Real already has Kovacic so they don’t need Eriksen.
 
August to December actually. Paulinho had more La Liga goals than Ronaldo until Christmas. Ronaldo was missing so many sitters and had one of the worst conversion rates in Europe. Dybala was better than Ronaldo for about half the season.


Yeah it would be a good move actually.

Modric will be 33 in a few months, that’s around the age when Xavi really began to slow down. We replaced Xavi with Rakitic in 2014, and it made our team stronger despite the fact that Rakitic was obviously nowhere near Xavi in his prime.

I meant what you’d do if you wanted Madrid to succeed. Not as a Barcelona fan. You believe replacing their 2 best players with obviously inferior players is not a tremendously stupid move but a good one? Am I missing something here? Dybala wasn’t even starting for Juve for a while as Allegri didn't trust him in big games... Ronaldo scored 1 goal every 100 something minutes for the first half of the season and he was Madrid's best player bar the other player you want to sell but to be honest that wasn't really that hard considering the form of the whole squad.

The big difference here is the likes of Dybala don't have an online army bashing everything he does. Using conversion rate to judge a player on a sample of a couple of games while ignoring all other competitions was one of the most interesting phenomenons I’ve seen happen in fans of this sport. Now nobody cares about conversion rate anymore... which makes me wonder if the people who talked about it actually realize how nonsensical that stat is. It's one of those passing stats that only matter for a couple months while Ronaldo is bad at it and Barcelona fans around the world spam it online. Then by May when they're fans of whatever team happens to be facing Madrid in the CL final those stats don't really matter anymore.

Anyway, Real already has Kovacic so they don’t need Eriksen.

So they should sell Modric and start Kovacic there who is obviously worse and not good enough to do it just because he's younger? Why would they do that? Their goal is to win football matches. Think I might be going mad reading these comments, I guarantee you the single last thing Perez will think about doing this summer is selling Ronaldo and Modric, main reason for that being he actually wants them to win trophies. Madrid already have clear holes in the squad that need fixing and instead of filling up those holes you want to make the squad better by making more holes, it baffles me.
 
So they should sell Modric and start Kovacic there who is obviously worse and not good enough to do it just because he's younger? Why would they do that?
Because Modric is 33 and his decline is inevitable. In fact, he has already declined a lot compared to 2014.

If you were managing Barcelona in 2014, you probably wouldn’t have bought Rakitic and instead you’d have ran a 34 year old Xavi into the ground. After all, ageing is just a myth. The human body doesn’t actually decline over time. ;)
Dybala wasn’t even starting for Juve for a while as Allegri didn't trust him in big games...
Dybala started both games against us, one game against Tottenham (he was injured for the other), and one game against Real Madrid (he was suspended for the other). Dybala didn’t get benched in any significant CL game.
 
Because Modric is 33 and his decline is inevitable. In fact, he has already declined a lot compared to 2014.

If you were managing Barcelona in 2014, you probably wouldn’t have bought Rakitic and instead you’d have ran a 34 year old Xavi into the ground. After all, ageing is just a myth. The human body doesn’t actually decline over time. ;)

Dybala started both games against us, one game against Tottenham (he was injured for the other), and one game against Real Madrid (he was suspended for the other). Dybala didn’t get benched in any significant CL game.

Modric needs competition for his spot, not to be outright replaced since noone can do his job. Same for Ronaldo, Marcelo, Ramos, Benzema, etc. who are all in their 30s.

Xavi by the time he left was nowhere near as important to Barcelona as Modric and Ronaldo are to Madrid. Before Xavi left, Barcelona bought Rakitic. Before Iniesta left they bought Coutinho. They didn’t outright replace them in the same transfer window.

And Xavi and Iniesta were still very good but Modric and Ronaldo are the 2 best Real Madrid players despite their age.
 
Xavi, as great as he was, declined massively at that age, while Modric is still the best CM in the world. He has a much tougher build than Xavi, and still among the players with the most distance covered, I don't know which Modric some of you guys have been watching, and I don't see the point in saying since player X got Y'ed, so will player Z.
 
I mean. When barcelona signed Rakitic, he was a better player than Xavi

Who's better than Modric right now in that role?
 
Xavi, as great as he was, declined massively at that age, while Modric is still the best CM in the world. He has a much tougher build than Xavi, and still among the players with the most distance covered, I don't know which Modric some of you guys have been watching, and I don't see the point in saying since player X got Y'ed, so will player Z.

Any stats to back this up?
 
Any stats to back this up?
I don't know if there's a place to record all that, but at least in CL matches you can see the top 5 distance covered, and Modric is usually up there (Vasquez is usually 1st). Watch any RM match and the eye test proves it as well.
 
I'd like to see the real clip here.. Slip of the tongue or a big hint?
He has problems with Florentino because of the renewal, but it´s not the moment to express it, or be isolated without celebrating with team mates.
 
He has problems with Florentino because of the renewal, but it´s not the moment to express it, or be isolated without celebrating with team mates.

Echoes of how he treated us United-fans..

"I stay.. I stay" *Wink wink*
- Ronaldo interview aired on the exact same day as the Champions League final for United

Tells you a lot of his personality - attention always comes first
 
They both just want better contracts so I wouldn't be too worried about, besides the team just won yet another UCL!
 
So is this possibly the end of a cycle or could we see another five in a row, like the '50s side?
Think it ends here. A lot of keep players are getting old and want a change of scenery. If I was Perez I’d use the warm glow of triple CL’s to do a generation change at the club and bring in some new blood.
 
Think it ends here. A lot of keep players are getting old and want a change of scenery. If I was Perez I’d use the warm glow of triple CL’s to do a generation change at the club and bring in some new blood.

Their problem now though is that there is no new Modric out there, and definitely not a new Ronaldo.

Whatever they purchase will be a step down.
 
Their problem now though is that there is no new Modric out there, and definitely not a new Ronaldo.

Whatever they purchase will be a step down.
Agree. It will be immensely difficult if not impossible.
Think that Neymar will end up with them in 2019. As for Modric, they’ll have to buy a couple of top promising midfielders and hope one pans out.
 
So is this possibly the end of a cycle or could we see another five in a row, like the '50s side?

They’re such winners you never know, but they rode their luck in this campaign. They haven’t been impressive for the most part this season but once you have that winning mentality it can stick around, we ourselves managed it for years. But on performances this season they’re going to need some kind of rebuild. Their star man’s peak years are behind him now and there’s no replacement.
 
Can easily see Neymar playing for Real Madrid.

He just didn't want to move straight from Barca to Madrid so used Paris as a stopping point and low key build up to world cup.
 
Stop the Bernabeu to stop whistling them whenever they misplace a pass perhaps?:lol:
In many games he didn´t deserve to play. Today in particular he´s angry because he thought he´d be in the line-up but he played well against four teams when la liga was over. He had to substitute Benzema -which solved the tie against Bayern- or Isco, who did not have a considerable performance drop. In the same way that he was untouchable for years without deserving it.
I think it was his last game and fortunately one of the best.
 
In many games he didn´t deserve to play. Today in particular he´s angry because he thought he´d be in the line-up but he played well against four teams when la liga was over. He had to substitute Benzema -which solved the tie against Bayern- or Isco, who did not have a considerable performance drop. In the same way that he was untouchable for years without deserving it.
I think it was his last game and fortunately one of the best.

Do you think though he's got too much flak at times considering Benzema was also poor for large chunks of this season yet seems more loved by the crowd?

Bale has been decisive in three CL finals now so think he deserves a bit more respect at times that's all.
 
Do you think though he's got too much flak at times considering Benzema was also poor for large chunks of this season yet seems more loved by the crowd?

Bale has been decisive in three CL finals now so think he deserves a bit more respect at times that's all.

In that sense you are right, it seems that he is a player that brings us luck and that perhaps he has been a little misunderstood. Benzema has been criticized too
, but today at least he played a great game, when a more combinative game was needed. It's not necessarily Bale's fault, but very often the team played much better without him
 
Do you think though he's got too much flak at times considering Benzema was also poor for large chunks of this season yet seems more loved by the crowd?

Bale has been decisive in three CL finals now so think he deserves a bit more respect at times that's all.

Not really sure about that. Judging by the comments on Marca, ForoRealMadrid, Twitter etc, I'd rather say that Bale has actually got a lot of support among the general RM-fans despite his injury problems whereas Benzema gets either abused or hardly gets the praise he deserves.
 
Hate those cun.., so lucky in this cl. First againstt Juve, than against Bayern and now in the final.
 
Real don't even celebrate CL wins with much fervour anymore. brehs were just walking around like it was a league cup