welcome madridistas

sevilla v real madrid early tomorrow morning. sevilla could be tough. i dont know how sevilla play but it was always quite tough.
but i have seen real sociedad play, and i think real sociedad is a real unpredictable one.

i didnt watch the game but i have a feeling that having jese wont help much. isco will had he played from the start. amazing what a defeat against your arch rivals can do to your mentality. real madrid are suffering from it.

i kind of agree with the illara and alonso assessment. i thought they are too similar to play together. illara is a like for like replacement for xabi, and he's no shuttler like di maria. wonder if casemiro would be a better choice.

how do you comment on ronaldo? on one hand, his selfishness is the reason why real madrid are scoring. on the other, he is berated for trying too hard to score, do it all by himself most of the time. this all points to his average decision making. i get what you mean, i have seen him play and there are many times when he could play in someone for a better goal scoring opportunity but chose to go at it alone. thing is, i have seen that from bale, benzema and morata too. isco as well. maybe its a team thing. too anxious to be important for the club that team play suffers. sacrifice is needed, just like xabi. it has been a long time since he last scored.

situation right now reminds me of the juande ramos time in charge. won all until the classico, and then all came apart.

This post has been edited by kevraul: Mar 27 2014, 11:11 AM

surely, you must want real madrid to play like barcelona or atletico? neither has beaten each other.

so a 442 will presumably pack the midfield and the midfield will not be overrun. first, there would be 2 banks of 4 and leaving 2 upfront which surely brings us to the point where there is not enough firepower when the goals do not come. secondly, there would be a lack of width, forcing the game to be played in the center midfield area. good teams will exploit whatever space they can find. that is assuming the midfield 4 are all central midfielders since its the midfield you are concerned with if 3 can be overrun. if you put 2 wingers in your midfield, probably jese and di maria, then that leaves you with only 2 midfielders centrally. it will be overrun all the same.

that casillas save. world class.

morata took his chance well, cool finishing.
isco is a bit worrying. looks like he's an upgrade on ozil but looks too nonchalant. he is capable of moments of genius. players like him, if they are pressed to be more hardworking, they might lose what made them a genius in the first place.
now, we dont want our team to become like chelsea or the past real madrid, do we?

real madrid emphasized on possession when ancelotti came in. whether its passing in the midfield or midfield to defence. that is to be expected since the front 3 are all tailored mostly for counter attacks with speed.

tell me, had real madrid gone attacking at BvB, and with BvB's superb transition play, would real madrid have survived this? that is, we still havent taken into account the defence, which is not the best among european teams. how real madrid paid the price for backpasses gone astray. had real madrid gone attacking like they did in bernabeu, reus, mikhtaryan and lewandowsky would feel like they are in disneyland.

carlo ancelotti knows best, even though his team suffered heavily in the first half. isco coming on gave real madrid a little more control i guess.

when you have a 3-0 advantage, you'd want to hang on to that as much as you can. absorb and hit on the counter is a proper game plan for this match. BvB had to come out all guns blazing, and what better than to hit them on counter attacks while sitting back and protecting the goal. yes, real madrid aspires to play possession football, but they are not well oiled like barcelona on this part of the game. real madrid cannot yet play the patient passing game and 1-2 their way into opposition area. remember that they came from a mourinho era, where transition was their main game. its hard to shirk that off. BvB is good in hitting fast, pressing high and create space for themselves in tight situations. you have to give dortmund some credit. they are a really impressive side. we havent even mentioned their injury crisis yet.

my point is, there is really only so much real madrid can do.

This post has been edited by kevraul: Apr 9 2014, 03:04 PM

i agree that fear played a part in the loss. maybe the penalty miss got to the players but i think what they feared the most was the speed at how dortmund hit them in the opening minutes.
to defend in a narrow shape is normal. that is how you close space and force the opponents to go to the flanks, where damage can be limited. the defenders would have more chances defending crosses. that said, BvB still found their way through (mikhtaryan miss) and that shows you how good BvB is. we made it easy for them because of the 2 mistakes, lapse in concentration. reus is a quite underrated player. to finish by going between the legs of ramos is no easy thing.

contrary to what you believe, BvB did exceptionally well in their season considering the injury blight that they have. their game has a philosophy, much like Everton under roberto martinez. philosophy is what is eluding real madrid right now, for the time being. caught between mourinho's team and possession game they want and aspire to.

i think the fans in this thread prefer the latter. actually i think the fans want it all. press high, quick passes, the 1-2s, solid defending and the lightning fast counter attacks like in previous seasons. those counter attacks were really a thing of beauty. very quick and precise. but there is only so much a team can do during a transition year.

in my opinion, there is 1 obstacle for real madrid to be playing possession game. i think the players they bought emphasized that they want to play possession game. players like isco and illaramendi came in and they play their passes neat, from what i saw in the under 21 games. modric seems suited to the style.

real madrid performed much better when xabi alonso returned from his injury. he is the player who thrives on the longer passes which kicks off the counter attacks from the front 3. the recent decline in real madrid's performance is due to his fatigue. but at the same time, i think real madrid should slowly phase him out because i thought he is slightly hampering madrid in possession play. i think he is rather slow and a little clumsy but his reading of the game more than made up for his weaknesses. personally, i would like to see ancelotti try playing illaramendi by himself in the base of the midfield trio. it might not work out well, but i think you will see more controlled passing in the midfield. you dont quite often see illaramendi going into tackles but he snaps at those with the ball in his zone, if you know what i mean.

another is the front 3. they are playing so high up, except for crucial games where they need to put in a shift to defend, that their mindset is ready anytime to pounce on counters. slight exception to benzema who could move quite well off the ball. what this creates is a very big and empty area in between the front 3 and middle 3. there is something like a disconnect there to be playing possession football. that is where isco could come in, in place of benzema. ancelotti has mentioned of isco playing the false 9 before.

and then, when real madrid is doing all these maybe one day, the club would then be accused of playing like barcelona, the arch nemesis, and become unhappy as well. pun intended.

This post has been edited by kevraul: Apr 10 2014, 11:50 AM

i dont think high presses cancel out possession game. pressing high means you can win balls further up the pitch, which limits the opponents to track back and hence more space to work. see barca, they press high and still play possession game. there is a risk as well to this high press, where good teams can just bypass your pressing players and hit the defenders straight. BvB does it well, as well as real sociedad.

yes, bale is very efficient on the fast paced counter attacks. he is very direct in the sense that he's made up his mind whether to run or pass or shoot. no showboating and that makes his game efficient. with showboating like what ronaldo does, his mind cannot be opened to the players making good runs into spaces. its a love hate thing i guess.

This post has been edited by kevraul: Apr 10 2014, 12:14 PM

Superb younglings. Illara impressive at the base. Isco did very well and superb goal from morata.

Same as barca, you can expect the same percentage of possession for bayern in the return leg. But guardiola will have other ideas I am sure. Ball over the top of defence or simple overloading in attack, I dont know what he has up his sleeves. But real madrid will be scared for sure. Expect a more defensive lineup than usual. The previous barca encounters will creep into the heads of madrid.

Special mention for carvajal. Kept that t*at ribery at bay. Took it like a man, didnt even flinch with that slap. Superb, that alone is motm for me.

i am still seething from the ribery slap on carvajal. love to see uefa bring down the hammer on him, but platini wont, i guess.

how utterly wrong was i, thinking real madrid would have been scared of guardiola's tricks up his sleeves. at first it was just a hint, but now, i think tito is the real brain behind barca's dominance. or was it messi?

xabi is a sad case, and i think the illaramendi in the final would be the unveiling of the new xabi alonso. if he is fielded.

That's strange. Is there still a galactico policy? New direction has been on the way with carvajal, isco, morata, illaramendi, and jese.

And if the youngsters dont win you titles? Lack of world class signing?

Itu pasai la tak leh juai kat chelsea.....mourinho nak buat koang ajaq