Valencia vs Real Madrid | La Liga | Match day 17 | 12/22/13 | 21:00 (Local)

We've won CL and Ligas with teams not having near the talent and ability this one does and had teams better than this one eliminated from CdRs so it might be a bit early for giving up the ghost. There is still a long ways to go and we still have a "run" in us. Five points isn't ideal and the CL is only going to get tougher let's not start the whining just yet.

 

Same old shit..."di maria doesn't have a brain blah blah". Yet he provided the first two goals. The first with a fantastic solo goal and the second with a fantastic cross. Stop being myopic and always blaming the same players...di maria...benzema etc. Now it seems most of the board want to sell Di Maria....absolutely clueless.

The reality is we have conceded double the amount of goals Atletico has and almost double that of Barcelona. I've said it before "you judge a manager on his defensive record", this team will always score goals, the real "managing task" here is to make sure we are defensively strong and Ancelotti is one of the poorest managers in the league right now in this aspect. You can't win the Spanish league playing like this.

We will not win the league. This must be obvious to most of you now. Ancelotti won ONE league in 8 league seasons at Milan. What does that tell you?

He is not the man for the job. He is not the man for the future.

Having said that...we might just win the champions league this year hahaha classic Madrid!

 

Oh hey look @jeremy123 is here and not being myopic at all with his 'Ancelotti out' rant. Hi Jeremy

 

I do think we have a chance in the CdR and the CL. The format hides our inadequacies that @Alma Merengue pointed out. They tend to pop up every now and then in 38 matches.

The last time Carlo won the CL for Milan he as some 30 points off the top spot. I'm not saying that's what we as Madrid fans should expect and strive for, but this guy has pulled some rabbits out of his hat.

 

Everyone seems to love DiMaria because of his individual play. I couldn't disagree more. I think DiMaria hurts the flow more than any other player. He has all the talent in the world, but the guy is just too erratic. He makes mistake after mistake, and he cannot link up well with other players. Don't get me wrong, he has good assists. He has wicked crosses which end up getting Madrid goals. But his overall link up / build up play with his teammates is not good.

Just consider the team you saw yesterday minus DiMaria plus Bale. The team with Bale could go up against any team, the one with DiMaria just doesn't spark the same emotions.

I love all the conspiracy theories people have come up with for why Benz is getting minutes. Zidane and Perez stay up late at night hatching plans on how to get Benz an extra minute on the pitch, lol. The reason is because there is no one else. Morata does not fit well with Bale/Ronaldo on the wings. If you have DiMaria/Ronaldo, then I could see giving minutes to Morata since the game changes.

All that said, one person I could see that would fit in the role Benz is currently playing, it's Jese. He has the creativity to pull it off.

 

I get what you are saying and it's true. I am not being pessimistic, just being real i guess. The striker, the defense, some midfield players, these are huge problems for us right now, i don't see Carlo solving them in this season.

 

Sorry but I'm not willing to concede the league over five points when its December...

We had the same over reaching last year and after the winter break some realized how foolish that was. We've seen at times the potential this team has and I'm hoping that we'll see more of that starting in January and I'm confident that if we do we'll have a chance for the league, the Kings Cup and CL. Yes some players need to step up, some need need to get healthy but when you consider our starting 11 and our bench it isn't impossible nor is it unreasonable to expect us to in contention for all competitions.

 

Morata would fit fine with Ronaldo and Bale up front. Why wouldn't he? And spare me the link up play bullshit, that ship has sailed. He doesn't have the experience but he is a battler and I guarantee he would've given that brute Mathieu a hell of a lot more to think about then Benz. He'd also press with decent energy. I'm not buying into the influence some believe Zidane allegedly has in this situation, his continued play is all on Ancelotti. At some point though, even though Morata is rusty I'm beginning to believe the youngster is closer to getting it together than Benz.

 

It's a lot better result for the last game of the year, compared to loss to Recreativo 3-0 in Madrid and we still won Liga that year. The Kid scored the winner, I, for one, am happy.

 

Cue the Benzema chatter post-Valencia pre-winter break on various sports talk shows: 'fans are tired of his attitude' .... 'he didn't celebrate Jese's goal' .... 'Suarez new contract has an out clause'

Gee, no one could see this coming!

They are almost going to make me feel bad for Benzema.

 

Ronaldo didn't celebrate either. What is the release clause in Messi's contract?

 

At least he raised his arm an ran over to his teammates.

You could see this coming a mile away. I felt the madridimo's disdain for Benzema when I was the Bernabeu for the Betis match; I think I posted something about that at the time. He is doing nothing to help his cause. Not a thing.

 

Still a bit lacking when you compare his celebration to Nacho.....or Zidane

His lack of awareness is disappointing, I wonder how much longer Ancelotti will stick with him?

 

Until the world ends apparently. Benzema hasn't been dropped once except for the El Clasico game where Bale started. It's pathetic really. Morata isn't given enough chances. Sure he played in the CDR game and didn't do too well, but he needs to start to get his confidence up. Benzema has been given enough chances and has blundered all of his chances. Straight off the top i can think of 3 situations in the game against valencia where he screwed up big time when we could've scored.

 

That's who Jese said he ran to btw.

The celebration - or lack thereof - is a silly bit to be fair (which I why I said they will make me feel bad for him).

 

This Zidane fella, he's pretty popular eh?

Well if makes Jese feel better before he was mobbed Zidane was running to him too.

 

tbh, he was so bad that not celebrating is kind of understandable. He literally was not involved in any play against Valencia, and when he was without the ball we got 0 movements from him to open up space. Really disappointing.

 

^ Yeah, he's clearly crossed the line in many ways ... he is going to get picked on mercilessly now. One thing madridismo will not tolerate is a lack of effort/passion/fight - be it real or perceived. And it is much, much worse when you have canteranos on the bench that would kill for his spot.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

I've said it since the beginning of the season. Benzema will not flourish as a center forward. He's a supporting striker. Unfortunately, he may just be the best option. Morata, as I have also said at the beginning of the season, while very enthusiastic is simply not a very good footballer. Jese, in my opinion, is nowhere near a CF as well. He's brilliant, but he doesn't have that ability to to be the totem pole of the team's attacks.

It will be interesting to see what the club does during the window. Many people laughed when I said Raul Gonzalez( in his current age) would be a better option than Benzema. I'm sure the very same people somewhat agree with me now. I expect an experienced player to be signed this January. Let's wait and see.

 

Vucinic is popping up as the latest rumor. I'm sure we'll see a few more names, but I will be shocked if we sign someone.

 

Out of how many games are you basing this off? One? two? three? It's extremely hard to tell whether he just a had a bad game or two. It's funny you mention Raul Gonzalez, because Morata has a similar instinct and eye for goal like him. Maybe technically not good, but Morata will be at the right spot in the right time; just like Raul.