Sanogo's an interesting one, he'd shown interest in coming before but then we bought Brandao and nothing ever came of it. I think him and Bergessio are very good signings for ASSE. Gignac would certainly be a huge coup, and I wouldn't be surprised if we look to make him our big signing next summer. But, you know, we wouldn't exactly be alone in desiring him.
i think OM lacks pure striker. someone at the right place. Trez would also be agood suggestion considering his admitted he wants to leave italy, accept a pay cut and return to france
he played the last half hour against mighty partizan belgrade... and looked pretty so-so. i don't happen to like them, but here's something to know: we all saw them wringing wet, but they look just as shiny and rubbery dry!
Ha, I said the same thing to a friend. I think the material on them must be pretty weird, but I don't mind having a black kit. Of course, I'd rather just wear the normal shirts unless there's a clash of colors, but that's the way things are I guess.
Good luck in tomorrow's match, please join us in our in-match thread if you care to. Let's hope we get an exciting match between our two clubs.....ending in a RM victory, of course!
After Valenciennes, Real Madrid is a piece of cake, yes? (thank you, natenate. I may wander into the Real thread at some point. I'd wish you good luck, but it would be a bit absurd.)
Mandanda Bonnart-Diawara-Heinze-Taiwo MBia-Cheyrou-Cisse Lucho Brandao-Niang Id like to see this lineup. I smell a 1-1 draw.
I totally understand. That would be a fantastic result for you guys, though it'll be difficult to hold us at one goal, especially at home and with Heinze aka The Flying Elbow in the back.
We saw that Flying Bow so many times in his couple of years at RM. That guy thinks he's being sly, and somehow he never got sent off after all the dirty stuff he does, so I guess he IS sly. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate his passion, but when he's not playing for your team it's gonna be frustrating to see him do those things. Niang is a great player, and you guys were smart in keeping him around and letting Djibril Cisse go away. Brandao I haven't been too impressed with. Many RM fans were actually hoping we'd sign a LB like Taiwo this summer...he has many fans on our board.
I consider this the first true test for the RM. The team still lacks cohesion, and Marseille is capable of good football. As a fan of Les Bleus, I'll be keeping an eye open for Cheyrou, Mandanda and Ben Arfa (before he's grabbed by the Wigan or the Spurs). Let's hope it's a good game. Y... Hala Madrid! (Allez les Bleus! aussi).
First half you guys looked very solid and were giving us a lot of trouble, especially in closing us down in attack. But, you couldn't keep it up and the French physical style worked against you when Diawara went in hard at CR9's ankle. After the first goal, it was over. Still, good showing first half, just missing that link between the attackers and defense. Could've used an in-form Ben Arfa to provide something unique. Good luck until the next one, with Milan's loss you've got a chance.
Hm...I'm starting to think that Didier isn't doing good choices. Brandão would fit better than Morientes. Even Ben Arfa could make a nice duo with Niang. After that bizarre trio with Niang/Brandão/Morientes against Valenciennes,I think he need to remake something. But believe me,I'm overconfident aboout advancing now. We have conditions to win both games against Zurich and see Milan losing twice against RM,so things could get even.
I don't know what to think about Marseille. Yet again, we are lead to think that they didn't deserve to lose that badly - against Milan, they deserved to win - yet they are losing again. It's a little bit like the past season even if imho they are better than they were. Offensively, Marseille relied so much on Niang performance. They had some good chances to score during the first half but it was often Niang who made a great call, or Niang who tried to beat a few players. On the bright side, Niang is proving yet again that he's a fantastic player. Deschamps chose to field a 4-4-2 "en losange" therefore you would expect Taiwo and Bonnart to make a lot of offensive efforts to help the team otherwise the left & right side would look desertic when Marseille would control the ball. Actually, Marseille didn't want to get countered by Madrid after their attacks therefore Deschamps kept telling to Taiwo and Bonnart to come back and defend. It penalized their offensives. Once in the first half, I was staring at Cheyrou who was looking for Taiwo to offer him another option on the left side, yet he kept defending. Lucho is also really lacking of physical impact, he lost so many balls because of that. He has great vision and can make good passes, however he's not strong enough. BTW, it's a pity that Diawara got redded. Imo, there is not even foul. It may be impressive, yet I'm far from thinking that Kaka (not sure if it were Kaka) deserved to get rewarded with a penalty. That's football, Diawara tackled the ball. When I saw his tackle I even thought : "great tackle".
Replay showed one foot got Ronaldo's ankle, follow foot got the ball. Maybe a little harsh with the yellow but it was a fair foul call. I thought it was a poor call until I saw the slowmo replay. Still Diawara was playing well, until he let Ronaldo get to the that long ball, he left Mandanda in no-man's land on that one.
last night before the match i was helping with geometry homework. i like maths and the certainties they offer. in a lozenge, if ABC is 40°, CDA is always 40° and since the sum of the four angles is always 360°, the other two angles must be 140°. everyday life rarely offers us such refreshing absolutes, such simplicity, but we take them where we find them. last night for example: lucho gonzalez was perfectly useless and an absolute waste of space. at the start of the match the ball was going to him; after all, he's supposed to be OM's plaque tournante. but his positioning was unambitious, and the value he added to the balls he was given was consistently negative. the only passes he completed were all backwards, when he was already farther back than his teammates needed him. it's no coincidence in my mind that OM only started playing well when they stopped getting the ball to lucho. both cheyrou and m'bia were doing his job better than he was. once marseille started to get into the merengue defense he never seemed available. man to man he was transparent, never even trying to eliminate his adversary, getting in no one's face, giving up on balls, important balls for his team, that at least on TV looked not 50-50 but at least 70-30 to him. without a whimper. i can't remember him committing, or drawing, any fouls. for god's sake, his team was in the bernabéu, in the champions' league; a match players live their whole careers to play! at no moment did he give the impression he cared. if that's the kind of committment he brings the albiceleste, it's no surprise they're in danger of sinking corps et biens. it's a proper shame. because against all expectations OM put in 2/3rds of an excellent showing in madrid last night. not only niang and cheyrou, but players like bonnart, m'bia, abriel, diawara, heinze were all up to the challenge of meeting, and perhaps beating, the galacticos nuevos. they were actually starting to get the best of play, and if mandanda had come out on that high bouncing ball, or if diawara had been tougher on ronaldo on that first big mistake, the others would likely never have happened. diawara going out reduced them not to 10 but to 9. and rodriguez coming in for ariel instead of lucho for all intents and purposes took them down to 8. why did DD make that choice? does he really have such strict instructions to cover for a big investment that has provided only 15 minutes of solid play this season? i was hoping to see him subbed out at least at the end for HBA, not because it made any difference any more, just to get a glimpse at his stats: balls played, won, lost, fouls received and committed... i'm sure it would have been edifying.
Brandao has to start right now because he's the best you got. Morientes is primarily a sub and DD needs to realize this. He needs to find a place for Ben arfa somewhere and get some use out of him. Hopefully in a months time when the CL resumes, Lucho will finally be 100% match fit and in full stride.
i think we're at the point where lucho's "match fitness" has, as they say in french, bon dos. a strong back to take all the blame, an easy excuse.