Real Madrid - Borussia Dortmund Champions League [Nov, 05, 2012 - Santiago Bernabéu]

The one thing i cant understand is why our midfield gets overruned against teams like bayern and dortumund its like 4 vs 2.

 

Bingo.

 

Di Maria was so stupid in this game. This dude can win us games just by avoiding to be stupid.

 

Di Maria is fooking clueless when it comes to having the ball at his feet.

 

That is part tactics, part personnel. We do not have the defensive discipline when it comes to taking away time and space. It is painful to watch. One person will press and the entire space behind him will be open b/c the others are pressing ... that is pretty useless. As you said, that's why you end up needing a Khedira or an Essien. Those holes in the midfield have been our biggest problem for a long, long time now (pre-Mourinho, even!).

I think our play with the ball is a factor as well. We like to play quick counters, we like to play long balls out of the back. That makes sense when you consider the characteristics of our attacking players... but it leaves us so s t r e t c h e d.

 

Completely agree.

I remember in the early Mourinho days, I once said that we finally look like a unit with structure on the pitch - it now seems this is long gone and we're back to our usual selves.

 

Agreed, I thought I was the only one who noticed the defensive discipline slipping away.

 

ahh sit they beat me to it, plus my record is 0-0-1.

 

fnck man. i don't even know how to make them funny. i've never even made one before. i enjoy your shit more thou. i'd feel like mine would be "trying to hard to be like chinky" with all my swearing and incoherent bullshit.

however, i vote for halamadrid or whatever the bloke from the uk that hates the entire real madrid squad on off days but loves them when they rock.

again, i don't know if this is the right place..but i just got back form all you can eat sushi. we went into the 4th column for food. over 80 pieces of different ish between me and a goofriend.

i will probably die before the levante game from mercury poisiong.

 

This, and some of the posts after this sum it up pretty good. Essien and Khedira have to be the heart of the defense. Xavi gives his best but mostly gets yellow carded. And Modrić is, I'm pretty sure, still very used to FA defending, where he has played some pretty good games defensively. Playing him and Alonso is a cardinal mistake, I don't know if Mou has finally realized it (there are some articles in Croatian media that say Mou said he will rather play Essien tomorrow than Modrić, and that's the right choice. Modrić can do very little in that team, and I'm fncking Croatian. He's just not so good in defense right now, especially for Spanish league which is technically better than FA. What I would do with him, I would play him instead of Alonso when needed - this season - and mostly instead of Alonso next season. Alonso turned down a new contract offer and is possibly leaving Real next summer. Play Modrić occasionally this year, so he gets used to that spot, and next year use Alonso to relieve Modrić in some games because Alonso is leaving. Luka can't play in Ozil's position. Not as well as Mesut plays even if he's again having a slow start. And defense-wise - for God's sake, get another RB, cause Arbeloa is really not that good.