This team hasn't figured it out yet. SIGH. How long is this going to take? Or is this season going to be one big let down. Anyway, onwards to Madrid - BVB ptII: The Chinky Strikes Back.
I don't think it's his fault if he's bad at LB that's not his position even if he is willing or capable of playing there. Also my expectation for him are limited but having scored a goal and played in a few games already I think it's safe to say he's exceeding expectations. Very different from the Modric situation.
Same here. I thought he played rather well today, and like I said, that touch was really absolutely perfect. Any lighter, any heavier, or in any different direction, and he doesn't score. And that type of little chipped pass isn't easy to control. Great skill and I think it'll give him a boost.
Nice assist by Benzema for the third goal, and good ball to Cristiano (and nice attempt at it stretching) before the forth being nicely slotted in by Modric. Good work, fellas.
I have not seen Luka play at Real Madrid as i don't have Bein channel..I know at Spurs everything ran though Luka..He pretty much dictated the play almost every game...Spurs probably played the nicest football last season if you ask most people who watch EPL..Luka needs the ball as much as possible to show his quality..Last season Luka was top 3 in most passes completed and most chances created in the EPL..Maybe Luka does not fit Jose system but i do know is the guy is a top class footballer who has proven it in the best league in the world..
Luka doesn't need more ball, there are quite a few more top quality players than in Tottenham, so he just has to get used to the fact he's not running the show anymore. What he needs is more time, for crying out loud, he didn't even go through pre-season preparations with Tottenham, somehow everybody forgets that.
Well, those were 90 snoozearific minutes.... which is not a bad thing with a crucial CL tie coming up.
I know it was, I was talking about Karim's assist to Essien for "the third", as I said, if I remember correctly.
Dortmund's snoozearific 90 minutes ended with a 0-0 and Kehl breaking his nose. I agree that those types of matches is just what we need in between CL and CdRmatches.
I think overall Modric has done well and has filled exactly the role I expected him to. Playing wherever he's needed in midfield, can take Xabi's role, Ozil's spot, or play next to Xabi depending on the situation. For me he has been quite good in all of them, I haven't noticed the whole "not fitting in yet" situation many of you are harping on. Maybe another case of "he cost 30+ but hasn't played like it" Coentrao garbage all over again. The thing to realize about him is that he's different than any of our other midfielders, which is excellent for tactical variety. He isn't strictly a creative attacker like Ozil, not a physical box-to-box like Khedira, not a destroyer like Essien, and not a deep lying playmaker like Xabi. He's a highly technically skilled box-to-box midfielder that can fill in for any of the above 4. I like what he's done so far, especially considering he didn't have a preseason whatsoever. Not having one with us would be hard enough on it's own, but he didn't even play preseason with Spurs.
Modric takes a lot of responsibility and tries to be everywhere, which is what makes him the most similar solution to Xabi on the team when Xabi is suspended. The squad seems to like him, which was obvious from the first moment, and they want to help him which is a big plus. I think he'll do well once he settles in and finds his niche. His passing can be fantastic and he's not shy of working. I expected him to have instant impact, but maybe a slow natural progress is better in his case.
I'm thinking Luka will be a great addition once the team finds their feet because at the moment everyone is playing like crap so that's not helping him adapt either. With that said, I pray I would never have to see Ramos at RB again.
Yup, this sounds right to me. I like what I've seen, because we needed another skillful player in the middle for times just like these. Good stuff.
Personally could not be less bothered about the Pichichi standings, always nice when one of our players is leading it, but not something that I'm at all worried about if someone from another team is.
It's painful to watch the team playing this way. I expected that we would find our feet by now, but it seems that the bad pre-season is going to affect us longer than expected.
I think we're a little past the point where we can be still blaming our summer activities, this team should be much sharper and consistent despite the injuries. Still the fact that this team still has sevreal gears it can potentially shift up is heartening but they need to do it soon. "Big games" used to be our struggle but now our difficulty seems to lie in putting away teams we should be beating a little easier than we have been (or not).
The Pre-season was not that bad at all. No different to last year when we won La Liga. Just unfortunate the Euro's were on.