Out With The Old & In With 7he New - Transfers, Rumors, & Lies Thread

Zidane knew that if we gave space to them we would be asking for trouble. We took a risk with using Kovacic in a DM role. It worked against Barca in Super Copa. Didn't work against Bayern. He couldn't handle the role. Vazquez also were awful in positioning and most of their attacks came through our right. But Zidane wasn't completely wrong. We had good chances to score in counter attack.

No doubt about Casemiro. He just has the big game mentality.
Bayern played with James - Thiago - Tolisso in Bernabeu. They put Javi Martinez behind James in Alians which looked more solid. I agree that a real 6 behind James helps a lot but i haven't followed James enough to see his defensive work rate. If he does enough dirty work as @J-Mezzy said before and if he shows the effort, it would work in my opinion. The Madrid James didn't.

 

I agree but in my opinion Kroos does not really do any dirty work.. This last game against AM is a testament to that.. but he keeps getting by and we still win so no one thinks we can improve there.

 

That’s part of it but we’ve also elected to let them have the ball, I know this because we didn’t press them at all, we dropped deep to defend every time they were in possession.

Not a speculation it’s a fact we didn’t press Bayern high up the field, it’s also well known that this team can keep the ball very well, we’ve made over 20 passes leading up to our first goal in the second leg for example.
You’re correct that Zidane thought the safest bet would be to let BAyern have the ball though, he probably didn’t want to have to deal with their speedy wingers on the break.

 

Kroos has weak defensive positioning and sometimes he doesn't make much effort but i think you are exaggerating a bit. He had 2 tackles against Atleti. Ofcourse it looks nothing if you compare it with Casemiro's but looks ok when you consider that Modric made 1, Partey 2 and Saul 3.

I don't know about James. If he can do more in La Liga i'm ok with him being a CM in 4-3-3.

 

Here is an article which compares Casemiro, Isco, Modric, Kroos and James from last season with stats.. Not a big difference to Kroos defensively but a significant difference in offense.

https://www.planetfootball.com/quic...ezs-2017-18-stats-to-real-madrid-midfielders/

 

That’s the thing with Kroos, because he has that nonchalant style people assume he is lazier than he actually is, don’t get me he sometimes couldn’t be bothered to work hard but it’s certainlg overblown.

 

What could have been had we sold Bale and kept Ronaldo ?!

 

Depends on how he would have started the season. If he started like last season, not much different.

 

In the derby, at half time, cross was second highest after LV in ground covered.

People think he doesnt put much efforts because he is slow.

 

Heynckes got the dude to run. The Madrid version of James was a guy who wanted goals and assists. The Bayern version is a true CM

 

He was successful in that role against PSG in Paris too and the 0-3 Madrid Derby back in 16/17 that was the last game at the vicente calderon.

 

But based on his form for Juve, we would've been better off without a doubt.

 

I think Kroos has declined in the la liga.. perhaps is motivation..
When people from the outside rate our players they mostly do so based on our CL performances where our guys always raise their level.

 

Different team, different league with different level of competition. We expected him to tear Serie A apart any way. He scored once in CL so far which was against United.

 

Yeah against Atletico too. Against PSG, he played as a box to box midfielder alongside Casemiro.

 

Perez says we will not sign a 9 because Benz is the best in the world....

 

IN FORM, there is no 9 out there who is better. The icardis and Kanes of this world are not even worth mentioning. Suarez heavily declining, Lewa and Agüero are the only 2 who you could argue for.

 

I'm not speaking of just goals but general performances. He's been better as a whole than any of his previous 2 seasons at Madrid.

 

He declined last year at Madrid, did nothing special start of season. Towards the semi and finals of UCL the same thing happened.

 

Benz's form shouldn't be taken as the norm though, he could easily be going through a purple patch. Plus, he's 31 going to be 32 this year so it's unlikely he'll even maintain his current level.

 

We need a young striker regardless. Perez must realise this end of the season!

 

Eriksen played like a beast yesterday, and has continued to do so for a long time now. I’ll keep repeating this until he signs a contract extension, but sign him up now Flo! The guy’s ready for the biggest stage of them all.

 

We would be absolutely crazy not to hop on him.

One year remaining on contract for that level of talent? He would explode playing at our club.

Really hope we make that move. He would be terrifying at barca or PSG.

 

I’ve not heard a peep from him regarding his future. I’ve probs missed something though.