Was screaming at my TV for both Asensio & Vazquez to shoot. Butterfingers Pacheco was trying all day to do his best Keylor Navas "punch the ball back into the most dangerous spot possible." All it took was a shot on target, and Pacheco would handle the rest.
18 - Cristiano Ronaldo has attempted 18 shots in La Liga, the most for a player without scoring this season. Obsession pic.twitter.com/ARhXVltwmw— OptaJose (@OptaJose) September 23, 2017
Couldn't watch the match, watching the highlights it could've ended along the lines of 8-4 or 7-3. Dreadful finishing every game, I get that we don't have a proper CF but it's like every last player of ours is missing easy chances now, mental stuff... being 7 pts behind this early in the season has really got into their heads. Last seasons even if we were 2-3 goals behind we just knew that we'd get the job done, with everybody being as chill as Dexter -I got this, they're already dead- but now it's like we start well, lose a couple of chances and then everything gets chaotic, poor positioning, poor defending etc. etc., we push the panic button too early, which is the opposite of what this team is known for.
Isco and Dani were great. Ronaldo was active as well. Asensio and Lucas might as well have not showed up to the game. They were invisible. Varane was also atrocious. Nacho far outplayed Dani. Casemiro coughed up the ball a few times in terrible places. All in all, the performance is worrying, and with a trip to Dortmund, Zidane needs to figure this out quick.
I didn't get to see the game fully, but playing poorly and winning is so important to winning league titles. We were lacking experience in controlling the midfield with Kroos and Modric out too. We've played well enough in the majority of the games this season to make me think we are very capable of getting it right soon.
When Cristiano's form gets sharper, he's going to be banging in 3 or 4 goals at a time with the number of shots he's getting
We play with 0 intensity and 0 killer instinct. I mean it's a bit pathetic when Zizou's backup plans for us to get a goal are for Varane or Ramos to join the front line after playing it out the back. Yes, it's shitty that Benzema, Kroos, Kovacic etc. are out, but their being back will make me no more confident in our goal scoring ability than the guys who were out there today. If I had to put money on the 5 players who should be handling the goal scoring responsibilities of this team, 3 of them were on the pitch today (CR, Isco, Asensio) all playing absolute trash, and the 4th one (Bale) is not even good enough to replace the trash players. I really just hope this is a form and luck issue; although it's feeling more and more like it could be more of a structural problem.
He was being a moany little bitch today but thats what hes like when things arent going hes way. When he scores 4 goals and misses one chance , that one chance he missed will be on hes mind all night and piss him off. Thats why he scores as many as he does and is as good as he is, it pisses alot of fans off but its never going to change . He was really unlucky not to score that brilliant effort of the post today and was involved with the goals but he can perform way better than that .
Painful game to watch. Regardless of the result it is hella concerning to see what is happening out there. I'll start with the lineup choices. On paper Zizou made the right calls. Wish he had trusted Ceballos a bit more in the last few games as well. But on the pitch Vasquez did nothing and Asensio did little to nothing. Asensio is low key having shitty games since the NT break and maybe even since the SuperCopa heroics. Young player can be forgiven as its the older players job to carry the load but his shitty form won't be ignored forever. He has to take this as a learning experience and figure out how can help the team out there when he isn't at his mercurial best. I thought Cris was trying to do just that. Knowing he's been misfiring in front of goals he started the game trying to set others up but after HT reverted back to usual Cris. He has been unlucky but he has also been real crap these last 2 games. His body language was awful as well. That's the nicest way I can put it. I don't have @Chinky24 pinnache (who does?). The move he made to put the curling shot at the post was from a video game. Unbelievable shot and unbelievably lucky. The day he turns it on we will begin to climb out of this dark well of misery we find ourselves in. That day better come soon though. By soon I mean right frickin now. I guess it was Rafa Varane's turn to give 100% effort in trying to lose the game for us today. I was fuming at some of his plays. He's supposed to be The Guy now, wtf was he doing on that goal. Seems like every game we see one of our guys playing possibly the worst game they have played in months. Its extremely worrying. Step forward Sergio Ramos Garcia and hang your head in shame. I mean how? How? Its mind boggling. Its.......... I don't have words. He had one good goal not given because of ref incompetence but still........ your team is going through its worst patch in years and your fans are literally shaving years off our lives watching these games and you miss like that. I am beginning to think someone put some curse on us. @azriel won't you plz sacrifice a chicken or have popeyes for dinner or summin? Thanks. Dani Ceballos take a bow. Way to pull your balls out and put them on the table. He pulled us through a river of fire today. Madridistas thank you. Isco as well. These boys stepped up barring that one chance by Isco. All in all the 3 points are super duper important but there are more worrying signs than positives from this game. Its not even 1 or 2 things that we can point to or Zizou can fix to right this ship. Between horrible luck, bad finishing, plethora of injuries, dubious game management, suspensions, horrible form and general suckiness it has become this perfect storm. I've come to the conclusion that we will have to ride this out. There is no "fixing" the storm. We just have to ride it out and hope that when we do get out of it we have enough left to get to the shore.
Agreed, I can't say I saw anything at all interesting from any of our attackers , Isco, Marco, Lucas, Ronaldo, all below par for me, the whole team, below par, all of them need to raise their level up a few notches before we tackle Dortmund IMO, it all looked rather lackluster out there today
Aside from his godly 6 month stretch of form last season, he's always been an incredibly inconsistent player. I swear the guy plays down to lesser competition or something.
See with the end product, especially with this game, I feel it's more to do with Asensio and Lucas and their lack of creativity than him. He was doing all the right things to get into space, but I saw no movement from those two. Against Betis, he wasn't great tbh, and just when he got going, Zizou took him out.
Not sure why people have such high expectations of Asensio. The hype really got blown out of proportion once he scored those two screamers. He's got pace, a good shot, and can probably make a dribble here or there, but that's about it for now at least. He needs to develop himself a bit more, it's going to be a while until he becomes some sort of beacon of creativity and efficiency. Remember how frustrating Isco was when he first got here?
He's Spanish and he plays for Real Madrid. The fact is that at the moment he's another James. Has a great shot but needs to develop in many other areas. And just like James, when he isn't scoring or assisting, it'll be asked why he's even on the pitch. The hype got blown out of proportions because of a few golazos, in this forum and the media alike. He got the "Best U21 player" . He's 21.5yo and he's actually behind in development when compared to some 18 year olds (Mbappe,Donnarumma). The fact is that when he was 18 he was playing for a struggling team in the 2nd division. He isn't one of those players that develops super early, we should expect him to become a great player in 2 to 3 years.