To be honest, not certain players. Just Lucas, as he's simply not good enough to be a starter for this club (or 12th man for that matter). I'm seriously having a hard time watching our games with him on the pitch, he literally messes up a large percentage of our attacks (which costs us lots and lots of attacking flow and puts our midfield under pressure). At least Bale is underperforming, but we know he can be world class. Lucas is simply a Huesca level player. Good for him though, he's been useful in his first two years. As soon as he started to get a large amount of starts, his lack of (the required) talent showed and it hurts us. Having said that (I'm starting to repeat myself re Lucas), Solari should be a bit less strict re his approach I agree. He leans too much towards wingplay (hence Lucas on the right and Bale on the left), even though we have a striker that plays like a CM at times and rarely 'attacks' a cross (e.g. that Vinicius cross against CSKA I believe). I'm happy with Solari still though, I like him! He gives players that do have the required talent a run, i.e. Llorente and Fede, which is refreshing to see.
I won't like him when he doesn't salavage this opportunity he has because he is so damn tactically and strategically naive. If he wants to play with wingers, he needs to bench Lucas. He also needs to use Mariano. If he decides to be intelligent and uses our personnel to it's best ability he would play with a man in the hole behind two fowards and depend on our FBs for width. Our midifeld is balanced now and can handle this. That would allow Asensio and Isco to be useful, instead of relying on a decent sub to be a star (Lucas).
Fair enough. One question: wasn't Mariano injured for the most part (could be that I missed his return)? Fully agree that he should use him (much) more.
Yes, but do you honestly see someone as rigid and naive as Solari actually using Mariano unless he is forced? This isn't even a hard team to sort out. Once Llotente stepped up, Modric and Kroos settled and we developed a backbone. We still have an anemic attack because Solari either isn't thinking or he's really not that intelligent. No need to ride luck or individual brilliance when we can put out a consistent thing. We can even switch to his wingers style to counter opposition late in matches.
Solari already exceeded his expectations . The one to blame is Flo and his lackluster transfer strategy.
Smart coaches fit the system so that they can get the best out of the players. Solari fits Lucas because he runs a lot in defense to cover spaces.
This squad is absolutely good enough to win against Villareal. If you need 150 mil. transfers to beat this team, you're not up for it. Castilla could give Villareal a game.
Looks like the wrong choice. Meh we have to keep up with him until the end of the season any way. Hope we finish top four.
The squad needs a refresh. They dont perform as good as they should under three coaches now. Keep believing on this Flo narrative and see where that will lead us..
Solari has to go at the end of the season, Say what you will about JL but at least there was a philosophy behind his set up, Solari on the other hand seems to just send the players out there and to do their thing. There is no structure, this squad needs to be rebuilt but not with him at the helm.
A refresh to the tune of spending 300 mil. in one summer will not happen any time soon now. People are out of touch to the real financial capabilities of the club and think we can still afford to dump 100 mil. on a transfer fee and another 100 mil. on a 4 year contract, making it a 250 mil. operation with taxes bonus etc, all for one player. If that player is not global super star on the Neymar level, it's not going to happen. Hence why people actually thinking we're going to spend 100 mil. on Icardi are completely fooling themselves. We're picking up the youngsters because they might not be free at about 15 to 40 mil. but their wages and bonuses are laughable. 5 years of Vinicius and Rodrygo all costs included are basically just the transfer fee for a Hazard or a player like Icardi. This squad has everything it take at this minute to win every single game this team has lost other than maybe the Barca match.
We have not made any major player acquisition in 5 years.. There is got to be a common ground.. you can 't go the extreme the other way either.. We have thrown money at players like Theo and Rodrygo who have not made an immediate impact to the team, which is what we need right now....unnecessary 30M on a keeper..We should have put Bale on the transfer list already and with that money invest in a world star forward .. so many things that could have been done to improve the team without investing all these millions that you are saying here.. Salah was only 35M..El chuky is another player who would have improved our team.. and he is not that expensive.. These youngsters we are bringing are not at the level of Marcelo, Modric, Benzema, etc.. to be able to challenge for their spots and make the team competitive.. and as a result the established players become complacent. They already started under-performing in the league since the year we won la Liga.. they just had the B team to save them from their embarrassing performances..
Yes, but when we need to buy one, we're going to have to spend 100 mil. on one, which we will not, probably ever again. the Hazard transfer was the most telling tale of the summer. We were hit with a high price by Chelsea who were sure we'd take it due to the pressure of Ronaldo leaving the club, and the club just stepped away and said no thank you. I'm sure both the player and Chelsea expected something different, but the Real Madrid of the past is gone.
We could have crossed that bridge when we got there.. two years from now.. I am sure another good deal would have opened up.. is not like good keepers ceased to exist.
Even Kepa cost 80 mil. Euros, a player with about a season and a half of professional experience. Mind you we could have gotten Kepa for less than 20 mil. but Zidane wanted to protect Keylor at any cost and we embarrassed the kid who left a club that absolutely hates us to have a medical in Madrid and we told him our baldy doesn't like him. When you get a bargain on a player that can settle you for the next 6 years in a position at a low price you don't say no.
Other than the “unnecessary 30M on a keeper” I completely agree with all of this, there needs to be a balance, youngsters yes but every fan wants to win and win right now, not have to wait till 3 years in the future to see end results, most of us wanted a striker, most of us thought even though we got Mariano that he was not really going to be the answer, the team needs refreshing, all teams that have been together for awhile do, also , players that we all thought would be able to take a step up this season haven’t particularly done so to any significant degree, this also hampers our performances, i don’t think just a change of coach can fix this either, rather it’s a group of issues that need addressing, IMO, there is no one fix sorts it all out option at this point.
Flo probably needed to be more stern with Zidane (and Bale) and we wouldn't be in this situation. We could've sold Bale, signed Kepa (at 20ME), held onto James/Morata/Mariano and had money in the bank for X, Y or Z players. Selling Bale was critical because then players like James, Mbappe, Hazard, might have thought the opening was their big chance.
Even If we are so hell bent on not spending crazy money on top of what we have, there are other ways. Why not sell Bale last season...… use that (plus more) to buy a comparative player. Even if said player was slightly worse (although I don't see how that could be) at least he would be available. Use Bale's high wages to offset the high wages of new player. Where is the loss? Where is the financial lunacy? Instead we chose to stick with the ineffective player who we knew was ineffective and just said to ourselves this squad is a world beater. Not to mention the loss of Cristiano. Don't know how the people in charge of evaluating things figured we would be OK by just standing pat. Did they not see him play these last few years? Did they not even see his numbers? Hypothetical; Sell Bale and 1 more player (lets say Lucas). Use the transfer money coming in (add if you have to) to sign just one first team player. Realistically, this player's salary can't be more than combined of Bale and Lucas. Why not make a big push for someone. Unless we think that only Neymar and Mbappe are players who are fit to wear the shirt. And we are a world beating squad because we did it last year. Did the people in charge not see our League campaign. And then it comes down to it again...….. did not see Cristiano wearing a Juventus shirt? Dodgy decision making.
Because the player simply didn't want to leave. You can't force a player to leave. Mourinho approached him on TV and considering Mou's good relationship with Florentino, he wouldn't pull a stunt like this without Floren knowing about Mourinho's interest in the player.
Well then we (and every other big team) is screwed if this is the case. I can't believe that a player cannot be "persuaded" to move on by a man like Florentino. Especially when you show them their destination as a top club with comparative wages. If its truly the case then us and others are at the mercy of players with huge wages who just wanna sit around and get their paychecks. How is it that teams like Barcelona and others don't have problems selling. I feel like it was more us unwilling to seriously consider selling because we thought this squad is good enough to win without Cristiano. I shudder to think how many millions of euros have eroded off of Bale's value this season.