Glass Dragons Still Breathe Fire - The Gareth Bale Thread

I expect you to do the same instead of crying about my crying about selected statements from an interview. Don't play that game with me son.

Maybe Bale was too busy complaining in post match interviews to notice Zidane congratulating him. In the end, he shouldn't have started, he shouldn't have complained then, and he shouldn't definitely complain now.

 

The situations aren’t the same. Coentrao was in better form than Marcelo going into the 2014 final so deserved his place. Isco wasn’t in better form than anyone in the XI in the 2014 and 2016 final apart from maybe Khedira in ‘14 but they play different roles. Pepe was better than Varane in 2014 and 2016 and Varane still started the 2017 final when he came of age with Pepe still at the club.

Bale was in incredible form leading up to the final this year so more than warranted his place in the XI.

 

This is some B.S., Bale almost single handedly tore the club apart in the 15/16 season with his demands that team be built around him and to his strengths; demands which resulted in Rafa Benitez replacing Carlo Ancelotti and the team out of 2/3 competitions by January.

Zidane worked an almost otherworldly miracle be resurrecting that situation into a CL 3-peat with a La Liga/CL double in the second season.

As far as the revisionist history, if Bale had it his way he would have started the CL final, he would have been injured after 30 minutes, Mo Salah would have scored a hattrick and been named man of the match and Liverpool would have won 5-0.

I AM SO GLAD BALE DIDN'T GET WHAT HE WANTED.

Also Ronaldo came up with a couple of goals to help his team win this weekend, maybe Bale can tell us about what he was doing and how things went for him this weekend then shit on his current coach for starting him then substituting him out.

 

Yeah I don't have an issue with this. This is actually a good thing in my opinion.

Now what he said after the match pissed me off.

 

He is kissing up to J Lo. I'm guessing after the weekend, 'kissing' alone is not good enough to grant him a starting spot. He was completely out of sync with Modric/Kroos in the midfield, By the time Casemiro came on, Modric already ran himself to the ground running up and down & around trying to cover for the rookie.

 

That's not fair to Dani Ceballos. I agree that he didn't play well, but our whole midfield didn't play good enough in the first half. Dani was the best midfielder with Spain against Croatia. The problem was that Casemiro didn't start the game. I am 100% sure that Dani would play a different game with Casemiro on the field, just like Kroos and Modric did in the second half.

 

Bale scored like 7 goals in a row before the UCL final, he was proving himself so hard to get the starting spot in the final.

 

I don`t see how Spain against Croatia correlates with this game. Objectively he had a bad game. Constantly caught off position which is especially bad when our defensive layout includes tons of pressing. As result it is not surprising that whole midfield had a bad match.

I like Ceballos a lot. But him starting in Bilbao had zero sense whatsoever. NT break makes it even easier. It was a big blunder from Lope.

 

I agree about Casemiro without any doubt. Meaning Modrić hits the bench which has merit considering he is not 100% match ready. The problem is that you are replacing him with Ceballos while you are leaving Isco on the bench.... Against Bilbao.

Eh. He was constantly off position in phase of defense. Bilbao exploited that perfectly.

 

That game showed that Ceballos is ready, and I said that Ceballos had a bad game against Bilbao. It is just not fair to blame only him, because Kroos and Modric were bad too.

 

Just wondering, where are all the Bale haters now ?

 

They're waiting until he gets injured and then they'll say he's trash.

Same old, same old.

 

There are like two posters who hate on Bale and you're making it seem like it is most of the forum.

 

I was calling for Bale to be sold last couple seasons and I stand by those calls based on the reality that he was playing 50% of our games... If we manage to get a healthy Bale who can contribute in most games great, if not as good as the performances may be when healthy it'd be a huge luxury to keep a player who is always injured.

 

I'm not sure if they consistently post any more but there was quite a few more than two.

 

His first five injury plagued seasons at the club suggest that over the full course of a season he is not a reliable option as a starting player much less the "star" player.

The fact that after only a little over a month and a few games into this season some people are ready to declare his season a success says alot about the heavily reduced standard set for him.

I will not dispute that he has put scored a couple of legendary goals in finals which is probably sufficient to cement his legacy and that he has gotten off to a decent start post Ronaldo era. HOWEVER, I never rated him as high as some even strictly on peak performance and take issue with his attempts to medal in personnel decisions by sending his agent to the president and press in the past and then using the CL final to lobby for a transfer or nonnegotiable/untouchable starter status (apparently regardless of injuries which are the only things that have ever caused him to be out of the lineup).

 

My only concern is his health, if he's healthy he will be among the candidates for the balon d'ore

 

Are we still doing the Bale vs Neymar? Neymar looked to get much further than him but after the last CL and the disappointing world cup Neymar had, i rate Bale higher.