No one here is talking about how this RM is more dominant than prior teams from the past . They are simply the most dominant team now which is what matters at the end of the day. Barca is a mess right now , Bayern are aging, Juve lacks that winnning mentality . Maybe PSG with Neymar and Mbappe, if they sign him, can be a force in the coming years as well, we'll see. 2015/2016 Zidane had just taking over the team mid-season so I wont into rating his full effect on that CL campaign. Last year is a better representation of his work as manager and so far he is continuing to collect trophies so it all looks good so far .
Neymar is just giving reality check to everyone on how bad French league actually is, and people think i am crazy when i argue that 15 goals scored by Mbappe last season, with top 3 offense in the world, is nothing that impressive to be compared to the best talents of all time, even at the age of 18. And no scoring a tap in in 2 games vs Juve and scoring few more goals vs City's and Dortmund's defense is nothing impressive as well. Currently he hasn't scored in his last 9 apps for both club and country. It's true that majority of them were friendlies, but you would expect him to score something. Btw, another game, another easy win by Real Madrid without Ronaldo. Pretty damn impressive for a team that depends on Ronaldo so much, if you ask me.
And did anyone see Tottenham - Chelsea match today? Was i lying about Eriksen? He is bit more offensive in Tott than he would had to be in Barcelona, but he is an ideal transfer for them right now. I especially liked that 47th minute run, when firstly he made a decent pass to Kane and then sprinted from sideline to penalty box to recieve one-two from Kane. Can Rakitić make something like that? Wouldn't Barcelona hugely benefit from player that is capable of doing that?
Really !?! I thought he was complete rubbish today ( again ) . He regularly goes missing against big teams , in big games . They lost today because of his ridiculously poor corner that floated into the keepers hands in the 87th minute ... Ten seconds later and it's 2:1 to Chelsea - game over ,
To be fair when messi was out for a long stint Neymar dominated similarly when Barca played bottom of the table teams. With that said, those defenders today who tried to stop Neymar in the last goal should be ashamed of themselves. We stopped relying on Ronaldo once Zidane started with his rotations. Modric/Kroos/Casemiro/Isco is the best midfield in the world right now and very hard to beat.
Let's be realistic here: Neymar his best scoring spells after the age of 20 have come without Messi/Suarez playing. The goals and assists stats do not lie. Both for the national team and Barcelona (without Messi or Suarez playing). He is just continuing that, and ofc PSG is relatively stacked. Small sample size? Sure, but not as small or cooked as one might think.
Goes missing, yet he was involved in last 8 goals Tottenham has scored against Chelsea. 6 assists, 7 if you count cross to Batshuayi's head as an assist, and one goal. You saying that is enough for me to simply stop this convo right there... In last two games, he averages 12.5 completed dribbles per game at 81% success rate, 1.5 goals, 1.5 assists, 7 key passes, etc... That's nothing like he was doing in absence of Messi. Throughout whole season he might had 3/4 games getting 10+ dribbles in a game. He is mocking them, he is playing around and it is only a begining. The guy above posted a graph so you could assure yourself that he wasn't scoring or assisting at the rate higher than 1 per game, which he is currently doing in PSG. Of course it is a too small sample size. He also played along side Messi in early days in barcelona when he wasn't getting numbers nowhere near that high and what would you expect with Messi being out for Neymar's numbers to go down? And i would like to see an actual numbers that show exactly how much games he played with and without Messi and not a fancy graph. And it is quite hard for me to take this seriously when Neymar last season broke a record in assists in ucl and Messi wasn't out for any ucl match. He probably played like 3 games in ucl without Messi in overal and yet this graph implies as if he is at different level when without Messi.
It was not last season but the one before when messi was out for a while. I remember it well because we lost 0-4 with goals from suarez and neymar.. the entire month or month and half prior to that game neymar was carrying barca on its back and playing excetionally well.
Also by judging that champions league graph without Messi, he is around 0.7 goals per game and 0.7 assits per game (clearly no 0.75 and it's too high to be 0.66) which at very least would mean that he played 10 games without Messi in ucl last 4 seasons while scoring 7 and assisting 7 goals? When the ******** did Messi miss 10 games and better question, when the ******** did Neymar scored and assisted those? If Messi hasn't missed 10 games then either computer failed to draw a proper graph or someone clearly manipulated numbers... and computers don't make mistakes. I would like to see the source of those graphs. EDIT: Messi has missed 7 games in ucl since Neymar joined Barca, that would mean he scored 5 and assisted 5 in those matches. Will check that now.. EDIT 2: I checked it, it is correct, he scored 5 and assisted 5 in that time, which brings me to point against whom he did that. Celtic, Ajax, Bate Borisov and Borussia M'gladbach... i think that answers you on how much relevant statistic like that is.
2015n- September http://www.espnfc.com/barcelona/story/2632137/barcelonas-lionel-messi-out-7-8-weeks-after-injury Ney and Suarez were ripping la liga apart during this time.
and the moment Messi joined that team vs Rome, he scored two goals in big 6-1 victory, which is bigger than any victory Neymar and Suarez managed to do in that time Messi was out (against some weaker opponents). I know, i am fimilar with that. I remember reading article with headline like: "How to make perfection better. Simple add Lionel Messi." refering to that huge win vs Rome in which Messi was briliant. found it: http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/ed...ow-do-you-improve-perfection-add-lionel-messi
Honestly RM only started looking really good after half way to 2/3rds through the season. In the 1st half they weren't that good yet still managing to still get results. I think Zidane is a bit fortunate in the sense that Bale has been injured because when he isn't, he is unwilling or unable to keep him from the starting lineup and RM has looked much better without the BBC and Ronaldo mainly poaching goals.
Yeah probably but also Ronaldo had a very slow start and only started regaining his form mid way/towards the end. Most madridistas are dissapoInted with Bale's performances. Zidane is not fortunate, he is the best man for the job with the players we have.. most likely another manager would have not been able to deliver us as many trophies as he has. Keeping the locker room in harmony and the motivation so high with so many rotations can only be attributed to Zidane. Zidane is the only manager who has been able to rest Cristiano without him throwing a fit.
That's now what I am talking about. It's about the midfield, not up top. Modric, Isco, Kroos, Casemiro midfield with Asensio and even Vasquez coming in are what's making RM look real good. Mainly it has been Isco taking Bale's position.
Well, that is what I wrote above on one of my earlier posts. Cristianio is still highly valuable because he is our best scorer.
Given he's supposed to be their heartbeat / quarterback Eriksen had 85 touches but only 2 KEY passes , one of those led to that freaky own goal and not a pass to a team mate ... I bet Rakitic had more touches than that and he's basically ineffective as well . Sure Eriksen takes great free kicks but he wouldn't get close to one with Messi taking everything ..
I was just asking a Madrid fan since I dont watch them play too often and many on this forum are saying Modric has been more important to their overall play than Ronaldo. Also I was saying this because Ronaldo's off the ball movement is far superior to his on the ball abilities at this point.
Juventus definitely outperformed Barcelona both home and away in that tie. Juventus were also quite wasteful and unlucky in the first leg. Higuain alone could have scored a hattrick with 2 clear cut chance and one chance just good as Messi's. Not to mention Cuadrado had a wrongly disallowed goal. Also we have to remember that Barca didnt just miss those chances Buffon saved them (Iniesta and Suarez)
Just shows how bad you would be as a scout ... you have to look within the context, within the context that Tottenham is not dominating matches like Barcelona does, withing the context that he doesn't play within the system that excels the same thing, within the context that they played against Chelsea,.. Eriksen clearly showed that he is quick with his decisions, that he has composure to hold on a possesion and that when put in pressured situation that he finds ways to ease the situation. Furthemore he showed that he is a hard worker and present all over the pitch, as well as penalty box. He would be perfect for Barca's system with few minor modifcations in his game, of course. You know what key pass is? Pass that led to a shot. It can be a 2 meters pass to 30 meters shot and it can be 30 meters pass to 2 meters shot. Very stupid stat, i don't see how is that relevant at all. Btw, as i said before, Erisken wouldn't be a main playmaker in Barcelona, he would be there to keep possesion, make few long balls and every once in a while make a direct pass to Messi who is exploiting the space inbetween lines who would then do his magic. No need for fancy playmaking passes, neither is Rakitić doing that. Plus Eriksen is good with his runs and one-twos so that's an extra way he could exploit oppositions.
from what we saw last season, this statement is probably true. for all the strength and depth that real madrid had in 16-17, they beat an average barcelona (by barca standards) by only 3 points in the league. in addition, they lost at home to barcelona when they were in mighty champions league form to a barcelona team with no Neymar.
@Sexy Beast i`m not saying i know everything (nor am i right) but look at it from this perspective. Suarez in 13-14 was regarded as arguably a legitimate candidate for WPOY. and it actually wasn`t a ridiculous claim to make given how dominate he had been for in the EPL as the far and away best player at liverpool. but it`s also important to remember that when you are playing on a team like liverpool it`s much easier to look good when you are playing alongside players like iniesta, messi, and neymar. of course, suarez is still a great player but since he has been at barcelona those same talks of suarez being the front runner for ballon dòr are over.
Thats harsh on Suarez. In 2015-16 he had a very decent shout for the Balon D'or. Especially if he was fit during the Copa and had led Uruguay to a title (which was very possible).
i`m not basing it solely off my judgement. i`m talking about the buzz that suarez was getting to be a possible winner for the award. it seemed much more plausible after that 13-14 season than in 16-17 based on media