We're not going to see a change until we stop playing the established starters. Nothing happens until then other than potentially losing the coach. But honestly the results would be basically the same irrespective of who is coaching at this point.
I dont know if its he players. I understand why some of you saying that, but lack of ideas and tactics from coaching staff more than obvious.
A guy wrote Lopetegui got 3 months a couple bedsheets and a pillow, while Zidane has been in Madrid since March and got new players for 300 mil. In fact when the club sacked Lopetegui, we rubbed the "amazing squad" in his face, saying that the club has "8 Balon d'Or candidates on the squad".
We stopped playing some established starters last season and nothing much changed then either, you’d need a whole new team, let’s leave out Carva, Toni and Varane, who comes in that automatically makes this team that much better, I think the problems go past the players at this point
Nah this is not on the players. This is Zidane. There is zero movement , no ideas , nothing really . Just nothing. And waiting until the 70th minute to bring in LV of all people yesterday is showing that exactly.
The most bizarre part of this was to me I thought we had some great tactics and strategies employed in the three years of Zidane's reign. We put in some really good offensive performances but even better defensive ones in the first two seasons. There's something missing. Either Zidane didn't come up with those plans in the past or the players aren't motivated to execute them. Wasn't he supposed to be a good motivator?
Eriksen for Kroos would have been great. Not the same type of player i know but still he would have worked out much better than Kroos who's simply invisible right now. Varane's replacement is Militao, who imo had a much better game than Varane. The only problem is Dani. Odriozola is equally bad if not worse, especially vs physical sides. We can even try Militao there for a few games, he did play for a while as a RB at Porto. We can't ignore the fact that a big part of the problem are the players, especially the usual suspects.
Hazard, James, Mendy, Militao & Jovic. Those players were not starters last year, yet even with them on the field we played as if we had no ideas whatsoever. In fact the player who saw most of the ball in our team was Varane, that's how uninvolved our creative players were. This team has no vision - that's our problem. We don't have a system for attacking - even just counter attacking would be better than this. I really had my hopes up after the 1st half vs. Levante. I am still chosing to be careful and don't want to say we won't win anything, but nothing I see instills confidence - in my honest opinion. As for our defence - it is obvious we can't count on Courtois to save us from any defensive mistakes, so every mistake (and our defence IS mistake prone) is punished with a goal. In fact, Courtois is just bad - if you don't agree I have an "ignore" drawer for the likes of you, no point in discussing. A lot of people were hating on Varane and Carvajal yesterday, and I agree both have dropped in quality at incredulous speed. But I couldn't shake the feeling Militao was directly responsible for DiMaria's second goal. He wasn't covering anyone, and was hesitating to press DiMaria when the latter got the ball. I don't think anyone else near that area could've been mistaken as the dutiful marker for DiMaria in that instance. Mendy was a postive spark imo, it was refreshing seeing our LB tracking back lightning fast. But when it came to linking up with Hazard I saw nothing (which ofcourse is not entirely on Mendy). Perhaps it would be better to accept this was the first time the two shared that flank so some chemistry is understandably pending. We've arrived to a point where we are cheerful when we beat Celta Vigo 3-1 or Levante 3-2, yet losing feels very familiar and "as usual" for some reason. Some people blame the players, as we had 3 different coaches in the last year. Some people blame both the coaches and the players. Some people blame Perez for transfer market inactivity in the recent years. I'm gonna play the devil's advocate and ask you guys - Could it be that everyone involved is guilty? I don't think a change of manager alone could help in this case, but we need to create a gameplan asap. And yes, we are still playing clear underperformers in a lot of our matches. I get anxious when I see Kross pressed by another player. Having Vasquez mess up an attack is like a sure bet nowadays. When was the last time Varane, Carvajal or Courtois had a good match - not to mention our whole defence having a good match? If we are not willing to invest in a quality bench then we don't have competition for starting spots. If our manager will always play favourites then what's the point of having a quality bench? This is not a one dimensional problem, a lot of decisions got us to where we are. Fixing it by spending 300 mil and bringing back Zidane is not going to work, results will not come overnight. Still, am I saying Zidane's second spell is turning out the way we hoped? No, I'm not fooling myself. I personally think we played a more coherent football with Solari, but his biggest mistake was losing all three competitions in a span of 3 weeks or so. Solari gave young players the time and confidence that they needed to grow. Reguillon, Vinicius & Llorente were electrifying at times last year. I'm not saying Solari was perfect but could it be that maybe, just maybe, Perez and we as a club were still so drunk on the wine of our recent success that we couldn't think straight and instead chose to console ourselves with nostalgia of Zidane's image? Not to mention our inflated pride was hurt and we sought an immediate remedy. Did we really think that bringing back Zizou and giving him the key to the purse would solve our problems overnight? And if you were and are a patient fan and hope to see Zizou succeed again, don't you feel there's barely been any improvement since he joined us again? Maybe being patient is a true virtue, and I would agree nowadays most of us don't have any, but isn't it fair to ask for some clear improvement in the last 6 months? You know, just something to hold on to as a fan. All I got from the players and Zizou is "there's still time to turn things around, the season just started" & "we need more intensity". We were saying the same things last year & during preseason and that doesn't make me confident at all. Again, I am not saying we're doomed and that it's over, just saying that by seeing this pattern I am not confident.
Even if the middle of the park is being overrun whenever we do get over he half way line we have no idea... If hazard, Benzema, James can’t combine, it’s not them, it’s the coach. We are literally talking about 3 of the best passers in the final third in the world. And they compose 85%of our attack.... I can only see Zidane at fault for the inoperative attack. As to the middle of the park, it’s also on him for thinking Kroos, casemiro, modric and Valverde would be enough. It’s clearly shown that they aren’t. Defense (and GK) is also a mess but I believe that’s more to do with how easily the teams attack us and are left exposed to make dificult desicions. Like, I can’t fault Courtouis for either goal. Mabey navas stops them mabey not, but a goal is only as good as the defenders who are trying to stop it and they seemed like they were creating chances for fun.
We played without the current holder of the Balon d'Or and withou our Captain (who's won everything but the golden ball) and without our vice captain. We are literally without 3 legends while Paris was missing a potential, an unfulfilled potential and a workhorse.
See this is all about how we word stuff. I could just as well say we played without tired 34 year old Modric past his prime, 33 year old Ramos and our slow LB with tendency to leave his postition umarked - and they played without 3rd best player in the world, the once in a generation type of talent and a workhorse. Neither you or I would be completely right if we said that.
The reason why we lack creative play upfront despite having creative players, is because our build up in first and second third is utter garbage. Until we field a midfielder who has the capacity for dynamic positioning and movement with fantastic timing - example being De Jong, we will struggle, and any half decent team will trouble us. As i said before, i think the only solution is 4-4-2 with Isco and James as LM / RM, because at least then we have 4 mids which helps in offense with individual quality shinning which is crucial considering tactically we are bad, while also having one extra player in the middle and defending with 4 in center instead of three, should help massively. We should forget about 4-3-3.
UEFA: Real Madrid ran just 80,497 metres as a team. That is the smallest figure since 2009-10. In the last 4 games vs PSG, Real Madrid always outran them in 3 of those games.Like I said.... Lazy.— M•A•J (@Ultra_Suristic) September 19, 2019
On which part, that we stopped playing some starters or that nothing much changed i completely agree that the players are part of the problem, no two ways about that, but, who do we change these regulars with, from the squad we actually have not who we wish we had, that will improve our performance drastically, considering the biggest problem is what looks like a complete lack of tactics as far as the team is concerned both attacking and defending, and more and more looks like a dependence on individual brilliance to continuously solve our issues I completely disagree with this, are we saying if we get the ball as far up the pitch as James Hazard and Benz these three have zero creative ability unless we have someone like KDB on the pitch, would it be more creative if he was there , absolutely, but to completely absolve 3 supposed high quality players of any creative responsibility whilst playing together, because of lack of a direct attacking midfielder doesn’t make sense to me
Come on guys, we don't have to start conspiracy theories. It's quite simple, the problem are some of the key players and the coach.
I am saying that crucial point is how you receive the ball in final third. Build up is what sets the tone and play in final third. Given poor positioning and movement we have massive issues in first and second third by struggling at creative play. The end result being we mostly come in final third with wide and static positioning with poor outlets in the middle, which kills creativity. You seriously expect magic from Hazard and co., when they are highly isolated and lack creative passing outlets while at the same time they lack active space to work in?
That's always been a massive problem with us. Players knowing how to look busy and engaged but in reality they are, literally, running away from responsibility. We never seem to know how to make effective runs behind the defence, especially against teams who park the bus, and just rely on endless crosses going in. You solve this by having midfielders who are comfortable on the ball and can join the attack on a break, wingers who can take on the defence and at strikers who make a run in behind. All of this requires a intensity and James is the only one I am really seeing this from.