Well, in theory this would be a great idea, but we all know, he's the one player we will never sub while not in safe 3 point zone during a match.
Every sub is to make a sub. I even remember Carlo often not even making a single sub while coaching us.
No there are subs that are to refresh the energy of the squad, there are subs made for change of pace, subs for change of style. This one was to add more striking power to the team, but you're too afraid to take out your superstar.
We lost the Barcelona game at the end of the last season the same way. We go for the winner at the end, it's what we do. I rather we gamble for the win than settle for the draw. It will lead to a few games like this and a lot more games like last season when we snatched points at the death. Hugely frustrating game, but that's how football is sometimes. Need to look back at the game to see why control was lost. Not sure if it was the sub or losing Marcelo and going to what looked like a makeshift back 3. Credit to Betis. Their CBS in particular won everything thrown at them in the air.
Was it though? El Clasico we lost control because of a brain fart of pushing too high up when we had a favorable score. This was losing control because of tactical changes.
We know Zizou goes balls out like that for the win. I am OK with it to be honest. Courage and stupidity are sometimes interchangeable. I like that Zidane has the courage.
He's still technically hasn't entered his 3rd year coaching at this level? You just take this as a learning experience and you do better next time.
I agree that they were both tactical errors. But this is about strategy and not tactics. I remember Mourinho losing us the CL semifinal against Bayern by trying to shut down the game and conceding a late goal away. I rather my team attacks and risks losing the game than defending all game (and still risk losing). The other thing to remember is that breaking the Santos record was also in their minds. Remember we had that streak (unbeaten streak I think) and Benzema scored for a draw or something, but they all went wild? They knew about that record, and I bet they knew about this record too. That's part of why they went for it (the three points is a far bigger factor though). Can't begrudge them that.
Our only real 'bad' game recently has been against Levante. Our others dropped points are down to poor finishing, the play has been good and the chances have been there. I'm not worried about us in general, and it's too early in the season to call anything. The only real problem is despite how well Mayoral has done, we really are paying for not getting a true and trusted back up striker.
Another set of dropped points directly as a result of our management downgrading our team during the transfer season. I've never seen a transfer window bite a team in the ass as fast as it has bitten us this season.
Way too early to judge. All that matters is the standing in the end of the season. We've been written off the last two seasons too and we ended up winning back to back UCL and a La Liga title. We have created over 30 chances in the last 3 games, and i understand people thinking Mbappe (or other top strikers) would have scored a few if they were playing instead of Benzema, and players like Hazard would have scored a few Bale missed, but last game we had Cristiano freaking Ronaldo, the best goal scorer in history, missing easy sitters. It's mostly a form problem and especially from our forwards. I am all for criticizing and giving players shit when they deserve it and i'm aware how bad the situation looks right now, but let's be realistic and show some patience.
It really doesn't take a great deal of thoughtful analysis -- Morata & Mariano sold, Ronaldo suspended, Benzema injured, Bale recovering from injury (as always) --> less goals and dropped points. Add in some unlucky finishing and here we are 7 points behind after 5 games.
Add to that the other teams can smell blood. We are limping and separated from the heard and teams are gonna throw everything at us (not unusual) accept now there's a little more confidence and belief they can get at least a point. Problem I see is that this could potential spin so far out of control that we end up in a fight for the "4th place title" and have to decide to go that route or gamble on going all out for the CL.
I don't think that is very realistic but we have an incredibly difficult stretch of games at the end of the season and I think we are going to have to "pick" a competition to focus as we don't have the depth to be rotating every week like last season. Barca and Atleti will be in the title chase until the end and Sevilla has a 5 point lead as well, the other teams in front of us have already played and dropped points against.
We play Barca last game before the break. A win in that fixture could be huge no matter the points gap (I'm speaking strictly in terms of morale heading into the holidays and new year).
Talk about overreactions. In 14/15, we dropped 6 points in the first 3 games and still finished 2 points off Barca. Atletico, in 3rd place, finished 14 points behind us. We still have the best top to bottom squad depth in the league. We hit a rough patch and played 2 of those ties without Ronaldo. Ronaldo came back and had an off night. I don't expect this trend to continue.
I don't wanna get into the discussion but I find it funny when you guys write something like " Yea brah, in year 20xx we started 5-12 points behind Barca but we got out of that mess. We only finished behind them by 1-2 points". Sounding like Arsenal fans and shit,since when do we celebrate being second.
No one is celebrating shit. People are pointing out that dropping points early in the season is not insurmountable.
No one is shooting for second? We're disagreeing with idiots who say we're going to be fighting a battle for 4th place like we're fecking Sevilla. "I don't wanna get into the discussion" - then don't completely mischaracterize people's words.