REAL MADRID x REAL SOCIEDAD | La Liga J.23 | 10.02.2018 | 20:45 CET

Although Kova did do quite well in the supercup to nullify Messi. Maybe Zidane has a similar thought with regards to shutting down Neymar?

Either way, the defending on that goal we conceded last night was utter trash. Complete failure from Kova and Bale who were ball watching, Carvajal who rushed out too late to close the man, Varane who played the scorer onside, and Keylor who got beaten at his near post. Shambolic stuff to be honest, but hopefully it was because we were up 4-0 at that point.

 

Funny thing is we play quality opposition maybe 5% of the season. Kovacic has enough defensive awareness way way more than Isco, what a bad comparison. Just compare the defensive stats of him and Casemiro, won't be that much of the difference despite Casemiro being a destroyer. Learning how to defend is easier for Kova then teaching Casemiro how to football. Kova's ability to keep the ball is way more valuable then Casemiro getting 1 tackle more here and there. Besides, Kova's tackle and interceptions are quite sick too.

 

Its different when you play PSG against whom you need to keep the lines tight. Two things are crucial about Isco: he is difficult to take the ball away from, and he tracks back a lot.

In my opinion Benzema is useless at this point as Isco can also cause both more of a goalscoring threat and fluidity in attack (which was the biggest pro-Benz argument so far).

In my opinion building the lineup around Isco and using him to the maximum is the only way this team can work.

 

The irony is that in that 5% of the season, having CDM who can hold and release the ball properly under pressure is the most important. I doubt Kovačić is that player because he lacks certain qualities. The first option is Llorente. But considering lack of playing time i would opt for Modrić. Technically sublime player, who also has fantastic positional awarness in both phases of the game, who is able to control rhythm and is highly responsible. Add to that Kroos, Isco and Kova + two forwards, and i think it would make a ton of difference in terms of creativity and combinatorics. Considering 4 mids instead of three and more compact team with 3 lines while defending, we should be defensively stronger than in 4-3-3.

So basically:

CR7 - Bale
Isco
Kova ---- Kroos
Modrić​

But, of couse Zizu wont bench Cas. At best i can hope is that Benzy is replaced by Isco and we play with two forwards upfront. Playing BBC against PSG would be a mistake i think.

 

Goin against PSG with BBC and two highly positioned fullbacks when opponent has tons of quality upfront in form of Mbappe, Neymar, Cavani, Di Maria... is a suicide.

 

4231 with Isco could work
442 with Isco and asensio on wings could work
He can even play in the 3 in midfield.

Zidane won't bench benzema. Isco will probably leave.

 

If isco starts it will be because casemiro is benched. Benzema is a guaranteed starter.

 

I think so too. The excuse is Benz creates the space needed by Cristiano to be dangerous.

 

Asensio's preseason was awesome. His two goals vs Barcelona made us forget about Mbappe. So I am or I was rating him as good as Mbappe.

 

That was all hype. You only need to watch Mbappe once to see he is way more talented than Asensio.
They are also different type of players.

 

Martial producing a typical Benzema performance against Newcastle. Missed 2 sitters. And some posters on this forum hype him as the second coming of Christ.

 

BTW, Odriozola was really mediocre yesterday. Sure, everyone has such games but the forum would probably crucify him if he’d had such a game for us. Still like his style, but he’s been OK at best from a defensive perspective everytime I’ve seen him. Really needs to work on that aspect of the game. He’s talented though, you can see it but I’m still not sure..

 

Not only highly positioned, but also extremely careless and error prone. The back line is an absolute mess. Haven't seen a Real Madrid backline this disjointed, and there have been plenty of these over the years, so that says something. That first goal Sociedad scored was shambolic.

So does Isco...

 

I don't see why the club should let Achraf go for him. I want to see Achraf play back up and the bad performances he's had are way overstated. He's done well so far as far as I'm concerned. Well enough to continue at the club. No need for him to be replaced.

 

You don't remember 06-10 then.

Looked up our goals conceded and we're on pace to match goals conceded two seasons ago which was 38. As of week 22 of the season we're either level on goals conceded or there's a discrepancy of three goals from the past five seasons.

The defense is against Leganes had two terrible mishaps where they tuned out mentally. Other than that I'll maintain that our defense has been just as fine as in past seasons.

Again, it's the attack. If we score we'll be fine.

PSG are sweating the fitness of Thiago Motta who has to be close to collecting social security. I'm not going to bet whether we win or lose to PSG but I think we're in pole position to play the underdog very well.

 

Asensio himself probably believed in his own hype too.

 

Agreed we’ve never had fantastic defensive performances, if we did it was always the exception rather than the rule, I understand that the defense is making mistakes but I am absolutely not surprised, on the other hand I am very surprised at our lack of scoring prowess this season, I was sceptical at the start but I did not expect it to be this bad, we just need to take far far more of the numerous chances we create and do so more consistently and our performances will improve, if it happens, I foresee it’s the attack that will help us out of this slump moreso than our defence

 

Two mishaps, which happened basically the only two times Leganes decided to attack. I'm seeing more chances created by any opposition team than ever... The way everyone gets to our box with ease is something that even someone like myself who has been following Madrid since the mid 90s (and has seen a lot of bad defending including 06-10) has trouble remembering. Such amateurism will be severely punished by PSG, unless we take out someone from the attack and add to the midfield (Benz for Isco). Even then it will depend on how tight and retreated we play and how much the players are focusing. But without the change first, we will get sliced open. No attack can compensate for that, especially not the toothless one we have now.

 

When we say the defense is horrific, we are not just talking about the 4 players at the back and Casemiro. It is a collective thing and it starts with the forwards. This is the main problem we have.

You'd think with the attack suffering all season that Zidane would try to implement a more cohesive defensive structure as a foundation and build something from there. Start from the back and deal with the defense first. Nope.

Problem is also our lack of counter press. We suffer so much in transitions and we do not create enough goal scoring chances from transitions as we used to. You do this by pressing and causing the opponent to make mistakes. Those fast players up front should take advantage of that.

I would like us to be more defensively efficient. There is a reason we hardly ever win the league anymore.

 

If coach is demanding that from them, then i don`t see how the term careless applies. As for overall bad product it is not surprising considering we are basically defending with two CBs whose flanks are wide open. And when midfielders try to mitigate that - they are usually late, midfield is opened like a can with tons of space to exploit for opponent. If that opponent is PSG, who has insane fire power upfront.... well... i just hope Zidane does not intend to start BBC.

 

The keys to our win was our defensive efforts in the first half.
1) the high pressure. For once the pressure was not alibi runs, but players like Benz actually made the whole run instead of breaking half way to the keeper or defender. It created huge problems with panic kicks as a result.
2) marking by the defenders. This I have only seen once or twice in 15 years. Our defenders, especially Varane and Marcelo, kept close to their opponents (when Real Sociedad had the ball) in the first half. That made a huge difference so that RS never were close to goal chances. In the second half our defenders were more relaxed and stayed in nomansland like they usually do. It's easy to see that was why Real Sociedead were able to score twice.

If we continue to defend like we did in the first half we have a great chance to win against PSG and the whole CL tournament.

 

The key to our win. was we dominated the midfield. Reason behind that is we didn't play with Casemiro and we had midfielders who can actually hold the ball.

Its very hard to dominate with Casemiro in the core of your play, especially if thats the position where our play starts.