"The Norwegian Wonderkid"- The Official Welcome Martin Ødegaard Thread

Thank you Mr. Sensible. However, Ronaldo and Benzema have proven they are nothing without Bale. I'm sure both will be gone soon.

Odegaard looks like an adult now. Man time flies.

 

Have you seen the Frisian women? You grow up fast around them

 

Not taking shots. He's matured and his performances have also. Looks like at minimum he has a future as a professional footballer.

 

nobody is replacing a fit BBC. no player. Show me whenever it happened (beside CDR of course or when one of the BBC is coming back from an injury, a fit player of these three, will always start)

 

Benzema Prime? in the previous season? you serious???
Bale prime last season? he missed half of it, how can he be prime.
as I wrote, when all 3 are fit, no other player will replace them. not as long Perez still think of them as the BBC.
when he had enough of them, he will sell them and then, only then, you'll see a change. Right now, the change, with all the new contracts, will come at 2020.

 

Benzema and Bale have been shown more patience than either of those club legends, both of whom earned their status the old fashion way and not through marketing gimmicks.

 

Iker got benched because the manager incorrectly thought he was the mole leaking info, and the chain of events pretty much damaged his career beyond repair.

Bale in fact went behind the manager's back and got him fired, but the new manager and system brought in to cater to his demands turned out to be such a disaster that the project was abandoned mid season and the club reverted to the previous system with the former assistant coach.

 

Iker got benched because he's a short keeper who's reliant on reflexes. Keepers like that decline much faster than tall traditional keepers since their main quality (reflexes) decline.

 

Iker started 2014-15 season despite howler in CL final and a terrible WC while we had the best goalkeeper of WC on the bench. He made mistakes in both legs against Juve. As for Raul, he scored 9 goals from 29 starts in 2004-05 and 5 goals in 2005-06 from 20 starts in 2005-06. Owen scored 15 goals from 18 starts in 2004-05. Enough said. Figo got dropped when Owen finally got a starting spot rather than Raul. Camacho resigned days after benching Raul for Owen against Espanyol early in the season. And team was winning ********all. So much revisionist stuff going on here.

 

Regardless of all the rest that has been posted gotta agree with you here, it’s a pretty long shot to describe these two players as being in their prime up until this season, as for BBC on the whole never liked it and i’ve certainly had enough of it, they haven’t all been fit recently but the coach did say he’d play them all as long as they were fit, so if that happens i’m waiting to see at whose expense, IMO we play better when it’s not 4-3-3

 

Here's an article from this week's Dutch magazine Voetbal International. Use google translate, as it is interesting to read:
AZ Academy impresses Real Madrid: "Different from Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV"
https://www.vi.nl/nieuws/az-opleiding-imponeert-real-madrid-anders-dan-ajax-feyenoord-en-psv
AZ-opleiding imponeert Real Madrid: 'Anders dan Ajax, Feyenoord en PSV'
11 feb 2018 17.23 uur
View attachment 120459



Een delegatie van Real Madrid was de afgelopen vijf dagen op bezoek in Nederland om een kijkje te nemen bij de jeugdopleidingen. De Spanjaarden waren met name onder de indruk van de individuele benadering van spelers in de opleiding van AZ.


'We komen al acht jaar naar Nederland', vertelt Guillermo Zaragoza, assistent-directeur van het masterprogramma van de Real Madrid University op de clubsite van AZ. 'Deze trip is het hoofdprogramma van ons opleidingstraject. Waar we voorheen alleen de traditionele top drie bezochten, komen we sinds 2016 ook bij AZ.'



— Aanbevolen —



Zo creëert AZ de voetballers van de toekomst
Een verhaal over AZ, dat door anders te denken in de jeugdopleiding aansluiting probeert te zoeken bij de top.


De jeugdopleiding van AZ is volgens Zaragoza aanmerkelijk anders dan bij Ajax, Feyenoord en PSV. 'We waren en zijn enorm onder de indruk van de AZ-visie. De manier van opleiden spreekt heel erg aan: ze breken hier duidelijk met de typische Nederlandse kijk op talentontwikkeling. Met veel jonge mensen is men vernieuwend en innovatief bezig. Ik zie daarnaast veel dezelfde gezichten als vorige jaren, deze club gelooft in continuïteit.'


De individuele benadering van spelers fascineert Zaragoza, die ook jeugdtrainer is in de Real Madrid Academy. 'In Spanje is het vaak veel algemener. Daar wordt grof gezegd elke speler op dezelfde manier opgeleid. Heel boeiend om te zien dat het er hier bij AZ totaal anders aan toe gaat.'

 

Seems a bit like a fluff piece to give AZ a written feather. More like "thanks for having us over, here's some commendations for you". I think the big three in Holland (and us for that matter) give individual training to youth players as well. How is this an AZ 'innovation'?

To be honest I think it's weird that we still visit the Dutch youth setups, as not a lot of top talent has come from Holland for a couple of years now. Personally I don't see that as a fault of the youth setup entirely, as you are born with talent not taught and there's a big ass luck factor involved, but nevertheless the youth setups don't really have had much to show for a long time now. Yet we are still going there.

 

For him it would be better to wait a year and hope Zidane's gone by then. Ceballos is further in his development than Odegaard, and look how well we are using him.

 

Exactly. He looks good enough the make the squad, but there isn’t much point if he isn’t going to be utilised properly, and that would hamper him more.

 

I think he needs to move to a tougher league and a club where he will get a chance to at least play in the Europa league.

I think next season will be his last chance to prove himself wherever he ends up. If at 20-21 he's not an impact player at the level below Real Madrid chances are he never will be a player of the requisite level for Real Madrid.

That's not a knock either, just a reality, most players are never good enough for the club but at some point we need to pull the trigger and decide if he stays or goes. This permanent loan business, IMO, doesn't do the club or player much good after a certain point.

 

We aren't using ceballos, ceballos is his own player in his own right and as talented as he is he doesn't fit into our current scheme with that said:

I think Ode would be better off filling in ceballos spot to learn from Modric and Kova, since he should be the heir for Modric in a year or two.

Look for a loan for him in La Liga playing against better competition if need be.
Modric was 28 when he came here, we have the advantage of having a Modric type player at 19 but he needs a little bit more tweaking.

 

972835906594975744 is not a valid tweet id

 

Keep it up Odegaard. I would love to see him break into our squad after all these years. I always feel proud when youth teamers make it - like Lucas scoring in the Undecima shoot out. I would be especially proud with Odegaard as we have been able to follow him ever since he joined at such a young age.