My player ratings for yesturdays game: Coutois: Navas is better, enough said Varane: Did his job Vallejo: Did his job; the goal is not enough to convince me, but has a future if he continues like that. Carvajallayed better than his past few matches. His injuries have affected him. Hope he overcomes and regains confidence Marcelo: Same as always, great attacking, not so much defending. Valverde: Plays better everytime I see him Kroos: Slow and timid as always; needs to go Casemiro: Another goal because of his slow decision making and lack of vision. He needs to go Lucas: He needs to go back to last years form. He tries to dribble too much. Still, did a decent job Brahim: Trying to be the gamechanger as always. Really like him, he needs to play more Mariano: Can be a great sub. Great job yesturday Subs: Isco: Needs to go Asencio: Not playing at his fullest. Would keep him one more season Vinicius: This guy just brings energy to the field. He still can't shoot for crap, but shows he can be a great assist
Casemiro wont go because its hard to find players like him, if you think Kante will come so easily then we would have done that by now
Kroos was arguably our best player after Mariano. I feel like people watch these games with these conclusions firmly established and nothing on the pitch will change them.
Does it necessarily have to be Kante? There are other players that could do a better job than Casemiro
You just said it, arguably. Brahim, Carvajal, Marcelo and Valverde were better and doing more than Kroos. What exactly did Kroos do aside from a weak shot to the hands of the goalie? Kroos has a playstyle that does not benefit Madrid right now. If anything, I can say that Kroos played like Kroos, which is not much. The only game where Kroos has impressed me is in the 2014 World Cup against Brazil.
Zidane thinks it was tiredness and the heat . "We played much better than the other day and I feel much happier now, as do the players. We won the game at our ground and I'm pleased. It was a rather end-to-end game and when you're 3-1 up you shouldn't be letting them score, but we did. It's a variety of things, tiredness, the heat... but we didn't finish the game brilliantly."
He launched 11 long balls. He won 9 duels. He had 6 key passes, more than anyone else on the field. What is timid about that (how you described him)? Again, I'm not saying we need to keep Kroos or that he's still a beast. But you described his game vs Villarreal as timid when he played very well. To me, that is making a conclusion about a player without actually describing what's happening on the pitch on the day. I would probably agree with you as an assessment of his overall season, but not this game in particular.
Long balls and key passes to where? Did they help in the score or create scoring chances? I won't argue the duels because I only recall him taking 2 or 3 balls from the rivals. Why I say he is timid? He almost always plays the ball back before anything else; sometimes his teammates initiate a run towards goal and he does not send the through pass; he often stops Madrid counterattcks and decides to play back; he is very fragile and many times when there is oportunity and continue an attack, he prefers to get a foul called than make the play; he is very slow and rarely helps defend; when he has a chance to shoot from outside the box, he rarely does and prefers to pass it instead. That is why I say he is timid. In regards to his game yesterday, he played as much as I expect from him. Madrid was not really pressured and there is where his deficiencies are even more noticeable, so maybe I get why you think he did a good job yesterday. But putting him on top of Brahim, who initiated the first goal, Valverde and Carvajal, who were key players for the third goal, and Marcelo, who made the shot for the second goal, then I guess statistical numbers like the ones you gave me are more important than the actual events and protagonists of the victory.
Footballing royalty out to watch the King of Clay 👑#MMOpen 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/1sDxiqXFym— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 8, 2019 Ramos and R9 together watching Nadal
Until 2028. 🤝 El Real Madrid y adidas extienden su exitosa alianza con un acuerdo sin precedentes en la historia de la industria deportiva.#RealMadrid https://t.co/MZD73P0FHJ— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid) May 8, 2019
I don't know why Marca didn't list it in their article to compare. But if we get €120 million per year, we get +/- 30 million more than Manchester who get 750 million pounds over 10 years, which with the current low Pound is about € 872 million (so 87 million per year)
Utd were overtaken by Barca anyways. 105 ME fixed for them plus 50 ME variables apparently from Nike.
Totally forgot about their deal, I also thought Manchester was still leading the pack in shirt sponsoring.
Man U Adidas deal could be reduced by 20% should they fail to make the champions league 20/21 edition.
Este 9 de mayo cumple 74 años Jupp Heynckes. El entrenador alemán dirigió al Real Madrid en la temporada 1997-98, una campaña especial. Ganó una Supercopa de España... Y la Champions League. Heynckes siempre será el técnico de La Séptima. Felicidades a nuestro ex entrenador. pic.twitter.com/wBfWZxD2aB— Rancoma (@Rancoma_) May 9, 2019
That seasons purple kit was the first one i ever got. I still have it somewhere and my daughter wears it some times . I remember that we were the underdogs in that game and almost everyone was expecting Juve to win it. They had Zidane, Del Piero, Inzaghi, Edgar Davids etc. Here's the players talking about it. For me, La Septima is one of the most important titles of our club.
1998, 2000 we were not expected to win. 2017, 2018 same story. Liverpool are going to thrash Madrid blah blah. Juventus have only leaked 3 goals all season in the CL, they leaked enough in the final.
I read a bit from Sid Lowe's "Fear and loathing in La Liga". Juve were such overwhelming favorites that RM backroom staff didn't even take champagne bottles for post match celebrations. After we won, they borrowed the ones Juve had brought to celebrate. [emoji23]