Zidane should see that lucas is out of form. If he cant do anything against Girona how is he supposed to do so against a bus parked by Tottenham. Ceballos on the other hand showed he can score. He has the magic, penetration and there is a higher chance to create something with him than Lucas.
Since when does a coach dictate to Florentino Perez?? Ha! Zidane has requested for players. Which one has Florentino bought? In what ways has Florentino supported Zidane with actions? One would think more belief would be put in the coach after he has shown an eye for talent and how he has utilized the squad to get the most. Regarding Morata and James, sorry but we need neither of them. Their replacements would have been better players/fits. The problem never was getting rid of those two, it was keeping Bale and Benzema, then replacing those two with Mayoral and retaining Lucas. This entire charade is on Florentino. He should hold a press conference and tell us more about how Mbappe needs to show he has the quality for Madrid, while Lucas and Mayoral wear the shirt effortlessly. This man could have been pro-active and adapted before change made us dinosuars. Instead he has us outdated like a Blockbusters while everyone is watching Netflix. He should tell us more about how there is no room with stalwarts like Bale and Benzema. He should tell us more about how it is impossible to improve this team.
I cant think of a particular match but definitely i remember some games being turned around by his subs.
Many games have been. He had been amazing manager. Imperfect. Yes. However there are none who are. Or problem isn't the cook. It's the arrogant owner who is buying the groceries.
Actually yes. I can think of the group game against Sporting. The james morata connection. Edit: i personally always thought that Zidane can make Perez do things they way he wants. If there is one man to do so, it s Zidane. Perez worships him.
I felt this way as well.... well at least I thought because it is Zidane after all he could influence Perez stubbornness. We all see how wrong we were; at least when it comes to major transfers.
There are contradictions here. In one you say we don't need either Morata or James, on the other you say Zidane made great subs and his subs like Morata and James turned the game around. We won because we had amazing depth. We got rid of contributors and didn' replace them. I put this charade on both the coach and the president. If you don't want to spend, don't sell. What a moronic summer this was
There is no contradiction and if James weren't Colombian you wouldn't have your current stance. I will repeat we don't need Morata or James IF we replaced them the way we should have. The problem we have (and I have repeated ad nauseam) is we did not replace them adequately. We replaced Morata, Mariano and James with Mayoral. Oh and giving more time to Lucas and Asensio. That is inadequate. Had we replaced them with Mbappe and/or other options that were out there nobody would notice they weren't here. We agree it was a moronic summer. Which our President is the culprit for having done. You're just mad at Zidane because of James. The reality is Zidane did brilliantly.
The fact that Morata and James left is not surprising , if I am a relatively decent player on this team and my coach announces publicly that no matter what, there are three players that will always play whenever they are fit and those players occupy positions on the field where I would normally play, then what’s the point of staying, that immediately dismisses the genuine competitive factor, I won’t ever get a real chance unless injury occurs, so ZZ takes some of the blame for some players wanting out IMO However one of our biggest problems now is that they were not replaced properly
He has done brilliantly. Won a lot. That doesn't necessarily mean he's not at fault for the summer fiasco
Depth is an issue okay. But what happened to our corners? We were the expert. Our corners were more dangerous than a direct freekick. We havent scored a single goal off corner this season.
Midfield + Marcelo are fatigued...its very clear to see. Zizou needs to incorporate Theo, Ceballos and Asensio a lot more during this period. Really wish we had Kovacic also at this time.
Asensio has played but shown little to nothing. Same as Theo. Only Ceballos has a shout for needing to be incorporated more.
I hear you. But I think Theo needs more playing time to get adjusted...clearly the potential is there for him to be great. Now's the time when Marcelo is so off... play him! Asensio is young...ups and down are normal...Bale is out...give him more play time.
Both Perez and Zidane are to blame. While I never rate Perez as a figure who make the right football choices, I also believed he will give Zidane the freedom he needs and I think to some extent he has. not buying a replacement for players in the caliber of James and Morata was a mistake. Even a bigger mistake is still counting on players that don't deliver and still playing in a formation like we have the "glorious" BBC. Once Zidane (and Perez) will get to their thick skull that these days are gone, we can see a change. a change in *constant* incorporating the talent that we have on the bench, and changing formation. IMHO, the number one decision that needs to be made is that CR is a striker. our *only* point man. Once Zidane have the balls to make this decision, once CR have the guts to accept that, then you can build a team around this. Benz becomes a sub for the striker, Bale becomes a sub because he can't really be depended on with all his injuries. Marco and Isoc accepts roles of alternating 10s and the rest comes into place. Now you have a midfield that have help from the front and not get tired and disconnected from the front. I know CR have achieved way more than RVN, but he can become the best RVN in the world and continue to deliver if he change his role.
Okay, this makes no sense. First, CR simply does not have the ability to play as a target man. He has been starved of service for many years now, and will absolutely struggle seeing any of the ball as sole target man. He has never been able to play back to goal. That is simply an ability he does not have, and will never have. So the plan of converting him into a striker will never, ever come to fruition. He knows that and has stated it countless times. Is he deluded in saying that he plays as a winger? Sort of. But he needs company up top. Our issue currently work rate offensively and defensively from our midfielders. Our attackers are completely outnumbered in the offensive phase (go watch the Tottenham game). You need to create overload situations, which we do not do because absent work rate from our midfield. Same applies to defense which is full of wholes because our midfielders do not track back to help. Our wingers have no quality, and these new signings will never be starter quality.
Both are to blame, but I would argue more Zidane than Perez. During the Super Cup matches against MUFC and Barcelona, we looked great. Bench was not as strong as last season, but having such strong bench is near impossible to maintain for more than one season. Having Asensio, Lucas, Kovacic and Bale/Isco on the bench was adequate as well. Not having a proper striker as backup was not ideal, but we had enough talent in Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale to cover that position. Theoretically. This is where I put more of the blame on Zidane. Coming into this season, fatigue and motivation were always going to be our main challenge. BBC should not have been made untouchable and that would have allowed us to bring in one top attacking player and Benzema should not be starting. Literally all our problems this season are down to Ronaldo and Benzema not being able to find the net. Yes we are playing crap but we would not have lost most of our games if they simply knew where the net was. And yes, Ronaldo's poor for was hard to forsee but if we had the one other player who could simply put the ball in the back of the net (Aubumayang was begging to come here) we would not be in this situation.
Even if we add up the goals Morata scored as a starter so far at Chelsea (7 goals), we're still miserably under our regular numbers.
Ramos chipping in a good chunk of important goals in early stage last season, I can't remember what exactly the #s but his goals won 9-10 points or something like that. He has not produced the same brilliant form as he did last year, granted the team should not rely on Ramos to win matches but I'd like to see Ramos to advance to the box more often, it seems he contends to sitting back more this year.
We would've struggled yes, but might still have grab more points here and there; worried about game play during second half of the season.
The main problem is that Bale and Ceballos have scored as many League goals individually as Benzema and Ronaldo together. Isco and Asensio are top scorers (3 goals each). I'm not getting tired of saying it, but even if we would've had all of Morata's goals this season, it would have been a season without our usual output.
Yeah, we miss Morata (and to a lesser extent James) on the bench, but the main issue is that the safest bets in our squad (Modric, Marcelo, Crisitiano etc.) have been a shadow of themselves for a while now, not even 10 Moratas is gonna save that, it would lessen the damage, yes, but the main issue remains.
Fair enough, but personally I can’t compare two different teams in two different leagues to figure out what he may or may not have done if he was still here, and I am far far from a Morata fan, but without a doubt his contribution with us last season was notable, (i’ve stated already he did also have some ordinary performances) also i have said before I certainly don’t see him as “the” starting striker for us but i’d rather have him to compete rather than Mayoral, the problem is ZZ, who endevours/ endevoured, to start Benz no matter what so , no competition, making having him around not an option this season