Real Madrid Summer Tour & Preseason 2015

How in the world can you judge our team when we mostly played with experimental formation and almost all the time half of the team were kids who were playing for tge first time

 

I thought Navas had a pretty good game. Carvahal played like his starting spot was under pressure, which it is. And Benitez really showed off his youth team coaching past by playing so many youngsters. Benitez drives me wild with Arbeloa backing up Marcelo - I believe we are going to see this a lot. Casemiro did not impress me in this tournament.

 

I thought he had a good game and for that specific save he did well. That shot by Alaba (?) had a vicious curve.

Those are the same shots that Ronaldo/Bale and others take and eventually end up making the opposing keeper look like a rookie, when in reality, they are anything but easy to stop. If it wasn't for Navas this game, we would definitely be down another goal or possibly 2. It's still pre-season so I don't see why the keeper doesn't get the benefit of the doubt just like other players do and perhaps he can improve on his ball handling skills?

As for Kiko, I still fail to see what he has done this pre-season to warrant starting over Navas; not that Navas has been stellar, but what has Kiko done?

Here are Navas' stops for the game, he had a good game.

 

Every save he makes apart from one goes into the path of an opposition player in his box. The most impressive bit of poor handling is the save where he palms it directly onto a player who has already fallen down and is lying three feet from the goal line. It's like he has magical powers, everything he touches goes to an opponent.

None of those saves are difficult either. If a shot is over head height and swerving, it's easier to tip it over than to palm it back into the forwards path. If the shot goes in, or if the rebound goes in, you would be calling for Kiko.

It would be ok if it was just a one-off mistake in a preseason game, but the guy has been doing it for years. Imagine he does that in a tight CL game and the forward doesn't fluff the tap-in off his rebound?

 

I haven't watched the game yet but I will shortly, one thing I do have to say though is that these " kids" are the ones who we are going to have to depend on in the case of injuries, so the depth factor comes into play, if they aren't up to scratch we will lose quality and that can be a serious problem as we saw last season in terms of winning trophies, it's ok to say it's just preseason but most of us have been football fans for quite awhile and can see if there is enough quality there for us to be competitive if we have to use the bench and also if we think the bench isn't quite going to cut it if called upon, unlike other top teams.

We saw it last season as well, we need to have improved the bench as we saw the disastrous results when we had to rely on them, they just weren't quite good enough the second half of last season. Kids or no kids that can't be an excuse, the team has to be built to win factoring in the whole squad, no excuses, if you are not expecting much from them they shouldn't be in Madrid's squad period, they have to be able to contribute significantly if called upon.

 

Something I mentioned ages ago but was generally ignored ( not me, the problem) because the most important thing was to rid ourselves of Iker, nothing else mattered at the time., but you are right, he has always done it, and I have always wondered why people have ignored it, hopefully he improves this aspect of his game.

 

They lost in the semifinal on penalties too. You really need to get you facts straight. And I didn't suggest it makes it better, I merely corrected an error.

I'd say Pep has fulfilled the minimum expectations and probably would be subjected to much more criticism if if hadn't been for the injury crisis. It's hard to judge the last season because of the permanent absences of half a dozen players or more. De Bruyne? At this point I don't even know where he would be playing. Schürrle definitely isn't an option. IMO they need a backup striker and maybe a CB, because three of them are out injured again.

 

I still believe that shot is not as easy as you make it sound, especially when it's swerving AND dipping especially when it's fast, but let's agree to disagree.

As for the second save, I'm actually looking at what he did to prevent a sure goal. Sprints across the goal pushes Mueller or whomever was in the way and blocks a sure goal - that's how I look at it. He spread himself to cover the area of that shot and he blocked what seems to have been a sure net hitting ball. Keepers don't always have full control of the direction of the blocked shots as sometimes just blocking is a priority - as was the case with this one.

With that said I still don't see what Kiko has done to start over Navas. He probably is better composed (as Navas looks sort of edgy) and his height advantage helps him in the aerial department but I don't know, he may be indeed better, but he has yet to show it.

 

agreed. same with forward. still no signs of bringing cm or ST.

 

We need to sign these players somehow:

CM : Verrati or Gundogan
ST : Kun or Lewandowski / Lorente

 

I am pretty sure we will buy some players

 

We don't need Kun or Lewandowski.

We don't need Verrati or Gundogan.

We don't even need another striker. We only need a decent backup for Modric which poster's have preached forever on this forum. Maybe next year we can begin investing in his replacement (Verratti).

 

Well, just watched the game, overly defensive yet again IMO ,This is the game I wanted to see, us against a quality team that can certainly compete with us, looks like we could be headed back to what some people want, mostly counterattacking, let the other team have possession, don't mind using it as a tactic now and again but playing most of the game like that ?, i personally find that fairly annoying but maybe I'm just seeing things,

The team continues to remind me of last season in most aspects so far, especially the fact that they still look so disjointed although the team has not changed much at all, oh well, next, let me add , at this point , I don't trust in the quality of a lot of our bench, IMO the gap in quality is too wide between the ones we know will probably start and most of the rest, still think there is a level of player that we could have gotten to help us out that is not superstar but decent quality, like Llorente for instance, and i'm not just talking about a striker, the window is still open so maybe, who knows, my view.

 

Quoted for truth, especially since it's coming from 4x4s!

We need to keep Benzema and add another solid goal scorer IMO, whether it's a forward or midfielder. I know I'm being repetitive but I'm worried about this. We're setting up to play 4-2-3-1 under Benitez and have only 5 players that can be seriously counted on for the 4 most advanced positions - Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale, James and Isco. Of these 5, only the first 4 offer any real threat on goal. I understand that we need to help Jese develop but at the same time, this should not be done by increasing the risks of finishing with a trophyless season. If we added one more quality forward and kept two of the youth players (Jese, Cheryshev, Vasquez), I just feel we'd be better placed to rotate and deal with injuries too.

 

I think Ronaldo will be moved to ST role before we even consider Jese there.

 

Rafa must employ different ideas and plans when things are not working out.. Like hitting long when other options are exhausted but hey we're not stoke city.

 

Hitting long? We tried that with Carlo at times and it was disaster.

That will not work unless we have a ST like Llorente or Lewandowski or can go for the height and hold the ball up well.

 

Well some of you don't want Benzema playing at all, so you'll get your Bale, Cristiano, Isco, James, Modric and Kroos side.

Doesn't necessarily equate to relying solely on Jese.