Just watching the highlights. Danilo!!! Smh. Navas was big again. That block from Rafa at the end. Wow.
Not really worried about Bale's calf (famous last words and all). It seemed to come from a knock. Benzema, on the other hand, is a major concern.
i love this club but again almost gave heartatack ;/ again, just like vs Wolfsburg, too confide,t not ready from first second. Bale MOTM, no doubt. and i will say this again, happy for rLucas, he is brilliant squad player. local guy with greait attitude, workrate and speed, always ready. he probably knows he won't be starte here, but he will get his chances. always ready! brilliant .
I think @Digital mentioned that we need to see Bale step up and grab the game by the balls, and Gareth delivered tonight. Brilliant second half. Lucas was stellar as well. I question the subs made by Zidane, but massive 3 points at the end of the day in very tough circumstances. Points that league champions get, while pretenders waste. All we can do is win our games at this point and maintain the pressure.
Jess should never start again; he has been given numerous opportunities and has failed to show up each and every single time. He's great coming off the bench to change the pace of the game – but unfortunately he's just not good enough.
We came out with very little energy. You're absolutely correct in this assessment with roster inadequacies, but you would expect some of the guys who rarely play to really fire out of the gate. Bale and Kovacic were the only players that were lively from the beginning. After they scored the 2nd, we were better. In the 2nd half, everyone played hard and Rayo struggled to even get in the game.
Did you notice him in the second half? I didn't. That's a good thing. Zidane told him to stay back at all times, he barely made any runs forward. Offensively, he was essentially a wall that our midfielders passed the ball off of, because all he did was pass it back.
These things happen, never going to be easy with the run of form Rayo have been in, plus the current fixture congestion (why do we play late as possible on Wednesday and then first thing on Saturday?). But great character to come back. The mentality is fantastic, and as long as we don't lose that, we could end very brightly this season. Excellent come back!
I guess you missed the Wolfsburg game when we ********ed up just as much as we did in this game...with Ronaldo playing. Or the numerous other games...when Ronaldo was also playing.
I think having Casemiro in there might have prevented the first goal because maybe he would have been able to track back and cover behind Pepe. Aside from that though, you're right, terrible first half all around. Let's not forget they scored 2, but they could have scored a few more.
It might just be in my head because I have it on the brain that Danilo sucks, but I swear I've seen several of our midfielders not play the ball out to him on the wing when they should and instead try to force it through the middle because they don't trust him.
No he definitely hasn't failed every single time or anywhere near it. This team does however need a backup striker, it's amazing that a team like Chelsea have bought 4 and we try to make do with 1 for consecutive seasons. This was a really worrying performance from the team, especially Marcelo and Varane who looks out of it.
My 2 cents on this game are: I was extremely satisfied for few reasons We conceded fast shocking goals.lets face it the second one was very lucky situation for them.Varane hit the ball in their attacker head and the ball magically came into their feet to score Thise two goals were kind of shocking. Now what made me happy is the attitude we had after.we run our assess off in the second with lot of our major attacking force out. We actually won with a great fight and motivation. It was a great game..exciting (again reminds me of the cappelo season ). I think a wonder is about to happen and we will win La Liga
This has been probably one of the major disappointments of the season. We saw Pepe plenty the last two years and always thought that once Varane matures it would be his position easy. I really thought Varane was going to come in this year and be a top 3 CB in the world, better than Ramos even. But that has not happened at all
my mind also. i mean not terrible but he is very very average.. maybe it's my opinion, but i really want more leadership from him.
It is my impression that Zidane's preferred method of playing is with a 6-10-8 as opposed to a midfield where everyone pretty much do both, defend and attack. After all he is the one who said Makelele was the engine of the galacticos and once he was gone the entire team felt apart..It is sound to conclude that he would adapt that philosophy once he became a manager.