Zidane’s first stint as Real Madrid manager: 16 losses in 149 games Zidane’s second stint as Real Madrid manager: 17 losses in 87 games Something's missing? yeah Ronaldo.
A GOAT candidate player and a whole load of legendary players in their absolute peak (Kroos, Casemiro, Ramos, Marcelo, Modric, Benzema) The squad difference is huge
We don’t have the talent to do what we were doing a few years ago, we can no longer rely on individuals due to some of them being past their peak and others being a major disappointment, we make up for this by a system team and if you wonder what I mean a system team watch the likes of Villarreal, Sociedad and current Celta; they’re far less talented than us but the play much better because the system is front and center not the players.
I don't know how anyone can watch this team and come to any conclusion other than this team is not well-coached. People think we can just buy X or Y superstar and everything will be fixed magically. Well, no, it won't. Our XI is no longer stacked with individually-brilliant players (like in the threepeat days and prior) and our core players are aging.
i Hate to say it but i agree, tactically we're inept, at the least on the offensive side of things. Half of the time i have no idea what we're trying to do out there, i'm not sure if the players do either which would explain why we're so slow and lethargic. I thought we might have turned the page after the Inter game because we just looked like a team with a plan that game, pressing was on point, passing with pace and players were moving around to create triangles to keep the ball moving up, it was beautiful but idk we've regressed, picked it up in the game against Gladbach and Atletico but we've been coasting ever since.
Most of the team walked into the game half asleep, that’s on the players especially with such a veteran bunch fielded. Waiting so long to bring in subs that piece is on the coach. Team is wildly inconsistent, rollercoaster continues.
Are we gonna act like he didn't win La Liga with this underwhelming team and so many players underperforming? Name one coach who would do better with this squad.
It's not just his fault, but he is not helping with his stubbornness. Last year, as hard as it is to say it, in a normal year, no covid, we wouldn't have won that league. Not to mention messi decided to go on strike.
Agreed, he got us to defend stoutly last season and IMO pulled off a miracle, on the other side of that coin though, If ZZ thought the team was underwhelming and many players were underperforming last season why would he insist on using those same said players"all" the time this season, Why not try to refresh the team, he does have a few young interesting players that he could try to integrate more. Maybe, he doesn't believe the team was underwhelming or that many players were underperforming last season, who knows
If it's meaningless, then play all the youngsters, all the players that zidane think "he will be ready to play soon". The meaningless thing is BS. Zidane have zero trust in half of the players in real madrid. Zero.
Fabio Capello. You want bored to death, don't say you didn't ask for it. Nah, we were in bad form and city was going to pile it on in the CL. My thoughts exactly but not only were the youngsters robbed of a perfect opportunity to show something in a knockout fixture but now Zidane hasn't really given the starters much of a break (less than a week) plus the travel.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Zidane is a top top coach. He can reach players, and he's an icon. He's far more competent than people want to believe. But, as often as I've gotten criticised for commending Guardiola here, they both share some character traits. They want to win their way. Some coaches don't care how they win. Mourinho and Simeone are the prime example of that kind of coach. They don't care. Zidane and Guardiola are on the other side of the spectrum. It's unfortunate because the team can be better, but maybe Zidane has to show more flexibility and be a bit more open minded. Then again, reports of the older group approaching him about dropping certain players and I'm not sure it's just him that pulling the cart in different directions. Also, he's been trying to get Lucas Vazquez paid so bad, he's ending up hurting the guy.
We won a league in a season nobody really cared about or wanted to finish. None the less, we still won it. However, it’s not about someone doing better, it’s about someone doing the simple, basic things which were not getting with Zidane and that includes developing young players / new signings.
What's weird is that in basketball we're elite in youth development. The youth team is a juggernaught in Europe, you see them destroy other elite youth programs by 30 points or so, and we're integrating them successfully into the first team, slowly and patiently. It will be hard to emulate that in football considering how much more competition there is, but certain aspects of the basketball team could and should be looked at as to how to save time and money with young players. Also Felipe Reyes is playing exactly the way Marcelo should. Respectfully, way outside of what can be considered a competitive encounter for the team.
Winning the league was great but don't you think it felt a bit like papering over the cracks considering where we are now?
Felipe Reyes was part of the team when I first watched the basketball team and that was a long time ago when Bullock was playing for us. He must be 40 yrs old by now!
He is (40 that is). It's become kind of a meme where he hurts himself and other players kind of laugh about it and crack old man jokes.
People keep saying we wouldn't have won without the covid break. I don't get that logic. As we gained some advantage that other teams didn't have with the extra rest. What we did was amazing. The team came together and gutted win after win. It was impressive, not the other way around
In the short term there isn't a better coach for us than Zz. But his winning is a perverse effect. He is doing nothing to include new players , instead he gives 0 minutes. Meanwhile other players get very tired because they play every minute.