The control, then the feint to lock the second defender, and curls it around Kounde and perfectly into the top corner. My lord, put this in the Louvre.
He played like there was no pressure, quite the opposite of Dani who had the worst game of his Madrid career imo.
Someone has to defend, no one wants to see mistakes, but, you don't like Nachos' mistakes, you don't like Eders' mistakes, you don't like Carvas' mistakes, i'm not sure how you feel about David but i'm sure you don't want to see Vallejo, what to do, again i say i don't know any defenders that don't make mistakes, big or small, these are human beings, the mistakes only seem to stand out to you because we watch our team all the time, no doubt you'd see the same in any other team if you followed that team, we are too critical of our own players at times A lot of fans keep talking about crosses , like we utilise those well, and how he can't attack can only defend, I've always felt he is quite competent on both sides of the ball, the team just need to trust him more
We only have Benz in the box to target from crosses. Even the likes of Carva hasn't been much effective with crossing due to that as opposed to BBC era.
I honestly don't think Vini was as bad this game as people are saying pre-goal. He wasn't great and he should have out at least one of his earlier shots on target, but he was being roughly man marked for a lot of the match and so aimed to draw his defender into awkward positions. There is a reason that Mendy had one of his best games going forward; Vini was using his movement to free up that space given the marking. Now, I'm not saying he was great. Sevilla would trade a great game from Mendy for a mediocre game from Vini every day of the week and so Vini will have to figure out how to free himself up. But he wasn't bad, just well marked by a good side/player.
Saw a few posts saying how KCM gets dominated by high intensity midfields. Absolutely right. Just not right for this match. Sevilla’s starting midfield can’t be called energetic or high intensity. Even Rakitic didn’t have a good game. He wasn’t bad but he did nothing much and got subbed off. The worrisome thing is that KCM still got dominated. Now we can chalk that down to playing too many mins but in my humble opinion it’s more than that. Modric is a Balon Dor winner and one of the best midfielders of his generation but he has sacrificed his body for club and country more than any player I can remember other than Sergio Ramos, in recent history. Especially with his style and the running he does. He just doesn’t have it in his legs anymore to do the work of two players like he used to and his partners aren’t bailing him out. Casemiro has been abysmal apart from one or two outings. I have no explanation what’s happened to him. At his age it shouldn’t be wear and tear although he’s played a LOT of mins in the last 5 years or so. His form (can you call it form if it spans two seasons??) is extremely worrisome. Kroos is the only one who has had some good games this season so far but even he mixes them in with bad ones. We have signed a teenage midfielder who can be as good as anyone in the future and we have Fede who has proven that if he can stay healthy he cannot be dropped. I saw a lot of posts about Carlo playing the same players. Sorry but have you just now been introduced to this coach? He’s done that everywhere he’s worked. I dont personally agree with it as I think a decent medium can be found but I am also not under the same pressures as these coaches are under and before you shit on him see how many trophies he’s won doing that. And just to add, Our legendary coach who won us so many trophies we got bored of winning was accused of the same thing. Save yourselves some mental angst and stop agonizing over it. Zizou and Carlo aren’t the only coaches who do this either. Putting a team out there isn’t all about putting the best 11 available. It’s about trust, it’s about players’ mentality and it’s about the opposition as well. And in big matches, the kind of matches that can swing seasons coaches go with players who have proven themselves over and over again, players whom they trust. This trust is built on past successes obviously and what they see daily in training. Call it safe but I think it’s more than that. I think coaches and especially coaches who were successful players themselves know that in these tough games there comes a time when you need extraordinary mental strength in the face of adversity and these coaches can see who has it and who doesnt have it, yet. When KCM is available they will be picked for the big games unless something weird happens. This is precisely why I am against extending Modric. About the late subs. I know as fans we get very impatient and when we see a player not playing well we want them substituted at half time. But games have rhythms and energy. Each game has a different one. Coaches can sense that. And sometimes they don’t want to disrupt that rhythm even at the expense of keeping an under performing player out there and obviously their hope is that said player will improve. They’re not always right but I’ve seen many successful coaches at club and NT level talk about that. The score line is another thing that dictates changes and at 1-1 a coach is going to err on the side of caution, especially in a non knock out game. So we as fans have the right to yell at the tv and call the coach an idiot but once the game is over we can look at things more calmly. It won’t be highlighted too much but Camavinga changed this game for us. We were gonna get a draw and I think the coach would’ve been ok with it too if we did but Camavinga and to a lesser extent Fede ate a tiring Sevilla’s lunch. Camavinga was receiving the ball from tibo near our goal and turning around and passing it vertically. Then he was making late runs into the box to link with Benzema. Then he was on the left wing helping Vinicius. Brilliant game and energy from him. He’s a diamond, we just have to polish him and he’ll bring us a lot of joy. Militao is having a solid season, nobody should be angry with him. He’s also young for a CB and this is his first season with the full weight of being a RM central defender on his shoulders and a new partner. A mistake here and there is no problem at all. That diagonal ball he played…….. mama Mia. What can you say about Vinicius. A true star. He hasn’t fully unlocked his mentality yet but that’s natural, he’s so young. You can see he gets riled up by the opposition players and that affects his game. Only time will improve that. Two things make football fans super mad, when Real Madrid wins and when Real Madrid wins with their homegrown/youth players. So I’m enjoying all this salt.
Another point. I think Asensio had a good first half. He was through on goal twice and Benzema didn’t find him. Benzema apologized to him after the second incident. He made some runs that should have been rewarded and he did some pressing up front too. He had that one great chance and I don’t blame him for taking the shot even tho the pass to Benzema was on, we’ve seen him score goals like that. Just missed. Not saying he had a belter but he had a good first half. The whole midfield and attack had a horrendous second half until the changes arrived don’t know how to assess Marco on that.