Not the best game but 3 points, so good start, we'll definitely need to lift our game as the season goes on
A match that didn’t need to be difficult but a win to start the season was very much needed. Lots of work to do to get the team humming again.
Mendy is hot garbage going forward and makes the left side worse. Vinny is so isolated and creates only from his ability to beat 2/3 players. If you think that there is no difference between Alaba and Mendy I don’t know what to tell you.
What a beauty Alaba! good 3 points, a lot of shoots, not all players sharp but 3 points that's matters now.
Phew. It wasn't pretty, but we got three points to start the season, so all good. Still oddly flat, both at the beginning and then after the second goal. I didn't think Camavinga or Tchouameni had great games, so that was slightly disappointing. They did face fresher legs, but still, I expected more energy and assertiveness from them. I wasn't that excited for Alaba when he arrived and now I love him. Hopefully Rudiger settles in and I feel the same in a year. Benzema didn't seem super sharp, either in finishing or movement. Vinicius didn't have an amazing game but he constantly put pressure on and that was helpful.
3 points and already with advantage against Barcelona. Rudiger was terrible ,he has never been good in a 4 men defense . Vinicius by far the best player .2 more away games in a row ,the team has to be much better than today to win these games.
💜 ¡HASTA EL FINAL! 💜 pic.twitter.com/sFOVFXHSaq— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid) August 14, 2022 We gave Bayern a total of 25 million for these two
I think the players we have seen in the last 3-4 days gives an indication of who Carlo is betting on this season. Apart from the usual suspects, what stood out to me about the lineups was: Both Carvajal and Lucas played RB. 4 center backs in Nacho, Rudiger, Militao, and Alaba. Ceballos getting minutes in both games. Hazard playing meaningful minutes today. Noticeable exclusions these first two games: The biggest has to be Asensio. Slightly less surprising is Vallejo but he is clearly the 5th CB. I suspect we will look to ship out Asensio and bring in a back-up for either Benzema or Rodrygo/Fede on the right, based on what we have seen so far.
3 points. On to the next one. Fede was a monster today. Him and LV were the standout performers today. Best part was no Asensio! Maybe he’s going to take the hint and leave.
And from this post i generally don't know what to tell you seeing as it has nothing to do with what i said or your OP Would David make the left side better, absolutely, he's more experienced, and attacks better, they'll probably use him more seeing as they seem to trust him on the ball, does he make the left side ....tick, Vin and Benz do that especially Vin, we just saw it last season from them both, the proof is there, we've also spent years watching that left side clogged up with nearly the whole team at points playing multiple passes amongst themselves trying to break teams down, sometimes to the detriment of having no one in the box at times, it's not new Finally, you may not see it, but it looks to me like Vin "likes" to take on players even two or three, it's a big part of his game, it may not be as much of a burden to him as you think it is, anyhow back to the game, good 3 points.
🎙| Carlo Ancelotti: “Camavinga and Tchouameni have not shown the quality that I see in training, it is normal, this shirt is very heavy.” @tjcope #rmalive— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) August 14, 2022
For a manager not known for rotating I would say this wasn't the match to swap out half the 11. Team was totally out of sync, but important thing is the 3 points and this didn't come back to haunt Carlo. No harm no foul.
Agreed. 30+ attacks from the left (mostly Vini) and 4 from the right? A huge imbalance that could be exploited by tough opponents. Yes, Carvajal was out today (he is injury-prone) but we've needed a real RW for sometime now. Benzema won't be 100% all season long; this will be arguably the toughest season he'll face given the high expectations, age, number of games and the WC. Get rid of Assensio and Mariano and get a proper CF that can play well on the right.
All in all, we played pretty well. Not all matches are gonna be cake walks learn from this and take the 3 points and move on
Beside the 3 points, which again, the winning mentality instilled in this team is just phenomenal, what I really liked is that it's the 1st game of the season and Carlos just toucha and cama out front. They didn't play well, but the experience is important, so again, respect for Carlo. Alaba is pretty much the steal of the century, followed by another we took from Munich, toni.
Random thoughts: 1. Rudiger was a beast in the second half. Needs to trust his instincts more. He's also a major threat in set pieces. Also his aggressiveness is massive in winning the ball back. 2. Cammavinga didn't look comfortable on the right side of the midfield. A couple of instances where he got in good shooting positions and passed it off. Thus far, he's been more effective coming off the bench. May need another year before he's ready to be a regular starter and push for that spot. 3. Tchouameni was good (not excellent), particularly in individual duels and winning the ball back. Made some very good decisions with the ball. Once he's comfortable with how these teams set up in Spain, he'll start beasting. Impressive debut all in all. 4. Lucas is made for these games. Constant threat on the right. 5. Vini was our most dangerous player in attack. Benz was off today. 6. Nacho is so damn smart although he was at fault for the first goal. Made fantastic adjustments throughout the game and became far more aggressive in his approach once he figured out their strikers were flying past him. Close down space and don't let them get past you, even if it involves making a tactical foul. 7. I hope Carlo's comments about Cammavinga and Tchouameni are more motivational rather than an insight into the future. Carlo needs to continue to make a concrete effort to integrate them into the starting 11. They are the future. 8. How soon before we conclude our best back 4 is Dani, Militao, Rudiger, and Alaba? All in all, I'm happy with the 3 points. Great start.
Was slightly frustrated with Kronos’ delivery, there were a few dangerous indirect free kicks and many many corners but the delivery was floated in too many times and it was clearly not working. In the future we should actually be very dangerous from set piece deliveries, Rudiger, Militao, Case, Tchoumeni, Mendy these are all physical players who can create chaos. I randomly heard Ralf Randnick talk about how 30% of all goals in today’s game are scored from set pieces or soon after a set piece.
If the point is to score goals. Having Alaba be the main starter at LB is obvious. Your argument that Vinny likes to take on players and the left side is clogged anyway is a Straw Man. I don’t think many would disagree that Mendy is a liability and is a net detractor for our left flank offensively. Him standing still or making mis timed runs or even the same run as Vinny completely destroys the flow. The argument is Vinny is good DESPITE having to play with Mendy. My point is how much better he would be if Alaba was the starting LB.
The same people that complain that the league isn't good or competitive enough complain when we don't steam roll a team that shows up ready to do whatever it takes with a sellout home crowd. It was the best the opponent could give us on every level and the team dominated and showed a lot of variety. You can draw a lot of conclusions from it to confirm your biases but I see that we now have a lot more options down to the free kicks. I enjoyed the match a lot. We've lost season openers at the Bernabeu against worse teams.