Squad List: Venue: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu Out Players: Tchouameni, Alaba, Carvajal, Lucas, Mendy Match Notes: Real Sociedad have been comfortably the 3rd best team in Spain this season. La Real is only 3 points behind Real Madrid, albeit having played one more game. La Real has the 3rd best away record in La Liga. La Real will be missing 9 players: Umar Sadiq, David Silva, Mikel Merino, Jon Pacheco, Andoni Gorosabel, Ander Guevara, Alex Sola, Mohamed Ali-Cho, and Martin Merquelanz. Kubo, Oyarzabal, and Sorloth have been pillars for the 3rd best goal producing team in Spain. SEÑORES SOY MADRIDISTA DESDE LA CUNA, QUE VAMOS A SER CAMPEONES NO TENGO DUDAS!!
Difficult match. Probably a draw for us. Gotta contain Zubimendi / Silva well. He’s the one keeping their midfield ticking. Also, Vini on the brink of missing Valencia game if he gets a yellow.
I’d prefer to put Vallejo on as RB and let Nacho play LB than have Camavinga put there. He’s absolutely critical to put in the middle to help in transition and winning the ball.
Vallejo barely has legs for a CB spot let alone on the right flank. You could say Odriozola or Vinicius Tobias should be trusted a little more, but Vallejo?
So we have decent depth in midfield and Carlo calls up Martin. We have ZERO fullbacks and 1 severely out-of-form striker and Carlo says he's closely monitoring V Tobias, Rodriguez and Iker Bravo but doesn't call up any of them. If having your entire fullback line out injured and your forward line either in terrible form or named Eden/Mariano isn't incentive enough to try the Castilla, I don't know what is. Boo Carlo. I hope we bag 3 points..in the bloody first half..
Love Carlo but the guy has always been a coward when it comes to playing youth. He never relies on them unless injury forces him to do so. Right now we need to call up Vinicius Tobias and play Nacho at LB. That would give us some kind of solution because we already know what we would get using Odrizola. That would also free us to use Camavinga, Valverde, Ceballos and Modric. Which would work.... however we won't
Carlo coward if we are talking about young players. Always was, always will be. He would rather play Benzema probably in RB if needed
Crazy part is we have all been asking Florentino to buy reinforcements and technically he has bought a FB; Vinicius Tobias. The kid has impressed in Castilla and the club has made a gesture to show they believe in him for the future so why is it so damn hard to call him up to the first team when we have damn near every FB out?
Agreed, it’s very logical to call him up now but Carlo is Carlo, as you’d said every coach has his flaws and this is Carlo’s biggest one, which also happens to be one of Zidane’s flaws in that they will find it hard to trust players outside their core circle that they’re comfortable with. Just need to keep grinding out wins for now and hope those he trusts come back and perform.
To be fair Alvaro is at the South American U20 Championship at the moment. On the fullback position, I agree, Vinicius Tobias should get a shot, but maybe not against Sociedad.
We need a RB this summer, I swear Dani has missed more than 70 games since joining and at this point his body is shot
📋✅ ¡Nuestro 𝗫𝗜 inicial 🆚 @RealSociedad!@UnicajaBanco | #RealMadridRealSociedad pic.twitter.com/Xg3qrD9Cup— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid) January 29, 2023 Ceballos Kroos and Valverde in midfield. Camavinga at LB. Modric on the bench. Rodrygo rewarded with a start. Given the injuries, that’s a fair lineup imo
Cama is being wasted at LB(not that he isn’t good there, but he’s much better in his natural position)
When you have 4 fullbacks injured, playing him there gives us the best chance to win the game. It’s just an emergency measure
Curious to see how Oyarzabal is looking after his injury, one year left on his deal in the summer, might be one to look out for as a depth piece who’s played across the attack for Sociedad.
Wouldn't make a difference if he was with the Castilla, Carlo's excuse would have been that Alvaro Rodriguez is engaged with Raúl.
Let's hope that's the case, we said the same about Rodrygo and Fede at RW. Camavinga could similarly be converted to a full-time LB by Carlo.
I would have started Modric for Kroos but the dude played 120 mins three days ago. Here's to Rodrygo bagging a goal before he runs out of gas..
Hopefully Benz finds form today and I'm not talking about goals, it's the interplay and decision making that bothers me right now