My opinion is..................................... NO we have our stars who are getting OLD: Helguera, Salgado, RC we have could be stars always hurt: Woodgate we have crappy guys: Pavon, Diogo (only good on offense, cant cross) we have guys playing out of position: Ramos (our bright spot) who is consistent?? Who could we use to form a strong wall... we are an offensive minded team, but the results show our defensive is not holding enough. bad clearances, missed markings, letting easy goals in... all of these and more have taken place... what do YOU think of our defense?
Our defense is improving somewhat from past seasons, but is the #1 area for improvement IMO. Especially in light of coaches working our star midfielders in defensive duties to compensate for worries at the back. Improve the defense and you give the rest of the team an easier time too. Attack/defence stats. GF/GA 2005-2006: 2nd/7th best (Barca 1st/2nd) 2004-2005 2nd/2nd best (Barca 1st/1st) 2003-2004: 1st/12th best (Valencia 2nd/1st) 2002-2003: 1st/5th best
Last year before the CL tie with Juventus, Sky Sports ran some short interviews with Juventus players & staff. Capello & Del Piero spouted nonsense, but Thuram had something very interesting to say. Thuram said that the weakness of RM is not the back 5, which are very good. Thuram said the weakness is that RM does not fight like a team to regain possession. I think he is exactly right.
my opinion: not good enough. i think ivan/pavon is very slow, we need a CB that is strong, fast, and able to command the line.
Last year's stars are misleading. Casillas was out of this world. Take him out and put in an even above average keeper and you guys would have been closer to the year before. He was partially correct, but even less so if it were said about today's team. Over the years RC has gone from pretty amazing and a large offensive threat to average/above average. Salgado has gone from good to ok/mediocre. Helguera has been screwed up by moving back and forth from midfield. Ramos is good. I do agree about the way the team plays tho.
My opinion. I think that Salgado, Sergio Ramos, Woodgate, Roberto Carlos is a quite competitive defense, with RC as the weakest spot, but a very competitive defense. Our problems are: -Woodgate is always injured he only has played one month in the first half of the season. He teorically should begin to play again in January, but we will have to wait to see if he doesn't injury again. -Sergio Ramos is playing as DM with Lopez Caro He is playing great in that position (better than Pablo Garcia or Gravesen) but in my opinion he is more necessary in defense. Without Woodgate and Sergio Ramos, we have a defense with Helguera and Pavon, THEN WE HAVE A REALLY WEAK DEFENSE. Helguera and Pavon, mainly Helguera, can be a good for the team playing at subs, but if they have to play at the same time as CenterBacks, THEN WE ARE IN SERIOUS PROBLEMS. It was quite pathetic how Pavon and helguera wasn't able to win any ball to Milosevic in the game against Osasuna, Milosevic a 32 years old forward was in heaven, probably the easiest/most confortable game that he has played this season. Can you imagine what would happen playing with Helguera and Pavon defending players like Adriano, shevchenko, Henry, Etoo (speaking about some of the forwards of our possible CL rivals ...?? And the game agaisnt Racing was even worst, a racing playing with the subs, surpass our defense really really easily. Conclusion, Helguera and Pavon can't play together. Ramos or Woodgate must play with one of them. And if Sergio Ramos is going to play as DM until the end of the season, then We MUST buy another Centerback, because the centerbacks of RM Castilla aren't very good (they are the weakest spot of Castilla). Anyway, the biggest problem of the team isn't his defense Our biggest problem is the creation of play. Real Madrid philosophy always has been attack, attack and attack, ... touching good the ball. The Real Madrid classic style of play. What is tremendously frustrating for me as Real Madrid supporter is watch how the team is incapable to create play, to create goal chances. We aren't able to make two passes consecutives. It isn't only that we have problems to recover the ball, it is that we don't play good with the ball. It is really hard to see the team with that problems in attack, becuase it always has been the Real Madrid biggest distinctive. The team need desesperatelly a COMPLETE MIDFIELDER, a midfield that can move the team but also can defend good. It MUST be our first priority in January. We only have two players with enough vision of play to move the team. Zidane and Guti, both players has a extraordinary vision of play, but they aren't the perfect players to plays as double pivot. Their best position is as offensive midfielders, recieving the ball to make the last pass or find the best solutions to create problems near the rival goal area. ------------- DM -----New signing RM--------------Guti/Zidane/Baptista-----------LM It isn't easy to can sign that kind of midfielder in winter market. In my opinion won't be a bad option to even sign a 31-32 midfielder that has played all his life in that position as emergency solution until June. And in june try to sign the best player for that position, a player of the level of Lampart, Gerrard, ... If we can't find any good midfielder in the winter market, then Guti is our best solution. Let hope that his play be consistent all the games. I also would begin to give minutes o De La Red and Granero.
i agree with you mostly... what do you think about convicing Bayern Munich to cash in on Ballack and using him in the open position??
The fact that our passing and creation of play has deteriorated is mostly a separate issue and doesn't mean that the problem of the centerbacks should be ignored. The bottom line is that Woodgate is a bust because he is injury-prone, period. Sergio Ramos is being employed in a pivot role in front of the back four. That leaves Pavon and Helguera CB's and no cover. I am sick of seeing their bumbling efforts undermining the goals scored at the other end over the years. We need a real deal Hierro replacement. If anything, when things are more solid at the back it makes things easier for the rest of the team, many of whom have been employed by Luxemburgo in defensive work they shouldn't be doing. Beckham huffs and puffs but he can't defend, in fact he can't do anything except hit long balls.
agreed. but there is only so much they can do. at times its as if the rest of the players are banking on a defensive clearance to hit the back of the net, because they seem pretty reluctant to put together a good move
I think that's right up to a point. True we don't move as well as a unit as a good team should, but players like Gravesen, Beckham, Raul (considering he's a striker), and sometimes Guti all hussle well. Regardless of that point we still have a brittle defence. The goals we concede can only be described as soft. So often our central defenders make simple mistakes an we pay a huge price for it. We desperately need to invest in a top quality centre-back...maybe even 2.