EL CLASICO | La Liga Jornada #35 | 11.05.25 | 16:15 CET

Exactly, midfield is a key. We have Jude, Valverde, Camavinga, all good options, but we need someone with magic touch , who can create, who can be a glue that binds them together.

 

I think Guler is that someone with the magic touch, he's just needs a bit more time.

 

Yeah that was ridiculous. Not replacing Joselu's profile was one of many squad blunders. Not even a hindsight thing either.

 

I was agreeimg with you. It was a statement directed at the person you responded to

 

All good, thanks for clarifying.

 

Just goes to show how things can change in a relatively short time. Not too long ago, it looked like the club was setting the team up for (relative) succes for a long time, signing exceptionally talented players and some transfer free experience (e.g. Alaba, Rudiger). We already had a bunch of unexpected major success, but the failure to (also) then address some key areas in several positions (Kroos, CF, RB, CB to name a few) left the team widely exposed to not only injuries but also plain lack of quality. You just can't mismanage like that and expect the team to thrive. I'm not interested in talking about Carlo now, that's all been said and done. But the board has a lot to explain, as they let the team down.

 

Barcelona has been rather poor recently and that has skewed the board's evaluation of the team.

 

I have nothing against him. And I do agree that the young players should be given more chances, but not to have his professional debut in the dying minutes of the most important games of the season against the biggest rival.

 

We have had a very gritty, determined team, but there were signs that we needed upgrading. The finals against Liverpool and Borussia, games against Man City - there was enough evidence if one wanted to see.

 

Could even be edited. The more technology, the less truth - far from only in football. Ironic that it should have been the opposite.

 

❗️After going 2-0 up in the Clásico, Real Madrid failed to touch even one ball in the Barcelona half from minute 13:39 to 37:32. The Barcelona players ran 10 kilometres more than Real Madrid.

— @TNTSportsBR pic.twitter.com/14w402NZQ1

— Madrid Universal (@MadridUniversal) May 12, 2025

Our story of the season: Kilometres
Our players much less run in compare to other teams, yet we suffer from much more injuries

 

Yet, somehow VAR audios that have been leaked/released are only ones that can be interpreted as we were favoured by VAR.

 

I keep bringing this up, we don't do enough work off the ball as a team. We have too many passengers when we are supposed to be getting back and defending.

 

And that against a team that has played 120 minutes of a gruelling CL match several days ago. So much for the "dynamic" midfield that we have.

 

You used to have players like Kroos and peak calma Benzema that were a part of the threepeat who actually played Zidane suffered ball but defended as a unit. We were so sturdy and stout for many years. Granted, you could argue we had a legendary group of players on defense and midfield, but you see other smaller teams in La Liga currently eeking out points by defending as a unit so that others aren't exposed.

We did that last year but we don't do that this year.

We should one hundred percent be set up to beat this Barcelona team, but we can't collectively defend and we no longer have the skill to play out of the back to get their forward line to commit and hit them on the break.

One also has to wonder if this is the logical conclusion of "Don't worry. We'll win. We're Real Madrid." Sometimes you just can't switch it back on.