Apparently we're now the first team in La liga's history to have 20 different goal scorers in a single campaign.
boring game. I hope Benzema can keep up with the level of intensity he is playing. he needs a rest - though he is crucial to our team. Casemiro is just awesome. offense in general didn't work well. Isco and Eden are both very weak and we need them for the "spark". the young Brazilians that came instead looked half asleep. oh well, I'll take the ugly win and the 3 points
Villarreal are in good form. Barca play them away while we play at Athletic Bilbao that weekend. Hope Barca drops points there. Atlético usually bends over in La liga for Barca so not expecting much from that game.
This is my opinion as well. I expect to draw one, but we have to win the other. One thing I do know is we tend to step up against the tougher sides and go to sleep against the weaker ones so maybe we can won both and put this thing away.
Gotta win at home against Getafe. Bilbao game will be after Villarreal - Barca so let's see what will be the situation then.
Atleti can't phone it in against Barcelona. They're only four ahead of Sevilla. If they do their usual bending over I'll be shocked. We may be tired but Barcelona have to be feeling it more than us. The soreness and fatigue feels worse when you're not winning let alone the mental fatigue. I'd suspect they're hurting more.
From 13 points back at this point last season, to top of the table this season. At this point last season, getting back to this level seemed like it was going to take years of rebuilding. Feels good.
This season has been all Casemiro, Ramos, and Benz Others have been good, but if we win the league, we need to look no further than these 3 stallions
I swear if I don't see Casemiro in every single best 11 list at the end of the year, I'm going to lose my sh*t lol
Varane has been nothing short of world class, in fact a huge difference between this year and last has been him.
Got to keep focused and maintain our composure. Zidane is the man to instill that mentality in the team; one look at how pissed he was after the match says he knows the job is far from done. Funny thing, after the match, Zidane said Benz's backheel was better than both of Guti's (to Benz and to Zidane). My man, I love you and I know you love Benz like a son, but that's craziness. Guti's backheel to Zidane was one of the greatest assist of all time, and is only topped by his backheel to Benz. Casemiro is a beast. The man's positioning is world class. The amount of interceptions he makes and plays he breaks up is insane. So underrated. Varane has been spectacular this season and is back in great form. Dani was very good defensively (made a huge, goal saving block in the 3rd minute); Marcelo gives me anxiety.
Those first two, in particular, have been the backbone behind our great defensive record. After an abysmal start, Courtois is quietly having the best season of a Madrid keeper in the last decade.
We used to lose points in ugly games like these. We have developed a better and tougher mentality in league play. Proud of the team
I think Hazard is in normal Chelsea shape, but Isco does look overweight.[emoji23] 1277351996496867328 is not a valid tweet id
Lol People get so caught up on these guys' weight Neither looks to me to be affected by it but when players play poorly, we gotto find a reason i guess. They'll be fine. Just gotto play through it
Hazard in particular is coming off a long and pretty bothersome injury. Isco actually looked pretty good in the first half.
Isco doesn't utilize speed and acceleration as much as Hazard so him being out of shape isn't as detrimental. Isco was indeed better than Hazard who was pretty bad. This season for Eden is a wash and I have no expectations for him to have a consistent meaningful contribution however next year he better bring it.
When somebody is doing bad everything is criticized. Casemiro plays CS:GO all the time yet nobody cares because he's amazing. Dembele plays some Fortnite and he gets hell for it bcuz he's doing bad. Bale gets blasted for golf yet nobody mentions it for Curry or Jordan. Life be like that. You earn yourself leeway.
If we can get him rounding into shape in these closing games, get him through another 3 weeks of intense training w/ the team, then you never know what'll happen vs. City. It's not an impossible task, especially with home advantage taken away.
I think the team continues to suffer in terms of lacking a cutting edge in attack, no matter what combination we play, that has to be resolved next season somehow, however except for the first 10 mins or so, as soon as we settled down, although it wasn’t a masterpiece, I think we totally controlled this game, they really did not cause us that many problems, I think we were strong mentally and got the job done, 3 points, top and two points clear, I’m estatic, the league title is the one I’d love us to win, hopefully we can maintain our concentration in games all the way through from here on in and bring this title home Finally gotta mention Casemiro, an absolute monster on “both” sides of the ball considering his position on the park, and i’m not talking just about this game
If today's game is any indication, it shows that the effects of this schedule are already starting to catch up to the players. Not a criticism; it would be a grueling schedule in normal circumstances, let alone these "didn't play a competitive game for three months before having this gauntlet thrown at them" circumstances. But it does merit some concern in that we're only five games through this stretch, with six games still to play. Not quite halfway yet. Now, would I go on record as saying that four of these six games should be ultra-manageable? Yeah, I would. After all, everyone else is dealing with the same problem, with weaker rosters and less depth. And if we can win at San Mames next week, which is going to be an exceptionally difficult match, then we're probably going to be in incredible shape. But these next six games aren't going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination, and I maintain that Barcelona should be expected to do 12/12 points from their final four games, so every little bit of margin we have on them helps, and if something happens where they reclaim the lead by the end of MD34, then G-d help us, because we're in trouble.