I think Mbappé is the only thing saving this from being a 1/10 window. Lost Kroos, Nacho, and Joselu, and the club can't be faulted for any of those departures obviously but all three of them played enormous roles in some way, shape, or form last season (even if Nacho was largely inconsistent up until City away, fact is he plugged in over 2600 minutes in La Liga and UCL; Joselu scored 18 goals including arguably the two biggest goals of the season back-to-back in crunch time vs. Bayern), and the situation in response is: Kroos' "replacement": apparently going to be dicked back-and-forth a lot between playing DM and playing CB, which isn't going to help him get comfortable taking on more of the ball progression duties left in Toni's stead. Joselu's "replacement": 18-year-old Brazilian kid with a totally different physical profile. Nobody should expect Endrick to score 18 goals next season, although with Mbappé's arrival it's not like it would be devastating if he scored fewer. The broader point is that Joselu was a ready-made player who we knew what we were getting when he came, Endrick is a wild card. He might come here and progress well, or he might prove to be a product of hype. Nacho's "replacement" is...I don't even know what to say here. We should be giving academy products who have talent opportunities, I've written about this angle before recently, I just think the way it's been handled here is all wrong. Rafa Marín would've been an academy product getting a chance too. As I keep saying, it wasn't failing to get Yoro that pisses me off. It's not even the disinterest in other CBs that pisses me off either. It was the cockiness of selling Marín before getting Yoro, then failing to get Yoro, then deciding to ignore CB entirely that pisses me off. Unserious business from a serious club. They made a mistake and the idea of even looking for a one-year veteran signing on a free transfer seems too much for them to hurt their pride by admitting they made a mistake. We're one Mili or especially Rudi injury away from being capital F F*cked. Obviously no window can be 1/10 when you sign Kylian f*ckin' Mbappé, but this window has about the lowest possible rating possible for one where you did sign him, and it's entirely because of the CB position. I'm not the least bit bothered by not signing someone post-Kroos because a) Kroos has an extremely unique profile so trying to chase the next Kroos is honestly pointless (Kimmich is the closest fit I can think of at the moment, but maybe there'd only be interest if he makes it to next summer out of contract; his form also oscillates) and b) we need to give some of the younger mids more playing time anyway, so Kroos being out of the way helps in that regard. CB is another matter entirely, one that I've spent way too much time and energy thinking and writing about as it is and, shit, I guess I've done that again just now too.
There's two things I figure: The "we just didn't identify talent elsewhere in the market" idea which kind of means that every single CB signing will somehow flop or not be worth the investment which I simply don't believe. And the fact that we simply trust luck which is what people fully bought into now. It'll work out somehow. We can't change it, but I don't really have to agree with it. If we can't spot options that work for us in a sport with millions of active players maybe it's more on us and we need to expand our horizons beyond just talents.
The dichotomy of "Yoro's the only CB worth spending a fee on" and "we're only spending €25-30M on a Yoro transfer fee" is staggering. Maybe Utd keeps upping their offer if we pursued him and I don't blame the club for having a "we're not bidding past this number", Utd clearly wanted to make some splashes and good for them, but the fact is at this point is that we'd be looking for a 4th CB, and the whole idea of "Real Madrid calibre" gets overstated in my view...we don't have 25 players of such a "calibre" right now anyway, nobody thinks Vallejo, Ceballos, or Garcia are Real Madrid-level players, based on how we describe things, but they don't have to be either. We couldn't have 25 such players because there's not enough playing time to go around. We don't need a 4th CB - and really the 3rd CB when you think of it given Alaba's injury status and that he won't be very good initially when he does return to play - who is world class and worth a ton of money, we just need someone we think can do a job...a Nacho basically, and if Nacho had stayed we wouldn't be having these discussions but he wanted the Saudi money and soft retirement and it sucks for us but I won't begrudge him that. Are there seriously no players who can be had either on a free transfer or a one-year loan that could do that? And if Joan Martínez impresses enough, then it's easy enough to ease him into more playing time from there. Let the academy products work their way into more playing time, but don't place the expectations of the world on a 16-year-old to be the de facto Yoro replacement. Because that's essentially what Joan is at this point, the replacement for someone we've been told "he's coming, he only wants Madrid, etc." for a year now.
Joan will play with Castilla. 19 year old Jacobo is more prepared, but he won't get a look in either if Vallejo stays healthy.
Endrick isn't going to play anywhere close to the minutes Joselu got. You add Mbappe with Rodrygo, Guler, Brahim fighting for minutes. Endrick is getting scrap minutes unless Carlo go ZZ 2016-17 rotation.
Except Carlo doesn't roll like that, he'd rather play Ceballos or Vasquez at CF than give minutes to Alvaro Rodriguez. I doubt Martinez or Jacobo will get minutes ahead of Tchouameni/Mendy/Carvajal at CB
✍️✅| OFFICIAL: Real Madrid has signed Yeremaiah Ramos (2009), a centre-forward from Atlético Madrid. He scored 33 goals in 30 games last season with Atlético’s Cadete B and was the league’s top-scorer.He has been registered as a Real Madrid player. pic.twitter.com/3949EMVIA3— Real Madrid Fabrica (@FabricaMadrid) August 1, 2024
According to you, rewrting history to make some vapid point about how not having a strker is different from not having a CB is your call Here's another truth, that probably only pertains to depth, however last season we mostly had only 3 CB's, if we read through the game threads and just generally, we can find "Nacho is terrible", time for Nacho to leave" Nacho past his best", "David isn't a CB" "David can't defend' blah blah blah, these were two of our THREE CB's last season, make it all add up that we have become worse as simply put, Yoro was going to solve all those problems? we had no Eder for most of last season, maybe we have become better, with him and Toni as our first choice
- Nacho last season wasn't the Nacho we're used to, he wasn't awful but at times he was haphazard and foolish. It was the right time for him to move on. - The signs from what I saw from Militao (end of La Liga, UCL final and CA) are less than encouraging, we don't have a full picture of what he'll look like next season. - Alaba was utter garbage last season before his injury and plain bad in 22/23. Now, he's aged and collected a series of wrecking injuries + he hasn't even trained properly in 8 months, if the expectations are that he recovers from all of this to regain his former glory then we are being delusional. - Vallejo in the last 3 seasons has played the equivalent of what Nacho played in 3 weeks in 23/24. Bro is Raul Bravo/Mejia tier, let's not kid ourselves.
We have a great squad man. Yes we could strengthen, but the club knows what it wants and the price it wants it at, and they have shown that they are on to a winning formula. We have enough quality to win the league, and you need luck in the CL even if we got a CB. Talking of luck, Yoro is now out for three months at United. People saying a transfer window where we get Mbappe is below par are deluded.
I understand what the club is thinking for CB......,but I'm with those here who are advising for being safe. Let's get at least a veteran on a 1 year deal.... Let's not let the season get derailed....it will only take 1 or 2 injuries to be in trouble. Why risk it? Loan deal. Easy non-committal solution.
Alaba who started 17 games in La Liga and CL was "utter garbage" yet RM were top of the CL group and La Liga table. He had one bad game vs Atlético and that's blown out of proportion to being utter garbage for half the season he played. Militao actually had a good CA too. Someone here said Cubarsi sucks. Professional clubs doesn't work in such silly world where starting quality players at top clubs "suck", are "utter garbage" if they aren't Rudiger 2023-24 level.
Girona were league leaders on Matchday 17 just before Alaba's ACL injury. We held on to La Liga #1 immediately after Alaba's injury and eventually won the league, coincidence? Alaba made countless gaffs in 23/24 and 22/23, he was a major liability. Also, wth is Cubarsi?
Girona fell off in the 2nd half of the season. RM only lost 2 games all season. Both to Atlético in La Liga and CDR. Team was pretty consistent in first half of the season despite Vini having two injuries. Alaba had a bad game against Atlético. That's it. No Alaba to be made scapegoat when RM lost to Atlético at their stadium in CDR sobit was Tchouameni's turn.
Bro, re-watch Alaba's horror show in the opening 20 minutes away to Girona where he gave the opponents 2-3 open headers which were either saved or just wide. Alaba has not been a good defender for a while. The game vs Atletico was not an anomaly, it epitomized Alaba's decline.
In Real Madrid's entire historic journey through La Liga since 1928, never at the half point in the competition with 19 games played, has the team conceded so few goals (11) in the league. "Utter garbage" Alaba started 14 of those. Coincidence theory can be applied here too for historic defense then. https://www.marca.com/futbol/real-m...b67ca47415e718b45b2.html?utm_campaign=twitter
Alaba didn't even play that game. Nacho started and he had that bad red card late in the game. https://www.skysports.com/football/girona-vs-real-madrid/teams/485570
Girona did miss two headers in the first 10 minutes of the game. But that scapegoating can go to Rudiger/Nacho as they played the match.
Nacho's time with the team had run its course, and Alaba was noticeably struggling whenever the ball was lofted across the goal. Also and this is a minor question but I'll share -- I’m also not entirely convinced about the Militao and Rudiger partnership, but that's something we can discuss in six months. Regardless, I believe we need another center-back. At least, that’s my perspective.
Scapegoating? It's not like I'm singling him for an odd performance here or there, Alaba has struggled since 21/22. And even in his "good" season he was the chief reason the team had to make impossible combacks and Tibo 8-9 absurd saves in the final of the UCL. Conversely, his absence last season contributed positively to our rigidity at the back. Let's agree to disagree. I think Alaba is unreliable but I hope he proves me wrong for the good of the team as it doesn't seem like we're getting a backup CB.