Madrid Wasn't Built In a Day - The Interim Transfer Thread

Unbalanced squad. Should have kept Llorente and tried to force OUT Isco

 

Simple, Mendy is stronger both defensively and offensively, he plays with both feet equally well, he passes the ball better, he is physically stronger, he is faster and better in the air, Reguillion is just not as good and I say this as someone who wants Reguillion back eventually.

 

Sergio Reguilón had a great start with 1 goal and 1 assist no doubts about that - so it must be age reasoning since Mendy is 24.

 

For me our summer was very solid - 8.5/10.

In:
Hazard - one of the best players in the world upgraded our attack.
Mendy - exactly what we needed, very good player. I hope he gets the majority of the minutes in the league.
Militao - easily could be the best defender in the world soon
Jovic - need more time for assessment. On paper he is the type of striker we didn't have since Higuain maybe.
Areola - great second keeper, can't complain at all.



Potential ins:
Pogba - he would certainly fit perfectly in Zidane's plans, but for more than 150ME he is a 100% NO for me.
Neymar - a lot of money but I feel we should have taken him... or
invest in Joao Felix. As someone mentioned in another thread - looking to be the best transfer of the summer.
Van Beek - good player, fits the player profile Zidane seeked but given the high price - there were better options(Odegaard, James).

Out:
Only Llorente shouldn't be sold IMO. All other transfers are super, including sending Reguillon and Ceballos on loan. Hopefully we can use them in a couple of years.

Didn't buy Pogba but we have James back. I feel that we have good enough squad for La Liga and CL. The problem is in Zidane. We need a change in our style of play and that won't happen if he continue to insist on the same three man midfield and the same defense. It just doesn't work, it didn't in the end of his previous stint, didn't work for Lope and it didn't work for Solari.

Try to integrate Militao and Mendy as first choices, drop one of Kroos and Modric and play the other along with Casemiro. Put Hazard, James/Isco, Bale/Vinicius/Brahim Diaz with more freedom in attack behind Benzema or Jovic.
We have so many options to play different styles in attack but Zidane continues to stick to the slow and boring possession football...

 

Jovic has not yet scored single goal yet and he is nowhere near out requirement for striker

Apart of hazard all are back up signing and nothing special

Give zidena what he need and can freely decide whether he is good or bad.

Zidena problem is he want a complete renovation and sell out dead stock like bale and James but Perez has under delivered

Isco , Ramos , modric, Varane, and kroos are not disposable and we keep playing because he has no option that are equally good.

 

Physicality is fantastic trait to have, but not a determining factor which would tell you who is better LB. Example being Marcelo. Not exactly personification of a fast and strong player, and yet one of the best fullbacks in last decade.

Based on what i have seen and per whoscored stats, i don`t see 50M added value over Reguilon. But hey, i may be wrong.

 

Zidane got Mendy for 48 ME and your argument is that he's back up and nothing special? So either ZZ is crazy asking for 48 ME back up or those moaning back up option are doing it prematurely.

 

For me, it started great but ended on a sour note. We have not addressed issues properly, while creating new ones. As such, it seems we are going into a season with mostly old guard, which i find grotesque.

I definitely see us buying in the winter as result. Specifically midfielder.

 

Coulda .. should have done better..
Missing a replacement for Casemiro and should have gotten rid of Isco and Asensio (before his injury of course)
Probably missing another WC forward for when Bale goes missing/injured.

 

Most of you acting like change ALL TEAM AND ALL FLAWS are so easy in one transfer window. Its not Football manager on pc, ffs. Its not that easy to deal with clubs to get all players or rid some of them just like that, its just not simple.

 

We could have both Mendy and Reguilon next season and let the best one start. Like Mou signed Coentrao for 30 ME in 2011 and both him and Marcelo had important games under Mou and Carlo until Coentrao 's injury and mentality issues after 2013-14 season. We spent 35 ME on Odri to have two good RBs on paper. Though will have to choose between Hakimi and Odri next summer.

 

Reguilon returning depends on Marcelo leaving. As for RB situation. I would chose Hakimi over Odri in a second, considering Odri looks beyond bad. Or the alternative, go after Arnold.

 

That's precisely what you guys are doing; crying a literal river over a FB who we honestly haven't missed.

 

The problem is in our coaches who play the same old guard in almost the same system. Only Barcelona, City, PSG and maybe Liverpool have better squads than us.
We had in our squad unused players like Ceballos and Llorente, bought Hazard, Jovic, Mendy, Militao, Kubo, brought back James, Odegaard. I am certain that Kubo will do a lot at Mallorca, Odegaard is already killing at Sociedad.
Zidane should integrate the fresh blood.

 

I’m not saying he is better simply because he is physically superior I’m saying it’s an added bonus, as for their stats on Whoscored it’s hard to compare them there since Mendy has played way more games ( I see 22 games there for Reguillion) and Whoscored averages these stats out.

 

It don`t work like that @Stiliyan - both Kubo and Martin need more soccer experience and improve their skillset.

Real squad is better than Liverpool, but they need to perform as well and Kroos scored in the first season game. Last season some of those players under performed which was one of the issues. And a rebuild take time when they moved Ronaldo to Juve. Barcelona is soon in a similar situation when Messi is retired, and they are not doing that well without him injured.

James give him time - he just returned, and Modric played very well last game.

 

I was also angry at first as Zidane preferred Marcelo to Reguillon but it is not so bad as Marcelo can provide something that maybe no other LB can in the world. At the same time Sergio can prove himself in another team(Sevilla with Lope is a great place) and come back in a couple of seasons to replace Marcelo.
Zidane just needs to rely more on Mendy because Marcelo's shortcomings in defense are major contributor to our fails in the recent seasons.
If we aren't gifting goals to opposition sides constantly(Varane, Ramos, Marcelo) we will be collecting points easily.

 

For top level football in CL sure but for la liga games, the coach should rotate and use wisely all the players at his disposal. Ozil benched Kaka at only 21, Martin has higher ceiling IMO. Asensio also contributed a lot in 2016/17. We can talk again about those two players at the end of the season. I hope they just stay healthy.

 

you think zidane love for marcelo is over.. wait and watch .. whatever maybe he is not so special means he add nothing compared to fully fit Marcelo or make impact felt

 

No one said that we could resolve everything in one transfer window.

What most (not only here, go on twitter or read MM comments etc. ) are saying is that we didn't resolve our midfield problems at all, and that people close to the Zidane clan (like in France, LEquipe, France Football, and TeleFoot) confirmed Zidane is inflexible on the players he wanted to buy, and doesn't want.

Some people above are exaggerating, but some others are just playing it too cool. We had the time, and money to make at least little patches in midfield, but we chased 200ME Pogba without succeeding in signing him.


For example, that isn't a lie to say that if tomorrow Case gets injured, we're f*cked.

 

10/10 transfer window because JAMES

My guess is the club sees Fede as his cover.

I agree with you, though —window left much to be desired as far as midfield is concerned. I also agree with those that would rather have kept Reguilon.

 

this is our biggest nightmare.
Casemiro became the most important player in the team. without him, the already shaky defense crumble, without him (and Modric helping him) we can't win any midfield battles. selling Llorente was a big gamble.

 

Very happy too that James is part of the team again. Same for Bale now hat he wasn't sold.

But is it because our coach rates them, or because we failed to sell them, and get replacements?

What has been said, and done will not disappear as if nothing happened. I'd be surprised if Bale or James comes tomorrow saying everything is fine between them, and Zidane for example.


Anyways, now that the window is closed, I really hope we will make full use of both.

Still needs to find the time to watch our last game because I heard Bale did good.

 

Modric is worrying me. His post World Cup season was average.

Either he was physcially at his limit because he didn't rest enough, or he's just getting old.

He's very important even now given our midfield, but I wonder if he can do another full season at 100%, or more like 120% in important CL games.

I can say the same for Ramos.

I wish everything goes well, but if it does not, we will need to do next summer what AM did this summer.

 

Overall I think it was very positive summer with some key needs addressed and the squad markedly improved compared to last year. I give it a 7/10 because we didn't address the midfield. If we had, to me it would have been perfect for one transfer window.

I think Flo and Zizou are playing the medium term game and I think the squad is being slowly set up to become a very dominant force once again within 2 seasons max if they get this right.

We have some incredible pieces:

Gk: Lunin ...apparently a special talent

Defence: Hakimi, Regui, Militao, Vallejo, Mendy. You add Ramos/Carvajal to that, and you're probably just one top class CB away from having a world leading defence (I don't consider Varane elite anymore). I think Militao will phase out Varane and the next thing needed is someone to replace Ramos soon. Marcelo is already being phased out, and I have a feeling Hakimi will replace Odrio soon.

Midfield: Ceballos, Odegaard, Valverde, Kubo...all potential starters none of them even close to touching their primes + Casemiro. Modric and Kroos are potentially in their last season at Madrid, and Isco also if he has another bad season I think.

Attack: Jovic, Brahim, Rodrygo, Vinicius...all potential world beaters again years away from their prime + Hazard in his prime

An amazing foundation for the next chapter....just a couple moves missing

- 2 great replacements for Modric/Kroos;
- 1 more elite CB;
- Mbappe/other top tier attacker

I truly think all those things can be addressed in the next 2 transfer windows.

In the meantime, get the squad united, get Zidane fix the defensive issues, and find our playing identity as soon as possible....and for God's sake take advantage of James.

I still want a damn title this season!