You have to ask yourself, why are we so predictable? What is the one thing each manager had to do with their preferred formation? What changes did they have to make to the style of play? For instance do you think Schuster played with a false right winger (basically an open side demanding too much from the RB) at Getafe? Will he if he joins Atleti? The sacred cows.... err... holy cows. How hard is it when you have to accommodate a player because he has to start? They must change up and at times unbalance the formation leaving us easy to predict and shut down, just so some get their egos stroked. For instance with the personnel we have the best formation we can play is a 4-3-3. Lass holding with Gago and Sneijder playing advanced. Marcelo/Higuain and Robben/Higuain playing with the top striker of Higuain/Huntelaar. Why don't we? Well right now we have a coach who doesn't prefer this formation. However in the past we had a coach who did. Why did he not play the formation how it's suppose to be? The sooner we let the old generation/holy cows go to pasture, the sooner we can start over and the better we as a team will be. I hate to admit this, but Spain's NT is a great example. BTW, I wish we retained possession, passed and played like Spain. It was doomed to fail from the start, just because the way he came in and the fact he wasn't "powerful" enough.
At the start of the millennium we did play fantastic passing football, I particularly remember us beating Manchester United 3-1 at the Bernabeu in 2003 when we played football that was out of this world. And everyone were talking about us the next day. This is the main reason that for me the way Barcelona beat Bayern München on Wednesday stung particularly hard. Cause the way people talked about Barcelona after that match reminded me of how they used to talk about us, and waking up to realize how far we are from that is painful. Should Perez be elected, I do hope he comes with a plan beyond "buy big stars". We need to figure out how we want to play, do we want to play a patient passing game or do we want to focus on a more counter attacking style. Sadly it often takes a while to get a passing style of football to work, and I am not sure if the fans or Perez has the patient to wait if it doesn't work from the very start. One thing I admire about the Barcelona setup when it comes to their entire organization is how every level, from the first squad, all the way down to their youngest squad, they have the same football philosophy. Whenever we get a coach, we seem to change our first teams football philosophy, which in my opinion makes it harder for young players to get through. Had our first team played exactly the same type of football as Castilla, Real Madrid C, etc.. it would be a much shorter step from the Cantera to the first squad, because from the time a player joins the Real Madrid organization he would be indoctrinated into how Real Madrid plays, and would know exactly whats expected of him. Whilst now we ship our young players out because they do not fit into our current coaches style of football. EDIT: Every now and then I read The Guardians Minute by minute report of the Real Madrid vs Manchester United match in 2003 if I need a bit of cheering up. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2003/apr/08/minutebyminute.sport There it is if the rest of you feel like remembering better days.
I think you bring up a good point, but however it can be easily proven wrong by a counterexample. I bring you, Liverpool of 2007! (Edit: lol, at first I actually thought they won that year, but at least they got to the finals, so my point stands Edit2: If you look at pool's squad from 2005 it's even more laughable) I picked a random game, 4-2 win against Arsenal. here is the squad: Reina - He's good, but got nothing on Ikerman Carragher - World class, I'll admit Skrtel - Average Hyypia - Average Aurelio - Average Gerrard - World class Alonso - Above average Mascherano - World class or close Kuyt - Average at best Torres - World class Crouch - Average at best What sets the team apart? They have a good goalkeeper, world class defender, great defensive midfielder, world class attacking midfielder and a world class striker. 1 for each "level" of the field. And well, your argument again begs the question, why does for example Barcelona and Villareal advance further than Real Madrid, when Real Madrid is winning La Liga? I'm going to wager that having all these "average" players are fine as long as they have a good connection to the rest of the team and fit in well.Everyone has them. However, all of the successful teams have superstars that sort of "carry" the team. What is Real's superstar right now? Honestly... Noone except perhaps Casillas, but you can't carry a team on the shoulders of a goalkeeper. Raul sure as hell ain't no superstar no more. He's simply past his prime, yet the team continues to try to rely on him to carry the team. That's the sole reason he's still playing every game, and it's a valid reason at that because as we have both concluded at, teams need superstars to rely on. But sadly, our "superstar" is.. just.. Raul (with all due respect) Ps, CR7 can't carry a team. He's a friggin whining crybaby and I don't want him near Madrid.
I'm not sure you can prove that. Its been a long time since Raul was out for more than a few games (I can't even remember the last time he missed two games in a row). You can only come up with a statement like that if Raul is out for, say one month and we have to play without him for a good length of time, in which the players that come in can have time to play with each other, adjust and perform. Then you would see how much the team relies on Raul...
What? That doesn't even make sense I'm not saying that the team ACTUALLY relies on him, but the management TRIES to make the time rely on him, and therefore starts him every single game.
Speaking of not making sense. I presume you meant team instead of time. And... Contradicts with... What?! Been drinking much?
Umh, it makes perfect sense. I want to be a millionaire. Doesn't mean that I am one. Team wants Raul to be the leader and key player that they need and continue using him as such. Doesn't mean that he can live up to the duties. And yes, I've had a few beers, so what! >_<
Sorry, but I disagree. Most of the ratings you have given above are a load of tosh. Here is what I think their true ratings are (I would hope most would agree): Reina - He's very good, he's not as good as Ikerman. But better than most keepers in the world, only second to Iker in the Spain squad, not bad eh? Carragher - World class Skrtel - Well above average, young and has been in magnificent form this year and also towards the end of last year. We rave on about Pepe, well for me, there's not much difference except Skrtel makes less mistakes. Pepe is quicker though. Hyypia - Average Aurelio - Average Gerrard - World class Alonso - WELL above average Mascherano - World class, period, full stop. Kuyt - Is whatever rating you give Raul, does the same work (perhaps more), scores about as many goals. Torres - World class Crouch - Average at best That's my ten peneth.
nothing really to discuss as you disagree, but one thing. You know what 2 strikers liverpool had for the 2005 final? Harry Kewell and Milan Baros (lol)
Champions League has become my most hated tournament. We just don't seem to be able to recreate our form in the league, this season the first time we lost after a ten game winning run was against Liverpool. What kind of a message does that show? in my opinion it could also be the difference in class between the leagues, there has been quite a debate over whether the EPL is the best league in the world and unfortunately today I have to say it is. I regularly watch both and that is what I think. out of the past 4 seasons, we have played two English teams and we have got smacked by both (quite literally). All of the options Lockjaw has given only contributes little, as changes of management and deciding whether the manager has enough authority, contributes but not enough to say we can put all the blame on these. We have a great team at the moment but there are certain members who choke like hell when it comes to the big stage, I do not know why. Is it because there is added pressure on them? is it because they are not motivated enough? is it that they cannot handle the way English teams play? All this have to be sorted out.
That is no indication at all. By that logic Liverpool should be able to beat Chelsea since Liverpool have been much better at the league.
I have to blame all the problems at madrid on the instability of the administrations. This all goes back to the the galacticos era. Don't get me wrong any team would be right to want to have Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Beckham, R.Carlos, Raul, all the best in every position. The problem was when the team forced out Hierro(captain) without having a replacent CB, Del Bosque(manager) 2 Cl and a La Liga gets him fired, then we let Makalele go then tried to force Beckham to take his role when Cambiasso would have done fine. He and Solari saw the sinking ship and jumped, along with Geremi, F. Conceciao. What a magnificent group of central midfielders we let go just to make a place for Becks. Oh yeah and Hierro made way for Pavon. Del Bosque is the manager for the #1 national team in the world and Madrid have a rotating door policy. So then we start playing people out of positon to make sure Raul and Beckham get on the field. Then we finally bring in some young talent Robinho, Reyes, Diogo, Cicinho but they all find themselves relegated to the bench so Beckham can play. Eventually the galacticos are all gone and we are left with the very green Ramos, Gago, Higuain, Marcelo, Torres to gel with the very old Raul, Cannavaro, Ruud, Guti, Salgado. Essentially it is the same galacticos policy with no galacticos. So we then bring in Robben, Sneijder, VdV, Drenthe, confusing Dutch with galactico. That did not work either. Now comes the real irony. I mean I cannot make this stuff up. After all the turmoil of the past years we still have no soluton for the right midfield position. All our problems started when Madrid decided to replace the best right mid in the world with a more marketable if less productive right mid. 4 years later Reyes scores the goal that wins La Liga and he gets sent packing. This leaves Robinho he is the MVP of the team that wins its second consecutive La Liga. Guess what happens....thats right. Madrid decides to go after another right mid from ManU, this time we get nothing and Robinho leaves. To think that Figo is a regular with Inter and will likely win his third Scudetto, Beckham has rediscovered his form after 6 years and is helping Milan to the CL next year. Madrid has been left to advertise in the classifieds because CRonaldo, Ribery, Silva are terrified of coming here and having their careers ruined. Faubert is our only right mid yet he is benched in favor of an out of position Dutch, and once again Dutch does not equal galactico. In a nutshell what happened is that Florentina got drunk with power. He attempted to sign a very expensive player we had no use for. Hierro and Del Bosque objected and they were terminated. Makelele and Figo made room for Beckham. Suddenly we have an aging team with no balance and no depth. Madrid overhauls the team, wins two la ligas, and proceeds to make the same mistake all over again by attempting to sign a right midfielder form ManU when we already have someone in that position.
- Hierro was near finished - Figo isn't a regular - Beckham has rediscovered he is average - Florentino's problems from years ago can't be what got us knocked out the past two seasons when we've had a totally different administration, etc. I called Macaluca out about this, and I'll state it yet again. What is the only constants for the past 6 years? Casillas is still GK, Guti and Salgado are still in the team, and what else? Get rid of the negative constants and maybe we'll see some change slowly but surely. No?
The point I was trying to make is that we had a great championship winning team and Florentina ruined that whole teams chemistry when the decision was made that selling Beckham shirts was the most important thing to the club. Forget the fact that people would buy the shirts of all the players if we were winning silverware every year. This same attitude was applies last summer and the year before when we put all of our hopes on CRonaldo. While Robinho and Reyes are not anywhere near CRonaldo's level, they are better than nothing which is what we have now. That is the reason we did not advance this year. It was evident from the beggining of the season that we needed another winger opposite Robben. 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 both systems have a left and right wing. Well also Marcelo had a terrific fist half in the first leg against Liverpool, but was subbed at the half. JRamos showed he learned from his mistake by benching Marcelo for the first half of the second leg only for Marcelo to come on in the second half and be our only productive player. I blame JRamos for making some poor technical, tactical, and player selections over the two legs; but again he cannot be blamed for the lack of wide players in the squad most importantly right midfield.
We missed Ruud and only because Huntelaar was not available. Gago, Higuain, Marcelo, Ramos, and Pepe are all young and learning. I expect them all to improve by this time next season. Cannavaro and Raul provide exceptional leadership experience to the squad and can be important in a big CL game. Who would have thought Robben would be a no show. The team was going to be playing every game this year with only ten men bcuz we did not sign Ronaldo and Robinho left. IMO that is and continues to be our problem area. I think we are one maybe three players away form being CL contenders. I like Kaka, Benz, and Villa. What we need to be sure of is that we get help for the wing. Ronaldo, Silva, Ribery. ManU has depth at every postion and can play any formation. Now imagine Ronaldo with Madrid. Suddenly the tables are turned. Suddenly Madrid look like a team with no weakness, while ManU is a completely unbalanced team with no right side help.