This is why Barcelona is always winning the league: they tinker with their squad all the time. Sometimes it doesn't quite work (Coutinho), but they are trying and their players know that there are others on the bench ready to take their place. We have filled the squad with mediocre bench warmers while maintaining the first 11 for far too long. Many of these players would have played a whole lot better had they had some motivation and fear of losing their spots. With only a couple of additions for the previous two summers I really think we wouldn't be having a conversation about wholesale changes.
When their President for three straight summers talks about how he has the best team in the world and how it would be impossible to upgrade.... even though his manager has begged him for upgrades.... What else was expected? The irony is that people are still defending these players and turning on golden dome defense to rationalize why it should be forbidden they are sold. Then they watch matches and wonder why these players play unmotivated. Why should they when they're untouchable?
Yeah which is why we brilliantly loaned James and replaced him with no one. If you're standing by your CL winning manager and he wants to build something specific; you help him create his vision.
His vision was to clear out the roster by telling players its good for them to leave and telling players the club targeted (Aubameyang for example, or Kepa) that they are not good enough to get a minute for him. If his vision is that he actually thinks Eriksen isn't worth pursuing, what do you do as a club?
Ah back to golden dome defense. We should get rid of Zidane. He is the problem. The problem was never Florentino enabling this environment. The problem isn't players like Bale. They are the solution. No changes! Todo quedate!
The problem is both. The club has a coach that doesn't stand for change, and in hindsight used the tactic of breaking the squad down to the bare bones after its coach refused to use the full roster to its total capacity for years. I don't get the fixation with Bale, but if pretending that Bale is the symbol of why this season went wrong helps you cope then do it.
If we go back to 2016/17. We had James, Morata scoring goals for us. Once they left we never had any proper replacements. Things have just gone worse.
Both players were told to leave. Morata asked for more minutes and he was told he wouldn't be getting them here. As a business, if my shift manager claims he can operate fine with half the work force, why should I pay twice as much?
Yep that was the problem we just got rid of players but never realised the consequences, just wondering if they still do?
I know these are examples, but...he was right. The 'not a single minute' part is of course not true (i.e. he didn't say that), but I get your point. The truth is, at this moment, we have no idea who Zidane is truly after (apart from Hazard I guess, who would be a superb signing).
Aubameyang's agent said he and Zidane spoke at an event and Zidane told him he's going to be honest, he's just not good enough. I can't wait to see what kind of striker we'll sign that will be that much better.
This is absolute bullshit. Let me guess this summer after Zidane left it was Zidane who refused to allow Florentino to put out a better side? Zidane had one season with a loaded full roster. That season he had an A and B team and we won La Liga. Zidane gave Morata a ton of minutes. He gave Isco, James, etc... tons of minutes. It was those players who complained about their minutes played. It was James family insulting Zidane weekly (the same thing you give Cristiano shit for yet forget with James). Morata wanted to go. James wanted to go. The issue was our President who refused to bring in the players Zidane requested. He refused to add major quality and didn't want to shake up the roster. All you're doing is moving your ultra defense from Bale and Kroos to Florentino. Even Florentino knows he fcuked up huge the last summers. One of his major ones was not selling Bale.
We didn't sign another 30 year old striker, because we already have one at around that age. Zidane simply chose Benzema as his starting striker at the time. I can live with that choice to be honest, as neither would want to be benched at their age. I'm not sure the striker we will sign has to be 'that much better' than Auba. He needs to be good enough to have an impact on the team and have an upside for the future. The striker market is simply not what it used to be, but that doesn't mean we should have Benzema and Auba for one spot (unless we're living in an ideal world where players have no emotions). I' think the club would rather have Benzema and a younger option (who can replace him in the future). Who that option is, is up to the club. I'm just saying that I understand Zidane for skipping Auba.
This is rich. You spent years on here saying we should never buy Aubameyang but now you can't wait to see who we can get that is much better.
Zidane already figured out he couldn’t win with this squad, it’s why he left in the first place, why are we forgetting this? Kepa isn’t exactly setting the world on fire at Chelsea now is he? Aubameyang would have been a good back up but I have a feeling that’s a role he wouldn’t have accepted. What do you do as a club? You get him the targets HE identified, that’s what. He’s earned that.
Then he should join PSG because this club doesn't have the pockets to get him anybody he wants at any cost.
Then he came back and demanded "respect for the players that won it all". You abandoned them, but ask the fans to respect them. Weird.
James isn't good enough to be in the first 11 at Madrid. Based on his time in Madrid and Munich, he obviously has some issues that prevent him from realizing his full potential. Zidane wanted proper upgrades and didn't get them; instead the club showered him with Arsenal-level players.
You’re strawmanning, no one said at any cost, Zidane might have worn the number 5 for us but he isn’t 5 years old, I guarantee that he wasn’t asking Perez to spend 200 mil on a single player; he simply didn’t want any Tom, dick or Harry. Yea they’re flawless because they’ve won stuff in the past, if anyone’s done the abandoning it’s the players, they’ve abandoned hard work ( they changed their identity so it could never find them again) and pride, strolling about while Barcelona is putting 3 pst them in front of their own fans,disgraceful the lot of them.
This is on Zidane and Flo I believe. He actually put his faith on Asensio and Isco thinking they would be that good But the opposite happened. Flo also decided to buy Ceballos because of his U21 world cup performance and Barcelona wanting him. Zidane also brought Mayoral back.. Obviously he’s made some mistakes that I hope he will learn from. Yeah the next season he won the CL as well but we were a worse team...finished 17 pts behind Barca and were embarrassed in Copa del Rey
This is why Barcelona is always winning the league: Messi. Once he was introduced in their starting 11, they won 9 La Ligas out of 11!!!! 10 years before that they only had won 4 out of 10. He just hits an incredible high level in La Liga, consistently.
Both Isco and Asensio have done well for Zidane, don’t let biases cloud your judgment. Also he’s had as much to do with Mayoral coming back as JL did with Mariano’s, it was the only he was given because Flo refused to spend money.
Brief about world star soccer players they win titles. So it`s not all about coaches in focus - the players need to show they can play soccer at highest level and be consistent. However it`s Zidane predicament as well since he coached them for 3 seasons. And if you use the same 11 almost every season until some players are too old without proper replacement. It will be a rough rebuild for sure and it started when they moved Ronaldo to Juventus. Players win cups and coaches is here to guide them. My point about this post don`t use players who are not ready or consistent -- and I felt that some coaches like Solari had to use players who were not in their prime yet, and that`s part of the consistent topic. It`s fun to watch very young players, but not always ideal concerning winning titles or La liga - especially not when we compete against Barcelona and Messi.
Bale didn't get on the team bus after the game, had a private car drive him to the airport. Isco had to apologize to his teammates, and had an "internal investigation". Let's see what Bale gets. .