The club, or Zidane, or both club and Zidane are blind to the fact that the role Benzema plays will consistently work only with wide players who are also scoring threats. We bought a poacher in Jovic for what? He cannot replicate Benzema's style, and neither will the team change its shape just by replacing Benzema with Jovic. It's baffling. If we had wanted Benzema as the leading CF, we should have invested in more wingers who can score. If we had decided to not buy wingers, we should have changed the way the team plays and replace Benzema with a poacher.
An unpopular opinion but just playing devil's advocate here - our two previous managers failed with this largely similar squad, so it's not all on Zizou. We know what he is able to achieve with the right set of players, playing at their best. I don't think we reinforced as much as we needed to in summer. Even if we fail, we won't fail miserably, and we'll reinforce in this summer. I'm positive that we have enough young talent to succeed in the long-term. In saying that, Zizou's stubbornness to continue to start the "old guard" needs to change...
We lack top tier player upfront. Also there are questions in midfield and defense. But still, we have more than enough quality to win vs. such Barca and do something in CL considering the state of other teams. The issue is coaching staff and their decisions. Without issue there, we would have 9 points lead in Primera already and won vs. City.
Yeah. People laughed when we brought in Solari. He deserved another year but I bet some of the cowards in the dressing room had a private chat with Perez.
I genuinely think it's both the squad and poor managerial decisions, and not just Zizou's stubborness.
Hazard and Rodrygo haven't turned the dial for us yet, fact. Mendy and Militao have improved our defence, that's been seen statistically. Most of the "golden era" squad is declining exponentially with every game. Zizou has failed with Jovic in my opinion.
Zidane trusted Marcelo in several season defining matches, and to be honest, people got hyped over that one tackle vs Messi when every Barca player was blowing by Marcelo left and right the entire night.
Not to sound negative, but I already kinda expected us to bottle this one. I give us about 30% chance to win rhe leage now.
I don’t believe Solari was all that bad either. It was refreshing to see us play some kids and play a direct game. there was some competition in the squad and I don’t think the vets appreciated it too much.
There's no two ways about it, Solari was shit. He's not the solution. Someone needs to sit Zidane down and explain to him what he's doing wrong, i don't think that it will work because Zidane has that "My way or i leave" mentality but nonetheless there needs to be an attempt to open his eyes.
Zidane was doing a lot right just a month ago. It was around the Copa match with Real Sociedad that things went haywire. He isn’t clueless and he clearly isn’t perfect. It’s not black and white but right now he seems lost. Main thing for me is not starting Valverde and Mendy every chance he got and not fielding the right players on the RW. Probably would’ve been best to just rotate Rodrygo with someone else there and let the kid figure it out.
How can Zizou just wake up one day and not even be a competent manager. His decisions make him look like a complete moron. Like he’s just throwing shit against the wall and seeing what sticks. It’s unreal. Someone he respects should have a chat with him but what’s the point. He is as stubborn as they come. I’m leaning heavily towards a “mutual parting” if we don’t win the league. Enough of this already. Furthermore, Benzema fuera! And if that’s means Zidane goes then so be it. Marcelo and him should be gracefully moved on. Zidane think his “system” if you can call it that ONLY works with Benzema as false 9 then he really is lost. It’s ridiculous at this point. Mind boggling decisions and lineups.
But seriously. Valverde probably our best player this season. HE ALWAYS MUST START if he is okay, same with Mendy.
Agreed, except I’ll add the concept of starting Benz week in week out when he is clearly in a slump as one of the main things, whilst Jovic may not have made the best of the opportunities he was given before, we have nothing to lose by trying him again at this time, a major part of the problem is we lack goals, ZZ should at least “look” like he’s trying to solve that issue
First of all the two previous manager predictably were expected to guide the team through a transition and eventually be the fall guys for breaking up a title winning teams, except that Flo couldn't take the heat when it became clear that not enough of an investment had been made on his part (i.e. zero investment) to make such a transition realistic. Second, this season Flo made the investment and he may have well just flushed 300ME down the toilet. It's not a largely similar squad. Zidane's got guys like Vinicius and Valverde more experienced than they were a year ago under the "previous managers". Flo brings in guys like James and Hazard and Zidane can't get one world class performance out of two world class players. Brings in one of Europe's hottest goal scorers and Zidane throws ice cold water all over him and then can't get more than a couple of goals and starts out of him for the season.
This is basically my feeling. He does some weird things (benching Kroos, Valverde, never subbing BenzeGod, etc) which I can't explain.
The team has had better results than were achieved under the previous two managers, and is much closer to winning the league, that’s a fact. But that 300m wasn’t enough sadly, especially when 100m+ Was spent on a player who’s been mostly been on the sidelines. The defence has improved, so the 100m+ spent on Mendy and Militao has worked out well. Jovic hasn’t been handled well, admittedly. Regarding James, continue banging that drum, like he would’ve improved this team. I’m hoping that this summer that chapter is finally closed for all parties, including his agent.