What about 3/4 of the games were he played crap? He may have been playing on the right (out of position) at the beginning, but he did well initially then turned invisible the rest of the matches.
Here are those files you ordered, Mr. Hutz, including some super-slo-mo at the end. [youtube]pmmPtDHNNMs[/youtube] Also at: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1yxwo_3rd-esp-goal-offsides-2 Edit: I don't see an offsides from Moha during the buildup. Yes, he is behind Cicinho, but Canna is back, no offsides there, imo. Edit 2: Switched in new vid with potential Moha offsides slowed. I started looking at it again and saw what you meant. Still think Moha is on, but it's close. Canna is running back...
The first half of yesterday's game went like I feared the game against Sevilla would go - RM losing the ball in the middle leading to deadly counters. IMO the problem is not that the FB's push up, so much as what do you do when they push up (granted RC can't get back like he used to and Cicinho doesn't even try). The way this team is set up I keep asking myself who/how is the ball going to get up the field. Since the Diarra-Emerson pair seems to be totally incapable, then the FB's must push up. Some teams use their DMs to cover for the advancing FB; IMO neither Emerson nor Diarra are well suited for that ( not mobile enough ). Besides, despite their obvious lack of skill, they seem to think that they must be involved in the attack ( see Emerson interview on As.com ), which makes things even worse. The way I see it, the problem always comes back to the doble pegote in middle.
Lol... what? Uh, Diarra and Emerson have been doing a good job lately and if you look at it they haven't been losing the ball as much. The players who lost the ball the most were our FB's, Guti and (probably Raul). Face it Cicinho is HORRID at defending. His placement is off and his hustle is below par. He doesn't tackle to well and he marks his man to lightly. It was RC's first game back so he deserves a pardon even though he blew it a couple times. Our problem was Cicinho and RC, playing to far forward, then losing the ball, which would set up a quick counter down one of our open wings. This would stretch our CB's causing confusion and so on.
I was thinking about the too. Think of Rijkaard and his players watching the match together, and saying "You see guys?Everybody has a bad game, don't worry about it." after the first half. Ouch.Some people say that Henk ten Cate was the one that was harsh to the players while Rijkaard has always been the 'friendly' one, so when players need a good wake up kick in their butt, the person that was handling that is missing. Roberto Carlos was actually quite decent in the second half.I didn't see anybody performing as good as they actually in the first half, besides Van Nistelrooy who scored.The performance of the second half elevated because every player out there improved their awareness level(that was very low in the first half) dramatically.
If you actually look at it we were more attacking in the first half then the second. In the first half we attacked the entire 45 minutes, although we defended poorly. We had 13 shots on their goal to their 4 shots on ours. We could of easily scored 4 or 5 if not for Kameni GREAT effort. In the second half we just kept the pace for the first 15 and got lucky that Kameni didn't stop them like he did in the first. However for about 15 minutes our attack died down and Espanyol gained the momentum putting us on our backheel. Then we "kind of" put attacks back together looking as if we didn't know how to find the answer. Then Higuain made the great tackle, then pass, which he got back and slotted in to score. Again, Like I and many others have said, we played really well attacking in the first half, we just didn't defend well because our FB's didn't play their positions, which stretched out our CB's. Also I felt Casillas could of had better positioning which would of helped him atleast "parry" a shot or two away.
R. Carlos did not return to his spot, this resulted in the two crosses from the LB position which Espanyol both scored on. So yeah? ...
I read the whole match thread no 1 again and it's a pretty sad sight, all the naysayers coming out and crying about how horrible we are etc.. I knew it in my heart that we'd win this game. Not only because i had faith, but because the first half was actually really good aside from 3 horrible defensive mistakes that cost us dearly. I'd like to see how many of those that were saying that we were playing horrible would've said the same thing if casillas had saved those 3 shots that they scored from and we'd gone into half time with a 1-0 lead. Btw, even though i'm an avid Cicinho lover, i'm slowly but surely getting drawn into the Ramos for rightback camp. Allthough that depends, we need 1 attacking fullback for width, but we can't play with 2 attacking fullbacks like yesterday, at least when the DM's and CB's are incapable of covering for them, and they are incapable of respecting their limits (ie they can't both take the role of strikers at the SAME TIME). I would either want torres in left back, ramos center and cicinho right or marcelo left and ramos right. But i haven't seen enough of marcelo to make that call yet.
Honestly I feel Ramos is a more effective attacking RB than Cicinho is. (uh.. "the multitude", don't flame me..)
I went on to As.com and initially couldn't find our crest. That's kind happy and sad - but I'm happy.
Espanyol scored in the second half? Roberto Carlos did the header-assist to Van Nistelrooy for the first goal, and the first pass for our 3rd one. His defending was bad in the first half, but the team was sleeping out there.We might have been offensive, and had many shots on goal, but everything was a little too wasteful, a little too overconfident, and this mentality spreads out on the team and you get caught sleeping. The second half had more class, more power in the beginning and the end.There was no 'oh well' going on, and every ball was being contested by a Real Madrid player, something that didn't really happen in the first half. The awareness was just bad, Guti and Raul where just giving the ball away in the first half, and there where many occasions where the back 4 was just exchanging the ball because nobody was in the midfield to take the ball and move. Real Madrid hasn't won games just by having more shots on goal than the opponent.We won many matches where we where the team doing the most defending, but the execution and the class of the few attacking efforts was stunning.Like in Barcelona for the match against Espanyol.Torres cross, Van NIstelrooy, goal.Pure class.The same thing was displayed in the second half, no "jogging" going on by anybody, and every attack was created by explosive actions, Higuain-Raul-Higuain, goal.I missed that in the first half, because my idea of a match against a weakened Espanyol, is go out 100% concentrated, kill the match in the first half, and rest during the second half to save some energy for the away game next week.We got pretty much the opposite of that and thats not what it shouldbe.The team came out asleep, while having an offensive style, it was lacking the awareness and concentration that was needed.Raul and Guti where wasting the ball int he midfield, both FBs didn't feel like they needed to run back, it was all a collective impression of the team.It's not like everybody was on point and the two FBs where the only ones to blame.The careless impression was a collective one. People are happy and thats whats all about.It as a good lesson to get, and still escape as the winning team. I don't know what would've happen if the team would go out there with the same mentality in Zaragoza.
In the last 2 games where he has replaced Cicinho, i completly agree, but let's not forget that Cici is coming from a 7 month injury layoff. I believe he has more to show, but currently, Ramos is better yes.
That is the reason RM was creating as many chances as it did in the first, say, 25 minutes. If not the FB's, who do you propose bring the ball up?
Cicinho may be coming back from a lengthy injury period, but his defensive skills have NOT improved over last year. He does look a little rusty on the attack and time will improve that aspect of his game, but his lack of defensive ability has nothing to do with his injury. As I have stated previously (numerous times! ), I prefer fullbacks that are well-rounded players: those who can defend as well as enter into the attack. Ramos is better than Cicinho in that way. I'm not saying to get rid of Cicinho, I feel he can be very useful when we need to go all-out attack mode. I'd still like to see him tried in a position further up the pitch, where defense is not a priority.
All good points, but regardless of what we do, i'd like one really strong attacking fullback, be it left or right, cicinho or marcelo.
You guys, I had the weirdest dream. I think I dreamt of MadridForever posting that Granero will be on the bench for the next game. Maybe I should cut down on forumming a little
Madridismo if you're dreaming about this board... A). you need to get out more. B). you spend too much time here. C). you need more of a social life. D). you need more thing to happen in school/work. or.... E). the Taco Bell raped you last night, and that was the after effects. I'm going with E.
Generally speaking, when one eats at Taco Bell option E does tend to occur so I will have to concur with you good sir.
If you go back and read the match threads, this is what I have been saying for the last 3 games. Diarra and Emerson have been playing well but when you put them together you lose that ability to move the ball through the middle. Obviously as a pair they do bring other strengths to the game, and you have to make a decision on whether these compensate for the inability to hold and move the ball. I guess Capello would point to the 3 victories in these games and say that they do, but after the Sevilla game I wrote that I hoped this inability in the middle of the park was not going to cost us a game...I still feel that it might. Towards the end of the Espanyol game, both Emerson and Diarra looked shattered...now this may be due to the nature of the game rather than the efforts of the last few weeks taking a toll, but I would certainly be looking to Gago to play some part against Recre, even if only as a HT substitution.