Real Madrid @ Malaga | La Liga Jornada 25 | 2.21.16

Weak. You can do better than this. Try harder

 

Dude, you don't see the irony behind posting that pic about being united... then calling people "plastic" while admitting you didn't support Rafa, some of the players and Perez? Being "united" means you unite with other fans to support the club (that includes the players, coach and management) in good times and bad, even if you have constructive criticism to offer about things that aren't working.

You're a socio, which is great... so why say, "Some of you plastic fans should take note"? I guess you're probably pissed off that we're 9 points behind Barca, but so is everyone else... Anyway, that pic was a good one and you could've stopped at, "Nice to see fans to show their support this morning in Valdebebas." Or even added something along the lines of, "Would be nice to see more similar such support here". Would've been better, IMO.

 

Can you two get a room ?

 

What show is that from?

 

I just don't see your point. You are still telling us that the BBC is static and that is why our highly potent midfielders cannot do nothing. Just tell me how many times in this game you have seen our midfielders dribble past defenders? or move quickly the ball forward with 1-2 (or 1-2-3) passes ? or even make a good pass across the 18-yard wall? Tell me (forget now about the BBC for a sec) ...

 

NEVEEEEEEERRRRRRRR!!!!

Seriously though, team has major identity crisis, and next summer we will have to choose between our mid 3 or front 3, and I think choice is obvious. That being said, Malaga is a super tough team away from home and even barca struggled a lot against them, so I wouldn't be too disheartened just yet.

Also, please no more Nacho at CB. I think Arbeloa would do well there tbh, might as well try him.

 

Just a random thought that your post made me think of... Varane needs to adopt some of Arbeloa's defensive tactics into his game because he's too "clean/green". Arbeloa was a good cunning defender IMO, who knew when to make smart fouls and wasn't above using dirty lil tricks to get the job done. Before the "idealists" say otherwise, that's a good thing.

 

I don't know, just thought was funny fit the direction the thread was heading in

 

Both players are moving in the same direction, which means distance between them stays roughly the same and as such Ramos needs to fit the ball between two players 15 metres appart. Saying it needs to be a perfect pass is absurd. Besides we can see from Ramos`s direction of movement, that he intends to pass the ball to Carvajal which makes Kroos`s movement even bigger BS, because he offers absolutely no support for Carvajal in critical position on the pitch.

First video shows briliant play of Barca, which has "no" correlation with Madrid`s case. First is happening in first third of the pitch, with opponent pressing high, second is happening in final third of the pitch where Barca switches from holding position towards "more freedom". So you are comparing two absolutely different stages of the "attack", in which each has its own fundamentals.

In second video, you can see similar case to Madrid`s:

0.22 - perfect position of the player near the center behind two forwards. He is holding his position, holding his distance between him and CB. If he gets the ball - which he will, he has tons of space to receive and turn with the ball towards opponents goal in critical position of the pitch and the best thing, Barca has already created surplus and essentially has 2vs1, 3vs2, 5vs3... situations all over the pitch, which becomes important in final third of the pitch. Also you can see other two mids holding their position to perfection ( distances between them are around 15-20 metres) and creating much needed space and at the same time they can easily receive the ball from "pivot" and exploit all that empty space.

You can see Busquets positioning as 3 CB, for example when Barca`s CB`s intentionally take wide positions (full backs then can go higher up the pitch) to create width and with it depth. In that case, its proper positioning.

I know people like Kroos, just comparing him to Busquets in "anchor" position, is like comparing Messi and Sanchez. I would swap Busquets and Kroos in a second, plus i would add at least 30 million.

 

Silicon valley, I think.

 

Everyone should want to swap any player + 30 millions for Busquets anyway. In terms of quality there are two defensive midfielders that are able to play near the level of Sergio Busquets: Kroos and Matic.

The problem of the current season is the lack of a proper buildup play. The coaches are responsible to establish a versatile buildup structure which is a basic element of success at the elite level of football. These kind of structures are easily introduced (e.g. Ancelotti established a very solid buildup play). However, Zidanes has been struggling since his debut and Benitez didn't even try.
The lack of a proper structure (Kroos too deep, too conservative fullbacks, CB's who are too close to each other and a conservative involvement of the GK, etc.) leads to a large amount of difficult situations for all players involved. The general penetration of the defensive structure of the enemies is insufficient, both in buildup-play and offensive play. An enemy with a high level of ball orientation, a compact defensive structure and high intensity can only be overcome by intelligent positioning between the defensive lines.
But what am I talking... Basic elements of tactic can be, partly, compensated by superior individual quality.
Unfortunately for Real Madrid, against decent opponents individual quality is not enough.

In a rational world, the manager of a football club, who aspires to have the best players at "his" team, is looking to hire the best coaches for "his" players. #JorgeSampaolitoREALMADRID. In a rational world, a football team is built around it's best players. In case of Real Madrid: Modric, Kroos, Benzema, Marcelo, Isco, Kovacic, James, Varane, Carvajal. In a rational world, Toni Kroos would be embedded in an environment, where his physical weaknesses (e.g. dynamic, strenght) do not matter. The first step would be to establish the aforementioned high quality buildup-structure. If you don't lose balls in the buildup-phase frequently, there are less possibilites for quick transition plays for the enemy team. If there are less transition plays, physicality ceases to be the most important attribute of a defensive midfielder.
Busquets is the best defensive midfielder in spite of the fact of his obvious lack of pace.

Quo vadis, Real Madrid? Do you want to continue to maximise the output of Cristiano Ronaldo and/or Gareth Bale or do you want to maximise the amount of trophies?
As long as there are teams like Barcelona and Bayern Munich the "hero paradigm" will not be successful. I'm tempted to add: Thankfully.

 

Correct. Good show.

 

I still blame Cristiano for the loss; he makes that penalty and we are still somewhat in the league race. However after some thinking, I can't help but be angry about Bale.

That is the second time we have played Malaga. Guess how many times Gareth Bale has made an appearance?

NONE. Zero.

It took bareclona everything to beat Malaga in January when they were missing Neymar. Why wouldn't we struggle even more massively considering our team is still piecing itself together post-Benitez and not only was Bale out like always, Benzema was out. At least barca had Suarez with Messi (oh and their youth player actually finished his chance, Jese blew two); we just had Cristiano.... a Cristiano which is no where near what he used to be.

Who missed a penalty.

Then we wonder why we aren't where we want to be? Why would we be? If Neymar was out as long as Bale has been the past two years we'd have won La Liga last year and we'd probably be ahead of barca in points this year.

I'm just tired of seeming him healthy to join the team in scoring 10 meaningless goals against small side then seeing him barely make big matches or miss them altogether.

 

I watched through the video and "laughed" because Barca anchor is playing fundamentally different. Strikers in this situation are at roughly the same distance from the ball holder as they are in Madrid situation as we can see in pictures below.



It does not matter if Pique does not pass the ball to "anchor" - point is that the latter was positioned properly, kept his distance and position properly and eventually at 0.43 he gets the ball in perfect position behind opponent strikers in empty space, can turn with the ball towards opponents goal and then when he is pressed he passes the ball to the left midfielder who again was positioned perfectly from 0.22 on.

As for that midfielder and not striker as you say, you can see the 15-20 metres distance between them. As soon as anchor receives the ball left midfielder is essentially making a lateral run into space and still roughly maintaning distance between him and anchor and then also third midfielder forms a support - triangle for anchor and midfielder as Modrič would have done. Just you seem not able to understand or me unable to explain that there is starting position, there is space and there is run into space to offer support - but still maintaning proper distance between the players when your teammate receives and turns with the ball - we can call this proper timing.




Now compare this picture with Barca`s.

Kroos can receive the ball from Ramos because Modrič has made space. Kovačič is in optimal position an as soon Kroos receives and turns with the ball, he makes lateral run towards the center and is able to receive the pass in perfect position. Modrič also reacts and offers his support to Kovačič and Kroos and forms a triangle with optimal distance between the players. But Ramos passes the ball to Carvajal who in this situation can actually pass the ball to Kroos, then again there is Kovačič with his continued lateral movement and again there is Modrič who would offer his support.