Not a pretty match but at least Madrid came out with all 3 points on the road after Helguera's late goal gave Madrid a 1-0 win over Villarreal. It's obvious Madrid's minds were on the game on Tuesday in Moscow. What bothers me is Del Bosque's continued insistence on using the same 11 every week in both La Liga and the Champion's League. At this rate Madrid will run out of gas at the end of the season. In my view Madrid needs to rotate some of their players. In a game like today's versus Villarreal, there's no reason why players like Solari, Portillo, Minambres or Cesar couldn't have been in the lineup from the start. I'm not saying use all reserves as Madrid did in a few Copa del Rey matches but why not use 2-3 subs against a weaker team when Madrid has a key European match in a few days and next week must play Deportivo in La Liga. Let some of the players come into that game in Moscow with fresher legs. Instead all of Madrid's normal starters (except Makelele, who was replaced by Cambiasso) started today. This strategy by del Bosque may well backfire on him at the end of the seaosn. It caused Madrid last year to, in my opinion, lose La Liga as they instead concentrated at the end of the season on the Champion's League due to player fatigue. If a few players had been rested more during the regular season, Madrid may have been able to challenge for both titles last season. I fear the same may occur this year as well.
I agree completly with U Martin. Think of Guti, in a splendid form, playing just 30 mins a game when the team needs a passing mid a lot. It's amazing that Flavio starts before this guy.
I'm not agree with both. The strategy of Del Bosque was: 1 - win the European supercup. Success. 2- win the intercontinental cup. Success. 3 - To concentrate in two objetives "La Liga" and the "CL", given the subs their opportunity in "la copa del rey". The subs fails obstreperously in the "Copa del Rey" like they failed the last year in all their opportunities. I must remember that the great debate the last year was the low perfomance of the subs in a year that the team needed them, because was the centenary and the team fought for all. Many of these players were sold the summer. Del Bosque the last year used all the subs that responded when they have a chance (Cesar, Guti, Solari, Pavon). The rest failed and that was bad for the team. With all the problems, we fought for all the titles until the last moment in a great effort. About Guti, Del Bosque have been his best defender in all his career. Guti is one of my favourite players. And i have argued with many many people in the Bernabeu defending him. Because he has many many detractors in the stadium (I don't know why but it's fact). He has been whistle many times in the Bernabeu without reason (This year included). And Del Bosque have always trusted in him above other player like Morientes that are more valued by the people. If Del Bosque don't put Guti in the initial team is becuase he think that with Raul, Ronaldo, Figo, Zidane, A offensive defender like Roberto Carlos,etc. He need two defensive midfielders to compensate the team.
But Flavio doesn't defend much, does he? I don't see in recent games that Flavio has given much to the team; instead when Gutiwas playing in the mid the play has improved. In the past a single d-mid was enough, now it seems both of them are needed. But when both have little passing abilities the team's offense becomes stuck.
With fullbacks like Roberto Carlos and Salgado who like to overlap, Madrid needs 2 defensive midfielders. I like Guti but think his technical skills are better used farther upfield. I'm in agreement with Martin that Del Bosque needs to rotate some of his subs more often than he does. As Martin said you don't need to use a whole team of subs but Madrid could at times give players like Ronaldo, Raul, Zidane, Figo,etc. a rest from time to time. That's a better way to conserve the teams' energy especially when they have two key matches ahead of them this week vs Lokomotiv and Deportivo.
Fortunately both matches will be dissapointments for madrid! I understand your reasons to ask for a rotation but the result while favorable it s not true, there were moments in which Villareal seemed to win that match (Casillas blowing the ball to avoid enter the goal after Penguin Palermo's double chance just 4 minutes before Helguera scored!) it seems the season is already passing the bill and even weak opposition like Villareal is going to give trouble.
¿I thought we were talking about Villarreal, and not Alavés? ______________ [size=0.75]¡Hala, Madrid! ¡Hala, Madrid! Campo de estrellas donde crecí ¡Hala, Madrid! Juegas en verso ¡Que sepa el Universo Cómo juega el Madrid! ¡Sale el madrid a luchar! ¡Sale el Madrid a ganar![/size]