Things I've liked about this half: 1. Real Madrid playing actual football again! 2. Mbappe's actual striker runs. 3. Vini's multiple good passes and looking for them. 4. Rudiger looking like Rudiger Things I didn't like: 1. Deep midfield looking empty. Obviously Kroos's absence is a part of this, but I don't think it's the only part. Having one very attacking mid (even though he's working really hard) and another often moving right to cover for the RB going forward leaves an empty deep midfield. And when we have people there, our players haven't been doing a good job of moving to create the necessary triangles to play things out. 2. Tchou/Tibo's non-communication. Tchou in general hasn't looked great, though tactics haven't helped him. 3.Rodrygo hasn't been able to do much with his positional freedom. I think we'd improve with Guler or Modric in his space tactically as they are more likely to play into the midfield and Guler can provide more width on the right which would allow Carvajal to stay back a little more and thus free up Valverde to move more to the middle to relieve Tchou.
Ugh.. We knew all along, mate. We're commenting, because you know, it's our first game of the regular season and we wanted to see how the team adjusts.
What Rudiger doing sometimes as a CM ? weird to see. All in all, yeah... will need a lot of work to balance this setup.
hope so because every game he goes without a direct contribution will be seen as a failure. I have no issue if players take some time to gel but the Mbappé saga won’t feel like it’s over until he starts taking the game by its horns.
I think this is what Cama is usually good at. Coming down demanding the ball. He is a future starter, he should be one of the first on the teamsheet. I am dissapointed in Valverde, he was supposed to take over from Kroos but it looks like he's taken over from an attacker. The guy isnt even in the frame Some neat passes by Mbappe with a player glued to him. They are putting 2-3 players on Vini. He needs to play in that LF role between the CB and RB. Rodrygo with a free role. He has created nothing and missed a sitter Tchouaméni looks like a nervous wreck out there. Never really warmed to him as a player.
I’d like to see Guler play in Rodrygos place right now. I think he could drop deeper and play some passes and is a threat with his ability to break lines.
Man marking Mbappe with a spy on top + Vini getting bracketed against the sideline = Rodrygo having opportunities... normally. But Rodrygo isn't using the space so far.
Vini amazing, Bellingham was very good too. But we lack some creativity from the right side. Rodrygo needs to step aside, time for Arda.
Mbappe & Rodrygo useless Vini still the most dangerous Jude with some good plays in midfield and covering a lot of ground And yeah really, really missing Kroos.
Agreed. Yeah he's gone to clear the ball on a few occasions where Tibo could've had it. I think we'll utilize the overload of the left flank more in the 2nd half. So far Djimsiti, DeRoon and Zappacosta have done a good job in preventing more from happening on that side. But if we bring Bellingham back in the 4-3-3 system to LCM we'll be much more capable in creating open spaces on the left flank, and we'll have way more passing triangles available. So far Bellingham playing CAM hasn't give us any advantage as he's constantly moving all across the field. Anyway, that's what I would do
Rodrygo is redundant here. Id swap him for a Matar Sarr in this team. This lineup is unbalanced. Mbappe is not comfortable as CF. And looks gassed out still from the Euro. This is Carloball though. Love him but looking forward to Xabi or Klopp or dunno
Tchou has to get rid of that ball better, gave it right back to them. Then we don’t pick up players on the outside of the box well enough. Come on boys!