A month ago it seemed impossible we would be only 1 point down with a game in hand. Considering all of our struggles and injuries, this is a great position to be in. Obviously Mbappe's misses were bad, but we shouldn't overlook that he did score -- a great finish at that -- I still believe he can break out this season.
📲🤍 Arda Güler and Jude Bellingham under Raúl Asencio’s IG post. pic.twitter.com/IdTwgMQ0Sh— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) December 2, 2024
Who is responsible for giving reports back to Carlo on the potential and quality of youth players? Because they ********ed up with Asencio
He could have received a report that they had the next Messi in the youth team and Carlo still would not have given him a chance. Furthermore, some positions, especially the ones not in attack, can be difficult to stand out from. Very good players can look mediocre or not special when surrounded by lesser quality players. Even when we had our injury problem last season, I was always saying we should just chance someone from the youth team; throw them in and see how they do.
He looks decent but I have questions regarding Raul Asensio’s position in the pecking order. For example, why hasn’t he been called up for U-21 Spain? I’m not convinced any average CB couldn’t slot in and do a serviceable job. Especially in the context of how bad Vallejo looked the last time… Does the sex scandal have anything to do with it?
I read here that he was called to train with the first team last season before his out of field troubles.
Fact is Asencio Rudiger partnership has looked way more stable than Rudiger Militao did. Ramos used to stay back and clean up while playing with Pepe who aggressively hunts for interceptions. Neither Rudiger nor Militao adapted that way. Against Milan, Militao went high up to press, got turned easily and that led to a goal. And no average CB has succeeded at RM. Even above average ones like Raul Albiol, Metzelder didn't. If Asencio can keep this up for an extended period, he's gonna be a rotation level CB at RM minimum. He has pace, good with the ball, reasonably tall for a CB (he's 1.84 m which is same height as Ramos, Nacho was 1.80 m), also showed he won't get bullied easily when Nunez thought he could rattle an inexperienced youngster. Also well timed tackles so far.
Asencio has trained with the first team this season and last season. The reason he hasn't played is purely Carlo Ancelotti. The only reason he is playing now is because injury and Florentino's unwillingness to purchase outside of the French CB who got injured... forced Carlo's hand. This is a player who has the quality to give rest to starters and even play a bigger role but Ancelotti will bury him on the bench
The biggest irony is that all summer long even now people have been saying we don't have the defensive talent but Asencio isn't even our highest rated young defender. If our manager properly bleeds these talents we would have more depth. At worst we could sell them for small fortunes. Instead he ignores them and runs starters into the ground
Carlo waits until he has no choice, which is typically not the best time for the youth player. Basically throwing the youth player into a disfunctional team with players playing out of position. He has 5 subs to break in players. There is really no excuse for these decisions. He regularly freezes out players outside of his 13 or so favorites. And then suddenly the team is depending on a player that hasn't played in weeks.
It's two fold though. People here were saying give Guler starts. Carlo has and he's disappointed. We 've just hit the jackpot with Asencio but really, reports should be getting fed up to Carlo from the youth systems. Carlo was starting Jacabo and Joan in pre-season, admitting he's going to promote Joan to the first team because he's generational. Seems to me, someone missed Asencio from the start.
I'm not sure why people are surprised about Carlo and his view of Castilla. Someone mentioned his comments on Odegarrd in his book a few weeks ago and I went back and read it. It was pretty clear how Carlo felt about playing youth team players including child prodigies like Odegarrd. Asencio got super lucky he was in the right place in the right time. And was the only option available. If Tchou was healthy, we probably wouldn't even have seen him. I feel like we've had plenty of players in Castilla who could have made the leap to the first team but because of circumstances didn't.
Apart from Solari who gave chances to younger players like Fede and put more trust in Vini than Zidane did, who else religiously picked youth?
Zidane also saw something special in Fede, started Miguel Gutierrez in buisness end of the season when there were injuries etc. He also tried out Mayoral in 2015-16, played Hakimi in 2017-18. 2016-17 he had the deepest squad in RM history so there was no spot for anyone else.
Cantera has produced CBs like Hermoso, Gila, Rafa Marin, Asencio in last 10 years. Admittedly, we didn't need some of them as Nacho was 4th CB option until 2023 with Militao, Rudiger and Alaba healthy. Now with Militao's double ACL, Alaba's age + post ACL factor could open up more spots to cantera products alongside Asencio. Gila is doing well at Lazio, Marin only getting a look in Copa Italia as Conte doesn't have to rotate without European football this season. Jacobo broke into Castilla last season and had two muscle injuries at the worst possible time this season. Joan is the most highly rated talent among the three.
Miguel started last two league games when we were only two points behind Atletico. I remember Hakimi starting against Spurs at the Bernabeu. He was the back up RB after Danilo was sold to City that summer. Nacho came on when Carva got injured in CL final which was the logical move in those kind of games.
we did the same thing with FBs last few years too, the club sees the youth teams as a way to make money not a path to the first team
Club stopped telling coaches to play canteranos once "Zidanes y Pavones" policy ended. Carlo preferred post ACL Khedira over Casemiro so latter was sent on loan. Casemiro and Lucas were brought back as Benitez asked for them in 2015 summer. So if coaches are happy to count on cantera products, club is more than happy especially as that will offset the huge spending on Tcho, Jude, Mbappe etc. Odegaard was the only exception as all the top European clubs chased him and his dad made the most of it putting conditions in contract like a coaching job for him in youth division, Odegaard had to train with first team and get a debut that season. One could argue all those conditions stagnated his progress as he later had to spend years in Dutch league to recover form and confidence.
It's not the club that tells Ancelotti to not use anyone outside his favorite 13 or 14 unless there are significant injuries.
With the amount of trophies we have won in recent years, we're actually in a position to take a bit of a gamble in the defensive positions. You can't just pluck anyone from the Cantera and expect them to develop into Vini or even Valverde, but defence is just different and we've actually produced a number of defenders that would be good enough to start in this team like Hermoso, Hakimi, and even like the likes of Theo Hernandez go.
Theo and Hakimi weren't ready, especially Theo but Hermoso I'm surprised we let go. He did quite well for Atleti.