REAL MADRID vs REAL SOCIEDAD | La Liga Jornada #24 | 14.02.26 | 21:00 CET

Honestly, Vini set the example by throwing a tantrum while being subbed off on a clasico Real Madrid was winning. Then Arda. Now Valverde pulling this stunt. It would be nice if someone at the club warned them to dial back these childish tantrums, but we know better. Honestly, these players are some of the most easy to dislike players I have seen in a Real Madrid shirt in a while.

I always thought Fede would be a great captain of this team. So far, he has proven me very wrong.

 

Context please?

 

That's a real shame. This is the state of this club's leadership.

 

Only problem with this is that, word-for-word, the exact same applies to Barcelona. You can factor in further that they are generally more consistent than us and their remaining schedule is easier.

These numbers pertain to the table entering this weekend, but overall the remaining difficulty of schedule was about the same. Barcelona's opponents average being 9.9 in the table, Madrid's 10.2. Call that a draw since those spots between about 8-18 are in flux. However, when it comes to remaining away opponents, Madrid's opponents are roughly 8.1 in the table, Barcelona's are down at 11. Barcelona's only remaining away games against upper half opponents are their trip to Atleti, and their trip to Osasuna. Yeah, they also still play Villarreal (MD26), Espanyol (MD31), Celta (MD33), us (MD35), and Betis (MD37), but all of those are at home.

I'm not complaining, I'm just pointing out how the schedule fell.

Anyway, seeing as how Barcelona already beat every one of those teams (except us) in their away fixtures, I'm not getting my hopes up about any of them being able to spring a result on them at home. I realize basic probability suggests Barcelona's not gonna win every single remaining game, but the same is true about us as well obviously.

I'm not saying we can't win the league, I'm just saying we're going to need some unexpected results to pop up in the process. I'm still not trusting for one minute that we can go to the Nou Camp and beat Barcelona, so the whole "it's in our hands as long as we win that game" thing isn't really interesting me all that much.

 

We can comment on how they’re doing, why not? It’s a fair criticism, overall defensively he’s been very poor in multiple games, whilst offensively he’s been pretty good despite some dangerous passing mistakes here and there.

Carreras has impressed greatly. He’s also had poor games but overall you can tell he’s a solid defender. Asencio has also been fine this season imo. Everyone else apart from those two has been injured for extended periods, or is Huijsen, who’s been really poor defensively in the air and on the ground.

Courtois is the reason why we’ve the joint best defence in the league really.

It would be great if he improves. But right now I reckon we need 2 centre back signings if Rudiger leaves.

 

Agree. Claiming that we have one of the best defences in Europe being down to Huijsen is an insane take.

 

It’s not that hard to understand in my opinion.

Nobody wants to sit on the bench. If you truly love playing football, one of the worst things is sitting on the bench while others are out there competing.

I would be more concerned having guys on the bench that enjoy being there.

 

To those hating on Dean Huijsen, can you please stop spreading your awful negativity.

The kid is 20 years old & is going through a bit of a rough patch. He’s immensely talented and will grow from his mistakes. Was Ronaldo & Messi perfect players at 20 or did the continue to develop for years so the could be peak from the ages of 25 to 35?

Dean has a chance to be the starting center back for Real Madrid & Spain for the next decade. How about giving the kid some grace to develop a bit?

 

With Dean its pretty simple. Historically, slow CBs dont do well at Madrid.

 

I've been saying, you never know how much 1-2 additions to a squad can revamp the offense. A reliable offensive outlet at RB can open up so many opportunities. Adding a proper shuttler this summer would do the same.

 

I'm not saying we can't call him out when having bad games. I'm saying I wouldn't rule out him growing into the role and being good at it. Acensio was a horror show earlier in the season, and that's with this being his second season.

Rudiger has been going head to head with Dean as our worst CB.

All I'm saying is we're not giving our CBs time to develop a partnership. Plus it's harder to play good defense when your midfield is in shambles.

 

Myself and a few others were concerned from the beginning about his lack of speed/athleticism.

Sure, he can ping a ball 40 yard with no pressure on him. But so can most professional players.

I made the John Terry comparison, who wasn’t all that fast but positionally was top top and had a hunger and desire for defending.

Husjuen looks like he’s more interested in catching the right waves after a bong rip.

 

You would think a club legend would want the kid to get his chance given that he is from castila and spanish.

If this is true and with all the tantrums being thrown around, something is very wrong at the club.

 

Compare the difference where Marcelo was clearly washed but was arguably the best cheerleader on the bench. He didn’t throw a strop or demand that he play ahead of Mendy/Alaba/Miguel

 

Yeah I’m not ruling him out either in the future, he will improve. Right now he’s no better than the average La Liga centre back on the defensive side.

 

Not disagreeing there. It's why all the stupid bullshit is so frustrating. It's so obvious to all of us what kind of ceiling this squad has, it hurts when it looks like they're falling short. But there's still plenty of time and opportunity to make this a memorable season yet, on front or the other or both.

 

Quoting myself seems unbecoming but I'll do it nevertherless. This needs a bump.

There is a reality that fans do not want to accept. It happened against Betis too in the 5-1 victory. This team is a more solid team without Mbappe and actually scores more goals without Mbappe.

I'll repeat that again...this team scores more goals without Mbappe.

 

It's true that we have some stats that are at odds with each other.

Mbappé has 43.4% of our league goals (23/53) and 46.3% of our overall goals (38/82). Those are uncomfortably high numbers; as I wrote a few months ago, even CR7 at his peak wasn't responsible for that high a degree of our goal scoring share, I don't even think Benzema had that high a percent of the goal scoring in his Ballon d'Or season, although he did score 15 of our 28 CL goals. When he's on the field, we're extremely reliant on him.

We've also had two of our four highest league games this season - both against top-half opponents, albeit both at home - when he didn't play a single minute.

It's strange, but I don't for one minute believe the conclusion is "we're better without Mbappé", it just seems some of the puzzle pieces might fit together better. Which, fine, but our ceiling is only so high with the team we had on the field yesterday, where neither Mbappé nor Jude feature. Those guys are definite ceiling raisers, we need to figure out how to make the whole thing more cohesive WITH them, not just tell them to kick rocks.