Or Lucas Vazquez to continue playing as a fullback. He puts in all the effort but has zero positional instincts. They targeted him all night.
If we score first, we have the chance to win (most of our wins came from scoring first) / draw (villarreal). But boy if we concede first, god bless our soul because we will never be able to come back. Seem to have lost that comeback spirit. I'm kind of reminiscing the Capello era where every match we seemed to be playing from behind and winning.
The only four players with an engine in the midfield and offense are Valverde, Modric, Lucas V. and Vini Jr. The rest turn it on and off when they feel like it.
I think the Lucas shouldn’t play RB thing is becoming clearer now - but didn’t he suit up there in El Clasico and do an amazing job? I think if we don’t have Carvajal, then we need either Lucas at RB or Marcelo at LB. Fullbacks are so important to Zidane’s plans to break down defensive teams. Otherwise we line up with 4 CBs and even more embarrassing attacking stats. I really don’t get what is wrong with this team - any selection we choose is misfiring one game and world beaters in the other. Literally just 7 days ago we played Inter off the park and were talking about our best performance this year with silky football. Then got humiliated by Alaves and Shakhtar. I am honestly just baffled. We won the league 3 months ago with the best defense. Like even if we’re not playing well there is no reason we should be eating 5 goals against Shakhtar, and losing at home to Cadiz and Alaves for ********s sake
The old players have no room for improvement,. The team is going to free fall if we have the same players. And Perez won't get help in the winter break. From now on, Zidane should gamble on Rodrygo, Militao, VJ and Odegaard. They should be starters. To me, those youngsters are not ready. but what esle can we do in December when the team has its worst situation for the last 30 years. I know this is not the most constructive post. Something needs to be done and I can't think of anything else realistic.
We rely on a small core of players playing at their absolute best to bring out the best of this team. When these guys are out or don't perform well, the team suffers.
I have zero faith in Mendy offensively. His passing/shooting form looks like he has two left feet as he is wild and inconsistent regardless of which he uses.
I think his physicality could be a weapon but we seem absolutely committed to going for a cross almost every time. Which means we can't take advantage of it because we take it out of the attack as an option.
Also I want to say one thing. Even when we are playing well, we are incredibly boring. I don't mind it if it would be consistent, but I think it gives the team a false sense of security and the mistakes start crawling in, then when they pay for them, they collapse mentally. The team is really afraid of doing something wrong or taking a risk, Kroos and Modric take a long range effort here and there but other than that there is simply a lot of passing it to the next guy going on.
Literally no vertical threat, no end to end stuff, just side passing before someone switches play and then a mindless cross.
Also, those 10 minutes or so that Vinicius got will be written down as an "opportunity" by some people but I can't help but wonder how absolutely toxic these substitutions are for player development. A player is out there for 75 minutes tending the pitch, and you sub on a young player telling him "now go and win this for us". How does this balance expectations between two players? For what it's worth, Vini Jr now feels like the loser that failed to do what he was supposed to and Asensio like the guy that "did my best coach, wasn't enough" and will start again in a week or so. And this applies to every sub, especially when you make THREE of them at the same time which would need at least a few minutes on the pitch to somehow get into space. After those minutes the match is already over when you make this kind of enormous change so late.
By now it is very clear that Asensio is going to start no matter what. Idk what ZZ is seeing in him that we don't see. The standards are appalling to say the least.
So why bring back a 40ME signing who's naturally a RB? The defence should be from now on Carvajal / Odriazola - Militao - Ramos - Mendy
As for Tibo, he's getting a pass for now. He's saved our arses from total humiliation in many of games this season already
I’m not counting him as an option until he is fit and ready to play. Even then we don’t know if Zizou will trust him. Guy hasn’t really been part of the squad. Theoretically he would be the RB sub of course, but right now I’m stating who I’d play there with Dani out and AO’s availability uncertain.
Hi,I'm an Atletico follower so I miss out on the Real Madrid CL games. Can someone please help explain to me, that the group stage table is still wide open right? I mean literally according to the pts, any team can advance right? My question regarding Real Madrid. From what I see, Shakhtar and Real both at equal 7 pts. So how does it work? If Shakhtar win their next match, would they advance? They have negative GD, and Real have 0 GD, so I guess Real will advance? I'm confuse. Ugh. And Simeone disappointed me too, he draw games too much, dude have like 3 straight draw in the group stage. I be so gutted if they crash out of the group stage. I don't want to see any Spanish teams crash out.
He was fit and ready prior to his move to Bayern mid-season (which even then was stupid management) but kept an under-performing Carvajal at RB. I think he's been ready for a week or two at least now. There is a pattern emerging, if you're shit and underperforming, you keep your place.
Hello there. Shakhtar wins>them and BM advance Shakhtar draws>we need to win to advance w BM Shakhtar lose>draw is enough for us and BM Shakhtar lose>we win vs BM and advance w Inter
I have a feeling that after dismal showings by both Inter and us in the CL, both teams will advance to the next round
Not defending varane, but it's funny how he is a dead weight that need to be sold, the guy won with us many CLs, he's a friggin world champion after all, but he need to be out because his performance is bad. Remind me of a certain coach, who won with us a few CLs, but clearly at fault at what's happening now and don't seem to have a clear path to getting better/changing things. Funny.