Real Madrid C.F vs Real Valladolid Santiago Bernabeu La Liga Matchday 7 Saturday 17th September 2009 Time: 20:00 CET(please check local timings) Key Players: Kaka will be our only true link between midfield and attack with Ronaldo injured. Sisi is a dangerous young winger that's been unlucky with injuries, and health problems ( Hepatitis-A). This is his chance to shine à la Jesus Navas. ________________________________________________________________ Injury Report: Here's to hoping the Witchdoctor's work doesn't continue..
Hopefully Kaka' hauls some more ass now that CR9 is out, but it probably won't be necessary. This should be an easy win, hoping for 3-0. Hala Madrid!
Without Ronaldo, I will be interested in seeing what formation Pellegrini will go with. I would honestly like to try Marcelo as a Left mid. He has potential to be a solid two way mid and I think he can do both pretty well. I see this game possibly being a problem for us. If I remember correctly, Valladolid's keeper is pretty good and we'll have to throw everything at him even without our top scorer. Time for Benz, Kaka, and co to step up and show how we don't have to rely on CR9 to win us games. We have Milan next Tuesday,anyone think Manuel will be resting anyone for that match?
I'd like to see players who are trying to cement a spot in the first XI like Higuain and Granero start against Valladolid. Then if they perform well they can start against Milan. Milan looks terrible everywhere except at CB, their fullbacks get burned consistently on every run forward by skillful players. I was hoping we'd see Kaka and Ronaldo on the flanks running at them, but that is now impossible. Anybody else think Xabi needs to step it up? He seems content to sit back instead of dictating the tempo. I really liked how he was doing during the first half against FC Zurich, but that was the only time I can remember him doing extremely well.
I agree, he has not looked good at all since his injury. I was worried it would be a set back for him but nothing this major. Did anyone see how he did with Spain at the weekend? We also need the same Lass we saw last year, he looked pretty good in the preseason but so far he has not brought the same defensive consistency we saw last season.
It doesn't help that they haven't been able to play at the same time for any length of time for a few weeks now (I believe). With Lassana back, and hopefully Granero coming into the side, we will see a better Xabi.
Xabi warmed the bench quite nicely for Spain this weekend, IMO. I'd give him a 9. Okay, seriously, Xabi is second choice behind Senna for Spain. He might play against Bosnia on Wednesday, considering Xavi and Cesc are out. When I see Xabi play for Spain, most of the time he looks like a square peg in a round hole. Everyone else is intent on quick, fluid passes and he tends to hold the ball, look around, and loft a long ball to someone. He's going to struggle until we find a good partnership for him. His best partner was Mascherano, but I haven't got a clue which of our other defensively-oriented midfielders might be his best partner here yet.
He doesn't have many options to rest players considering he uses a rotation policy and we need a convincing win to start to get the press off of our backs. I'm begining to think that this rotation policy isn't a good thing, especially for a new team such as this. If he wants to rotate the defenders thats fine but the midfield and attack shouldn't be changed much so that they find their groove and team chemistry. Another reason as to why the rotation policy should be gone is because its failing in one of its main objectives; keeping our players healthy. Thankfully our squad is much deeper than last year but damn the injuries are almost just as bad. Higuain and Benzema should be at a high level of confidence as well as Raul getting some rest and training in, I'm sure he'll be in top condition. --Ramos----Pepe---Garay---Drenthe-- ----------Lass------Xabi------------- --------------Kaka------------------ ----Higuain-------------Benzema----- --------------Raul------------------- Subs: Either Ramos for Arbeloa or move Pepe for Arbeloa moving Ramos to the center. I'd rather not have Pepe get injured and he seems to get injured at the most inopportune times. Possibly Lass, Kaka or one of the forwards when/if the game is won for M.Diarra. Depending on how the game goes throw in Guti in the 70th minute for Kaka or one of the three forwards. I put Garay in there because Valladolid is familiar opposition and to be blunt aren't the best team we'll face, even in the Primera. Garay needs some minutes while we give Albiol a rest, a player who has played a lot of minutes.
I think the main reason we are still rotating players is we have a not so bad bench this year. Compared to last year, when we had Saviolas and J.Garcias on the bench, this year players of Higuain and VDVs calibre are on our bench and to keep all the players happy and maintain their fighting spirit, every once in a while a player is put into the starting lineup. Had we not used rotations, Guti and Granero wouldnt have played as much and therefore wouldnt give our other players competition.
There's pros and cons to the rotation of a new team. On the other side of the issue, opposite the points you mentioned, rotating players keeps them fresh (something we've had major problems with in the recent past), keeps them all motivated, and provides them all with playing time to develop chemistry in case we need one of our supposed "subs" to step in for an injury. So far this year, we've had injured: Ramos (occurred during vacation, has nothing to do with rotation policy) Metzelder (this dude is injured more often than he's available) C Ronaldo (injured while playing due to a bad tackle and bad judgement on someone's part to play him in the Portugal game) Ruud (again, injured while playing in his first game back from a lengthy injury) Arbeloa (no idea when he'll be ready, anybody have an update?) and a few others have missed a game here or there due to minor injuries. It's too early in the season to say if rotation keeps players healthier or not. You can't judge that effect until mid-season when overuse injuries are more likely to occur.
Both of you make good points especially MajorDuh pointing out that some injuries were just flukes. I was a bit rash in my post. Its just that I see our unlucky run of injuries this year and the last so I overreacted. Like you said there are good points and bad points to the rotation policy. I still do feel that getting our first XI working as a team should be Pellegrini's main objective and I assume its hard to do that when there's rotations going on all the time. I just pray we have no more injuries.
I actually like the rotation policy. Sure they'll be growing pains. But with the quality subs we have, we should use them. It's much better for well used subs to fill in for the Ronaldo's & Kaka's than to field them lacking match sharpness & confidence imho.
I want to see Granero in this one, play Kaka behind Benzema & Higuain & let Xabi, Lass & Granero control the middle of the pitch.
I think Kaka starting will be a longshot. Dunga held him out of the Bolivia game to play him on Wednesday meaning he won't be back in Madrid until late Thursday or even Friday. Same with Higuain. I think Benzema and Raul are starting this one...
Valladolid is gonna be a tough game, they made this difficult on both legs, but since its the second season syndrome, i am sure we will get a better result. Here's to seeing a glimpse of our potential for full 90!
Subscribed, and this is gonna be an interesting match. Looks like Guti picked up an ankle injury....maybe VDV gets the nod?
I wouldn't like to predict a line-up for this game, purely because of injuries, internationals and the upcoming Milan game. It's obvious that the CL is our main priority, so any sort of 'first team' will be saved for then. This week will be a mix and match of whoever is fit, and then against Milan I expect to see something which includes Xabi, Lassana, Kaka, Granero, Benzema and then probably Raul/Higuain, although I would personally go for Marcelo .
I'm sorry but I'm too excited for this one What I would like to see; ------------Casillas------------- -------------------------------- Ramos---Pepe---Albiol---Drenthe -------------------------------- ---------Lass----Alonso-------- Kaka--------------------Marcelo --------------VDV-------------- ------------Benzema------------ I highly doubt this will be the formation for Saturday but I still want to throw it out there. Since we have VDV we should actually use him where he played best at HSV. I also think allowing him to play in this role might help Alonso find his game back. When under pressure he could drop back and become an outlet for Xabi. While VDV drops back then Marcelo and Kaka could release down the wings and Alonso could hit them with a long ball over the top. Both have blazing speed (more so Kaka) and above average finishing. Also in this formation Lass can help cover for Ramos and Marcelo could cover for Drenthe.
Agree with you that the rotation policy is not a good thing for allowing a new team to gel and question MPs motives for doing it- Is it to keep the ego's happy? If so it won't work because everyone will be disgruntled! Just rest players that need resting or are totally out of form and not for the sake of it. It prevents players getting any rhtyhm He has a choice - keep up his rotation policy and keep getting the headlines about inconsistant football or keep his best team and bruise some ego's. Also, don't agree about defenders being better candidates for rotating - they should be the least rotated as the back 5 need time to develop a good understanding, work offside trap, positioning etc. I's no coincidence that successful teams have established defences.