As many of you are probably aware Sergio Ramos played a fantastic game today on the right hand side of Spain's defence. He looked a lot more composed on the ball and was better at tackling from a wider position. I haven't seen Ramos play as well as a centre back as he did at right back. He was a mmuch better right back at Sevilla than he was a centre back so i'm wondering if we should consider playing him as a right back. He may not be as good of an attacking outlet as say Cicinho, however, today he showed some real promise as an attacker. He was able to get in behind the opposing full backs several times and 2 goals almost game of both attacks. His distribution of the ball from these wider position is also immense. I can recall at least 2 occasions when he switched the ball from right to left and created a dangerous attack. As he is a much better defender than Cicinho and as he has youth and pace over Salgado I'm beginning to believe that Real Madrid should play him there. He is a mould of our 2 other right backs and perhaps this balance we find in him is what we have lacked over the past 2 seasons. I'm not totally discrediting the work of Cicinho but he does leave us terribly exposed at the back and Ramos has a better understanding of when it is suitable to attack and when to sit back. As a centre back I feel we are limiting his potential to become a true great. Pedja who is to be the sporting director should Calderon be elected said that Real Madrid were targetting 2 centre backs so perhaps Capello sees him as a better full back. Do use think we should try him out there? Sorry I mucked up the poll. The second option is move him back to right back. Is there a way I can edit the poll?
He should be our right back where his speed and passing will be better used. To me the only reason he's playing as our centreback was out of necessity. There's no option to vote him as a rightback by the way, this poll is totally rigged.
I'd put him as our right back in a heartbeat if two things happen: 1. He can put on this type of display consistently 2. We have two other quality CB's to cover in front of goal. *The reason I said if he can do this consistently is simply that I have only seen him play at RB for a few games. This is the first one that he's really looked comfortable (not about to judge him on the work he did in the friendlies at RB since he himself said he was still trying to regain concepts he'd lost while playing CB for the past season). If he continues to improve at RB, especially against top competition, I'd say move over, Cicinho. BTW, did anybody notice in a recent interview (I'm not sure where I read it, either marca or as.com) Ramos admitted he likes playing RB better than CB?
At the moment our team is lacking quality CD's other than Ramos himself, so if you put him as an RB we'd have no CD's, And I really dont see us buying 2 or 3 CDs this summer. Also it doesn't look like Salgado is going anywhere and even if he does I'd put Cicinho(dont forget about him!) as a RB and Diogo can cover him on the bench and leave Ramos where he is now, and buy a good CD.
It would be nice to see him play as a right back. There is no doubt that he should be free to go forward in plays and this tallent is muted as a CB. I would be happy if he was the substitute for a CB if we had 2 quality CB. Hopefully, whatever revolution that comes around this summer will be very pragmatic and truly do what a coach decides, not a marketing executive.
I say keep him as CB, sure cicinho leaves us exposed but hey we survived Carlos and the secret was a solid DM, plus should Ramos play next to a Quality CB he will be even better than he currently is. I honestly think we only need one CB purchase and Mejia could be back up. I know its too early but i seriously see Ramos as the one to step up and take Puyols place as Spains Key Defender in a few years time.
I would say keep him as a central defender, he is used to it now, even though RB is his original place he will have to adjust again. He has been solid for us except for ocassional games and I will want Cicinho continuing on the right hand side.
The answer is simple. NO! - Cicinho is doing an excellent job, he is very capable of holding that position, the problem is that we dont have good enough DM to cover for him when he goes up and attacks, ussualy wehn he attack Beckham stays back to cover for him and so far it worked out great. People are quick to forget, Remember Cicinho+Beckham link up on the right ? Cicinho is an tremendous player, the only reason he is on the bench at Brazil is because of Cafu, who is there only because of his capitaincy. PLUS we lack CB's, so if we move our ONLY good CB to the the RB position, we will have 4 RB's competeting for ONE position and defense made up of Pavon and Helguera. - I dont trust either of them.
defensive midfielder is my say. many experts say that a smart coach would turn him into an amazing defensive mid. where his speed, passing ability will not be wasted, where his defensive abilities will still be needed, and where his burst of strength ( offence ) could be used aswell. without having to get rid of cicinho .
Why would we move him to RB? We already have 2 of the best RB in the world in my oppinion. Why would we add a third? That would leave us with how many world class center-backs? None Nonesense~
I don't see Ramos becoming a world class centre back within the next 3 years. However, if he continues to play in this type of form at right back then I consider him to be arguablly one of the best right backs in the world. Even the British pundits were raving about yesterday after a quite magnificant performance. He has said himself he prefers to play at right back. When he played centre back last season for Sevilla it was experimental and it was only for 4 games. As far as I see it Ramos is already a far better right back than Cicinho and Salgado. Not to do any injustice to Salgado because over the years he has been a great servant but from watching Ramos yesterday it reinforced just how much better he is than Salgado. Cicinho didn't exactly finnish the season in blistering form either. His best spell was during the time were we won 8 consecutive matches against the easier teams in La Liga. Cicinho is a good attacking outlet but he is a mediocre defender to say the least. Ramos, imo, possess the neccesary defensive and offensive qualities to become one of the best right backs ever.
I don't know... Ramos could have played as a CB for the NT yesterday and done it better than for Real Madrid, since the NT looks like a much better team right now. Also, it is true that the wingless (Villa and García are acting as false wingers) system Aragonés is using is specially well suited for Sergio's skills. Maybe we could even use a 3-5-2 in RM with Sergio in one of the three CB positions, tucked to the right and with a certain degree of freedom to surge forward. Or we coud try him as LB... he has a good left foot, too.
One more benefit of playing Sergio at Right back: when the CB is going out wide, Sergio can cover their position and do it well. Oh well, the bottom line is we'll have to wait until we have a coach in place and know what the style of play will be this year for Real Madrid, and who the new players are going to be. Sergio offers much more defensively than Cicinho. (I'm not saying that Cicinho is not good at RB, just that Sergio would be more a complete deal)
Maybe we can get rid of Beckham and move Cicinho to right wing. I know im dreaming. How i wish that would happen.
Cicinho has said many times that he doesn't like to play at Rightwing. Also, Madrid_1902 you seem to forget that the Spanish NT is better organised and better then our Madrid in defense and attack, there is noway Ramos would have performed like he did yesterday if he was playing for us. - So to move our ONLY GOOD CB to RB is just ludicrous and you are sadly mistaken if you belive Ramos posses more offensive qualities then Cicinho.
No but with a new coach and with 2 new centre backs it could easily be as good. I don't rate Pablo as a great centre back. Zambrotta and Ashley Cole who are both targets for us are also better left backs than Pernia. With a coach with good organisational skills then Ramos could adjust comfortablly to the right hand side of defence. Remember he was fantastic at right back in the Sevilla defence which was also a long way of the level of the Spanish defence. Organisation is not a problem provided you have a good coach. Thats the simple answer to that. Good centre back, yes. A better right back, yes. I don't see why it's so ludicrous to move him to the position is best at. His performance yesterday topped anything I have seen from Salgado or Cicinho of late. Also I never said he was a better attacking outlet than Cicinho. If you read my first post you will see the opposite. However, one would be sadly mistaken to assume Cicinho has any where near the required mix of defensive and offensive attributes that Ramos has.
My main criticisim to the move is we have to many other areas to worry bout other than RB at the moment maybe in the future if he proves to be a not so great CB and Cicinho starts playing bad then ok give the lad a shot but for now lets focus on getting the rest of the positions improved.
As some have said, Sergio is quite new at playing CB...this has been his first season doing it and he has had to learn the position in arguably the least protected back four in La Liga.....and yet he has had an excellent season for us. Keep him at CB and I think we will have a world class CB inside a year or two. I have to say Dmar's idea of playing him on the right of 3 CB's would also be interesting and would allow us to play Cicinho as a wing back which would probably suit him as well.
I'm not sure about that, but even if Ramos was the best RB in the world (which he isn't, to start with he can't curl a cross to save his life), he would still be less influential than he could be at CB. It's all a matter of priorities, and nowadays it is far more necessary to have a strong CB than it is to have a stronger RB (unless that RB is a goal/offensive threat like RC). To give an example, Ashley Cole is one of the best in his position, but Arsenal's defence falls apart without either Campbell or Senderos, which are far worse players than Cole. If you add to that that we have a more than competent RB but no backup for Ramos at CB, I think you are trying to create two new problems: create an unneeded contest between Ramos and Cicinho for a spot and create the need to sign another starter, as opposed to more of a team player.
I voted to put him as a DM, but thats not the only good solution. He has looked better at a RB, but an investment was made in Cicinho and I think it would be best to keep him at RB. The question then is should he be a CB or a DM. I think he has done better at DM because he has good ball skills and there is less pressure. Ramos was immediately made "the man" in defense when he joined Real Madrid, that could mess up any very good, young CB. Just add a good centerback and DM in front of him and he will be great as a CB. Get two good CB's and move him to DM and he will be great as a DM. Same with RB. He just needs stability and help from his teammates.
ONe thing that I do agree with the Sky Sports commentators is that Cicinho (who would be his rival to rb) is also bery poor at crossing. He may get into great positions but his final ball is very often quite poor. Ramos is a fantastic long passer of the ball. Although it is not at the same level of Beckham it is still a fantastic attribute to have 2 players who can switch the ball from right to left which will obviously create attacks from the left hand side. I honestly think a lot of people have gone way over board on Ramos as a centre back this season. Don't get me wrong he is one of my favourite players in the team if not my favourite but I don't recall him ever consistently performing as a centre back. He never stood up to the challenge of the big teams that we played. It certainly wasn't stage fright that he choked on because I seem to recall a quite astonisihing performance by Ramos for Sevilla at the Bernabeu. Ramos was good at centre back this season, not great. I feel sorry for him because he had many partners making it hard to establish a formidable partnership. Perhaps in time he may become a great centre back and therefore there would be no need to move him but in all honesty he has never played half as good at centre back as he has at right back. Hell, he was even a far more convincing defensive midfielder. You can see this as a problem if you want but I genuinely feel that Ramos is a better right back than Cicinho. I'm not entirely sure of the future of Diogo and Salgado but a battle for right back between Cicinho and Ramos seems good to me. Regardless if where Ramos plays, Real Madrid are still going to have to sign 1 or 2 new centre backs. Pedja said he wanted 2 and a defensive midfielder. A more established centre back than Mejia or Raul Bravo will undoubtedly aid Ramos and so too will the arrival of a DM.
One of the problems our center backs have to deal with is the fact that our fullbacks (LB AND RB) tend to vacate the defense. Leaving just the two CBs to cover. No good DM, fullbacks that don't defend, basically this year we asked the CBs to cover much more than they would for other teams. I never really saw Cicinho as a defensive player. He's good going forward, hooked up very well with Beckham, but aye....there's the rub. Relying on Beckham to come to the back to defend while Cicinho presses forward? Leaves a nice gaping hole in front of Iker when Sergio has to defend out wide, especially since the other CB usually didn't move over to cover the space left in Sergio's absence. Our lack of good defensive fullbacks put extra pressure not only on our CBs, but on Iker. And how many cards did we see being thrown at our back line because they made tackles out of desperation? It's got to be frustrating to be a CB with this type of system. You're set up to fail. As far as Ramos goes, like I've said I'll reserve my judgement on whether he should play RB or CB for Real Madrid after I've seen if he can consistently put in this type of performance in upcoming games against better competition. He definitely has the leg power to cross the ball, needs more time to get his accuracy going. At CB, he did seem to improve more during the second half of the year (fewer needless fouls, compare the first game vs. Barcelona to the second game vs. Barcelona...big improvement in Sergio, yellow cards seem to still be an issue at the end of the year, though, he'll need to work on that.)
i have always said that he should play on the right back, but some "experts" here keep believen that, for some reason, he will (or should) develop into a CB. but regardless of whether he can transform into a cb or not, would the heck would we want him to - when he's better as a rb?!
I believe he has finished developing, he has played a whole season as a CB. I do not want him to change now, Cicinho is far better at the right back slot.