I'd rather be careful than do what we're doing with Bellingham and basically turn him into the next Varane to retire at 30. Because at current pace, that's where we're taking it with Jude.
This, sadly this applies to a lot of our younger players not just Jude. One big negative on Carlo and this has always been a problem for him, he just hates rotating for some reason and also his subs are very late all of the time. sticks to an 11 he likes and more or less that's it. Schedule is mad you cant ask Fede and Jude to play every game until the end of the season.
Starting a 39 year old midfielder and lighting up Atletico Madrid probably don't belong in the same sentece, so there might be explanations for that but let's see how the team does without him for more than one game.
I don't know why we didn't take him full time. He can play five games all season but you need that option to change things up.
He's absolutely part of it. The problem I've always had is that we waited for him and let him essentially run the club's transfer policy from Paris. Halaand may not be the better player overall but he'd have fit so much better in what we already were developing and currently have. We moved mountains to get this guy and he won't have the same impact as Cristiano.
Haaland has a better team around him in Manchester than Mbappe has in Madrid. Sit on that for a while. The Manchester City team was built in a way where Haaland is a part of it, Madrid basically signed Mbappe to skip the team building part.
The Bellingham as a CF thing had no future if we're honest. We spent a year asking for a player. Let's not rewrite history.
This is a Real Madrid we're talking about here, we've never done it any different. This has been the club for decades now.
The real question is why change something that is working ? While it is still early days, the disconnect in play and lack of chemistry , motivation is quite appalling, there is no continuity of form of la liga and ucl winner.
Why would it have no future? He proved he is more than a midfielder. Hes a goalscorer. Why change his role again? What we should have done this year is either buy a (potential) worldclass midfielder to take Kroos' spot and leave the front three as it was, or get Mbappe and sell Rodrygo, or keep Rodrygo and buy a worldclass #9 (Osimhen or Gyokeres). What we did was Galactico policy 101, which hurts not only because has proven to be wrong but also because we clearly havent learned anything. Rodrygo/Mbappe/Kroos is Figo/Beckham/Makelele all over again.
You absolutely wrecked your own arguement. I don't think I'm alone in that I had to use Google to identify your can't miss players.
I mean I could also say Rodri for 100 million, but we aren't spending that kind of money on a young squad player (and it has to be a young squad player, given Cama-Tchou-Fede), and whether you need to google the player wasn't really part of my criteria either.
Anyway, surely at a certain point he has to stand up and pick up the slack? Given his hero Ronaldo and all. Not expecting him to be as good (even 20% would be a miracle), but the latter was also part of some disastrous Madrid sides. He still did his part, stood up when needed and pulled us through. 2 months in and all I see is him aimlessly wandering and not being a consistent threat. You want to get paid like royalty, it comes with certain expectations. A glorified Diaz/Jovic is not that.
As far as what Flo is thinking imo: Flo will always buy the most marketable superstar he can find and let the manager figure out how to use him. This is an absolute that will never change. As an example, we bought Benzema and CR7 with Higuain already here. If Benzema hadn't adapted, 2 of them would have left. This is more theoretical... I also feel that Flo thinks that Vini's time at Real Madrid is going to be short given all his clashes and criticism of the country. Unless Vini calms down and takes a more measured approach, it's not going to end well. Spaniards are a ve As far as Mbappe himself imo: Haaland is playing CF, his one and only position. Man City didn't ask him to play false 9 or winger. Mbappe is playing CF for the first time in his career regularly. He's not good at it yet. The position doesn't emphasize any of his best skills other than scoring goals, which he is. For him to have a true impact on play besides goals, he'll need time adapt to the new role. He is also playing in a new league for a new club with new teammates and a new system. He's not the focal point of the tactics (yet). So there is an adaptation period for him. And again, he's also learning to play CF on top of it. My prediction.. . He's going to reach 1 goal per game average by the end of November without a doubt. He's that focused. To ask Deschamps to leave him off of the France squad was a huge move. Just huge. He knows that he'll get destroyed in France for it (is Real Madrid more important than France?)... but he did it anyhow because he didn't want to jeopardize his commitment to Real Madrid by taking a risk. Nation's league is meaningless. Just a few things to keep in mind.
How many players in the history football are CR7 or Messi? That's a ridiculous standard. Mbappe just needs to be himself once he adapts. Our issue is not Mbappe not scoring. It's about our midfield not controlling games and not creating chances for the forwards. By the time the forwards get the ball... it's so slow that the opposing defense is set every time. Also, other than Jude, nobody can make a killer pass. That's the issue. Let's be clear. Also, CR7 had Benzema, Ozil, Di Maria, Xabi Alonso, Modric, Kroos (i think, maybe after), Marcelo, Kaka, etc. feeding him the ball. Right now, we have... Jude and that's it. This is not as talented a team as those offensively by any stretch of the imagination. The midfield is defensive and the fullbacks are defensive. Guler and Brahim need to develop. Vini has to find form again. We need new fullbacks. It's a transition year (Real Madrid style).
Because he doesn't have the physical presence to surive inside the box against CBs for a long part of his career. Getting wrecked by 2 meter tall 90 kg CBs every other week probably contributed to a lot of upper body issues he has currently.
You saw that in the Euro. He was absolutely physically destroyed by the time that tournament started.
How is putting Mbappe there instead make it better? Anyway Bellingham wasn't a target man in the box. And are we really going to worry about upper body injuries?