The Real Madrid Random Thoughts Thread

-- The team is having its best time since Zidane scored that goal against Leverkusen.

-- I never had much expectations for Pedro Leon. He was never Real Madrid material before we sign him. He is better than Faubert or Diogo. At leats, his goal against AC Milan meant something.

-- I am looking forward to Jese Rodríguez.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBuowZXz_3s"]YouTube - Goles de Jesé Rodríguez[/ame]

 

I'm just so very impressed by our signings this season (well maybe not Leon then...)

Özil, Khedira, Carvalho and Angel have all played a major part in our campaign. Canales looks good for the future. Things are looking up.

 

Great offense, great defense, great depth, great coach, even greater potential ..

Hala Madrid

 

Can I talk about how Modric would fit into our team in this thread?

 

No.



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No, because he wouldn't

 

This is ECR7's thread! He makes the rules!

 

Why do people want Modric seriously?

People keep insisting on more ways to screw our talented youth over and it irks me to no end >: |

 

Personally, I think he'll be the perfect player ( perhaps not for Mou ) in the CM role next to Xabi playing slightly deeper than Ozil. But, thats just me..

 

Looks like Ronaldo lite.

That bit of skill at 2.00 minutes was pretty awesome though. I hope we get to see a bit more of him next season.

 

2 concerns - don't you think there's enough creative players in the team already? A case of 'too many chefs...'

Also, Xabi is being hailed as the player of the season, and I believe a large part of that is that in most matches the other tenacious midfielder eases his work. Wouldnt putting Modric in there heap more work on Xabi while not improving us much?

 

There's never "enough creative players" aslong as they all work as part of a system, and are all willing to put in a shift defensively. Look at Barcelona as an example, look at us last season when we used to play Guti-Xabi-Granero or Guti-Xabi-Vaart in some games.

Point 2, wouldnt having a better ball playing midfielder alongside Alonso help us keep the ball better and not result in Alonso having to put in as much work defensively? You see, you can either have a CM that helps you get the ball back ( Khedira/Lass ) or you can have a CM that helps you keep it better ( Granero/Modric in this case ). Xabi isnt at his best when playing at the edge of the oppisition box trying to thread balls into the area, he's best when he's sat as deep as our CB's playing a sweeping role and utilising his amazing range of passing from a distance. Forming a CM partnership with Ozil & another player is IMO one of the few areas we can improve this team. Imagine having enough ball possesion ahead of Alonso where he can sit back deeper than the other 2 and be used as a bonus.

Modric has been playing that middle CM role brilliantly for Tottenham, the same role Schweinsteiger plays for Bayern ahead of Gustavo I think it is and behind Muller. Modric puts in his fair share of defensive work thats for sure, I thought he was best utilised as an AM from what I saw of him last season but with the arrival of VDV he is being played deeper in midfield and he has been doing very well linking play from the back to the front. Like ECR7 said, its got to do a bit with Khedira's role and his skillset tbh, we can do so much better in such a vital position. Gago & Granero are also alternatives but one of the major stumbling blocks on this whole Modric thing is the main man Mou who would really rather have the Khedira/Lass type of player in his midfield.

We're RealMadrid and we should be the ones acting, not reacting to our opposition and that is what I see from the Khedira/Lass presence in our team, making it more solid defensively rather than harder to stop offensively. Supposedly that big lumbering German has got that whole "offensive game" to him, but apart from a few plays against Atleti 2 days ago we havn't seen much of it yet perhaps on the request of MrMou who would rather keep it tight at the back than make the opposition feel "tight" in their "backs".

Longest post ever? Dam you ECR7 for allowing such ramblings..

 

Heres the problem though, Mourinho is one the greatest reactive coaches ever, dont think he will leave his winning ways just like that.

Modric is also one of my favorite players, would love to see him here as well.

 

And unless Khedira is injured it looks like Mou is going to keep faith in him.

 

Mourinho can bring him up next season. Then, he could become the fourth forward by 2012-2013.

As for Modric, if he plays great against us next month, then, we might see him here next season, but I am not sure if I want to see him playing well.

 

That is all well and good...........when you have the ball.

What happens when the opposition has the ball? Who will assist xabi in ball recovery? who will help with aerial presence in the midfield and fight against those knock downs? definitely not modric.

Modric is more like Ozil and his best contributions are in the final third. Playing him beside Xabi will give us little improvement offensively, will take some balls away from ozil and leave us a colander defensively.

Modric is a good player but should be considered for the advanced position in the midfield trio, the position currently occupied by Ozil

When considering who to pair with Xabi, the question should be how to best complement him i.e. look at where we are lacking and bring someone that would make up for it. A Kheira type fits the bill imo. We dont need another playmaker.

 

When the opposition has the ball? We win it back. Who will assist Xabi? Okay, Ozil, Modric, thats 2, then Ronaldo, DiMaria, Benz/Higuain, Ramos, Pepe, Carvalho AND Marcelo. They will assist Xabi in ball recovery. Aerial presence? Really? How many aeriel balls do Xavi & Iniesta win in the air? They seem to do fine without winning them all..

He's been playing in a trio with Sandro, and Vaart. If them 3 can control a game as well as they do im sure putting him in a trio with Xabi & Ozil wont hinder him. He's been playing the central role in the trio, behind Vaart and ahead of Sandro recently. Ahead of Xabi, behind Ozil. Seems like a perfect fit, you can say he's not that middle CM all you want but he's playing that role as good as anyone.

Alonso will work in most systems, because he's that good. He's playing behind Mascherano and Gerrard at Liverpool and he's always done very well playing with Xavi & Iniesta & Busquets on the NT front. Im not worried of who to pair Alonso with, I want to pair Ozil with someone. Someone who can play the ball and form a longterm midfield controlling partnership for many years.

 

Xavi and Iniesta dont but that is why they have Busquets, and when needed Keita is brought in too. More importantly, Farca plays a different style of football and unless you want to change half of our roster, there is no point trying to build a midfield like theirs.

Winning the ball back in midfield excludes the defenders and attackers. That would leave you with Ozil, Modric and Xabi. Too porous imo

and we can see how well that is working for spurs defensively. Spurs cannot control the midfield against any solid opposition. We are not some mid-rate english club that count qualifying for the CL for the first time an achievement. I really dont care how well Modric is playing for spurs, but only interested in how well he would fit in with us.

Xabi does not work well in just any system. He is a deep lying playmaker that is effective in a dual pivot or in a diamond with two high work rate CMs (like Pirlo was at Milan). Liverpool got the best out of him when he was played in a midfield trio with Gerrard and Mascherano. Modric is not Mascherano. On the NT he plays besides Busquets with Xavi ahead of them. Iniesta plays further up in the attack. Again Modric is not Busquets.

 

Xabi worked well with Guti & Granero, they're no Mascherano or Gerrard either. He worked well with Guti & Vaart, neither of which are defensive work horses or geniuses of the defensive aspect of the game.

My point is, Modric to me is a type of player that I would rather have in my midfield than Khedira/Lass. The positives you get from keeping the ball better, using it more effectively, being more dangerous with it outweigh the "He won a 50/50 header in the middle of the pitch and put in a crushing tackle on the opposition player". I know I over simplified it a bit but you get the point. Barca dont need big thuglike DM's because they keep the ball brilliantly, make use of it effectively and force the opposition deep into their own half, im not saying we whould try and duplicate what they're doing but they're just as good of an example as I can give.

If we have 60% possession now, let if be 61% possession with that sort of player in the middle of the pitch, the difference is with a player like that in your team you are more likely to put that 61% possession to more use, more likely to create a chance, score a goal. When it comes times to win the ball back, well let's hope all 11 of our players are up for it.

Players like Modric & Schweinsteiger are very underated defensively tbh, just because they're offensively better than the average CM doesn't mean they're no slouches off the ball. They say Khedira is offensively underrated, like I said before apart from a couple moves and runs in the Atleti game there is still nothing about him going forward that makes me think he's good enough to command such a important role in the best team in the world. Its not why he's here, its not what Mourinho wants from him, thats where the conversation just dies because its true.

We can do better, and Modric is just one of the names being suggested ( mostly by me, he's this years Silva ). Schweinsteiger is another, i'd be over the moon with either. I'd even take Bojra Valero ahead of our big German. Parejo, Gago, DeRossi, Granero the list is long. Like they've mentioned earlier, if Mou was looking for that something different from his middle CM then he'd probly of given Granero more of a chance. But, he's not so what can I say..

 

Paulo Henrique Ganso. Sign him up.

 

Interesting comment on Modric. I sometimes stream talksport (British based sports talk radio) on my iPhone in the car since soccer news is non existent on talk radio in the US.

They were talking about Modric being the best player for Spurs this season and one of the hosts basically said Modric is going to be the next Messi in the next few years.

Like him or not, it's crazy the amount of buzz he's gotten lately.

 

Modric is the man, WB is right..

Even Harry agrees he's the shizzle