First Makelele, now Di Maria

As an aside, I find it interesting how sought after Émerson was by both Real Madrid and Chelsea about a decade ago yet he received nowhere near the appreciation that most top holding midfielders have gotten.

I mean, Émerson was Chelsea's first choice before Makélélé and he was Real Madrid's first choice after Makélélé. But he rejected the both of them, and he was just as good as Maka. He wasn't as limited either.

fatman123 wrote:Somewhat off topic, but how comparable are Madrids midfield last season to Zidane/Guti/Beckham?

obviously the midfield last season (di maria, modric, xabi) was a lot more balanced, hardworking, and better than the 04 madrid, most importantly the decima team actually won, won 2 trophies, 2 more than the figo, zizou,becks,guti combo...

in 04 madrid played a 4 4 2, guti and becks double pivot, zidane and figo offensive midfielders. in the 04 team, nobody ran, noone pressed in the middle of the park. and it was the same even when makelele played, makelele was the only one to run and win balls and (i can't remember who) but a coach or commentator stated that zidane needed an engine behind him cos he hardly covered any ground defensively....

also, zizou figo becks where in their 30s at the time, so age was catching up, figo couldn't gallop on that right wing without falling down; becks couldn't run to save his life, so the first thing he did when he had the ball at his feet was play it long or cross- problem with that was, neither of our strikers in raul and ronaldo were prolific goalscorers with their heads;

the only guy who could score headers with his eyes closed, that may have been a good receiver of becks' crosses was morientes, and he was "wisely" let go when becks came (another Einstein moment from florentino). and guti may not have been in his 30s yet, i think he was 26/27, but he was damn lazy; to play a lazy player in defensive mid is another einstein moment we've had..to be fair though, florentino did try to sign patrick vieria and chivu but didn't work out. chivu never wanted to play for madrid (we tried for him at least 3 times), and arsenal were firm on patrick (back when they could hold unto their star players)

however, last season's decima winners compared to the 02 winners (raul morientes up front; solari, zidane, figo and makelele in midfielde); its a lot tougher cos zizou was really on his game that year....i might give the edge to the decima winners, i'm not sure; just cos it was a younger more athletic team, but the decima defense will be the question mark

Hierro was 33/34 at the time; but i'll still take him over pepe
ramos for all his bone head plays and cards is better than helguera
salgado, in his prime, hell even past his prime; better than arbeloa and carvajal
roberto carlos- greatest left back i ever saw (i consider maldini more a center back)....marcelo and coentrao aren't good enough to lace the great brazilian's boots
And Iker in 02, though young and naive was lightning quick with those reflexes and was a great pk stopper compared to now

Pippo wrote:As an aside, I find it interesting how sought after Émerson was by both Real Madrid and Chelsea about a decade ago yet he received nowhere near the appreciation that most top holding midfielders have gotten.

I mean, Émerson was Chelsea's first choice before Makélélé and he was Real Madrid's first choice after Makélélé. But he rejected the both of them, and he was just as good as Maka. He wasn't as limited either.

emerson's case is one of people remembering the bad and forgetting the good. i think he may be more appreciated in Serie A, which was were he was at his peak, especially at roma...and even juve before calciopolli. he was a victim of circumstance at madrid, and was booed heavily because fans at the bernabeau didn't like capello, and hated him even more when he chose emerson and mahmoudu diarra; two very limited passers of the ball in the middle of the park. emerson wasn't great in spain either, he was older and had passed his sell by date...by the time he returned to milan, people had forgotten how good he was at roma

I think with Vieira, it was more of an issue with the wages Pérez was offering him. He wanted the move and he was pushing it if I recall correctly, but he wasn't offered a high enough wage to accept the offer.

titosantill wrote:

Pippo wrote:As an aside, I find it interesting how sought after Émerson was by both Real Madrid and Chelsea about a decade ago yet he received nowhere near the appreciation that most top holding midfielders have gotten.

I mean, Émerson was Chelsea's first choice before Makélélé and he was Real Madrid's first choice after Makélélé. But he rejected the both of them, and he was just as good as Maka. He wasn't as limited either.

emerson's case is one of people remembering the bad and forgetting the good. i think he may be more appreciated in Serie  A, which was were he was at his peak, especially at roma...and even juve before calciopolli. he was a victim of circumstance at madrid, and was booed heavily because fans at the bernabeau didn't like capello, and hated him even more when he chose emerson and mahmoudu diarra; two very limited passers of the ball in the middle of the park. emerson wasn't great in spain either, he was older and had passed his sell by date...by the time he returned to milan, people had forgotten how good he was at roma

Yeah that's true, he had a steep decline when he went to Real Madrid. I think it was because he was forced to become more exposed and his body just didn't accept that like it did when he was with Roma. And then his stint with Milan was just awful. Look at the Youtube "highlight" video Milan did when he left, it's embarrassing



I thought M. Diarra was quite useful in his first few seasons at Real Madrid, he definitely wasn't worth the ~25 million euros they spent on him but he did his job well.

lmao, if milan couldn't shoot a better "highlight" video for the man, or didn't find any clip where he actually did something worth showing, they should have just created a picture montage instead....that really is embarrassing.

Strange thread title considering that a comparison to Alonso would suggest itself rather than Di Maria. Di Maria certainly is a loss, Madrid lose another final pass player without an adequate replacement.

Most Liga assists since 2010/2011: Messi 57 - Di Maria 49 - Ozil 47

Despite that the attack is still strong. Why they didn't replace their midfield organizer and defensive engine though, although the difference in Madrid's shape with and without Alonso could be seen even last season during and after Alonso's injury period, will remain a mystery to me. There is no defensive midfielder in Madrid's squad right now.

Makelele wasn;t with Madrid in 2004 btw. He left in summer 2003.

Di Maria played well for 5 months because he found his ideal position, which was LCM.

He was awful at RW.

Yohan Modric wrote:

He was awful at RW.

Stop.
seriously madrid fans, get over it, i know that losing di maria was a giant loss, but do not deny that he had good moments apart from his last 6 months here.

Thats just ignorance or just being butthurt. because he sure as hell had his moments.

Madrid fans logic.

While at Madrid: Di Maria is the best B2B midfielder in the planet.

After Madrid: Di Maria only had 5 good months and is no big loss.

Lord Spencer wrote:Madrid fans logic.

While at Madrid: Di Maria is the best B2B midfielder in the planet.

After Madrid: Di Maria only had 5 good months and is no big loss.

Casciavit wrote:

Lord Spencer wrote:Madrid fans logic.

While at Madrid: Di Maria is the best B2B midfielder in the planet.

After Madrid: Di Maria only had 5 good months and is no big loss.

Not every Real Madrid fan said 'he only had 5 good months and therefore we won't miss him'.

Giggity5313 wrote:

Yohan Modric wrote:

He was awful at RW.

Stop.
seriously madrid fans, get over it, i know that losing di maria was a giant loss, but do not deny that he had good moments apart from his last 6 months here.

Thats just ignorance or just being butthurt. because he sure as hell had his moments.

He did have good moments at RW, but he was mostly inconsistent and his decision making was poor.

It was only when he moved to LCM he found his ideal position and became one of the best.

Yohan Modric wrote:Not every Real Madrid fan said 'he only had 5 good months and therefore we won't miss him'.

Yohan Modric wrote:Di Maria played well for 5 months because he found his ideal position, which was LCM.

He was awful at RW.

That is basically what you just said. He only played "well" for 5 months @ LCM.

Before that, when he was RW, you said he was "awful".

Its a bloody fact that Di Maria played "well" much more than 5 months, and that he was not "awful" at RW.

He was terrible at RW.

you should know by now thatt on GL you either are an overrated scrub or u are a goat.

a page wasted on semantic lol

As far as I am aware Real Madrid have won trophies without Di Maria through out it's history (Makalele too believe it or not).

The fact of the matter is, unprofessional money grabbers need to understand that the club doesn't hand out extensions every year. If I walked up to my employer asking for an improved contract less than a year after I had willfully signed my last one then I would get laughed out of the building.

Losing a player of Di Maria's caliber sucks but we'll figure something out.

As for the "logic" remarks, here is the other side of the coin;

Non-Madrid fans: Di Maria is overrated by Madrid fans, the guy is a headless chicken.

*Di Maria is about to get sold*

Non-Madrid fans: Di Maria is their best player.

lol

Mr Nick09 wrote:you should know by now thatt on GL you either are an overrated scrub or u are a goat.

a page wasted on semantic lol

Lol. Di Maria wasn't rated on GL until those five months in CM.

http://www.goallegacy.net/t19723-di-maria-a-source-of-destabilization-to-madrid

http://www.goallegacy.net/t8621-di-maria-is-a-disgrace

There are a bunch of threads like this. Dani and I used to regularly defend him.

Mr Nick09 wrote:I feel like opening FM just to sell Di Maria and Kaka and calm myself

Di Maria had some of the most epic headless chicken moments i have ever seen in my life, in fact i have spent a lot of time contemplating who we could sign to replace his dummy ass. When he was playing right winger, he was good, but incredibly frustrating, specially in european nights, and many times vs barca, missing simple 2 yard passes.

But his change of position corresponded with him reaching maturity and now his football is what it is now. he played incredible since the turn of this year, and that's what he has been since, a genuine top 10 player. I said so many times. Fabled players like Ozil or Mata everyone love are not even close.

Lord Spencer wrote:

Yohan Modric wrote:Not every Real Madrid fan said 'he only had 5 good months and therefore we won't miss him'.

Yohan Modric wrote:Di Maria played well for 5 months because he found his ideal position, which was LCM.

He was awful at RW.

That is basically what you just said. He only played "well" for 5 months @ LCM.

Before that, when he was RW, you said he was "awful".

Its a bloody fact that Di Maria played "well" much more than 5 months, and that he was not "awful" at RW.

My point is different though. I'm not saying he should have been sold just because he played well for 5 months. We should have kept him because he finally found his ideal position.

In terms of RW, he had the odd good moment, however he was mostly inconsistent and awful in a lot of games.