Let's give it up to bale, who has completely turned it around

his first touch should improve but he is a great footballer. limited, but great.

Player of the season so far. The other two should learn.

Kids should have Bale as their role model.

Arrived at Spurs as a teenager, playing LB, and famously was "cursed" as Spurs went like 20 games or something winless with him in the lineup. Nearly sold for a measly fee to some irrelevant EPL team and easily could have been forgotten forever. But he put his head down and worked hard and turned himself into one of the most dangerous LW's in the league. Then he improves his game again, learning how to play a free role/SS and becomes the EPL player of the year, developing one of the most dangerous long range shots in the world and also becoming a good free kick taker.

Gets a move to Madrid, has to adjust to a new league and spends a lot of time adapting. His style of play isn't conducive to La Liga, he's now another player in a star studded team, and people are calling him a flop. He looks like a headless chicken out there, always making the wrong decisions, losing the ball...people want him sold. Again, he never doubts himself, puts his head down and works hard and doesn't give up. Next thing you know, he's been the player of the season so far for Madrid, turning it around completely.

He's a player I have a fondness for. Yes, he still makes dumb decisions sometimes, and quite frankly he looks ridiculous, but you have to respect him. He's developed and redeveloped his game so many times, and because of this you can tell he's a hard worker, and mentally strong. I remember having to defend him time and time again back in the day, telling others that he's not a one trick pony, and I've always hoped he would go on to develop his game further. He's achieved all of that and fair play to him.

Way too soon slick.

A bit too soon...  he misses too many games due to injury.  One of the big reasons we've lost the league the past 2 seasons is that Bale has missed a ton of games and, since we had built a system that relied significantly on his talents...  we struggled during his absence.

It's interesting that when he was utter garbage...  the team didn't rely on him obviously so his absence wasn't felt much.  As a result, we won the most when he was at this worst.

Playing great.  But like Schneider and Robben during their injury-riddled years...  it means very little if you miss 1/3 of the season. When your competition loses so few points, you can't have a main cog's fitness be so unpredictable.

I expected to see a thread like this for Casemiro he has been really really good for you since zizou gave him a chance.

Casemiro was already good when Benitez gave him a chance. Zidane has not invented anything, main difference is that when he is benching Isco and James, it's accepted. When Benitez did it, he was an idiot. oh well, that's how it is

Very different imo...  Casemiro plays near the back 4 and Modric and Kroos are within 5-10 meters of him whenever he gets the ball.  I've also noticed that the fullbacks stay even with the ball until Modric or Kroos get it... and then they venture forward.

Casemiro isn't very good imo.  He just plays defense and is very limited technically.  Unlike Rafa, Zidane is actually setting things up so his lack of technique doesn't get exposed too badly... namely, he can release the ball quickly and simply.

Just to give you an example Devi...  think about How Juve compensated for Asemoah at LB so he was able to perform despite his issues.  Conte schemed it so that he could be effective. Same type of thing.

I am still not drinking that BS, not sure i will anytime soon. From a tactical standpoint, Zidane is not doing anything special. He started like by playing Kroos as pivote thinking he would make it work and that was a profound flop. Same conclusion Benitez had reached.

The difference comes in the way Zidane is getting the team to work again ala Carlo, they clearly have a much stronger feeling with him than they ever had with benitez. So by association, better performing players execute what they are asked to do much better. There is no great tactical revolution here in terms of how we are playing or defending.

There is no scheming, no grand underlying plan here you alone is seeing. You see as much as you want to believe is the chosen one.

Mr Nick09 wrote:Casemiro was already good when Benitez gave him a chance. Zidane has not invented anything, main difference is that when he is benching Isco and James, it's accepted. When Benitez did it, he was an idiot. oh well, that's how it is

You really will never stop defending benitez, huh?

I admire the consistency at least.

i don't consider this any type of turn around. is he playing better than last season? yes; but if he played any worse than he did last year then.... a turn around, a complete turn around should influence the team as well. granted we beat barcelona, he had an assist; a good one, and a good goal wrongfully disallowed. But, he's still missed a bunch of games this season, like he did last year, and the year before, and if he misses another chunk of games next season, we'll have to start looking at the market

for me, a turn around from bale should include performances that translate into the team doing better, and his fitness levels. i'm sorry i can't ignore a player missing so many games in a season. has he improved yes, a complete turn around? NO. i'm not sure any of our guys has done a complete turn around. i am still hoping for the turn around in our ucl campaign, by playing with the same dedication in el clasico. we should have played every game with that attitude

Playing every game with that attitude, we would end La liga with 114 points. you will need all the players to have the same fitness level as Ronaldo who never gets injured.

So much talk about how limited Casemiro is technically, but i see him making some long passes and accurate short passes, i see him weaving his way through some players and doing a few flicks once in a while. He is not meant to give an assist because of his distance from the 18 yard box and his proximity to the defense.

Are you aware he has an 88% pass success rate (90.2 la liga 87.1 UCL)? www.Whoscored.com

Ronaldo is a freak ...

It's out of topic but since few people already talked about Casemiro I'll give my opinion.

He plays exactly like be did under Benitez. I do not see any special position for him under Zidane. He was even better under Rafa I felt.

bale is playing as himself instead of competing for shine, look like he did when he initially started playing here, he has improved overall but same style, that thanks goes to rafa for shaking things up in attack.

sports stop trying to crap on casemiro to hype some french dm, he is good and can clearly improve.

on rafa the guy was on point as far has spotting the weaknesses in the team, like the attack being too centered on cr, isco/james in midfield is rubbish and ramos is a pleb, he tried to address it and lost the team, but a lot of things he left in place, zidane is benefiting from it whether people wanna acknowledge it or not.

if the team/media had truly tried to follow rafa plan, it would look a lot similar to what zidane is doing let be real about it.

chad4401 wrote:bale is playing as himself instead of competing for shine, look like he did when he initially started playing here, he has improved overall but same style, that thanks goes to rafa for shaking things up in attack.

sports stop trying to crap on casemiro to hype some french dm, he is good and can clearly improve.

on rafa the guy was on point as far has spotting the weaknesses in the team, like the attack being too centered on cr, isco/james in midfield is rubbish and ramos is a pleb, he tried to address it and lost the team, but a lot of things he left in place, zidane is benefiting from it whether people wanna acknowledge it or not.

if the team/media had truly tried to follow rafa plan, it would look a lot similar to what zidane is doing let be real about it.

I disagree. A big part of the turnaround is in the players' approach, which stems from their mentality, and which is something Rafa couldn't get right. The best tactics in the world wouldn't work without the proper mental approach to applying them.

navish that is wrong because no one can sit here and tell me that, rafa could get the best out of bale and benzema players who are highly criticized regularly, for not doing enough, so what did he do? he gave them a bigger role in the team to prove themselves, and the only player who upset about that was cr, but he couldn't do that for the rest of the team? yeah right not buying that, he was obviously up against it from the beginning.

@hala isco himself wants to be a scorer like not act like rafa is an idiot cause he tried, isco still continues to be useless with 3 different managers, nothing to do with rafa.

cr takes a lot of useless shots and I bet money that usb was more about shot selection than a how to score tutorial.

Not a chance chad. If it was rafa at el clasico, he would sub out benzema to put another defender the moment pique scored his goal. A man who wants to defend the moment we have a mere 1 goal lead has no place here.

I have utter disgust in how he handled Benzema. Benzema at his best is a man who scores and creates. Rafa tried to rip out his creative game in order to push his outdated bs tactics and benz stats reflect this. A mere 4 assists this late into the campaign. And btw at least 3 out of the 4 assists came after Zidane took charge. Benz dropping deep again where before he was found isolated upfront not getting involved in build up play, how insulting to suggest rafa madrid would look remotely similar.

Casemiro was already good in carlo's last season. Why he was loaned will remain a mystery but he was solid then and is the same level now. My only concerns with him is his needing to improve his technical skills so he can handle being pressed better and be able to contribute more than just simple passes.

No more bale at am bs is already a significant improvement.not much else needs to be said.

Was the point of this thread a jinx? Top kek.