Real Madrid vs Villarreal

#sellMarcelo #teamDanilo #teamGhoulam

Adit wrote:Same old story of last few years. We ended up drawing against another good team.

But since it's result that matters I can't complain.

It was obvious from the way we played against Sporting and Espanyol that it was just a matter of time before we drew or lost. So no surprise there. This time around Ronaldo's fk didn't go through and Morata's header was blocked. This is what you get when you rely solely on set-pieces and individual brilliance to win.

But even with this result, we're still top of the table, and more importantly, there are many positives we can draw from this game, mainly:

1. James and Kova are very reliable options.
2. Bale and James now tracks back constantly, which a huge upgrade.
3. Danilo at LB looks very solid, and can rotate with Marcelo every now and then.

What Z needs to do now is instruct our front three to make runs to open lanes so we can wriggle our way through defenses. It's so irritating for our midfielders to do all the work then when they want a little help from our forwards, they see them standing still behind a block of the opposition's players.

He should also make them play from the beginning as if they were losing and were trying to get back into the game. I really don't understand why we always wait until we concede to start playing with grit. That should change.

Anyway, bad result, but it's not too late to turn things around.

If Z wants to keep his job he should understand that individual brilliance and set-pieces can only take you so far. Make your forwards work in a way to open space and make life easier for your midfielders.

Ronaldo, Bale, and Benzema all looked unfit. I could see starting one, maybe two of them but all three was a mistake IMO.

James I thought put in some good crosses, but overall did not look to control the ball as he normally does. Villarreal didn't allow a lot of space but I think he could have done better.

Our CB pairing was the nightmare of the night. Varane looked out of sorts in the first half, Ramos got the idiotic handball which lead to their goal, but at least did well to equalize.

Kovacic, Kroos, Carvajal, and Danilo all played pretty well though. Those four I feel really used the 80% possession to our advantage, but the unfit attacking 3 I felt didn't do enough off of the ball or on the ball to create space.

In retrospect I would have started Morata and Lucas who are both in really good form, and brought Benz/Bale off the bench as they clearly look like they cannot play 90 minutes.

lost opportunity to put 5 points on our direct rivals and based on results vs those teams recently in la Liga. Very bad result but hey we are still undefeated and CL winner And of course Zidane made no mistake, how could he. Cruyff's heir

Yes, this was a golden opportunity to widen the gap, and we'll regret dropping those two points later.

But if I'm being totally honest with you, even if we had won, I would've still been worried because our performance leaves a lot to be desired.

There are just too many weaknesses to sweep under the rug: A static BBC who always stand still behind the opposition's defense and wait for our midfielders to figure out how to magically pass them the ball. And with the exception of Bale; Ronaldo and Benzema almost never defend or press. They did today in scattered moments, but that was only when were losing and were trying to get back into the game.

And make no mistake, this was a carbon copy of the Sporting game, the same scenario: a late free-kick from Ronaldo and a header from Morata. Only this time the outcome was different and the ball didn't go in.

So is Z going to remedy this problem? Or is he going to be content with relying solely on set-pieces and individual brilliance? If he's not going to make BBC play the way they should offensively, I'm afraid nothing will ever change and we'll lose out on La Liga yet another time.

he cannot make them play 'the way they should'. they've been like this for years; an alternative formation, different personnel, may remedy the situation. but you're not just going to inspire guys (who are either 30 or close to it) to stop what they know, to start doing the right things. ancelotti, mou, more seasoned coaches, couldn't do it when the players were younger.

i thought all the subs once again brought in the right spark, too little too late. and asenjo was solid in goal. obviously that defense is a disaster waiting to happen. any solution the team brings up must not ignore the less than stellar back-line, and the fact some of our players can just get injured from getting out of bed in the morning

Nick, no one is saying that Pep heir crap except you. It's not even banter if it comes from one butthurt poster.

sports said he studied under pep and bielsa

im just having fun with this, a few days ago, everything was ok so long as we were winning games, but hey, playing bad football against quality teams makes you exposed to losses or dropped points in the league.

i mean we lost 7 leagues in the past 8 years, you think we would have a clue. What''s frustrating is that despite getting a manager that the team likes, on the product offered to us, we are not getting any closer to consistently playing better as a team. Which is what i am arguing for, it's not just an aesthetic value, there are sound principles that go with making better usage of the ball and ball circulation in general from defense to attack that will make us a better team.

and if im poking fun at Sports it's because i am pretty sure he understood this, thought Zidane would make improvements in that regard and now that he is not, he is too focused on defending him due to his personal bias (which he admitted that's how he is and will never change) as opposed to criticizing him for the lack of advancement of this team. All the blaming around players being stuck in the euros and what not, short preseason etc, is a bunch of excuses.

Unlucky draw nothing to panic about, should've won tbh that pen was horrible, also cr really needs to get a grip ffs, he is getting older and makes the same shit decisions, for the sake of stats just pass the freaking ball in a simple 1-2 smfh.

Seriously enough of benzema doesn't press crap, its an outright lie at this point, you saying he never pressed at all this season or last season? Just man up and call cr out by himself, stop trying to lump them together because your butthurt, I don't know how you guys can lie about this stuff for years, when everyone watched the same game every week, does benz still make bad runs too?

Not sure about runs but he did miss two easy goals.

I drop by to see how this place is doing and i see chad is still up to his loveable benzemantics :p

Having said that, football played under zizou is cancerous, only thing he's learned from pep is hair loss and redundancy at press conferences. hope we get results anyways.

jk

Just like the last game the subs came on too late. I cant fault the effort of the team. Villarreal weren't interesred in winning. They did enough to not lose

I dont like our first halves these past few games. Our game against LaReal remains the best game we have played this season. We were great in both halves. We were saved this time by the draw in the other game we can't keep conceding these silly goals and penalties every single game. We need a team effort in defence from the front down and atm it seems that only Bale of the front line is pulling his weight the other two.......no comments

Hala, remember that the same things were happening last season as well. We were playing poorly in first half, Zidane would scream at them at halftime and then they would wake up.

He said in press conference last night that they are starting games too relaxed. He wants them to start with the same intensity as in the 2nd half and sustain it for 90 minutes. We'll see this weekend if his screaming before games wakes them up!

Unlucky draw.

I trust we will do better next week.

halamadrid2 wrote:Just like the last game the subs came on too late. I cant fault the effort of the team. Villarreal weren't interesred in winning. They did enough to not lose

yea, he took so long to bring on morata, who should have started by the way.

ronaldo was terrible. i think this is it for him. he seems so much slower, his reaction time is also remarkable slower.

danilo was great at left back. kroos is wasted in the deep role.

casemiro's injured, so kroos right now just has to play the deep role...i don't like it, infact i hate it, cos that back up dm spot can't be addressed anytime soon with this ban. it is what it is.

Seriously if the team had won this game, you guys would save this negativity for the next match, its just draw an unlucky one thank to varane mistake, nothing more nothing less, I'm getting tired of reading these stupid post from posters playing politics, cause they don't like certain players playing its obvious, wonder how many years before you lot realize bashing the team over every game, not gonna change the tactics or starting 11.... disgusting fanbase can't remember the last time I have seen a post without a hidden agenda behind it, freaking bench warmer morata being treated like a world beater, when he couldn't over come mandzukic ffs, now he is benz competition .

Gonna visit this section after the team wins a trophy just to read the back tracking and have a laugh.