CL R16: Real Madrid - Paris Saint Germain

There is literally no way that Madrid is going to let kids with no big club experience at all take over and become the core of the team. None. Makes no sense. If you think being 3rd is bad... play kids like that and you can easily end up 6th or 7th.

This isn't the club to develop unknown players and prospects without any hint of top level ability.

Modric and Kroos are going to be replaced by Kova (maybe) and a high priced transfer. The BBC is going to be replaced by 2 if not 3 high priced transfers. Once Ramos is done, we're going to go buy the best CB we can buy to replace him. Etc.

The only one I can see us taking a chance on is Lucas Hernandez because he's really talented. I don't see any great talent with the others.

yeah i would agree with sports here, the club wont take chances if there is no need to do so. As much as having kids is nice, and it can pay off at times, it's all about having those elite guys.

The one thing i would wanna see tested is Isco in midfield with Kroos and Casemiro, Isco is good enough but he doesnt have a clear role, which impacts his form at times. He might never settled into a clear role with us, but i hope otherwise.

Problem with CB is you wanna find a natural leader, and that's hard to come. There are a bunch of young talented CBs in europe now but picking one is not easy

Agreed. As much as I love to see Llorente and Ceballos become our starting mids (to which they honestly have the talent to do), the moment some midfield maestro becomes available, we are gonna go for him. Theo can very much replace Marcelo as our next LB but if something better shows up, Theo is gonna have to fight up with that fool. Nature of the beast that is Real Madrid, been like that since Don Bernabeu was around. Read he is the one who instilled that sort of mentality too.

But yeah, Kova is definitely gonna be our new midfield dynamo. Casemiro is still a fking enigma and Kroos and Isco are gonna have duke it out. Feel Isco might win this one due to Nationality.

Am I the only one who doesn't see Kovacic as our replacement midfielder? Come on guys, he doesn't offer the calmness on the ball that both Modric and Kroos do...

We need someone like De Bruyne to replace Modric instead... That's real Madrid quality.

Regardless of him being a future replacement midfielder or not, he's only 23 years old and I'd prefer if he stays at the club for now.

Thimmy wrote:Regardless of him being a future replacement midfielder or not, he's only 23 years old and I'd prefer if he stays at the club for now.

Couldn't agree more. He is a perfect sub player for me but that's as far as he goes imo. Gundogan and others are better imo. His average passing statistic for example is very bad compared to other top midfielders... He simply isn't as calm on the ball as others are.

I agree. He seems quite rash in his decision-making and you don't get the sense that he's got the situation under control. That might be a result of him being tried out in different roles than his preferred one, though. He's had to shoulder a lot of defensive duties recently, and that was never his forte in the past. He's still young and I believe he's still considered one of the most talented prospects in Europe, so for once, It'd be nice if we could manage to keep him, as opposed to potentially seeing him develop into an established player at a different club. If he turns out to be a dud, then at least we've had a solid backup player. I appreciate his work-rate.

Back to the beginning if this decussion.

I said ‘for this summer’ the only moves the club needed to make was replacements for Benz, Bale, Majoral and Achraf, whereas Sports said we needed a complete overall because of too many thirty year olds!

Ramos, Modric, Marcelo and Ronaldo aren’t going anywhere this summer. Maybe Navas, but that’s all.

I say that is why the club will give Vallejo, Theo, Ceballos, Llorente and even Asensio another year to develop and show what they have to offer.

https://youtu.be/vf2JW76I9J8

futbol_bill wrote:Back to the beginning if this decussion.

I said ‘for this summer’ the only moves the club needed to make was replacements for Benz, Bale, Majoral and Achraf, whereas Sports said we needed a complete overall because of too many thirty year olds!

Ramos, Modric, Marcelo and Ronaldo aren’t going anywhere this summer. Maybe Navas, but that’s all.

I say that is why the club will give Vallejo, Theo, Ceballos, Llorente and even Asensio another year to develop and show what they have to offer.

I guess u can also put Benzema in the not going anywhere category

Mr Nick09 wrote:

futbol_bill wrote:Back to the beginning if this decussion.

I said ‘for this summer’ the only moves the club needed to make was replacements for Benz, Bale, Majoral and Achraf, whereas Sports said we needed a complete overall because of too many thirty year olds!

Ramos, Modric, Marcelo and Ronaldo aren’t going anywhere this summer. Maybe Navas, but that’s all.

I say that is why the club will give Vallejo, Theo, Ceballos, Llorente and even Asensio another year to develop and show what they have to offer.

I guess u can also put Benzema in the not going anywhere category

God I hope not! Thanks for ruining my day Nick!

Sh*t @Nick. This from Zidane today, “People who know futbol, also know that Benzema is very good”!

Take aways from this:

- if Zidane is coach, Benz stays!!
- we all, know nothing about futbol!
- that quote is almost identical to Chad’s?? Is there any chance Chad was actually Zidane?

He's just defending his own players. We need him to be confident if he is going to recover.

we've waited a whole season for him to recover. Yet nothing. ZZ should give him the Benitez treatment

I don’t know if you guys remember but he has been worse and recovered. Benz has a fragile mentality but he needs trust and comfort to thrive

Trust and comfort, the club got rid of Higuain for him. Should have kept Morata to compete with Benzema but nope, got rid of him too. Benzema is the most comfortable forward playing now and yet, he is still shit.

I do not know why Madrid fans still holding on to this "link up play" line. Benzema is finished and all anyone can hope for is he has those unicorn esque matches where he looks like a decent striker.

On form he is one of our deadliest strikers we've had, especially in big games. That's why we sold Higuain for him. Higuain was the opposite - horrible in big games. Morata I can't defend, we should have kept him as a backup...

Because we had Higuain competing with him, of course he had to raise his game. Who is competing with Benzema? Not a soul, he is in such a comfortable place right now as a player. No, I'm done with Benzema and the club should have moved on 2 years ago.

Love the excuses and your enthusiasm in defending him, guest. I respect your opinion, but unfortunately, I disagree with you.

Benzema sucks so much he sometimes makes my eyes water. Bless him, he has reached a level of suckage that puts vacuum cleaners to shame. I mean he sucks more than anything that has ever sucked before...and that includes Nickelback and The Jonas Brothers.

I think Benzema has been linking up very well these past weeks and aside from his finishing, which is clear as day a mental issue, he has been good.

Nothing wrong with selling Morata for silly money, he's complete average and basically about good enough for a Wolfsburg or maybe Leverkusen level team. Why do you think Chelsea slid from 1st to 5th when the only change in the team is Morata for Diego Costa?
Getting 80m € for him was daylight robbery.

Not getting a replacement is another story. I think this will all change in summer though.

Selling Mariano was the real *bleep* up TBH

Mariano asked to leave.

Benzema may suck now but he's the best madrid n9 in the last 10 years. Better than Ronaldo phenomeno, Higuain and Morata .

LeBéninois wrote:Benzema may suck now but he's the best madrid n9 in the last 10 years. Better than Ronaldo phenomeno, Higuain and Morata .

When did he convince you that he was the best number 9 we've had over the past decade, if you don't mind me asking? I'm trying to make sense of that statement, but I struggle to remember a period of time when he was consistent enough to warrant such high praise. He was immense back in 14-15, but that was the height of his career and his performance level hasn't been anywhere near that peak before or since then. Come to think of it, I suppose he's been the #9 at this club over the past 10 years, so I guess that argument does makes sense. There hasn't really been much competition, though and I think the issue with him is that when he's out of form, he's neither here nor there, in terms of providing link up play or goals/overall performance.

Definitely not as good as Ronaldo, at all. I would gladly take Ronaldo over Benzema and yes, I mean the post 2002 Ronaldo. As for the ten years argument, um, 2008 - 2018, sure, Big Ben can make a genuine claim for the best n9 we had over that time period. He definitely last the longest so he'll have the numbers to back it up.