2018 / 2019 season prediction

Expecting a 30-yo washed up Benzema to somehow become a hero is ludicrous. It's like I would expect Sturridge to score 15 goals next season. Would be such a nice story, but just won't happen.

But Real Madrid is in a fascinating situation. Ronaldo's gone and some key players are aging, one or two big signings needed... but the market is kinda dry. Whatever happens, there's bound to plenty of RM talking points this season.

This Benz’ raves by the current and former fanboys (actually not sure where Guest fits in this as he was a Ronaldo fan boy), reminds me of the previous Benz - Higuain discussions / wars. Most of us know that Benz only got the Madrid job because of Higuain’s back injury (plus whatever pictures etc he has over Flo). If we look at both in hind sight, it’s obvious both have severe flaws and certainly are not elite, but also obvious Higuain has had the better career.

But not to worry, I’m sure Benz will surprise us all just as soon as hell freezes over!

Art Morte wrote:Expecting a 30-yo washed up Benzema to somehow become a hero is ludicrous. It's like I would expect Sturridge to score 15 goals next season. Would be such a nice story, but just won't happen.

But Real Madrid is in a fascinating situation. Ronaldo's gone and some key players are aging, one or two big signings needed... but the market is kinda dry. Whatever happens, there's bound to plenty of RM talking points this season.

My point exactly.  Madrid have their backs against the wall now. Why would you sell Ronaldo when you have no alternatives available? And more importantly, why would you refuse to strengthen the squad now when it's in dire need of strengthening? And here's another one, who in their right mind would trust Benzema in his current pathetic sorry state to be the main man up top? He had 12 goals in all competitions last term. 12 freaking goals, Art. And they want him to be the main man, Art? Should I bang my head against the wall or what? Like, seriously?

He doesn't guarantee goals. He doesn't track back. He doesn't defend and he doesn't press. He also has developed a habit of missing sitters for fun and with Ronaldo gone, his so-called link-up play is useless.

Why the f is he still here?!

I honestly thought he would be sold immediately after the season's end. Instead, I woke up to see that Florentino sold his main goalscorer, kept Benzema and refused to buy anybody else to even compete with this waste of skin.

I really don't know which Florentino family member Benzema is holding hostage, but that's the only explanation for this masquerade.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:

futbol_bill wrote:DoC, I can see that you don’t know of previous poster. He ‘s our version of Harmonica!

You're absolutely right. I shouldn't have dignified his nonsensical, delusional verbal diarrhea with a response.

I just have to get used to the fact that we have Chad 2.0 now

I have been in Benz's corner long before that idiot chad had a clue what Benz was all about. and unlike chad I ain't afraid to call out Benz on his performances. He has his shit moments for certain but his good moments make it worthwhile. enjoy your bubble. The fact that you are digging deep to your feelings rather than facing reality... you have my pity.

Benz's best years as a player have been under Carlo and Zidane. you only seem to rating his goalscoring hala. benz is and always had been more than just a cf. its why i have patience with him. creative, technical players with flair must always be given patience. and with the lack of quality avsilable in the market plus PSG, it makes more sense to keep Benz for better or worse.

for me personally, I would have sold off Benz if we could replace him with Mbappe and Martial in the same summer but neither ain't coming. oh well. Unlike the majority of my fellow madridistas, I always see the bigger picture. i never lost the plot.

@ guest peeps are tired and loathe the big benz. the lack of respect usually follows such thinking.

I am reminded of when I had to defend Raul. These two have given Real Madrid a great service over the years and the disrespect shown to both near the end of their respective careers at Real Madrid never ceases to piss me off.  I bet it'll be the same when it's bale's turn. I remember the good times. I ain't turning my back on them. not after what they accomplished with us. not on raul back then. not on Benz now. and not on Bale in the future.

But enough of this lets get bwck on topic

We have an elite backline, the best midfield, and even with CR7 gone we still have Benz and Bale. we need one more signing up front as we are lacking depth and bale is injury prone. perhaps vinicius will surprise us. we are aging squad no doubt but time will tell whether we will age like fine wine or rotten milk. AC Milan won a CL in 2007 with a not so young squad too. so its not far from impossible. Lopetegui will have his work cut out for him this upcoming  season. we lost a Kommander but we must move forward. Real Madrid cannot slow down.

The biggest question for us is how the world cup hangover will affect us.  happens every world cup. those who played in it play a step slower and more sluggish the following season. something to watch out for.

luckily Benz and Bale didnt go. so our frontline should be raring to go for a change. hopefully we aren't affected by the hangover too badly.

It's funny to see the things that happen day to day in Madrid though. Vinicius has apparently impressed the coaching staff and the club feel comforted in their decision to invest in big talents to avoid having to spend 200 mil everytime they want a winger. Few days after we see Rodrygo going viral with an assist. So they feel even more confident this is the way to go and knowing he will be here next summer you want to be careful not to overload the attacking positions.

I think this is why you saw us going cold on Hazard, we tried to meet his people but Chelsea asked for 225 mil, in this context, they like hazard but they don't like him that much. So guys like Asensio, Bale and Isco will be asked to step up now + Vinicius and Vasquez, this is still an excellent line of wingers.

And to answer DoC, I dont think the club is feeling like their back is against the wall actually. I had the same opinion before but their reaction suggests otherwise. They won 3 CLs in a row, are we in a trophy and bust situation as a club? Perez does not seem to fear the socios reaction or he is really confident we will do well.

But at the same time I understand his predicament with making signing. Market is dry and he doesn't want to overspend for average talent. But Icardi had a clause at 115 mil which imo was reasonable for a young CF, but even that is too much for his scourging report?

icardi aint worth the money nick. 70 million maybe in this inflated market but 110m? even Florentino would laugh. rather get Cavani who is superior in both ability and value.

Especially when we got vinicius and soon Rodrygo. our policy has not changed. the time of galatico signings are over. the time to invest in youth who can become galacticos is now. the only way we break this policy is if there is an extraordinary deal that is too good to pass up... or if we can sign a top 3 player. Nerman is too expensive and psg not willing to sell. we screwed up on mbappe.

There cannot be any room for error. we must spend wisely as we are no longer the richest around.

I hope vinicius explodes in preseason.

the time for galactico signings is far from over, what are you talking about?

If you could have, we would effortless drop 300 mil on Neymar or Mbappe. If Kane was available we would have spent to sign him. what we wont do is signing players at inflated market value like barca spent 150 mil for Dembele. how laughable was that. this is what we wont do, so if we feel like Hazard is not worth 225 mil, we wont overspend to sign him

Mr Nick09 wrote:the time for galactico signings is far from over, what are you talking about?

If you could have, we would effortless drop 300 mil on Neymar or Mbappe. If Kane was available we would have spent to sign him. what we wont do is signing players at inflated market value like barca spent 150 mil for Dembele. how laughable was that. this is what we wont do, so if we feel like Hazard is not worth 225 mil, we wont overspend to sign him

yes we're being smart. before we weren't so prudent. we would burn cash faster than we could count it. now? we're much more patient and careful. you forget the history of the term galactico. for some it means a star signing for ithers it also means a completely unnecessary waste of money on one we dont even need. think michael owen for example.

james is the most recent example of this. we didnt need him. and his transfer was money wasted. We're doing our due diligence this time around. quite different from years before. i disagree nick. the time of galactico signings are over. we aint spending for the sake of spending no more.

No again, wrong, we never signed scrubs for excessive money, what are you talking about?

James is a fantastic player, he did not work because Zidane made other choices.

James IS fantastic. there is no doubt about that.
but he was unnecessary. and even now he has no place on this team. Isco has proven to be his better and we also have asensio to consider. there is no room for him. because again, he was unnecessary. Zidane made the right choices. we're successful because of the choices he made.

still a waste of money and unnecessary. would you bring james back right now if you could? I wouldn't.

Doc wrote:Only Turok really thinks of Benzema highly enough to believe he would, all of sudden, become a WC  player just like that but who knows. Maybe he'll magically turn into his 2012-2013 self again. Notice I used the word "magically" as I can only see sorcery getting involved.

I'm also definitely not as doom and gloom as my polar opposite twin DoC who I believe would curse out Perez if he sees him at any course during his day. A CF would really be ideal but if not, well, the club would use what it has and, quite frankly, it's still a World Class team.

clearly reading comprehension is a problem in this section. "was" is past tense damn it. Benzema was a wc cf. WAS. means not anymore! and even then he is still better than the jabronies in the market.

Benz will not return to the benz of old. he has declined too much and he is getting more inconsistent has the seasons go by.

form is temporary class is permanent is true but that class is becoming more rare with benzema as he continues his decline. CL last year he showed glimpses that he aint done yet but it doesnt change the fact that based on the wc standards that he set himself, the last 2 years have been abysmal compared to his former self. he is a shadow of himself.

Lopetegui's system change may improve Benz's performance but it will not return what time has taken away from him. hes not getting any younger. i am not under any illusion: he has to do better this year. especially with CR7 gone. responsibilities must change. he must take more responsibility if we are to be successful this year. thankfully he is as intelligent as ever and in training it looks like he looks like he will continue on from liverpool game.

but training and competitive games are two different things. Benz always had the class and the talent to silence his doubters but he has to prove it on the pitch.
we will have to see this preseason and the upcoming season whether Benz will continue his class from the later stages of the champion league or reveal his time here is finally coming to an end.

Doc wrote:Oh no, I wasn't talking about what you have been writing, I am actually saying you are probably the only poster who still believes Benz would become WC. That has nothing to do with this thread or any thread, just my belief. I read fine, shit.

Like how I believe Sports is still in awe of Benzema but is just hurting.

kek. Then you are mad. Benz was world class years ago.
Benz has declined to a point where he can no longer be considered world class. and its only a matter of time before he will decline to a point where he will no longer be considered an elite. his intelligence, technique, and big game morments are his saving grace but his technique i feel has been leaving him somehow as the years go by. when he picked up his game towards the end of the season, I thought maybe he wasnt finished quite yet. but who knows for sure?

I have observed Benzema closely ever since he came here. I enjoyed his best moments. i raged at his worst. tbh I expected him to leave us since when carlo first lifted the cl trophy returning us back to the big time. his purpose here was long since fulfilled. the fact that he stayed so long left me to question his role and go deeper into why he was so unchallenged. my conclusion became my observations of the modern cf. an incomplete theory to be more completed with my next upcoming theory the rise of the wide forward which adds to my tboughts on the modern cf plus of the changes of football and tactics in 2018.

Modric will join training a week early to be ready for the Uefa SuperCup against Pathetico.

Brilliant dedication

Or he's either tired of thinking about the ass-kicking France put on him... or he doesn't want to stay in Croatia too long as he's facing jail time due to perjury in the tax fraud trial of Zdravko Mamic, a former executive director at Dinamo Zagreb. He lied in court.

Better to leave lol.

What's with this hostility towards Modric, sports?

Lmao wtf

We don't talk about it but Modric was not hugely popular in Croatia before his world Cup heroics. His perjury is a serious offense that could land him in jail. We will see if they pull some third world BS and get him off lol

He is a national treasure now. I have no doubt in my mind that he'll be let off

Isco is back in training early. That's Lucas, Asensio, Nacho, Isco and Kroos all back before we depart for the ICC in America. Hopefully they'll get some minutes in the second game v PSG. Doubt they'll be picked for Wednesday's game. That's far too early for them. Excited to see how the frontline will shape up now that Isco Disco has joined. Hopefully we see Asensio on the right. No use having him on the left now that Ronaldo is gone

don't you mean the left?
CR7 didn't play on the right.

Nice to see isco and asensio make their return. we will get a bigger picture of their roles soon.

No I meant Asensio on the left playing as an out and out winger putting crosses in. It was good while we had monster Ronaldo. Don't think high crosses is of use to us next season. So would prefer Asensio to get involved more from the right cutting in

Squad for US friendlies:

Goalkeepers: Navas, Casilla, Zidane and Lunin.

Defenders: Carvajal, Vallejo, Ramos, Nacho, Theo, Odriozola, Reguilon, Quezada, Sergio Lopez, Javi Sanchez, De la Fuente and Leon.

Midfielders: Kroos, Llorente, Asensio, Isco, Ceballos, Odegaard, Valverde, Seoane, Oscar and Feuillassier.

Strikers: Benzema, Bale, Lucas Vazquez, Mayoral, De Tomas and Vinicius.

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Navas, Ramos and Carvajal are already in US so will join the group there. Only Marcelo, Casemiro, Varane, Kova and Modric left. I need to stop making fun of them but that striker list

That's a whole lotta defenders ffs

halamadrid2 wrote:I need to stop making fun of them but that striker list

Guaranteed to strike fear into the most courageous