Real Madrid UCL Group Stage 2019

According to Marca Rodrygo might be starting in attack

Official

Thibu
Carvajal Varane Ramos Marcelo
Valverde Casemiro Kroos
Rodrygo Benzema Hazard

how is hazard playing now has he been back to his best.

Perucho21 wrote:Official

Thibu
Carvajal Varane Ramos Marcelo
Valverde Casemiro Kroos
Rodrygo Benzema Hazard

Marcelo

Unique wrote:how is hazard playing now has he been back to his best.

He hasn’t been very productive. He tried to look unnecessarily flashy at the start, and it resulted in a lot of lost possession. Since then, he’s scored a goal, but hasn’t done much else worth pointing out.

Thimmy wrote:

Unique wrote:how is hazard playing now has he been back to his best.

He hasn’t been very productive. He tried to look unnecessarily flashy at the start, and it resulted in a lot of lost possession. Since then, he’s scored a goal, but hasn’t done much else worth pointing out.

next season i think you will see the best of him. when he gets to know what weakness the defenders have he will start roasting them.

Goal by Kroos great set up by Hazard

Galatasaray have matched our poor defending, so far This might turn out to be a high-scoring game.

We've got to be one of the worst teams on the counter

ZZ has found his midfield formulae at last. I think Valverde makes the midfielder stronger. He doesn't have a very strong side but he is a jack of all trades kind of player

We need another goal. I shit myself everytims Gala send a ball into our box. Wont survive another half

I honestly can't believe this ended 1-0

We defend like sunday league team. Honestly, very little teamwork. Players going after the same player etc

Valverde better have been injured. We were bunkered in our half after he went out

Jovic coming on was a useless sub. Should have been James for Rodrygo and Valverde staying on

Hazard is very weak mentally. How many times has he been in good shooting positions and just passed the buck

I’m more worried about our defense. Our defensive organization was horrendous in this match. Absolutely amateur-level defending at times. Courtois was surprisingly good. We could’ve easily conceded a few goals due to positional errors by Varane and Marcelo mostly.

Actually the positional errors were mostly from Ramos.  He's too aggressive and Varane doesn't have the pace to cover the space anymore.  He needs to stay in better position.

Ramos is starting to show his age on set pieces too btw.  He kept getting beat in the air.  He's lost some of his jumping ability so he needs to get closer to the defender since guys are literally jumping over him.

We're just used to Ramos winning all the physical battles and Varane's pace covering open space if needed... both aren't at that level. So everyone needs to play positional defense better.

Finishing was awful.  We should have scored 6 lol.

Valverde's work rate is outstanding.

Benzema and Hazard missing chances. Very poor.

The problem is Marcelo. Ramos has to aways cover for him. Ramos is being pulled left and that affects the entire defence.

Marcelo didn't even offer that much in attack. Most of his passes where wayward.

We really don't need a 10 when benzema is playing. He is the 10. This is why Hazard and Isco is overkill. And he is better then Hazard and especially Isco as a 10. They both hold on to the ball too long and do not fit this team at all. without benzema this team would not win a game.

I keep seeing from message boards and forums that zidane doesn't have a style.. He does but it won't work with this team.

The idea zizou has in mind is to move the ball side to side to exploit gaps, and create overloads in the opponents half via the full backs. The wingers need to be both good at finishing and crossing. It's similar to how man city play, but much more direct and the fullbacks have enormous responsibility. Our rise and fall has pretty much come from Marcelo and Carvajal peaking and then declining. Notice that.
Zidane tried going from the 4312 to the 433 because our fullbacks are pretty much average, besides mendy, so some responsiblity goes to the wingers. Well, it doesn't work like that, because now no one is in the box, and we look  stupid crossing the ball to no one over and over again
Not to mention we have a like for like replacement for kroos in James as of now, due to James's hard work in training, but if Valverde or Casemiro go down, we are toast.
The issue is that Zidane is clearly not the best when it comes to coaching, at least not yet.

I'm going to go on a limb and say Bale is pretty much our most important player. Without him we lack directness. The closest thing we have to him is rodrygo in terms of style.

        Coutrois
Carvajal Militao/Varane Ramos Mendy
              Casemiro
      Kroos         Valverde
Bale          Benz         Rodrygo

This is our best line up by far. If zidane can suck his pride up and keep benching big names, I think we will get back on track. And he needs to fire that stupid fitness coach we have.. Some of the exercises the players were doing were pathetic.. leg press jumps.. really?!

Don't see how using your brain and playing unselfish make you 10, always found that statement weird but anyway, good win sloppy finishing.

rodrygo should definitely be ahead of vini, he is even younger and plays more mature, came into the game much more in the second half, hope he keeps it up seem more level headed, as I said vini is screwing the team not because of pressure but to standout he is not a team player, watch him end up midtable in a couple years if he does wise up soon.

Kroos needs to try and make more defense splitting passes, only valverde is fearlessly passing the ball forward cause he ain't worried about his passing%, the crosses from the wings are really poor outside of bale, more 1-2 around the box and linking up would solve these issues.

Good to see hazard finally trying to play with benzema, instead of trying to compete with him for goals, more combination plays the easier is it, to break down teams cause dwelling on the ball just gonna give the opposition time to setup.

Zz has no real tactics come now, solari run was more impressive but he kept getting belittled by the trash media in madrid, who would rather try to destabilize the team for one player who they knew sucks, all this zz needs certain players in another spin from fans and media, who just want certain transfers, don't see why zz needs a special type of players for the team to not look unorganized, its funny he knows the players strength and weakness, and he still can't get them play properly for a couple games.

why would Pogba and mbappe suddenly make the team 10x better cause pace and dribbling? That seem to be answer of everything.

Having players like Isco and James in the squad is so useless today, specially for how we play football today. Replace both by let's say Pogba and Odegaard, and add a back up DM and this squad becomes infinitely better.

Stability in midfield is what has failed us so far this season and I can see what Zidane envisions for his Madrid with more clarity today and it's really going to come down to personnel.

My well documented disliking of what Pogba brings to the table aside, do you think it’s worth taking a risk on bringing him over and assuming that Zidane can turn his form around? And if so, I have my doubts about both him and Ødegaard functioning to their strengths in the same team, as both of them like to go forward. It would likely have to be one or the other. Pogba doesn’t track back reliably and seemingly gets demotivated when told to do so on a regular basis, so we’d have to replace Kroos with someone (Kante ideally) as well.

Yall go in on courtois when hes shit every game, give him some praise when he does well. He had a solid game... according to the highlights at least

How do I put it.. his performance against Galatasaray was certainly a step up from his usual standard for us. Some of his saves were great, even. That said, they didn’t test his most glaring weaknesses, and while he deserves praise for this isolated performance, he really needs to show some consistency - because ultimately, that’s all that matters.

Thimmy wrote:My well documented disliking of what Pogba brings to the table aside, do you think it’s worth taking a risk on bringing him over and assuming that Zidane can turn his form around? And if so, I have my doubts about both him and Ødegaard functioning to their strengths in the same team, as both of them like to go forward. It would likely have to be one or the other. Pogba doesn’t track back reliably and seemingly gets demotivated when told to do so on a regular basis, so we’d have to replace Kroos with someone (Kante ideally) as well.

yes absolutely, what has not changed is that be is a supremely talented player at an aimless club playing for nothing. If you want to argue that Kante would be a better pick I have no problem with that.

I am just thinking outloud about us potentially improving the team with a few replacements, specially if Zidane is still around.

As much as I’d prefer Kante over Pogba, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that, if we do bring Pogba over, I think it will take more than just the transition from «an aimless club» to one with a more clear goal and ambition, to make him perform as well as I at least would expect him to perform. His standard of performance over these past 3 years don’t cut it, as the performance level that has elevated his reputation have been too infrequent to make a long-term difference, and his bottom level is simply so poor that he could be replaced by practically anyone who can make a simple pass.

If we’re going to make him perform to the best of his ability, or to minimize the possibility that he gets demotivated, we would need to have a tactical setup similar to that of France or Juventus with Vidal and Pirlo supporting him.  From what I can tell, he needs the freedom to go forward at will and the privilege of being able to leave «the dirty work» to others, otherwise he sways between impulse-based performance levels. I don’t buy the argument that this is purely based on Man United being a shitty club, he doesn’t necessarily perform well when the rest of their team does. It would obviously be fantastic if he performs more consistently next to Kroos, but whenever I simulate that scenario in my mind, it looks like a frustrating shit show with Casemiro being weighed down even further in his defensive duties. Man United may be an underwhelming team, but he’s certainly let them down more than his fair share of times when he could’ve made the difference by performing just decently well. The distance between being «an ace» and a liability is short when a player doesn’t track back and also don’t produce anything going forward, let alone manage to recycle possession.

I would hope we take the necessary precautions to ensure that he doesn’t drop down to that level as often as he has been doing, because the standard of expectations towards him will obviously be greater. We’ve seen Bale perform quite awfully for 80+ minutes in the past and then celebrate a penalty or tap-in goal as if he just saved the world. You may get away with doing so at United, but Real Madrid fans don’t have anywhere near that level of patience.

Mr Nick09 wrote:Having players like Isco and James in the squad is so useless today, specially for how we play football today. Replace both by let's say Pogba and Odegaard, and add a back up DM and this squad becomes infinitely better.

Stability in midfield is what has failed us so far this season and I can see what Zidane envisions for his Madrid with more clarity today and it's really going to come down to personnel.

What is zz scheme assuming he finally get those players to come? More cut backs for them shoot instead of modric or kroos?

As I see it this mou all over again I can't win unless I have a extra special player that fit my plan, when in reality even if he had that player the results would be the same cause it's the same tactics.

End of day can't see why zz can't get more out of these players right now, it's too easy to throw players under the bus, when tactics are trash everything depends on the players decision making, same struggle defending, build up and attacking regardless combinations, but ode and Pogba solve all this based on sweet dribbling skills.

Zz wanted hazard for years and now he is here just doing whatever, and everything looks the same in attacks anyway, there needs to be a proper plan.

@thimmy, it's hard to disagree with your points. I think Pogba is clearly not the type of player that will consistently lead and be the best player of the team. I don't expect him to be that. The way I look at this situation is just from the point of view that as long as Zidane is at the club, we will go for Pogba and next summer with a year left on his deal it's as good a time as any to sign him. It's just likely, all things being the same as today that he ends up a Madrid player.

Mr Nick09 wrote:@thimmy, it's hard to disagree with your points. I think Pogba is clearly not the type of player that will consistently lead and be the best player of the team. I don't expect him to be that. The way I look at this situation is just from the point of view that as long as Zidane is at the club, we will go for Pogba and next summer with a year left on his deal it's as good a time as any to sign him. It's just likely, all things being the same as today that he ends up a Madrid player.

Well, that’s unavoidable I guess. I just like to think that Zidane has a more elaborate plan than «bring Pogba in, make him happy, he play like for France, we play like France». If we bring in no one but Pogba and he performs predictably poorly over the majority of the season, then I’ll just go on a hiatus from watching our matches until Zidane is sacked for incompetence.