Barcelona vs Real Madrid

Neither Rodrygo or Vinicius will ever come close to being elite playing on the right, and if Mbappe comes for example they would probably only have a chance if Mbappe is moved to striker. RW is an eternal worry. Kroos is too incomplete.

rodrygo is asensio v2

can’t get past players and is not quick enough to play on the wings, also not technical enough to play as a 10

It's been half a season and conclusions are already made on Rodrygo

The rubbish about rodygo , you guys are so desperate at time to find fault, don't see what he is doing that so awful, what so good about mindless dribbles that goes know no where, watch rodrygo have better numbers than hazard, vini and bale but it means nothing cause he plays smart like certain hated 9.

Anyway winnable game the way rm goes about attacking is just so backwards, how many long distance shots need to be missed before the team uses different patterns, again simple balls over the top unlocked barca so easily, sports told me rm playing diagonal passes was impossible with this team .

Also mendy is solid defensively but my word he is clumsy and bad overall, I can't tell if he is nervous or just bad at times, he gets a lot of time and space to put in his crosses they just sucks.

Pogba during the winter, come on Sports lol. That ain't happening. Pogba is for the summer and I expect us to go at it yet again. Doubt Utd would be dropping their price though.

Honestly, for me anyway, it was a good match but we really needed Hazard in this. Bless Isco, he did what he could have done but he simply does not have the directness needed. Neither does Bale apparently. Vini is still too raw for a match like this but I would have sent him instead of Rodrygo. We just needed a bit of chaos in the final 3rd.

All in all, we did fine. Points at the both the Mestella and Camp Nou are good results. We just need to keep beating the teams we are suppose to beat and we have a legit chance at a La Liga crown.

Isco literally has no speed.... i noticed he was slow before obviously. But he positively looked like a snail in this game. He would dribble a guy, start running, and the guy would just catch up to him. So there was no point in dribbling the guy especially since Isco doesn't release the ball either..

that why I say isco is slow, he doesn't read the game at all if he dribbles with the intent to pass the ball quickly even if he over hits it, bale or benzema can get to it, the team in general always takes the long way to goal for some reason,needs more adventurous passes too many runs being wasted what the point of 442 if it still comes down crossing?

James back training yet? needs to see him in that role with his shooting, vision and passing, don't know why zz fears this so much, just play the best players when fit.

Isco was one of our best players last night.

A Draw is not that bad honestly. Plus, I thought we played better than them, and considering all the injuries we're suffering from, I think our performance was good.

I'm just waiting for Hazard to come back because the longer he stays out the more time he's going to need to get back to form.

The way barça played last night, I think they'll definitely drop points again, and we need to make sure to take advantage of that for a change.

Good result all in all.

Mamad wrote:Isco was one of our best players last night.

OK if you say so but imo all of isco games are more or less the same, slow passing, no creativity, and lots of dribbling, what really matters is if the team wins or not, what he is bringing to the team isn't impacting the results in a positive way, no assists or goals just floating around.

James needs to be giving a run in that 10 role, I'm sure the difference will be evident in 2 games, if zz put his pride aside which is possible since he is playing bale again.

i'm not sure what people expect from rodrygo? for his age, he is doing well, he is a work in progress. we need to allow these guys the space and time to grow. he is not going to tick all the boxes you expect from a footballer at 18, people rarely do. even henry was like 24/25 before he started really tearing everything apart

Henry is a great example.  He played winger at Monaco and early in his career... and he was extremely good at it.  At 21, he was a regular with France NT in WC 1998.  

His issue was his move to Juve midseason... he was completely isolated on a wing as opposed to the free winger position he liked at Monaco and France (Trezeguet was the CF at Monaco with him ironically).
And they didn't need him tbh so it was a strange move all around.  Didn't last long though as he left after 6 months for Arsenal.

Arsenal made him a CF and the rest is history.  My point is that he was extremely effective as a winger bar 6 months since the age of 19 (1996-97 was his breakout year).  Nowhere near what Mbappe is doing...  but it was still very good.

If Rodrygo can evolve like Henry, he'll be awesome. Not everyone is Henry though. And back in those days, it was hard to make the senior squad as a teenager just by policy,

Rematch!

REAL MADRID’S SQUAD LIST:

Goalkeepers: Courtois, Areola and Toni Fuidias.

Defenders: Carvajal, Militão, Ramos, Varane, Marcelo and Mendy.

Midfielders: Kroos, Modric, Casemiro, Valverde and Isco.

Attackers: Benzema, Bale, Lucas Vázquez, Mariano and Vinicius Jr.

Jovic, like Llorente, should probably start looking for a club while Zidane is here. No way is he doing so much wrong in training that Zidane took Mariano over him. This is insane.

Zidane is resting Jovic to be fresh and ready to warm the bench against City.

We need to win this game.

Draw does not interest us.

Therefore, No stacking the midfield... WE NEED SPEED


Vini ............. Benz ............ Bale


.......Kroos........ Case........Valv

Mendy........ Ramos........Varane.... Hakimi .. oops

Bale is useless. waste of money.

Isco needs to start. without him who is going to score? lol.

Lineup is Courtois; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Marcelo?; Valverde, Casemiro, Kroos; Isco, Benzema, Vinicius

What did Rodrygo do to not only be behind Vinicius, but not even making lineup? Seems he went from 1st or 2nd in pecking order to 6th or 7th.

I see that as a problem with Zidane. One week he is high on a kid and next they are literally an outcast. That why we should not have any kids in squad. as long as Zidane is the coach, they all should be out on loan and staff the backups with the Nachos and Lucas’s of this world!

My prediction for today, Madrid 1 - Messi 3.

And thus we are well on way to that trophyless season again!