This Preseason Squad should be our Entire Squad for 2011-12

The current squad in preseason should be our squad for the coming year in Laliga.
atm e have 25 squad members with Nacho, Jesus, Jese, Tomas coming from Castilla.
Well Jesus/Tomas will go back to Castilla full time while the other stays as 3rd goalie while also playing for Castilla
Hence we have 23 players to work with. With Altintop coming back that would be 24 and another striker which would mean 25. It seems as though Mourinho really likes Jese. While I do think he is an absolute star and could do with training with our first team, he should play for Castilla for at least a season to help him grow as a player. Alberto Toril anyways requires a player to replace Pablo Sarabia and Juan Carlos. Morata on the other hand should be promoted to the first team. He has shown for quite a while now that he is truly first team material. And the other spot will be empty to fill if necessary. Oh yeah Nacho should get a run in the first team. He has impressed me alot. Defensively and also the fact that he is Arbeloa 2.0 meaning that he can play anywhere across the backline

Goalkeepers: Casillas, Adan
Defenders: Arbeloa, Ramos, Albiol, Pepe, Varane, Carvalho, Marcelo, Coentrao, Nacho
Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Khedira, Sahin, Callejon, Granero, Ozil, Kaka/Canales, Di Maria,Altintop
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain, Morata

promoting morata is going to get him nowhere bro. he will get stuck on the bench for no good reasons.

there is rule that says that players registered with the first squad can be with the B team, so you are doing him no favors. The way Benzema is rolling, and higuain is going to FIGHT to come back in the spot light, MOrata would have a tough time, however talented he is. That's why 3rd CF is sometimes good for a non ambitious specialist.

imo, no one should get promoted. I have seen Nacho's limits, i dont like them, he isnt a very good athlete, and get caught with speed.

those kids from castilla have a lot to prove before pretending to deeper role with the first team. They should prove themselves and bring us to segunda, last year they completely choked, not a good sign.

GK: Casillas, Adan
DEF: Ramos, Arbeloa, Marcelo, Coentrao, Pepe, Carvalho, Albiol, Varane
MID: Alonso, Sahin, Khedira, Granero, Altintop
AM: Ozil, Kaka, Di Maria, Callejon, Ronaldo
ST: Benzema, Higuain

Morata, Nacho, and Meijas 'semi-promoted'.

Thats a 22+3 squad, very good IMO.

Next year take out Carvalho, Kaka, maybe Altintop and bring in Neymar, Canales, Morata (or should we loan/Getafe him?), Nacho/Carvajal. At one point one of the wing players (Di Maria or Callejon as Cris aint leaving and Neymar would be new) would have to leave with the sheer competition as well as Sarabia and Jese coming in.

Damn, in the future we will have such a problem in the attacking areas, to fit in all these players. But for now, the 22+3 are fine.

@saetablanca

im okay with the 22+3

Really not digging that Khedira/Alonso/Granero/Sahin/Altintop.

A far cry from from the quality and depth we have in other areas imo. That's where we struggle against barca, it's no wonder.

Yep... and people made fun of me when i said that i didn't think we had a lot of depth in the midfield back in June.

We cannot afford an injury to either Khedira or Xabi. That may change if Sahin emerged... but that's for the 4-2-3-1. For a 4-3-3, we're still paper thin with a good Sahin.

Barca is talking about playing a 3-4-3 btw. They completely get the fact that you can castrate a team, regardless of how good the forwards and defense are, by completely dominating the middle... basically break the opponents in half.

sportsczy wrote:Yep... and people made fun of me when i said that i didn't think we had a lot of depth in the midfield back in June.

We cannot afford an injury to either Khedira or Xabi. That may change if Sahin emerged... but that's for the 4-2-3-1. For a 4-3-3, we're still paper thin with a good Sahin.

Barca is talking about playing a 3-4-3 btw. They completely get the fact that you can castrate a team, regardless of how good the forwards and defense are, by completely dominating the middle... basically break the opponents in half.

Really? I have always been adamant about it. I dont see the need of having a guy like kaka useless depth in an area where we have so much depth in terms of attackers, when we only have 3 sure quality Midfielder.

I know Coentrao brings depth, it's good, but he isnt a Natural CM, Neither is Granero, however how hard he tries.

Well, Pepe, Varane, Albiol can play as DMs, Coentrao somehow has some strange role, Kaka can play deeper IIRC...

I understand your points, but who could we sign to fix that problem? Another Lass? A Gago?

Saetablanca wrote:Well, Pepe, Varane, Albiol can play as DMs, Coentrao somehow has some strange role, Kaka can play deeper IIRC...

I understand your points, but who could we sign to fix that problem? Another Lass? A Gago?

I think Coentrao and Sahin were the signees. One hasn't played yet (Sahin) while the other is learning the role.

We'll get a better idea come October. Early season though, it will be a learning curve.

Kaka is a joke. full stop. He serves no purpose to us whatsoever. That's a truth people refuse to accept. He is finished.

Look at the fowards we have, di maria, ronaldo, benzema, ozil, callejon, 3rd,, throw coentrao inthere. wtf is he still doing here?

those guys you mentioned, they are DMs, they cant do much else. All around mid would be welcome. seriously, mourinho should deal with that, that's the one thing that irritates me.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:Kaka is a joke. full stop. He serves no purpose to us whatsoever. That's a truth people refuse to accept. He is finished.

Look at the fowards we have, di maria, ronaldo, benzema, ozil, callejon, 3rd,, throw coentrao inthere. wtf is he still doing here?

those guys you mentioned, they are DMs, they cant do much else. All around mid would be welcome. seriously, mourinho should deal with that, that's the one thing that irritates me.

Main reason i;'m irritated is that it cost us Sarabia... that shouldn't have happened. He should be on the squad right now. He could easily become a good CM.

In big games we need 4-3-3, it means the intelligent trio of CMs= Xabo, Khedira, Sahin. If one of them isn't available, we could always throw in Coentrao on the left. He'd do much better as left midfielder in 4-3-3 than in 4-2-3-1. He isn't cut out for double pivot The depth is there but not that much
The only problematic guy is Khedira. I don't know how well Sahin can control a game without a lot of support like in Dortmund. If he fares anything less than there then we need Khedira in ALL big games

sportsczy wrote:

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:Kaka is a joke. full stop. He serves no purpose to us whatsoever. That's a truth people refuse to accept. He is finished.

Look at the fowards we have, di maria, ronaldo, benzema, ozil, callejon, 3rd,, throw coentrao inthere. wtf is he still doing here?

those guys you mentioned, they are DMs, they cant do much else. All around mid would be welcome. seriously, mourinho should deal with that, that's the one thing that irritates me.

Main reason i;'m irritated is that it cost us Sarabia... that shouldn't have happened. He should be on the squad right now. He could easily become a good CM.

Agree on that, Sarabia's one touch passing is tope notch, so is his ball control in tight spaces...

Hey, dont jump on me, Im a big advocate of Canales/Sarabia instead of Kaka, just being realistic. Sarabia is too young and unproven, raw, whatever, but Canales makes a good CM. Thing is these would be bench players and need to play to improve. If Coentrao is really a midfield signing, what type of mid does he play? DM? Pseudo-winger-CM?

Saetablanca wrote:Hey, dont jump on me, Im a big advocate of Canales/Sarabia instead of Kaka, just being realistic. Sarabia is too young and unproven, raw, whatever, but Canales makes a good CM. Thing is these would be bench players and need to play to improve. If Coentrao is really a midfield signing, what type of mid does he play? DM? Pseudo-winger-CM?

Left midfielder in diamond formation:

--------------Xabi------------
---Khedira----------Coentrao
-------------Ozil--------------

or

---------Khedira------------
-Sahin-----------Coentrao-
----------Ozil---------------

or

------------Xabi------------
--Sahin----------Coentrao-
----------Ozil---------------

You could play Ozil outwide as well resulting in the non diamond version of 4-3-3

sportsczy wrote:
Main reason i;'m irritated is that it cost us Sarabia... that shouldn't have happened. He should be on the squad right now. He could easily become a good CM.

My thought exactly, i think he would have been quite good there.

It's just blowing my mind Babun, how arent we dealing with that? just one all around, clasico ready CM would make us virtually better. Most of us know that if kaka ends up stinking, we would be fine anyway, so why are we even accepting that? I'm not willing to give him even 10 games to prove me anything, he is a flop.

babun1024 wrote:

Saetablanca wrote:Hey, dont jump on me, Im a big advocate of Canales/Sarabia instead of Kaka, just being realistic. Sarabia is too young and unproven, raw, whatever, but Canales makes a good CM. Thing is these would be bench players and need to play to improve. If Coentrao is really a midfield signing, what type of mid does he play? DM? Pseudo-winger-CM?

Left midfielder in diamond formation:

--------------Xabi------------
---Khedira----------Coentrao
-------------Ozil--------------

or

---------Khedira------------
-Sahin-----------Coentrao-
----------Ozil---------------

or

------------Xabi------------
--Sahin----------Coentrao-
----------Ozil---------------

You could play Ozil outwide as well resulting in the non diamond version of 4-3-3

Gets a little crowded with Coentrao, Marcelo and CR7 on the same side, no?

sportsczy wrote:

babun1024 wrote:

Saetablanca wrote:Hey, dont jump on me, Im a big advocate of Canales/Sarabia instead of Kaka, just being realistic. Sarabia is too young and unproven, raw, whatever, but Canales makes a good CM. Thing is these would be bench players and need to play to improve. If Coentrao is really a midfield signing, what type of mid does he play? DM? Pseudo-winger-CM?

Left midfielder in diamond formation:

--------------Xabi------------
---Khedira----------Coentrao
-------------Ozil--------------

or

---------Khedira------------
-Sahin-----------Coentrao-
----------Ozil---------------

or

------------Xabi------------
--Sahin----------Coentrao-
----------Ozil---------------

You could play Ozil outwide as well resulting in the non diamond version of 4-3-3

Gets a little crowded with Coentrao, Marcelo and CR7 on the same side, no?

Nope, Alonso/Khedira are there for exactly this reason. Also, CR7 won't stay on the left when he gets any amount of space

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

sportsczy wrote:
Main reason i;'m irritated is that it cost us Sarabia... that shouldn't have happened. He should be on the squad right now. He could easily become a good CM.

My thought exactly, i think he would have been quite good there.

It's just blowing my mind Babun, how arent we dealing with that? just one all around, clasico ready CM would make us virtually better. Most of us know that if kaka ends up stinking, we would be fine anyway, so why are we even accepting that? I'm not willing to give him even 10 games to prove me anything, he is a flop.

I don't really know either. Actually, Mourinho is known for buying countless CMs and B2B midfielders for all purposes. Our team is his only one that focuses on attackers too much. Hmm, if we play double pivot most of the games the depth may not be such a big issue...

babun1024 wrote:
I don't really know either. Actually, Mourinho is known for buying countless CMs and B2B midfielders for all purposes. Our team is his only one that focuses on attackers too much. Hmm, if we play double pivot most of the games the depth may not be such a big issue...

I think 4 quality players for 2 position is a must if we stick to the double pivot. now we only have 3, and only 2 of them playmake from deep. You know how corny we would look if we play a team just sitting, and we cant build up.

in attack we have 6-7 players for 4 positions, good.

no balance.

we are talking in instances in which the main guys are not there right?

granero,alonso,khedira,sahin,altintop,coentrao,pepe

are not enough to fill in dm,b2b,cm roles?

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

babun1024 wrote:
I don't really know either. Actually, Mourinho is known for buying countless CMs and B2B midfielders for all purposes. Our team is his only one that focuses on attackers too much. Hmm, if we play double pivot most of the games the depth may not be such a big issue...

I think 4 quality players for 2 position is a must if we stick to the double pivot. now we only have 3, and only 2 of them playmake from deep. You know how corny we would look if we play a team just sitting, and we cant build up.

in attack we have 6-7 players for 4 positions, good.

no balance.

Play one playmaker at a time. If one is injured you can add the other. If two are injured, move one playmaker+DM of your choice+ Coentrao= no problem. It may benefit us that we'll have to play those three guys all the time, it would mean higher level of chemistry in shortest amount of time. If injury problems occur too often the January window is there to sort it out. As far as attackers go, some one them will leave next year or the year after. The midfield and defense need however a lot of consistency+gelling time. I wouldn't exchange anyone from our evil trio in the next 2-3 years if they don't catch a carreer threatening injury or are get too old (Alonso,Canales/Sarabia could come back then, Madrid DNA FTW!) :lol!:

wonder if alonso is going to extend after next year.

anyways canales is our next acm no?

babun1024 wrote:
Play one playmaker at a time. If one is injured you can add the other. If two are injured, move one playmaker+DM of your choice+ Coentrao= no problem. It may benefit us that we'll have to play those three guys all the time, it would mean higher level of chemistry in shortest amount of time. If injury problems occur too often the January window is there to sort it out. As far as attackers go, some one them will leave next year or the year after. The midfield and defense need however a lot of consistency+gelling time. I wouldn't exchange anyone from our evil trio in the next 2-3 years if they don't catch a carreer threatening injury or are get too old (Alonso,Canales/Sarabia could come back then, Madrid DNA FTW!) :lol!:

It's not even so important that they are playmaker in the same sense as Sahin for ex, but the midfielders we play in the double pivot, have to be as complete as possible, and intelligent enough to turn into passing outlets for the attacking 4, and players that are good on offense and defense. I think we lack depth in quality there, It's good to know that we can play Pepe, albiol, and varane there, but that's like shooting yourself in the foot. Mourinho played Albiol and Pepe in the middle in china for 15min and i almost vomit in my mouth, that was horrible. i do like the help coentrao will provide, but dude, that depth, im not a fan. I wish Granero was better, but he isnt, I dont really rate him, back up or not.

I'm sure we will find a way to get by with the group that we have, but since we are here to neat pick, just one more mid in that area ffs

We ask cr7 and Benz to playmake a lot... They come very, very high when needed.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

babun1024 wrote:
I don't really know either. Actually, Mourinho is known for buying countless CMs and B2B midfielders for all purposes. Our team is his only one that focuses on attackers too much. Hmm, if we play double pivot most of the games the depth may not be such a big issue...

I think 4 quality players for 2 position is a must if we stick to the double pivot. now we only have 3, and only 2 of them playmake from deep. You know how corny we would look if we play a team just sitting, and we cant build up.

in attack we have 6-7 players for 4 positions, good.

no balance.

You didn't get my post. Double pivot when at least 1 DLP and Khedira are healthy or Alonso+ Sahin combo. If a playmaker and Khedira are injured-> trivote with the other playmaker+DM ( Pepe, Varane, Ramos or whoever)+ Coentrao. I don't see any kind of depth problems there as long as Ozil and one other attacker help the midfield out with creativity
You're getting too greedy, my friend