Leganes vs Real Madrid

No rest for the weary apparently and Madrid have a lovely (and tough) away trip to Leganes (17th). The latter is in a relegation battle so they'll be coming out scratching and scrapping any chance they can get so Madrid would definitely need to showcase some strength.

Barcelona would probably beat Sevilla so another vital 3 points needs to be picked up. Hala would post the line ups and what not.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers: Navas, Casilla and Yáñez.
Defenders: Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos, Nacho, Marcelo and Danilo.
Midfielders: James, Casemiro, Kovacic, Modric, Asensio and Isco.
Forwards: Benzema, Lucas Vázquez, Mariano and Morata.

Absentee(s)/Injury List:

1. Ronaldo: rested.
2. Bale: rested.
3. Kroos: rested.
4. Varane: injured (quelle surprise!)

Official Lineup: ...will be released in less than an hour.

The game started so promising and then bam Danilo happens. I predicted that play for the first goal about 5 mins before Danilo. What an amatour, also Navas isn't doing it for me anymore. So devoid of confidence it's rubbing off on our defence. Last 2 clean sheets have come with Casilla in goal

Yeah I washed my hands of that match. Gonna assume we kept the lead. Between Nacho, James and Kovacic, not sure who had the worst match. James can go with his goal and assist but he did nothing else. Kovacic and Nacho played bad in general.

Alas, I'll take the 3 points and prepare my mind for the Madrid derby. Lord knows that's gonna be a real pain.

Nice comfortable second half. Legane more or less gave up after Isco came on because their pressure amounted to nothing after that. Loved our combination play. Asensio was outstanding but so were most of the players. If I had to put a face to Bale's comments about not trying when not needed, Marcelo would be that guy. The dude is so nonchalant when we are dominating like he gives no fck about defending and just does roulettes all game

I agree about James doc, you don't even notice him in a game. He was the guy that moaned we pass the ball back all the time yet he didn't take on a player once all game. And that tantrum on the bench, please spare me the crocodile tears

Thought Kova had a lovely game actually, but like Casemiro he benefits from having an Isco next to him who doesn't pass the ball back the moment he gets it

Even the Sky commentators didn't understand James' outburst. He had a mediocre game but once again, he is very much ill-equipped to be a central midfielder. Both in his skill set and mentality.

Kovacic had way too many wayward passes for me to think his performance was good and Nacho did his best Paco Pavon/Mirambes expression. And the sooner this club find an actual RB/LB back for Dani and Marcelo, the better. Danilo, bless his soul, really is not up to scratch.

Asensio was definitely MotM for me with Morata actually scoring a kinda hattrick. Not sure if La Liga would grant him the goal.

Lol they won't. That defender punched the ball into the goal they ran after the ref asking for a penalty

Is Danilo jynxed? it's a legit question, the guy has contributed to more goals against us than for us?

James on his way to the bench:

Motherf*****r doesn't even play me the whole match


Please leave. I hear Allegri is tolerant of players abusing him, seems like a good destination

james isn't even in a position to complain about anything....he wasn't all that in that game, and besides, we sold a better player to sign him. we should be the ones complaining.

I am still complaining about that damn sale.

Right up there with the Makelele sale in my book.  Selling Eto'o to Mallorca was another putrid move too.

Who are we kidding...  we could name a bunch of crap sales moves over the past 20 years.  Seedorf, Morientes, Robben, Sneijder, etc.

Ozil and Di Maria for James and Isco wasn't exactly inspired

Why did we get rid of Seedorf?

Doc wrote:Why did we get rid of Seedorf?

Guus Hiddink didn't like him and basically benched him.

Makelele and Seedorf with Zidane and Figo in the midfield... Morientes and Raul on the attack. Salgado, Hierro, Helguera and Roberto Carlos as the back 4. A young Iker as the keeper.

Sigh.

Hiddink vs Seedorf, that was at the worst of Netherland division, black vs white!

titosantill wrote:james isn't even in a position to complain about anything....he wasn't all that in that game, and besides, we sold a better player to sign him. we should be the ones complaining.

bs this forum is getting worse by the day, I know you all want isco to succeed ahead of him, but a player blowing up after being subbed is normal, didn't cr go off even though he was awful recently too, nobody cared cause agendas against cr are useless, so let's pile on James cause he is gonna leave anyway, typical cowardly RM fans behavior to act like they have a clue.

James missed the last game and wanted to play 90 mins like isco did, he keeps getting the shaft and a bunch of posers deflecting what really going on marca and fans alike, the fact that Spanish bias for flopsco has been keeping him on the bench for 2 seasons running, even though his stats mirrors or exceeds isco easily while playing muchless minutes.

When James is confident he plays very well regardless of formation, ever since Carlo left Rafa and zidane both placed their faith in players who aren't better than him for shit reasons, but he doesn't have a right to complain either? these are facts not poser logic.

I like zidane just as much as I liked Carlo, but like Carlo with illarra zidane with James is choosing to handle the situation as poorly as possible, so the player wants to leave at the end of the season, that bs and I hope more than ever isco continues to be a massive flop that can barely pass with his shit vision self, and watch people lie through their teeth about how amazing fluke goals are.

I agree with Chad to a certain degree, James should had played ahead of Lucas (The Lucas 2016-2017), Zidane hasn't given him enough opportunities,

Modric has been meh lately, Isco should rotate with him, and James should be Bale's substitute, Isco is more capable of playing CM than James.

So you think think james deserves more time ? Fine

What's wrong with Tito thinking otherwise or thinking that Isco is better in the mid 3?

There is nothing wrong with the GE forum what's wrong is your forcing your opinion on people and they calling them names or ignorant when they disagree. You need to take a chill pill not everyone agrees with you and your opinion aren't tighter than ours, that's what we debate on a forum and oppose ideas

Lucas played because of balance... he covers defensively and brings constant work rate. You can't just expect the middle 3 to do everything themselves without help in every game. They'd burn out within months... which is what keeps happening to us.

Football is about building a team. 1v1 comparisons only make sense in the context of the rest of the team. James is in competition with Isco. That's it. His profile doesn't fit anything else. At this point, Isco is far better so James is really a 3rd string player and deservedly so. Lucas backs up Bale. Asensio backs up Ronaldo. That's how they train and prepare in practice.

sportsczy wrote:Lucas played because of balance... he covers defensively and brings constant work rate. You can't just expect the middle 3 to do everything themselves without help in every game. They'd burn out within months... which is what keeps happening to us.

Football is about building a team. 1v1 comparisons only make sense in the context of the rest of the team. James is in competition with Isco. That's it. His profile doesn't fit anything else. At this point, Isco is far better so James is really a 3rd string player and deservedly so. Lucas backs up Bale. Asensio backs up Ronaldo. That's how they train and prepare in practice.

I'd expect a Real Madrid Player should be able to offer more than just Balance, Lucas although as you say provides work rate, hasn't made an assist since a long time ago , his finishing is bad, last season he performed good but not this season,

That's galactico thinking... not winning football.  You need water carrier players for the team to work. Ideally, you want very talented players who are willing to do the work as well. But James is not that. Since he cannot perform some other functions that would make him more valuable, and earn him opportunities at more than just one role... he is where he is.

If you're gonna act like a prima dona superstar... you better damn well be better than anyone else on the team at what you do.

I agree with Sport. There's nothing more to add really

James can throw tantrums all he likes but the simple fact is that he isn't good enough to be a starter, it was painfully obvious last season that Zidane didn't rate him. Should have gone to Inter when he had the chance

Lets not act like James is the only one getting shafted, yet he is the only one throwing a strop. Kovacic starts one game then cant get on the bench for the next 10 matchdays, same for Asensio. Isco hardly gets full games. Morata the biggest injustice has been done to him. Yet I don't hear a peep from these guys, they do their talking on the pitch. James on the other hand uses Colombian media platforms to basically shit on Zizou and RM constantly. Bye don't let the door hit you on your way out

Is my memory failing me or was Chad hating on James in 14-15 when he was actually playing well?

i didn't see anything wrong in the seedorf sale. it had to happen, class player, but he had fist fights with hierro and another with ivan campo (i think he won both), it was clear he didn't want to stay

shut it chad, why should he play 90 minutes when he isn't playing well; why should zidane play him in matches when he's constantly underperfroming; why should he complain when he has had multiple injury bouts since he came into this side; you bring up isco.....earth to chad, earth to chad, isco isn't a starter on this squad neither. isco's position as to whether he has a future at madrid is not clear

its not a case of isco or james, for all we know isco AND james could be on the outs. you keep bringing up illaramendi, if you didn't keep raising these lousy posts about illara we'd all have done him some justice and forgotten we signed him for 30 mill. you talk like we missed out on some world beater with illara.....its illara freaking mendi, we're talking about, not alonso

and cos cristiano complains doesn't mean james too can complain. like cristiano or not, james isn't cristiano.....for one james can't even stay fit a full year....zidane watches the players in training, this isn't some video game where the coach uses video game ratings and alternative facts to start players. james is way more talented than lucas, more talented than isco (who i'm not a fan of at all), more talented than kovacic. but if the coach is giving all those guys more minutes, then there must be something he doesn't like regarding attitude at training that we don't get to see

this is the only madrid fan (and i use that term loosely) who wants to see his team's players flop, just cos they may have looked at benzema the wrong way......its boring, get tips from harmonica, at least his alternative facts provides some humor and comic relief