Deportivo Alaves vs Real Madrid

injuries galore but still more than enough to crush alaves, no excuses

Not really ballsy. Only Modric would make it on this team on ability.

Can't see who else on the bench would improve the line-up. First time Zidane picks a line-up on ability. That's the good thing about the rotation.

we need to score early and not panic. i wasn't at all happy with isco's comment that the team panics when they don't score early, that's not good at all, and shouldn't have been said in public. i need to see more from carvajal, he's been pretty foolish of late. this should be a routine win, but leave it to us to make this more interesting than it should be

I'd say this is another potential banana peel, but I think we will win this one. I'm hoping Mayoral has a good game.

I should def be a coach. Benching Bale and starting Ceballos would be something I would've done long ago. Brilliant move.

I have no idea why the Mallenco even bothers to take the whistle out of his mouth.

Ramos is so bad.

Lucas is below average

Still love him though

That is freaking disgusting... Straight red right there

Good god... Ramos.... What the actual f....

not to different from what we were seeing last season and criticizing, except that we are not scoring. classic zidane performance to me

I took a lot of positives from this game.

Sure we are having problems, most of it being team adjusting to new players, formations, etc. Ronaldo is showing early season rust. There have been defensive lapses from Carvajal and a blunder by Navas, but mostly it has been the lack of goal scorers, mostly from Benz and Bale. But we have been consistently creating and getting lots of chances. Once the team gels, most of our problems will disappear.

the positives

1. Team selection. Looks like maybe Zidane is recognizing the main issues (BB). Him benching Bale is a very positive sign IMO.

2. Ronaldo playing the pure 9 position and actually looking comfortable there, although there is still rust showing thru.

3. Ceballos impressive. I like what Zidane is doing with the new young talents. Like Asensio last year, he is trying to ease their introduction into team and slowly develop them. We've already seen Theo show well and today now Ceballos. Still to see are Llorente and Vallejo (with the later I hope he isn't another Illarra, where nerves and early injury basically screwed his career at Madrid.) However, there is no doubt in my mind that both of these guys have the talent. Llorente has looked too timid thus far IMO, although there have been some good moments, particularly last time he was out there. I don't include Mayoral nor Achraf, as they are only there to fill vacant roster spots and have not thus far showed the talent the other kids have. It remains to be seen if they can cut it here or if they will end up playing for Alaves which is essentially a team of Castilla alumni.

4. Isco, absolutely MOM again. Where is Chad!!!

5. That Asensio is being considered a consistent starter.

6. the energy and game Lucas brings to the table. He and Nacho are our very good bench players.

7. I like the partnership that Ramos and Varane are developing. A lot has been made about Pepe leaving, but it really has allowed Varane to step into that consistent starter mode and Nacho has emerged as a good #3 (in addition to his role as #5 defender capably able to provide cover for all 4 defensive positions.

8. Our midfield is consistently probably the best out there and they are doing it with 7 or 8 different players. If they aren't the best out there, at least we have the strongest midfield bench out there.

Watching highlights, that should have been a blowout for Madrid. Like easily, the sheer amount of clear cut chances. Glad to see we won though, kinda bet that we would have dropped points.

early in the season, we always start slow.

I would ignore us missing chances for the moment. that will come with time. plus this is the season where we should be most complacent. I have no concerns of this team going forward. Bill highlighted most of the positives that need to be said so I won't be repeating anything.

Our front line is very average this season. Teams don't fear our forward line at all. The midfield though is creating and scoring to compensate. We really should've invested in a forward last summer.