Discussion: Zaragoza vs. Real Madrid

cristiano hattrick!!

smh you higgy fan boys are the worst i can believe some are wishing for benz to fail just to suck higz off, he played great no matter which way you slice it

The thing about Benzema is even when he doesnt score he plays great. However, he should have grabbed a goal.

omarish wrote:The thing about Benzema is even when he doesnt score he plays great. However, he should have grabbed a goal.

that true but i find it funny how some over look everything else just to get a dig in

Benzema played well, everyone did.

Only players I was slightly disappointed with were Di Maria and Callejon. Otherwise, great match.

Overall, we need to work on our passing, especially in small spaces. Surprised with how fit everyone looked though. Some serious speed there!

Mostly coasting through the game. It always happens with these lower La Liga teams... once you get 2 goals up, they just give up towards the end and it becomes 5+ suddenly.

Benzema did good yup. Good work effort, created dangerous set pieces and superb linking up. Unfortunate not to score but he was a work animal tonight.

Great match. Everyone can be happy with their shift except maybe Di Maria.

Ronaldo off to a flying start and Xabi was boss as well.

I remember when we were losing 6-1 at Zaragoza a while back, nice to finally enjoy the opposite

pitch seemed awful and looked like it was hot as hell too lol.

It is Span TBF

Great opening day, honestly no one should be pointing out any negatives because there were barely any.

Slightly poor finishing is the only thing oh and Di Maria played bad.

Goal.com :

Di Maria 7.5

Coentrao 6.5

EarlyPrototype wrote:Goal.com :

Di Maria 7.5

Coentrao 6.5

Pepe also got a 6 on there I laughed hard

Your fault for reading Goal.com.

What the hell is wrong with goal.com ratings ?
they are always false!!

Great result to start this season, everyone showed positive performance.
I used to dislike Coentrao playing CM in midfield, but I was really impressed by him in this game, his mobility complemented Xabi perfectly both in attack and defense. If I put aside Ronaldo's hatrick, Coentrao imo was MOTM along with Ozil who also had a great game, involved in the first 3 goals, nicely moved the ball around and created multiple chances.

Özil looked alot more comfortable dropping deep in this game aswell, he's developing very well.

ronaldo was the motm imo not because he scored 30 goals.. because he does those things against most of our opponents.. but the fact that he was passing and looking out for his teammates till the match was undecided.. in the end he did become selfish but then, the result wasnt gonna chance

For me, a lot of positives in this game, but we must be aware of the opposition and the target (Barca). In my opinion the defense is ok, but not really tested. I'm awaiting Varane to take over from Carvalho and (next year) Albiol to depart and some yound promising spanish defender to take his place. In mid feld, although I think Sahin could be Alonso partner, it is still a missing starter. I like Khedira and Coentrao and Granero(and possibly Lass and Altintop), but in my opinion they are all reserves. Up front, I like CR7, but Di Maria and especially Benzema are not the finishers they need to be. I'm expecting Neymar to take over from Di Maria in January, but we need better finishing from the CF. Benzema blew at least 4 sure goals. If that had been Villa at least 3 of them would have been goals. Unless, we move CR7 to CF, we still need a CF. I like Higgy and Benz, but in my opinion they are better as reserves. Finally kaka. He looked good but it was only 15 minutes. I think if he can continue to impress we might be better with him replacing either Di Maria or Benz. With Benz out, CR7 needs to play CF.

Bill ...it's been a while. But i completely disagree with you.

There was one sure goal that Benzema missed... and he stole that pass. It wasn't part of a build up. Other than that, i saw one hip level volley that he got under since we was 2/3 facing away from the goal when the ball arrived. And lets not forget that the best finisher in the game in 2010-2011, Messi, only made 25% of his chances. The only other three over 20% last year of players who scored over 20 goals in the season were Gomez, Aguero and RVP. And only Gomez and Messi were more efficient than Benz. And i'm taking the whole season into account, not just 2011. So this includes the horrible first 4 months for Benz.

You also are not accounting for the fact that we have only Xabi who knew how to distribute from the midfield. Coentrao is a winger + and di maria is just a winger. So you have the forwards come up high to help with the build up. Last night, CR7 spent more time as the CF than anyone else and both Benz and Higuain spent a lot of time close to the midfield and on the wings. CR7 took 17 shots by himself! the actual CFs got very little service.

The fact that you're rating two of the 3 best u-23 CFs in the world (the other being Aguero) as bench players is very surprising. Neither is a bench player and both are stars. The problem that Higuain and Benz have is that they must find their game when you have a player like CR7 who monopolized 1/2 to 2/3 of the attacking area and shoots from everywhere. That's not easy for them. They almost have to take the play away from CR7 to get any service... which is often what happens.

I agree with sport, both Benzema and Higuain seemed to drift to allow Ronaldo some space.

While I'm OK with Ronaldo being our go to guy, I still feel that Benzema and Higuain deserve more service when they play off the opposing CB's shoulders.

It's not that I dislike neither Benz nor Pepito. IT just the lack of finishing I was bother by. I don't know how you missed it, but Benz had 4 sure goals that he blew. Other than his finishing he had a good game, but he needs to put the sure goals in, at least 2 out of the 4. Di Maria did not have as good a game and he also was a pure finisher. There was at least 1 that should have been a goal.

Re mid field, Xabi and Ozil had great games and Coentrao good. My concern is they also need to keep possession and that's were I'm hoping Sahin can make the difference.

Take it as first game pressure. HIguain was victim of some last year as well, ronaldo the same.

He will improve soon enough.

The possession keeping aspect is a coach responsibility imo, the players do what they can. We are improving when we are on possession, but it's mourinho's job to organize the possession game.

Despite the scoreline being 6,i still think our efficiency is lacking.We really didnt give their GK lot of trouble at all,we gave the ball away both in build up and final third by some silly passes and decision making,we need to improve that thing to win games against teams with World class defense.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:Take it as first game pressure. HIguain was victim of some last year as well, ronaldo the same.

He will improve soon enough.

The possession keeping aspect is a coach responsibility imo, the players do what they can. We are improving when we are on possession, but it's mourinho's job to organize the possession game.

Could be!!! I'm a little hard on them since I want to over take Barca. There certainly were a lot of positives last night. I keep harping about finishing since that was the major difference in the supercup games and I did count 4 (yes Sports FOUR) blown opportunities for Benz. But overall, he did play well and maybe Nick is right about jitters. Let's just keep an eye on it and give him a few more games. I also want to give Kaka a little more time to see if he can improve. Last night's 15 minutes was encouraging. If he can contribute over the next month, then maybe he could start in place of Di Maria (maybe). I also am comfortable with Coentrao and Khedira, but I want to see what Sahin can offer. I'm not asking that they emualate Barca but I think they can play a more possessive game.

Our next problem is we have to wait 2 weeks for next game. Time for me to switch concentraion on my other team Seleccion. This time they have 5 players from U21 team including 2 CBs. I'm hoping they (Dominquez and Botia) come thru and end up replacing Albiol. By the way, I'm hoping for Botia(from Sporting) to be the young Spanish CB to replace Albiol next summer.