Please Sports, we know Madrid quite well. We would find a way to make him play a position he is not suited for. I personally don't mind the addition btw. Talent is talent and he has a boat load of it and, fortunately, Madrid has the finances to pull off a deal. I just don't honestly feel Perez is remotely interested. Maybe if Zizou whispers those sweet nothings in his ear...

Lol Pogba better than Isco get out of here which such nonsensical claims. Pogba gets dispossesed as much as our front 3 and his pass accuracy is not better. How overrated can one be ffs. The midfield 3 is fine, the front 3 nust need to do more dfensively or anyone who plays there will be exposed. As much as i like Kovacic he hasnt shown me that he can make forward passes consistently 99% of all his passes are sideways to Kroos. In a couple of season he could take over from Modric but not now. He is too raw

Matic is the best DM after Busquets IMO. No CL for Chelsea next season means that he might be available in the summer. He would also help at defending set pieces, which is still a problem

Song is available.

sports still down playing any and every player just to make pogba look better , everyone knows what your doing bruh.

rafa looking more and more right, isco and james need to hit the bench, zidane looks like he is coming to the same conclusion as well, but since he is trying to do the opposite of benitez gonna be long season still.

sportsczy wrote:

futbol_bill wrote:Sports, I'm away skiing right now and just catching up a bit. Sounds to me, you are saying Isco and Kroos have togo,  couple with Ronaldo and possibly James, that's quite an overall you not only suggest, but seem to say it is essential!

Or am I miss reading the few posts I have seen?

Ronaldo doesn't HAVE to go imo.  He's fine.  James, Isco... basically whoever is a AM has no role in a 433.  So they all need to go since we don't use a AM.  Kroos can go lol.  

So this is the "to go" list for me:
-  Isco
-  James
-  Kroos

To take their place, i suggest:
-  Pogba
-  Matic (i think he can be had from Chelsea)
-  Asensio (as a backup mid)

Matic-Modric-Pogba would be a killer midfield behind BBC.

I think you are misreading the formation Zidane is trying to implement. He had been insistent that James was to compete with Isco, and although he allowed him to play in place of Bale, it was as a similar role as Isco on opposite side. Mind you I think it is still a work in progress to get James to play the position correctly. Both these guys are AMs and it's pretty obvious to me that Zidane is counting on at least one of them is included in his tactics. It's a 4-4-2 confirguartion and with Bale back it will be 4-3-3 on offense and 4-4-2 on defense.

I obviously haven't seen much of last two games but that was the tactics that I believe he was going for. Problem is Kroos and the need for a defensive mid plus of course Ronaldo.

I don't get why you have now done a complete reversal on Ronaldo, particularly when he has had a couple of 4 ratings in last two games.
As for you suggesting Asensio as a CM replacement, he is another AM lol.

I've got to give you credit Sports, when you dig your heels in for one of your country men, you are relentless in berating anyone who you perceive as in the way of your suggestion!

chad4401 wrote:sports still down playing any and every player just to make pogba look better , everyone knows what your doing bruh.

rafa looking more and more right, isco and james need to hit the bench, zidane looks like he is coming to the same conclusion as well, but since he is trying to do the opposite of benitez gonna be long season still.

Why should isco hit bench?

You do know if it wasn't for Isco through ball your boy Benzema won't even have that easy tap in goal right?

The amount of tap ins Benzema have this season from isco assist is not very small is it.

Benzema had 63% passing accuracy last match. But but it is CRs fault. He missed a golden opportunity just like he flopped in Villarreal match. When we are chasing games Benzema has been useless apart from tap ins.

Also let's not blame the midfield for our flat footed attack.Midfielders dribbling should not be something of a necessity it should only be a luxury.

Our lack of dribblers is down to our forward line. CR can't beat a man nowadays. Benzema dribbling a man is a rare phenomena that happens once in half a decade. James don't have the pace to dribble.

We need to get dribblers for the front three. The lack of pace upfront is worrying.

Except benzena has scored the most opening goals in la liga for Madrid with 9 (Cr has 3) and the most game tying or go ahead goals (when score is not 0-0) with another 3.  So almost half his goals have been critical to the team, by far tops on the team both in terms of percentage of his tallies and total for the team.

And getting a tap on is not easy at all.  It means you put in the work to ghost your way around the defense with perfect timing and an open passing lane for the ball to get to you.  Ronaldo can't do it and we all know he tries.

Let's not kid ourselves Adit, Ronaldo deserves all the criticism he is getting. Benzema did let himself and us down with the miss but he was actually doing well in that match for what it is worth.

I'm not as asinine as chad to think Ronaldo is the be all and end all of our issues but the man is dragging the flag and I honestly can't fault Benzema this season.

Did you see how we played against Espanyol? I'm not using them as a reference, I realize they're a modest team, but I'm talking about the way we played. Ronaldo tracked back and pressed constantly, and as a result, everybody else behind him had enough time to breathe and think. We looked as compact as a hedgehog.

In my humble opinion, there's nothing wrong with our midfield. The problem lies up front. Two of our strikers are lazy most of the time. They rarely ever press or defend. The opposition are given too much space and time to think. The few times where they actually pressed, we looked godly.

Doc wrote:Let's not kid ourselves Adit, Ronaldo deserves all the criticism he is getting. Benzema did let himself and us down with the miss but he was actually doing well in that match for what it is worth.

I'm not as asinine as chad to think Ronaldo is the be all and end all of our issues but the man is dragging the flag and I honestly can't fault Benzema this season.

Except Benzema was atrocious last game. Basically had a CR game. Scored tap in and played like shet.

Looks like Danilo is fit again and Z may choose him over Nacho to start at LB against Roma. Ronaldo and Danilo on the left side, God help us...

look at 3:30. Is that supposed to be slow ?? That's running WITH the ball btw.
Also, 4:25. Now that's speed right there.

Why are we even talking about pogba when we have kovacic. Seriously. Spend the money on a real DM, we don't need anymore AMs. Someone like Kante would be good for us right now. Way cheaper then pogba and better defensively.

Just because Pogba is 6'2 and of African descent doesn't make him a monster physically.

The problem is that we do have a very good destroyer DM with good long passing in Casemiro , whose weakness is that he struggles under pressure.

Zidane seems to prefer highly technical player to play that DM role so if we are to get a DM he has to be really good under pressure, passing , tactically etc.. This is why I suggested Ruben Neves, seen few matches.. Future world class player in the making. Never seen such a talented 18 year old DM before. He is Mendes player so we do have an upper hand.

Also agree on Kovacic, terrific player. Should be used more instead of Isco imo.

Which big game of neves have you seen with him playing in front of the defense are we gonna use as reference? He looks to me more like an interior that will end up playing with a DM and thats already how Porto are using him isnt it?

Would be good to have an actual DM who can focus or xovering and tackling but isnt such a dumbass he cant pass. Thats what zidane should build his team around lol, for someonebwho made a career bring protected by deschamps, viera makelele, that je doesnt value that side of the game would just be baffling to me

I'm at some odds here, is that Casemiro can't pass or he can't pass well enough for Zidane's liking or both? Because he seems capable of being the DM we need right now.

Kova is terrific... what he does (and that's players saying this on interviews) is that he lulls you to sleep thinking he's not that quick.  Then a couple of times a game, he just puts in gear and the defenders are on their heels because they don't expect it.  He blows past them because they're caught flat footed.  That's different from a truly fast guy where defenders are actually backpedaling and still can't keep up with you.

Great player though.  Highly technical.  Just not every physical and athletic, which is what we need if we won't play a DM and have guys like Modric/Kroos/Isco as the other 2 CMs.

You really don't need a DM as long as all the CMs are decent defenders and one of them knows how to tackle (the one in the center).  All our guys right now are allergic to contact and can't tackle... that's the problem.

Just as an example... Marchisio-Pogba-Cuadrado (or whoever). None of those guys are DMs. But other than Cuadrado, they all do the job. Same with Pirlo-Vidal-Pogba... Pirlo is a very poor defender. But his area was very narrow since Vidal and Pogba did a good enough job covering their lanes.

Right now, all our CM can be beaten pretty consistently in duels. So the midfield gets scrambled defensively consistently. And it's not like you need to cover for one guy... every one of them is susceptible.

Mr Nick09 wrote:Which big game of neves have you seen with him playing in front of the defense are we gonna use as reference? He looks to me more like an interior that will end up playing with a DM and thats already how Porto are using him isnt it?

Would be good to have an actual DM who can focus or xovering and tackling but isnt such a dumbass he cant pass. Thats what zidane should build his team around lol, for someonebwho made a career bring protected by deschamps, viera makelele, that je doesnt value that side of the game would just be baffling to me

No. He is being played as Anchor role full time this season. He looks fit to play even further because he is technically so good on the ball but his strongest position in DM and his strength is reading of the game and interception defensively. Very good tracker as well. He is tactically very astute. If you have time watch his game against Chelsea, Benfica,Braga,Tel Aviv etc. At 18 he plays so composed and confident.

Doc wrote:I'm at some odds here, is that Casemiro can't pass or he can't pass well enough for Zidane's liking or both? Because he seems capable of being the DM we need right now.

The later. Not good enough for Zidane's liking.

I think isco should be pushed to the left wing adit and kovacic should take his spot. He can do much better as a left winger in our system so as long as we have someone like bale to threaten with speed (like sports said).

Yes, he's an AM, he's not ridiculously fast at all, but he has agility, dribbling and great technical ability. Good passer too. Plus he plays defense.. unlike Ronaldo or can't be arsed James.

I think unless james and kroos learn to play defense and stop letting average players cut through them like butter, one or both might get sacrificed, I can almost guarantee you that. Casemiro may yet still be used.. I have a feeling zidane is just giving kroos and james time to adapt.. or else..

@Sport, I guess the real answer is somewhere in the middle. Perhaps he's not elite fast, but he has good speed imo. I just want him to be a starter because he is what we need right now

The problem guys is that we play 3 strikers... now with James instead of Bale, a DM would be fine because you don't need the creativity there. But if the entire midfield area has to be covered by 3 guys with little to no help from the forwards, then you really need those 3 guys to be technically well above average. But since the typical 11 includes BBC, then you can't practice a different style when one gets injured and then switch back when he comes back... if it were October, sure. But not in February. You have to build the synergy between the bonafide starters.

FennecFox7 wrote:

look at 3:30. Is that supposed to be slow ?? That's running WITH the ball btw.
Also, 4:25. Now that's speed right there.

Why are we even talking about pogba when we have kovacic. Seriously. Spend the money on a real DM, we don't need anymore AMs. Someone like Kante would be good for us right now. Way cheaper then pogba and better defensively.

Just because Pogba is 6'2 and of African descent doesn't make him a monster physically.

Damn he actually had an insane game against Valencia.

Look at 4.25... He is actually super fast.

I felt really bad for Kova the last time he played for Benitez. He ran his lungs to the ground trying to cover for the laziness of those around him. That's just unfair.

And I thought Z would be smart enough not to overwork certain players while others are not participating at all. But he's doing the same thing with the likes of Modric and Carvajal.

Kova needs to play more, way more. He's too good not to enjoy any playing time. And he should've been introduced in those 6-0 and 5-0 games. Poor man management by Z.

The Bilbao game should be a rotation fest. Carvajal, Kroos, Modric, Benzema and Isco should be rested for the Roma game. We can't afford any more injuries, and I'd like to believe that Z is smart enough to know that.

Well in my opinion carthage its the other way around. Kovacic should be starting, someone like kroos should be rotating with him .

He actually played the DM spot in inter. Although he is far from a DM, apparently Zidane wants a technical player there, so he fits the bill.

Í agree with Fennec

Kova knew where he was getting into, he hasn't convinced me so far, he has given the impression to be shy with the ball, playing it safe, he needs to risk more, play upfront and not backwards, he's young anyway hel'll have his chance.