LaLiga matchday 1| Real Madrid vs Real Betis| 18th of August 2013

Valkyrja wrote:

Kuru wrote:Khidera pushes way too high, it leaves the midfield open, it's not Modric job to break up play. We were much more balanced when Casimiro was introduced.

Betis' players were also exhausted by the time Casemiro came on

I'm not saying Casimiro is better than Khedira, just that we preformed better when he was on, since the midfield wasn't left completely empty.

Ramos got abused on that goal, he can't be making mistakes like that.. Our back-line was shit, no communication

We should just buy 3 Italians and pair them with Varane  

Marcelo ffs imagine if he hadn't played today lol

Marcelo, Carvajal, Isco, Lopez and somewhat modric with good games. Ronaldo was ok the rest crap or downright horse poo

anyways we got a win even if it was hardfought. sign of champions

halamadrid2 wrote:Marcelo ffs imagine if he hadn't played today lol

Marcelo, Carvajal,  Isco, Lopez and somewhat modric with good games. Ronaldo was ok the rest crap or downright horse poo

anyways we got a win even if it was hardfought. sign of champions

what match did you see ? ozil was possibly the our best player in the 1st half btw

Ancelotti:

"The principles of our play are offensive. My experience in other teams was the same because the clubs I have been at demand nothing less.

I want the players to be comfortable and that's why it is important to have a system of play in which the players feel at ease.

It is better to press up the pitch because the idea is not to counter-attack but to play football and have possession of the ball. We have players with unbelievable quality."

"I think we can improve, which is normal. We had many chances to score and a lot of good combinations, especially on the wing,” said Ancelotti who has taken over from Jose Mourinho."

“The problem was in defence. In the first half we didn’t work well together and we had a lot of problems.

“It was a problem of balance. There was a lot of space between our defence and midfield and Betis played very well in this area.

“If we want to play quality football, we need players like Isco and (Mesut) Ozil to do defensive work. Right now it is a normal problem, but they are generous players and we need to find the balance.”

Everyone was a little anxious tonight, which led to a lot of discipline issues. Add to that, Betis are a very good team that play a very good high line. First game, so it's understandable that the guys were over-excited and over-anxious.

Peeps are going to settle back down and play more of a disciplined game.

We won and i wouldn't read more into it than that. We weren't facing Levante.

Valkyrja wrote:

halamadrid2 wrote:Marcelo ffs imagine if he hadn't played today lol

Marcelo, Carvajal,  Isco, Lopez and somewhat modric with good games. Ronaldo was ok the rest crap or downright horse poo

anyways we got a win even if it was hardfought. sign of champions

what match did you see ? ozil was possibly the our best player in the 1st half btw

he had 60m/h cedrick running against him on full speed with dani starting from a stationary position because he kept the offside line flat and he did extremely well especially on 1v1s where nobody got past him. most betis chances came from long balls that cedrick kept running on to. we improved when Casemiro was subbed in as expected because he actually stays as the dm instead of running around without purpose ala khedira

ozil was dissapointing and him shaking his head and walking out when he was subbed was downright pathetic. I expect more from hik

ozil was great, i think his performance was underrated because isco finished so strongly but if we remember correctly ozil had a great first half and created 3-4 really strong chances that the assisted players should have finished.

i think he even played well in the second half too.. it was disappointing he was subbed imo.

What was disappointing was Ozil's lack of any kind of defensive efforts. The reason he got subbed early for DI maria despite playing well offensively.

Its good that Carlo identified the poor tracking back by the wingers. At least he is not neglecting it like Mou did

i dont remember isco tracking back either tbh..

Personally did not see Betis being this troublesome, especially when their core midfield of Canas and Benat gone but typical Pepe Mel side. Great test for Los Blancos honestly and they got the 3 points needed. Betis' winger, what's his name, Cedrick (sp) was giving our full backs real hell whole match and that disciplined high back line they were playing mixed with our forwards (lack of) off the ball running were also factors in how the match turned out.

Ozil was good btw so was Isco and Marcelo. Benzema, well, he scored so no calls were made to Tottenham. Ronaldo actually was poor for me and after a while, just started to shoot for the sake of it. Ramos was the worst though, probably the peroxide got into his blood stream that day.

Felt like Özil, Isco and Marcelo had a good game.

Carvajal was fine, he was making poor passes but he did well defensively. It's nerves more than anything.

Glad we won. The minute we lose expect Bale to get a transfer to Madrid

Isco vs Betis

Spoiler:

Average position vs Betis according to whoscored

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e_cJnBu-2Vo/UhHSB_AM0lI/AAAAAAAABgY/FLq_fjsKZx0/s400/2013-08-20+Lineup+vs.+Betis3.jpg

Benz playing lower down than Ozil Carvajal on his own

What the hell is Benzema doing there?!

Casillas: "At least I will get to play the Trofeo Bernabeu"
http://futbol.as.com/futbol/2013/08/19/primera/1376919171_896273.html

Doc wrote:What the hell is Benzema doing there?!

He tracked back a bit more than Ozil....which isn't difficult to do. Ran a bit more than usual, put the ball in the net about 5 times too, but his timing was all over the place.

I thought Betis played an excellent game and outside of Isco and Marcelo no one was ready for it. The next one will be easier.

halamadrid2 wrote:Its good that Carlo identified the poor tracking back by the wingers. At least he is not neglecting it like Mou did

how did mourinho neglect wingers being defensive. he had di maria playings as a right back at times, helping arbeloa.

ozil played well in both halves, in the second half he played really good. combining with marcelo and isco. as someone said before it was disappointing to see him being subbed.

you will say anything to praise di maria and denounce and criticize ozil. you want di maria to be in the starting eleven so much that you are blind to anyone who can do a better job that him.

I am sorry did somebody say Carvajal was fine . Yes after being molested and tormented.

Pepe & Ramos were at their usual best . Pray Varane comes back soon to bring some calmness at the back.

Cyborg wrote:

halamadrid2 wrote:Its good that Carlo identified the poor tracking back by the wingers. At least he is not neglecting it like Mou did

how did mourinho neglect wingers being defensive. he had di maria playings as a right back at times, helping arbeloa.

ozil played well in both halves, in the second half he played really good. combining with marcelo and isco. as someone said before it was disappointing to see him being subbed.

you will say anything to praise di maria and denounce and criticize ozil. you want di maria to be in the starting eleven so much that you are blind to anyone who can do a better job that him.

That wasn't the problem last year as we had problems on the left side with the winger there not tracking back with Mou not doing anything to fix that. Its common knowledge Ozil doesn't track back and drifts into the middle leaving Carvajal on his own. With Cedric giving Carvajal nightmares even a retard knows he meant Ozil. I don't really like Ozil on that RW and I know when we meet a team like Dortmund we will get raped on this side again. Nothing to do with DiMaria only I am not blind enough to neglect the fact that he keeps drifting in and out of games while doing no defensive work at all. I wouldn't mind Jese taking his spot honestly. Against big teams either will play a formation that has him playing as far from that rw as possible or be benched for DiMaria/Benz/Bale

halamadrid2 wrote:Average position vs Betis according to whoscored

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e_cJnBu-2Vo/UhHSB_AM0lI/AAAAAAAABgY/FLq_fjsKZx0/s400/2013-08-20+Lineup+vs.+Betis3.jpg

Benz playing lower down than Ozil :lol:Carvajal on his own

He truely is DMzema

Was dissapointed with fans and some of the posters here bashing benz, in my opinion he was good, made aloooooooot of runs and was very very active attack, in fact was our biggest attacking threat in the first half. He was playing very high intensity game in first half, calmed down in second.

CR7 had an average game, benz overshadowed him (like CR7 usually does to benz) in the first half. Was a bit better after the break.

Ozil and Isco were MAGNIFICENT, Pure creativity, different styles. Have a feeling they are gonno rock so hard for this season. Both are completely integrated to the team.

Khedira was meh, modric decent. Our defence was a total disaster, Everyone played sooo bad, marcelo was no where to be found on left, forcing ramos to go wide and deal with wingers, which has screwed up in that, pepe was too aggressive, though better then ramos, carvajal had a somewhat disappointing game, was too nervous in everything.

I hope people stop bashing carvajal here, even in his off day, he is better then arbeloa, also i think its all nerves, once he plays 4/5 games continually, he will be great, i think same happened in bundesliga.

The front 4 switched positions a lot during the game, drifting in, going wide to the left/ right, drifting in again, etc, nobody just sticking in certain area and they probably occupied other areas just as much as they occupied the area where they started. With that dynamic surely the responsibility to cover for full backs or CMs has to be adjusted accordingly, they should cover the closest areas to their 'current' positions instead of the areas where they started.

alexander mahone wrote:The front 4 switched positions a lot during the game, drifting in, going wide to the left/ right, drifting in again, etc, nobody just sticking in certain area and they probably occupied other areas just as much as they occupied the area where they started. With that dynamic surely the responsibility to cover for full backs or CMs has to be adjusted accordingly, they should cover the closest areas to their 'current' positions instead of the areas where they started.

that's why Bale is more than welcomed. The welshman is a physical beast as well, capable of running 90 minutes without problems