Juventus vs Real Madrid discussion

I thought it would be a good idea to start thinking about our next game rather than dwell on that horror show we witnessed in the second half last night

Coentrao has a sprained ankle so won't be called up for this game. The rest are alright

Howard will be reffing the game. There goes the hope of anyone trying to dive themselves a freekick/penalty

Bale has been playing well lately but needs to track back alot more than he currently does. The sooner he realizes he is not ronaldo so won't get a pass the better. Benzema also needs to press more. if we saw the pressing that we did vs Malaga in this game it would be alot more productive and we might actually keep a clean sheet for once. I hope Carlo doesn't start Arbeloa after Carvajal's below average performance yesterday but I have a feeling that he will. we need to protect our wing backs or else they are going to keep crossing until one eventually is met by their forward and we will end up blaming the mid again who are there to protect the middle of the park not the entire bloody backline

our midfield or defence isn't shit its just that we don't see united pressing and that will be the reason why we might not win a trophy this season. I mean look at barcas, atletis or arsenals midfield and defence. you couldn't possibly think individually they are superior to ours, do you?? atleti have 90 year old godin, ok defender miranda and castilla reject juanfran at the back but they are conceding so few goals because they all work for eachother. Villa stays at the top and the rest run their socks off and atleti are playing a 4-4-2 which failed for us eariler in the season. Barca have "not even a professional footballer" pique, "average" marcherano and "cant defend" adriano/montoya/alba and they are keeping clean sheets left right and center. I wont go into arsenal because I hope you get the gist

our problem is NOT personel, it is the collective brain fart in pressing and defending as a team and very indisciplined bunch of players starting from the front all the way to the back. The amount of space we gave Rayo and Juve that other time is just mindoggling and wouldn't happen at another top team that aspires to win trophies. god grief thats all.

anyways the line up we will probably see is this:


predicting a 2-1 victory for us

I thought our forwards did well defensively tbh.... the midfield and fullbacks were a disaster however.  The ball was sitting in our final 1/3 the whole second half of the game.  Forwards aren't supposed to defend there and won't in fact... Carlo would kill them if they did.  The idea is for the midfield to slow down the incursion so that they get support from both the forwards + the CBs can push up.  Well the ball was clearing the midfield so fast that the forwards had no time to help + The CBs were defending in their box (every mistake became a pk as a result).

The floodgates were open once Alonso left at halftime.  Di Maria isn't a MFer and should never play there again...  his positioning was horrid. I like Illara, but he gets physically overwhelmed too easily. He needs to work on getting his impact up. 

I won't even mention our fullbacks... all four of them.  Absolute crap.

Our best midfield trio is Khedira-Alonso-Modric.  Until the kids PROVE that they are better on the pitch, then they won't take over.  Simple as that.

There's just no system in place when defending in our own half. It's all very random. However the pressing's decent when the opposition have the ball in their half.

I don't know if it's a lack of system or not, but the majority of our defenders are poor. Pepe and Ramos both hoofing and messing around at the back, Marcelo poor defensively as usual and Carvajal not looking too comfortable either at times. Arbeloa obviously can't attack, however he's experienced and decent defensively. Also Coentrao's solid defensively and better tactically than Marcelo.

Main thing is there needs to be a proper system in place when defending.

Attacking wise, I don't understand whether Ancelotti wants to play possession or not. If he does, why is he allowing teams to have more possession than us? It was the same under Mourinho, however he didn't care about possession.

If Ancelotti wants to play possession, it has to be against every side. Doesn't matter if it's Barca or Bayern.

Overall there's a long way to go yet until the team's where it should be.

I know RM have won all the games, but is it smart to play Casillas through the whole CL? The guy just plays CL games and doesn't have that consistency it could hurt RM chances if Carlo keeps playing him especially in the KO round it could take one game screw things up and Casillas will be the one getting the flack from a lot of people. Carlo should rotate him and Lopez in the league, or at least give him some CdR games, but I'd still say league and then see how he fairs against Lopez. Tho I though he was great against Juve did make some nice saves and decisions in the game.

Thanks to the backline, Madrid's betting odds are pretty good. 19/10 at WilliamHill

What odds are we talking here?

Not that i'd ever bet against my own team, just curious.

19/10 for a Madrid win at WilliamHill

5/4 for a Juventus win.

Ramos at right back.

Buffon; Cáceres, Barzagli, Bonucci, Asamoah; Pirlo, Pogba, Vidal, Marchisio; Tévez y Llorente

Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Varane, Pepe, Marcelo; Xabi Alonso, Khedira, Modric; Bale, Cristiano y Benzema

awful performance. I wanna see you all begging for mou

this team is just waiting for its super star players to make magic out of nothing. otherwise nothing else. so many flops in this team like modric benzema khedira.

or wait for others mistakes

lol Modric was our best player.

Good game guys, it was pleasure to play against you now let's meet in the finals

Better second half. Good goal by Bale and Alonso was impressive too.

Overall Bale and Ronaldo need to always track back to the fullback area. Can't just have the midfield trio defending. Llorente's header was conceded because Ronaldo wasn't tracking back to prevent the cross. Happened way too many times in the CL.

Possession play has slightly improved, however final third play needs to improve.

Also yet again the defensive line was way too deep when Juventus had the ball in our half. A lot of their shots would have been avoided if the team didn't sit back so deep.

Mamad wrote:lol Modric was our best player.

gtfo without ronaldo u would be watching that dinosaur cry right now. ur best midfielder was alonso by MILES.

nope. Modric was our best player.

We had a terrible first half but we grew into the game in the second half and controlled the match well.

Our defending needs to improve though. CR not tracking back again resulted in a goal ( the second goal), he needs to track back.

CR is not gonna track back. Ancelloti made it pretty clear earlier in the season. Ok. may be he said many things and did the exact opposite but I think he stuck to this.

Modric played well , but CR7 & Bale were decisive. Happy with men upfront.

DeviAngel wrote:Good game guys, it was pleasure to play against you now let's meet in the finals

2 high intensity games, they were definitely excellent

Our defending was much better today than in the first leg despite the two goals conceded

if I remember correctly the second goal happened because somebody lost the ball (cant remember exactly though)

bale and Ronaldo were very good but the one in between them not very much so. the miss he had when put right through by alonso was lolworthy

overall very happy with this game. I still dont like how our goalies always take long goalkicks when nobody wins the second ball after bale/Ronaldo win the header. Jese should have come on 35 minutes earlier and I think bale deserved to stay on. also it didn't give dimaria enough time to get into the game. he only got going when there was 5 mins left

alonso good to have you back son. hope he stays for another year to teach illara one thing or two about those precise balls he sends and putting your body on the line

Alonso, Modric and Isco midfield should be tried in midfield. Isco offers more than Khedira attacking wise. Defensively Modric and Khedira have similar average tackles per game in the CL. Also Modric has more interceptions per game than Khedira.

I don't see how Khedira balances the midfield. I think people think he balances the midfield because he's tall, physical and supposedly good defensively.

Khedira was our best midfielder yesterday. He played great especially in the second half.

Ramos whether he likes it or not should play as right back(Carvajal is not ready yet. Arbeloa looks a spent force). Pepe & Varane should continue in center. Varane may have had a bad day y'day, but I think he will come good.

Ancelloti is confusing Khedira by asking him to move into more advanced positions. Khedira is the best box-box MF and his advanced position play is his limitation.Not playing Khedira to his strengths is limiting his impact.

Ramos is another arbeloa. no thank you

Carvajal is our best right back and has showed that on numerous occasions this season