Title race is definitely not over. We came back from being 7 points or so behind earlier in the season.

Still don't see Real Madrid winning it. I've repeated that Carlo Ancelotti is a very cumbersome manager in fully implementing his long-term vision as he will even sacrifice the first two league titles in order to implement his system. Despite the pieces fitting together in leading Carlo to have a 28+ game unbeaten streak, his tinkering nigh end of the season I predict will have Real Madrid come just short for the league, mounting his challenge for the Champions League, to which he has done for Milan, Chelsea and Paris in similar fashion.

I still predict Barcelona to mount a consistent run near the end of the season while Carlo will be laying a blueprint for the long-term.

Arquitescu wrote:Still don't see Real Madrid winning it. I've repeated that Carlo Ancelotti is a very cumbersome manager...

If I remember right, you also praised Pepe Mel's appointment as the West Brom manager..

Art Morte wrote:

Arquitescu wrote:Still don't see Real Madrid winning it. I've repeated that Carlo Ancelotti is a very cumbersome manager...

If I remember right, you also praised Pepe Mel's appointment as the West Brom manager..

Only when they tied with Chelsea.

His squad was unsettled at PSG Arqi... big issues in certain areas when he got there. Once he got Ibra/Silva, it took him 4 months to get the team clicking his last year at PSG, which is how long it took him at Madrid.

I don't see a letdown. The style and everyone's roles is nailed down. Carlo hasn't tinkered since the winter break... He put Di Maria at CM and that has been the end of the experiments.

tbh as long as carlo doesn't mess with the 4-3-3 then we can win the rest of games easily except la real, sevilla and barca, plus the players are happy that means they will give it their best and on talent alone madrid>>>, so its ours to lose imo but im sure we won't due to the talent difference between us and the remaining teams we will face.

congrats RM, it was a close battle but after losing to fodders, Barca's chance of winning the title is officially 0%. Well played.

u guys need to stop jinxing us. We still have Sociedad, Sevilla away, Malaga, Valencia at home. we can drop points to any of those teams ffs. Not to mention the clasico.

Arquitescu wrote:Still don't see Real Madrid winning it. I've repeated that Carlo Ancelotti is a very cumbersome manager in fully implementing his long-term vision as he will even sacrifice the first two league titles in order to implement his system. Despite the pieces fitting together in leading Carlo to have a 28+ game unbeaten streak, his tinkering nigh end of the season I predict will have Real Madrid come just short for the league, mounting his challenge for the Champions League, to which he has done for Milan, Chelsea and Paris in similar fashion.

I still predict Barcelona to mount a consistent run near the end of the season while Carlo will be laying a blueprint for the long-term.

You might be setting yourself up for a big fall there.

Besides knowing that the title race is very much still, I understand the pessimism from BC. This RM lost to both Atleti and Barcelona and the latter gathered a six point lead where the majority of GL felt that this was Barca's title to lose and my favourite, Atleti were the best team in Madrid. Oh and Barcelona were actually playing some mean football too.

Skip to March and they are staring a potential 4 point deficit to the same RM side while playing some of their more lackluster stuff seen since, well, not sure really.

Mr Nick09 wrote:u guys need to stop jinxing us. We still have Sociedad, Sevilla away, Malaga, Valencia at home. we can drop points to any of those teams ffs. Not to mention the clasico.

The clasico is away for us. Our away form is so bad we haven't scored the first goal in an away match since November against Betis.

We won the league by having to come back from being down under Capello. No reason why Barca can't

halamadrid2 wrote:We won the league by having to come back from being down under Capello. No reason why Barca can't

Barca have no spine though historically...

sportsczy wrote:

halamadrid2 wrote:We won the league by having to come back from being down under Capello. No reason why Barca can't

Barca have no spine though historically...

If Tata has guts to "rest" Messi Barca can finally get back to the form they had when Messi was injured. Until then Tara will have to find a way to get around that problem

God knows why they let Thiago go for peanuts, their subs nowadays are Sergi scruberto, tello, cesc/xavi/iniesta and pedro/alexis. No wonder the starters are so bad when their replacements are this shit/finished

Messi can't be the problem for me, maybe defensively he is, but not offensively. Bar putting it in the goal for Neymar yesterday, I'm not sure there's much else he could have done.

His level is definitely lower, this match and the Valencia match, a normal Messi finds a way to score two goals and win the game. But I don't see what dropping does, Sanchez nor Pedro offer much in the way of creativity.

To be fair, unlike the previous games, Messi was the only one who wanted to make the difference for Barca.

Le Samourai wrote:Messi can't be the problem for me, maybe defensively he is, but not offensively. Bar putting it in the goal for Neymar yesterday, I'm not sure there's much else he could have done.

His level is definitely lower, this match and the Valencia match, a normal Messi finds a way to score two goals and win the game. But I don't see what dropping does, Sanchez nor Pedro offer much in the way of creativity.

That's the problem you see. Messi used to bail them out in previous seasons so they just pass him the ball waiting for him to do the same now. Without him they try other ways and they become less predictable. Alexis used to score many goals when Messi was injured, he can't even get into the team now

Casciavit wrote:To be fair, unlike the previous games, Messi was the only one who wanted to make the difference for Barca.

That's a very simple analysis IMO. The reason why Messi looks the only one who does something is because of his reputation and style of play. Once he's on the pitch everything is centered around him. Players that would get into goalscoring positions if Messi weren't there don't get into these positions as frequently because it's Messi space. They pass it off to Messi. Players that would try something on their own to make things happen don't try as much. They look to feed Messi. In a "normal" team you have a centerforward who does a lot of "dummy runs". Runs where he drags defenders and creates space for others but doesn't get on the ball. When Messi makes runs he almost always gets the ball, even when heavily marked. Alexis or Alves would cross to him anyway. Because when Messi makes 2 runs without receiving the ball he's getting frustrated. When there is a cross and Messi and Neymar who is behind Messi try to get onto it and Neymar is actually better positioned to make something of the cross, Neymar will not yell at Messi to let the ball through like it would happen in any other team. Because Messi is the big star and you don't give stars instructions. Happens countless times. Just watch Almeria.

Messi will always make a few nice dribbles and create at least 1 or 2 chances once he's on the ball. That doesn't mean he is playing well. His movement has declined a lot. Barca are playing with 10 men for most of the time bar few impact moments from Messi (which he will always have - he will always dribble people).

It's not Messi's fault through. The appropriate coach could easily manage and fix all this. Martino is not one of those. He's a completely unprestigious nice guy figure.

Real looks unstoppable   

 to the best left back in the game

Certainly the best left back the club currently has who should have started last week but noooooooooooooooooooo.

Doc wrote:Certainly the best left back the club currently has who should have started last week but noooooooooooooooooooo.

Carlo is using the trial and error way of learning things

Preferred it happening against Atleti than late on in CL, that's for sure

halamadrid2 wrote:

Doc wrote:Certainly the best left back the club currently has who should have started last week but noooooooooooooooooooo.

Carlo is using the trial and error way of learning things

Preferred it happening against Atleti than late on in CL, that's for sure

Yeah.. and tbh, it was just one game and marcelo had international duty as well

sportsczy wrote:His squad was unsettled at PSG Arqi...  big issues in certain areas when he got there.  Once he got Ibra/Silva, it took him 4 months to get the team clicking his last year at PSG, which is how long it took him at Madrid.

I don't see a letdown.  The style and everyone's roles is nailed down.  Carlo hasn't tinkered since the winter break...  He put Di Maria at CM and that has been the end of the experiments.

Which is something that is seldom mentioned right when Carletto joined Paris along with ignoring how good Montpellier were under Girard.

Frankly, he has compiled his Madrid into a balanced and complete team quicker than I expected especially given his record for to build slowly and deliberately. Yet I feel how he is currently building his team for the Champions League will result in some penultimate sacrifice for Madrid's La Liga and while the same can be said for Barcelona and Atletico, Carlo tends to neglect the league out of default for Europe.

Though yesterday's clinical win showed otherwise. Things are looking very good.