El Clasico: Real Madrid vs Barcelona discussion

Ok I have calmed down. Will try and analyse this game

first half:

We started off very well in the first five minutes but were handed a sucker punch when Messi did his trademark left, left, left, slip a wonderful ball to an onrushing LF. It has happened so many times before I have lost count. Firstly Modric was on the other side of our defence. Why?? I'll never know, Alonso was another one that was far from the action so we were left with our four defrnders, facing Messi with the ball and two Barca players on either side, Carvajal decided to move closer to Pepe to prevent a ball being played between himself and Pepe and Messi passed it on the outside of Carvajal and Iniesta blasted the ball into the roof of the net. Could Lopez have done anything about that??? Don't think so

We then started having a spell of good football with Benzema missing an easy chance after DiMaria had done really well getting past three Barca players, skying it well over the bar

Messi then Missed an easy 1v1 he usually scores when he booted the ball past the post after being put through on goal

A couple of minutes later Benzema was to have his goal after a very good cross by DiMaria heading it past Valdez who should have done better. He added another just five minutes afterwards after again Dimaria played in a cross, don't know what Macherano was doing there and why he and Pique had swapped position

From now until the end of the half both teams had a couple of half chances and it looked like we would be going into the break one two one up But Messi had other ideas, he slipped Neymar through with a neat pass only for Neymar to fluff his lines and Messi took advantage of the situation strolling past the lot of them shootingan opportunistic strike that went in just inside the post. Could Lopez have done anything about that?? Well there were many players infront of him but he is a tall dude ffs. Not happy. Then happened something disgusting that Mou seems to have rubbed off to Pepe. After Cesc ran past him to get the ball Pepe provoked an unnecessary melee having thought Cesc pushed him with his shoulder. But even if he did it must have been the slightest of touches. Cesc and Pepe squared up to eachother and both fell to the ground like little sissies that would make Hart and Boyd cringe eith disgust. Busquets then proceeded to stamp on Pepes face, completely unnecessary and should not be happening in football, the reff didn't see it so understandable he didn't get a red

Second half saw Barca come out with intent pushing us back in our own half but we had the best chance of the second half till then after Pique cleared the ball of the line and then Dimaria being fouled in a dangerous position only for ronaldo to hit the wall for the umpteenth time this season. Possible handball?? no dont think so

After Barca lost the ball in midfield we countered and Ronaldo tripped after Alves had left a trailing leg but the foul was outside the box but we were given a penalty, maybe because of 'follow through' or because ronaldo fell inside the box

However, this wasn't the only controversial decision Mallenco was to make after Kesdi had played a beautiful ball between our cbs for Neymar to run onto and having gotten ahead of Ramos, Ramos stopped the chase, seeing Ramos behind him Neymar decided to fall theatrically pretending Ramos had prevented him from running further and Barca were awarded a penalty and Ramos red carded. After that we were trying to hold onto the draw and counter through Bale and Ronaldo but Barca would have the last laugh afyer Alonso clumsily took down Iniesta unnecessary (remember Dortmund) and Messi scored from the resulting penalty and none of our players had energy to try to get an equiliser.

ok our players:

Lopez 6: could have done nothing for the firzt goal but could have saved the second. I am so glad Iker plays CL imagine Lopez in a penalty shootout jumping 10 minutes after the player had already shot. Iker should get his spot back but thanks for your services Lopez

Carvajal 6.5: Some will undoubtedly blame him for the first goal but I believe he did it for a reason. Picked himself up from that and defended very well for the rest of the game

Pepe 7.5: our best defender on the night, rock solid, had some lasy ditch tackles Ramos could only dream of, I can't help but think if it was Pepe running vs Neymar for the penalty, either he would've beat him to the ball or he would've thrown him off the ball shoulder to shoulder

Ramos 6: Awful just awful, let players behind him on more than one occasion, was just an idiot running kicking around like a headless chicken for the second goal, and on top of that red carded, albeit not his fault but he always puts himself in those situations where Referee think red cards are justified for whatever reason

Marcelo 6: Like Carvajal defended his flank well, tracked a really good ball that beat our cbs kicking it to safety. But half thr blame of the penalty should go to him. Firstly he played Neymar onside secondly he failed to track Neymars run resulting in Ramos having to try to bail him out

Modric 5: Awful. Atleti, Bilbao, Barca, Juve he was shit in all of them. I am beginning to agree with Nick. Your typical scrub killer who has too many flaws to ever start for our team in big games

Alonso 5: Again like his partner he was shit, was second best in every duel, his passes were wayward, his long balls nothing better and tracked back like an injured turtle. Not happy.

DiMaria 8.5: Brilliant game by the best player in the world created nearly all chances we had, worked tirelessly in defence having to cover for Marcelo and the lack of tracking back from Ronaldo

Ronaldo 6: Not a very good game by him, scored a controversial penalty but seemed to get even the basics wrong such as ball control etc

Benz 8.5: Like Dimaria should be proud of his performance yesterday, ran, hustled, linked up with his team mates and scored. If we'd won I'd given him higher

Bale 6: Disappointing game from the welshman, you'd have thpught with even the most average winger running rings around him Bale would do the same but noo Alba won all one v ones with him. The only contributions to this game was that run and pass for Benz and his own shot after Benz had back heeled the ball to him. Very dissatisfied with him

Carlo 6: Not happy with him, chose the right team but it's like his tactics against big teams are to defend deep. We are not built to defend deep. When we press Valdez he booted it out of play when will he understand wr always do god gainst Barca by pressing high up the pitch. There was no intensity up front by anyone other than benz, at one occasion he gestured for them to move up and press with him. It's like we aren't instructed to do a particular job you know like starve Xavi, Pressure Pique. Our defending was just all over the place. The only reason we were better than them was because they are shit not because we were great. So I don't want to hear but but we could've won if not for the red card. That's nonsense. We should be putting heavy numbers past this barca team and concede very few but what do we see?? the other way round against a supposed 'best defensive unit in the country' Bale losing the ball everytime he takes on a player, Ronaldo likewise, Modric being in la la land, Xabi chasing shadows and only two players trying to do something. Carlos subs were awful and the tactics after the red card was being done with the wrong players. Benz was hauled off after Ramos sending off to make room for Varane, It should have Been bale who was anonymous on the night. We hoofed it up to Ronaldo when we got it, Ronaldo is not a target man. If those were the tacts he wanted to use he should have put on morata who is a target man. Secondly, He takes off the only player who seemed to be able to do something for Isco, Yet modric somehow stayed on. Alonso was not subbed eventhough he was having an awful game, Illarra has played these kind of games before so it's not like he would've been a stranger to the occasion. Morata came in in the last minute and sub that should have been done 10 mins earlier. Lastly his post presser was a disgrace, I hope thats just a media front and he scolds the players in private or else I'd be very worried

Team 4: Now against Atleti, Barca and Juve we have conceding no less than 2 goals in all those games. Very very poor from us. Have we been overrated for keeping clean sheets against scrubs??? I am not going to get too ahead of myself anymore even if we win 10-0 against Sevilla. We have amassed a grand total of 1 point in the league against our direct rivals thats poor and very tito like numbers. It seems as if Carlo has not sorted the left side issue, because this formation needs ronaldo to track back which he does not do. leaving Dimaria to do it leaving us exposed between himself, Alonso, Marcelo and Ramos, go look at all the goals we have conceded since 2014, I can guarantee you 89% have been from this side. And I hear things like I don't need my forwards to track back from Carlo it rages you to no end. Bale is doing the same on the other side but at least he tracks back sometimes. This needs to change pretty urgently if we are to win silverwaret his season


We are the underdogs in the Copa final. Barca can play how shit they want in scrub games but they will always have a more mentally tough display than our tame overpriced 'supetstars'. Imagine Jese yesterday, he would've made Alba work and been a nuisance for Marcherano and Pique. Oh well animo Jese

Marcelo was better than Ronaldo and Bale. Our best defender along with Pepe. Ramos wasn't bad until that mistake too.

We really need a midfielder in the summer. Kroos, Gundogan, Pogba, Vidal are possible to get.

benzema need to work on his finishing.

dono, or lost some weight, he seem clumsy at times.

appreciate his goals thou.


yes, bale had atleast half the responsible on 1st goal.

it been more than 1 times on carvajal getting no support, (luckily fabregas ball touching sucky)


hail maria.

still, i don't understand why carlo didn't order some switch of flank between bale and ronaldo. it's obvious they got figured since the early of the game.

Valkyrja wrote:Marcelo was better than Ronaldo and Bale. Our best defender along with Pepe. Ramos wasn't bad until that mistake too.

We really need a midfielder in the summer. Kroos, Gundogan, Pogba, Vidal are possible to get.

marcelo was lucky that it was neymar there. he actually had few moment made me sweat.



kroos is the oni 1 we need. not the other 3.

pls pls pls oni kroos.

yepp Bale gets the blame for the first goal. He didn't track Iniesta but if he is not instructed to do it he won't and I suspect Carlo told him to chill up there and put a body near Carvajal when Barcelona had posession. Text book mistake there

Carvajal was very, very poor. He is naive tactically. He kept getting sucked in too far inside and ball watched. You can't leave your zone like that unless it's a last ditch situation to save your CB or you are absolutely sure that there is no danger on your side.

He's young though... so he'll learn i guess.

What worries me the most about him is that he was supposed to be this great offensive fullback and i see really big technical flaws with him. His passing is average and he can't cross. He's better than Arbeloa for sure... but that really shouldn't be the standard.

He looks like Debuchy-lite to me.

And i disagree... i thought Modric was very good last night. Not as good as Di Maria obviously... but he held his own. Too bad Alonso has always been atrocious against Barca. Not sure why we keep starting him aginst the cules tbh.

Meh let him stay banned so Varane can play and get his first spot back again.

Shame he's been injured for most of the season.

Varane - Pepe/Ramos >>>>>>> Pepe-Ramos

  

Players apart, Carlos has to take some blame for his tactics. Alonso needs a defensive pairing. This factor may not be evident playing lesser teams, but it has been evident playing quality oppositions like BVB and Barca now, where the midfield trio was pressed intensely. We need a physical player along with Alonso to cover defense and win back ball. (With Khedira injured. I always wondered why Casemiro was not given enough play time)

Some people on the forum get touchy & personal when I talk about Carlos tactics in big games. But it is true that whenever faced with quality opposition we struggled even at home. Glad this match was n't a decider, but Carlos has much to think for upcoming Big games.

Carlo was a known as a big game manager at Milan. That was his speciality. Don't know what has happened, but I hope that he will do it right next time.

agree with nedved to a certain degree, i mentioned it on another thread, that we couldn't get too comfortable or exited, because prior to yesterday's match, we hadn't played any elite team since the last clasico, and even against immediate rivals we pulled less than stellar results....i also stated in other threads, that khedira is crucial to this team's project as someone who can play the 'makelele' role and a ball winner, not too mention he gives his all in these games, hardly leaves a clasico with a clean jersey....but in carlo's defense, i guess he was going by the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" analogy. Any major change he might have made would be criticized by media and fans if it had gone wrong. As for alonso, he has hardly been a big game player for us, so i was hardly surprised by his performance or lack thereof....to carlo's credit, @ least he found a spot for di maria, i prefer him playing central mid than wasting crosses on the right side of midfield, not too mention, the over reliance of his left foot is less of an issue in the middle of the park....i trust carlo will learn from this game. cough, ramos cough, cough isn't reliable

i like Alonso as a player, he organizes the team, but his deficiencies are killing the team.

I would love to see a di maria, modric, khedira midfield. I think we will be better off.

Illaramendi isn't the answer.

He isn't a youth anymore, he's 24 and i have not seen anything to make me think he is a player capable of anchoring the team.

it seems madrid just wasted 32 mil on him just to satisfy this craze of 'gettimg more Spanish in'.

We could have just promoted jose rodgriquez in that case, he looks a much better player to me.

Pogba and Pjanic are two players i would consider bringing in.

Alonso needs the ball to actually do his stuff. That can't happen when we have 30% possession at home. He basically becomes a DM, when he's meant to be a DLP.

It's become a noticeable trend that the players underperform against teams who have more of the ball than us.

We needed a match like this to bring the section back to life    

Madrid have indicated that they will make a last-ditch attempt

  

Why??? is it me or there is no consequence for what Ramos does?

i mean he wants to break the red card record no matter how it hurts the club and there is no one to blame him?

last season we were lucky not to be one man down at minute 30 against Dortmund cuz of this pos. this season against Osasuna he gets a red in one of our hardest games. and now he gets a red against Barca and it will not stop.

someone from the club should grow some balls and blame him for what he is doing.

thats just for show mamad, from what i heard carlo and flo ain't big fans of ramos, if it wasn't for varane injury i'm pretty sure ramos would've gotten dropped a long time ago, if he gets one more red and it cost us, he is gonna get sold or perma benched, we should look for a new cb, in the summer to complement varane anyway.