question for old school madridistas(and anyone who's followed the team for a while)

In light of the cl win i'm curious as to how the cuurent bunch stacks up to some past squads.

1994/95: had laudrp redondo and zamorano. beat barca 5-0, but the same squad was smoked by van gaal's ajax the following year. Before my time
1996/97- had one of my favorite players davor suker, redondo, carlos, as well as a young, brlliant raul. saw a few matches but dont remember many details as i was just getting into football. it was a capello team so i imagine they were defense oriented?
2001-02: the galacticos. won the cl, but inconsistent in the league. i saw a lot of this team and felt zidane could be underwhelming.
the current squad: have playing some scinitillating football the second half of the season. dimaria has become imo one of the best mfs in the world and of course other stars like modric and ronaldo. bit inconsistent as well tho

2001-2002 : zidane being underwhelming is definitely the noteworthy memory from that season   

The best all time Real Madrid teams after the 60s, were La quinta de Buitre (butragueno) the guy who always appears in the Champions League draws. 1988 Real Madrid with Schuster in the midfield, Michel in the right flank and Hugo Sanchez and Butragueno up front. Should have won the european cup, they beat Maradona's Napoli and Mathaus' Bayern in good shape, but lost on away goals to underdogs PSV with a lucky goal by the Dutch team at the bernabeu and parking the bus at home in the second leg. (aggregate 1-1). Valdano's team in 1995 was a good team in La Liga, played beautiful football because Laudrup and Redondo midfield was gold, but not strong enough to make an impact the following year in the Champions League. 1997 Capello's team was full of talent, Madrid sign a lot of quality thanks to the Bosman law, but at the time Barcelona was the richest club in the world and made better transfer, Ronaldo the most, somehow we could win that Liga against the best Ronaldo of all times that year. That team in 1997 was the start of a 2 european cups almost in a row. With Hierro R.carlos Redondo and Raul as the core of that squad. However none of those teams were brilliant, and we won it as underdogs against Juventus 1998 and Bayern (valencia) in 2000, both better teams than us. That core, with Figo and Zidane and Ronaldo after them make us the best team in the world. We should have won 3 european cups in a row. Because 2001-2002-2003 we were the best in the world without any doubt. But overrated Del bosque was an useless coach, terrible in rotations, giving up titles in Spain when Barcelona were nobodies an our rivals for the titles were Deportivo and Valencia. Too bad Queiroz was even worst.

In terms of squads potential etc. I would say the best teams for Madrid in my eyes were:

1996 Real Madrid. Line up: Illgner-Panucci-Hierro-Sanchis-R.carlos-Seedorf-Redondo-Victor-Raul-Mijatovic-Suker

2003 Real Madrid Line up: Casillas-Salgado-Hierro-Helguera-R.carlos-Makelele-Guti-Figo-Zidane-Raul-Ronaldo. (Morientes, Savio, Mcmanaman, Flavio)

2012 Real Madrid Line up: Casillas-Arbeloa-Ramos-Pepe-Marcelo-Alonso-Khedira-Ozil-Di Maria-Ronaldo-Benzema

2014 Real Madrid Line up: Casillas-Carvajal-Ramos-Pepe-Coentrao-Alonso-Modric-Di Maria-Bale-Ronaldo-Benzema.


I feel we had the best team in the world in 2001-2002-2003 and 2012. And only in 2002 we were able to win the champions league. In 1996 we were a magnificent team, but Juventus with Zidane Del Piero Inzaghi Davids and company were fantastic. In 2012 I feel we were better than Bayern and we lost with 2014 being the opposite. I feel 2002-2003 team is better than the current squad, this squad has more fire and speed and better defense, but that team had more fantasy and ability with the ball. Real Madrid 3-1 Manchester United in the Bernabeu in 2003 is the best exhibition of attacking football I remember, better than the tiki taka boring festival. The amount of talent in good shape by Zidane Figo R.Carlos Raul and Makelele that day was astonishing.

Overrated Del Bosque was a useless coach? That same coach you fired and afterwards couldn't make it to the quarter finals for 6 years in a row?

I've been following the team since 1998. I really liked the pre-galactico era team, the one between 1998-2000. It had its flaws, but Hierro - Redondo - Mijatovic - Raul was a great backbone.

Quality-wise, the best team was in 2003, but they were tactically very poor and were outclassed by a Juventus lining up an unplayable Nedved. Tactically-wise, the 2012 team knew exactly what it was playing and to me were a better all-around team because of that.

Hawky wrote:Overrated Del Bosque was a useless coach? That same coach you fired and afterwards couldn't make it to the quarter finals for 6 years in a row?

I've been following the team since 1998. I really liked the pre-galactico era team, the one between 1998-2000. It had its flaws, but Hierro - Redondo - Mijatovic - Raul was a great backbone.

Quality-wise, the best team was in 2003, but they were tactically very poor and were outclassed by a Juventus lining up an unplayable Nedved. Tactically-wise, the 2012 team knew exactly what it was playing and to me were a better all-around team because of that.

Yes, overrated. Real fell on decline because players like R.carlos, Raul Figo or Zidane fell on decline, and because we sold Makelele and all the rest of back up players, Mcmanaman Morientes etc. 2004 team after Del Bosque had everything to win the treble except depth. And they lost everything under Queiroz in the last 2 months, when they have an easy Copa del Rey final on paper against Zaragoza, an 8 point lead in la liga over Valencia with 10 games to play and a 4-2 lead over Monaco in the champions league quarter finals. After that disaster everything explode. Del bosque was absolutely useless, the man had one of the best squads ever and he never could rotate the team to compete till the end for the titles, when Real had a great UCL season they were horrible in la liga falling to 4th or 5th spots, and never could win a single Copa del Rey title. With that team in his top form he should have won a treble or a double some of his 4 years in the team and more thinking that his top rivals were Valencia and Deportivo, not a Barcelona in the best moment of his history like other coaches like Mourinho or Pellegrini had.

this team we have now is largely consistent; however, when looking at consistency you have to look at the opponents; in previous eras the league had valencia, super-depor, sociedad, barcelona all doing well....and teams like mallorca (eto'o and aragonez), osasuna, celta vigo may have had madrid's number every now and again....

what i think this team has that our previous teams have lacked was discipline....i'd put this current crop ahead of the 97/98 team that won the eighth, simply because that team was riddled with internal struggles, the team coached by heynckes was an off shoot of capello's team but there was a lot of animosity among them- the ferrari boys (lol old school fans remember them) suker, seedorf, karembeu, and i think mijatovic; then the spanish contingent hierro, raul, mori, ivan campo...every team has cliques but there was constant fighting and it went on for years....there was the fight between ivan campo and seedorf; then the fight between hierro and seedorf in the shower that started due to a free kick or penalty that hierro didn't allow seedorf take...

i lived in morocco that one year and i recall there was always coverage of some feud going on in the madrid camp.....the team that won ucl in 99/00 was one in transition, most of the ferrari boys left around that time, but there was still strife within the team, thanks in no small part to anelka, that team relied more on individual brilliance of carlos, raul, redondo, macca (mcmanaman) than on overall team play...plus we were lacking in the play maker department, raul played as a nos 10 for the bulk of that season, behind both mori and anelka...and wasn't helped by anelka telling anyone who cared to listen that raul only passed to mori...our 01/02 team is the only one i feel could rival our current crop, just like this season, that team had a good chance of winning a treble, we threw away our lead at the top by losing 3nil to osasuna late in the season and our league chances went down hill from there....then we lost the copa del rey to depor who surprisingly dominated us for much of the match; i couldn't understand what figo and zizou were doing.

i will probably get heat for this, but i honestly did not think we needed ronaldo (the original), which is why i dont think the 02/03 team was anything special, the team lacked defensive discipline, and there was a lack of understanding between el phenomeno and raul...whilst i like phenomeno, i was a huge critique of his style of play, as i felt it hampered team play.....so i'd rate this team alongside the 01/02 as our best (zizou and figo were still @ their peak), and the team i'll place alongside them was the capello led team .....had capello stayed the internal conflicts might have been avoided, that team could have really done a lot more on the european stage...very little flash but so much grit.

capello doesn't get as much props as he should. if any of our capello teams (96/97 and 06/07), had a laudrup or zidane in them, and capello stayed on we might just have built something crazy....that's just my take....this team does have the potential to reach greater heights though....our defense (though they have their moments of madness) has come a long way from the woodgate, helguera, pavon days.....even hierro who i was a big fan of, and sad when he left was getting old; i remember del piero and nedved totally dismantling him when we met juve in the semis

btw i never saw quinta del buitre, nor players of the di stefano era play so i didn't rank them (i'm not that old)....their legacies have to be respected though. they set the standard for this club