COMMENT: What's the best solution?

Last year we got what we all wanted, what we all dreamed, what every Madridista thought of year-in year-out for more than 13 years. After a few early exits from the Champions League, few semis, we finally made it to the very top, and won La Decima.
What everyone thought after our incredible come-back in the final, is that from now on this is how we roll. We would only build-up from that seasons performance.
But fortune had other thoughts, and we ended up with selling the Man-Of-The-Match Di Maria, the engine, and our brain in midfield, and personal favorite, Alonso.
Di Maria got replaced with the World Cup star, James, and instead of Alonso we have a smart but less defensive player in Toni Kroos.

Season started with poor performances, bar the European Super Cup win and we might say the 2-8 win at Riazor. But we have yet to find a solution to our problem in midfield which can cause trouble when facing tougher opponents. Maybe its just early, new players, new tactics, we have to find our feet again.

Let's review all of our possibilities:

4-2-3-1 The one used more this term.
With Kroos and Modric in a double pivot role we get exposed in our back 4, Kroos and Modric don't have the muscle to sustain a heavy attack, even worse they have been showing poor performances in zonal defending, leaving huge gaps everywhere. our wingers do not track back leaving our fullback outnumbered and outflanked every single time. It's no miracle we concede every single goal from crosses.

4-3-3 Last season's miracle
With Alonso and Di Maria gone, it's hard finding the right players to fill this formation, yet we have overlooked and not dared to try something new. Maybe we are going to, maybe it's way to early to judge, or is it just that Ancelotti is afraid to test a few players and experiment to an already bad start. To get to the point what I think we should try is:

-Modric-Kross-James: Just a head to head replacement with arrivals and departures of this season, but yet again James cannot do the job Di Maria did, his work ethic is not the same and James is more of an behind the striker player than between the wingback and winger player, and Kroos might not have the muscle to defend as Alonso did.

-Modric-Illara-Kroos: Better option than the previous one, Illara as a direct replacement to Alonso(as it should've been) and Modric and Kroos dictating the match from further up the field. But on a team that plays on counters, we would suffer, as none of the three players is a speed demon, and considering we have a very attacking minded fullback, we would leave a huge gap between the lines.

-Kroos-Illara-Bale: Read this somewhere so I just thought to mention it, bu Bale there would only do good on countering and I'm not sure about that either, Bale lacks the technical abilities to play there, as his pass distribution is not that great, and let's be honest, Bale is a Hit-And-Run player, so waiting on him to create and build-up our play would be a waste of time.

As for now I think that somehow we need to include Illara or Khedira when fit, to play, we need a defensive midfielder, or else we are pretty unbalanced. Last year Alonso covered everything infront of our main defenders, we need to find that man again, someone strong, calm and to be able to start an attack or a counter attack, nothing more, nothing less, if we want to get back on our winning ways.

How about

James -- Ilara -- Isco

bit risky but may be it will work.

I think a 4-4-2 might be the most solid option for us with the players at our disposal

The midfield of Isco/Modric-Illarra-Kroos-James give us stability and pleases our president. Then a front two of Ronaldo and Bale solves the formers lack of tracking back and the latters average ball technique and when defending Bale would come down and help out giving us a nice 4-5-1 shape when defending. We should definitely try it against Barca

Kroos is a good player, but he doesn't have to start. At CM Modric is better and at LCM Kroos can't dribble and he's slow.

-------------Illarra
------Modric------James

Just have to make sure we always have 2 banks of 4 when defending. Our 2nd line of 4 hasn't been defending properly. At times we're defending with 2 or 3 midfielders. Kroos moves too forward when pressing and attacking. Also Coentrao is most likely going to start in the big games. Illarra is very similar in style to Alonso.

Kroos is a better footballer than Modric. And taking into consideration Modric's performances this season he has no job starting.

I am all for a 3 man midfield involving Illara, Kroos and another player

Modric hasn't done anything wrong this season imo. He's a perfect fit for the CM role.

lol, madrid fans....people already suggesting modric be thrown out, when the guy has done nothing wrong this season. he hasn't been great, but none of our midfielders have. and he isn't a defensive midfielder, he's a central mid, before he had the work rate of di maria and the technicality of xabi protecting him....i predicted this though, soon people will call for another galactico and modric will be the sacrificial lamb, and then you'll here people say, "he only had x number of good games, or was only good for x number of weeks"

Honestly man Kroos and Hamez won't get dropped, I just don't see it happening.. So we either stick with Modric or plug in Illara, who might be a better match, but Modric has been good for us as overall since he arrived..

It's just a big cluster fuxk in midfield tbh.. Some hearts will be broken

Before Illara came on against deportivo, I always knew he would be the player to give us the much sought-after balance but the problem is one that would lead to us treating a player unfairly.
Benzema, james, bale and ronaldo cannot be benched which leaves us with two spots in the midfield.
We need an alonso and the closest player to him is Illara.
If we would implement the most practical and workable solution, it would be to start Illara and pair either Kroos or modric but where the problem lies is that modric was fantastic for us last year and understands the system more than the other midfielders so it would be unfair to bench him.
Kroos is rated highly in world football and came on the back of a world class reputation. He also seems to be a galactico which makes it difficult for the coach to bench him based on status.


My own solution
Illara, modric, james
Modric and kroos can be used interchangeably

imo James has been great for us so far plus we signed the dude for a lot of money lol, he is a starter in every sense of the word.

Kroos has also been very good and is a new signing so he will continue to start because he hasn't really done anything to justify benching him.

Modric is the heartbeat of the team, he isn't getting benched either.

Bale hasn't had a good start but despite that we all know that he can create a moment of magic out of nowhere, not to mention he has excellent workrate when we need him to cover in big games. His qualities mean you should trust him to perform when the team needs him, no way he gets benched. Having said that Bale should improve.

CR is CR lol

If we want to add Illarra to the team (an option we should consider when we need to shut down the midfield) then from where I am standing there is only really one option available.

Of course there are other ways we can work around this. Carlo's substitutions were spot on against Depor, if we continue with that sort of approach with subs then we should be OK.

Zealous wrote:imo James has been great for us so far plus we signed the dude for a lot of money lol, he is a starter in every sense of the word.

Kroos has also been very good and is a new signing so he will continue to start because he hasn't really done anything to justify benching him.

Modric is the heartbeat of the team, he isn't getting benched either.

Bale hasn't had a good start but despite that we all know that he can create a moment of magic out of nowhere, not to mention he has excellent workrate when we need him to cover in big games. His qualities mean you should trust him to perform when the team needs him, no way he gets benched. Having said that Bale should improve.

CR is CR lol

If we want to add Illarra to the team (an option we should consider when we need to shut down the midfield) then from where I am standing there is only really one option available.

Of course there are other ways we can work around this. Carlo's substitutions were spot on against Depor, if we continue with that sort of approach with subs then we should be OK.

Maybe I'm wrong but it's just my opinion : Isco and Kroos are better than Modric, and Illarra is our only DM, and a great one.

illarra should rotate with kroos then kroos rotates with modric, that way we see which pair works best imo and keeps the mid fresh and competitive, plus illarra deserves a real chance before going into the market, i believe in him he can boss ffs, give him confidence he is unplayable imo, don't bleep this up carlo!!!

Valkyrja wrote:

Zealous wrote:imo James has been great for us so far plus we signed the dude for a lot of money lol, he is a starter in every sense of the word.

Kroos has also been very good and is a new signing so he will continue to start because he hasn't really done anything to justify benching him.

Modric is the heartbeat of the team, he isn't getting benched either.

Bale hasn't had a good start but despite that we all know that he can create a moment of magic out of nowhere, not to mention he has excellent workrate when we need him to cover in big games. His qualities mean you should trust him to perform when the team needs him, no way he gets benched. Having said that Bale should improve.

CR is CR lol

If we want to add Illarra to the team (an option we should consider when we need to shut down the midfield) then from where I am standing there is only really one option available.

Of course there are other ways we can work around this. Carlo's substitutions were spot on against Depor, if we continue with that sort of approach with subs then we should be OK.

Maybe I'm wrong but it's just my opinion : Isco and Kroos are better than Modric, and Illarra is our only DM, and a great one.

quit it, isco as a central midfielder is NOT as good as modric...you're really going overboard right now. Just because you see flashes of brilliant from a substitute doesn't hold credence.....as far as kroos and modric, if kroos is better, its not by much imo

CR will be our 9 this season

Illarra will play in midfield with Kroos/James/Modric as a result

Carlo pls do this

calma

LOL take your own advice

Illarra-Kroos-Isco is possible

My ideal one would be

Just sayin'

Zealous wrote:LOL take your own advice

Ancelotti the Great recognizes and appreciates what our world-class striker offers, he's not dropping him