Cordoba vs Real Madrid

Isco and Peps out through injury. Apart from that the rest are good to go

Cordoba are a tough team to beat especially at home we will need to take our chances

If Benzema plays like he did against Getafe we will be able to supress the loss of Isco. No other player can hold on to the ball as well as Isco, Benzema and Marcelo so with one of them gone I expect us to lose the ball alot

A 1-0 win wont be so bad considering the circumstances. Once Modric gets back we can finally afford to bench Bale/James but until then we will have to go with what we have

Hope so but I am awfully pessimistic about our chances of winning let alone Ronaldo getting a brace

Much better response after going down this game

Ronaldo, James, Marcelo and Ramos are having shockers. They really need to step up in the second half

Ramos has conceded 11 penalties, only 34 year old Juanfran is ahead of him. By the time he has retired he will have topped the list of the most red cards in history as well as penalties conceded

Benzema why can't he play like this against Atleti

Phew *wipes sweat off neck and forehead*

We did not deserve even 1 point from this game and got three instead

We really need to improve or else we wont win a single trophy this season

Ronaldo lashing out like that was really stupid of him to do. Now he will probably miss him against Sevilla game too

Someone needs to kick Ramos and James so hard they finally realize they are being liabilities atm. Bale is starting to play better but they are still playing poor.

Modric is back in February some time. Maybe late February

Ronaldo missing games is a blessing in disguise because he has been very frustrated lately. Moaning, losing the ball trying too hard to do something and lashing out at players. Some time away is what he needs

Also that means we can play Isco and James were they are most comfortable

Marcelo was poor but he had no help whatsoever. Ramos was lazy resulting in Varane having to go from his position to cover for both of them and James wore his unwashed invisible cloak as usual. Bale also did not defend thats why Cordoba were able to switch wings to find themselves 2 v 1 against our fullbacks. Marcelo was unlucky he had a tricky player on his side (not Bebe the other guy whom I cant remember the name of) and Carvajal didn't not that it would have mattered for him

Also why does James take corners and freekicks over Kroos now all of a sudden?

Were they too tired of scoring too many goals from Kroos' set pieces or something not that James is bad at it but Kroos is clearly the best

If it were Fifa 15 Kroos' fitness would be in the red zone. Carlo has overplayed him and now that Ronaldo is gone for a couple of games we are going to need him in all those games

Khedira has given up on our Club. Any other team would have him watching from the stands. I get Carlo's desire to play him due to his strength but he is simply not interested anymore. I dont know what Illarra has done to Carlo because from his performances there is absolutely nothing wrong with him but he never gets to play regardless. I think if Kaka was here Carlo would still have used him over Illarra

Regarding Modric, he is important to us no doubt about that but we lost against Atleti with him playing. In fact the goals we conceded in the Copa were due to individual mistakes whereas the ones we conceded in the league were as a result of pathetic defending from our midfielders. The problem is alot more than that, I cant remember the last time the team collectively had a great game, it seems that the players are taking it in turns to go on a dip in form

Barca have improved and the way Atleti defend for their lives against them while they get the better of us is frankly worrying. All our big players go on a hiding against them, its either that or our defdnce lets us down. Other teams have started to use the same approach against us and its showing with the way we play against.

There needs to be more movements from our midfielders and forwards. The lack of rotation is not helping though which is a contributing factor to our dip in form

But there is still a long way to go, it was inevitable that we would go on a stretch where we played bad. I just hope we get it together before the start of the tough games come March on wards

The only players who have been consistently good this season are Carvajal, Pepe, Marcelo, Kroos, Isco and Benzema save for the odd games they have a shocker

The others need to step it up pronto if we are to get out of this slump anytime soon. Bale was really positive against Cordoba I hope that's not a one off and he actually starts putting together a consistent run of good games. Really worried about James, he is and has been poor on the left, I am hoping with him occupying the right side now that Ronaldo is out he will show improvements because I have always thought he plays best there. Then there is the Ramos problem all I can say is same shite different season. But no worries he will have a good month or two towards the end of the season after which he will be proclaimed the best CB in the world, laughable I am telling you

Ronaldo also needs to improve because he lose the ball 95% of the times he has it when he is in this form. Confident he will get it together soon though so not worried

Our biggest game of the season is coming up against Atleti, we probably wont have Ronaldo then but not having Bale on the wings will be a blessing in disguise. No excuses this time, they barely created a single chance vs Barca this is a team that has been struggling defensively for a while