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

Cristiano with a brace me thinks

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

just win. don't care how... no issues from me as long as everyone tries hard and plays within the team.

Not a fan of these early kick-offs.
3-0 me thinks. I'll go with the Ronaldo brace seems like a good shout

Well done Ramos, 1min in

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

Ramos best in the bizzz

Bale was utter hippopotamus shat... and he scores a goal to cover up the stench as usual

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.

Probably deserved to lose, so many awful performances out there. Really disappointed by Marcelo.
Say what you will about Bale at least he steps up when needed most. I half expected that pen to be saved to be honest, it was one of those days.

Ronaldo is a f'in idiot. He's going to be missing:
-Sociedad
-Sevilla
-Atleti (Away)

I smell 4/9 points.

When is Modric back?

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

Kroos may have a knock he's carrying... he's not making as many long passes as he used to either.

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

Hopefully Lucas Silva is great and contribute right away, to give Kroos some rest. Watching Khedira today was horrible.. Modric also needs to come back.. Can't see our team playing well with either Khedira or Illarra in midfield tbh.

how bale is a mdrid player is beyond me. has a stinker of a game yet scores from a pen or a fortunate free kick. (sums up his season).
benzema..just wonderful..simply wonderful. how big Benz isn't rated the best striker after IBRA is beyond me tbh.

kroos really playing the xabi alonso role, of getting little to no rest. i think that position has always been very sensitive to us and carlo doesn't want to take the risk of resting him for fear of the team losing shape....mourinho did the same thing with xabi, and later on carlo continued. i understand the reason for this, but we need to start treading with caution

It's all been downhill since Modric got injured. We tried to cope without him and we kind of did, but all our flaws were exposed against Atlético.

I think when Modric comes back, we'll be able to hit full gear again. But until then, I hope Lucas does great. It's very difficult to be worse than Illarra and Khedira anyway.

Illarra had some ok moment irc, but on a game he got a good 60 minutes, then  he see no minutes in 2 games straight the next week. how's he going to pick up form that way. i think illara is the only 1 who could shared kroos burden or role if use correctly.

btw, we did fine for 2 or 3 games after modric gone , until bale been back/introduced. it's like putting a gummy bear in a clockwork. things just don gel.

khedira shouldn't see any minutes more, he's not even the haf man he used to be, i felt that dude just don have heart to play for us anymore. could be just me.

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

that lost to athetico with modric on was very early beginning of the season, we are struggling that time adapting without alonso and dimaria.

we played very nice and pretty football later on with that 4-3-3 while james as right wing and isco as left midfield.

the confidence was high and felt like we can top anything easily at that moment.


thing went sour when bale came back, i felt bad for single him out here, but it's what i observed, carlo refuse to do anything on that depressing time (atleast 3 consecutive matches that he should definitely benched), now that he gain 1 or 2 fine games and i worry he will go back to that 'im definite starter i can do what i want' form. feel like a goner hot-cold situation that will last whole season like ramos case.

our def will easily exposed by strong team, the XI fielded too offensive-oriented minded, everybody just drowned in their natural position at front and run back like hell when lost possession, + no rotation for long run, they will burn out before march lol... good thing we have new blood lucas and modric back by then.

situation could be better if carlo handled the bale and illara case nicely. imo, illara was out favor because carlo insist on forcing this
ronaldo-benz-bale
isco--kroos--james
which fail even against small team.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:It's all been downhill since Modric got injured. We tried to cope without him and we kind of did, but all our flaws were exposed against Atlético.

I think when Modric comes back, we'll be able to hit full gear again. But until then, I hope Lucas does great. It's very difficult to be worse than Illarra and Khedira anyway.

welcome mate!

really

RealGunner wrote:welcome mate!

Thanks man.