Despite the injuries this game is a must win game, we can't have an inferior h2h record than them we just cant.

Coentrao is back, watch him get subbed out in the first half. The only saving grace from this injury crisis is that Isco can play left winger where he is unstoppable and not CM where he is more restricted

Varane and Nacho are two very calm players, for once our defence will be free from hotheads and Ronaldo is just back from a suspension that leaves Bale as the only one that can be affected by Atleti's antics. Kroos, Isco and Benz don't usually react to thuggery thank god. For once we might actually beat them despite their hardest tries at unsettling us. If Nacho does well for the next couple of weeks including this one, Ramos should literally just stay on the bench. A make or break game for Nacho the moment has arrived where he will play a big fierce game now finally we can properly rate him

I think we will win 2-1. Benz and Ronaldo with the goals

Benz has a tough time against Atleti because they crowd the middle and dare us to cross... and we suck at crossing. To me, it's about making sure we take advantage of the width... that doesn't mean making 100 crosses. But it does mean to go wide and attack the box outside in AS OPPOSED TO trying to attack the middle by going through the middle early. You can play on the ground through the wings too...

The big thing is to not fall behind on the scoreboard. Then Atleti are unplayable.

I like the way Benz plays against pretty much every team bar Atleti where he drops down and contributes to our overall play that makes us alot better as opposed to when he just stands there static between their CBs. He is not a poacher, he needs the ball to be effective an unlike our two other forwards he is someone you really want on the ball

The way Barca beat them is by stretching them and their movements which unsettles their defenders making the clueless on who to mark and who not to. For the past couple of games thats how we have played but I doubt Benz will be allowed to roam around freely which will probably cause him to be ineffective. Such a shame because Ronaldo is the better scorer so naturally you'd want him near the CBs and Benz is better at the all round game so you'd want him to drop deep and get involved with our wingers but alas we dont do that and the game will be very predictable

I hope Carlo surprises me though but I doubt it

Yeah... it's a big waste to glue him on the CBs where he has literally no chance in the air. Those guys are too good defensively in the air. They have 2 DMs crowd the middle, so it's not like you're going to have a lot of success linking up in middle either. Both Bale and Ronaldo are more athletic and they have a better chance to at least outjump a CB if we put a good cross in by miracle.

Personally, i'd stick Bale in the box and let the other 2 roam around and create.

Thats never gonna happen because that would mean either Ronaldo or Benzema needs to take his place as a RW which I absolutely can not see happening. Perhaps if Ronaldo was unavailable we could but not with all three available

We are going to play in a similar way trust me, but instead of Marcelos crosses we are going to see Coentrao get past players until he reaches the box only for him to lose the ball there. Wash, rinse and repeat

Also Juanfran's yellow was rescinded and not Marcelo's yeah right the spanish fa is so pro Real Madrid. I know Carlo doesn't complain like Mou did but how many times have we had to play on Wednesday night only to have to play early on Saturday?? Its happening quite regularly this season. I applaud Carlo for not complaining but at least do it in private they are trying to kill us with exhaustion the pos'

I can see why you seem to be a little bit optimistic. Our hotheads aren't playing and we could really do without undeservedly falling behind early on the score-sheet through a pointless penalty.

The bad news is neither Modric nor James is playing. We could've really used James' intelligent, key passes, crosses and lobs today.

I still think we can win this even with these two out. But we absolutely have to score first and not concede early. If we concede first, we'll lose the game because they'll huddle together around their goalkeeper like swarming bees and it'll be extremely difficult to come back into the game after falling behind against a plane-parking team.

They play the most boring, painfully aggressive, soulless footy I've ever seen in recent years. Second only to Di Matteo's Chelsea. They deserve to get a good spanking.

Arbeloa starts...
So many injuries...

3-0 to Atleti

edit:
So no Arbeloa...
lol at khedira taking out Atleti's 2 best players within a min of each other

still 3-0 to Atleti

Each game is worse than the former. Smfh

Only one shot on target all half. Just not good enough

Why is Carlo playing a 433 when the 442 has proved to be much better???

I am done with Bale the stupid overpriced donkey can go back to where he belongs oh wait Kane is already outshining him there too. And Ronaldo hasn't had a single good game against these lot ffs. Everyone are playing like crap not a single player comes out of this with praise what an awful half

Liking the subtitle right now

blame ancelotti.

his tactics are awful. he has played atleti numerous times during his tenure at madrid and not learned a thing.

why is lucas silva on the bench? its so obvious that the midfield is being lost and there is no defensive help in the midfield.

bale is just useless on the field. not helping out in defence at all, in addition to doing nothing in offence.

a three man midfield versus atleti is never going to work. ever.

At least Bale dribbled past an Atlético defender and is crossing well so far. Aside from Isco and Kroos, all the others were shit.

Varane has been so far nut-mugged twice by Griezmann and still counting.

We've had a good five-min spell which could've resulted in a goal but overall we were absolute and utter crap.

Totally deserved lead by Atlético and what an amazing second goal!

taking about varane? really?

the only player who is doing some type of defending.

nahco looks like a below to average segunda player.

Last time we beat these guys DiMaria was Motm, the time before that the game didn't mean much, the time before that DiMaria was Motm, the time before that DiMaria was Motm long story short the three man midfield only works when you have a guy like DiMaria with the level of energy and stamina that he has.

Cant remember the last time we beat a big team with the 433 since he left. We were practically excellent when we were playing the 442 but only then Bale wasn't playing and he is refusing to get injured. Having both Ronaldo and Bale is an overkill gope for the love of our team Carlo benches Bale and plays someone else there......ANYONE but him

I am done this is too embarrassing. Next time he wants to play bbc I hope this game crops up in his head

leaves bale on take off isco. lol @ ancelotti

i dont know what he sees that makes him not take off bale.

why was lucas silva bought?

Cyborg wrote:leaves bale on take off isco. lol @ ancelotti

i dont know what he sees that makes him not take off bale.

why was lucas silva bought?

Like every human on Earth, Ancelotti doesn't want to get fired. If Bale doesn't play, he becomes unemployed.

Turned the game off after 2-0, didn't want to ruin my good mood after submitting my last assignment.

4-0 against Atleti. Someones got to take the fall.
Can someone sum up player performances? I imagine Bale was crap.

@voices lol

Midfield neither fed the forwards nor defended AT ALL.  Bale and Ronaldo did nothing to help the fullbacks...  Atleti ate our midfield alive and attacked our fullbacks since they were outnumbered.  Forced the CBs to come out and try to help.  Well guess what... that means the midfielders have to track EVERY Atleti midfielder and the strikers that attack the box since the CBs are forced out of position.  They didn't.

Result = first two goals were conceded to midfielders.  The first one was a pathetic mistake by Iker... but still, the shot was by a midfielder.

As far as tactics...  Ronaldo is not the dominant player he was 2 years ago individually and Bale is not a dominant player period.  Carlo MUST not just bend over to CR and Bale when we play BBC.  They have to do the job collectively and they don't.

But the bottom line is that we have a massive midfield problem with Modric out...  James compensated pretty well (although not as good).  Khedira was absolutely awful.

Benzema: "I want to apologize to everyone... all our fans and all those who made the effort to come to the game. We were awful and everyone is responsible for that, including myself."

Didn't watch the game. Why didn't Lucas get subbed at HT?

Knew we would get destroyed cause of our midfield sigh..

Modric can't come soon enough. Hope to see Lucas asap.

Midfield is not the problem. The problem is the midfield has no help at all. Ronaldo and Bale's defensive efforts are non-existant while everyone on Atletico gives 100% every time

the midfield was a monster issue today (and always is, Modric or not).  Why? they overload the edges and force the CBs to help... so the midfielders MUST cover the middle with a CB out of position.  None of midfielders do that well at all.  In fact, we often release them free.  OF COURSE, if Bale and Ronaldo helped, our fullbacks would not need a CB to help them and the midfield would have less pressure.  But we know that's not happening.

At least with Modric, we have good control in the midfield once we get the ball.  Without Modric, Atleti's pressure on our midfield destroys them.  We get nothing going.

When you only produce 4 shots (1 on target) ALL GAME LONG, one of two things happened:
-  You got dominated in possession and never saw the ball (we had 55% possession so that's not it).
-  The midfield created nothing at all so the forwards couldn't even try a shot because they never got a ball they could make into a shot.

If we had shot the ball normally and just missed, then it's on the forwards....  But 4 shots?!?!?  It's one of the above and, in our case, the midfield getting destroyed while having decent possession.

Man glad I stopped after the 2nd went in then.
I just felt we were going to get absolutely hammered, don't think I've switched off more than 5 Madrid games in the last 10 years.

Also I like how the official Madrid website have coined this:

'Hiccup in the Calderon'

****ing ****s