What the hell happened last night? Over the weekend aswell?

Seriously. I've been busy with work so haven't watched any sports.

izzy wrote:What the hell happened last night? Over the weekend aswell?

Seriously. I've been busy with work so haven't watched any sports.

Be thankful that you were busy... haha

allow me to play devil's advocate for a bit. i think for the most part, the general consensus is carlo's lack of rotation; yes he seems to only make changes when players get injured or suspended, and the formation remains largely the same. However, lets put this in perspective- we are in a league where a draw is almost like a loss (though both teams on top have dropped enormous nos of points in strange games), the question is how deep is our squad?

jese was injured and returned recently, so we couldn't take him into account in the rotation earlier this season,

chicharito is a poacher, i am just as afraid of him getting a start as carlo is....he's an alright player, but he thrives in certain styles and our play isn't suited to him, maybe i'm wrong on that one, but carlo doesn't have much confidence in dude, and neither do i

in midfield, carlo doesn't seem to have much faith in illara, (dude was a disaster in bilbao), but i see him as a player who can pick up his game with the right number of minutes....its a question of time and patience, things we can't afford in this league

defense; arbeloa=garbage, coentrao=injured all the time, the lack of minutes seems to have hit varane hard

oh and khedira's heart isn't in madrid, hasn't been since he got injured last season

i do agree with most however, that carlo needs to rotate more, but i understand, at least to some extent, why he doesn't

I disagree Tito, I disagree completely.

That argument would have been fair had it been made last year when we were still playing for everything at this point, we're not this time round.

It's absolutely ridiculous his lack of rotation and his substitutions. These players you named; Arbeloa, Coentrao, Khedira, Illara, Jese, Hernandez barley see the pitch unless it is the last 5 mins of games.

How is that supposed to help them find any sense of form or consistency?
What does Carlo expect them to do when subbed in for such a short amount of time? Then he just dumps them in the starting line-up and expects a great performance? They barley see the pitch.
It's terrible player management imo.

It makes no sense to me.
You can have a set 11 that you fully trust, but when the players are telling you AND SHOWING YOU that they are fatigued (Kroos, James, Ronaldo, Benz) or are just in terrible form (Bale), you should have the sense to pull them out of some game at earlier intervals.

He did he same thing last year and got away with it. It won't happen again.

izzy wrote:I disagree Tito, I disagree completely.

That argument would have been fair had it been made last year when we were still playing for everything at this point, we're not this time round.

It's absolutely ridiculous his lack of rotation and his substitutions. These players you named; Arbeloa, Coentrao, Khedira, Illara, Jese, Hernandez barley see the pitch unless it is the last 5 mins of games.

How is that supposed to help them find any sense of form or consistency?
What does Carlo expect them to do when subbed in for such a short amount of time? Then he just dumps them in the starting line-up and expects a great performance? They barley see the pitch.
It's terrible player management imo.

It makes no sense to me.
You can have a set 11 that you fully trust, but when the players are telling you AND SHOWING YOU that they are fatigued (Kroos, James, Ronaldo, Benz) or are just in terrible form (Bale), you should have the sense to pull them out of some game at earlier intervals.

He did he same thing last year and got away with it. It won't happen again.

point taken, and i not only understand what u're saying but i agree with it....to some extent (was playing devil's advocate). the point being, can we trust some of those players i mentioned to start a game? i feel carlo needs to rotate better too, hell kroos has looked knackered the last couple of games not because of form, but because he's tired, bale has been garbage, garbage beyond belief....

first of all i don't trust arbeloa (he does ok at left back), but i get scared when i'm about to watch a game and see him starting. coentrao is always injured, and his injuries never happen on the pitch, like a collision or a tackle, jese was injured for a while, carlo should have given the dude minutes, but you thread carefully when players return after a long lay off, that stunt he pulled trying to bring him on when the game was done was foolish though.

i also think carlo may be a bit nervous, which is an attribute he must do away with. he may be fearful of repercussions if he gives them time and they mess up...which someone like khedira has constantly seemed to do of late....

but i agree he shouldn't only rotate but have a suitable formation or style for such rotations; link up play within a
4-3-3 might not work with chicha starting up front, he's no benzema, not in the slightest....its a dilemma, u need to give guys games and no the risk of doing such....illara i like, but carlo for some reason has never given the guy a consistent run

We can't trust those players now, simply because of the crucial point we are at in the season. It's too late to take such a gamble....... but we may need to and that is bad.

By now, we should have a proper established 11, with the players entering form and 4 players who Carlo trusts to come in and start some games or be the first names off the bench. But look at us?
All over the place.

I don't trust Arbeloa either, no matter what he does.
Coentrao has been injured for some time, but ease him in.
Same with Jese, ease him in, don't just sporadically play him.

This happened last year and he got lucky.

Look at the Illara and Bale situation.
He has NO faith in Illara and actually started Lucas Silva over him in the 1st leg and away at Elche. What is that meant to do to someone like Illara's confidence and belief that he'll actually be given a chance to prove himself? That was ridiculous from Carlo.

Bale? It's disgusting. He should of been yanked weeks back, now it's just sad.
I understand trying to help the guy and give him confidence but that has failed. He doesn't seem to understand the basics and it's quite clear that Isco, Benz and Ronaldo don't trust him. They try to play away from him! He offers nothing on the pitch, dare I say, he's becoming Arbeloa.

The rotation is just poor. Hernandez is no Benz, I agree there. But, he needs to incorporate him in games somehow.

But again, we are in a crucial point of the season, any of these moves are now seen as gambles as before they would have been seen smart rotations.

Except Ronaldo, everybody was shit.

What worries me is that Carlo doesn't seem to care at all. He's using the same players, over and over and over again, all while sticking to the same damn 4-3-3 formation.

AT least, if you're going to continue to blindly trust Bale, make sure he understands that defending is not negotiable. He either defends or get benched.

If we're going to keep on defending with 7 players, we'll continue to lose and we'll get run over by everybody.

A side note for the Schalke game: I was pleased with Ronaldo's desire and determination to win. He single-handedly took us to the quarter-finals. I was also pleased when he didn't smile upon scoring the two goals, he was just upset and outraged by his teammates' indifference and lack of spirit. Thank you Ronaldo!

Bale was beyond pathetic last night, Benzema was very, very bad. Only one of the BBC shone, maybe Carlo needs to stop being stubborn for a second and think about breaking the BBC before it's too late. If he wants to keep it, then Bale must defend and track back, and Benzema must press more and defend when he sees his team struggling. Have some heart you lazy sob.

Have some heart. Go watch the Chelsea-PSG game and see what a fighting team looks like, you lazy, heartless idiots. Play for the shirt and the millions of fans watching you, instead of constantly thinking about the paycheck.

Ronaldo didn't help you out defensively at all though, I know his goals put you through, but just look at how little pressure he put on Schalke when you guys lost the ball, he, Bale, and Benzema were pathetic without the ball.

its true. The front three are pathetic with out the ball. I really wish they watched yesterdays PSG vs Chelsea..the way PSG players defended except for Ibra who is plain lazy was exceptional. Defending like Carlo said is more about attitude and willingness than about skill.

What I fail to grasp is why Ancelotti seems to be completely indifferent to Bale's lack of defending? Two scenarios come under the spotlights here:

Scenario 1: Carlo has indeed talked to Bale about it but the latter simply doesn't want to defend for some reason.

Scenario 2: Carlo hasn't talked to Bale about it and he's completely satisfied with the Welshman suck-fest.

If we were to assume that Scenario 1 is closest to the truth then two possibilities come to mind:

1. Carlo wants to bench Bale but can't because he was told not to, in which case the question of "why didn't he hand his resignation?" springs to mind. I hope this is not the truth because this would mean he's gullible, weak and unprincipled.
   
2. Carlo doesn't want to bench Bale even if he doesn't defend because he genuinely believes he's worth it or that he doesn't want to upset Bale. This would mean he's borderline mentally deranged and blind (for believing Bale is worth it), colorless, cowardly wimp (for being defied by a player such as Bale and not doing anything about it to set him straight).
   

If we were to assume that Scenario 2 is closest to the truth then only one possibility comes to mind:

1. Ancelotti needs to reevaluate his approach of not wanting Bale to defend, of defending with 7 players only, of sticking to the 4-3-3 approach even though it clearly bears no fruit and everybody has figured out how to stop it, of  fielding the same players with the same roles every single time which proves that he's not trying to fix anything in training and he's blindly and stupidly sticking to the same tactics regardless of the outcome
   

Now, we've hit rock bottom. If Carlo doesn't try anything new against Levante; if all the problems that I've highlighted above are still vividly present in the upcoming game, then it'll be safe to conclude that Carlo is clueless and we're definitely going to end up trophy-less this season.

so many nonsense comments, cr scores a braces does fck all else, he is our savoir blah, benz scores the key goal that got us through, does fck all too, he was shit, same stupid posts made after the brace against barca, again you guys can't rate a performances to save your lives , just hype who is hyped and criticize who ain't

the guy dribbled 3 players with 2 touches and a feint ffs, yet not a shred of appreciation bunch of clowns, sure he was offside but so what he gets robbed a lot anyway, and he was bad but he contributed big time show some respect.

anyway bad loss, blame is on iker and carlo mainly, rotation and formation change is needed.

So basically, You want people to suck Benzema's nuts for doing fck all but score, but then want people to criticize Ronaldo for doing the same?

Yeah...............

Why are you still posting here?

smh your a clown cause i have seen cr play worse, and everybody wank to how insane he was cause he digged out a brace from 10 shots, lets not forget the insane blind love to a shit isco , most of you lot, can't tell a bad performance from a good one fact

If you think there are many "nonsense" comments and your comment is the only one that makes sense according to you then you're the only one who have no bleeding idea what you're talking about.

Everybody is trying to figure out what went wrong and you're here just to defend Benzema. Clearly, you don't give a tiny rat's ass about Real Madrid, you're just a Benzema fanboy.

You're in the wrong section, mate.

Not that I don't enjoy that kind of turmoil at Real, but isn't it maybe time to take a breath and relax?

I mean if being one point off the top in the league and having progressed to the CL quarters is 'rock bottom', it's really not that bad lol.

Being complacent after winning a first leg easily is not very surprising, happened last year too, and the year before to us.

As for the league, win against Barca and you're top again, simples.

Also it's obvious you've been missing Modric badly, who's back now.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2015/03/13/9752102/ramos-absence-proves-hes-the-best-defender-in-the-world?ICID=HP_HN_HP_RI_0_3

lol

From a mental point of view he is very important.

Ramos was 75% to blame for us not winning the league last season. No thank you. Will never forget when he dribbled like he thought he was Ronaldinho infront of our own box against Celta last season. Dude is an imbecile. Reminds me of when Arbeloa was "missed" last season when Carvajal had a bad game against Rayo

He's hotheaded and has lots and lots of flaws but his presence is very, very important to the team's balance.

We've plummeted into a new low since he picked up that injury, that can't be a coincidence. Our defense has been pathetic, and all the CBs pairing we've tried haven't been convincing at all.

You can't overlook what he brings to the team.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:He's hotheaded and has lots and lots of flaws but his presence is very, very important to the team's balance.

We've plummeted into a new low since he picked up that injury, that can't be a coincidence. Our defense has been pathetic, and all the CBs pairing we've tried haven't been convincing at all.

You can't overlook what he brings to the team.

Was going to post that.

I don't think Varane-Pepe has clicked very well. They work in smaller matches fine as Madrid don't get pressurised too much. However when teams do test them defensively, for some reason Varane and Pepe can't hack it.

halamadrid2 wrote:Ramos was 75% to blame for us not winning the league last season. No thank you. Will never forget when he dribbled like he thought he was Ronaldinho infront of our own box against Celta last season. Dude is an imbecile. Reminds me of when Arbeloa was "missed" last season when Carvajal had a bad game against Rayo

But he also was 75% to praise for us winning the UCL last year. His perfomance on both ends against Bayern and Atletico were maginificent. The dude has guts, probably more guts than brains but still. He's a winner and a leader.

Honestly we might as well play a 451, bench bale, and play benzema as a SS behind ronaldo.. Our midfield would have a numerical advantage at least to cover for the lack of defensive play..

Something like this

                    iker
Carvajal pepe varane marcelo
      silva/illara kroos
modric                 isco
          benzema
             cr7

This is NOT a 4-2-2-2. benzemas role here is crucial. And with his vision and ball playing ability he can easily do it. him and ronaldo are the best partnership in europe when they are on their game. plus, the 10 position demands less running and short bursts and he would not be nearly as tired.

Modric and isco DO provide some good workrate, both are decent athletes and can run quite a bit. silva and kroos are better at covering the gaps. illara is also very good at reading the game defensively so he is a good option as well.

we wouldn't have any real wingers but marcelo and carvajal have proven to be very good attacking outlets. isco and modric can drift wide when need be, kind of as side midfielders, but not actual wingers who hug the touch line

Hapless_Hans wrote:Not that I don't enjoy that kind of turmoil at Real, but isn't it maybe time to take a breath and relax?

I mean if being one point off the top in the league and having progressed to the CL quarters is 'rock bottom', it's really not that bad lol.

Being complacent after winning a first leg easily is not very surprising, happened last year too, and the year before to us.

As for the league, win against Barca and you're top again, simples.

Also it's obvious you've been missing Modric badly, who's back now.

Well, people generally judge/criticize clubs based on the standard of the club, and to be fair, Real Madrid has always had a very high standard, not to mention expectations. 2007-2009 was a period in Real Madrid's history where my hair almost turned grey from all of the disappointment. Robben was, by far, our best player and he was injured every other second. We were humiliated by several European clubs, Liverpool and prime Fernando Torres being the most notable one, in my opinion, and it was just a tough period to be a Real Madrid supporter.

Until we reach a similar kind of low, I'll remain relatively optimistic, but this poor form we've been experiencing for a few months now certainly has reminded me to purchase a bottle of hair dye, just in case.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:If you think there are many "nonsense" comments and your comment is the only one that makes sense according to you then you're the only one who have no bleeding idea what you're talking about.

Everybody is trying to figure out what went wrong and you're here just to defend Benzema. Clearly, you don't give a tiny rat's ass about Real Madrid, you're just a Benzema fanboy.

You're in the wrong section, mate.

are you mentally challenged? 4-3-3 ain't cutting it and lack of rotation what wrong with the team, the starters are clearly tired and performances are starting to dip, stfu before thinking you can tell me about the team ever clown

what i said about benzema is a fact, when he was balling and saving the team, only couple posters cared the others just heaped praises on isco, now a bad game, look how fast you clowns are quick to comment that his goal doesn't excuse him, same posters who wanked to a shit bale cause he scored in a final

so stupid and predictable keep watching the name on the jersey, and not what happening on the pitch

I don't even know you but you're so very hostile, impolite and on top of that clueless.

Ignorant people who claim to be all-knowing like you are cancer to society because they keep holding us back.

You're not a Real Madrid fan, you're just a Benzema fanboy and you absolutely don't know squat about football.

Admins and Mods: How is this guy not banned yet?

EDIT: oh and please don't you ever reply to me because I'll never ever honor an ignorant guy like you with a response. I have already forgotten your name.

Chad is GL legend in my mind. The way he fights with everyone for Benzema is inspiring, at least to me