Re: The official rival discussion thread

by halamadrid2 Fri Sep 18, 2015 7:19 pm

Ronaldo scored all his recent goals from a number 9 position. When he played as solely a winger (Gijon) he didn't score any and was generally very bad. Ronaldo is a better number 9 than Benz and Benz is a better number 10 than Ronaldo. If you look at their heatmaps those are the positions they occupy

by futbol_bill Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:42 pm

All three of them have freedom of movement Hala. That's by design that they are free to constantly interchange positions. Ronaldo is not a 9, he may score goals from the centre position, but he has none of the characteristics of a 9. He is a forward. Benz is a 9 with playmaking ability. Bale is a winger or SS. Jese is a winger also not a 9. And Lucas and Denis are also wingers. So we only have Benz as a 9. If we play without him we have to make do with 2 wingers. That in a nutshell is why there is the constant talk about getting another 9.

And Chad, it isn't to get rid of Benz, it is just a fact that the team needs (any big team needs) a second striker. Sure it may challenge Benz, but what's wrong with that. Doesn't mean Benz isn't valued.

However the issue IMO is whether or not Benitez or whoever is the coach (and of course with Flo's influence / pressure) will they do some rotations with BBC - enough that the backups can feel part of team (and be productive when they are called upon). That's the issue with bringing back Morata (or someone like him).

From an inside perspective (from socio meeting the other day), club came much closer than has been made public to signing Llorente this summer. And that demonstrates my point. There is no one that would say Llorente is any where close to Benz, but he would be an alternaitve if Benz got hurt. But they felt Jese would be given a fair amount of playing time this season (unlike Lucas and Denis), playing all 3 forward positions, could return to his previous form and therefore they decided, at least for this year that we would go with just the one number 9.

by halamadrid2 Fri Sep 18, 2015 9:15 pm

Benzema is as much of a number 9 as Ronaldo is a winger. They are just not good there. I agree that all three interchange positions, if we got Morata he wouldn't be able to do that because he is a striker through and through. I know he's been played as a winger before but he is as akward there as Isco when he played as a false number 9

Until one of Ronaldo/Bale leaves I prefer a Benz type of player to a Morata tbf

by halamadrid2 Fri Sep 18, 2015 9:17 pm

Amrabat just went off injured. That's basically 100% of Malaga's attack. Another clean sheet for Navas next week then I see

It's going to be us vs Kameni unless Amrabaat can get himself healed in time

by futbol_bill Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:30 am

Who was the 9 at juve last year. Tevez or Morata / Llorente?

It was Tevez who plays very similar to benz while Morata or Llorente were the SS.

Benz may not be of the mold of Ibra, Falcao, Costa, etc but he is definitely a 9, not that different in play than Aguero, Suarez or Tevez.

by sportsczy Sat Sep 19, 2015 6:28 am

Tevez was the SS. He played behind Llorente or Morata. The CF is asked to play very much in the box, as an outlet to hold up the ball and the first man on the counter attack. Very traditional 9 role....

by Adit Sat Sep 19, 2015 8:48 am

Speaking of Morata, im not convinced on him. He plays like shet for 80 minutes but scores one decisive goal. That has been the pattern from him, at least in big games i have watched. He isnt a consistent threat but his work rate is really out of this world.

by halamadrid2 Sat Sep 19, 2015 8:55 am

So basically Morata is playing like other forwards. All of them are like that, that's why they need 90 minutes consistently to be effective. If they don't see much of the ball (City v Juve) they will look like crap to people because of how close they play to the opposition goal but when they get the chances they score (Morata v City) and thats what separates great strikers from average ones

Morata so far has been excellent but as bill said it's too soon to tell whether it's just a fad or if he really has improved that dramatically. He keeps scoring goals and I won't mind getting him back at the end of the season

by Adit Sat Sep 19, 2015 8:59 am

Thing is when Morata gets the ball under pressure he always loses it. His link up play is bad as well but he some how scores goals on counters and rebounds. He is effective but you have to wonder is he really that good? will he be able to work in tight spaces ? can he become productive in a possession oriented team? im not convinced so far.

by halamadrid2 Sat Sep 19, 2015 9:11 am

I remember when we played against Juve, Ramos couldn't handle him. He was too strong for Ramos to deal with and he was obviously at the right place at the right time twice and both went into the net. People told us Chicha was bad but you've to admit he was very good for us and Morata's ball playing ability is ten times better than the former

I think if used solely as a striker where he runs onto balls and gets at the end of crosses he would score many goals and be very effective, but if he was asked to play 1-2s, drift to the wings etc he would struggle precisely why I want either Ronaldo or Bale with him and not both.

He already has the physical attribute something which is good with Benz because Marcelo passes the ball to the striker just infront of the opposition DM alot so he needs to be able to hold up the ball and let our players get into position.

I think he is good, his passing accuracy for Juve is hardly any different from BBC all of them have around 65-75% passing accuracy which is bad but understandable for strikers or attackers in general

Also we are not a possession oriented team, we lost out on posession against both Espanyol and Shaktar. We play more on the counter now which is to Morata's strength

by sportsczy Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:36 pm

Morata has two assets: Speed and decent finishing. He's not very good at holding up the ball, dribbling and linking up. Haven't seen him hit a lot of headers so i'll reserve judgement there.

Has a long ways to go before being considered a top quality striker let alone an elite one. Has talent. But i question his technical ability... seems lacking there. Reminds me of Carvajal in the sense that you feel there's value there but something's missing and it's technical.

by halamadrid2 Sun Oct 04, 2015 7:18 pm

so how many goals has DDG conceded now compared to Navas hmm

by Adit Sat Nov 28, 2015 7:34 pm

Man watching snoozechester united Sleep

boring boring football.

All they need to do is play real Madrid.

The space we will give to them even they will try to attack us .

by Adit Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:25 pm

Barca with another offside goal Laughing

This is getting too blatant now.

by Clutch Sun Dec 06, 2015 7:12 am

Just saw the highlights and it wasnt even close hahaha

by halamadrid2 Sun Dec 06, 2015 8:13 am

Yepp clear offside. But they should have gone ahead waay before that. I dont know how long Valencia could have kept them out for because Barca were coming back with waves of attacks but i am glad they equilised

by Valkyrja Mon Dec 07, 2015 11:09 pm

Barca linked with Marcos Alonso ... Wasn't he in jail a few years ago?

by halamadrid2 Tue Dec 08, 2015 8:28 am

No he has never been in jail but he killed someone drink driving. Barca can lay off Marcos Alonso should come to us and be a perfect back up for Marcelo

by El Blanco Madridista Tue Dec 08, 2015 6:23 pm

Morata is decent but not yet ready to lead the forward line for us, he still has a long time to go.

by Adit Wed Dec 09, 2015 9:45 pm

Wow.. Brahimi is really impressive every time I watch him. How old is he?. Immense close control and always making the right move.

Couple of things. Every team out there are now using the playing the ball out of the back technique. Wolfsburg, Bayern,Dortmund, Barca,Manutd, CSKA,Arsenal,Zenit,Ajax, lot of lesser league teams.. List goes on. Why are we not using it? It not only make other teams pressing ineffective but also gives more control over the game.

Pressing game and playing the ball out of the back... Two things we are ignoring while other teams are making progress by using it.

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