Real Madrid vs Malaga

One tough away team out of the way *phew*

Now comes a straightforward home game against a team that's struggling for goals. Amrabat is a doubt which means this will be an easy game for our defence. They do have Kameni though

Well it's rotation time. Marcelo has played every single minute of this season, time to let Nacho step in. Then comes the midfield matter. Both Kroos and Modric should be rested with Casemiro and Kovacic deputising. Jese should/will start

Predicted line up:


So gutted Navas couldn't keep a clean sheet vs Bilbao because he deserved it and could've extended it on Saturday

Is it just me or is anyone still skeptical about our ability to beat these tricky teams away. Ok we did put in a convincing performance against Bilbao but Barca beat them too and I remember Bilbao were pathetic that game. Celta just put 4 past Barca and could've had at least a couple more. I think that'll be our biggest test in the first half of the season minus the Clasico. Hope Barca unsettle Nolito with bids and tapping up because he seems to be in the form of his life

i want to start denis instead of lucas and ronaldo as striker.

Navas
Carvajal, Pepe, Varane, Nacho
Kovacic, Casimero
Denis, Isco, Jese
Ronaldo

I think we'll either struggle to win or beat them into a frazzle. Basically, we would win but how we would I am really not sure about. Particularly if those rotations, which is actually warranted, does happen.

I do hope Jese gets the start though.

You usually don't bench the player who just scored a brace for the next game. You wait for a game where he invariably doesn't score and then you rest him. If he scores every game and won't stop... then you just bite the bullet and sit him. I don't think Benz is at that point yet since it's late Sept lol.

Basically, you don't want to ice a player unless you're forced to.

we have been continuously playing games every 3 days and benz / marcelo and varane has been starting in all of those. those 3 players are the type that needs to rest unlike CR7, who is a machine.

if they dont, there is a chance they get fatigued early and loose form or they get injured, probably hamstring, either way bad for us.

we can bring benz in the last 15 min if needed.

have to mention marcelo, we dont have a natural backup for him, only weak area in our team.

i understand that after the fiasco last season, we are all very careful about fatigue and 'rotations' has been a buzz word, not just on madrid threads on this forum, but even on spanish journals. anyway, i don't think anyone is in dire need of rest just yet, we're just getting into october. benzema is having a healthy run of form, he needs games. i'll start worrying about fatigue from middle of next month and then ofcourse turn of the year will be crazy.

the burn out from last year imo stemmed from the previous season, the world cup and all those bloody useless super cups and world club cups. if we don't play well against malaga, then i doubt it will be down to fatigue....the season's still early

actually maybe you guys are right, i'm just looking at the calendar, yeah these games seem pretty close and we need all three points against malmo since we have psg in the group. i guess its one of those moments rafa will need his thinking hat on. malaga haven't been all that, i caught their last game, so maybe we can give other guys a run...let's hope they know how high the stakes are. a draw is like a loss in this league

Pepe got injured, hence most probably we'll see Nacho-Varane

During the summer, all we heard was how bad Benitez would be, that everyone claimed they knew him so well! Now that he is disproving all the naysawyers, how come noone remembers the biggest criticism of him that was made? That he not only rotated and used his entire squad, that he over rotates!!!

So why all the concern as to whether he will rotate and who? He is using his entire squad and will definitely do the rotations that are required. sometimes I think people think Carlo is still running the team.

As to LB, Arbeloa is actually better at LB than on the right and actually has played almost the same amount of time on both sides. He does have his flaws, but that is what bench strength is about. We don't have to have all WC players at every position for every opponent. And behind him both Nacho and Denis can play that position.

easy there, we're not even into quarter of the season yet. we'll have to wait till the season ends to say that rafa has proved his naysayers wrong. we can't reach conclusions and "i told you so" after a couple of games. also as great as rotations are, it usually helps for a coach to still have a standard 11, and work around it when necessary, which rafa has. people are concerned with who he'll play cos of the injuries that have hit the squad and the hope we don't suffer more casualties at this early stage. because, by the time the season starts taking shape, we'll probably have more niggles and injuries to worry about.

agree on arbeloa being better at lb, the dude is like jekyl and hyde with respect to the wing back positions

futbol_bill wrote:During the summer, all we heard was how bad Benitez would be, that everyone claimed they knew him so well! Now that he is disproving all the naysawyers...

For god's sake, stop saying this. It's embarrassing to say the least. Wait until season's end, if he wins a major trophy you can say that he's proved his critics wrong. If he doesn't then his critics were right. But to come out now, five game into the league, and say in front of every living soul that he proved his critics wrong is really embarrassing.

I'm not saying Benitez has won anything, only pointing out how he hasn't done anything wrong which was the criticism that was repeatedly thrown at him all summer. He is a huge improvement already on resolving the issues Carlo had: Rotation, use of entire squad, balance and team defense.

But you critics want to wait out the season before accepting any praise or credit for him!!

Sure it is too early to say he will succeed or not, but surely you must admit that so far so good.

Back on topic, there is a debate here about rotations and my statement was that is one thing you can be assured about with Rafa.

The better response would have been since it is too early to praise him, it should have been too early to criticise him. Which is true, there was no need for fans to be on his back before a single official match was played. Same time, no need to lavish him with excessive praise after a couple games.

That being said, he seems to be doing alright with these guys especially Benzema.

Fair enough doc, but to say my post was an embarrassment!

Take a look at some other posts (Chad for instance) before "calling out Benitez critics" embarrassing. All summer long these critics proclaimed all kinds of things Benitez would get wrong, yet he hadn't even walked onto to training camp!!! Now my post is an embarrassment because we have played for only 4 weeks!!!

I never said it was an embarrassment. Don't think I can say that with any of my fellow Madridistas currently here. Well, the possible exception being Hala and Futbol but that is something different.

Your post was fine, I was just being a bit of a smartass. Yes I agree with you, Chad and a few others did call out Rafa and while it is their opinion, it was unfair to chastise him without anything happening. Though we shouldn't be too sensitive on certain topics.

when did i call out rafa again?

or is bill trying to say my way of posting is embarrassing, because that funny , why? cause i call you lot out on the kneejerk exaggerating? morata better than benzema yet? stick to kneejerking bill.

know what i love about you guys, is that most of you can group up and suggest some of the stupidest ideas daily, then when i give mt 2 cents im wrong now and proven right later, as usual .

chad4401 wrote:so why would jese or cr play cf ahead of benz? cr as cf is destined for failure

chad4401 wrote:some of you amazes me, why would cr want to play as cf? he sucks at it, you all can fantasize until next season, the team is awful without a true cf playing and cr chooses where he wants to play and that the left.

why would benz bench in a euro year being held in france? we are not selling him so he is gonna expect to start as cf well.

its pretty clear when you think about it.

Doc wrote:I never said it was an embarrassment. Don't think I can say that with any of my fellow Madridistas currently here. Well, the possible exception being Hala and Futbol but that is something different.

Your post was fine, I was just being a bit of a smartass. Yes I agree with you, Chad and a few others did call out Rafa and while it is their opinion, it was unfair to chastise him without anything happening. Though we shouldn't be too sensitive on certain topics.

I see what you did there speaking of which where is futbol jnr, needs to post in this section more to become accepted by the madridistas

@futbol bill, I ageee that Benitez wasn't really given a fair chance but that was more to do with the fact nobody or very few people wanted Carlo out and Benitez didn't get the best out of the Napoli players and lost the CL place in the last game of the season when it was all in their hands. As Doc said it's too early to criticise him and it's too early to praise him. iirc Carlo was criticised ij his first season because we were pretty awful in the first half of the season but soon worshipped him after the CL/Copa wins and were even willing to write off the league collapse as "unfortunate" despite it being his fault entirely for wearing out our players and causing a mass injury where 5-6 of our most important players got injured at the same time. If Rafa betters or equals his record in his first season he will have all the madridistas support in the next season even if we don't win anything and as long as we are in contention for all the trophies till the end. Until then people are going to remain skeptical

That said so far so good. Our biggest tests come in the coming weeks when we visit Atleti and Celta at their grounds. We will then get a better picture of his tactics

exactly benitez wasn't given a fair chance because that's what fans, pundits do, we analyze. we look at a coach's past and assess what he can bring, sometimes we're proven wrong, sometimes right, sometimes right and wrong (does well first couple of season and then flops). i don't think there has ever been a coach in football who when taking a new job, every fan uniformly accepts them. guardiola achieved what he did at barcelona, bayern fans were skeptical. mourinho, mourinho won a treble with inter; their first euro cup in like 40 or 50 years, and prevented a barcelona winning the ucl at the bernabeau. and guess what? there where many fans, pundits and media outlets that were super skeptical and against the move.

compare that with rafa's last season at napoli; fans have every right to be skeptical about moves and critique moves. what becomes vile is when the skepticism of fans becomes personal. when fans decide because they were against a coach coming they are automatically going to slander him, criticize him, bash him, and boo/whistle him regardless of results. and so far, i think i can proudly say that in these first couple of games, madrid fans (at least on this forum), have treated rafa with respect and seem to have taken a liking to his approach in these first few games we've played.

we just need to remember, the season is a marathon, not a sprint....sometimes you can win 22 straight games and yet watch your rivals lift three titles come the end of the season.

@titto. Look no further than barca fans toward enrique even after a damn treble winning campaigne. Unbelievable tbh @futbol_bill. Like tito said, its normal with every coach in football, and anything called change in life. There will always be analysis, criticisms, skeptism and the like, so its up to benitez and the team to disprove all that come the end of the season (not now).
Anyway, on topic, while rotations are important, i still think it might be a little too early in the season to rotate heavily as these players need to get into rythm and more so, not the guy that scored 2 goals in your last game. And as for Cr we know him all too well, he'll get back to his best in a matter of minutes against malaga. Imo, he'll start scoring in bursts from now on (2 goals, 3 goals, 4 goals) as against scoring in pretty much every game as before, a trend i noticed late last season, maybe due to age. Otherwise, an easy win from madrid (cr7 at the double).

Well thanks for the advice fellows, but I respectively disagree and no I don't feel it is any embarrassment. i don't need to remind you kids of my age, but I am old school. I believe what Flo and others said the other day (re booing of Iker), being a true madridista means supporting the club. sure there are moments when we heavily criticise players, coaches, but mainly for what they have done (or not). So while I'm not predicting Benitez will get us trophies this season, I am supportive and will continue to do so. It wasn't this forum that had all the Benitez criticism (it was the defunct real madridistas), but several of them are now here.

@bankz I supported Luis Enrique during those difficult times being a fellow Asturiano and again there we had folks on the other forum that claimed they knew Enrique inside out and could never do the job!

halamadrid2 wrote:Amrabat is a doubt which means this will be an easy game for our defence.

Just couldn't help yourself.......

"I miss Rooney"
Ronaldo: I miss Rooney, we understood very well
"I miss that Tum lot of goals and we understood very well in the field." CR7 said.

that fuker, benz is stealing the highlights and scoring goals while he isnt and he is already backstabbing him.

SuperMAG wrote:

"I miss Rooney"
Ronaldo: I miss Rooney, we understood very well
"I miss that Tum lot of goals and we understood very well in the field." CR7 said.

that fuker, benz is stealing the highlights and scoring goals while he isnt and he is already backstabbing him.

You know he's said this before............. right?

Madrid players are no longer kissing his arse and he wants to move into a situation where his arse will be kissed again... that's what this is all about. "i'm sad", "i want to play with Rooney", etc.

Same stick every year.