Real Madrid vs Levante

We are coming out of two back-to-back draws against Malaga and Thugletico, needless to say this is a must-win for us.

Latest News:

• Ramos won't be risked.
  
• Bale has returned with a cramp from the international break and it's unsure whether he'll start or not.
  
• Danilo is back.
  
• Castilla's jewels Lienhart, Llorente and Borja Mayoral have been included while Arbeloa was kept out.
  

Injury List:

• Carvajal
  
• Modric
  
• Benzema
  
• James
  
• Ramos
  
• Pepe
  

Probable Lineup:

Additional Notes:
This lineup is strong enough to put 7 past Levante. But it's all up to Rafa. He can either score one or two goals and then sit deep like a coward, just like he did against Thuglético, or go all out for the kill. I think he'll attack in this one. He's playing at the Bernabeu and the criticism of his horrendous tactics against Thuglético are still hot from the oven. Even a guy like him would want to attack against Levante.

Confirmed Lineup: Navas; Danilo, Varane, Nacho, Marcelo; Casemiro, Kroos; Kovacic, Bale, Isco; Ronaldo.

1st half observation:

1. Amazing long-range goal from Ronaldo.
2. Amazing goal from Marcelo through a one-two with Ronaldo.
3. Navas with two terrific saves.

You know, the commentators brought up an interesting thought: If Navas was English or German or Spanish, he would've been touted as the world's best goalkeeper. I gotta say, I full-heartedly agree.

Danilo was awful. Really awful

Vasquez again

2nd half observation:

1. Danilo improved but still a tier below Carvajal.

2. Jesé was Uh-Ma-zing! I have never seen him play like this. He used to just run, run and run without thinking whatsoever. He was talented but very very dumb. Today, he was intelligent and effective. I hope he keeps on playing like this. If he does, he won't be benched for long.

kovacic was truly awful, donno what to do with him.

Very sloppy game. Some of the crosses where just WTF. Jese with an excellent cameo, Benitez must be fuming

Anyone else saw that over the top ball on Danilos side where there was NOONE there to defend until the levante player reached our box and Casemiro tried to slide tackle to win the ball back. Awful player

Ronaldo continuing where he left off before the international break, maybe he is declining indeed

Navas and Casemiro amazing as usual. Lucas gets on my nerves. He is good like his technique is good but he really needs to impove his crosses and shooting. For now i prefer Denis over him

My boy Jese

It's really settling to know this club has two lovely RBs to choose from. I can't say the same for the other flank.

Yeah it was a nondescript win that could have just been pressing the Simulate Match button in RL though the Bernabeu could have been less harsh I feel. We won and can fully focus on Paris and not be talking about the what ifs if we had drew or lost against Levante.

i see that the anti danilo movement is back in march. How he had an "awful awful" game, you guys only know. but keep it up, lol

Didn't watch the game and I don't care to go and find the full 90 mins of it. I'm pissed right now.

Hala, leave Danilo alone. Give him time ffs.

That was an excellent game (by everyone) after a long layoff.

There are several of you that insist on the view that the club only should play 12 -16 players and that the others on squad are scrubs. Take a look at what is happening! We have been without starters Danilo, Ramos, Modric, James, Bale, Benz and I would argue Ronaldo (mentally) a couple of games, plus near starters Carvajal and Pepe and yet the squad has come thru. Take a look at how well Nacho, Casemiro, Kovacic, Jesé and even Lucas did today. Jesé has finally stepped up and took advantage of his opening, looked like the Jesé of 2 years ago. While neither Lucas nor Nacho are ever going to be great players they adequately filled the need. And Casemiro and Kovacic can step in for Modric or Kroos any time and we don't miss a beat plus they allow Benitez to change formation if need be and go with 3 CMs

IMO, this is the major difference between this year and last and it's to Benitez' credit (and detriment to Carlo) in trying to use entire squad. We only have Yañez, Denis and Arbeloa not really contributing )and yet I believe Denis is actually better than Lucas so maybe it´s just a matter of time.

Side note - Arbeloa wasn't even dressed for this game and Benitez is now talking about the need in January to sign another LB. Could it be that Benitez is fed up with Arbeloa for that horrendous play against Atleti_ He may just spend the rest of his time here not making the game time 19?

Mr Nick09 wrote:i see that the anti danilo movement is back in march. How he had an "awful awful" game, you guys only know. but keep it up, lol

His first half was absolutely horrendous. I mean jaw-droppingly dreadful. Not a single good cross. But during the second half, he improved a little bit, just a little.

There's no campaign here. He just had a very bad game. Hopefully he doesn't play this bad against PSG.

sure sure, as i said, continue, it's entertaining.

izzy wrote:Didn't watch the game and I don't care to go and find the full 90 mins of it. I'm pissed right now.

Hala, leave Danilo alone. Give him time ffs.

Palace didn't do so well today huh

Also, I've yet to see what is actually wrong with Danilo or what Hala sees wrong with him.

what's interesting though, is how Benitez has slowly abandoned his 4231 since Bale was injured, and moved to a midfield with 3, often adding Kovacic to the line up. Will be interesting to see what happens when james and bale both return.

It's always funny how coaches arrive in madrid with grand ideas and then they see the amount of walking our attackers do off the ball and they change everything

I thought Danilo was fine.. A bit nit-picky to say he had a poor game.

The two players who still continue to disappoint me are Kroos and Isco, the latter being wasted on the right wing.

I wish he would have floated more into the center to look like a 4-3-1-2 behind Ronaldo and Bale.. I think that could have been more effective for him.

As for Kroos, I have no idea what is up with him, again being outshone by Casemiro IMO

good point. Even kovacic was poor today. They are all lacking ideas and are not sure about what they should be doing.

Kroos physically looks shot, when he has the ball he always makes good decision, but having Casemiro in front of the defense is much better. We had missed someone like him in the past few years and i am glad we have him around now.

Isco as well, just looks crap. i understand he is not the most comfortable high up, on the right of all places, but he needs to adjust. It took Lucas a few touches to outshine him wide.

I only caught the second half and I too think Danillo was kind of meh. Their best chance in the second half came when Danillo failed to acknowledge existence of a wide player and resulted in a great chance for them. Only God knows how that guy managed to hit nacho instead of the goal. He looked too casual with his defending, took them for scrubs.

Lucas is a rw by default though so understandably he should look more comfortable on the right

I didnt think Kroos was that bad, he isnt really creative so you cant measure his performances based on that. What he does well is pressing high up and winining us the ball that way iirc two of our goals came as a result of him winning the ball high up and starting a counter

Casemiro is more comfortable protecting our defence, the amount of balls he winsback is amazing and he has great long ball that more often than not gets us out of pressured situations. For me he has been a revelation this year

Like you guys i appreciate the fact that Benitez is trusting everyone in the squad. Lets just hope he keeps it up when the rest come back. Carlo would never have subbed in Llorente today so kudos to Benitez for that

Izzy and Doc if you want o know why i hate Danilo nearly as much as i hate Ramos, look at minute 70 and what happened there, better yet look at highlights and see where Levante got 99% of their chances from. Right sided Coentrao ffs

And lastly we need a bloody lb. I panicked when Marcelo fell on the pitch and touching his groin. Scary site. Imagine Arbeloa vs PSG. Rip

And lastly our players have well and truly destroyed Benitez's plan of using any kind of pressing.

The lack of pressing is astonishing. I haven't seen a worse pressing from any team in any league.

the play that you described happened because the whole defense had slided left to compensate for a player missing, danilo was marking one attacker as was Varane and obviously someone was free...

this is why i found your comments funny, and of course you extrapolate the rest of his game based off that one moment where he wasnt even at fault. Blame him for missing to clear the ball on the jump, dont blame him because he is double teamed lol

how can some of you be hard on Danilo? when we all know he is just coming back from injury and still needs to settle at the club, nothing there to criticize, criticism for criticism sake is typical madrid arm chair manager talk.

anyway the game sucked im not really sure, whats we're trying to do, are we a counter attacking team or possession? well whatever it is our season basically depending on navas tbh, not for him the team would be in a hole, instead of top of the table.

oh last note no more bale-cr please its shit, it sucks hard and never looked good, just give jese the start stupid politics .