Real Madrid vs Barcelona

I never envisioned us to lose vs Sevilla but my god the defending for their goals was atrocious. You should never have to score 4 goals to win a game. Never. The defence made our lives difficult by conceding stupid chances

Many of our players are in poor forms especially the attackers. Having James and Benz back will be a boost. But i am worried they will struggle due to not being up to scratch fitness wise.

With Neymar/Suarez in form i dont see us keeping a clean sheet but would not be surprised as we have looked like this all season only then Navas has been saving our asses, so its not likhis is anything new. I am just glad we have Carvajal back. Imagine Neymar vs "i totally give up once you get past me" Danilo

Predicted line up:


Unless we get yet another injury in these two weeks i believe Rafa will opt with this line up.

Win and we gain the momentum and upperhand. We lose and we might as well kiss the league goodbye

Hopefully Ronaldo picks up a minor injury before this game so we can play with 11 men.

wait shouldn't benzema be fit by then?

We are about to get into the key question for Benitez.

Given how Casemiro has played he undoubtly will go for a 3 man mid (Modric, Casemiro and Kroos) so that means he can only start 3 at forward (assuming all are fit). You can pretty well assume that Jese, Lucas and Denis are on bench (or possibly one or two of them have to be excluded from line-up), but who else out of Ronaldo, Bale, Benz, James and Isco. It will probably come down to Bale and Ronaldo have to start (why - I have no idea!!), which means the third is a toss up between Benz and James (assuming Isco loses out).

Ideally the first 11 would look like this


what it will probably look like



I don't think Benitez is stupid to ever start that piece of shit Danilo other than in Copa matches.

Valkyrja wrote:

Keylord
Carvajal Varane Ramos Marcelo
James Modric Kroos Isco
Benzema Ronaldo

If this is the lineup, Barça will get murdered before halftime.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:

Keylord
Carvajal Varane Ramos Marcelo
James Modric Kroos Isco
Benzema Ronaldo

If this is the lineup, Barça will get murdered before halftime.

it will never happen though

It will be the usual suspects imo.. Kroos, Modric, Hamez and BBC (if Benzema is healthy of course)

Casemiro and Isco will get dropped

Valkyrja wrote:

The Demon of Carthage wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:

Keylord
Carvajal Varane Ramos Marcelo
James Modric Kroos Isco
Benzema Ronaldo

If this is the lineup, Barça will get murdered before halftime.

it will never happen though

Tell me about it. We're one of the unluckiest, if not the unluckiest, teams on the planet.

1. A top 3 CF won't probably play because of a dragging court case.

2. The best offensive LB in the world might not play due to injury.

3. The most influential player might not play due to a dislocated shoulder.

4. A top 3 RB might not play and his replacement is a joke.

5. A deadly predator being played out of position.

6. An insanely talented AM has been called up to NT (even though he's not fully fit) and might get injured again.

7. The FIFA virus that hurts Real Madrid more than any other club.

In all honesty, we don't even need our strongest eleven to beat this Barça. But there are 3 or 4 players who have to play in order for us to win, which given the circumstances and bad luck, might not play.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:

Keylord
Carvajal Varane Ramos Marcelo
James Modric Kroos Isco
Benzema Ronaldo

If this is the lineup, Barça will get murdered before halftime.

Since when are we called Barca?

Freeza wrote:

The Demon of Carthage wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:

Keylord
Carvajal Varane Ramos Marcelo
James Modric Kroos Isco
Benzema Ronaldo

If this is the lineup, Barça will get murdered before halftime.

Since when are we called Barca?

Let's stop trying to make a cat look like a lion.

Basically it comes down to the defense. If carvajal and Marcelo arent playing even without messi we'll get destroyed. If Ronaldo is playing CF you can just forget about our attack

This James was not fit drama by benitez is to ensure that he has an excuse to bench him for the Clasico. James know this and he countered this tactics by going public.

Now why would Benitez try to bench his sole creative player? Here is the thing. He wants to play a 3 man midfield of Kroos-casemiro-modric. Now there is only 3 spot remaining for 4 star players.

Benitez knows Real needs a CF badly so Benzema is safe. He also can never drop CR so he is also safe.Now it is between Bale and James . That is a tough situation, how can u exclude either of them? What can you possibly say as excuse? Bale came back early so leaving him out will piss him off.Also there is the price tag problem and British media coverage..so the easier excuse is for James despite him being fit..Benitez simply chose to side with Bale here.

James was left on the bench because they were playing a cat and mouse game with Columbia NT. Word is they will not start Casemiro and James will play if he returns from NT unhurt.

The drama created here is unbelievable. Seems most here think all moves are political, LOL.

Marcelo back in full training Only Navas is out and it looks like he will miss the Clasico too.

RIP

Is Benzema playing?

We still don't know. And It's still unknown whether Benzema was truly unfit for the Sevilla game or Rafa simply refrained from playing him even though he was fit for his pending court case.

Either way, he must play in the next game, he just can't let us down. If he won't and we deploy CR as CF, might as well give them the three points now.

Adit wrote:This James was not fit drama by benitez is to ensure that he has an excuse to bench him for the Clasico. James know this and he countered this tactics by going public.

Now why would Benitez try to bench his sole creative player? Here is the thing. He wants to play a 3 man midfield of Kroos-casemiro-modric. Now there is only 3 spot remaining for 4 star players.

Benitez knows Real needs a CF badly so Benzema is safe. He also can never drop CR so he is also safe.Now it is between Bale and James . That is a tough situation, how can u exclude either of them? What can you possibly say as excuse? Bale came back early so leaving him out will piss him off.Also there is the price tag problem and British media coverage..so the easier excuse is for James despite him being fit..Benitez simply chose to side with Bale here.

I absolutely agree with you. James was available but Rafa is defensive-minded and prefers playing Casemiro over James.

I thought we got rid of this cowardly approach when we disposed of Mourinho. I really, really hope Rafa will change his tactics very, very soon.

Has Rafa lost control of the dressing room?
There aren't a lot of people happy with Benitez and again it could all be bullshit rumors to sell papers but once you start seeing the stuff players are saying such as James to the public or Ronaldo to Ramos about playing too back... you start to wonder.

Benitez has tried twice already this season to find an excuse to not play James and its failed miserably.

FalcaoPunch wrote:Has Rafa lost control of the dressing room?
There aren't a lot of people happy with Benitez and again it could all be bullshit rumors to sell papers but once you start seeing the stuff players are saying such as James to the public or Ronaldo to Ramos about playing too back... you start to wonder.

Benitez has tried twice already this season to find an excuse to not play James and its failed miserably.

If he loses against Barça, he'll lose control of the dressing room that's for sure.

So far only James and Ronaldo seem unhappy. The first because he was benched even though he was fit, and the latter because he's being played out of position and he's become uninterested.

Jesé also voiced his frustration publicly through his agent for lack of playing time.

It can all go away if Rafa wins and keeps on winning, and abandons this cowardly defensive approach which many players, especially Ronaldo, do not like it. If he doesn't, he won't last a year...and Carlo will be watching from the stands with a smirk on his face.

Benitez is paying for his inability to communicate to his players the ideas that he has, and its festering problems with key players that will be the end of him in a few months if he is not careful...

How do you even get James to throw darts at you in the press? James of all people. When its ramos i understand, he is a knuckle head. Cristiano i understand he speaks out all the time. But James? You really must suck at communication. I can understand that you want to be careful with your guy, that u try to protect him, but James did not take it that way, or at least he did not understand.

Bottom line its creating a divide that only success and victory can save. I dont think he is convincing his player with his explanations for now

It started with Benz complaining and he's not one to complain publicly ever either... it's worrisome.

http://www.marca.com/en/2015/11/17/en/football/real_madrid/1447792841.html

I hope they talk some sense into him. We can't continue like this - Score one goal and then retreat to protect the lead.

Navas may play the Clasico as he is back in full training. We dont have a single injured player now

Benzema isn't fully fit and he's still a doubt for the clasico.