How does a Ronaldo, Bale, Isco, James combo work?

With the likelihood that Benzema's criminal activity being the end of his Real Madrid days (say next summer) and Ronaldo announcing he isn't leaving, plus the excellent play of Isco, James play of late, what is the feeling if we make this four our permanent attacking formation. We still have Modric, Kroos, Casemiro or Kovacic to play behind them plus Jese, Lucas and perhaps Asensio as reserves.

it would look good but not with kroos and modric in midfield. We are going to play great football though

I dont know how itll look because it is going to force us to play a 442 with neither Ronaldo nor Bale being the kind of guys to drop deep and help build attacks by combining with the midfielders

Having Isco and James together is always good news but will they work with Ronaldo/Bale? I dont know honestly

If Ronaldo plays the pivot role accordingly, it would probably work, though, benz-cr >>>>>>>>>> cr-bale

It's the best formation you can ask for. James and Isco together are deadly.

Jamesco!

oh my bad, i did not realize bale was in there lmao

isco james cr bale, might as well give up on football

Mr Nick09 wrote:oh my bad, i did not realize bale was in there lmao

isco james cr bale, might as well give up on football

wasn't it your idea to have cr as a 9 and bale on the left ?

@ Nick, I find your posts (in this thread) difficult to understand.
Wasn't it you that was a proponent of Bale (& Flo) just a few months back?

I think most of us agree that BBC should go, but as you yourself said a while back Bale won't go any where any time soon. On the other hand if Ronaldo says he wants to stay, then that likely precludes him as well. But on the other hand I like the play AMs allow and Isco and James are terrific when on together. I agree with you that Modric and Kross is not ideal, against big teams, but they still can put in Casemiro for Kroos against big teams (or even go to Modric, Kroos, Casemiro leaving James or Isco in reserve) and Kovacic is OK when Modric is off resting or injured. Only issues I see are possibly a different coach and the continual need of two competent backup laterals. Likely do need a competent CF, but likely a backup to Ronaldo. I think Jese and Lucas are ok as reserves and I can see Asensio finding a spot under this scenario.

What are we arguing about here? There is a difference between talking abt what the club/coach might do and me sharing my own opinion on how i see things.

And my opinion is that Bale is a mediocre player. I thought i had been very clear about this. If it was up to me i would never watch play but i have no choice.

So if we are playing fantasy football, a team proposed above looks like shet. Bale + CR is a plague

I wasn't arguing, I was referring to several posts you were making last September about Flo's reasoning to sign the next perceived Alpha male. I thought you were openly a supporter of Bale when the majority of us had a very negative opinion of him. I know you are not a fan of Flo (nor Ronaldo) so I was confused about your posts and quite frankly your last post confuses me even more because I don't remember you ever stating your opinion of him as mediocre. But I haven't followed all your posts so maybe I just missed that one!

Nah it's ok, i can try to understand Flo's reasoning, and i can argue for it, because every idea has pluses and minuses. But i fundamentally disagree with it.

it won't work out that way. if benzema leaves florentino will sign a forward as replacement. we've never gone into a season without a striker and there's no sense in doing that now. playing all those four guys is extremely irregular and reckless.

problem number 1- you'll need a cf, none of them is a 9, and i don't think any of them wants that role.

problem nos 2 now even if we ignore the cf, you need people who can at least stifle the midfield and get the ball up. playing modric and a defensive mid (casemiro), won't be enough....with those four who never track back or press. you'd probably need two defensive midfielders with modric on the bench, and that would mean missing out on modric's organizational abilities- dictating tempo, long passes, deep lying play-making etc

problem nos 3- its basically two of the same kind of players for 4 spots. two number tens, and two wingers who haven't played like wingers in a long time. so at least two people will play out of position. the fact that its a formation without a 9, my guess is three people will play out of position.

james and isco combo's good, but as far as i'm concerned, i'm yet to see it work against reasonable teams. they played together in our draw and loss against valencia, loss to atleti in the copa, both games against juve. now i'm not saying those results were their faults, far from it; correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation; but i won't go as far as to laud them as a dynamic duo because of the show they put on against  the levantes, getafes, mallorcas of this world.

both those players (isco and james) still have a lot to prove imo, it should be one or the other. i think if they're rotated in the attacking mid slot, that may just bring the best out of them ala higuain benzema battles back in the day. don't even get me started on bale, yes he's doing better, but i don't know the position he plays anymore. hell i don't even know  the formation we play. yes the tv shows one thing, but out on the pitch its all over the place

in conclusion, chances are we may not see some of this personnel next season, if we don't get our act together. but all four of them starting is extremely reckless....obviously it will work for malmo, cadiz and the likes, but i don't want to go into clasico, a tough league game or tough ucl knockout game with all 4 of those in the lineup especially when you realize its not like we've got roberto carlos, hierro, sanchis, and panucci (all in their primes) in defense. hell, even that defense might not be able to hold up with those four upfront

They both played in the 3-1 victory against Barça and they played brilliantly.

yes they did, forgot about that...still, i feel its a totally different scenario from what we have now. we were riding on confidence then, bale wasn't in the match. i'd rather we promote competition between the two than have both start (james starts one day, isco the next. maybe that way we can bring out the best in them, since they know the other's gunning for the spot). its also reckless from an injury standpoint. at least when one gets injured, (which will probably be james), the other can get in. rather than both playing and taking knocks. but as i said, i'm still not sold on them being a dynamic duo. besides, if four are to play, what positions on the pitch are they taking?

Also played when we destroyed Liverpool away

none of those formations will work without a legit CF playing, I don't know how many game without benzema/CF, you guys(bill) need to see before you realize something so simple.

lastly bill you keep proving my point, your just repeating posters post out of context and need to be corrected, why? because you just don't understand whats going on in games, yet you want to be the most opinionated about the club .

Valkyrja wrote:Also played when we destroyed Liverpool away

never rated that pool side that didn't have suarez....we could have beaten them with our eyes closed

It won't work just because Ronaldo don't like being a CF. With Benzema it might work.


Bales best position is LW, that is the only way we can unutilize his speed. James will have to play RW .

Bale......Benzema...... James
......isco.................modric
..................casemiro

i'm of the opinion that in a 4 2 3 1 formation, one of the two holding mids has to primarily be defensive. and in a 4 3 3, one of the central mids has to be primarily defensive, and another has to have the work-rate, marking and tackling ability to stifle opposition, whilst the last can be the organizer. my problem with this formation, is the same- i don't trust the two on the wing to assist the wing backs, and as a result, i don't trust isco when it comes to providing the necessary marking and pressing to cover for that, i still can't get the thought of him jogging when sevilla scored their second out of my mind. i'm not convinced about benzema alone up top with those two neither...

don't mind bale on the left and cristiano on the right, with benzema up front for the remainder of the season, till we see where we are going. isco and james battle for the attacking mid slot, kroos and modric for the central mid, casemiro defensive....next summer we can probably address physical presence in the middle, and see if the bbc as we know it is history

I find most of our dilemma stems from trying to find a spot for Bale because regardless of where's he's put on the field he's failed to own it.

Granted with CR it is harder but considering the sacrifices other players have made to adjust to him, Isco as a CM (who plays well and is improving there. Bale on the left, center, right, and behind the striker but I haven't seen him own it... like ever.