the team didn't play that bad, just conceded a great goal and fail to put away our chances, i get it everybody loves dani and hates danilo, no need to start exaggerating....

chad4401 wrote:marcelo was shat btw seemed more interested in getting cr a goal, than playing the simple passes that are on.

And this isn't considered exaggeration? No? Fine.

I don't think it's about love or hate, it is about what is happening and Danilo really isn't happening. Doesn't hide the other issues like...
Kroos and Modric being quite soft without a DM (Casimero)
Ronaldo being kinda useless
No one seems to be practicing set pieces. Seriously, I genuinely feel no one in the team is doing this
Only Dani seems to know how to cross
James having a weird season
Etc.

The only issue that can actually be rectified easily is just starting Dani instead of Danilo.

But when Benitez benched James for Casemiro he was insulted to no end lol....oh well

As Nick said though... the guys in the midfield other than Modric get bullied too easily.  They no longer can say they're isolated because we have plenty of bodies around the ball and the line gaps are good.  They just get run over...  Isco i understand because he's not really a CM.  But Kroos is just very weak.  Does that mean you try Casemiro?  I don't think so.  You need a guy that can still be helpful in buildup.  You can't just have a 1-way player.  We need an upgrade there.

In the meantime, you just have to deal with it. That's just going to be a weakness you're going have to disguise the best way you can.

I will say that conceding 1 goal on 4 shots is not that bad of a defensive effort. It's just a shame that we combined that with lack of luck on the attack. We had close to 20 shots i think.

Modric is the best midfielder on the planet and we are going to waste his prime years ....

The things I want to do now

This is something that gets lost in translation, whenever we lose, look how our midfield gets beaten. Betis with less talent just outfought us today. We are not barca, we will not achieve the same level of symbiosis pressing they practice, AINT HAPPENING.

Every other team big teams in europe have a midfield that can physically outfight us, and that's an issue.

@doc you didn't see them awful forced passes to cr from marcelo? was doing it all game needs to be highlighted, not only danilo.

Besides Danilo, Ronaldo, Kroos, I thought James was also bad. I lost count of how many balls he couldn't field. And as Sports said he had run out of gas. All the more reason to believe what Zidane supposedly said and James being out of shape.

I felt the team changed completely when Dani came in and a short while later Jese. If Zidane had started these two, it would have been a totally different game. Pepe and Varane also looked suspect at times.

I know it's hard to admit... but overall, i thought we played well. Just unlucky. We kept shape for most of the game and it was effective.

Playing a high line with Varane and Pepe is so natural. No idea why we haven't done it before. Those guys are super athletes and can recover on anyone.

I don't think we played well at all. Even our goal was off-side. But that's not what bothers me the most. What bothers me the most is this loser mentality that we seem unable to get rid of. We usually fall behind early, then try to get back into the game and then kill the opponent off. Why not go all-out at first and be done with it? Betis kept pressing us and we stayed in our own half for a considerable amount of time until we conceded. That's unacceptable.

sportsczy wrote:I know it's hard to admit... but overall, i thought we played well. Just unlucky. We kept shape for most of the game and it was effective.

Because Betis played a do-or-die tactic... namely press super hard and hope you get ahead... then just hang on. That will work against us once every 20 times. Just so happened they got the perfect start today by getting an early goal out of it. They completely faded physically by the end of the first half but we just weren't putting our chances away.

Tbh, they only got 2 chances out of all that hard pressing. Just happened to score on one... and it was a great goal. Nothing cheap about it.

nacho should be our backup rb, or even lucas vasquez. that pos danilo should be a bodyguard at the bernabeu ffs

The Demon of Carthage wrote:I don't think we played well at all. Even our goal was off-side. But that's not what bothers me the most. What bothers me the most is this loser mentality that we seem unable to get rid of. We usually fall behind early, then try to get back into the game and then kill the opponent off. Why not go all-out at first and be done with it? Betis kept pressing us and we stayed in our own half for a considerable amount of time until we conceded. That's unacceptable.

seriously stop with the exaggeration, the team could've easily won this game, regardless of what you think i wish dani started this game and it ended the same, you would be saying something else, take a chill pill the team was unlucky.

The problem is damn clear now.

We can't attack through left because only Marcelo is there, Ronaldo is in box.

So we tries to attack through right wing but it needs Bale and Carvajal both there.

Pray for bale and Carvajal .
Ronaldo getting sold.

I only saw the second half and to me, it seemed like we were unlucky to not put our chances away. It feels like one of those random games that you happen to drop points when you shouldnt. Every team goes through this. No need to pick out every little detail in every game

Adit wrote:The problem is damn clear now.

We can't attack through left because only Marcelo is there, Ronaldo is in box.

So we tries to attack through right wing but it needs Bale and Carvajal both there.

Pray for bale and Carvajal .
Ronaldo getting sold.

It's HUGE problem for how ability to space the pitch. somehow, CR was disciplined in the past two games, but today again he decided to play CF, just terrible

We missed our goalscoring chances

especially cr right guest

Mr Nick09 wrote:

Adit wrote:The problem is damn clear now.

We can't attack through left because only Marcelo is there, Ronaldo is in box.

So we tries to attack through right wing but it needs Bale and Carvajal both there.

Pray for bale and Carvajal .
Ronaldo getting sold.

It's HUGE problem for how ability to space the pitch. somehow, CR was disciplined in the past two games, but today again he decided to play CF, just terrible

I put this one Nick on Pep's successor. With Bale out he switched from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2. Ronaldo's head just can't handle this much change! It should have been Jese rather than James and keep things consistent. He was right before in insisting James had to compete for that one spot in lineup. Changing that screwed up Ronaldo and James. That in addition to playing Danilo are negative indicators to Zidane.

@clutch, the second half was completely different to first. Just take a look at possession, shots etc in 1st half vs second.

It was 60/40 possession at halftime. 8 shots to 2. 80%+ passing. Second half it was 69/31, 10 shots to 2. 80%+ passing.

The difference was that, predictably, Betis got tired around the 30 min mark and we got a lot more clear chances after that. Just couldn't take them.

I really don't see why some people are complaining.
we have not played this well in months!
Betis pressed us like drug addicts at the beginning and expectedly, we faltered because we have not experienced this much pressing in a while. They were so lucky to have taken the lead through a strike that goes in 1 in 100 attempts; courtesy of Danilo's presence.
Danilo failed Zidane.

Our passing in tight spaces was a lot better, our pressing was better, our stamina was amazing; better teamwork. It was an amazing match.

We were unlucky to be playing with 9 men for 60minutes (minus Danilo and cr7), then 10 men for the whole game (minus cr7).
Ronaldo lost the ball every time he touched it. He killed the flow of play. Even the tap-ins he is known for, he could not do them.I swear, we could have won this match with anyone on the pitch but cr7. I wonder what Zidane would have been thinking.

Zidane should not have taken james out when he did, but he needed to get more width. I thought he knew jese doesn't function at all on the right.

This match will only make us stronger.
Now we have learnt how to approach opponents who press so hard and above all, we are just in his third week, still taking in his philosophies. Let's focus on developing a philosophy; la liga is almost out of reach. By this time next season, we will be unstoppable, provided Perez doesn't sack Zidane.

My only hope is that they overturn the ban so we can sell Ronaldo and finally get an 11th player that can help in the build-up play and contribute in difficult matches as well.
If he fails to leave this season, his legend will be long dead come end of next season.

By the way, Kroos is average, I see why Guardiola could let him go. We need Pogba, or maybe convert varane. Casemiro is good with the ball too.

I think the ban does not stop us from selling players. We can sell Ronaldo and we don't even need to replace him.
It is amazing how much shit we have taken from this guy.

Eneide wrote:I think the ban does not stop us from selling players. We can sell Ronaldo and we don't even need to replace him.
It is amazing how much shit we have taken from this guy.

It's less about whether we're able to, or even whether we need a replacement. It's about whether uncle flo would be willing to. Absent a replacement marketing tool, it's unlikely.

I don't know what Zidane was thinking when he chose Danilo Over Carvajal, he's so unuseful , he can't defend, he doesn't deliver on attack and his crosses are pos, James also had an awful game, Benz was ok, Cristiano missed a 1 vs 1 situation, now only does he not contribute to the build up, he's missing so many chances, Chad is right, he needs 5 chances to score one goal.

Can we put sentiments, invidividual accolades and image aside. Ronaldo is the worst player in the starting 11 by miles. I am so happy seeing Benzema finally come off his shadow. I imagine how much Jese would have developed if he had 2 years of regular playing time. Ronaldo sucks so much, i want to bang my head on a wall anytime he does what he does best - pass rubbish, fall on the floor and sulk, miss chances, celebrate like a fool and disappear in tough matches.

Perez is honestly the problem. Ronaldo needs to be sold without even buying a replacement.
James was getting into the game when he got subbed off.
I am super satisfied with the way the team is playing. The joy in the gameplay will compensate for our lack of trophy this season, but expect us to beast our way through next season. IF and only If Ronaldo goes.