Las Palmas vs Real Madrid

While the league is essentially long gone, would like to see some decent football for the very least. And Lucas, would like to see him start as well.

Danilo not being included is a strange, albeit understandable decision. Z wants to rotate that RB spot, and fortunately for us, we now have two very reliable RBs to choose from. Danilo started the Roma game, so it's only fair that Carvajal gets the nod for this one. I just hope that Danilo won't get affected by this decision. He's been playing so well and it would be a shame for him to lose that momentum. Ideally, he should've played at LB today. Marcelo needs to hit the bench and think about his horrendous defensive display against Roma.

And James? The guy is struggling with poor form. He should've been included here, especially when there's nothing at stake. Poor decision by Z.

Kiko needs to start this one. Nacho and Varane should start as well. This would've been a great opportunity for Modric to take a breather. But with James not being included, it's unlikely to happen.

Benzema is injured...again. Why I'm not surprised?

I didn't expect this lineup. Nacho on the bench? That's just unfair to a player who did surprisingly well every time he was called upon.

Isco seems out of it this game. Hopefully he turns up second half

Lucas

I disagree with all of you with James. This is probably a one time thing with james. and It's a lesson that he isn't a guaranteed starter. I know something like this will motivate him.

Casemiro and lucas

Okay so let's be real. Those two deserve to start at this point.

We got into the game slowly. We made many misplaced passes at the beginning which could've resulted in goals. But then we nullified their pressing game and our hard workers helped us with ball recovery and possession.

Nobody really stood out, except for Navas with that save.

Isco knows he had a poor game but it's not a big surprise he's been having same issues has James for the past what month or two but the focus is on the player that is not Spanish in Madrid

Pepe has been so bad

Pro-Technology for this sport.
Such a bullshit call

As I'm writing this, Real Madrid is still 0-1 up. If we win this, it'll be totally undeserved. Absolutely disgraceful performance and we deserve to lose.

oh and I hope Pepe doesn't play for us in the CL this season.

defense 101 : never put your hands up when marking a cross...i don't get how pro defenders do this. not a good game at all. but i wasn't surprised

Pepe was so poor...glad that next week both those two clowns won't play.
Is that what Zidane is all about?Nothing special so far...this team is still playing so poorly. And he has been coaching them for quite some time.

1-2 final score. Two goals from two set-pieces. Still unable to score through direct play. Massive, massive problem that came with Rafa and is still vividly noticeable under Z.

Horrendous performance by Pepe. Disgraceful performance overall.

Ronaldo needs to play with benzema in the middle lol. He's great in the middle if he has someone to play off with. Nothing wrong about that, he's just more of an AM then a striker.

Pepe was god awful. Varane please save us.

Navas and casemiro .

Also, Jese made the difference wonderfully. The way he outmuscled that defender we have a shaqiri on our hands He has to be one of our strongest players

Looks like players have gave up on La Liga. They played very carefully and avoided any kind of 50-50 challenges. It was evident they are not taking these games seriously. It will affect us negatively imo, a team can not just wish themselves to top form when a big game comes... Form is achieved through series of games which is why it was important to challenge for LA Liga to do well in CL.


On the game, everyone except Keylor Navas was bad.

Pepe is finished. I hope we get a young CB next season .


Also Casemiro can't play lone DM role well because of his short comings in passing game. He will prosper well in a double pivot however. We will need to get an anchor man if we still insist with playing one.

Players are getting tired with CR imo.. Look at them, when he recieves a pass no body makes any of the ball movement because they know he is going to shoot next. He has become a elephant in the room, pretty sure the forwards and isco, Lucas etc hate playing with him.

Adit wrote:Looks like players have gave up on La Liga. They played very carefully and avoided any kind of 50-50 challenges. It was evident they are not taking these games seriously. It will affect us negatively imo, a team can not just wish themselves to top form when a big game comes... Form is achieved through series of games which is why it was important to challenge for LA Liga to do well in CL.


On the game, everyone except Keylor Navas was bad.

Pepe is finished. I hope we get a young CB next season .


Also Casemiro can't play lone DM role well because of his short comings in passing game. He will prosper well in a double pivot however. We will need to get an anchor man if we still insist with playing one.

Players are getting tired with CR imo.. Look at them, when he recieves a pass no body makes any of the ball movement because they know he is going to shoot next. He has become a elephant in the room, pretty sure the forwards and isco, Lucas etc hate playing with him.

we have Vallejo on loan but i think that we'll keep pepe till his contract runs out in 2017

vallejo better be ready by then

Adit wrote:Looks like players have gave up on La Liga. They played very carefully and avoided any kind of 50-50 challenges. It was evident they are not taking these games seriously. It will affect us negatively imo, a team can not just wish themselves to top form when a big game comes... Form is achieved through series of games which is why it was important to challenge for LA Liga to do well in CL.

I respectfully disagree with this part of your post, and here's why:

I don't think we played bad because we didn't take the game seriously or because we've given up on La Liga. If that was the case then why didn't we look like "we had given up on La Liga" when we skinned Vigo a week ago?

No. Truth is, we played bad because Las Palmas took advantage of our playing style, or lack thereof. We've become very predictable. Press us and we'll turn into headless chicken. We only play through the wings and we're unable to unlock defenses through direct play. That's why any half-decent team finds it so easy to isolate our strikers and nullify any attacking threat we have. The only thing they can't control is the danger from set-pieces, and not surprisingly enough, that's how we scored last night.

Our team doesn't really care about La Liga, but they don't hesitate to rout teams when they can. And the only reason we didn't hammer Las Palmas last night is because we simply couldn't.

La Liga aside, the Euro is coming up this summer too. So players are going to shy away from contact unless the game means something... it's pretty standard. I don't like it but that's how it is. Most of the culprits are typically the veteran guys who feel this would be their last Euro/WC. Younger guys usually play hard regardless.

That doesn't make any sense. I don't see any Barça players, or any elite team for that matter, shying away from contact. I didn't see us shying away from contact against Vigo. This is just an excuse to hide behind when we play bad.

Fact is, we were outplayed and we didn't play well. Simple as that. You can either call it what it is, or make up excuses for it.