CL Final: Undecima, here we come!

The one thing that will make an impact is if the midfield is stronger... so it can impose its will on people offensively and defensively. Right now, Kroos is limited defensively and Casemiro is limited offensively. I don't think we should give up on Casemiro because he can develop as he is young. But I think we can upgrade on Kroos.

Other part is Marcelo... i really don't like what he brings. The problem there is that the LB market is so thin. But we need to bring in some real competition for him.

I'd also change one of Ronaldo or Benz but that's just me I guess. Changing both isn't feasible imo.... but one should be.

@sportczy
Marcelo's contribution to our attack is so immense, we have to accept that trade off.
Casemiro can develop into the best in his position. He is already something to reckon with in his forming stage.
We could upgrade on the early season kroos by replacing him with the end-of-season Kroos.
Kroos controls the tempo of the game and has grown to sort of like a Xavi for us.
The only upgrade we can make to kroos will be Pogba. This would change our style totally and I doubt if ZZ will need that.
What we need is a new CF and back up players in other positions and maybe some tactical variations that allows him to use different XI

Any first-team level/world class player we bring without selling the player in his position will just spoil the team

Personally, I'd bring Sergio Asensio back,Diego LLorrente for DM and CB,bring back Morata, keep isco, keep Kovacic to under study Modric, sell james, use Nacho as a back-up for marcelo, loan Jese

Marcelo's contribution to the attack is all a smokescreen. His final balls are awful. He can't pass and can't cross. He's had 4 assists in all comps all season. That's ok if you're a fullback... but if you're a wingback, it's not enough.

I'm gonna stick to me thinking Zidane is in the same mold as Vicente Del Bosque's time at Madrid. These two men know how to get the best out of us with tactics and strategies that suit the team at hand. Zidane doesn't have to reinvent the wheel but he certainly knows how to manage, well, it would seem that way so far.

@Hala
I know what I saw in the 1st half. I know I saw us being really, legitimately good so you watching it over definitely solidified what I saw.

sportsczy wrote:Marcelo's contribution to the attack is all a smokescreen. His final balls are awful. He can't pass and can't cross. He's had 4 assists in all comps all season. That's ok if you're a fullback... but if you're a wingback, it's not enough.

I agree with this.

Marcelo is wonderful. When players get pressed they pass the ball to him because they know that he will bail them out effortlessly. Also he makes it look so easy how he dribbles past players until he gets to the opposition box after that he makes the wrong choice 7/10 times. If he can get that sorted the assists will rain down like hail. He is half this team's attack and it shows when he doesnt play. If Casemiro continues to help him defensively you wont notice his poor defending. Best LB in the world and arguably just as good as RC in his own right IMO

You're gonna get Tito annoyed with the RC comparison Seriously though, Marcelo is nowhere close to how awesome RC was in terms of attack or defense but he is much more than a smokescreen as Sports put it. One of the best LBs currently playing and without him, our team lacks quite a bit of skill going forward.

His crosses are cancer though, jeez.

Well, true. His crosses are indeed shit! But there is a believe that he stil contributes something.
So do you suggest we upgrade Marcelo. If that's the solution, I think the only upgrade available is Alaba and we know its impossible to get him.
Maybe its high time Zidane started employing some Benitez style and teach indvidual players how to do certain things like teach Marcelo how to cross, teach Ronaldo how to shoot with the side of his foot sometimes

I think we are cursed with Marcelo
He even made it to UEFA CL squad of the season.

Lol the only team Alaba will upgrade in Madrid is Rayo. Both RM and AM have better LBs than him

i'm okay with marcelo, we need a back up though, he has issues with injuries. his final ball and crosses are crap. i'm not going to get much into the marcelo/roberto carlos thing, you think he's as good as or better than lizarazu, ashley cole, andres brehme or zanetti? cos that's the implication if you put him on par with rc. that's all i'll say on that.

in fairness to him, he's improved from the marcelo of old who was getting schooled by renato and jesus navas. his final ball and positioning need to improve though. and for whatever reason, we're seeing less of the dangerous combinations him and cristiano used to produce down the left......oh well, at least we won the ucl. i expected him to miss his pk, lol i wasn't confident with any of our takers except for bale and cron

Our captains to miss the PK

Marcelo is the 3rd best passer from our team, and probably the second best one touch passer after modric.




by far the best left-back of this generation and on par with the greatest wing-backs of all time. rate him higher than Carlos. Better passer and linkup play, more creative, better dribbler and better in tight spaces. Carlos had much more creative teammates than Marcelo and I've never ever seen him be the main creative culprit like I've seen Marcelo a dozen times for us and for Brazil. In my opinion, he's a top 15 all-around footballer at the moment.

I think Marcelo and benz av gotten to comfortable with their positions, they see no need to improve any further.
The best version of Marcelo was the one under Mou tho. I think the second season or so.

We are not even bothered about his defensive side anymore, we accept the trade-off.
He just needs to learn to cross and give a final pass. He creates so much space, if he had a half of carvajal's cross accuracy, he should be averaging at least 15 assists per season.

Agreed, but I like how he cuts in alot because defenders cant deal with him then as opposed to being stuck on the wing putting in crosses every single time. He is like our least predictable player, you literally dont know what he will do most of the times.

We should try Marcelo as a Winger, that could be a possibility and behind him a proper LB we all know he dribbles well and helps to break their rival defense, but he is such a liability on defense and as Sports and other have said his passing is quite bad just as his making decision, he always choose to pass Ronaldo no matter if Ronaldo is in the better position or not.

@Tito, re PKs, you obviously had not seen Olbak against PSV! I knew the minute the PK were coming that our guys will just carefully place them all in the lower corner. That guy is horrific at PKs. So so predictable and even when he moves it is late and a high dive, leaving the lower corner exposed. The only one I was concerned about was Ramos taking another straight at centre again. But it was obvious, Zidane and co had done their homework and they executed it to prefection.

Marcelo is not good as winger. , He is better arriving late.

The problem with Marcelo is him always looking to cross to Ronaldo ignoring everyone else, very pathetic thing to do imo. He does that consistently and due to this his final ball has been atrocious last season.

Selling Ronaldo will force other players to evolve and make a much better team game.

I don't want to see a post like adits again. We won the CL, finished 1 point behind barca and probably would have won the league if that dunce Rafa didn't coach us, got knocked out of the copa for the dumbest reason in the world, and we still have ungrateful fans.

Ronaldo, Ramos, benzema, Marcelo are all fantastic players. Do they have their issues? Sure they do, but we did very well this season considering everything. Ronaldo and bale have been tracking back even with lingering injuries, benzema is putting his ass on the line with a torn muscle injury and we still find reasons to complain. We don't have primadonnas anymore, everyone even CR hustles back.

Zidane has changed this team in an incredible way. Not even mou could make a unit like this.

Let's be thankful for once instead of raining shit on our players

futbol_bill wrote:@Tito, re PKs, you obviously had not seen Olbak against PSV! I knew the minute the PK were coming that our guys will just carefully place them all in the lower corner. That guy is horrific at PKs. So so predictable and even when he moves it is late and a high dive, leaving the lower corner exposed. The only one I was concerned about was Ramos taking another straight at centre again. But it was obvious, Zidane and co had done their homework and they executed it to prefection.

i saw the psv game, but i was looking at the pks from a different lens. i was thinking that they had more recent experience with pks so their takers should be comfortable, i totally forgot about the goalie. and i hadn't seen most of our guys take pks ever or in a while. i just remember most of atletis psv pks as being well hit

soon we'll say something like "marcelo is the greatest lb ever". he's good for this team, but let's relax. at madrid we get too caught up in giving crowns too early. sorry marcelo wasn't a better passer, crosser nor link up player than carlos...NOT by a long shot, and carlos also had a better weaker foot than marcelo. the combinations he made down the left with zidane, raul et al were epic. this is damn near blasphemous. are we all going to permit this? i don't want to believe many are too young to have seen carlos in his prime to base his career solely on 1 freekick or 1 outside shot....you've practically said marcelo's one of the best left backs ever, which is highly far fetched. offensively and defensively rc still has him beat. and overall as a lb he's not as good as those other oldies i mentioned

Tito, I didn't say any of those things re Marcelo and I'm much older than you. I saw many a game with Roberto Carlos. I agree 100% with you. I don't even rate Marcelo as a Lb. he does bring good offense, but he is awful with his defense even if it has slightly improved. There is a reason he is no longer with Brasil NT. He was the prime reason (together with the much overrated Thiago Silva) they lost the last WC again with his poor defense.

Re the PKs with PSV and Olbak, he just stands there and is extremely slow to react, most times he doesn't hardly move at all, and when he does, it is a late dive and high. So all the shooters have to do is good placement in lower corner. Watch the CL shootouts again and that is precisely what all 5 of ours did, little power just good placement. Very obvious Zidane and co had observed the same as I, and had instructed team how to take the PKs.

that marcelo response wasn't to you (btw david luiz was also a big reason for brazil's poor showing, i don't think silva played in that calamity against germany) i seriously didn't even notice olbak's lack of mobility, not against psv and not against us, until people who were obviously sick to their stomach that madrid won, started pointing it out. i was so nervous throughout the whole shootout i didn't process what olbak was doing at all. during PKs i tend to focus more on the shooters than the goalies, i take it a goalie will just choose to dive anywhere regardless. only time i ever focused on the goalie was when dudek was doing those hilarious dances in istanbul

When I think about the fact that we could have easily lost the penalty, I savour the victory all over again. This win is going to last for ages. I just want to grab all of them and give them one big kiss! I walk around with the belief that everyone knows I'm a RM fan and can see Undecima written on my forehead.
The win is evergreen

If we do bring a LB, I want Ghoulam. No, not just because he's Algerian. He's the real deal and he has an excellent cross on him. This season he has improved immensely. I don't see how he would be worse then marcelo defensively as well.