Because Wolfsburg and Roma are rubbish lol, i'd like to think most managers would beat them.

The players lost faith in him. I don't see why Roma, Wolfsburg, and City couldn't have taken advantage of a demotivated, poorly structured team.

Are we seriously going to forget the oceans of space Madrid left in between the lines, and how they would have 4 central attackers playing right in front of the defense? No width, no midfield.

Maybe, any other coach could have got them to the finals, but Benitez's Madrid was awful.

Problem with Rafa is that the whole squad lost faith in him and stopped buying into his ideas, and rightly so. I used the Valencia draw not as comparison, but as proof that towards the end of his reign, everything fell apart to the point that he couldn't beat one of the worst Valencia sides in recent years.

This doesn't mean that he wouldn't have gotten past Roma, Wolfsburg and City though. It only means that when your squad is rejecting you, you'll have a hard time beating any opponent, no matter how weak they seem on paper.

Z didn't come up with a tactical revolution. In fact, I don't think he came up with anything. But the players didn't reject him, and with the Camp Nou win, he gave them belief. That win started our momentum that resulted in us shrinking the gap to one point in the league and winning the CL.

Rafa might've reached the CL final, might've, though improbable with Danilo as undisputed starter, a disinterested Ronaldo and a Bale playing out of position.

And also this:

Casciavit wrote:
Are we seriously going to forget the oceans of space Madrid left in between the lines, and how they would have 4 central attackers playing right in front of the defense? No width, no midfield.

Maybe, any other coach could have got them to the finals, but Benitez's Madrid was awful.

sportsczy wrote:The losing streak started with the loss to Madrid from what I recall... it was the game that Barca's record home and overall winning streak was broken.

Keep trying though

losing streak actually started after beating Atletico in the first qtr round. Barca's form was terrible mid march - mid April.

rafa would not have gotten us there cos he'd insist on starting danilo. two, despite having a reputation as a "my way or the highway" manager, he seemed to be giving into what he thought flo wanted to see- having isco james modric kroos in the midfield. 3. his insistence on playing bale in the center could work against sides like deportivo malmo getafe et al. we didn't win any big game with him in charge; not barca, nor atleti, nor sevilla nor villareal

as for zidane, i don't want him to be any of the managers mentioned. what i've seen so far is that he seems realistic (Still too early to say), and that may just be his system. against city or atelti, he didn't go "we have better players so we must attack to put on a show"; he threaded carefully and we got results. against wolfsburg in the second leg we attacked, and in the league, well we did what we did. attacked some, defended some.

frankly, what i want in a manager is understanding there's a middle ground and not letting style cloud one's  thinking. that you are lucky to have a bunch of stars on your team, which you don't have to even be on the touchline to get them to win games, doesn't mean they should attack naively. teams know what systems managers like to adopt and we saw that against atleti....if zidane can get us to switch styles when necessary and be less predictable, i'm happy with that...i don't need nor want any form of "tactical revolution" or whatever terms it is so called wannabe pundits throw out these days. let's be realistic in our approach and get results, some madrid fans didn't like our city approach, under los galacticos, that's exactly the kind of game we would have lost

So Rafa beat PSG but he wouldn't have been able to take on Wolfsburg/Roma/City? Come on, he may be a league flop, but when it comes to the CL he usually performs well.

love or hate it

the fact is, rafa was a knockout specialist manager

for this moment, zidane is same level with di matteo, in term of achievement

so.........zi matteo was more appropriate

okay let me settle this, love it or hate it, the Fact (fact being highly operative here) is, rafa was sacked, and we've won the ucl, that's all i care about. i don't care what he was a "specialist" at. we're not going to let rafa become a martyr @ madrid based on what he could have or would have done

A "cup specialist" who has one CL in 23 years as manager. That makes sense.

titosantill wrote:okay let me settle this, love it or hate it, the Fact (fact being highly operative here) is, rafa was sacked, and we've won the ucl, that's all i care about. i don't care what he was a "specialist" at. we're not going to let rafa become a martyr @ madrid based on what he could have or would have done

you only care about real madrid item only, you are not a true football fan, just a real madrid fan

Did you even see the PSg game in Madrid?  A leprachaun was with us...  Or two.  Their names were Cavani and Ibra.  They missed 5 sitter and Trapp gifted us a goal.  We shouldn't have won...  We should have lost by 3.  Reminded me of the LaReal game in Mou's last season where we got a draw.

guest_07 wrote: you only care about real madrid item only, you are not a true football fan, just a real madrid fan

Exacty,  i am NOT a true "football fan" whatever that means. the last time i was a true football fan was maybe in the 80s. since around 90 or 91, i've been more of a Real Madrid fan than a "football fan". i've been a follower of the serie a epl and la liga for some years now(serie a not so much these days), but most definitely more a follower of madrid. and i care more for madrid winning, than us losing and playing "good" football or what it is that "football fans" appreciate (Whatever that means)

the irony is, i wouldn't have expected a "football fan" like yourself, to come to the defense of rafa benitez' cup "specialty". i mean his brand isn't exactly what "football fans" stand by if i'm not mistaken. so yes you're right, definitely a madrid fan first (like most people on here are, with regards the clubs they support). and when i watch other games, i'm realistic about what i'm watching. i followed serie a vehemently at one point, and i never did so because i expected what "football fans" expect. i didn't watch juve vs milan in 03 expecting brazil 82 vs brazil 70, so i didn't leave disappointed

the game has many faces, its part of what makes it great....."football fans" need to come to terms with that.

titosantill wrote:

guest_07 wrote: you only care about real madrid item only, you are not a true football fan, just a real madrid fan

Exacty,  i am NOT a true "football fan" whatever that means. the last time i was a true football fan was maybe in the 80s. since around 90 or 91, i've been more of a Real Madrid fan than a "football fan". i've been a follower of the serie a epl and la liga for some years now(serie a not so much these days), but most definitely more a follower of madrid. and i care more for madrid winning, than us losing and playing "good" football or what it is that "football fans" appreciate (Whatever that means)

the irony is, i wouldn't have expected a "football fan" like yourself, to come to the defense of rafa benitez' cup "specialty". i mean his brand isn't exactly what "football fans" stand by if i'm not mistaken. so yes you're right, definitely a madrid fan first (like most people on here are, with regards the clubs they support). and when i watch other games, i'm realistic about what i'm watching. i followed serie a vehemently at one point, and i never did so because i expected what "football fans" expect. i didn't watch juve vs milan in 03 expecting brazil 82 vs brazil 70, so i didn't leave disappointed

the game has many faces, its part of what makes it great....."football fans" need to come to terms with that.

i don't like rafa style of football

but i feel sad that the fan that only care about their team have grow bigger & the so-called football lover have become diminishes day by day

its hard now to find the fan that appreciate beautiful football

fans appreciate when their teams win. the talk of "beautiful football" is a farce. arsenal fans loved the invisibles, if they could have won the pl without playing like the invinsibles, bet you they'd appreciate it. brazil fans were chanting joga bonito prior to the 06 world cup; they didn't play capello-like football, but when they lost all that joga bonito thing quited down

you may not like rafa style football but you defended his "cup specialist" tag, so maybe your problem is with madrid or zidane winning. this isn't about "beautiful football", cos a lot of people saying that wanted atleti to win, or should i say, wanted madrid to lose....and there's nothing wrong with that, its all for bragging rights and jokes, a good part of sport

but to place that support behind some high ranking holier than thou philosophy of "beautiful football" is ludicrous. if that was the case, immediately the finalists were pitted together, supporters of "beautiful football" (whatever that means), would have done themselves a favor, watched something else and bow out gracefully....i mean neither madrid nor atleti were attractive to them to begin with

i talk in general, meaning not only for real madrid fan, but for a whole football fan

i'm an ex-real madrid fan myself, around 1998-2000, the time real madrid fan was so love with beautiful football

sportsczy wrote:Did you even see the PSg game in Madrid?  A leprachaun was with us...  Or two.  Their names were Cavani and Ibra.  They missed 5 sitter and Trapp gifted us a goal.  We shouldn't have won...  We should have lost by 3.  Reminded me of the LaReal game in Mou's last season where we got a draw.

Yeah well, guess what.
Same thing happened against Roma, they missed about 10 sitters too. You also  almost went out to *bleep* Wolfsburg

The problems are in your team, and they won't go away because you fluked your way to another CL.

They can only be solved via sensible transfers and trust in the manager.
Thankfully Zidane will now have authority and be given time, which are the both main things Benitez wasn't granted.

the rafa move never made any sense at all. i'd have rather kept carlo than get benitez, no matter which way we try to spin it, some moves just don't add up. and the same can be said of every manager who comes to madrid with respect to 'time and authority'. any ex-manager can say if they were given time and authority, they'd have done this, that and the other, and some like pellegrini, and schuster have said so. lvg, moyes and mou in that last chelsea stint, would not have been given the time those clubs gave them.

You don't fluke a CL win... we didn't park the bus  And it's not like we won in CL and were poor in league.  We won CL AND we won 12 La Liga games in a row to end the season with wins over @Barca, Villareal and Sevilla.  Passed Atleti and ended up only 1 point behind Barca when we were over 10 points behind both at one point in the second half of the season (Zidane inherited a 7 point deficit).

Fluke my ass

You faced Roma,Wolfsburg and City(barely scraped past the latter two) and beat Atletico via PK's.Hardly emphatic as other great Madrid teams .Carlo's CL win was much more impressive as you thrashed the CL favorite.

You cant help but feel this is similar to De Matteo's CL win.You cant blame people for feeling this way.

Since we are gonna play the if game, how exactly was Rafa gonna get a squad that not only was very much disillusioned and disinterested towards his management style but also visibly not suited to whatever "specialist tactics" he was using to accomplish all what this current team accomplished?

Benitez lmao, do u guys think he would have given Casemiro a fair chance? cuz that was the biggest game changer for us

S wrote:You faced Roma,Wolfsburg and City(barely scraped past the latter two) and beat Atletico via PK's.Hardly emphatic as other great Madrid teams .Carlo's CL win was much more impressive as you thrashed the CL favorite.

You cant help but feel this is similar to De Matteo's CL win.You cant blame people for feeling this way.

We out-possessed the opposition in every game... Chelsea didn't out-possess a single team.

Also, Chelsea flopped in EPL while we were on fire.

No comparison.

This Madrid team does ridiculous amounts of hoofing for a team of this quality. I must say that.

And his subs are a joke lmao

S wrote:You faced Roma,Wolfsburg and City(barely scraped past the latter two) and beat Atletico via PK's.

While I completely agree with you about the other three, I still don't understand how is beating Atlético on PKs something to be ashamed of. Didn't they knock out Bayern and Barça? Or did you expect us to score four past the best defensive side in the world?

Atlético also "barely scraped" past PSV, but then when it mattered they delivered while the other two favorites choked. Same thing with us, we might've had a relatively easier road to the final, but then when it mattered, we delivered and ultimately defeated the toughest opponent in this year's CL.

As for the Chelsea comparison, it couldn't be more wrong. The blues' CL triumph wasn't well-received because their league form was horrendous and their squad was mediocre, finishing sixth and losing to the bottom half week in and week out. Real Madrid on the other hand, has elite players who could pick themselves up after they were just two points above fourth-placed Villarreal, 5 behind Atlético and 10 behind Barça, and cruised to second through a 12-game winning streak, one point shy of the top, while beating Barça at Camp Nou, Sevilla and Villarreal. We peaked at the right moment and we couldn't have possibly done that if we had a squad of Chelsea's caliber.