How did Benzema get injured? From sitting on his couch all summer? Unbelievale! Looks like now, we have two coentraos.

Anyway, Ronaldo won us this trophy in 2014 against Sevilla with a brace. I hope now somebody else steps up.

I really respect Sevilla and I know how dangerous they can be. So I really hope our guys won't take this lightly and give everything they have.

I am not feeling too confident tbh.

Zidane left Bale out of the squad. Bale has been trying to stay fit during the holidays and report has it that he returned back to training in peak condition.
I know he has only had a few days of training but it would not have hurt to put him in the squad just in case.

Bale was so eager to play and I believe it is because he made it to the final three UEFA players of the year.
He would have liked to make a case for it by performing well in the "UEFA" super cup and i believe a good performance would at least have pushed him to second position since its obvious first position belongs to CR and second belongs to Griezmann.

I also believe his participation could have caused a stir in madrid if he played while Ronaldo remained injured because it would feel like Madrid is undermining Ronaldo's ambition.

Had Bale known he would make it to the final three, he would prolly have resumed much earlier to make a shout for the starting XI...

This is the part where the bench boys show that they can be alternatives and not just substitutes.

My prediction
I expect a big performance from Marcelo, James and Morata...maybe Kovacic too..
I hope we win

Benzema got called up.

it's still a decent line up,

season start

I expect us to crush Sevilla for the scrubs that they are.
Especially given new coach new style plus the loss of Gameiro. we should have the advantage here.

Too bad we don't have CR. He loves to play against these jokes

I wouldn't be so sure- I regard Sampaoli pretty highly. They have brought in some decent talent on the pitch and I think Sampaoli will be ready to prove himself.

I expect a pretty gritty match tbh, not to mention we haven't had the best preseason.

vanDEEZ wrote:I wouldn't be so sure- I regard Sampaoli pretty highly.  They have brought in some decent talent on the pitch and I think Sampaoli will be ready to prove himself.

I expect a pretty gritty match tbh, not to mention we haven't had the best preseason.

Sampaoli is good but his tactics require time to implement.
Real Madrid with half a seasons worth under Zidane with the team itself hasnt changed much vs Sevilla new coach, previous system probably torn asunder as well as new faces. I like sampaoli but I dont like his odds.

Don't feel very good about this game tbh.  We're missing Kroos, Ronaldo, Bale and probably Benzema.  That's a lot.  Not sure how we're going to score goals.

Thing is that Morata has been very underwhelming in preseason imo. Hope it's just a preseason thing. We need him to cover basically all of BBC since he's the only striker we have on the bench now.

Buying Morata just to turn around and sell Jese did nothing for me. We added nothing. We were short a striker last season in terms of depth and we're still short a striker.

sportsczy wrote:Thing is that Morata has been very underwhelming in preseason imo. Hope it's just a preseason thing. We need him to cover basically all of BBC since he's the only striker we have on the bench now.

Buying Morata just to turn around and sell Jese did nothing for me. We added nothing. We were short a striker last season in terms of depth and we're still short a striker.

From what has been seen of Asensio I think he can fill Jesé's role to the same level Jesé did last year, and that's at the very worst. Jesé never got back to the great level he was before he got injured against Schalke.

Asensio is a midfielder though. Jese is a striker. We need strikers.

Jese at least showed that he was something special pre ACL. It usually takes 1-2 years to get back to full speed after a ACL tear... so this was going to be the year for Jese. We'll see at PSG. He's going to get a chance. My guess is he will be the preferred left side striker with Cavani as the central one.

Didn't Jesé play on the wing before his injury though? I'm pretty sure. Asensio has also player on the wing during pre season. I feel Asensio is more of a Jesé replacement than Morata is.

Asensio usually plays in the central attacking midfield. But him being Jesé's replacement doesn't have to be a direct replacement but more of a roster replacement. Him fitting in centrally can always push another player out on the side, where Jesé played his best games.

The issue is striker.... not attacking mids who can play wide. We have those in James, Isco and Kova if we need it. But other than BBC, we only have Morata. Given the injury issues of Bale and Benzema, only one backup striker is madness to me.

We play a 3 striker system. We can get away with 2 if need be. But we can't survive with only 1 striker unless we entirely change how we play. Namely, with a 1 striker system, you need a AM and you need wing players capable of scoring consistently too.

sportsczy wrote:The issue is striker....  not attacking mids who can play wide.  We have those in James, Isco and Kova if we need it.  But other than BBC, we only have Morata.  Given the injury issues of Bale and Benzema, only one backup striker is madness to me.

We play a 3 striker system.  We can get away with 2 if need be.  But we can't survive with only 1 striker unless we entirely change how we play.  Namely, with a 1 striker system, you need a AM and you need wing players capable of scoring consistently too.

Sure we need another last option backup at striker. But Jesé is way too good to have as a third option back up, even in Madrid. At least in this point of his career where he probably wants to play as much as he can. A good 32-34 year old striker should be an option to get for cheap. Someone who can offer a different dimension.