Real Madrid v Éibar

October 2, 2016 • 15:15 • Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid
Referee: Juan Martínez Munuera

Injury/absentee(s) List:

1. Modric: injury to the articular cartilage in his left knee. He's expected to be out for a month; and there's a chance he may require surgery, which would increase his absence significantly.

2. Marcelo: Still recovering and is expected to make his comeback after the international break.

3. Coentrao: According to Z, he has picked up a minor "twinge" in training.

4. Ramos: Rested.

5. Case: Recovering and is expected to make his comeback after the international break.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers: Keylor Navas, Casilla and Yáñez.
Defenders: Carvajal, Pepe, Varane, Nacho and Danilo.
Midfielders: Kroos, James, Kovacic, Asensio and Isco.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale, Lucas Vázquez, Mariano and Morata.

Note(s) from Z's pre-game press conference:

*. Isco will start.

Probable Lineup:
Keylor Navas; Carvajal, Pepe, Varane, Danilo; Kova, Kroos, Isco; Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo

Confirmed Lineup: pending official announcement...

http://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2016/10/01/57ef7890ca4741d4438b4616.html

The article you're referring to was written at 11:07 CET, few hours before the article I listed above ( 14:45 CET) or this one ("Real Madrid Prepare for Life Without Modric") (16:08 CET).

Basically, Modric was able to complete the training session on Friday, that's why Marca thought at first that nothing was wrong with him and wrote the article you attached. But then on Saturday he wasn't able to train. After tests, the injury was detected and Real Madrid issued an official statement. Marca then added that he may require surgery.

Modric out for 4 weeks, Casemiro out for 2 more weeks. Who's next Kroos? At this rate we wont have a healthy midfield left

We have a few easy games so we should just be able to manage. Time for Kova to step up and for Isco to get back into ZZ's good graces

Demon's match threads are GOAT ffs. Keep it up mate

Should be an easy win. I want to see many goals

This one should be ok... but you never know. Losing 2 out of your 3 starting CBs, and 2 out of your 4 starting defenders = team won't look in sync.

Add to that we don't have proper backups at CM really and well... it may actually become interesting

Valkyrja wrote:Demon's match threads are GOAT ffs. Keep it up mate

Thanks for the kind words, mate. I appreciate it.

Confirmed Lineup: Keylor Navas; Carvajal, Pepe, Varane, Danilo; Kroos, James, Isco; Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema.

Zep

The Demon of Carthage wrote:Confirmed Lineup: Keylor Navas; Carvajal, Pepe, Varane, Danilo; Kroos, James, Isco; Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema.

Again, puzzling selections.

But then again you know you're in trouble when your forward line is more stacked than the midfield.

James in midfield again?

Benzema starting over Morata again? He'll be pushing for a transfer in the summer if this continues.

Modric has undergone surgery today on his left knee in order to extract a fragment of damaged patellar cartilage, an official statement reads.

seems like its kovacic starting over james

Yes, James was injured in the warm-up, so he got replaced by Kova at the last minute.

Anyway, 0-1 to Eibar.

The injuries have made us look very disorganized in the midfield, both in support of the attack and in covering on defense. You need midfielders to follow midfielders in the box to defend. You can't allow far post overloads with opposing mids. It puts too much pressure on the back 4 and it makes them prone to mistake.

It would help if we pressured people crossing... but we never do that.

Ronaldo and Benzema are too close to each other. It does nothing. It just brings all the defenders into the same area. The spacing and movement there needs to improve.

Both are playing the CF area. But we all know that one of them is not supposed to be in the CF area. If you play 2 CFs, one's supposed to either drift wide or drop into the SS spot. Need to watch each other.

1-1; Goal = Gareth, Assist = Ronaldo.

See how Bale read Benzema's movement? Benz went near post and Bale went far post. The CB and keeper both followed Benz and it opened up the back.

I'd like to see Ronaldo use Benzema like that too. He used to.

if they dont force Llorente to return in january i will go down there and slap someone

It really bothers me to be 1-1 against Eibar with 30 min into the game while playing at the Bernabeu.

80% of danger from the BBC is coming from Bale, while the other 20% are coming from Ronaldo, and Benzema is practically non-existent.

I don't even blame Benzema tbh, the way we play suits none. Just look how rare it is to see us play the ball in the middle, it's always the wings with ZIdane

Eibar is putting 3-6 men in or around the box.  Really not much the CF can do against that UNLESS the mids start jumping into the box.  I have YET to see one of our CMs make a move into a scoring position lol.

All the CBs have to do is double team Benzema since they don't have to worry about CM runs behind them.

At this rate i can already predict Lucas Vasquez swinging in from the right for the last 20 minutes of the game

That was a terrible half... but I kind of expected it. Our midfield isn't functioning on either end.

CR easily our best player this half. We were really shit.

Bale and Ronaldo are constantly beating their man but they don't have anyone to cross to but themselves on either side of the box. We are playing well but we need a striker we are not playing with one right now.