Casemiro and Modric are out 1+ months
Marcelo is another 2 weeks minimum
Benzema's knee is acting up again
Varane went out due to a knee problem
Not sure what's wrong with Coentrao now
Also not sure what happened to James and Vasquez

Anyhow, let's assume all these guys are out for the next month.  What do we do?

On the attack, it will be Morata/Bale/Ronaldo.  That's pretty certain

In the midfield, Kroos and Kova are guaranteed.  Isco and Asensio will fight it out for the 3rd spot.

On defense it will be, Danilo/Ramos/Pepe/Carvajal.

Navas will be the keeper.

We don't have anyone else bar Nacho that could compete for any of the spots...  so no point in discussing alternatives.

What system could you play with this lineup?  It's a tough one for me because i don't rate that midfield at all.  The individual players are very good...  but as a unit?  Terrible.  

HOWEVER, with Morata/Bale/Ronaldo...  raining good crosses (emphasis on the word "good"), I think we should do well emphasizing the air game.  Our midfielders aren't very good at playing a through ball or dribbling past people, so I don't really see a choice.

Thoughts?

my thoughts. with benzema injured or not fit; bale wide left, lucas right and cristiano in the middle....if you insist on 3 forwards. we need goals, morata's good and all, but doesn't strike me as a consistent goal threat, he seems like he'll do well as a support striker than as a target man in the front 3

kovacic should play a role in the midfield, i don't know about isco and asensio. and that's where i hope that management can try something new. isco and asensio are not CMs. a double pivot with kroos and kova may be ran ragged, but i don't see isco nor asensio helping the cause. one of them would have to be moved further forward...and i have very little faith in isco. asensio is like a midfield morata, rough around the edges as well.

but i say kova should be given minutes and it can help build his game. what i liked about him today was (and mind you, i'm not hyping him...these days any little praise is considered "hype" by some) he attempted low through passes. none of our midifielders ever attempts such. even with all guys back, i'd say the technical staff should give the guy more minutes

i would have said pepe at dm. pepe kova and kroos, but now mr. varane has decided its his turn to get injured. can someone please tell me WHY DID WE BRING BACK COENTRAO ? what has this man done that warrants him back here. rescind the man's contract and pay him out, i reckon whatever we spend doing that will cost a lot less than medical bills and the wages we have to give him every week

Change formation to 4-2-3-1

Play like Carlo with 2 deep playing midfielders


or (my hipster formation)

Double pivot with Kroos and Kova?  You must be joking.

And there's no way in the world you can put a CB as a CM in double pivot ffs.  Come on.  Imagine Fellaini but with even less ball skills

My solution, squeeze butt cheeks and pray for Casemiro prompt return while waiting for a miraculous Llorente buy back in january

How about call up Aleix Febas from Castilla and play him alongside Kroos.

He was great in preseason in the midfield alongside Diego Llorente. He is an actual midfielder.

If possible, recall both Diego and Marcos Llorente in January.

Cyborg wrote:

Navas
Carvajal Pepe Varane Danilo
Febas Kroos Kovacic
Ronaldo Morata Bale

How about call up Aleix Febas from Castilla and play him alongside Kroos.

He was great in preseason in the midfield alongside Diego Llorente. He is an actual midfielder.

If possible, recall both Diego and Marcos Llorente in January.

He first has to go play good for a la liga team.

Kinda related- I think Navas was rushed back. He's not match-ready. I'd rather have Kiko back in the line up.


I think the midfield of Kova/ Kroos/ Isco is the best bet for the time being.

Also a question on Llorente- He can be brought back at any time, no? It's a loan not a buy-back. Hypothetically could he be brought back now?

You can only recall players during Mercato periods typically Deez... sometimes, loans don't allow recalls for a year. It all depends.

vanDEEZ wrote:Kinda related- I think Navas was rushed back.  He's not match-ready.  I'd rather have Kiko back in the line up.


I think the midfield of Kova/ Kroos/ Isco is the best bet for the time being.

Also a question on Llorente-  He can be brought back at any time, no?  It's a loan not a buy-back.  Hypothetically could he be brought back now?

Check out this article from AS on the loan recall.

http://en.as.com/en/2016/09/29/football/1475144903_127154.html

Seems as though they can recall him, but Alaves has to agree. I don't think Alaves will object. They may profit as more Castilla standouts may be sent.

Why would Alaves agree?  he's one of their better players.  They need him to avoid relegation.

Callbacks during the winter are very rare.  They only happen at the end of seasons typically.

Besides, we can buy a DM over the winter mercato no problem. The problem is between now and then.

Valkyrja wrote:

Cyborg wrote:

Navas
Carvajal Pepe Varane Danilo
Febas Kroos Kovacic
Ronaldo Morata Bale

How about call up Aleix Febas from Castilla and play him alongside Kroos.

He was great in preseason in the midfield alongside Diego Llorente. He is an actual midfielder.

If possible, recall both Diego and Marcos Llorente in January.

He first has to go play good for a la liga team.

In accordance with la liga rules or real madrid?

There was an article on Marca about M Llorente and how we can't call him back in Jan as that was not put in his contract. It was only put in D Llorente's contract and for the moment we don't really need him.

What we need is Casemiro back ASAP. Some of the goals we have conceded have been so pathetically defended i am embarrassed to even look at the replays. The rest will fall into place after that. We had such a perfect plan with him there. If we couldn't score we knew exactly who to put in and how many players to push forward while he mopped up behind them now we are looking a little bit like a mess with no thought put into who to sub and how to play. I love Kroos but get him away from that CDM position like right now. He just doesn't have the ability to win the ball back and know where to position himself like Casemiro

There is a reason we have only lost TWICE with Casemiro in the line up since he came back last summer. One against Sevilla under Rafa and one against Wolfsburg under ZZ. Defensively we are clueless without him and it results in us conceding these stupid goals we keep conceding every single game. I mean 6 goals conceded in 4 games. That position is a SERIOUS problem that we needed to address. I can accept ZZ wanting to use Llorente and not kill all his chances of coming back by buying a player but if there is a teey weeny chance of getting him back then we should probably look to do it cuz I don't want to see Kroos shoehorned into that position ever again

Our "style" is secondary at this point. I don't have problems with our wing play with Ronaldo/Bale's aerial abilities but when we practically start the game 1-0 down we have some serious shit to sort out instead of trying to fix what is not broken. And i don't want to hear about Ronaldo not tracking back. He was tracking back plenty against Eibar yet we conceded a stupid goal because Leon had all the time in the world to whip in a good cross because we didn't have a DM in there to block the lane

Oh and our injuries they went from short and recurrent to mass injuries long term ffs

The problem with Ronaldo is that he doesn't track back... which is fine if he's scoring 50 goals.  But when he's the one getting almost all the opportunities and only scoring 1 goal in 4 La Liga games... it's a problem.  

Taking 20 shots in 4 games...  for a return of 1 goal and 1 assist won't do it.  He's only giving out 1,5 key passes too, which shows that he's not contributing much of anything to buildups towards shots either.

It is absolutely no coincidence that Ronaldo returned against Osasuna 7 games ago... and we've won 3 and drawn 4 games since his return with our goals scored per match average dropping by 1 goal.

You had to expect that our defense would suffer without Casemiro.  But you cannot accept that our scoring is worse with Ronaldo.

And again, it is on Ronaldo because we are shooting just as much on goal with him than without him... it's the 1 goal on 20 shots that's killing us. Until he becomes more efficient, we will be in very close games with a shaky defense. That's the reality.

Cyborg wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:

Cyborg wrote:

Navas
Carvajal Pepe Varane Danilo
Febas Kroos Kovacic
Ronaldo Morata Bale

How about call up Aleix Febas from Castilla and play him alongside Kroos.

He was great in preseason in the midfield alongside Diego Llorente. He is an actual midfielder.

If possible, recall both Diego and Marcos Llorente in January.

He first has to go play good for a la liga team.

In accordance with la liga rules or real madrid?

You guess

Valkyrja wrote:

Cyborg wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:

He first has to go play good for a la liga team.

In accordance with la liga rules or real madrid?

You guess

You said it as though it were law.

Why is it now taboo for a player from the B team come up and contribute or even take a place in the starting eleven.