Real Madrid v Legia Warsaw

@Tito
Dortmund won today. Leading the group through GD (+7 to our +5).

Um, not sure what to make of this match but 3 points is really all that matters.

dang i thought they were playing tomorrow, would have liked to watch that....oh well, there's still a lot of football left, and we still have one more encounter with them. so all's well

Apparently we still haven't renewed Pepe yet even though his contract runs out at the end of the current season. I hope the board is not stupid enough to let go of him.

nah they won't let go of him, especially not now with a ban and no chance of signing replacements. contract talks usually stall, both parties negotiating what's best for them, and sometimes clubs just try to test players, make them wait and put in good performances cos they're in negotiation periods. the idea is not to let it stall to the point where other teams start eyeing the situation, and offering said player more money, putting you in a precarious position

i see us renewing his contract though, its the most reasonable thing to do given our transfer situation and the fact that the football world isn't glittered with solid CBs.....but then again, we have a fantastic reputation of making things unnecessarily "interesting" by doing foolish things that totally defy reason of any sort. i doubt we'll go that route with pepe, but who knows with madrid

Wasn't Pepe one of the posers that betrayed Mou after the latter got him a new contract while Perez was against it ? He's quiet clearly not a saint

Anyways, regarding the game, we were a bit shaky defensively in the 1st half but other than that a good performance.
James should be 7th choice in mid. Asensio is a better footballer and was MOTM yday.

77 passes @95%, 6 long balls, all accurate, (his long passes surprised me most yesterday, great range), 2 successful dribbles, 2 key passes, 4 shots. 2 on target and 88 touches on the ball, brilliant from midfield.

Zidane must play him in Bale's spot when the Welshman is not available. That's his best role imo.

Valkyrja wrote:Wasn't Pepe one of the posers that betrayed Mou after the latter got him a new contract while Perez was against it ? He's quiet clearly not a saint

Exactly

There isn't much of a conflict re Pepe's contract. Both parties say he will remain. Club wants to go one year at a time, while he wants two years.

By the way, they are trying to renew almost entire squad. Yesterday apparently Modric was done, a wwek ago it was Kroos.

halamadrid2 wrote:Everyone hated Mou but a handful. I am glad Pepe stood by his captain like he was supposed to. Iker was with us since he was 10 while came in destroyed our club in 3 seasons and left through the back door

He is the best CB in the world, aint no tramp going to shaft him about lol

Stood by his captain because Mou played a certain 19y.o Rafa Varane instead of him and rightfully so as he was in much better form than Pepe. That's what I loved about Mourinho, he didn't listen to the hype, he played who he thought was in the best form. always did what he thought was best for the club and gave his heart and soul for the club.  Why do you think our more mature players such as Spartano and Alonso stood by him ? It was clear who was right in that Mou/Alvaro-Iker war as it  wasn't the first time he leaked info to the press. in 01-02 iirc hierro kicked his ass for the same thing.

I like Pepe, and I like Iker but stop talking like this because they are not saints. Iker did more harm than good in his later years for both Spain and us. Hope Ramos doesn't go the same route and tbh I don't think he will since he's a bigger man than Iker has ever been.


Regarding the best CB, this guy says hi  

How did he betray him? Somebody please enlighten me because I must be missing something.

And let's not act as if Pepe wouldn't have gotten a contract renewal hadn't Mou said so. The club would've renewed him anyway, and Mou should take no credit for it.

Also, Mou is a toxic man-child, and Pepe wasn't the only one who turned on him. He lost the striking majority of the dressing room and everybody was calling for his head.

He had every right to bench Casillas even if the latter is a club legend. But there was no need to go in public and say "I wish I had signed Lopez sooner" or that "Adan is better than Casillas". That was a classless, disrespectful thing to do.

And make no mistake, Mourinho is not a brutally honest man. Don't confuse his rudeness and lack of tact and diplomacy with brutal honesty.

He's a dishonest, lying, manipulative, classless, insensitive human being who blames everybody but himself for his failures and constantly throws his players under the bus.

Pepe has been a loyal servant to this institution from the moment he wore the white of Madrid...the word "betrayal" shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as him or any other Madrid great. And I would choose him over Mou any day.

Good riddance to that classless psychopath.

@Valky: yeah Mou is fair, doesn't listen to the hype and always chooses who's in form; that's why he benched Casillas for Adàn.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:How did he betray him? Somebody please enlighten me because I must be missing something.

And let's not act as if Pepe wouldn't have gotten a contract renewal hadn't Mou said so. The club would've renewed him anyway, and Mou should take no credit for it.

Also, Mou is a toxic man-child, and Pepe wasn't the only one who turned on him. He lost the striking majority of the dressing room and everybody was calling for his head.

He had every right to bench Casillas even if the latter is a club legend. But there was no need to go in public and say "I wish I had signed Lopez sooner" or that "Adan is better than Casillas". That was a classless, disrespectful thing to do.

And make no mistake, Mourinho is not a brutally honest man. Don't confuse his rudeness and lack of tact and diplomacy with brutal honesty.

He's a dishonest, lying, manipulative, classless, insensitive human being who blames everybody but himself for his failures and constantly throws his players under the bus.

Pepe has been a loyal servant to this institution from the moment he wore the white of Madrid...the word "betrayal" shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as him or any other Madrid great. And I would choose him over Mou any day.

Good riddance to that classless psychopath.

@Valky: yeah Mou is fair, doesn't listen to the hype and always chooses who's in form; that's why he benched Casillas for Adàn.

He benched Casillas for Adan because the former was leaking info to the press and in awful form.

Dishonest, lying, manipulative, classless, insensitive human ? Why ? Because he protected the club from the likes of Xavi, Pique, Pepito (while Iker was busy kissing their ass), because he didn't let the media have control over our club ? If so, we need more of his and Arbeloa's breed and less of Iker's. FIGHTERS !!! We still have quality people in the club though. Ramos, Marcelo, Carvajal, Varane. All captain material, and imo this should be the order for the captains.

Mou played who played best?

He played Arbeloa for way too long.

He replaced Iker with freaking Adan who couldn't last 10 minutes without getting a red card.

Kept playing "hard-working" plebs instead of the best avaiable.

Back to game discussion!!!

I really think there are some positives we can take away from this game. I realize this is looking through rose coloured glasses after two good games against very poor opponents, but nonetheless there are positives.

- we have entire squad except Yañez, Coentrao contributing, feeling confident of their role on club. Only ones that have more to put forward are James and Isco, but both of them are playing better. Benzema and Ronaldo slowly coming into form.

- We have seen an unselfish Ronaldo, making him IMO better.

- We saw all three of BBC at different times yesterday coming back (actually to centre line) to contribute to the build up, rather than standing up front waiting for midfield to get the ball up to them.

It's too early to tell if these positives can carryover to bigger opponents, but if they are indeed adjustments to tactics (or is it just individual play), then it speaks well of club.

Valkyrja wrote:Wasn't Pepe one of the posers that betrayed Mou after the latter got him a new contract while Perez was against it ? He's quiet clearly not a saint

he was, but mou only got along with a few players that year...xabi, arbeloa, diego lopez , (who are all gone)callejon (i can't remember if he was still with us that last year or had left) and maybe varane, but varane was a rookie. him and ramos was love-hate too, but no real issues. i think the only person perez blamed for that was mainly casillas

futbol_bill wrote: It's too early to tell if these positives can carryover to bigger opponents, but if they are indeed adjustments to tactics (or is it just individual play), then it speaks well of club.

not just bigger opponents, but more defensive opponents. we can attempt to sit back, play on the counter against bigger sides and hope their attacking players mess up....its what we've been doing for quite some time. but when teams force us to think and be innovative we do the side ways midfield passes that hardly create anything. i hope we are able to address that aspect of our game, cos many teams especially in the league will approach us, by just sitting back and telling us to try and break them

Mourinho, whilst still liking him as a fan, was not and never a brutally honest person. He manipulated the truth a lot, basically, he is as good as any politician but instead of a cabinet post, he is a football manager.

Re: Tito
I always wondered why all the teams we face don't adopt that tactic. It clearly is effective against us.