Re: FIFA Club World Cup Thread

[futbol_bill]

Nick & others just want so called superstars at every position!!

Only problem is we have tried that before (galacticos) and I say it is proven you can't have a TEAM with all alpha stars. You need good to average players to complement the "superstars" on the team.

This current team started off roughly, with questions of tactics, coaches ability, form of several players and a multitude of injuries. But in past 3 or 4 weeks, this team is looking formitable and unlike the team under Carlo, Zidane has entire team useful and part of the team's success. I say it is time, we fans sat back and start enjoying these performances.

Back to thread op, there was an upset this morning, the Columbia team lost to a Japanese team??

Should be a realtively easy trophy on Sunday.

[halamadrid2]

I was pretty disappointed witch Club America's effort yesterday. It was like they conceded defeat before the game had even begun. I'd see better effort from Osasuna than what these guys showed yesterday. That Japanese team will give more effort in seeing as the CWC is in their own back yard. I hope we rotate a few players but doubt it. Nobody wants to miss a final no matter how insignificant

[titosantill]

the less effort people put on us in this sham of a competition, the better. i don't want our guys heading into the crunch part of the la liga and ucl season with injuries and fatigue down primarily to this contest

[Mr Nick09]

Just to make it clear i am not taking anything away from Lucas' achievement in the squad. He is participating, and doing very well whenever he is called on and does the very basic tasks of his role all the time. But he is an average player. If you can't see the difference then i dont know, sports history is full of guys like him who are quality squad players and are still average.

I called him for what he is, an average player, and i can only wish he was better because it would mean better things for us as well, but as Valk said, if he was better he would probably not accept his current role ala Jese lol.

You guys have such thin skin it's unbelievable, instead of debating his merits and trying to prove that i am wrong to call him average, you tell me that the squad is undefeated with him. So? lol. Exact same thing that happens when I say Zidane is not a great "coach" and you throw the team record in our faces lol. Zidane is a great manager, or at least he is the perfect fit for "this" squad of players, he is drawing on his man management skills to make this team succeed, but to go on to call him a great coach? hell no, i make a difference between coaching and man managing, it's not the same thing to me at the very least.

I called you a shit poster because you have become a softer version of Chad where you stop debating the argument at hand and you try to draw on 13 months old conversation to prove you are right lol

@bill, no i dont want superstars at all positions. where do you get that from? lol, can you stop making things up?

[chad4401]

First off good win like how the unbeaten run is still going strong, secondly nice to see a lot of posts NOW resembling my OLD foolish ramblings, as usual just takes time I guess....

Anyway no appreciation for the one who shall not me named , well except doc, now about Lucas he is clearly not starter level, but he is above average enough not to hinder the team too much like a more skilled callejon in a sense, the team needs players like him than the ben arfa's type who is plays for them YouTube likes, believes his own hype and start to moan as a bench warmer, like a lot of the other names that get thrown around.

Lastly good to see that it takes such a run of form to stop the endless trashing of the team (for now), how silly do all those knee jerk threads/posts look now? How is the godly pep beautiful football now? Is it his fault or the players? Or maybe he needs time cause this not a video game like how some posters act?

Have some faith and remember acting smug, doesn't mean your ideas are not casual-esque, finding too hard to cheer on these out of style players , why even support the team?

[Doc]

To me, Lucas is exactly what I wrote: A good footballer. Nothing more and certainly nothing less. Not sure how else to debate it and more importantly, kinda don't want to since it's Lucas. You know, he isn't as grand a player to really go into any real detail over.

[rincon]

Who do Madrid fans rate more, Lucas or the Callejon from Madrid times?

[halamadrid2]

They are very different. Callejon's off the ball movement was exquisite. Over the top ball and all of a sudden you see him 1v1 with a GK. His finishing was also very good. However, on possession he was very scared. Everytime he gets the ball you know exactly who he'd pass to. 9 out of 10 times it'd be to Arbeloa. I don't think he ever put a cross in for us. Defensively like all the kids for the academy he'd run at least 3 more miles than the rest of the outfield players. He was very instrumental in our last league win. I remember his goal against Mallorca a team that was very tough to beat away from home back then. You could tell it was our year as soon as you saw his finish and our celebration with him piggy backing on Mourinho and all

Lucas on the other hand is a tricky winger who prefers to partake in build ups and assist team mates that trying to score himself. Probably because he is such a bad finisher he is very smart when he is in the final third. Puts crosses in when he needs to, plays throughballs when he needs to and pulls it back to the edge of the box when he needs to. With him you expect him to be a one tricky pony but he is far from it. He is strictly a one wing player though and plays best on the right. You could put him on the left if you want him to help out defensively but I dont think you'd get much pf him in attack though. Marcelo could learn a thing or two from him about putting in good crosses. They are always a perfect height for whomever needs to head the ball be it Ronaldo, Benzema, or Modric et al

If you want goals and have creative midfielders behind, Callejon would probably be my choice but if you need a winger who'll play like a winger and help create chances I'd play Lucas. His confidence is only matched by Ramos. This guy has balls of steel. Wouldn't trade him for anyone in the world

[futbol_bill]

Just to make it clear i am not taking anything away from Lucas' achievement in the squad. He is participating, and doing very well whenever he is called on and does the very basic tasks of his role all the time. But he is an average player. If you can't see the difference then i dont know, sports history is full of guys like him who are quality squad players and are still average.

I called him for what he is, an average player, and i can only wish he was better because it would mean better things for us as well, but as Valk said, if he was better he would probably not accept his current role ala Jese lol.

You guys have such thin skin it's unbelievable, instead of debating his merits and trying to prove that i am wrong to call him average, you tell me that the squad is undefeated with him. So? lol. Exact same thing that happens when I say Zidane is not a great "coach" and you throw the team record in our faces lol. Zidane is a great manager, or at least he is the perfect fit for "this" squad of players, he is drawing on his man management skills to make this team succeed, but to go on to call him a great coach? hell no, i make a difference between coaching and man managing, it's not the same thing to me at the very least.

I called you a shit poster because you have become a softer version of Chad where you stop debating the argument at hand and you try to draw on 13 months old conversation to prove you are right lol

@bill, no i dont want superstars at all positions. where do you get that from? lol, can you stop making things up?

Nick, I'm sorry, i have misunderstood you. I took your criticism as wanting players or coach out and replaced with players or coaches that you have raved about.

I agree with everything you said in this post.

[halamadrid2]

The outspoken Argentinian coach explicitly questioned the referee's decision to validate Cristiano Ronaldo's late goal.

"I didn't complain at the time because it was their [Madrid's] second goal," La Volpe said during the press conference prior to the third-place match. "Had it been a match-deciding goal, it would have created lots of controversy, because a dubious decision would have enabled their preferred team to advance to the final.

"It would be foolish not to think they [FIFA] want Madrid there.

"In order to beat Madrid, a team like us needs to do more things aside from outplaying and outscoring them."

The ex-Mexico national coach believed Caceres consistently awarded unwarranted calls to Los Blancos.

"I disagreed with the referee on many occasions, I even asked him if we were speaking different languages," he continued.

"He was giving them favourable calls upon every verbal complaint."

Firstly, Ronaldo was yards onside for his goal so the reff shouldn't have needed replay to confirm that. I suspect they only used it to try it out. Watching the game from my laptop even I could see he was onside

Secondly, You'd expect a manager of a team that actually challenged the opposition to make the claims he has. Club America where shit, there was no effort, no passion, no desire to win the game on their end. I mean they weren't even challenging for second balls. We were able to play at a walking pace and still dominate. The favourable calls claim is funny considering fouls was the only significant thing his team did all game

[Doc]

Right! Club America played bad. Usually, the non European teams would give the UCL winner all sorts of issues but my goodness, they played like they really could be arsed about this match. Something that would be more attributed to the European team. In any case, I expect Kashima Antlers to put a much better effort than Club America.

Anyway, the goal was legit and the video replay actually helped a legit goal stay legit.

[halamadrid2]

Line up:

Keylor; Carvajal, Ramos, Varane, Marcelo; Casemiro, Kroos, Modric; Lucas Vázquez, Cristiano y Benzema

Lets go for another clean sheet and may there be no injuries

[halamadrid2]

When is Pepe coming back. I am getting tired of these mistakes Varane makes every single game. He is the fourth best cb in our team

[The Demon of Carthage]

Varane

[Valkyrja]

#sellVarane

Dat scrub plays fantastic against Barca but makes a mistake against kashimi

[The Demon of Carthage]

Kashima Antlers are such gentlemen, no time wasting, no play acting, and even when the ball gets out, the ballboy doesn't waste a second bringing it back.

Even when the referee gave a penalty to Real Madrid, they didn't protest or anything.

I would've definitely cheered for them hadn't I been a Real Madrid fan.

What a classy team! Massive, Massive Respect!

[Valkyrja]

Zidane's obssesion with Lucas is beginning to get on my nerve. He's so limited on the ball is frustrating. When he gets the ball he either throws a shit cross or losses the ball

[The Demon of Carthage]

Watching the team playing like this, you just wonder, how on earth have we managed to go 36 games unbeaten.

We've had a very disappointing performance in this CwC.

[The Demon of Carthage]

'75 min and still Z hasn't made a single substitution even though the team is clearly struggling to score.

@Valky: I hope you're kidding, cause Lucas is the only one brave enough to try to create something up front. Ronaldo has been useless and Benzema wouldn't press or defend even if his life depended on it.

[Valkyrja]

'75 min and still Z hasn't made a single substitution even though the team is clearly struggling to score.

@Valky: I hope you're kidding, cause Lucas is the only one brave enough to try to create something up front. Ronaldo has been useless and Benzema wouldn't press or defend even if his life depended on it.

He's keeping better players on the bench. Asensio is a much better footballer and he's not playing because Zidane's boy has to play every minute of ever game

[The Demon of Carthage]

Asensio is not better at all. He completely ignores his defensive duties and hasn't done enough to make a case for himself. For now, I would rather start Lucas than him.

[The Demon of Carthage]

Ronaldo just missed a one-on-one. Absolutely useless tonight.

[Mr Nick09]

ISco for Lucas is such an odd sub, i dont get it. How do we gain an advantage in playing Isco, modric, kroos and casemiro this late in this game?

[The Demon of Carthage]

Me neither. But I stopped asking questions a long time ago. Z has always made no sense with his subs.

[The Demon of Carthage]

That was a yellow card. Ramos should've been sent off.

[Mr Nick09]

ok i concluded that was just a stupid sub. the team has been pinned back since Isco came on

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