Real Madrid vs Las Palmas

The absolutely funny thing about this stupidly unnecessary draw, if Benzema had any sort of form, he would have 2 goals and be a match hero.

Not his fault in anyway too. All blame falls on Zidane and Ramos (and Bale...apparently).

Funny how we potentially could blow the title against Las Palmas. History maybe repeating itself nicely.

Cant wait for Pique to tweet about the 2 legit goals we scored today that the linesman chalked off. Will be waiting eagerly by my phone

I missed the 2 yellows Bale got. What exactly did he do?

Doc wrote:The absolutely funny thing about this stupidly unnecessary draw, if Benzema had any sort of form, he would have 2 goals and be a match hero.

Not his fault in anyway too. All blame falls on Zidane and Ramos.

Funny how we potentially could blow the title against Las Palmas. History maybe repeating itself nicely.

No blame on Bale?

@Izzy where you at. I'll grab my tire iron again. Let's meet up.

Doc wrote:I missed the 2 yellows Bale got. What exactly did he do?

He got a yellow and then a direct red.

He kicked a player twice and then pushed him with both hands. Worst red card I've seen since Pepe. So idiotic.

Holy shit. What bout of madness take Bale over to do that? Well, he get some blame too. Jesus. What is wrong with this team? From a position of comfort to just this self-inflicting wounds.

playing with 10 men and from behind... Bale is at fault here with an assist by Ramos. Nacho and Navas not exactly doing great either.

Taking a step back though... the midfield performance has dropped drastically for the last month or so and that's really the true cause of our problems. That's where form needs to pick more than anywhere else.

Kroos and Modric.... they're not playing the way they were.  Especially Kroos.  Not really doing much of anything. Modric didn't play today so he gets a pass...

Nacho and Carvajal are the only 2 in the back 7 that can hold their heads high and be proud of their performances. We have played with 10 players before no problem (Still that moment of maddness by Bale was just wtf). This loss is on Ramos (sigh), Marcelo and Navas (what the hell is going on with this guy this season?)

Nacho had to compensate for both Ramos and Marcelo, the latter going through some sort of don't care phase. Dani was, as usual, consistently good throughout the match.

Good mention of Kroos Sports. He has been quietly ghosting through matches for a while now. Doesn't add anything of value and he certainly isn't playing water carrier either.

I'd switch to a 442 and let Vasquez and Isco play wide. Put Casemiro and Modric in the middle. Ronaldo and Bale can handle the attack.

It's enough of a funk now that you need to change something as opposed to patiently wait for players to get it back.

Kroos might throw a fit though. Benz... who cares.

smh, how we've thrown away point after point is unbelievable and unacceptable

i don't know if its all those 'games in hand' we had that's made our players comfortable, but this is atrocious. a game in hand left and i have some strong feeling that this lot will find a way to blow that

Maybe Real Madrid supporters have become numb to poor performing players aka Ronaldo and co. because when you single out Kroos as a poor performer its hard to understand the logic.

Kroos was the only player trying to press from the midfield. and he isnt even known for that.

Ronaldo was static, isco disappointed, morata's decision making is that of an under 17 player, marcelo was poor and navas is becoming a liability.

Kroos and Kovacic were the only ones who looked anything like a deserving real madrid player.

Where the hell is Asensio?

Asensio is a player with speed and skills, someone who can beat defender and play a great pass. yet ronaldo is starting on the left game in game out.

Tactically to play kovacic and isco in the three man midfield is stupid, especially when ronaldo and bale dont drop back. Zidane stubbornness to change will be his downfall just like ancelotti and he will most likely get the sack in the summer.

Kroos really reminds me of Beckham...

Cant believe we have a good chance of winning 0 trophies right now

This is starting to feel like the 2003-04 season when people were expecting a treble by december but ended up with nothing come May

In a way, that might well be a blessing in disguise.

Lots are suggesting several players (and coach) should go and a zero trophy year is the only way a complete shakeup could happen!

Yesterday's game was very disappointing, but I was impressed with a few (very few) players and very impressed with Jese. What a game he had. He has been saying a lot this past week and he showed it wasn't all talk with his game.

But why didn't Zidane and CB recognize they were playing the centre line fast break out. It was so obvious and led to both goals and several other dangerous attacks. Just having the CBs play back on the other side of the centre line would have prevented all of these attacks yet not taken anything away from our offense.

And what can be said about ref. We should start a thread about culeref!

If you push the CBs back, then the CMs have a lot more ground to cover both in terms of offensive and defensive transition. I'm not sure at all that our CMs are equipped to do that.

The problem yesterday was the lack of pressing. So disappointed with our lack of effort until we were 2 goals down

sportsczy wrote:If you push the CBs back, then the CMs have a lot more ground to cover both in terms of offensive and defensive transition. I'm not sure at all that our CMs are equipped to do that.

Not really Sports. They or at least Nacho was just a few meters inside their half. Being back 4 meters would offset their advantage and 4 meters does not impose much on CMs. Ramos however is a different story, he actually plays as a striker at times!!


Still think we should have our own Harmonica with a culeref thread!

Just as an example, that's how Rafa tried to play it.... strikers high and CBs low. We don't have the CM profiles and Marcelo is who he is.

The plan is to get the lead then have everyone move back in a lower position as a block. But we can't get the lead anymore!!!

I wasn't in any way suggesting a formation the way Benitez had. His gap between lines was almost half the field!

What I saw yesterday was Nacho and Ramos a few meters inside their end, while Jese and others behind them standing on the centre line waiting for the pass into our end and start sprinting. Having Nacho and Ramos move 4 meters back, 2 meters into our end would have nullified their strategy. That wouldn't have affected our offense, other than Ramos being grossly out of position, wouldn't put extra onus on Cms and in no way would that compare to Rafa's formation.

That being said, I do agree with Hala that the major problem was poor pressing and as Zidane said lack of intensity and concentration.

That plus Navas poor positioning and obvious wrong calls by ref are why we blew this game. Not to mention Ramos and Bale misplays!

But as I said, it was blatantly obvious what strategy they were using and it could have been nullified with a small adjustment by the CBs. Don't know whether that falls to Zidane or Ramos or Nacho, however IMO it should have been done.