Ancelotti is a superior tactician by far. However Madrid have a better team.

Too close to call.

One would argue that when Carlo was in Madrid, Zidane was doing the tactics

Mr Nick09 wrote:One would argue that when Carlo was in Madrid, Zidane was doing the tactics

Literally, one would argue that

Anyway, we're not Arsenal so I don't expect to see whatever those idiots in London did. We weren't favourites either when we manita'd them over 2 legs. It could be a nice lil throw to the early 2000 meetings between us. Cagey, very nice football and a close scoreline for either club.

In Munich, they will attack and we will set up for the counter. In Madrid, we will attack and they will counter. Exact same tactics from both sides.

Whichever side is more clinical wins.

We would be smart to play Isco in the midfield, bench Benzema and put Bale/CR up top in Munich... assuming Bale is healthy. Let Isco handle the left, Modric the right and Casemiro/Kroos as holding mids.

If Zidane escape that month unscathed in CL semis and get a positive results against Barca and Atletico aka still leading the table (excluding that game in hands), i will not say a single bad thing about him till the summer when he loses a preseason game to some jobber team

Agreed with Sport, we need another body in the middle who can handle pressure. Take out one of the front 3 and set up to counter.

When we beat them last time they had a shit coach who didn't learn from mistakes he made in the first leg (let's face it neither does Carlo) now they have Carlo, a whole new midfield and a team who doesn't obsess over possession anymore

i would have liked to have met leicester or even monaco. i really haven't watched bayern nor the bundesliga so i don't know how in form their guys are. what i need from our defense is 100 percent commitment especially at home, zidane needs to harp that to the guys until it sounds like a broken record, cos the schedule in that period isn't the most convenient.

i don't like harping on about coaches too much, because players play, not the coaches. but i do agree with hala, they had a manager who's strategy was extremely predictable, whereas carlo can have the sense to just let his guys play

managers are necessary, but sometimes we give them way too much shine. you've got jordan on your team, i'm not sure as a coach u deserve any props for playing jordan as a point guard and him performing there, he's jordan. although i give basketball coaches more props than i do football, cos they have more influence.....but that's an aside. we need guys committed to run and play hard for in that span of games. no lethargic attitudes

So what you're trying to say Tito is don't start Benzema. Got it.

Been a while since I've been this excited... Don Carlo vs Zidane.
A true test awaits. A smart person would wager on Carlo. A wise man would take the times of change into consideration yet not rule out the experience gap.

I look forward to see how this plays out. I'd say 50/50 but I'm not sure how this will play out. Much can change from now to the first leg.

Doc wrote:So what you're trying to say Tito is don't start Benzema. Got it.

this is the kind of game you start benzema in. just hope he's in form, he can score in this kind of game. i doubt zidane will try anything out of the ordinary for this match up. he only tries things out of the ordinary when he feels we can handle the opposition. my hope is we just don't see a lethargic benzema, but i reckon he can be crucial for us in this sort of game

futbol_bill wrote:

ES wrote:You have 5-7 teams playing at an equally high level, joking aside before everyone votes Leicester, the way i see it is:

Tier A (in no order)
Real Madrid
Barcelona
Bayern Munich

Tier B (in no order)
AS Monaco
Juventus
Atletico Madrid

Tier C
Dortmund

Tier D
Leicester City

Some points:
-No team has ever won CL the year running (looking at Madrid)
-Atletico have never reached the final 2 seasons in a row
-Dortmund haven't reached the final since 2013
-Leicester's first outing in the latter stages (i'm sure everyone knows)
-Monaco haven't reached the final since 2004
-Bayern have reached the semifinals of the competition for the past 5 years running
-The past 3 CL winners have been Spanish clubs
-Juventus last CL win was in 1996
-Atletico have never won the CL

Thoughts?

I don't disagree much with your thoughts, however the distance between tier 1 and 2 this year is not much at all. Realistically Bayern would be the favourite, but anyone of that 6 can do it. With Madrid and Barca, it's all a question of which team shows up to play. Atleti have fallen a bit this year, so although they should get to semis ok, I have my doubts about how much further they could go. Monaco and Juve are both playing well so we shouldn't discount them.

Reposting my thoughts re quarter finals. Bottom line from my perspective is all matches from here on in are very tough and difficult to predict.

In our case for the qtrs, Bayern is favourite and our results depend upon which team (the everyone on form and full intensity vs the one that has no intensity and a couple of lazy forwards plus error prone defense) shows up.

re In this next month, we have the two games against Bayern, plus Atelti and Barca at home plus at Bilbao, home to Alaves, at Gijon. Obviously toughest month of season. by the way, if we do get by Bayern, I think we would then be favourites to repeat the CL.

If Zidane gets thru this month unscathed, then I'm with Nick to stop criticism of Zidane?? However, it can just as easily be the end of trophies with the inconsistencies of this team. So difficult to predict any of this, as I said in another thread we can be hopeful, but no logical reason, based on form and actual play, to be confident or even optimistic.

so it will be an exciting month. Will we be frustrated or celebrating?