A draw is a shame but it is what it is.

We can only learn mistakes and move on to the next game.

Lol Varane the guy is a bigger debacle than Danilo. He is the worst of our CBs. Nacho hasn't played very well in the last 2 games. Which is entirely normal or do Castilla have to perform day in day out simply because they are Castilla players????

Agree, that goal doesn't happen if Pepe is in there but that goal came due to a collection of mistakes from Lucas, to Modric all the way down to Nacho. In the reverse fixture Nacho completely shut out Griezmann so let's not act like he was never good

Our problem will and has always been the front 3. In the last 3/4 years that we have played them together i can count on one hand how many times they've all had a good game as a unit. It's time that front line dies a slow death. An extra midfielder is imperative especially against a team like Atleti.

Watching Atleti's stupid equaliser, totally noticed that huge ass gap in the midfield. The gap that allowed Angel an easy path to find Antoine. Not sure who to blame for that one. Also, I really sometimes wish we don't score so early (and by early, I mean anywhere within the 90 minutes). Always, always, al-god damn-ways we fk up a lead for no reason other than being stupid.

Anyway, stupid draw is stupid. We played with our food and got punished dearly for it. Sure, Zidane took way too long to make subs but Isco and Lucas didn't actually shower themselves in glory. Only thing Lucas got right was putting on his jersey properly.

That being said, thought we played quite well bar the wayward passing in the 1st half. Ronaldo and Benzema came to play (kinda) while Bale is clearly still in the treatment room...in his mind. Modric and Kroos did their best while being kicked all over the park and Marcelo actually came to play as well.

Mandatory statement of Adit being ridiculous. It really isn't that bad man.

Best cb in the world is the worst cb we have?

Every single coach in the footballing world isn't afraid to make subs at HT whentheir teams underperform apart from ZZ. Like it's so bloody frustrating havkng to wait till at least 70th min for a sub when it's painfully obvious in the 1st half what's wrong.

Turok_TTZ wrote:A draw is a shame but it is what it is.

We can only learn mistakes and move on to the next game.

Speaking of learning from mistakes - this is the second time in a week that we concede a goal as a direct result of Nacho being out of sync with the rest of our defence. If he'd noticed that he was keeping Griezmann on-side, then that wouldn't have been a goal - similarly to last week, when Alaves scored their second goal because he kept their striker on-side. I don't want to scape-goat him, but surely that's a part of his game that needs urgent attention? I mean, ideally he would've learnt from the game against Alaves, already.

I think Nacho has proven to be a solid, often dependable back-up for us in the past. Especially, as a fullback. But when you make 2 fundamental mistakes in 2 games, it tells me that the coach either didn't notice it the first time, or he simply doesn't address the issue.

Nacho didn't react. His line was fine but he needed to stay closer to Griezmann and Grizzy is a masster at timing runs. You can't allow such a large passing lane with a guy like that.

sportsczy wrote:Nacho didn't react. His line was fine but he needed to stay closer to Griezmann and Grizzy is a masster at timing runs. You can't allow such a large passing lane with a guy like that.

I strongly disagree. His line was not fine, at all, and he left the marking of Griezzmann completely up to Carvajal. Griezzmann could be the master of space and time, for all I care. Nacho wasn't even paying attention to him when he ran inside the space that was created when Nacho was twerking backwards. And who can blame him? Antoine was nowhere to be found, up until that goal occured.

I disagree again.  Grizzy was open a lot but we were pressuring the midfielders and wingers before they could pick him out... the overhead kick was onsides and, if a couple of those crosses in the first half were better, he'd have scored it. He was wide open and was overshot twice.

That's the problem.  He doesn't get a lot of chances as Gabi, Saul, Torres, etc. are guys surrounding him.  The only 3 decent players to feed him are Carrasco, Koke and Gameiro. I hesitate to say Carrasco btw because his final pass is really all over the place.

He has 23 goals and 11 assists on 111 shots total in 43 games... that's not even 3 shots per game.

That ball moved so fast in through our swiss cheese midfield that he didn't have time to come up.  It was three passes and in... 3-4 seconds max for the play.  His issue wasn't the line.  The issue was that he lost track of Griezmann.  You can't play the line that quickly... but you sure can and MUST pick up the nearest threat.

Got caught watching the ball.  Slow to react.

Actually, I would more blame the midfield than Nacho on that one. Griezmann is a forward with immense off the ball movement, he'll definitely find a way to break from Nacho. However, Angel (the guy who laid the pass) had a huge gap to work with.



Which resulted in him having a lovely option in front of him. Nacho probably could have done better but I can't put all the fault on him.

Regardless of whether or not Nacho was at fault for anything in this particular game, I think his general lack of discipline in keeping the line needs to be sorted out. It doesn't make any difference whether he was tactically outmanoeuvred, slow to react, lacking in awareness, high as a kite.. when it happens in two games in succession, and leads to the team conceding goals both times, it's not just tough luck.

Doc, that's why we said Simeone clowned Zidane.

Zidane subbed Kroos out for Isco, creating a 442, Isco, sadly, is not a midfielder that can cover and protect the center of the pitch hounding opposing players (we still dont have a box to box on roster).

So a space earlier protected by 3 that barely conceded chances is now covered by 2, with tired legs.

Simeone reacts and puts in Correa in hole to feed griezmann now playing off the CF.

10 minutes or so later, Correa is alone in the hole and by the time we close him down, he feeds Griezmann, that scrub Nacho of course can't do a thing (can't believe the shit i took from some here, some need to apologize)

goal, Zidane bested like an amateur.

but then Barca shat themselves so it really doesnt matter

ZZ said in the post match presser that he put Isco on to protect our left flank. It was a poor tactical move. Instead of putting on an extra midfielder he took one out. Rookie mistake

But isco was playing on the right and vasquez on the left

It's very normal for players to swap during a game. Especially for wingers. Besides Lucas is a better defender than Isco so can give Marcelo better support. Still who/where we had our wingers isn't what lost us the game it was that gulf of space in the middle vacated by Kroos. Instead of clogging up the middle we proceeded to empty it out and Correa had about a sea of space to make a simple pass. If we left tht much space against Messi, he wouldn't insult himself by making a simple pass right through he'd just pick up the ball and run right thrugh it likr there was no one there.