Transfer Rumours | Tactics | Who to buy/sell etc

Not like he ever relied on speed to begin with. Falcao is a beast, a true matador. Lewandowski and Suarez are cubs compared to the Tiger that is Falcao. Even have a nickname for him: El Tigre Monstruo. A monstrous tiger of sorts. Forgive me if the grammar is bad, my Spanish was never that good.

Always wanted falcao tbh. With his style, he can actually last at the top till he's 35. cfs who rely purely on intelligence always have long shelf life.

Well this notice confirmed no striker coming in December. No changes to lineup until next summer.

Marca today

"Zinedine Zidane no quiere más. El técnico francés no se plantea reforzar al equipo en el mercado de invierno. La confianza en la actual plantilla es total y absoluta y salvo en caso de lesión de importancia en los meses que quedan por delante, el Real Madrid volverá a pasar de puntillas por un mercado que no es del agrado del club con Florentino Pérez en la presidencia del club madridista."

It's a psychological ploy... and I heard this from a VERY good source.

By saying that he doesn't want any changes, Zidane is making every player responsible for his performance... and also showing that he has confidence in every player. Flo can easily supersede this edict if there's need... and that's intentional.

The more interesting part of the article was that one of BBC is not benched and Isco or Asensio (with Isco as the regular) have now earned a permanent role. Bale and Benzema will rotate to support Ronaldo.

Well, that can easily change so I'm not gonna take it as the absolute stance the club is making but at the moment, it does not help saying we need a striker when we technically have 2 plus Bale in our ranks. Men and their egos, it's absolutely fragile.

sportsczy wrote:It's a psychological ploy...

I'm not so sure about that Sports. He has been regularly saying he has confidence in team, both last year and this, so I do take it as a statement of morale boosting, but I also think genuinely he likes his squad.

The statement about BB is interesting and a further extension to his benching of Bale on weekend. I do think he is beginning to recognize the problem as the shortcomings of both of them. And with their experience, sooner or later you would expect them to produce. It's all about trying to get most out of squad.

If Zidane successfully comes out of this season, he will deserve coach praises as he will have gotten the most out a possibly complacent veteran team, while integrating both Isco and Asensio into key roles, transitioning Benz and Bale to support roles (and hopefully getting some production out of them) and developing several talented youngsters into squad.

Next summer is when we need to sign a couple or three new forwards and happily let BB ride off into sunset. We also need to keep in mind that Ronaldo should only last a couple more seasons.

I have no concerns with us being inactive in January.

We will become lethal eventually. Just a matter of when, not if.

isn't a big deal......yet. what did you expect to hear from zidane? "if i can't hunt with my cat, i'll hunt with......" lol, remember that. like it or not, in terms of player confidence, he's done a lot for the group, its on them now to perform and not disappoint him. and ofcourse, there's quite some time between now and jan. despite the injury, it won't really help, if he's talking about signings already

the only time i'll have a problem with it is, if he really wants signings but is saying all this to save face for flo. which managers do; then when they get fired they start saying "oh i wanted this guy or that guy and presi said no". if zidane really feels he doesn't need an signings in jan. then what can we do? we just support the team and hope the current crop of players know he's put a lot on the line for them, and they at least repay him with results

This week, being a quiet week, there have been two stories being discussed about next summer's plans.

First one is Odriozola, the young right lateral at La Real. He impressed enough in his NT debute (as Carvajal's replacement) against Albania, that club is planning on going after him to filled the backup RB spot that is vacant this season. His price tag is 40M, but apparently club is prepared to pay.

Second is Kepa. Again club is impressed and with Navas recent play, the interest in DeGea, Courtois or Donnarama is gone. The plan is to let Castilla move and let Kepa challenge Navas. After one more year, Navas if signed again will be on one year contracts so the opening will be there for Kepa to overtake the incumbent. Kepa is without a contract come January and he is so far resisting the push from Bilbao to renew. But apparently club will pay Bilbao something for him, just to keep peace.

If the club does make these two moves, that pretty well settles the defense and midfield for the future, leaving only the forward positions to deal with.

When I look back on this second run of Perez, I can't help being impressed. Other than the Bale and James acquistions and maybe Kaka, it has been basically buy stars once and stick with same lineup, upgrading squad with talented youth. It sure is a lot cheaper and effective than the version of Perez's first run!

Right back spot is not vacant lol, Achraf is the back up RB.

He on the roster Nick as an emergency backup, but he has in no way challenged the incumbent which is what is being asked of backups these days. The true backup this year is Nacho. I like the kid, but he will be better served going out on loan. By the way, did you see Odriozola play?

Would anyone be in favour of buying back Llorente if he keeps playing this good until the end of the season and sending Vallejo out on loan

LOL that ship has sailed. There is no buyback.

Llorente made 96 passes today at 93% PA the highest in the game not sure if Llorente or Kroos.....

Tito and I have been having a discussion in another thread about whether or not Benz and Bale will be with club next season.

I'm saying no and here's my prediction of what will happen next summer.

Incoming - Kepa, Odriozola, Vinicius, Mariano, new starting CF

Outgoing - Casilla, Achraf, Benz, Bale, Lucas, Mayoral,

Navas (Kepa); Carvajal (Odriozola), Varane (Nacho), Ramos (Vallejo), Marcelo (Theo); Casemiro (Llorente), Modric (Ceballos), Kroos (Kovacic), Isco (Asensio); Ronaldo (Vinicius), new CF (Mayoral)

and that leaves Ronaldo, Ramos, Modric and Navas to leave in following few years.

Benz would probably be here till I'm 60 with grandchildren. I can see Bale being sold off though. An injury prone player serves no real purpose and Bale isn't that popular within the team (apparently, he still hasn't learned Spanish well enough).

I can’t understand how he hasn’t picked up Spanish. For some reason, english speaking people are the most lazy when it comes to learning another language. I remember when Zidane first came to Madrid, they not only immediately gave him a Spanish tutor (as they regularly do with all non Spanish speaking arrivals), they also gave him an interpretor. Today, his Spanish is excellent, as if it was his native language.

well zidane already understood italian, so grasping spanish would probably not have been as difficult. and its not necessarily about english/welsh being lazy to learn. mcmanaman spoke fluently at madrid, still does. becks seemed to understand despite the accent. on the flip side carlos tevez (granted he isn't spanish) despite his long stay in england found it hard to pick up english too. it happens in the game, some pick up faster than others

btw if bale was beasting and couldn't speak spanish properly, the players wouldn't care. but i wouldn't be surprised if the main gripe of some is that this guy keeps getting injured but gets paid more and seems to get an automatic pass to get into the line up....i wouldn't be surprised if that was the main issue, and the language thing is just the side dish.

I've heard Kroos is even worse with Spanish. This topic only comes up when a player is playing poorly. I honestly don't think its a huge concern.

My point really was that as an injury prone player, he does not serve any real purpose and to top it off, he isn't really supported in Madrid.

Sure, Zidane and Flo would say their lil sound bites but no one really rushes to truly defend Bale like they do at Sky. And the language thing does play a part as he (according to the media in Madrid) isn't close to anyone and his difficulties in learning Spanish is proving to be part of the issue.

Arby was nowhere near the calibre for Madrid but he was quite good with Iker and Ramos so they could have vouched for him. Who really has Bale's corner at Madrid?

You can be lazy with things if you're beasting on the pitch... Kroos is mostly very good at CM so the fact that he's not trying to assimilate into Spanish culture is tolerated. But if you're constantly injured and aren't performing, then you better be an incredible teammate and model citizen off the pitch... you need to add value to the club in some way to at least partially justify your existence. Bale isn't doing any of that.

Don’t understand this. Kroos speaks Spanish well

Odriozola is talented, at times when i see him he looks even more talented than Carvajal, but how wise is it to have the two competing spanish RB in the same team? what's the precedent for this?

From a banter point of view, to show Hala that Odriozola is a way better option than Achraf. From a sporting point of view, Madrid really need competition, a sort of cut throat competition, that enables us to really perform. Anytime we don't have that, we get so complacent so fast.

I don't think there is a precedent (sure Tito would know more) but I do not mind at all really.

Precedent was Arbeloa and Ramos