Honestly not the best time to play such a cancer side that is La Real. One of those teams that would play like Luton Town vs the likes of Girona or Getafe but against top sides in Spain, tend to look exceptional. Speaking of which, they started off the season quite nicely compared to Madrid but it's Madrid so they'll be favourites regardless of form.

Anyway, predicted line ups brought to you by some other website, probably Bleacher:

Predicted Real Sociedad lineup: Geronimo Rulli; Alvaro Odriozola, Aritz Elustondo, Inigo Martinez, Kevin Rodrigues; Xabi Prieto, Asier Illarramendi, David Zurutuza; Adnan Januzaj, Willian Jose, Juanmi

Predicted Real Madrid lineup: Keylor Navas; Dani Carvajal, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Theo Hernandez; Casemiro, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos; Isco, Marco Asensio, Gareth Bale

No Ronaldo, Marcelo, Kroos or Kova...........forget about winning this game

Lord knows how we'll line up. It'd be a good idea to start Lucas but there'll be no point without a striker. Bale as a lone forward wont work and Isco behind Bale and Asensio won't work either

This is like a nightmare situation we find ourselves in. Where the heck are the goals going to come from? We should play Nacho in defence and Ramos in attack honestly. He is 10x better than Bale and Benzema let alone Mayoral

Mbappe was unnecessary they told us.

What's the point of Vallejo if he's going to get injured every other week. Seriously these injury prone players need their own specialist physician

Official line up:


Please save us Ramos/Isco/Asensio

Views on Theo and Mayoral?

Your bench looks really weak.

Where is Ronaldo and Benzema btw?

red card and injured

Theo played very well in pre-season. Zidane has been pairing him with Marcelo in the league which has proved to be a disaster. He seems alittle scared going forward but solid enough at the back. With time hopefully he'll become more courageous in attack and we can see some of that which made him so sought after

Mayoral is.......well think of a skinny Benzema with better workrate

Ronaldo is still out having pushed the referee in the Supercup, he'll be back for our next game. Benzema is out injured, he won't be available for another 4 weeks

Our bench looks really weak right now I agree but if all of the front 3 were available and one of the sat on the bench, this season's bench would be better than last seasons. Morata is the only one we miss

Based on what I've seen of Mayoral over several matches playing for Castilla, he's far, far away from the level of quality that I want to see in a Real Madrid player. I recall someone on here giving him a lot of praise when he did well, but for some reason it seems to go unnoticed when he wastes good scoring chances - and he seems to do so frequently. Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong. Never saw him play for Wolfsburg.

Great half, but we need one more goal to be safe. Mayoral dare I say has been a pleasant surprise. Theo has been excellent, he is great at 1v1. More of the same por favor

Bale is so bad

Mayoral was exceptional all thru the academy. He was the class at Castilla, level 3 Fútbol and was the starter for U21 NT. Last year team decided they would go wit Morata as backup to Benz and kept Mariano as Benz started season injured. While Majoral was lent out to further develop. It didn't work. He didn't play, didn't score, lost confidence and fell to #3 striker on U21.

He should not be here, he needs to play and regain confidence before we can make any valid assessment. Club is at fault for 1. Continuing to keep Benz yet alone in starter position, 2. Selling Morata and 3. Selling Mariano.

That's the background.

And now back to reality. We are ahead 2-1, should be 2-0, thanks to this guy.

He nearly scewwed up the 2nd tbh. We were 2v1 and LaReal managed to get everyone back. Luckily own goal decided to give us a break

Why is it, that the player that doesn't belong out there is the highest paid!

Isco disco

i know hala he is special

Hope the injury to Theo is nothing to worry about. That would be the only stain to an otherwise great night

Lovely match bar a few niggling issues. By niggling, I mean God damn Navas doing unnecessary Navas things. I guess I had too much respect for La Real as I didn't expect this sort of performance. Then again, I should give credit to Madrid players as they put in some serious work out there.

Great win really.

futbol_bill wrote:Mayoral was exceptional all thru the academy. He was the class at Castilla, level 3 Fútbol and was the starter for U21 NT. Last year team decided they would go wit Morata as backup to Benz and kept Mariano as Benz started season injured. While Majoral was lent out to further develop. It didn't work. He didn't play, didn't score, lost confidence and fell to #3 striker on U21.

He should not be here, he needs to play and regain confidence before we can make any valid assessment. Club is at fault for 1. Continuing to keep Benz yet alone in starter position, 2. Selling Morata and 3. Selling Mariano.

That's the background.

And now back to reality. We are ahead 2-1, should be 2-0, thanks to this guy.

I haven't followed him closely up through all his years playing for Castilla, but I was rarely impressed by his performances when I did watch him play. His technique lets him down quite often, and he has a tendency to bottle it in situations where he should be able to score. He's clearly talented in certain areas of his game, but from what I can tell, his overall product simply isn't up to the standard that I expect from a first team player. Not yet, anyway. With that being said, he worked hard against Sociedad and I have no complaints about his performance, he did well.

i agree with thimmy's post

the club will never be at fault for selling MOrata, the money we got for a player of his talent is just god gifted. He is by no means an elite guy so who cares

Timmy, he has always, until last year, had a real nack for goals. He is actually called the vulture because he has cat like reflexes to jump on anything near the goal (like his goal today). But I agree with you, he hasn't demonstrated anything yet to show he belongs on first team. This kid needs development and he won't get it sitting on bench. At least he put in the effort. We have to hope that Zidane recognizes the effort and compares that to Benz!! Only then will he get playing time. I suspect he will go out on loan next year. It's Zidane's fault for repeatedly playing Benz and then not only not having confidence in both Morata and Mariano, but letting them both leave this summer. Either one would have been better than Benz and Mayoral.

But hats off to Mayoral for making the most of this game. He was legit in being a contender for MoM.

Mr Nick09 wrote:the club will never be at fault for selling MOrata, the money we got for a player of his talent is just god gifted. He is by no means an elite guy so who cares

Not talented enough!! How does he compare to our elite guy Benz!!!

You and Sports keep putting him down and yet he keeps putting up numbers whereas the incumbent keeps his place!! Absolutely mind boggling.

Benzema is a much better footballer than Morata, that's for sure, neither are great at scoring goals, but other than that, it's not even close.

i don't exactly see MOrata putting numbers, but that's an argument for another. i understand your need to defend him as spanish CF...

Madrid deserve a step up from both anyway, that much is clear. CR is our 9, we need something else up top

mrnick also makes a good point; the money gotten from morata was a steal, you don't always sell a bench guy for 80 million, its never been done, not even anything close to that price range. i'm just surprised we didn't use it to sign any replacement