Hopefully, his head is gonna roll tonight. I have had enough of his incompetence and indifference.

Please for the love of god, fire him and bring someone who's willing to spend.

oh wait we just needed a goalscorer, amirite?

Nah Zidane's teams have more talent than these La Liga teams. He clearly has lost his spark. It happens... It happened to Mou, now it's happening to Zidane.

yeah that's the problem with man managers

@nick, we wouldn't be this far back if we had a n9 who could score. Our season went downhill after the betis game and in both that and the Valencia game we created over 20 chances and still only scored 2 goals.

Everyone have just become super lazy, look at Kovacic for the defending today and he'd barely been on the pitch 10 mins, look at Nacho lazily gets caught trying to let the ball run out of bounds against Girona, Carvajal lazily running back against Barca, Marcelo's whole season, Modric's more or less whole, Casemiro the last couple of games. It obviously doesn't help that our top scorers are tied on 4 freaking goals

i dont want to engage in what if scenario, this team is dreadful, scoring goals here and there would not have been enough.

Zidane can't motivate this squad anymore, he will quit in the summer, they will do him that courtesy. he will quit to make it look like he did not get fired lol

Problem with Zidane being a ”man manager” I think motivation is only hard when things go wrong, but easy when things are going right.

It’s more like 4-4-2 stopped working and like many managers before him he didn’t adapt.

guest7 wrote:Problem with Zidane ..... like many managers before him he didn’t adapt.

That's the problem, he starts the game with some bascic tactics, but doesn't expect the opposition to adjust their tactics based on what's happening on the field. Zidane doesn't do this nor does he have any tactical reaction to what the opposition is doing or changing. We seen this several times this season.

Our problems are essentially
- a non scoring forward line and basically terribly ineffective,
- the non existence of tactical plans
- continual lapses in defense and portero.

We will bow out to PSG and likely in Copa once it gets down to the top 4 liga teams, and that will be the exit of Zidane. All we really need is a tactical coach and a new front line plus on defense a backup RB, a WC portero and a severe shakeup, in some form to Ramos and Marcelo.

Batistuta like finish from Bale, Isco passing it around like Rui Costa and clinical finishing mixed with lovely football and a fodder opponent. Nice end to a very shitty La Liga campaign. Navas even made a top save.

I am impressed with Achraf, he is playing well. he has a lot of talents, attacking.

Seeing how the market for right backs is poor, it would not shock me to see us keep him another season.

but then i think back at some of his horrendous defensive plays, UFF

I've missed the first 55 minutes of the match, but I see that we're up 4-0 and Hakimi has scored, which makes me assume that Celta have been shit? Would be great if Bale is finally starting to find form. He's been fit for some time now.

it would be the wrong assumption, they have been good, but we just played at our normal level today, not messing around, with 100% finishing

I wouldn't call it 100% finishing.... but normal finishing. We've been Liga Adelante finishing all season in La Liga so it looks like we're really efficient here.

BBC aren't going to start against Liverpool so this is moot. We're going to play 442 with Vasquez to cover the wings defensively. I would play Bale over Benzema... but Zizou won't. If we play BBC, I will be shocked. We can goo BBC around the 60 min mark.... or more likely, bring on Asensio, Isco and Bale to kill of Liverpool once they get tired.

Mr Nick09 wrote:it would be the wrong assumption, they have been good, but we just played at our normal level today, not messing around, with 100% finishing

They've been pretty awful since I started watching, but I'm glad to hear that we've been efficient in the league, for once.

well yeah, down 3-0 they started dropping back. the 2-0 and 3-0 came in quick succession and sentenced the game. If you are down 3-0 in the bernabeu, well, it's over

I look at Kroos and Modric when they play like this and I've no idea how Kova is supposed to replace them. He passes nothing like them. We should spend time developing Ceballos instead

This is how we should have introduced Achraf and co not like we introduced them in the first half of the season and then writing them off when they predictably failed. I believe Achraf has a higher ceiling than the new Mario Gaspar aka Odriozola. We should definitely keep all the kids bar Mayoral who I believe will be a very good striker one day, he has the skills but not for a RM level team

I think we start the CL final line up v Pool. Perhaps Bale for Benz but other than that I think it's the usual suspects starting

Bale could've gotten a hattrick if he had been faster when Kroos set him up for a 1v1 run towards the ball vs Celta's goalie. I see that Achraf achieved the highest top speed in this match

Achraf played because Carvajal was injured to start the season... we didn't have a choice. Besides, playing well in no pressure situations is an anomaly for Madrid. You only get these games in CDR and maybe at the end of the season.

Achraf had a genuine good game. but it doesnt offset how mediocre he was in his previous games.

I hear the argument that he is a kid and all and it's natural that with time he looks better.

What i know for sure is that spending 40 mil is not smart. Maybe signing another CB is a solution. we keep Achraf for another year and see how it goes. If he continues to be poor, then Nacho will step up in big games if Carvajal is out.

As an attacking fullback, Achraf does have a lot more talent then Theo though. He has not impressed me this season.

Nice end to what was really a terrible La Liga campaign. 18 points behind Barcelona, finishing behind Atleti and dropping points to any team that can defend just a bit (not even sure if that is the case really). I gots no kind words for Madrid in their domestic campaign, I mean, they even lost to Leganes at home in the CDR.

All in all, a CL win would really lessen the sting of what was a forgettable campaign.

lighting up a candle for Hala's Real madrid vs Celta thread

@Sport, ZZ could just have easily played Nacho when Carvajal was injured. Achrafs first competitive game was against Spurs

@Nick, Theo, we've also seen Theo have these games when he played with the 1st team too eg vs LaReal. When these guys play with the B team they all look like they aren't good enough. But great with the 1st team.

The approach in the 1st half of the season was the wrong one. I understand it was hard to integrate them properly when we started the season losing left and right but still

oh absolutely, squad management in the first half was disastrous. Zidane did not know what he was doing.

You are right, i expected Theo to play better, but im not mad and ultimately they might all look exponentially better next season, specially if they are played in better conditions. Those made up teams Zidane sent to play la copa were terrible, bunch of guys who had 0 chemistry playing together. UFF

That could apply to Vallejo as well, but i would still sign a CB imo.

Ramos and Varane were injured on and off too Hala... not to mention Marcelo.  Navas was out too.  Modric for a bit as well.  Bale of course. We had a lot of injuries to start the season.

Not sure how you manage a squad well when there's so many people coming in and out of the lineup. The only parts that were a constant were Kroos, Ronaldo, Benzema, Vasquez, Isco and Asensio. The rest was in complete flux due to health.

Wasn't Kova out for a bit too?

Our issue this season was depth. We didn't have it. Couldn't cope with injury and form issues at all.

Mr Nick09 wrote:Achraf had a genuine good game. but it doesnt offset how mediocre he was in his previous games.

I hear the argument that he is a kid and all and it's natural that with time he looks better.

What i know for sure is that spending 40 mil is not smart. Maybe signing another CB is a solution. we keep Achraf for another year and see how it goes. If he continues to be poor, then Nacho will step up in big games if Carvajal is out.

As an attacking fullback, Achraf does have a lot more talent then Theo though. He has not impressed me this season.

I've honestly never been particularly impressed by their respective, technical talents, nor their ability to perform under pressure. They both have in common that they have very good, albeit different physiques, though. Theo has superior strength, but he hardly ever seems to use it. Their physical assets prevail in matches likes these, but they have yet to prove that they can handle matches against tougher opponent teams.

Well in all fairness, we are doing them more harm than good in many ways. What i mean is, they dont play many games, so they are losing on chances to polish their skills while they are 19-20 kids who need that practice. And they we drop them in pressure games and we expect them to play at a high level.

It's only normal that it doesnt work, why should it? specially when you look at how productive players like Ceballos, Vallejo, Theo or Llorente were for their previous clubs. They are not all going to become world class even with more playing time, but being buried on the bench sure doesnt help.

If we want better ready back ups, then we need to sign players who are 25-26, and not young players with little experience and high potential. It should be a mix of both, with even older players, but our mistake i think was garnishing the bench with just kids last summer, and it did not work. Half of them should be going on loan next summer.

So for the defense, assuming there will be a natural progression from Theo and Achraf as back up, we could go with

Marcelo, Ramos, Varane, Carvajal
Theo, Nacho, new CB, Achraf

if you want to trust those two kids, as back up at fullback, it's fine, because with Nacho we know there is that guy with experience if things go south. But you can't have baby Vallejo too, you need a much better CB, and i think the club is looking for one. but i dont believe in signing expensive back ups like Odriozola for 40 mil when he can only play RB