Currently playing, who else watching?

Bale playing CF really does not work out well at all. Also, Ramos doing Ramos things today, should be fun.

Shape looks good

Goalless first half... Kinda sure there will be a goal in the 2nd half though

Decent 1st half really. Espanyol had a correct goal disallowed (though I don't blame the linesman for calling offside) and Madrid had a legit hand ball not called (again, don't blame the ref for not calling it). Other than that, not the best football match I'm watching and Bale as CF really sucks.

Bale is such a god damn waste of space

Yup, definitely deserve to lose this one and a wonderful waste of my Tuesday afternoon.

They really won? They scored at the death? I really thought the game ended at 0-0.

oh well, congrats to Espanyol, totally deserved victory!

I would love to bash Bale and Benz but Bale can't play CF, Zidane really should stop doing the man that and Benzema literally had no genuine service at all.

Has Hakimi ever landed a cross to one of our guys?

Oh and add Bale as CF to Zidane's ever growing tactical acumen. I won't give him credit for Ramos being a complete ass for playing "CF". Sure that was all him.

Zidane is *bleep* shit man what was that line up.

Plays a midfield of Kovacic and Llorente which has 0 chemistry and Bale 9 lol. We would have been better off starting Mayoral

Based on what I'm reading, it was probably a good thing I fell asleep while waiting for the match to start

Yeah it was a waste of time watching it. Individually, Llorente and Kova played well, to me, they didn't do much wrong today. But they didn't or couldn't offer anything offensively so we just look so plain and lacking any real ideas.

Also, on Managing Madrid, seeing a poster that is really reminding me of Nick but I doubt it is him.

Please stop blaming individual players. ! Especially when they don’t deserve it!

Is Bale responsible for a non-existent Midfield?
Is Bale responsible for no structure in possession?
Is Bale responsible for being isolated up-front with no support whatsoever?
Is Bale responsible for bad transition from offence—>defence?

There are so many things that are wrong with this team, but believe me, there is little Gareth is responsible for.
The man who is, you can’t blame or you’ll be flagged for "negativity."

saw the result while i was at a meeting, but for some damned reason i decided to watch the rerun as if it would change the result, isco imo was not good at all, i've been very critical of him over the years, but at this point i'm not sure if the issue is just with him or if its a mixture of ton of other things. i see most of the complaints about bale as cf, well that's what you have when you create a thin squad and sign players you do not trust.

the league's been over since last year, terrible result, but charge it to the game. another reason why you can't put to much faith in tabloids, all week it was stories about how "madrid are back", regardless of what happens this season, we will only be 'back' when we undergo a makeover.

Madrid are back with respect of our best XI being able to produce results when they play.

But if you drop a brand new 11 out there, with the limited amount of work and preparation we are dealing with, then the results are going to be poor. I think that applies to all club in general, but even more so to us given the mediocre season we are dealing with, and our coach as well.

@Doc, it's not me but i am glad to see other people across other boards see the same things i see. Zidane cant be criticized for many because of what he won, but the truth is not that simple to me.

its difficult to train these youngsters on our watch, as we are in a situation where we risk dropping points, i'm sorry but for now our policy should be to sign ready players, promote competition and loan/buy-back for youngsters. its that simple, llorente achraf mayoral all have to be loaned out, preferably to mid level type foreign teams....

i think its high time varane went back to his position of back up cb and we get another cb, sometimes he does well, sometimes he bothers me, and his injuries don't help either. we need to really take a long look at his starter status

I think the preparation starts in training with the concepts the manager works on with his team. I think there is no such work with Zidane, who highly relies on chemistry, if not only.

it was good for him when he came, as i have often said, he inherited a CL winning squad. that core carried over and this summer is the most turn over we have had in terms of young guys coming in lately.

so you couple 0 work on 2.5 years + high influx of players + injuries/suspensions + players aging in the bad sense + lack of competitiveness = this shit show of a season.

I think Varane is fine, i mean, he is not turning into the dominating CB we thought he would be, but he is still excellent in my opinion. But i agree we should definitely sign another CB, i think that's a given

I didn't realise @Nick how much Madrid fans are so supportive of Zidane the manager. Almost make me feel like those that are against it are so in the minority, it's best "we" be Barca fans. And I say "we" after being part of the ZidaneIn brigade.

yeah, well, for a majority of people the end justifies the means, and that's how they justify everything. Zidane is winning? he is the best. Mourinho is winning? he is the best... that's the thinking, it's sad people dont analyze things but that's how it goes.

ps: i am pretty stubborn with my thinking too, and i can be wrong. at the end of the day, it's worth arguing if you can accept someone else thinking and grow

Varane's issues this season can be pinpointed: Achraf Hakimi. When the kid is in there, he's so worried about covering the RB position that he's off balance at times at CB.

With Carvajal, he has no issues. Nacho too (when he plays fullback). The two that cause problems with him are Danilo and now Achraf.

There's no putting him as a backup btw. If he doesn't start, he will demand to be sold. Besides, there's nobody better out there. He's one of the best in the world.

the end has always justified the means at real madrid, its not about who the best coach is, its about did we win? if not changes have to be made. i don't consider that a bad thing to be honest, it puts everyone on the hot seat, not like arsenal. on the flip side i can't even remember many moments where we played magnificently and results didn't come through

with varane, i've been monitoring his defending closely, let's just say a lot of times i find myself not fully confident in what decisions he takes, i'm still reserving judgement on him, but at this stage he should now be thinking of stamping some authority on the backline