2018 / 2019 season prediction

Full schedule for next season:



The first few games are going to be tough. But during crunch CL ties we have favourable games. So thatz good. Can rest Bale there

Any predictions on when Bale is going to get his first injury? My guess is 3rd week of September and out for a month and half.

Please let me be wrong lol

Wonder how we will line up next week against United?


not bad. Looks like predominantly the team that most likely will play CDR

United will come having played 3 games before facing us. We are likely going to be off the pace compared to them but I am hoping to see good team play. Most of these guys will look to impress Lope after being frozen out last season. Excited to see what Ceballos and Vinicius have in store for us

Just saw RDT highlights from his time with Vallecano not bad. Strikers instinct, right place rightright time. 10x better than Mayoral. Let's see how well he does in preseason

i keep forgetting we have odegaard. whats the word on him in training?

Benz gives us an insight on Lope's method:

We know that Lopetegui is a coach who likes his teams to have the ball and play a possession-based game," Benzema said.

"He also places great emphasis on working hard when we lose the ball and how we press after we've given possession away."

2 massive problems we had last season being addressed. Towards the end we got dominated by plebs like Khedira and co. Hopefully now with greater emphasis on posession it could help us control games better

Benzema talking about working hard to win the ball back

The Demon of Carthage wrote:Benzema talking about working hard to win the ball back

The Demon of Carthage wrote:Benzema talking about working hard to win the ball back

7 - Karim Benzema made seven recoveries against Bayern, more than any other Real Madrid player in the game and more than in any other game at Bernabeu in his career. Star. pic.twitter.com/TjhCp76GW2

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) May 1, 2018

Care to repeat that again? Sit down.

Benzema's insight on Lopetegui reveals we are indeed going to place more emphasis on possession. which now brings me this question: what happens to Bale? He ain't suited for that. or will Lopetegui will work him extra hard to not suck in tight spaces? Bale is not comfortable with the ball in tight spaces compared to Benz or Isco. Not often you see someone get better with technical ability at around 28-29 years of age. Is bale screwed here?

How hypocritical and deceiving of you that you would choose one of the very few games in last season where Benzema upped his work-rate a tiny-bit to come back at me.

I'm not surprised, you're one of the most deluded posters here, and I can tell you right now that you're the only one rating Benzema.

The rest of us want him gone and ASAP. He's lazy, talentless and useless in front of goal, even more so now that Ronaldo is gone.

If your standards are so low that you would be satisfied with someone as worthless as Benzema, then that's your problem. But please don't try to rub off your mediocrity and low standards against me because I'll never be satisfied with that joke for a CF. Now, sit down please.

Oh and let me repeat it again:

Benzema talking about working hard to win the ball back

Benzema is more gifted than any striker out there, he had 2 rough seasons but he is a great player. Can see him topping la liga goal scoring charts this season

benzema is many things, talentless is not one of those things, but talent is overrated.

Nick, he's having serious trouble breaking into double digits. Add to that his laziness and toothlessness in front of goal and you've got yourself a talentless player contributing with nothing and undeservedly taking up a valuable place in the starting eleven.

No matter how you flip it, Benzema doesn't deserve to be the starting CF at Madrid, or any other elite club.

If the club's plan is to keep him as the main man, the truth is going to hit them like a hurricane when the season starts and they see this joke for a CF struggling to even run, let alone score. And then you'll see posters like the one above who I don't even remember his name coming here and coming up with excuses to justify the suckage of his WC CF.

I'm sorry, I'll never get on board with the idea of having Benzema as the main man. He sucks.End of /.

As of the last two seasons he does seem to have given up in scoring, I don't think anybody here will disagree.

But as I said talent is not something Benzema lacks, which is the most frustrating with him as a player. I think his game is pretty darn complete for a CF but again a CF not scoring is something I have never seen. Maybe it's a by product of having a winger being the primary goalscorer for your team, that's also something that was never seen before.

Anyway we all agree that we can benefit from another number 9 but I really don't see Madrid going for guys like Cavani, Higuain, Lewandowski etc... All those old strikers that would cost 80 mil in transfer and almost 10 mil net in wages, forget it.

I have lowered my expectations more and more and now I only hope for a talented young striker to come in. Maybe even Martial at this point.

We should have gone from the start for the kid bought by Inter from Argentina.

In any case, it will be interesting to see how if Benzema reverts back to his 9 days at Lyon. It's the first time since he's been at Madrid that he gets to play a real CF role. He might surprise us.

Yeah and it might snow in hell this winter!

What actually surprised me is how such an underperforming and inconsistent number nine could last 10 seasons at what used to be the most demanding and ruthless club in the world.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:How hypocritical and deceiving of you that you would choose one of the very few games in last season where Benzema upped his work-rate a tiny-bit to come back at me.

I'm not surprised, you're one of the most deluded posters here, and I can tell you right now that you're the only one rating Benzema.

The rest of us want him gone and ASAP. He's lazy, talentless and useless in front of goal, even more so now that Ronaldo is gone.

If your standards are so low that you would be satisfied with someone as worthless as Benzema, then that's your problem. But please don't try to rub off your mediocrity and low standards against me because I'll never be satisfied with that joke for a CF. Now, sit down please.

Oh and let me repeat it again:

Benzema talking about working hard to win the ball back

lazy? 10 km per game aint lazy. Benz happens to be an excellent dm and most peeps on GL know this yet here you are spouting this hot garbage. talentless? top kek! and you callung me deluded? declining sure but talentless?  are you opinions based on how you feel?

rather than accepting the reality which is in front of you, u invent this alternative reality where benz has the touch of a donkey, FAT, and can barely string a pass or hold up a ball let alone kicking a ball into the net. It's alright to stay in your pathetic, pitiful bubble. more power to ya if that is your choice. but if you wanna have a serious conversation... you gotta come out of that bubble first. i can wait.

unril then, stay seated boy. 2 bad seasons dont erase the good seasons that benz had. and those 2 bad seasons in question benz delivered key moments in key cl matches.


@nick Without a doubt, Benz's troubles in goalscoring are the result of his decline. he is no longer same benz of old. For starters is top speed used to be 7.5 two seasons ago. but now it's a 7 based on last season. im very concerned about benz. at least his acceleration hasnt dropped off any further than it already has. thankfully he's intelligent enough to not let speed be a factor to his game but it will be a factor in certain counter-attacking situations. hopefully the change of style to possession will keep this to a minimum.

his technique while supreme has become more inconsistent as the seasons go by and that also has affected his finishing. he's always been mentally strong you don't show up in big CL games by being weak in the head. but he really needs to improve his consistency this year.

as much as I love Bale I cannot ignore his injury record.
for this reason I feel signing another centre-forward or a fast winger would be more appropriate especially given the news by Marca that Real Madrid intend to have Benz and Bale team up upfront. we don't know when Bale get injured next and he hasn't gotten better with his fitness. it's only going to get worse as he's 29 and that's not a good age to get more injuries.

I would really like Martial most of all. he brings speed, dribbling. he was a good finisher until he joined manutd where he's been limited by Mourinho ever since. based on my observations i think hes worth it. but if not him then Cavani as he's a great option but I don't think PSG will sell...

Valk stop suggesting icardi, dude is a poser. if we cannot get speed the next best thing is someone who's good technical ability. icardi is just another classic 9. I'd even welcome Higuain over him at this point. Higuain doesn't choke when teamed up with Big Benz. Benguain could live yet again.

or we could put all our hopes on vinicius to do well in preseason. I like what I see in training. I think he can make an immediate impact if given confidence and prep.

it seems Real Madrid has decided Gareth Bale is going to be the new main man. I accept the decision, I hope he doesn't get injured before the big games. I have no questions in his ability to deliver the goods. however it will be interesting to see how he adapts to Lopetegui's system

DoC, I can see that you don’t know of previous poster. He ‘s our version of Harmonica!

futbol_bill wrote:DoC, I can see that you don’t know of previous poster. He ‘s our version of Harmonica!

That would be you with regards to anyone Spanish.
Fernando Llorente aint madrid material. sorry.

futbol_bill wrote:DoC, I can see that you don’t know of previous poster. He ‘s our version of Harmonica!

You're absolutely right. I shouldn't have dignified his nonsensical, delusional verbal diarrhea with a response.

I just have to get used to the fact that we have Chad 2.0 now

The Demon of Carthage wrote:What actually surprised me is how such an underperforming and inconsistent number nine could last 10 seasons at what used to be the most demanding and ruthless club in the world.

That's actually patently false.  He was WC is 5-6 of the previous 9.  You're just having convenient memory.

Last 1.5 years have been pitiful however.

The two best periods of Benz have been under Benitez and Mou. Rest have been rubbish. If I had a choice I would have sold him 8 seasons ago but he is still here and is now our 3rd captain if we dont buy a striker I am just going to hope to God that he actually scores and doesn't hide behind his other strike partners. I am excited to see what Bale will show but Benz is a lost cause sorry

It's shocking how DoC is allowed to overreact like that and disrespect one of our players tbh.

You might not like him but he deserves respect enough to be called talented. Talentless is like the last thing he is. I'm sure Benz is going thrive under a different manager. He wasn't clinical but got to be honest I felt like Benz didn't get enough goalscoring chances under Zidane.

Expecting a 30-yo washed up Benzema to somehow become a hero is ludicrous. It's like I would expect Sturridge to score 15 goals next season. Would be such a nice story, but just won't happen.

But Real Madrid is in a fascinating situation. Ronaldo's gone and some key players are aging, one or two big signings needed... but the market is kinda dry. Whatever happens, there's bound to plenty of RM talking points this season.