Nice second half. I like RDT he can become a back up but we need a striker

Poor Odegaard only played a few minutes. Was excellent when he came on

United time wasting all second half. They have become such a small team ughh

Hot take: Fred is gonna be immense for Man Utd this season.

Really enjoyed the 2nd half, should have won it but the football was way better. Proper passing and movement, of course, our finishing just had to suck. Speaking of suck, Mayoral is shit. Not shit on a fan level, like shit as in I could trap and pass better than him and I'm on a chair. Jeez, he cannot be our back up for this season. Simply cannot.

All in all, good to see Madrid again and the 2nd half was really nice.

those first minutes of the second half with Odegaard and Ceballos + the press UFFFF more of the same please

Odegaard can be a genius in between the lines, i am super impressed to be honest, he dominated his side when he was on. I can see Lopetegui loving him but i dont know why he came off

Yup Mayoral can follow Casilla out the door. The best part of the game was RDT going for the same ball as Mayoral in the box. Yup I am sold. Boy is hungry and not passive ala Mayoral/Benzema

I don't know whether we improved because we took out the BBs or because Utd went full cattenacio but I liked it. Vinicious impressed me too

I see no one praising main man Benzema for scoring; 40 goals season coming i tell ya

Llorente was also very good in second half

I hope we promote Odegaard, he hustles alot lot more now and even points and gives directions. He is way more confident than he was when he first signed. Those loan spells did him good

Quick thoughts:

I get the seniors gotta play too but I really was wondering why Odegaard had to come off, was totally enjoying what he was doing.

Ceballos is a gem of a footballer, we simply need to get more minutes for him.

Vallejo is not starter material and has shown to me, he'll never be. Willing to put that down as a hot take. Also, he is pretty weak for a CB for some weird reason.

Odriozola is gonna give Dani proper competition, uff, his link up plays with Ceballos + Thimmy's little brother were nice.

Lunin would be world class because reasons

Mayarol is super shit. Just an awful footballer.

In the very brief moments, Utd actually played some nice football. Really wish Jose could actually use that more.

Can't wait to see more of Javi Sanchez

Wanted to see more of Lunin tbh. Got a first glimpse of him in the 84th min when Nacho graced him with a back pass

I didn't like how weak Vallejo was against Sanchez today. Imagine if that was Lukaku

Herrera has got to be the most annoying player out there. No footballing abiligy, just constantly clipping and fouling players all game

halamadrid2 wrote:I didn't like how weak Vallejo was against Sanchez today. Imagine if that was Lukaku

Utd would have probably won by more. I seriously wonder what the hell Valk sees in him.

We would gladly benefit from a more experienced 4th CB like yesterday lol

Odegaard would really suit Lope's system, looked really good today and i hope he stays. About him coming off, he is coming back from a broken foot injury so maybe they're just being extra cautious?

Ceballos and Llorente were very good in midfield, Valverde not so much.

Like what i saw from Vinicius, he is really tricky to deal with and didn't look phased at all.

Really liked what i saw from Sergio Reguilon, looked much more comfortable than Theo imo.

Vallejo was really disappointing and so was the other guy, why wasn't Manu picked?

Mr Nick09 wrote:I see no one praising main man Benzema for scoring; 40 goals season coming i tell ya

Llorente was also very good in second half

Is this sarcasm? It's been a while for me to be able to tell.

I thought I praised Benzema..?

Though Benzema should be doing more imo. he can do better than what he showed today. though I think this should silence doubters in question of him putting the ball in the back of the net. give him the appropriate service and he will score. In this I never have doubts on.

Bale and Vinicius need to do more. much more. Vinicius is mixed for me, his #1 problem is he needs to take on more opponents and he needs to cut in more. he's got the dribbling, he needs to put it to good use. though this is the first preseason of the game, so I'll let it go for now. his speed and dribbling was good when he used it though. but he needs to be more assertive.

Bale disappointed me a little. Main man like Vinicius needs to assert himself on the pitch and needs to CUT IN. I know we don't have carvajal or marcelo but when they're up, they are supposed to be pushing the wings not Bale or Vinicius.

What nick said on pressing is also something to agree on. We need much more of that from now on. when we kept the ball away from a single united touch for 10+ minutes with only kids, this can only be a positive. we had united in their own half though it helped they looked to time waste the whole 2nd half. but w/e attack they attempted to muster, we shut down their attack with authority. this is good as this shows we can shut down the small fry if we need to and we need to work on this as we lost points last season because we couldnt do this.

the highlight of today was our midfield. good work. I liked everyone except javi sanchez, what was he doing taking long shots? now hopefully we work on not sucking so bad for the first 30 minutes and maybe, just maybe we can get some wins in preseason.

oh and on defense. Vallejo needs to work on not getting punked by nobodies.

Lopetegui's look doesn't give me any confidence, infact he reminds me of Benitez

I wasn't impressed at all. But I'll wait until we play our regulars... this was our Castilla side + 3-4 first teamers basically.

Bale looked clueless as always.

Positives from last night were Ceballos, Ødegaard, Vinicius and Odriozola who had some great overlaps.

It was a mistake to sub Ødegaard since he was so good when he was on, unless he had some kind of injury. Looked much better than previous years, which is surprising considering he's been out injured for some time.

Ødegaard is 19, he is looking so good but it sucks because we wont have room for him. I would argue that he has just as high a ceiling as Asensio. If he can get a bit stronger, there is no reason why he is not world class in 5 years imo.


Bale doesnt how to play that style he is gonna have to learn. it did not help that he was night with Vinicius as well, who is not yet a playmaker. There was a world of difference the moment Odegaard came on, he started combining with Ceballos and they kept the ball in United side of the pitch. The press was also good to watch because they did not do it quite as much in the first half. It's good to see, work in progress, hopefully there is more in the second game

I think there was a period for about 20 minutes in the second half where United didn't make a pass or felt like it. We need to find some end product though.

Ødegaard could have a place if we don't sign anyone, but doubt that's going to happen. He is a unique player on our roster right now, don't see anyone like him.

He impressed me with his work rate and defensive play last night. Didn't expect it all.

i wasn't too concerned about end product because the better they learn how to space the front, the better the chances they will create and we missed quite a few in second half, namely Odegaard actually.

First off a declaration - I didn’t see game as it was way past my bedtime plus I had understood game was today not yesterday.

I find ratings I have read quite different than has been reported here!

Ignoring the Castilla players who were rated very bad except for the left lateral who they said showed more promise than Theo. They rated Ceballos, Odriozola high. Medium to Llorente. Didn’t think much of Fede, Vinícius, Bale, Odegaard, De Tomas and very poor re Benzema and Mayoral.

Why would anyone seriously put a rating system to a friendly? In any case, whomever did that, they got the Fede, Bale, Llorente, Ceballos, Odriozola rating right. Odegaard was better than that, so was Vinny. De Tomas did better than Mayoral ever could and Benzema was decent to good.

Also, it's a friendly, they don't have to be super serious.

Valkyrja wrote:Lopetegui's look doesn't give me any confidence, infact he reminds me of Benitez

Lol, you want Brock Lesnar or Tom Cruise to pace up and down the touchline instead?  

Odegaard aint staying this season, he looked alright, Asensio might have that run speed and shot of his that make him a pseudo forward but Odegaard looks like he has better technique that can allow him to be more creative as a playmaker.

As for Ceballos, we'll see if he can learn to control games from midfield and show excelsius passing, otherwise might as well just play Isco in Midfield and he'll offer more.

I don’t believe either Odegaard nor Vinicius will stay this season although the latter will get some playing time with first team. The forwards / front three will be Bale, Isco, Asensio, Lucas, Benzema plus hopefully a new CF. de Tomas is the backup.

The chance for those two will be next season.

I like that Lopetegui can’t handle sunlight just like me

Fastest sunglasses in the business

Why are people preaching doom after 1 friendly? Lopetegui hasn’t had nearly enough time with the players who played let alone the first teamers who only came on for 10 minutes. His juego de posición style is going to take time to implement. Not 1 friendly with 25% of the players.