2018 / 2019 season prediction

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.

I need to rewatch the game it looks like I mixed up Llorente with Valverde yesterday.

Ceballos ability to play in traffic, pause the game at will and change direction was so credible. Excellent advanced playmaker for the style we are going for.

vanDEEZ wrote: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.

We are Madrid fans, we overreact to everything. And I use the "we" in general terms, I don't think any of us have overreacted positively or negatively.

I hope squad numbers aren't an indication on whether someone will play for the first team next season because Odegaard still doesn't have a number

I'd pay a fortune to watch Odegaard, Ceballos and Isco Disco play football together. They are so smooth on the ball.

Ceballos I feel is supremely more talented than Kovacic which is why I am so indifferent to him staying or going. A game like Ceballos had last game Kovacic has never had because he is too scared to take risks

I think we'll see a great RM if we could just buy a reliable scorer

Also I love how the first thing Bale did when he got the ball was play the ball to Vinicius all the time. So much for taking the lead post Ronaldo

we're playing youth teams in international friendlies.  calma. That man u team was segunda b level... just like we were mostly.

De Gea
Mensa - Bailey - Mc Tominay
Darmian - Herrera - Perreira - Fred - Shaw
Mata - Sanchez

The formation is kinda laughable but De Gea, Bailey, McTominay, Herrera, Fred, Mata and Sanchez would be featuring for the 1st team so not exactly Segunda B level stuff.

True... they just looked like they were segunda b players lol other than Sanchez and Fred.

vanDEEZ wrote: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.

People in general are out of their god damn minds, Lopetegui closed his twitter and instagram accounts a few hours ago.

MARCA: Benzema assumes leadership role and acts as Vinicius' godfather

seeing too many positive Benz articles from MARCA as of late. not used to it at all. is someone running a propaganda campaign to boost Benz image?

At the same time, I appreciate Benz looking out for Vinicius. Vinicius needs guidance for one so young. As a complete forward, perhaps Benz can give Vinicius insight with regards to his role in the frontline? though in truth, I was expecting Bale to give Vinicius guidance as they both play out wide.

Benz to Vinicius, taking him under his wing: “goals are like an empty bottle of ketchup.”

vanDEEZ wrote:Benz to Vinicius, taking him under his wing: “goals are like an empty bottle of ketchup.”

Been a while since ive read this. thats from Van Nistelrooy is it not?

Turok_TTZ wrote:MARCA: Benzema assumes leadership role and acts as Vinicius' godfather

seeing too many positive Benz articles from MARCA as of late. not used to it at all. is someone running a propaganda campaign to boost Benz image?

At the same time, I appreciate Benz looking out for Vinicius. Vinicius needs guidance for one so young. As a complete forward, perhaps Benz can give Vinicius insight with regards to his role in the frontline? though in truth, I was expecting Bale to give Vinicius guidance as they both play out wide.

Mentioning Benzema and Godfather in the same sentence doesn't exactly make me think positive thoughts.

Benzema out here ordering Vinicius to leave the gun and take the canoli

Turok_TTZ wrote:

vanDEEZ wrote:Benz to Vinicius, taking him under his wing: “goals are like an empty bottle of ketchup.”

Been a while since ive read this. thats from Van Nistelrooy is it not?

Yeah, but not empty bottle. Just a normal glass flask of ketchup.

"Ruud told me that goals are like a bottle of kethcup", began El Pipita. "Sometimes they don't come no matter how much you push, but later they all come out in one hit".

That’s why Benz has the empty bottle lol.

Apparently Bale sat out the training session due to an injury.

In other news water is wet, sky is blue etc

We are relying on the impossible this season. Bale staying injury free and Benz scoring goals. Sigh

y'all need to have more confidence in the benz. especially as he is the only one with a goal so far. why the disrespect?

bale getting hurt in training? seriously?
I thought the danger was in matches, not training sessions. well, that does bring up the question, who the heck plays in bale's spot when the guy is out? Vazquez?
Asensio?

we playing a dangerous game without more attacking reinforcements.

Rely on a guy that scored what, 4, 5, 6 La Liga goals last season? Nah, gonna leave my expectations to "he is gonna have a dog shit season again" so anything higher is gonna be amazing.

we changing roles Doc. Benzema will take more responsibility or be sold failing to do so, in this I have no doubts. I would be more concerned about Bale. he seems not to understand his position as main man.

I think Benz is going to be shit as well. I have no confidence in him at this point.

@halamadrid2 disagreed. kovacic is much better defensively and a superior athlete. also a better dribbler. we need both to stay anyhow and replace kronos and modric together..

I think you're overestimating him a tad too much. Kovacic can be very lazy defensively. I can't remember what game it was (could've been Barca) but Kova came on with 15 minutes left and we conceded a goal and you could see him just jogging back while Modric and others were sprinting back

Ceballos also has a superior footballing brain. You'd never see him creating a red carpet for a player like Kova did with Rakitic

Ceballos I would argue is on the level of Isco when it comes to dribbling. He very rarely loses the ball

I agree though he is a superior athlete but that quality has remained untapped for much of his time with us.

You could see how Ceballos controlled the midfield against Utd, always demanding the ball, driving with it and connecting with the attackers. Even in our poor first half you could see how much more he stood out over his peers.

I was hoping Kova could do that too but he isn't brave enough to be the "go-to" guy and our midfield looks abit shit when he doesn't have Kroos/Modric to do that job for him.

Anyways with Bale's injury scare I hope we play Odegaard in his place. I want to see more of him. But I feel like Lope won't be able to promote him as we have millions of wingers right now most as young as him

Ceballos is the more talented midfielder imo. Only thing Kovacic has on him even at this point is speed. Not to say Kovacic isn’t good in other areas.
Ceballos just the entire package.

Hopefully we start giving them both more time together. Want to see how they work together.

Let's see how Ceballos does against real competition first. I'll be honest... i think Ceballos is a headcase that's going to turn into a fraud. I'd rather take my chances with a player who wants it and is willing to work for it.

Kovacic wants to leave though, so if all things remain equal and modric desnt leave he will be out. we will need a replacement.

As far as the Kovacic vs Ceballos argument goes, i think you are talking about two supremely gifted youngster who are good in separate areas of the pitch. Ceballos is much better and has many more tools to play higher on the pich; whereas Kovacic is much more adept to playing as a deep midfield.

When we signed him from Inter they had started the preseason if iirc with Kovacic playing as a regista in front of the defense. That has translated in Madrid, as he is able to play a defensive position in a double pivot. THis season he played a superb defensive game vs PSG in CL.

Those are positions and areas of the pitch where Ceballos doesnt live, he is not that type of player, he is much better forward. If we look at what he did with Spain or Betis, it was very much in a n10 role with freedom. He is an incredible dribbler and that allows him to drive the ball at will and find passing options.

Modric however can do it all, he is a todoterreno. he can play deep, in a double pivot, play a defensive game, and then go forward, playmake from the hole and control the game higher up the pitch. I would argue he is much better in a deeper role, specially when it comes to playing from the back.

It must really suck to have your main goalscorer sold, not replace him and being forced to play with Benzema as your main man and Mayoral as his back-up.

Poor Lopetegui, Florentino truly screwed him over on this one.

It would be unfair to blame him or fire him if he doesn't win a major trophy with such a laughable attack. The only thing I'm going to blame him for is the fact that he accepted this and didn't threaten to resign if the club doesn't bring him a goalscorer.

He'll regret it later because he'll most definitely be the scapegoat if Madrid gets knocked out of all competitions by December.