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.

Lopetegui quitting before his first match is career suicide.

Ughh, i don't want to see this team littered with supposed future stars hyped up by propaganda.

- Theo was brought in because he played in La Liga, is half spanish, and was from Atletico, but it's always been clear he's a bit of a tronco and look now, we're trying to get him out of here.

- Ceballos, jury still out on him but i'm not convinced. Fact that he is Spanish was obviously key.

- We were supposedly going to bring in Kepa, is he even good enough or was it just because he's "Ok" and Spanish?

- Now we bring in Vinicius and are supposedly going to bring in Rodrygo next year, but why? Let them get loaned and come in if they have sure things to offer.

AI at least kinda like that the galactico mentality is gone, in big part because of market conditions, i don't see a James 2014 useless-like deal happening today for example.

What Perez should do is raise Modric's salary and maybe extend a year and buy a Striker who can score goals and be an alternative over Blasphema, the hell are we doing bringing in Vinicius and putting hopes on him this early?

And i hope this stingyness also has nothing to do with Perez trying to save up money to go on with his Stadium renovation vanity project. A few months ago Perez brought in some canadian guy to help the team in economic and PR things and i thought i heard that he should help bring in a sponsor who pays for the renovations.

Casemiro back in training. Marcelo will be back tomorrow. Only the finslists left now

Interesting, apparently Celades is joining Lopetegui's coaching staff.

At least that guy loves Ceballos

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

You've lost confidence in Benz ever since M'bappe became a thing.

I would have patience with this team, not just Benz.

@ TMO whats wrong with trusting the prospects with our future? sometimes, a prospect can force the future to become the present. Vinicius i hope can play a big role this upcoming season.

edit: Us against Juventus soon. Lets see what progress has been made with what lopetegui plans for us this upcoming season.

Time for the first team to get going

Javi Sanchez doe

Guessing Ramos ain't fit to start or something.

why is Carvajal making such boneheaded plays nowadays?

Having trouble finding stable streams, we seem to be playing a 442/433 hybrid shape that we didn't see in the first game, with the idea of placing Bale more often in central positions. I don't like these kind of set ups more likely than not.

Pressing much better but far too many unforced errors. Where did Reguilon surface from

I just don't see it with Valverde sorry. I don't know what he brings to the midfield. Oscar i believe is a better prospect.

Take Benz out and put Odegaard in por favor. Bale can play CF. Not like we'll miss anything

looks more like a 4231 to me, and both Isco and Bale going in central position to allow the overlap is important. it's not working well though, Ceballos not as influential as in the first game.

they still look low on fitness, and for now, we only see what Lopetegui is working on in bits and pieces. It will take a while to all settle down anyway, so not bad so far.

Isco is clearly still in vacation mode, just playing like a retired player out there lol. Other than that, I see Lope's tactics slowly coming together, like the football. Ceballos is my new bae, just putting that out there.

I thought Benz looked good actually.

@Hala, Fede and Oscar play very very different positions and roles, they should not be compared.

Valverde is competing with Llorente for a depth spot in midfield but in a scheme like this, where we have Kroos playing so deep, we need a box to box player to advance the play in midfield. I dont think we have that player in madrid...

where the hell do I begin?
let's forget that Bale scored. our Frontline is not getting good enough service.

Midfield is mixed to me. at times were playing good possession making good passes at other times we have two to three midfielders in one freaking area. positioning is almost out of whack at times. and our direct passing is not consistent. resulting in giving the ball to the opposition. mistouches here and there. it's almost like the midfield doesn't know what it's supposed to do.

we're playing a 433 that switches to 4231 and 442 at times. the positioning is making the formation look weird. the real positive from the Midfield is that all recovery is good but we need to do better at holding the ball and passing the ball forward

our Midfield needs to improve.

Benz looked quite nice, so did this Reguilon fella. Seriously, I feel he may end up replacing Theo. Oh and another hot take (lukewarm take really): Odriozola is gonna bench Dani.

Ya, we're still seeing bits and pieces of ideas here, i guess i find the way the midfield isn't very static in position interesting. As for Valverde, we all have our opinions, not sure youve seen him play much if you don't think he's a good prospect.

Oh and Sanchez needs to get it in his head to stop playing long balls. They never work out ffs

I don't think the midfield has been that bad. We just don't know what to do in the final third. Bale needs to take on his man. He's never on the wings, and he doesn't contribute with anything meaningful on the ball when he drifts central

halamadrid2 wrote:Oh and Sanchez needs to get it in his head to stop playing long balls. They never work out ffs

I don't think the midfield has been that bad. We just don't know what to do in the final third. Bale needs to take on his man. He's never on the wings, and he doesn't contribute with anything meaningful on the ball when he drifts central

exacly, final third is where i suspect they will make the most improvements in a few weeks because players are not used to always be in movement, cuting into the box etc...

it's gonna come, it was a good half though

Doc wrote:Benz looked quite nice, so did this Reguilon fella. Seriously, I feel he may end up replacing Theo. Oh and another hot take (lukewarm take really): Odriozola is gonna bench Dani.

Dani's going the Ramos of old route unfortunately.... a bit calamitous.

Oh and the first 10-13 minutes, Juve looked good. Berna was lively and what not. Not sure if this is an instruction or men were just a bit tired/not feeling to try hard but after the goal, they just sat back and hoped for the best. To which, I thought wasn't ideal for a spectacle but it's a friendly so it's cool I suppose.

Vinicius coming on

No Mayoral thank God. Watch RDT score