2018 / 2019 season prediction

I can't *bleep* believe that the standards of our back up CF right now is Mayoral.

what a complete joke

Valverde came on and eureka

Meh these kids lol, all they have are moments. nice game, from a great first half to a terrible second half. but it was fun nonetheless

Well, that 2nd half was a bag of hot air but after a 1st half like that in a friendly, I shouldn't complain. Mayarol is so much of shit, sigh. Just sigh.

Meh second half. Our play always dies a slow death whenever Mayoral comes on. For the good of our team he needs to feck off and let RDT be the back up

Of course they looked bad in the second half. We were playing 4th division players

Yeah, too many kids that defensive line was hot garbage at the end. Not a fan of Valverde x Llorente double pivot either.

By the way, we have 3 centerbacks, if one if injured while one is suspended, we are fecked lol

son of a bitch there was a game today? totally missed it.
now i gotta scrounge around shit

According to Marca. Asensio will start as the false 9 vs Milan. Probably what he's looking for vs Atleti

The squad is far too big. We need to cut 3 goalies, Mayoral and a few defenders

I don't know what Lope sees in Sanchez. He isn't good enough. Odegaard needs to stays. Maybe we can convert him into a CM. We don't have anyone with his vision and throughball ability. I think he's been loaned out enough times. There is nothing from his preseason performances that tells he isn't ready for the first team

there are always 3 goalies in the team lol, you can't cut 3.

and there are a bunch of kids that are leaving, no need to worry

Calma Hala,

Casilla is off to Sevilla, Lunin will be lent out, The nepotism kid, who cares!

That takes care of porteros. With defense, looks like we are going with 9 because of Vallejo. I would have preferred a new CB, but Sanchez is the replacement, maybe permanent aka Achraf or maybe he stays on Castilla after Vallejo recovers.

With MF, it’s actually short one, hopefully the Thiago story comes true and then we are actually set.

And with the forwards, we have Benz (ugh), Bale (hoping for a healthy season), likely one of Mayoral or de Tomas (double ugh, unless they finally get a CF), Asensio, Lucas, maybe Vinicius (although it looks like he will be with Castilla with call ups) and maybe Odegaard (although based on minutes he has been given, likely loaned out.

So numbers are portero 3, defense 9, midfield 7 (assuming they sign Thiago or someone), forwards 5 (without Vinicius nor Odegaard). That’s 24 without either of the two. So your only option to include Odegaard, is to do with 3 CBs, plus the injured Vallejo and even then Odegaard would be the #24 or #25 player! Do you know how much playing time a 24th or 25th player gets?

I am sure we can have a Castilla goalie shuttle between Castilla and the first team bench. Like Luca used to do

@Bill, it's going to be tough keepimg all those players happy. We'll have more situations similar to Kova's imo. The best thing would be to have 2 players per position. That'd leave us with 22 players and a happier bench

halamadrid2 wrote:I am sure we can have a Castilla goalie shuttle between Castilla and the first team bench. Like Luca used to do

@Bill, it's going to be tough keepimg all those players happy. We'll have more situations similar to Kova's imo. The best thing would be to have 2 players per position. That'd leave us with 22 players and a happier bench

That’s exactly why Odegaard nor Vinicius won’t be included. Ignoring the CF position, we do have 2 players for each position except Isco’s and with that there are pkenty of options.

Courtois - Navas
Carvajal - Odriozola
Varane - Vallejo / Sanchez
Ramos - Nacho
Marcelo - Reguilon
Kroos - Casemiro
Modric - Ceballos
Thiago (hopefully) - Llorente
Isco
Bale - Lucas
Asensio - Benzema / one of Mayoral or De Tomas or new CF.

I think ultimately it will be 2 players per position.

GK: Courtois, Navas... Luca or Lunin for Castilla.
RB: Carvajal, Ordi
CB: Ramos, Varane, Vallejo, Nacho
LB: Marcelo, Theo/Reguillon
DCM: Casemiro, Llorente
CM: Kroos, Modric
ACM: Isco, Ceballos
RW: Bale, Vazquez
CF: Benz, Mayoral, RDT
LW: Asensio, Vinicius

^obviously very very loose positioning terms, but that is a 23-man squad. The only odd men out are Odegaard, but I am pretty sure he will go out on loan, and Fede who will likely continue with Castilla or go out on loan.

Lol, Bill and I posting the same thing at the same time.. pretty much.

Agree with Hala, two players per position, and maybe an extra 2, if not it's overkill, 24-25 man squad max.

GK: Courtois, Keylor, Luca

FB: Carvajal, Marcelo / Odriozola, Reguilon

CB: Varane, Ramos / Nacho, Sanchez or Vallejo + CB

CM/DM: Kroos, Modric, Casemiro / Llorente, Ceballos,  Valverde or New CM?

AM/FW: Bale, Isco / Asensio, Vinicius, Vasquez

CF: Benzema / Mayoral and/or new CF

In my humble opinion, i think we are short 3 positions:
1) CB: i do not trust Vallejo, both because he doesnt always play with confidence, and because he has injury concerns. And Sanchez can't be thrown as 4th CB just right away. Even more so when we are already taking a risk with Reguilon, because if that doesnt work, we will need Nacho to cover Marcelo and we will be short a CB. I would most certainly sign a CB for this season, and i would still keep one of Sanchez or Vallejo in the first team. The only experienced CB i can think of would be someone like Manolas, with CL experience and he just turned 27. Offering him a 6 year deal works and he has a release clause at 37 mil unless the info i read was wrong.

2) CM: I dont think it's wise to go into  a season with just kids on the bench. While Lopetegui might have a way to get the most out of them, we just lost a very important player in Kovacic and i dont think Valverde or Llorente can support Kroos or Casemiro the same way. Profile wise we need a player who can be deeper than Ceballos and who can be a playmaker like Kroos or modric. It's clear here i would love Thiago to come.

3) CF: this one is self explanatory. I would even argue that in most clubs having 3 CFs would be normal. I dont mind Mayoral or RDT staying, if they are up for it, but i very much mind not signing an experienced back up CF. Not need to be picky here, just bring me someone: Martial, Werner, not the biggest Mariano fan but he could help, if Rodrigo wasnt expensive i would be down.

That's a 25 man squad.

Nick, I don’t think Deez or I have said anything different. It was Hala asking for Odegaard to be part of squad. The only difference that I see is that I consider Isco part of midfield (as a roaming AM) and Asensio now part of forwards as I believe Lopetequi will play rimsrily a 4-4-2 formation. Further I believe Vinicius will likely be with Castilla (with callups) and that probably will be the case with Sanchez. as to Mayoral / de Tomas, they simply are not good enough. I agree completely with you re the 3 needed additions.

Is this the season when Varane displaces Ramos as the main man in defence ?

No, but it will be the year that Varane starts demonstrating some of the leadership traits that Ramos has. There isn’t a contest between the two, but now is the time for Varane to step up re leadership when Ramos isn’t available. It was missing last year, but as we saw with France NT, he can do it.

finally a friendly that isn't past bedtime.

Line up should be published anytime, I hope Vini plays so I get to see him

I agree with you Nick, the 22/23 players we have in the squad at the moment is a start. With the Club WC and competing across the normal 3 competitions, we should bring in a CB, and CF for sure.

CF: It is obvious as Benz isn't reliable, and Mayoral should be 3rd option at the very very best. I don't know enough about RDT in LL to make a firm judgement, so I would leave it up to Lopetegui/Perez to decide which of those 2 is 3rd string. Bringing in a starting striker (Benz to be 2nd option), or very strong competition for Benz as a backup would be huge.

CB: Ramos, Varane, and Nacho I all have faith in. Problem is Ramos gets way too many cards, and Varane is an injury worry. We need a 4th option CB who is not a constant injury worry as well. Vallejo is not that player.

CM is the one I don't necessarily agree with. From your perspective, how you laid it out with a midfield 3- yes it makes sense to bring in a player of Kovacic's caliber to come of the bench because Ceballos, Llorente, and Fede would be quite light in reserves. But if we play with the double pivot we will have Casemiro, Kroos, Modric, Llorente, (possibly Fede), + new CM, all competing for 2 spots.

I think it's actually Llorente, Valverde, Casemiro and Kroos for those two positions in midfield. Modric higher up with Ceballos as his back up. Isco playing with more freedom forward.

That's why i see it as a problem to have both Llorente and valverde.

Seeing how much Lopetegui wanted kovacic to stay, it's clear that he was planning to use him quite a bit. And as i argued before, i value having another deep playmaker to get the midfield to tick, and ensure proper transition.

It's also an insurance policy

Age and injury are my big worries.  Ramos, Modric, Marcelo and Benzema are on the wrong side of 30.  Carvajal, Varane, Bale and even Casemiro are likely to miss games.

So having kids as backups is a huge huge risk.  We're covered defensively imo...  4th Cb would be nice but not the end of the world.

If we play the double pivot some, we can even get away without another CM.  But I would prefer cover there.  I personally like llorente a lot though.

At forward, it's shit.  If we don't do anything else... we need a good striker.  Anyone.  

I know the club is betting on kids... but they're the wrong kids too.  Other than Asensio (kind of at this point), none of our investments in these kids are top tier ones.  They're complete gambles.  I know EPL and PSG are paying massive prices for them... but due to their youth, they're not even that big a risk.  They're taking kids that are proven.

As an example... Martial is having a hard time at Man U.  But even now, he would fetch 50-60 mil.  They spend 85 mil on him.  Is that such a big loss?

PSG is offering 110 mil for Ousmane Dembele.  So is Man U.  He cost Barca 115 mil.  Again, how big a risk is that really?

I don't like our transfer strategy at all.  It's short sighted although it's trying to be long sighted lol.

That's true. I do see Modric higher as well, but given how flexible these players are and how Lopetegui will be asking his players to be flexible I think there are solutions:

Preferred:

Alternates:

Kroos or Modric out

Attacking

All starters out