he showed up in the box last year and missed a bunch of sitters, lost confidence and started doing link up away from goal. and you're right, he wasnt great by any means, but i'll take every goal we can get. and he was being fed a lot at home against valencia last year, he was fed at least 3 times in that game...btw your reverse psychology stunt isn't fooling anyone, giving him a 2.5/10 (wonder what your ratings were last season) don't think we don't know what's going on lol.

Good win started off rocky and the team adjusted calmly which is nice to see,slightly disappointed in the over crossing in the first half surely that will work itself out, in attack some players need to read the game better and play faster, otherwise the movement is fine, if jlo can iron out a couple of the kinks early in the season then skies the limit, the team is fine for the most part like I said, but another forward is a must tbh,and winger would be cool too.

As far as benzema goes if he is really serious about stepping up, then he needs to be less concerned with linking up in shooting areas,start working on his instinctive finishing and getting his shot volume up, I'm annoyed of him acting like crosses are the chances he can attack, I figure its side affect of cr breathing down his neck and forced into that role,but now he needs to show his seniority and selfishness, people can say what they want he is easily one of the the best players on this team needs to act like it, his footy IQ is great so he will make the right plays, but he needs to focus on his own game to increase the team chances at a trophy,kinda a meh brace still happy for him though.

After the match, a Uruguayan journalist asked Lopetegui what he thought about Federico Valverde, and he replied with a big smile and that his opinion of Fede as a player and person could not be better and that he thinks he has all the components to be a big player in our team.

Watching second half again, Girona were not as disciplined and compact as in the first 30 mins of the match and they couldn't either after they conceded and had to open up more to chase the game. Casemiro had more single pivot like movements and he was not simply standing horizontally with Kroos anymore, Isco was more centered as it evidenced in our third goal counter attack, and Asensio, Benzema, and Bale had better and more sane movements as well. So there was definitely an improvement in positioning from the first half but the team did not press high/geggenpress or remain compact as much as i would hope.

Marcelo after the game: I don't know why I was subbed, I felt fine

Maybe it was because you are a lazy mofo. He probably thinks that Girona not getting anywhere on the right side once he was subbed was a coincidence

crazy enough, i can see marcelo losing some starts to nacho. nacho is much smarter defensively and makes the right plays attacking wise. and marcelo looks like he can barely run out there..

Nacho has been very good and I'm a bit worried about Marcelo. he tries to do everything yet he can't do non. and if he plays as unresponsive as last night he may lose some minutes.

FennecFox7 wrote:crazy enough, i can see marcelo losing some starts to nacho. nacho is much smarter defensively and makes the right plays attacking wise. and marcelo looks like he can barely run out there..

we have no back up CB if we play all 3 but I see what u mean. I want Regulion to get a chance like Achraf did last season, I feel like he will do better

Ashaf got his chance because both Nacho and Carvajal were injured together. Would take something similar for that to happen, which I don't want to be the case.

Benzema won't shoot unless he's in the box. That has to change. Also, he needs to no automatically fade to the second post. Need to cut more to the near post... did that more in the second half which got him a goal. But he really needs to do it more consistently.

Just shoot. 3 goals in 3 official games is good. But 7 total shots is not.

Benzema scored a brace while Ronaldo is 0 for 2, beautiful. The goal was offside but the fact he actually was making such a run gives me hope he'll actually start playing like a proper CF. Good on him.

Marcelo getting subbed was more likely due to being run ragged by Portu all 1st half. Of course, it was made even easier because we are in August and Marcelo doesn't show up till January these days.

Good win against a team that was up for it big time and who also beat us last year. Also glad to see Turok's BS rating for Benzema is even more BS this week. Still more sane than 'Monica though.

Doc, i’ve seen this reference to Monica several times. Quien es?

'Monica is short for Harmonica, our resident Messi fan.

'Monica is a intriguing person I must say. His obsessions with Messi and other things make me wonder if @El Gunner should use those Psychology major skills to use

Anyway back to football: Kroos with another excellent game in the midfield. Nick was wrong about Kroos not working under Lope.

When did Nick ever say that re Kroos? He said Casemiro wouldn’t and that Kroos can’t play as the only holding mid, but other than that single role, I don’t believe he has been critical of Kroos. My debate with him is I see at times, Casemiro out and midfield would be Kroos, Modric and Isco. My view is both Kroos and Modric a bit back of Isco. Nick thinks this means Kroos alone at back and thus the criticism. And thus he has said, despite Casemiro limitations, he has to be there re DM.

But bottom line is midfield will be Casemiro, Modric, Kroos and Isco with rotations. Ceballos will be the main backup, leaving only occasional time for Fede and Llorente!

Seeing the structure and individual components of our team, i'd say that we need Marcelo to be better defensively with his positioning, and the team to be compact so it can win the ball early and "defend with the ball." The left attacking midfielder  has to be ready to help and cover for Marcelo and we need 3 men in midfield in some sort of configuration. Casemiro is too much of a tronco and obviously makes more sense in a scheme where the team defend and creates differently. Modric and Kroos can stay more back as a interchanging double pivot and Isco forming a triangle as a midfielder, not an attacker. Kroos doesn't have to sit permanently as the single pivot.

It might work with the way Lopo sets up Bill. Kroos doesn't need to cover as much real estate. But Marcelo would need to get sacrificed. I don't think it would function with Marcelo being the defensive player that he is. We'd need a proper left back.

So the decision is Marcelo or one of Asensio/Isco. marcelo wins this argument imo.

You don’t need to convince me, it was Nick that said Casemiro would start over Isco!

But I agree with you and MTO, re the problem right now is the LB.

For the most part team is adjusting to Lopetequi’s style plus there is obviously some rust on a few players, most noteably Isco, Modric, Casemiro and to a lessor extent Varane. Marcelo has the rust, plus clearly doesn’t understand what is expected of him in this system. I want to see Reguilon given a decent amount of time. I know he is making a jump of 2 levels, but he sure looked good and comfortable in the games he played. I say he has a much higher ceiling than either Achraf or Theo. Then you also have Asensio is adjusting to his role. But, look at the other teams and in that comparison, we are no worse off that others.

There is a reason why the first game away from home Casemiro came back in the team. he is an excellent defender and until you can compensate that in other ways, he will continue to feature in big/difficult games. 2 games is not enough of a sample size to prove me wrong.

Casemiro was poor all last season and in the world cup too though Nick. This funk of his has lasted a while now with some notable exceptions here and there... he's lost confidence for some reason.

How was Casemiro bad in WC they didn't get to the Semi final because they missed him. Last season he was a mixed bag like the rest of the midfield. Picked up form around the same time Ronaldo did. Casemiro is the most important midfielder for me. Idgaf if he isn't as slick passer as Kroos. Defensively he saves our asses time after time after time. Just look at Girona's first goal, their great chance for the second. Where is Kroos? You're having a laugh if you think we can win anything without Casemiro. Dude works for 3 players. Come big game you can bet your house that Casemiro will have an awesome game. If he'd finished the game against Atleti we would've seen out the game without much trouble.

He was better than Paulinho... Fernandinho should have played over him. The midfield was the biggest problem for Brazil because they were poor on the ball and couldn't create worth a lick.

And Casemiro was far more crap than our other mids last year.... far far more crap.

sportsczy wrote:Fernandinho should have played over him.

sportsczy wrote:He was better than Paulinho... Fernandinho should have played over him. The midfield was the biggest problem for Brazil because they were poor on the ball and couldn't create worth a lick.

And Casemiro was far more crap than our other mids last year.... far far more crap.

If you say so

Casemiro was not bad in the WC, let's not mix up his less than stellar performances last season with Brasil. He actually was very much needed against Belgium as Fernandinho was really, really not good in that match.

Agreed he was good for Brazil. If anything they missed him a great deal vs Belgium

i don't think casemiro was particularly poor last season, he wasn't amazing by any stretch. he was just average, and when i say average i'm not talking about his inability to pass or any of the fancy stuff; i don't judge my defensive midfielders based on that as that's not their job, but occasionally he put himself in harms way with some unnecessary cards. i thought (And i'm a fan of this player) carvajal was poor last season, and so too marcelo from a defensive standpoint....varane impressed me in the latter ucl stages, but i was getting fed up with him at some point

casemiro wasn't poor for brazil , though i'm not going to make him a martyr for them losing. as for marcelo, i'm not against him seating out some games, but when games aren't open we would need some creative spark from the left which nacho cannot provide. not to mention, it makes us very thin defensively at cb if nacho starts out wide........but yet we have like 90 goalkeepers, just genius....