Rafa Benitez vs Julen Lopetegui

farfan wrote:
Last year Zidane had this exact same team with a misfiring Ronaldo who didn't bother showing up until February. Zizou still bared the brunt of the blame and people were calling for his head by October.

Absolutely ludicrous giving a manager whose had 3 months with the team a bit more leniency than one who was in his 3rd season. Shocking hypocrisy of the highest order

Thimmy wrote:We've recently suffered injuries to Isco, Marcelo and Carvajal. Now, Benzema and Bale are out injured, as well.. This wouldn't be too bad, if we had more depth. At least, we have midfielders. Because Modric will definitely get injured, at some point.

depth? that word is no longer permitted at our club anymore. the in-thing now is to show how many castilla players we can "develop", despite playing in segunda b. depth is a thing of the past , we expected not to have any injuries at all this season

It wasn't long ago that Isco was among the players who provided depth. Now, he's one of our most important starters :/

Thimmy wrote:It wasn't long ago that Isco was among the players who provided depth. Now, he's one of our most important starters :/

ahh those were the good times. Now we have Marco "scared to shoot" Asensio, Gareth "never fit" Bale and Karim "How am I still playing at Madrid?" Benzema all regular starters.

God bless Perez and his amazing transfer policy. If he keeps it up, we're definitely going places, I tell ya

The likes of Bale, Benzema, Odriozola, Varane, Courtois are the only Real Madrid players who are doing great/good since the season started at UEFA SuperCup.

On the other hand, rest of RM's squad haven't really done anything noteworth and both Asensio & Marcelo have been worst players by a fair margin.

However, there's a guy who's being routinely criticized on GoalLegacy and it's Benzema (Real Madrid's best goalscorer). Only just him. In a team where majority of the players have been awful. How comes that the criticism as been aimed towards Benzema when the entire team is struggling? Benzema has made 4 LaLiga goals in 8 games during this season, which is a decent stat comparing with other players.







As for Diego Costa, he has only made 4 LaLiga goals during entire 2018 and hasn't scored a league goal in 17 consecutive games...



Real Madrid have lost 3-0 against Sevilla who completely outplayed/humiliated Lopetegui's side. Never mind that about other games where RM lost points. But during the post-match comments, RM's offensive is being criticized.

When the entire team is struggling, than the criticism should be instead aimed towards Lopetegui. It's impossible for Benzema & Bale to score goals due to sterile possession in a low tempo. Neither of them can't just coming towards Navas/Courtois for receiving the ball and start making solo goals as if they're Messi.

And if we're being honest, they haven't really got much service laterly. It's also the reason why Benzema has 0 shot on target in recent games because he's feeding off scraps. Real Madrid don't have a player like Angel Di Maria, Mesut Özil or James Rodriguez who were amazing to creating quality chances to our forwards.

Is that you Chad?

I'm thinking S or Hans for some reason. Chad is incapable of typing without eventually losing his cool.

Nivash wrote:

farfan wrote:
Last year Zidane had this exact same team with a misfiring Ronaldo who didn't bother showing up until February. Zizou still bared the brunt of the blame and people were calling for his head by October.

Absolutely ludicrous giving a manager whose had 3 months with the team a bit more leniency than one who was in his 3rd season. Shocking hypocrisy of the highest order

If you are willing to chalk up this season's poor results to the poor form of the strikers ( DOC's argument), I don't see why we can't use the same line of reasoning to justify last year's league results. After all Bale, Benzema, and Ronaldo did suck during the first 5 months of the season.

Maybe it's wise to remain calm and give the coach some time to figure things out, but personally, I'm not expecting anything from the worst coach in Porto history. Lopetegui has all hallmarks of the typical stopgap Spanish scrub that Madrid hires during a transition. The type of coach who has an unremarkable CV, has accomplished nothing before, during, and after his Madrid tenure, and whose face will completely disappear from your memory in a couple of years.

I’ve been silent long enough. First off Lopetequi’s cv is not Porto but rather NT youth teams and then it was he who transitioned the senior team. Take a good hard look at that, before you say he is a scrub who has accomplished nothing.

I do think the comment re criticism to Zidane vs Lopetequi is valid. Maybe we were too harsh on Zidane and Sports was right (sigh) that it was senior players that let us down.

However I feel the real reasons we are in this scoring problem is two fold. Major one is the supposed scorers and the other is lack of creativity. The creators are injured, that being Isco, Marcelo and Carvajal plus the fact that Modric is way off the form we saw in WC and last Feb to May.

@Bill... it's not so much that they surprisingly let us down. The senior players predictably let us down, other than CR (his first half was shocking last season).

To expect highly decorated and entitled footballers who are getting older to either suddenly show more dedication or become more productive or get over recurring injury problems... is incredibly naive if not downright negligent.

But management is never going to take the blame. The manager will always be the fall guy.

I don't agree with that theory, sports. I could give you a list of players from other clubs who have won everything there's to win and yet continue to win at least one major trophy almost every single season. Why's that? There's actually a pretty logical explanation as to why those players stay motivated and hungry for silverware.  

If I were to give my take on this, I would say that players never lose the hunger to win (on their own), and when they are capable of winning something, be sure that they'll go all out for it. It's only when they know that there's little to no hope to lifting any major trophy that they stop trying.

When do they feel like that, you ask? When they feel the board is not being ambitious enough. When they see they're being surrounded by unproven kids and mediocre players while their best players are leaving every year without replacement.

This is when the board comes in. Their main responsibility is to make sure their players are evolving in a very competitive environment. This only happens when you're constantly looking for the best players in the world and having expectations that exceed the bound of possibility. Florentino used to be like that and it rubbed off against the players. But now, with his apparent indifference and satisfaction with a mediocre attack and unproven nobodies, it's only natural that the few WC players he has left are losing their hunger to win.

It doesn't matter how motivated I am, if you sell Ronaldo and put that laughable attack in front of me, sooner or later, I'll come to the conclusion that you are not really looking to win trophies and that you no longer care about staying at the top with the other elite teams.

Depends where they are in their careers DoC. If it's early enough, then year. But all our guys won silverware in going into their late 20s and early 30s... There was nowhere but down to go just due to age. And also there's age... unless you're CR and you work out like that... you hit 30 as a footballer and everything starts going south unless you're a goalkeeper.

What's worse, the silverwar had the effect of justifying our players' weaknesses in their own eyes. Why should they change if they won the way they are? Looking specifically at Ramos, Marcelo and Benzema.

Most dynasties don't last past 5 years in every sport. Ours lasted 5. Sounds about right.

Where is the Lopetegui Sack Watch thread?

Guy is going to get sacked for sure.

Poor coach, terrible tactics and ineffective football. Exudes no confidence at all during media briefings or during matches.

Bring back Zizou!

Cyborg wrote:Where is the Lopetegui Sack Watch thread?

Guy is going to get sacked for sure.

Poor coach, terrible tactics and ineffective football. Exudes no confidence at all during media briefings or during matches.

Bring back Zizou!

Thissssssssssssssssssssssss

So... another 3 points lost.

I'm glad our players are professional and won't bitch and moan like they treated Rafa (the Zidane afterglow tbh more than Lope) but Lope has to go. Beta cuck 100%

Bring back king Zizou! And replace the players. Too many old players who let down Zizou which made him leave. Zizou actually said he wanted to play attractive football when he started coaching but now I just feel the players did him wrong more than his tactics (maybe? not 100% about it tbh)

Zizou basically left than bitch a moan. What a player, what a coach

Last 5 games:
Sevilla 3-0 Real Madrid
Real Madrid 0-0 Atletico
CSKA  1-0 Real Madrid
Alaves 1-0 Real Madrid
Real Madrid 1-2 Levante

Atletico are really shit, how did they only manage to  draw us

-Last time RM went 5 games without a win was in 08/09 where they lost 5 league games in a row.
-The longest goal drought in RM history, lasting for 8 hours and 1 minute.

Rafa wins this IMO. Lasted longer if Lope gets sack today

guest7 wrote:

Cyborg wrote:Where is the Lopetegui Sack Watch thread?

Guy is going to get sacked for sure.

Poor coach, terrible tactics and ineffective football. Exudes no confidence at all during media briefings or during matches.

Bring back Zizou!

Thissssssssssssssssssssssss

Why would he exude confidence? Gave up his position as a national team coach, and was left with an aging squad that lacks depth and motivation + a transfer policy that seems to be aimed at the distant future. I doubt he predicted any of this would happen. But yeah, let's see what Zizou can do with this squad. God knows why he decided to leave

Thimmy wrote:

guest7 wrote:

Cyborg wrote:Where is the Lopetegui Sack Watch thread?

Guy is going to get sacked for sure.

Poor coach, terrible tactics and ineffective football. Exudes no confidence at all during media briefings or during matches.

Bring back Zizou!

Thissssssssssssssssssssssss

Why would he exude confidence? Gave up his position as a national team coach, and was left with an aging squad that lacks depth and motivation + a transfer policy that seems to be aimed at the distant future. I doubt he predicted any of this would happen. But yeah, let's see what Zizou can do with this squad. God knows why he decided to leave

A beautiful post that put a smile on my face. +1

Thimmy wrote:

guest7 wrote:

Cyborg wrote:Where is the Lopetegui Sack Watch thread?

Guy is going to get sacked for sure.

Poor coach, terrible tactics and ineffective football. Exudes no confidence at all during media briefings or during matches.

Bring back Zizou!

Thissssssssssssssssssssssss

Why would he exude confidence? Gave up his position as a national team coach, and was left with an aging squad that lacks depth and motivation + a transfer policy that seems to be aimed at the distant future. I doubt he predicted any of this would happen. But yeah, let's see what Zizou can do with this squad. God knows why he decided to leave

In the words of the man himself "The players need to play with more confidence".... This was after his first presser with Madrid after winning 3 CL's

That's just a hilariously bad attempt saying that Madrid has been scared of Barca in recent years/scared of playing possession vs bigger teams... Since we need more "confidence". That's how I comprehend it and I'm sure the players do the same. Not to mention that the last thing this team needs is confidence

What an idiot Ramos can be sometimes is unbelievable. Guy got caught on camera kicking the ball in anger at freaking Reguilon ffs

Valkyrja wrote:What an idiot Ramos can be sometimes is unbelievable. Guy got caught on camera kicking the ball in anger at freaking Reguilon ffs

DEFINITELY NEEDS MORE CONFIDENCE...

https://streamable.com/4gf28 Here is the video

WTF Ramos....

that's really no big deal, in team sports people argue at practice sessions almost all the time. its part of letting up steam, its likely, depending on how intense the session is, you'll get into it more in training than at real games, where you want to avoid being carded....ramos is a senior player and the leader, won't be surprised if he calmed this whole thing down in the locker room