Benzema and Bale has won us more finals and semi's than people think.

I don't believe in game winners though. teamwork is where it's at.

PSG has 3 game winners in Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani. but they won't win shit in europe untill they figure out how to be a team first.

Although i agree we are lacking in attack.

PSG's issue is defense and, until this year, very suspect goalkeeping... match winners put you over the top and can compensate some. As an example, losing 6-1 away when you won 4-0 at home has nothing to do with match winners. Your defense just folded like a lawn chair.

The formula is good balance and match winners to put you over the top. That's how we've won our trophies btw.

futbol_bill wrote:I also agree with you that Flo isn't wrong with his not replacing Ronaldo for this season and with his pursuit of youth talent, all be it, one of our fundamental problems last season and this is there are too many youth on squad.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we only have a semi-established player in Asensio for the LW position, right now. This is Cristiano Ronaldo's position we're talking about. I can understand the hesitation with splashing out explosive sums of money on an available, world class LW in the current market, but all we have at the moment is a midfielder that's playing LW in a makeshift move to patch things up temporarily. He doesn't even have any competition, nor a consistent backup. That's a massive drop in quality from where we were last season.

As much as some of us may think Vinicius would do a much better job than Asensio at LW, hardly any coach is going to put their faith in an 18 year old foreigner, even if he impresses during brief appearances for the first team. He hasn't even been on the bench in most of our matches. I expect Solari to perhaps give him more playing time, but he too has stated in a recent interview that he wants to make sure that Vinicius stays level-headed.

Then, we move on to the RW position. We have Gareth Bale and Lucas Vasquez. I believe the latter can continue to make himself useful as a backup, thanks to his hard working attitude and Nacho-like loyalty to the club. As much as people don't like him, I have no qualms with him being here. I've never seen him complain, and despite his lack of talent, his work ethics makes him useful as a substitute. It's naïve to think that we'll find a better replacement, who's not too expensive and doesn't expect to be a starter. We no longer seem to possess that kind of spending power, anyway, and it's not the backup for our starting RW that needs to be prioritized right now.

Gareth Bale is an issue, and he has been an issue for several seasons now. He possesses the physical prowess to be able to leave his mark on any given match, but his injury history, and his frustrating tendency to underperform inbetween injury spells, makes him an unreliable dud. His performance potential is great, but it seems like CR's consistency has been masking how incompetent he is when he's not enjoying extended periods of time off the treatment table. That's two wings that are effectively ineffective, and our CF is doing little to compensate for it. Surely, we could have at least brought in a somewhat experienced winger who's more comfortable on the wings than Asensio is, and more reliable than Bale is? If we bring in a world class winger in the near future, he'd be reduced to becoming a backup, but we need that as well. We clearly had some money to spare, since we brought in Odriozola and Courtois. That money could have been much better spent elsewhere. Barcelona brought in a couple of talented players in their early 20s who, if not spectacular or world class, are at least making themselves useful. That's the kind of quality I would have expected the club to approach for this so called transitioning period. They still have weak links in Busquets and Pique, but they made some effort to patch up their holes. We didn't.

the biggest issue in madrid is the 'now', and that's part of what makes it tough for youngsters and these long-term projects. but whilst we're embarking on this development, the number of league titles compared to the rivals in the last ten years is alarming. having a bunch of 'charge it to the game' seasons doesn't help. thing is flo can do things to the extreme at times and forget the middle ground

with the first 4 games, the season was early and we played some teams at the right time, and the players had that little burst of inspiration to prove something with cr gone. but its a long season, that burst of inspiration can be overcome by bad habits, poor form, fatigue, or being garbage. but it is what it is, at least its la liga. besides barca you can expect the others to drop points.

but 3 league titles in ten years isn't on

Mr Nick09 wrote:as bad as we are, I am honestly not frustrated with this team. Do I think they can do better? Sure. Frustrated? Never.

This team delivered an all time high level of happiness for me three-peating the CL. I read comments here and it's like people are losing their mind as if we have had a trophy drought for 10 years.

Maybe people forgot but I remember the Calderon days, those were truly dreadful. We have come a long way and understanding and accepting this team needs a bit of a transition is part of winning as well. That being said Lope was super shit after his first 4 games, the job swallowed him whole and the insecurity born from being sacked from the Spanish NT never went away. I suspect that he even communicated that shit to the team, specially after a player (I think Kroos) said that with Solari happiness is back in training.

Also all people who expect some kind of hitting the reset button, taking lots of debts to sign 6 world class players or something like that are dreaming.

Watching a legit group of WC players play football like they have no idea how to attack and/or defend is legit frustrating. They should be doing a whole lot better vs Valladolid among other actual inferior opposition. They also got manita'd by Barcelona who good struggled vs Rayo so yeah, frustration.

Winning 3 CL in a row is a legendary achievement but that is of no use to the club when they are struggling to actually win now. Considering not too long ago, you mocked the 50 match unbeaten run, you should be well aware records are just that, records.

I didn't forget Calderon era nor did I forget the era where the club really was in shit (the tail end of Lorenzo Sanz's tenure). Again, that doesn't really make what is happening any better. If the club was like Milan, where players were legit no longer good and the club was broke, then yes, adjustments in expectations are to be made. But the players are still very good at what they do and the club is quite profitable so yes, it's a frustrating time in these early days of the season. Thankfully, La Liga is competitive enough that Barcelona, Sevilla, Atletico aren't far off.