We have done everything we can for Bale, when he leaves, there will be no regrets, no hurt feelings

Very good performance and we look a lot more organized. Solari is being pragmatic... he deserves to get a longer look.

good game, valuable three points. i don't know what i'd have done if we threw this away after barcelona dropped points earlier today. some players need gatorade or something with the way we keep suffering with injuries

yeah, there is no chance another coach will come in at this point. The players are happy with Solari and he will keep his job until Perez can hire Pocchetino next year

Kroos looks shitty though. Bale... well he wasn't playing lol. Javi Sanchez looked really good as did Odriozola. Modric and Ceballos did a good job too.

And Courtois looked like the keeper in the WC.

Minus the deflected shot, that tactical switch to 3 in the back worked like a charm. We actually nullified whatever attacking threat Celta had. Solari is some secret genius or something? Does Castilla hold back great managers?

Good win, really good win. Everyone tried their best minus Bale. He clearly is saving himself for the Denmark and Albania match.

Good win now there is an outline to stick too, play quickly and direct chances are more easy to come by so shocked, instead of dwelling on the ball for 5 mins before every pass anyway, hope couple of the players are fit before league play resumes

Ramos again out of position for the goal. what a shit defender.

and Lucas lost every ball he received in second half. except two. i actually counted.

Benzema was killer today. kudos to him.

We should play Reguilon as LB and Marcelo in the place of Bale. i mean except the speed he has nothing. Bale is useless when the game isn't open.

Truly remarkable we are within 4 points of Barca.

Doc wrote:Minus the deflected shot, that tactical switch to 3 in the back worked like a charm. We actually nullified whatever attacking threat Celta had. Solari is some secret genius or something? Does Castilla hold back great managers?

Good win, really good win. Everyone tried their best minus Bale. He clearly is saving himself for the Denmark and Albania match.

We did the same thing under Lopetegui against Barcelona. Seemed like our players were more motivated to beat Celta Vigo, though

Bale was our only player who didn't seem to press more than he usually does. I was surprised to see even Kroos running out there.

And only 3 points behind Sevilla, Atletico and Alaves and within a point of Espanyol. Also just notice, only La Liga and EPL have a competitive race for the title so far. Also just noticed Bayern is 5th behind Frankfurt and Leipzig, no wonder Hans is extra bitey towards Madrid

I liked our performance except for when Celta pulled one back. I really didn't like the sight of us retreating and trying to protect the narrow lead. When are they going to understand that nothing good can come out of such a cowardly approach?

I saw City earlier today attacking United throughout the game up until the very last second even though they were 2 goals up and there was no chance for United to ever come back.

Just look how good we play when we up our work rate and start fighting for every ball. There's no secret formula really.If you want to dominate you have to try to win the ball back collectively and press incessantly until your opponent drops.

The first half and the first 15 min of the second half are the perfect example to illustrate the difference between us and Barcelona. They have many problems, countless problems, but they conceal them through high work rate. It baffles me that Madrid still hasn't understood that their low work rate represents 75% of their problems and a simple adjustment in that department would work wonders for them.

About Benzema, he was stellar tonight. He did everything he's supposed to do to perfection. He scored, pressed, made key runs and even took the opponent 1v1 a couple times. So when someone defends this version of Benzema, not only do I agree with them, but I also feel the need to stand up and applaud such an amazing performance.

What I won't do and immediately lose the respect of those who do, is when some people defend him when he's playing like crap and try to come up with excuses to justify his poor performances.

I guarantee you if he played like this all the time, not a single soul would criticize him. This is the required level I expect and demand from Madrid's number nine, not the crap he had been displaying the past three years.

Congratulations Benzema, hats off to a brilliant performance. I hope you continue on like this and become the striker we need and not the passive, scoreless, useless one you have been all these years.

this team is good enough to perform like they did today, they were also good enough not to lose as much as they did with Lope. Just saying, our squad is good enough, but the coaching the players were not up to par.

Some of our losses were unacceptable imo, and it had nothing to do with some grand strategy to overhaul the team and sign 15 new players.

We also need to keep in mind the new manager bump is a real thing. We played great for a few games under Lope, pressed well had a dynamic attack, even Benzema had good performances. It sounds very familiar to what is happening now. Today we played well, I am happy for Benz, but I still have my reservations.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:I liked our performance except for when Celta pulled one back. I really didn't like the sight of us retreating and trying to protect the narrow lead. When are they going to understand that nothing good can come out of such a cowardly approach?

I saw City earlier today attacking United throughout the game up until the very last second even though they were 2 goals up and there was no chance for United to ever come back.

Just look how good we play when we up our work rate and start fighting for every ball. There's no secret formula really.If you want to dominate you have to try to win the ball back collectively and press incessantly until your opponent drops.

The first half and the first 15 min of the second half are the perfect example to illustrate the difference between us and Barcelona. They have many problems, countless problems, but they conceal them through high work rate. It baffles me that Madrid still hasn't understood that their low work rate represents 75% of their problems and a simple adjustment in that department would work wonders for them.

About Benzema, he was stellar tonight. He did everything he's supposed to do to perfection. He scored, pressed, made key runs and even took the opponent 1v1 a couple times. So when someone defends this version of Benzema, not only do I agree with them, but I also feel the need to stand up and applaud such an amazing performance.

What I won't do and immediately lose the respect of those who do, is when some people defend him when he's playing like crap and try to come up with excuses to justify his poor performances.

I guarantee you if he played like this all the time, not a single soul would criticize him. This is the required level I expect and demand from Madrid's number nine, not the crap he had been displaying the past three years.

Congratulations Benzema, hats off to a brilliant performance. I hope you continue on like this and become the striker we need and not the passive, scoreless, useless one you have been all these years.

bruh Rafa Benitez already prove if you use benzema as a proper forward he will score almost at will, and when Carlo, mou, Zidane and jlo send him out to be a passenger to help the bales and cr of the world to shine, he will suck and its about damn time he is no longer limited to waiting on crosses all game long and doing nothing else, I can't see why coach's and the midfielder can never take responsibility for some of this, when it's very obvious who the team is playing for and who it's not.

you gonna tell me isco being slow as hell on the ball carvajal and asensio shooting the ball from the corner flag counts for nothing? How about the them long range efforts from Kroos, modric, bale and casemiro they are more players in the team than benzema when you realize this you will drop this nonsense.

vanDEEZ wrote:We also need to keep in mind the new manager bump is a real thing. We played great for a few games under Lope, pressed well had a dynamic attack, even Benzema had good performances. It sounds very familiar to what is happening now. Today we played well, I am happy for Benz, but I still have my reservations.

again with the even benzema was good argument, you guys are reaching so hard to act like you can't see why he is or isn't scoring, isco and asensio gets dropped the team us much better? Even with benzema in the line up still even though you guys always trying to act like all the teams problems are on him so boring, if that true then why is the team winning when CR or bale ain't saving the day? Your argument is weak.

Mr Nick09 wrote:this team is good enough to perform like they did today, they were also good enough not to lose as much as they did with Lope. Just saying, our squad is good enough, but the coaching the players were not up to par.

Some of our losses were unacceptable imo, and it had nothing to do with some grand strategy to overhaul the team and sign 15 new players.

Depends on what you mean by "good enough". If there's anything I've gathered from our performances over the past 2 seasons, it's that our players either aren't capable, or willing to press as much, and certainly not as consistently as any other, decent team. Like Barcelona, we have a few important players that are past their peak, and while undeniably talented, they don't look as sharp and energetic as they used to. Even with the work ethic our players showed today, I have no doubt in my mind that our squad is far from optimal in it's current state. We can't keep boiling the blame down to solely being tactics. As for who starts, and who doesn't, I've always been under the impression that our coaches have always had to contend with Florentino's persuasion, to some extent. Ancelotti mentions it in his autobiography. Bale has nothing to worry about, anyway. His backups are Asensio and Vasquez.

Good enough not to lose 4 games in 5 against some very average teams which is the reason why we plunged into a crisis. The same way that winning can make your team feel invisible, losing brings the worst emotions.

Barca destroyed us because emotionally we were to fragile to play that game. Confidence was at an all time low and at the sight of adversity we were drowning which is unlike anything we saw from the team in the past 5 years.

chad4401 wrote:

vanDEEZ wrote:We also need to keep in mind the new manager bump is a real thing. We played great for a few games under Lope, pressed well had a dynamic attack, even Benzema had good performances. It sounds very familiar to what is happening now. Today we played well, I am happy for Benz, but I still have my reservations.

again with the even benzema was good argument, you guys are reaching so hard to act like you can't see why he is or isn't scoring, isco and asensio gets dropped the team us much better? Even with benzema in the line up still even though you guys always trying to act like all the teams problems are on him so boring, if that true then why is the team winning when CR or bale ain't saving the day? Your argument is weak.

Reaching? He had a worse goal per game ratio than Casemiro last LL season.

Also.. we won today, and Benz played well. That doesn't erase all his bad performances the past 2.5-3 seasons.

Remember when you were gone for an entire year when your lover hit his peak of trash play? I miss those days.

vanDEEZ wrote:We also need to keep in mind the new manager bump is a real thing. We played great for a few games under Lope, pressed well had a dynamic attack, even Benzema had good performances. It sounds very familiar to what is happening now. Today we played well, I am happy for Benz, but I still have my reservations.

Henry and Monaco would like to have a word about such things tbh.

I don't follow Monaco much these days, but Fabinho left for Liverpool, Lemar left for Atletico, I read that Jovetic is out with a hamstring injury, Falcao and Moutinho are reaching retirement age (both 32, Moutinho was sold).. and on top of that, they have a coach with zilch experience. They bought Golovin and Nacer Chadli, among a range of the usual toddlers. I think they'll need more than a spur of motivation to get back to winning ways, unless some of their many prospects and young talents are about to emerge from the shadows.

True, it doesn't happen in all cases, but honestly Henry is uncharismatic, unqualified, has no experience managing, and Monaco have a lot of structural issues that will take years to correct I suspect.

Anyhow, the new manager bump doesn't always happen, but when teams do start to play better "magically" because of a manager change, I am always a bit skeptical until it lasts longer than a few months.

In our case I think we are getting a bit of a new manager bump, plus our overall play and individual play is regressing to the mean a bit (we were woefully underperforming and now we are looking closer to our average performance).

I think the main positive from this game was that Benzema looked confident and consistently good from start to finish. The upped intensity, which almost looked uncharacteristic of this team considering how we've been performing for some time now, likely won't be sustainable. From what I recall, the only times we've played with this kind of pressing in the past, has been in El Clasicos, and in the last stages of the Champions League.

Luckily, our next match is on saturday, so the team will have some time to rest. And it's against Eíbar, who have struggled to score this season, and got thumped 0-4 by Celta Vigo, only a couple of weeks ago. Pedro Leon has caused us some trouble in the past, but he turns 32 this month, and has looked a shadow of his former self since the start of the season. Should be a good opportunity to extend our winning streak.

Doc wrote:

vanDEEZ wrote:We also need to keep in mind the new manager bump is a real thing. We played great for a few games under Lope, pressed well had a dynamic attack, even Benzema had good performances. It sounds very familiar to what is happening now. Today we played well, I am happy for Benz, but I still have my reservations.

Henry and Monaco would like to have a word about such things tbh.

They're playing a 3rd division lineup... if you think we have injuries, you should check them out.  Other than Falcao, Sidible and Jemerson, the other 8 are all teenagers with no experience and are not ready for Ligue 1 football at all.

Take a look at the lineup they had to play against PSG: https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1281328/LiveStatistics/France-Ligue-1-2018-2019-Monaco-Paris-Saint-Germain