Santiago Solari

No thread for him so I guess I'll make one.

Solari stunned Real Madrid..

When they offered him a contract they found that he doesn't have agent.

And his response about his salary was "anything you'll give me.. I'll accept it, no problem".

pic.twitter.com/V8X9oRhAIf

— Sajjad Lattef  (@sajjad_lattef) November 14, 2018

I can't post anything below the twitter embed so I gotta double post but I gotta say I'm amazed so far. Nothing shows that this progress will continue but at the same time he handles media very well and is actually stunning in media press conferances. My favorite quote so far:

Solari wrote:Q: Is the crisis over?
A: "You don't know Real Madrid. We live in a permanent state of crisis, even when we win the Champions League".

That's our secret; even when we win - we don't win beautiful enough. If we play beautiful, we don't win enough games. It's a eternal crisis that makes the club so special, in the end it does more good than harm because it pushes us to be the best tbh.

Can we give the man credit for turning the form of the club around?

Players are happy
He launched Llorente and Vini who actually look good, and trusted Reguillon over Marcelo

He is showing good qualities in management and is making an argument to stay coaching the team over the next season imo

Won't matter if we don't win against our rivals (Atleti and Barca) and get to the semis in UCL.

As unfair as it is, you don't survive at Madrid without big results even if there's progress.

I'll add that we're relying on Benz to carry the attack... and we all know he can fall off a cliff very quickly. He's literally the only player that can be counted on to score consistently (strange statement, I know).

I call these wins "feel good victories". Everyone involved feels good after them. Fans, players, the manager, I guess the groundsman, everyone. But, as Sports wrote, if Madrid doesn't beat their direct rivals or at least reach the CL semis, all this comes to naught.

That being said, I'll give him credit, he is steadying the ship. Lol.

The team doesn't have to win anything for Solari to keep his job, same for jlo cause this season has been transitional one to see who can cut it in cr absence and move forward from there, jlo lost his job cause he was coaching scared and didn't want to drop scrubs like isco and asensio cause he was Spanish nt coach bs, players don't give a shit about that when isco and asensio are playing the worst and hogging the ball thus losing the team.

this is real madrid if the players approve of Solari which they do cause they play hard for him, motivated and playing great, with crop of players you guys written off, the club likes managers who can at least man manage the team which is difficult at times.

Sports please save your benzema embarrassment for someone who cares, all he ever needed was service like I said, all this not a scorer and lost it stuff, is an excuse to gloss over how shit the service has been, cause you guys want to single him out for everything bad, but your concern he is playing too good and need him fall off a cliff why would he? Based on what? Salt?

Isn't funny that the player you guys rave about isco is the only one who can't turn it around? Shit on everyone else in the team except him and he still fails the most, now fans and media can stop questioning Solari about him and just accept he is average asf.

I agree with those who aren't getting carried away. The last two games, we played really well, and Benzema seems to have picked up form. Let's hope this will continue on until the end of the season and not just be another false dawn (we have seen so many of those already, so you can understand my skepticism ).

The most important thing for Solari is to keep giving playing time based on merit. Llorente should start ahead of Case. Same for Reguilon and Vini.

Also, if Benzema keeps playing like he did in the last two games consistently until the end of the season, he'll personally win me over. If he, however, fails to, then the club should seriously look for a proper replacement in the summer (I have no idea how good Rodrygo is, so I won't comment on that for the time being).

The Demon of Carthage wrote:
Also, if Benzema keeps playing like he did in the last two games consistently until the end of the season, he'll personally win me over.

Your expectations of Benzema is way too high. no one can play every game like that. except Messi of course.

Benzema's last two performances aren't just good. they are fantastic. scoring great goals while creating chance after chance is a Messi type of thing.

You're asking me if I'm putting too much expectations on someone who last season had a total of 5 goals in the league? You either have unbelievably low expectations or criminally blowing my statement out of proportions.

So let me, for the avoidance of all doubt and in the interests of clarity, tell you what I truly meant by that:

I'm not asking Benzema to score 50 goals a season and I'm not asking him to make any assists whatsoever. What I would like him to do is what any CF is supposed to do which is to score goals consistently.

With Ronaldo gone and Bale spending more time in the treatment room than on the pitch, Benzema is our primary goalscorer and the main stream for goals. So the chances of us either drawing or losing increase exponentially when he fails to score.

Of course I can't expect him to score every game or play as well as Messi. All I'm asking is for him to score consistently and not give us the laughable numbers of the last two seasons.

First he needs to match and leapfrog all the numpties outscoring him at this very moment in the league (bar Messi of course) because he has no excuse not to. So he has Stuani, Griezmann, Ben Yedder, Aspas and Suarez to catch up to. Once he's done that, he'll have convinced everybody that he can actually be relied upon to score goals.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:
First he needs to match and leapfrog all the numpties outscoring him at this very moment in the league (bar Messi of course) because he has no excuse not to. So he has Stuani, Griezmann, Ben Yedder,  Aspas and Suarez to catch up to. Once he's done that, he'll have convinced everybody that he can actually be relied upon to score goals.

You know what the funny thing is? Benzema has scored more than any of them this season

Overall, Benny has decent numbers but I am sure the other DoC is talking about La Liga only numbers.

As long as benzema gets proper service nothing is stopping him from scoring regularly, you can't score regularly when your service is non existent, no other forward has been dealing with this, why is it so hard to acknowledge that a striker needs service?

I know that. but why? other competitions doesn't matter? lol.

Mamad wrote:I know that. but why? other competitions doesn't matter? lol.

Depends on the topic. Personally, I am just glad he is getting back that fire in his belly that seems to have been dormant for years.

But back to Solari, the ship just keeps getting steadied.

Perhaps not so interesting, but I wasn't aware that he speaks English. Apparently, he went to college in New Jersey.

Yeah it's nice to see he is not just some back country coach. Give Credit where credit is due he is doing a good job overall this year.

When we hired him few months back I did not imagine myself saying this but bar a chain of terrible results, and if things continue as they are I am ok with him staying over next season as well

Yeah, he is doing a good job. You know, steadying the ship nicely. At this point, the ship done steadied and we are sailing nicely.

Ugh, give me Poch in the summer though. Unless Solari happens to win the CL to which Pep and everyone else should rethink their careers.

i'm still on the fence. liking the results, but still on the fence

The fact that the current squad has taken to him, and he is making tough decisions to bench big name players should not be underestimated. This is primo man management.

Tactically he has not looked super cute yet but if he is nailing the squad management aspect, to me it's more important (also given previous experiences) that he continues.

zidane did all that and more and after his first year people on here where still calling for his head. being on the fence till seasons end is to me a very fair reaction....especially considering i wasn't on the fence some weeks ago

titosantill wrote:zidane did all that and more and after his first year people on here where still calling for his head. being on the fence till seasons end is to me a very fair reaction....especially considering i wasn't on the fence some weeks ago

To be fair, during Zidane's second season, we were watching our fullbacks consistently and largely ineffectively hoof the ball into the box until someone came and wrapped things up during the dying minutes of the match with a draw or a late winner. We did so on a mindblowingly consistent basis for about half a season. Zidane's substitutes, not to mention the timing of them, were very confusing as well. Only Sports could make sense of any of it. We ultimately won both the league and the Champions League, so.. the ends justified the means. I do think some of the scepticism was warranted, though.

i actually thought his substitutes were amazing that season. ramos had some clutch goals, but his subs got us points, a lot of points that season. and even before that season people were calling for his head after he had steadied the ship towards a ucl the year before...its extremely easy to win my allegiance, deliver silverware and i'm with you. for players, perform consistently at a high level and i'm with you. but its not a lifetime achievement award with me, stop performing and i'm off the wagon

that being said, that i'm on the fence after a horrible first half of the season, is a positive sign

1-1 draw against Barca at Camp Nou
3-1 win against Atletico at Metropolitano
2-1 win against Ajax at Cruijff ArenA

pretty good results considering everything. kudos to Solari. now it's time to forgive Isco and play him