I thought it was a reasonable assumption that one of Asensio or Isco would come good.

I didn't think it was a reasonable assumption to expect Bale and Benzema to overcome the loss of Ronaldo. What's worse, we didn't even back those two up with viable alternatives.

Not replacing Ronaldo is decision I will never understand given the recent output (the past 2 years) of the other strikers. It was downright negligent.

You don't take a Lebron James off a team, replace him with nothing and expect the team to perform at a top level. It's simply not realistic.

titosantill wrote:@mamad, i think based on our league form last season, we realized it was a problem and especially with our talisman gone. what i give flo credit for is, he gave the team a chance (Even though i didn't like the decision). if flo didn't give them a chance and went for replacements, people would go "if he had left the team together and not broken them up they'd have done better". but now there's no excuse for anyone. flo gave all of them a chance to prove they where elite without cristiano, and now we are battling with freaking alavez. now they can't get mad at flo with regards him selling them or the coach he chooses to hire

Disagree with you completely. Any sane person should be able to predict not replacing Ronaldo is a mistake.

I'm pretty sure Florentino knew that as well. But what baffles me is why didn't he act on it? As sports said, there's really no explanation for not replacing Ronaldo. You could make a case for Asensio and Isco and say that he didn't bring in reinforcements because he thought those two would do just fine. But Bale and Benzema? What was he thinking? How could he think that they'l magically step out of mediocrity and fill the space left by Ronaldo in goals?

Not to mention we were horrid in La Liga last season for the exact same reason: Unless CR was in god mode, we couldn't beat the sisters of mercy as the first half of last season proved (although we were better than this season looool).

It's not like Flo didn't already see the impact of CR not being CR... or just not being there.

EVEN WITH CR, WE NEEDED DEPTH AT STRIKER... ffs.

Even if We signed for example Hazard i don't think we could do much better unless other players start performing.

For other positions there was no reason to buy quality players. i mean our 4 player at the back and our 3 player at midfield were untouchable. if Perez signed someone world class then either him or one of these guys had to sit on the bench. and that couldn't happen.

You believe what you want, but i still think we have the most quality team in the world. minus a world class winger of course. the problem is nobody's performing even at 50% of what they used to be. nobody decline's that fast.

@mamad, the closest thing to a meritocracy in society is sports. you should not ignore output and say, because someone is untouchable (despite results, or output) you ignore your options. flo has done what he has done, and that's fine, that milk has spilled, but we cannot pretend bale hasn't been half man half glass since he came, and he isnt wine, he won't get better with age. we cannot pretend isco hasn't lived up to expectations, doesn't really have a position on the team, and isn't 22 yrs old, this is supposed to be his prime, but nothing. or pretend that benzema didn't score 3 goals from open play in the league, or marcelo's james  harden type defense. and all these players including the midfield ramos et al, are not getting any younger

as mentioned before, flo gave everyone  chance, for what its worth, so nobody can say oh they should have kept this or that guy. lol people damn near made danilo a martyr even though he was messing up. this really sums up marcelo, when opponents aren't even shy about it, its ridiculous

https://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2019/01/07/5c336ba6468aeb5a618b4567.html

Well the thing is we had options coming into season. Asensio was the next big thing and Isco was Spain's best player etc....

Anyway i agree this season is the last opportunity for many of our players. Perez will make changes next summer.

I think the surprises are:

- performances of Asensio ans Isco (and regarding the latter, I question his fitness or recovery from major surgery plus there is something odd about his attitude; he was off on media re Spain’s poor WC, he made some comment to Solari that obviously got under Solari’s skin, and he was off on media again after some questioned his club performances)

- WC fatique on Modric, Varane, Ramos, Isco, Carvajal , Casemiro, Marcelo complicated with the old age syndrome.

But there is no surprise re Bale and Benz, actually one could argue Benz has been better than what was expected. And of course no excuse for not buying more established forward backups.

93 points with a +65 goal differential wasn't primarily because we fought against the odds.  We had a system and a plan.  It worked well.  We ended with 6 draws and 3 losses while Barca had 6 draws and 4 losses.

Barca did not choke.

To put it in perspective, Barca won with 93 points and a +70 goal differential last season...and in 2015, 2016, Barca won with 91 points.

You're being dismissive of how well we played, how organized we were and how consistently we won that season... and the half season before.  That season was just a continuation of the previous second half of the season when we almost caught up to Barca. Going into 2017-2018, Zidane had more trophies than losses lol.

We weren't playing well, sports. We were getting results through repeated monstrous clutch performances from Ramos and Ronaldo, but we were all on the edge of our seat every single game because it felt we could lose at any moment.

And let's not kid ourselves, we all know why Zidane truly left. It was a miracle he won the CL with a declining squad, but he knew just like everybody else that this team had breathed its last elite breath, and that if it doesn't get reinforced with elite talent, we won't win anything. And this is before even Ronaldo had left.

We have milked this legendary team to its very bone and there's nothing elite left in them. And the board had all the time in the world to avoid being in this dire situation, yet they didn't. They were negligent. They were passive. They were limited in their vision and planning.

Some people accuse me for being overly critical, but there's a reason for that. Florentino has done mistakes that could've easily been avoided. And the fact that they were so easy to spot and avoid yet weren't, makes me question Florentino's abilities to continue on as the president of Real Madrid.

You could make cases for all the guys that weren't replaced and I would agree to some extent. But there's nothing, NOTHING, anybody can say that can justify Florentino not replacing Ronaldo.

So if we can all agree that it was a monumental mistake and a very easy one to spot, let me ask you this: Should a president of a great club like Real Madrid be trusted with the complicated things when he's refusing to remedy even the simplest ones like replacing the only reliable goalscorer he lost?

Not last year DoC... the year before. We were dominant. We actually had a massive lead in the winter break and beat the La Liga records for most games without a loss and most consecutive victories.

Barca made a charge in the 2nd half and we held on with some clutch performances. HOWEVER, you need to give yourself the chance make big plays... you have to set yourself up for the opportunity.

Italian managers were always considered "lucky". Deschamps is considered "lucky". Zidane... it's dismissive. When "luck" is consistent and repetitive... it no longer fits the definition of luck.