Perucho21 wrote:Please this is not the first i have seen you and others complaining about the clubs finances while other clubs fork out 150 million plus for scrubs. Insinuating that we cannot compete with City over transfers prompted my comments. Of course we can compete with them but we have other areas where money is being spent on. Plus Perez is not the type to pay a ridiculous amount for 1 player and breaking wage structure.

Again, nobody said that Madrid should spend €150m+ on scrubs. But when a player worth their salt comes to surface, an elite, demanding club should always bounce for them no matter the cost.

Now, you claim that Madrid can compete financially with state-backed clubs but you're not giving any proof to support your claim. Nick LOL'd, Doc basically said that we can simply because we are Real Madrid, and you pretty much repeated the same thing.

So instead of going around in circles, biting into multiple topics at once and shifting the goalposts in a desperate attempt to change the subject, why don't you come forward with a proof that shows that Madrid is capable of competing with City financially.

I'll wait.

Perucho21 wrote:

The Demon of Carthage wrote:

Perucho21 wrote:.

Completely off-topic. The question was: what's the proof that made Nick literally LOL when he was told that City may have a stronger spending power than Madrid. No one suggested that Madrid was poor, you just made a false assumption and based your entire post on it.

Please this is not the first i have seen you and others complaining about the clubs finances while other clubs fork out 150 million plus for scrubs. Insinuating that we cannot compete with City over transfers prompted my comments. Of course we can compete with them but we have other areas where money is being spent on. Plus Perez is not the type to pay a ridiculous amount for 1 player and breaking wage structure.

In regards to Pogba, i think we have messed up. Doesn't look like it'll happen in my opinion since the EPL is starting in a few weeks, and Ndombele is gone. Many reports of mids leaving us and no one coming in.  Ending up with Eriksen won't solve any of our midfield issues they will still be the same despite his talents.

Ending up with just Pogba definitely won't solve any of our midfield issues, either. I'd be a bit more hopeful if we had signed 1-2 very good midfielders in addition to him, but that seems very unlikely. I'm already curious to see how Ndombele will perform for Spurs Next season. Despite how little people seem to care for their players who's name isn't Kane, they've been so damn efficient with their money spending in recent years, and I wouldn't be surprised if they have another gem on their hands.

Just an observation on the formation

Zidane played a 4-2-3-1 formation with Isco in the hole

But during the first half Hazard moved into the 10 role and Isco moved out wide

It wasn't an adjustment that they maintained for long, but it's interesting.

I wouldn't put too much stock into formations in preseason, especially early preseason. ZZ is just putting the players out there to increase fitness and evaluate individual talent. When you have a team overflowing with AMs, you just put out the players you have. That's why we played with basically no midfield at one point against Bayern in the second half. Surely we won't see a midfield of Kubo, Rodrygo, and Seoane anytime soon in the regular season.

While Isco should definitely stay.... Vasquez & James & Mariano must gtfo asap

Diaz should be loaned out.

CM & RW are two positions we look very thin at.

I wish Asensio steps up again to the levels of 2017 again, because he could dominate the left flank as he is the only true Left-footer forward RM have.

That Final 11th role is not necessarily a RW. It could be a RW, an AM/ forward or a SS!

I see it as a battle between Asensio, Vinicius, Jovic and possibly Isco. Asensio and Isco have to dramatically improve and Zidane believes he can get them to that previously displayed form. Plus you will eventually have Rodrygo and Kubo in the mix. Although neither can make it to 1st team until Valverde gets his Spanish passport (possibly in September) as the Non EU quota is full (Valverde, Vinicius, Militao). Same issue for Lunin!

I understand that Ceballos, Vallejo, Diaz will be lent out and Mariano, James and Lucas to be sold, although there still is a possibility Lucas remains as a squad player!

We need a back up DM tbh, if Casemiro get's injured only Kross can cover for him.

We had one and Zidane decided Kroos will do!

I think he is planning on using a CM duo midfield of Kroos and Pogba (if he comes) most of the time with Modric / Isco slightly in front. That means backups are Casemiro and Fede.

Of course I could be completely wrong and Zidane has decided Casemiro won’t get injured and that Kroos can play as a DM!

Valvarde aint that bad

Pogba and Kroos will be a nightmare in MF. Casemiro is a must in there. I like Pogba, at this point I doubt he will come in though but who knows.

I would rock a mf of Pogba Casemiro Modric/Kroos.


Hazard       Jovic/Benzema      Rodrygo/Vini/Isco/James ?/ Bale ?

Pogba/Isco   Casemiro     Modric/Kroos

Marcelo/Mendy           Ramos         Varane/Militiao            Carvajal
                               Thibaut/Navas

Makaveli wrote:Pogba and Kroos will be a nightmare in MF. Casemiro is a must in there. I like Pogba, at this point I doubt he will come in though but who knows.

I would rock a mf of Pogba Casemiro Modric/Kroos.


Hazard       Jovic/Benzema      Rodrygo/Vini/Isco/James ?/ Bale ?

Pogba/Isco   Casemiro     Modric/Kroos

Marcelo/Mendy           Ramos         Varane/Militiao            Carvajal
                               Thibaut/Navas

Fantastic profile picture. Brings back memories

Thank you Tito.

Now that Dani is out we are very limited when it comes to our MF, this is not looking good.

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/soccer-transfers/story/3906915/sources-real-increasingly-confident-on-pogba

My sources tell me Pogba will be a Madrid player, very easy

Fantastic piece of journalism there:

ESPN wrote:Perez told Zidane during a meeting in Montreal last week that it would be "difficult" to sign Pogba this summer given that United do not want to sell. Zidane then asked Perez and director general Jose Angel Sanchez to make another effort and now Madrid sources have said that, although United are holding out for €180m, there is a feeling they can find an agreement.

Remove the fat and BS from that statement and you basically get the following:

Madrid to United: We want Pogba.
United: He's not for sale.
Florentino to Zidane: I'm sorry we can't sign him.
Zidane: Try one more time.
Madrid to United: We want Pogba.
United: What part of "no" did you not understand? The "n" or the "o"?
Madrid: But Zidane has told us to try one more time.
United: oh that changes everything then! You can have him. There's definitely a feeling we can find an agreement here.

That's false DoC.

The news from good reporters in France is that Man U doesn't want the deal to be announced before they make all their purchases first. The clubs whose players Man U are targeting would inflate pricing otherwise... since Pogba would create such a cash windfall.

Similarly, Madrid wants clubs that are trying to buy Madrid players to feel that Madrid has pressure to sell high... in order to fund Pogba. If Pogba was bought, Madrid would lose that negotiating argument.

It's neither to Man U's nor Madrid's benefit to get this deal done before the rest of the transfer business is finished for both clubs.

That's the reason both Pogba and Raiola have been silent since the early part of the transfer window.

Bale to China, let's goooooo

And pedrerol saying Madrid have decided not to sell James for now.

My theory is that they don't wanna sell to Atletico and since Napoli do not want to provide a purchase option they are not selling for now.

Mr Nick09 wrote:And pedrerol saying Madrid have decided not to sell James for now.

My theory is that they don't wanna sell to Atletico and since Napoli do not want to provide a purchase option they are not selling for now.

Posturing

I actually agree with Sports for once, he's talking sense. Convinced you sign Pogbito in the coming days. HYPE for all of us. (except DoC I guess and...okay and maybe half of the Madrid fans on GL. Convinced Pogba will be great for you though.)

I hope you guys get Nicolas Pepe...  EPL is the place for him, not serie A. Heck of a player.

Seems Martial is going to play central striker too.... which is where he should have always played.

Where is the broken fax machine when you actually need it? Seriously, though, I'm under the impression that most of the Real Madrid section want him at Real Madrid, and it makes little sense to me unless they're going by pure, world cup hype or his nonsensical inclusion in the PL team of the year. If we get the inconsistent, arm-waving, stat-inflated bag of shit version of Pogba who's been playing for Man United over the past 3 years, there'll be no end to my frustration with this club. I want to see stability in our midfield, not someone with his on-pitch attitude, who doesn't have a sustainably acceptable performance output that would justify the hype.

I don't even think I've seen a more disappointing player with his level of talent. I've seen 2nd tier, Bosnian league players with a more reasurring standard of performance in important games, and his general performance output is outright disgraceful, considering what a high-profile name he is. Clearly, he's a player who's fueled by motivation, and I don't want to find out how long our motivation stock will last him. If Zidane can wave his magic wand again, then that's all well and good, but I'm absolutely not hopeful. I can't believe I watched him wave his arms around like an asshole when I told my Man United friends, only a year or two ago, that I was glad he didn't play for my club. Now, that actually might be a possibility.

Nicolas Pepe is one of the players that surprised me the most, last season. If he stays injury-free, I believe whoever gets him will get one heck of a player. Looking forward to witnessing his progress.

What I do know is that culture and the people who surround you heavily influence players. Man United have no elite players nor a winning culture at the moment. Pogba is not a Maradona where he can make nothing out of something and tbh no one can really do that. I think the culture here and the players we have will elevate pogba play and we'll see the French or juve pogba more than United pogba. Pogba is not going to beast every game but what we need from him is to be at his best in champions league and against the top teams in la Liga.

Maradona was snorting so much cocaine that he couldn't tell one situation from another if he tried...

World Cup is not hype when you win it and you are one of the competition best midfielders. He will do fine in madrid.

The James situation by the way is even funnier when you remember we don't have enough extra communitaries spots lol, there is no way he stays

Clutch wrote:What I do know is that culture and the people who surround you heavily influence players. Man United have no elite players nor a winning culture at the moment. Pogba is not a Maradona where he can make nothing out of something and tbh no one can really do that. I think the culture here and the players we have will elevate pogba play and we'll see the French or juve pogba more than United pogba. Pogba is not going to beast every game but what we need from him is to be at his best in champions league and against the top teams in la Liga.

Well, I've seen the France-like Pogba on occasion, but that version of him is extremely rare at club level, and only seems to last 2-4 matches a season. The problem with him is that, like Bale, he has a lot of matches where he's absolutely woeful, but gets away with it to some extent, because he gets the last touch before a shot by Rashford or Lukaku, or a penalty to make him the "match winner". His outright poor performances are absolute cancer. If he's not feeling up for it, he'll make sure the entire team knows, and that's the most unlikeable part about him. I can only assume how much it affects his team mates, but it really looks like he drags them down with him when he's like that. On his day, he's a steam engine. A player that any team would benefit from having.

On his much more frequent off days, he's just a waste of talent, and sometimes even a de-motivator. One thing that sets him apart from other, high-profile players is how much of a gap there is between the usual standard of his good games and his poor games, and that's likely because he seems to be so driven by happiness, or motivation, or whatever you want to call it. For a Galacticos- type, big money signing, I think certain expectations in regard to impact in big games is in order, and in that regard, he has never impressed me outside of his national team. Eden Hazard has received similar criticism for not performing in the big games, but I have much less knowledge of how he's been performing for Chelsea. At least, Chelsea fans seem far more confident in backing him up, in regard to how much of a reliable performer he is.