titosantill wrote:i was going to ask, what does fiorentina's director have to do with this? when i first heard him talk i was like why is he the one talking about this? reminds me of when the president of some club in segunda, can't remember which, was saying guti was going to be hired as our coach, and certain "reputable" media outlets ran with that

Fiorentina were interested in a Sporting player called Raphina but then he commented that since Bruno is going to Madrid he is not on the market.

What's funny is that Raphina is going to Rennes today

Am I the only one who thinks €15m is too cheap for Navas? Even if you factor in his age, the amount is still not enough, especially in today's market.

Club did him a favor, he wanted to go really bad when he realized he would not compete with Courtois this season. Even then the asking price was initially 20 mil

Kind of astonishing that we signed 0 midfielder this summer. 0

Mr Nick09 wrote:Kind of astonishing that we signed 0 midfielder this summer. 0

And actually shipped off 2 of them loooooooooooool (Ceballos and Llorente).

Zidane bet everything on Pogba, what an idiot. i mean i respect the vision, but not having a back up DM looks bad.

Let's hope Casemiro has an injury free season and Valverde steps up big time.

The squad is overloaded with attacking midfielders/wingers: Bale, Hazard, Vinicius, Isco, James, brahim, Vasquez, Rodrygo.

Can we just once make common sense moves in a transfer window.... just once.

its that time of the year....with the transfer market closed, how do you guys rate our summer window this year? keep in mind, this is based on what you see as it stands Now.

i'll go first, d....of the 300 million spent, except for hazard, who i'm not at all a fan of, there wasn't 1 player signed that i was familiar with. which is cool, But it was supposed to be a shakeup of the squad, instead it just looks like we are adding makeup

i still maintain, that a coach should be allowed to pick who he wants. maybe i should add a tiny caveat and say a coach with a plan should be allowed to pick who he wants. i sensed there would be danger when someone posted that video of zidane hugging the players when he returned, i had a feeling it would be more of the same ol squad until they retire in 7 years

I actually graded the first part of the mercato as a A+....  regardless of who directed it.

Mendy is a beast.  I've watched him for a couple of years.  Fantastic buy.

Jovic was a beast too.  He had an unlucky preseason with injuries.  Once he gets going, he's a very good buy at that pricetag especially and given his age.

Hazard...  well he was relatively cheap given his talents.  Although I've been a fan for a very long time (since his start at Lille), i don't feel he's a great professional.  Showing up overweight to camp reinforced my fears.  I'm hoping he comes back strong and slimmer.  Obviously very talented.

Militao and Rodrygo are purchases for the future.  Both are very talented.  Neither is ready for Madrid today.

What I am SHOCKED at is that we sold 2 CMs and bought NOBODY.  NOBODY!!!!!  the ghost of Eriksen, which is what he is today unfortunately, is better than nothing.  At least he could have a renaissance.

As it stands, we're thin....  very very thin in the midfield.  Everywhere else is much better imo. Plenty of depth everywhere except at CM.

FYI, I would personally try Marcelo at CM now...

lmfAO sportsczy, marcelo at cm, you might have had too much to drink. btw that would make us thin at lb

marcelo’s amazing talents could let him play CM and he would add lots of creativity in midfield that we miss now

titosantill wrote:lmfAO sportsczy, marcelo at cm, you might have had too much to drink. btw that would make us thin at lb

lol i know.  grasping at straws.  what do we do when Casemiro, Kroos and Modric get injured.... which they invariably will!!!!!

I should really stop stressing about RM dumbassness in transfer markets.  It's an annual thing... why get bothered.

Given the number of midfielders and the number of AMs we have in the squad, playing a 4231 would be a viable solution to make sure we dont burn through our steps and can start someone else in place of Modric, say Isco or James for example.

But that's counting on everyone putting in the work to play defense. An attacking line of 3 behind the CF would also give more opportunities to the guys we have on the bench to fight for minutes.

i like the 442 we played vs Villarreal, except at times Benzema or Jovic were not doing enough dropping deeper to offer a passing option. Imagine James in that attacking 2 or Hazard, or Brahim... lots of combinations to try.

Valkyrja wrote:marcelo’s amazing talents could let him play CM and he would add lots of creativity in midfield that we miss now

well marcelo can't even defend at lb where he only has to contend with a winger or at most a winger and the rb, and you think he can do something to stop the barrage of attacks faced by casemiro? for all kroos and modric's shortcomings, marcelo can't do close to what they do (also a cm still has to put it on defense) . the best spot for marcelo , if you want him to just go rogue and not bother about defense is left wing, as an old school wide player (but once again his crossing isn't the best). and if you play him there, it leaves us thin at Lb with only mendy

Seriously, what is wrong with this damn club? Ok so Zizou was all (assuming) Pogba or bust but Perez and the rest of the club couldn't veto that and sign a midfielder? Really? Sign a guy and tell Zizou sort it out. Mind you, Pogba would have been extremely ideal in what Zidane (kinda) wants but there was no one else? Nobody?

Ugh, this club always makes the simple seem so complicating.

I think Zidane has way more control over who comes and who doesnt in this club now. He leveraged himself into such a position and if he tells the club that he is happy with the team, there is nothing they can say.

At the end of the day, if he fails, he will be fired. Let's hope he has plans as i mentioned earlier to be more progressive with his tactics than just playing a flat 433. So far in 3 games, we have started with a 442 or variation in 2 games out of 3. He could have reverted back to his 433 last game vs Villarreal, but he did not. THis is maybe the signal we are looking for.

@doc, in this situation the club won't just veto and just sign anyone for zidane. whilst there may have been a plan to do it with neymar, that's a special case. thing is, they'll spend a lot of money to get said midfielder, getting someone and zidane not playing said player causes problems for everyone, the player in question as well as the club who just have to stand idly and watch said players value depreciate

this one is not on flo, its on the coach to have alternatives if your first choice doesn't work out. and imo flo did all he could, including the pogba situation. as i mentioned in another thread, that whole pogba thing i feel was an insurance policy for both flo (keeps a mourinho option open) and zidane (keeps a mou option closed)

we just have to hope that others step up and try to at least fight to get into the team, and hopefully that may lead to results. basically we have to hope for the unexpected

The season hasn't even started and Asensio, Isco, Hazard and James are out.

Can anyone seriously think that Bale and Casemiro will stay healthy all season???? NO. AS IN NOT. I DARE ANYONE TO SAY YES.

So 442 it is. Ok fine. It has potential especially when Hazard comes back and you can put Bale on the other side. But Hazard won't defend. So maybe you need to bench Jovic and put Hazard next to benzema?

Seriously... Hazard is absolutely useless on defense. CR looks like Maldini compared to him.

@tito...  per Aulas, Madrid asked about Nbombele early but wouldn't do anything (until Pogba was sorted out likely). The good CMs that were available were sold very early, unfortunately for us.

The problem was that Flo would not spend the money on Pogba unless Bale and James were sold.  That was the formula.  If they were, Madrid would have paid the price.  The failure of those two transactions and them being conditional to the Pogba purchase are 100% on Flo.

ZZ does not want AMs. Told Flo immediately than De Beek and Eriksen weren't option. Problem is that there aren't many quality B2B mids out there.

Yes, long term i dont think playing both Benzema and Jovic together is a good idea, it will come in handy at times, specially since you can still have Mariano off the bench, but i see Hazard playing down the middle with Benzema, in between the lines, and Bale wide. But you have to push everyone to play defense, Hazard not playing hard is not gonna be acceptable. and i have seen him making efforts with belgium and Chelsea, he is capable.

in terms of depth charts,

Hazard KBNueve
Bale Kroos Casemiro Hames
Marcelo Numpty Varane Carv
Courtois

that's an elite side, and you can swap kroos for modric, switch Bale right and play Vinicius, Brahim wide, or even Isco, etc... this gives us more options to play more attacking players, providing that the squad works hard.

if zz has little to no plans of playing mariano, 4 4 2 is too dangerous/risky for us. you always want to have someone on the bench you can call upon for the position. i think to play 4 4 2, you need one and a half strikers on the bench the coach can trust

titosantill wrote:if zz has little to no plans of playing mariano, 4 4 2 is too dangerous/risky for us. you always want to have someone on the bench you can call upon for the position. i think to play 4 4 2, you need one and a half strikers on the bench the coach can trust

like i said, i dont think he will be starting Jovic and Benzema together often, and you dont need both to play a 442. You can have Hazard-Benzema as your front two, or even James-Benzema, We have so many attacking options now, it would be a shame not to use them. Guys need to work hard off the ball to defend in transition though, this is key.