Real Madrid vs Levante

Shaky second half. Understandable given the fact we played with Kroos at DM and have the worst GK in the world between the post. We had so many opportunities with counters but we couldn't make any of them count.

We should definitely continue with the first half XI. Hazard in for Vinicious, Isco/James and Bale/Lucas fighting for the RW spot

Let's talk about the elephant in the room.........Jovic. He doesnt bring any confidence to the team. Everytime he comes on we are 10x worse offensively. Mariano is much more useful

Jovic just reached, probably barely could speak Spanish far less understanding his teammates. Give him at least half the season before being all Madridista critical.

halamadrid2 wrote:Shaky second half. Understandable given the fact we played with Kroos at DM and have the worst GK in the world between the post. We had so many opportunities with counters but we couldn't make any of them count.

We should definitely continue with the first half XI. Hazard in for Vinicious, Isco/James and Bale/Lucas fighting for the RW spot

Let's talk about the elephant in the room.........Jovic. He doesnt bring any confidence to the team. Everytime he comes on we are 10x worse offensively. Mariano is much more useful

I understand the concern, but at the same time, I've hardly seen him touch the ball in the little time he's spent at this club. I like to think he'll get more involved over time, but that remains to be seen. Like Doc points out, communication probably isn't that easy for him, yet. I'm not worried about Hazard, but he was really hesitant with his passes and wasteful in possession today. I'm not expecting Cristiano- like, instant adaptation from any of our recent signings. Most players don't adapt that fast. Overall, I think we saw a positive performance today. I'll keep my expectations tempered until I see a comparable level of control against a team that doesn't give us so much time on the ball.

My only concern is wing defense on both sides when Carvajal and Marcelo are playing... that's our biggest problem spot. Mendy can solve the Marcelo issue... but Carvajal is a big big concern.

Every single one of the goals we concede is because of a fullback mistake (or at least it seems like all of them).

You can't let players make wide open crosses and you have to protect the 2nd post.

Jovic isn't a concern at all his problem is that, fans and media kept going on and on, how much he should be better benzema based nothing other than butthurt.

can clearly see jovic is playing with a lot of unnecessary pressure, just like how vini had a couple good games and the media/fans started the same bs, just because they didn't want to give a certain player his due and in the end vini got too full of himself then went to shit, samething with asensio, etc.

madrid media/fans always trying single out players to praise or blame in a team game and promoting internal strife, make the players feel the need to do extra shit to stand out instead of just doing their jobs, that the team can't be consistent and win the league in a normal manner like barca or be more competitive like atleti.

Doc wrote:Jovic just reached, probably barely could speak Spanish far less understanding his teammates. Give him at least half the season before being all Madridista critical.

Biggest issue was his injury in preseason... he never had a chance to adapt. Same with Hazard, Mendy and Militao.

All our transfers pretty much missed preseason.

I dont know. I feel like I have seen something from all our new signings even if they haven't quite reached our expectations. But Jovic I have seen nothing positive from so far. There was one game in preseason where I thought he played really well. But apart from that you could switch him with Mayoral and you wouldn't see a difference. We'll see how the season pans out i guess

halamadrid2 wrote:I think that stint at Bayern was good for James. He never worked in the midfield 3 for us before. Now he looks good there

I was thinking the same thing.

James looked really good. Worked really hard. Has a great pass in him. He has vision. Something that was really lacking.

Kroos and Casemiro are great together. With James there always available to receive the ball, it helped them a lot.

Didn't watch the game but I'm glad we won. The scoreline leads me to believe it was a close game, but the general feeling I got from your comments is that Madrid had a great first half and a not-so-much great second half. Most likely the result of our usual drop in intensity when we score many goals early on.

Considering the fact that we're still at the beginning of the season and that we had many absentees and suspended players today, I'll take the result with open arms.

Congrats to them! Looking forward to having everybody back and in full gear.

It wasn't a close game... we dominated utterly the first half and went up 3-0. They got a stupid one to start the 2nd... but then we should gone up 5-1 or 6-1 with any luck.

I think we outshot them 25-5.

Courtois allowing two soft goals made this game appear close. The guy is useless. He made 1 save and allowed 2 soft goals ffs.

He's rubbish, I have never seen a keeper being so weak on every aspect. I am so dissapointed in ZZ for choosing him. Even if Navas was 40yo I'd still choose him. Now we'll have to look for another keeper because we can't go into every gamr expecting our defence to be perfect, we'll leave space because our defenders like to attack and 1 shot=1goal cannot be happening

The first goal which gave Levante life was on his near post, Courtois was positioned on his near post yet still gave up the goal. The second goal he should have claimed, it was within his reach, but like every ball into the box, he never goes up to claim unless it's right infront of his nose.

Unless a shot or a header is straight at him he'll never save it. I was watching a montage of Navas' saves for us and man that guy made impossible saves look easy. Courtois will never reach that level for us nevermind Iker who was the barometer for any goalie

Like Sport said 22 to freaking 5 shots and the game ends 3-2. If i am not mistaken. Levante scored from their first shot on target

Pretty sure it's not ZZ who chose Courtois. He likely had political pressure. Flo has been trying to get rid of Navas for years...

Courtois continues to play like that with Zidane around and he will bring in a GK he likes next year to bench Courtois

Enzo Zidane

Stop with the Enzo Zidane lol. That's not happening despite your delusions. Areola may get a chance though.

Away vs Levante

Official:

Courtois
Carvajal Varane Ramos Marcelo
Modric Casemiro Kroos
Isco Benzema Hazard

At first I was wondering why he chose Marcelo again, but then I remembered that Mendy is just one yellow away from suspension and the next league game is against Barça, so it all makes sense now.

Still, that doesn't explain why he left Valverde out. Maybe he's resting him for the City game, who knows.

This probably means Bale would be starting vs City.

Yeah Mendy is 1 yellow card away from suspension. Still I question why he didnt start vs Celta.

Mendy and Valverde should start against City and Barcelona without question

Levante lost 5 out of their last 6 league games. It's safe to say they are not going through a very rosy patch currently.

Let's hope we don't drop any more points unnecessarily.

My god Benzema, how could you miss that!

I don’t understand how we have such a good, defensive record this season. It’s not like we have some impenetrable, flawless wall at the back. We’ve conceded the least amount of goals in the league, apparently.

my god Case, you had an open net in front of you.

Thimmy wrote:I don’t understand how we have such a good, defensive record this season. It’s not like we have some impenetrable, flawless wall at the back. We’ve conceded the least amount of goals in the league, apparently.

Mendy should get a little credit for that though. We're always more compact and solid when he plays.

I love Marcelo, but we all know how good his defending is.

Marcelo is pissing me off...

He’s so fucking lazy and that doesn’t help when you’re a bad defender at full effort

Can’t believe we’re playing the same team that fucked up last time