Real Madrid vs Granada

Valverde was great.

He should continue to be in the starting eleven. He brings the energy to link up with the vision and strength of the others.

Hopefully Kroos isn't out for long and it just a niggle.

Freeza wrote:And Navas isn’t better than either our current keepers.

Problem is not the keepers. It’s defending as a team.

Agree to disagree.  I think Navas shits all over both our current keepers.  In fact, Areola's ceiling is Navas at his peak...  that's the type of keeper Areola is.  He's a shot stopper.  His issue is mental.

Courtois is passed it.  He forces us to play very conservative defensive tactics.

And finally, we're playing a RB as a LB and a backup RB who was awful last season.  Not saying Odri isn't talented...  he's just not very good defensively.

I actually think our team defense looks really good this season.   We just have made a lot of individual mistakes.  That'll get cleaned up.

Cyborg wrote:Valverde was great.

He should continue to be in the starting eleven. He brings the energy to link up with the vision and strength of the others.

Hopefully Kroos isn't out for long and it just a niggle.

Valverde was very good. I think the fact that he doesn't play very often is why he has the abundance of energy to play like that, though. Ceballos had similar performances when he was being used as an occasional sub.

Yeah but this is also in line with the type of player that he is athletic, good at a lot of things not great at anything.

Valverde is just a window to how great this team would be if they had a genuine box to box like Kante for example

If you have Valverde and Casemiro to recover balls, that opens room for a AM like Hazard, James and Isco OR gives the fullbacks a green light to attack at will since they have midfield cover on both sides.

Interesting development if Valverde really becomes an option.

TMO and I spoke a few times regarding Valverde. he had it in his head his potential was that of a Uruguayan Schweinsteiger. i saw the potential but felt more observation would be needed and that TMO may wanna dial down his expectations.

Valverde is an interesting player to be certain. no doubt TMO would be pleased to see what transpired this game. imo he is a bootleg at best. but maybe just a bootleg wil be enough...

Dunno how y'all feel about james but I feel we need to prioritize Valverde as midfield has problem that he can potentially solve if he proves himself with consistency. I am also pleased with what i see. tmo might make me eat shit for once.

oh and gtfo here about navas being lesser than any gk. such disrespect towards our cl winning gk. I don't recall cl game winning performances from courtois, de gea, etc. Navas played a big role in our cl dominance. Navas did have his weaker moments but he proved his worth in big games as a gk. kepa, de gea, courtois aint got shit. having courtois in the same sentence as our cl winning gk is an insult. that clown dont deserve to be in the same sentence.

sportsczy wrote:

Freeza wrote:And Navas isn’t better than either our current keepers.

Problem is not the keepers. It’s defending as a team.

Agree to disagree.  I think Navas shits all over both our current keepers.  In fact, Areola's ceiling is Navas at his peak...  that's the type of keeper Areola is.  He's a shot stopper.  His issue is mental.

Courtois is passed it.  He forces us to play very conservative defensive tactics.

And finally, we're playing a RB as a LB and a backup RB who was awful last season.  Not saying Odri isn't talented...  he's just not very good defensively.

I actually think our team defense looks really good this season.   We just have made a lot of individual mistakes.  That'll get cleaned up.

Dude you always have these weird excuses thibu doesn't force anything, the players make the same brain dead mistakes regardless of who the keeper is, team defending is horrible and you can tell because the team concede a lot of the same goals, cause the team isn't compact direct ball between the cb and fb, draw over one cb the low cross into the space between them, everything doesn't have to be one particular players fault in a team a game.

Mr Nick09 wrote:Yeah but this is also in line with the type of player that he is athletic, good at a lot of things not great at anything.

Valverde is just a window to how great this team would be if they had a genuine box to box like Kante for example

What valverde has shown is the potential of players who actually do their jobs and play to win, instead of using opportunities to show off like the Spanish lads and the younger players.

he look really impressive and deserve to start based on his mentality alone, not everything is about pace and athleticism, it's about knowing what your role is, look at vini after his humble hard working start, he flamed out trying show off and deserves to sit on the bench, cause he mentality is shit cause he is thinking about being a super star ahead of winning like cr, if he doesn't improve that in couple season, he isn't gonna make it.