Valencia vs Real Madrid

All eyes will be on La Liga this weekend as it is the prelude to the Clasico. We will be traveling to the Mestalla to take on Valencia, who of course is one of the most annoying teams to face in La Liga. We are in good form heading into this game.

On the other hand, our eyes should be focused on Saturday when Barca visit Sociedad. Barca are in the same situation as us, playing a tough team in a tough ground before the Clasico. Hopefully, our boy Odegaard will do us the favor. If Barca drops points there, the Clasico will be a must-win for them.

The biggest question mark for us is Casemiro. He is one yellow away from suspension, and while he might not have a lot of fans here it is undeniable of the importance he brings to this team. Losing Casemiro for the Clasico would be catastrophic. Zidane has a lot of thinking to do in regards to Casemiro, but as this is an important game, I don't think he will drop him. The other big question mark is who will play LB. Nacho has recently returned from injury and will likely start due to experience. Marcelo is injured and Mendy is suspended.

My predicted lineup:

Courtois
Carvajal Ramos Varane Nacho
Valverde Casemiro Kroos
Rodrygo Benz Isco

I think Zidane will go with his diamond here and will depend on the experienced players to win this one. We will be sorely lacking in width on the left but bringing in Vini later in the game would remedy that.

The following 5 days could very well decide La Liga, as the possibilities of either going 6 points away or 6 points ahead of the league can happen.

No diamond please.. it doesn’t work anymore. 4-4-2 flat or 4-3-3x

The diamond actually worked pretty well against PSG, but defensive errors cost us the W there. I do agree though that it has lost its effectiveness and not as fresh as it was in 2017. Knowing Zidane though, I predict he will go with what has worked for him.

I would like to see Vini and Rodrygo started with Benz this time leading the attack, but I dont think Zidane will go that way. Either way, I trust in Zidane

I am furious Casemiro didn't force the yellow. If Valencia are losing you can bet any money they'll do their utmost to get Casemiro a yellow card. These teams hate us so much

With Mendy in there instead of Marcelo, we're less reliant on Casemiro... Modric, Kroos, Valverde would be perfectly fine.

Mendy isn’t in there. He also is out. The choices for LB are Nacho, Militao or Carvajal. Although I think your argument still stands.

sportsczy wrote:With Mendy in there instead of Marcelo, we're less reliant on Casemiro... Modric, Kroos, Valverde would be perfectly fine.

Against Sporting Gijon maybe. Our problems isn't even the fullback position its getting overrun in the midfield. Mendy has been playing drunk for a while too anyways. Don't think he'll be our long term fullback, when attacking he reminds me of Odriozola. Casemiro is irreplaceable, only Llorente could effectively back him up. Valverde in that position might work for a game but never as a long term solution and definitively not against Valencia at Mestalla.

We have 4 irreplaceable players in our team atm, they are Ramos, Casemiro, Benz and Valverde. Every other position we might lose quality with the back ups but that wouldn't hinder us from playing more or less as good. You replace one of those 4 players and we become significantly weaker.

REAL MADRID SQUAD:
Goalj Keepers: Courtois, Areola and Altube.
Defenders: Carvajal, Militão, Ramos, Varane, Nacho and Odriozola.
Midfielders: Kroos, Modric, Casemiro, Valverde and Isco.
Forwards: Benzema, Bale, Jović, Vinicius Jr. and Rodrygo.


Huge props to our homeboy Odegaard playing a great game as Barca tied Sociedad today.

Let's take advantage just this once please

I disagree hala. The only irreplaceables for me are Benzema, Carvajal and Hazard... and that's because we have nobody to back them up in terms of position and/or skill set. That's it. There's an alternative to everyone else either in terms of a direct like-for-like player or tactical setup.

For once in our bloody lives can we take advantage of Barca slipping up. If we win this game we can play on the counter against them on Wednesday. We need to go into the break with at least a 3 points cushion

Valencia are injury ravaged. Only Rodrigo availablr in attack. That means he gets moved from the righr aka one less threat for our LB

There's always a bright side even to the darkest of times. For instance, one of the advantages of not winning the CL is not having to worry about your club wasting resources and risking picking up injuries in the meaningless CWC which is just around the corner. #sorryLFCfans

Hope the guys beat Valencia and capitalize on Barça's slip-up.

I would be very confident of our chances in the Clasico if we didn't have this many injuries, especially Hazard's who had just exploded into form prior to getting injured, as luck would have it.

So I would be happy with a draw against barça, but we have to beat Valencia.

I need Benzie to go God mode on this one.

I think ( hope ) Valencia will be mentally spent after their unexpected CL qualification.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:There's always a bright side even to the darkest of times. For instance, one of the advantages of not winning the CL is not having to worry about your club wasting resources and risking picking up injuries in the meaningless CWC which is just around the corner. #sorryLFCfans

Hope the guys beat Valencia and capitalize on Barça's slip-up.

I would be very confident of our chances in the Clasico if we didn't have this many injuries, especially Hazard's who had just exploded into form prior to getting injured, as luck would have it.

So I would be happy with a draw against barça, but we have to beat Valencia.

I need Benzie to go God mode on this one.

I agree but we have to play the supercopa which is in January for whatever reason, and it's in Saudi Arabia, for whatever reason

Who came up with this idea? Either way, seems like just a waste of time and unesscary stress to travel over there

farfan wrote:I think ( hope ) Valencia will be mentally spent after their unexpected CL qualification.

Honestly was shocked by this. Didn't think they were gonna qualify far less for finishing top of their group.

OFFICIAL:

Courtois
Carvajal Ramos Varane Nacho
Modric Valverde Kroos
Rodrygo Benz Isco

Diamond is back. Casemiro rested. Not sure if its Kroos or Valverde playing in his spot.

Edit: Its confirmed that Valverde will be the holding mid.

Pray for our midfield nothing is confirmed until you see how the team lines up on the pitch.

At least Casemiro should be available for the clasico. Still disappointed he didnt force the yellow against Alaves. He could have sat out against Espanyol and we'd still have won.

No Bale where you at Nick, just because he started a few games at the start of the season didn't mean Zidane would count on him. As soon as he found an adequate option Bale was out the team. And when his son comes back, he'll find himself in the stands

I am happy because this means he wont play from start against Barca. Thank the lord

If Nacho was going to play this game why the feck did he not play any minutes against Brugge

i am right here Hala my boy, i am watching this with eyes wide open

My god how bad has Isco been.

That left side is absolutely atrocious with Isco and Nacho.

We aren't creating enough chances. If this is the level of play then we stand no chance against Barcelona. We are totally predictable going forward.

Decent half. On one hand we've cut out every one of their attacks, on the other we've been pretty predictable. Valencia aren't interested in winning, they just want a draw. Carvajal needs to do alot better, he's refused to cross a few times when he's had the chance to. Nacho has been better in that regard. Isco is losing the ball alot in their area but they are defending with 11 players, so it's getting pretty congested in there. We need to cross more. Got our chances that way, they are vulnerable on the wings

Nothing going on with our left and right forwards, if Zidane was going to field Isco then he might as well should have fielded a 4312 with Jovic on for Rodrygo. Seeing how things have panned out, Vinicius should have started for Isco on the left, wrong player selection from Zizou.

All in all, my hatred for Valencia has increased 3 fold.

Very well played half. All we need is some better luck with finishing.

Carvajal has lost a few too many balls. Isco hasn't been super effective.

Otherwise, well done. We'll win this one if the trend continues in the second half.

This game reminds me ot the Sevilla game. We just need one breakthrough and we are guaranteed winners

Zidane needs to start thinking about making a change