Barcelona vs Real Madrid

REAL MADRID SQUAD:

Goalkeepers: Courtois, Areola, Altube.

Defenders: Carvajal, Militão, Ramos, Varane, Nacho, Mendy.

Midfielders: Kroos, Modric, Casemiro, Valverde, Isco.

Forwards: Benzema, Bale, Jović, Vinicius Jr., Rodrygo.

Here we are at the first clasico of the season. Real are level on points with Barca after 16 matches, meaning whoever wins take the lead. This game won't decide La Liga but will give the winner momentum going into the 2nd half of the season.

GK, Defense and Midfield are obvious picks, problem is the attack other than Benz. Zidane will either go with 2 wingers between Bale, Vini or Rodrygo or 1 AM (Isco) with another winger. Both Bale and Vini have experience playing in this type of game, so I feel Zidane might go with his diamond again and choose 1 of the wingers to play alongside Benz. Isco was very poor against Valencia, so I hope he repays the favor to Zidane by having a good game.

My prediction

Courtois
Carvajal Ramos Varane Mendy
Valverde Casemiro Kroos
Bale Benzema Isco

I have the feeling Zidane will go with Bale this time, with the same tactics as against Valencia. Bale is a better option for crosses and Casemiro will give Valvdere and Kroos more freedom to push forward.

As always, let's hope we win. A draw wouldn't be too bad and a loss might sting as a fan but in hindsight we still have the 2nd half of the season left and 3 points isn't a big lead.

Hasta El Final! Vamos Real!

It will be a predictable draw. If it was the Bernabeu - easy Barca win. At Camp Nou Clasicos end up in draws.

Prediction: Ramos red card, Suarez wonder goal, Courtois howler, Madrid battle back to draw in the last min, Bale score and then declare in the post match interview that he wants to leave because he is muy triste but Zidane is hindering him

One or more of these things will happen

We should dominate the midfield. Barca is abysmal there. I don't like that we'll need to pick 2 of Bale, Rodrygo, Vini or Isco to support Benz. They're all underwhelming in their own ways. Really miss Hazard. In elite games, just one elite forward isn't enough. Barca is likely going to target Benzema defensively and I don't think we have enough to create many problems if they succeed.

I'd normally say Madrid should just sit back and counter. But that would nullify our midfield advantage. So i'd suggest we attack Barca in the middle of the pitch and try to dominate there.

Anything can happen in this one. No real favorite.

If Zz goes 442 then Benz and jovic rodygo or bale at 10 or 433 rodrygo-benz-bale, just don't get too stretched, no silly predictable back pass soft goal, play direct and force mistakes, this game should at least get a point, enough of the embarrassing losses a strong team performance makes this game winnable.

You’re the silly, predictable, backwards retard. If Isco plays, we win

Confirmed

Courtois
Carvajal Ramos Varane Mendy
Valverde Casemiro Kroos
Bale Benz Isco

Isco over Modric? not sure that's a good idea.

Modric would be a wasted sub if he starts. His legs can only take max 50 mins like we saw against Valencia

On the Barca front

Ter Stegan
Semedo Pique Lenglet Alba
Roberto De Jong Rakitic
Messi Suarez Greizmann

Busquets was dropped last minute. Also apparently Vidal stormed out of training when he learned he won't be starting.

Disappointing half. We are dominating but we need to score these chances

Not a bad first unlucky not to score at least one goal hopefully early goal in the second half

Look, this is the problem here.

We don't have wingers.

With Isco on the field, Zidane wants to dominate the game by outnumbering in the middle, directing play through the middle, pressing and marking in numbers high on the pitch, etc....

But there is no incision around the box, if Benzema drifts wide then he takes himself out, Isco is more likely to stay outside, and Bale is pumping crosses to few good reference points.


My point being, I'd rather see us attack and defend with more natural width, and for that we need wingers.

Barca look like disoriented clowns atm, but our lop sided formation doesn't exactly make it all too hard for Barca too bypass over the top.

we don't have any TMO. I think ZZ wants to bring Vini/Rodrygo against a tired Barca side around the 60-70 mark so that they have room to operate.

Bale on a yellow now, that sub should come soon.

Kroos is a shite playmaker.

It wouldn't be Zidane if he didn't take out Valverde in an important game

Modric is useless in these games. Should have put Vinicius on, dissapointed with his decisions

The result we wanted.

Look, we don't have any playmakers bar Benzema on the pitch right now.  We need Hazard.  We also need playmaking CM like we need air.  God bless Kroos and Casemiro... but they can't make a through ball to save their lives.  Can't have both on the pitch at the same time.

Kroos was shit, he completed 1 out of 3 forward passes and was easily our worst player along with Bale

we played great had we have Hazard and Marcelo we would of smashed them

Valverde, Varane, Casemiro and Isco were fantastic

we need to improve our attacking play, Hazard will do but we also need someone dangerous on the right which we currently don’t have

I still think that our best 11 currently has Benz Jovic with Hazard behind them in it

Isco was mostly terrible imo. Casemiro was a mixed bag... mainly because he can't make a forward pass to save his life.

Kroos' downfall is his lack of pace and his lack of truly cutting vertical passes. Perhaps Valverde could eventually sit Kroos the fuck down and Pogba or ?Odegaard? as RCM's?

I don't like formations like the 4312, if we had Hazard fit and a proper elite right forward then we'd be scary, but we've more or less been saying this sort of thing for years. We lack elite forwards.

And Zidane took too long to make changes.

Odegaard - Casemiro - Valverde is the future of the club, truly one of a kind players

The RW has been a problem for us for a decade. Can't even remember the last RW we had that wasn't terrible

Our midfield is fine. A mix of everything, our frontline is underwhelming bar Hazard and Benz. We have two kids and a Welsh Lucas

If we got Pogba and played a 442 with Hazard-Benzema up front and Pogba/Valverde playing B2B... Casemiro and Kroos handling defense and long passes... deadly.  I'm hopeful we get Pogba during the winter.  I think we move Modric, James and Bale while signing Pogba.

Pogba is not needes. No team has dominated our midfield with Valverde. A far cry from last season when even Rayo ran rings around us

We need a RW or ZZ needs to focus on developing Vinicius because sorry Rodrygo is not doing it for me