Real Madrid vs Athletic Bilbao

NCasemiro will serve a suspension after he finally got that elusive yellow card. Thank God, couldn't have it hanging over him all season long

Bilbao haven't beaten us at the Bernabeu since forever. Important to go into the break at least level on points with the leaders

With any luck Hazard will be back right after the break, both he and Lucas are nearing a return. James has already joined the group

Probable line up:


Will probably mirror the Valencia game. Lots of posession very little bite. Hoping Benz serves us a miracle because I am suee Bilbao will play for a draw

I would go for 3 attackers if Jovic continues on the bench, we have to score goals ffs

Conetois
Carvajal - Varane - Militao - Mendy
Modric - Valverde - Kroos
Bale - Benzema - Rodrygo/Vinicius



we need a backup for casemiro asap

Roca if we want someone with La Liga experience, Camavinga is fantastic but too young, he needs a few more seasons in L1 before moving

We playing a 433 without Casemiro. Please pray for our midfield

The need for another midfielder is glaring, winter transfer window one has to be brought it, brahim can be loaned out, Mariano can go too reinforce the midfield, as long as the Def and mid are solid that alone can keep the competitive.

Anyway let's get this win and keep a clean sheet, vini and rod can have a good statement game.

This match has no business going in 0-0 at HT. None. Wasteful finishing, hoping Zidane reads the riot act tbh.

No goals despite great chances and a 10/10 performance from the opponent GK seems like the norm now

As usual, we need 55 000 chances to score one goal. Benz with some very poor headers.

Carvajal has killed alot of attacks with some terrible delivery. Could say the same about Mendy if Vini wasn't playing causing headaches for Athletic and us

How can one be so thick in the head when it comes to decisions. Vini has alot of improvements to make. But man does he dazzle on that left side

Rodrygo on the other hand. He is a smart kid, you've got to say, he plays the ball safely to Carvajal everytime he gtets it.

We need that goal to settle down.

Funny thing is we bought Jovic to be the finisher we need and he has been anything but

Can't be a finisher on the bench. And you definitely can't get momentum playing once every month. Why did we even sign Jovic?

halamadrid2 wrote:

How can one be so thick in the head when it comes to decisions. Vini has alot of improvements to make. But man does he dazzle on that left side

The part where he trapped the ball instead of taking his shot first time with an open net shows how little confidence he has about his own shooting technique. As bad as Jovic is, he would have taken that first time. So would Rodrygo. Vini needs to find a way to stop being so hard on himself or something. Anything.

Doc wrote:Can't be a finisher on the bench. And you definitely can't get momentum playing once every month. Why did we even sign Jovic?

Thimmy wrote:Has he even played once a month? I’ve hardly seen him since the season started.

.. which wasn’t that long ago, to be fair. The half season feels longer when you read «we’re shit» and «we’re back» in such a short amount of time. I wonder what the verdict will be after this match

It just wasn't meant to be I guess

Bale useless sub as usual. Jovic too. Zidane needs to put his ego aside and pick Mariano who's actually a threat

When Modric and Kroos play together we are so God damn flat it irritates me watching them pass sideways. We need a Casemiro/Valverde sub pronto

Sigh, the moment we took off Vini, I knew this was gonna be a draw. Shit, Rodrygo (the one putting in accurate crosses) for Bale was an absolutely useless fucking sub. The sad thing, the one good cross resulted in Jovic almost scoring. What is wrong with Zidane? Can't he stop being so fucking automated with his subs lmao?

Speaking of subs, Bale is absolutely useless. That is all. I really hate draws like this. Baffles the mind how we cannot beat a team that hasn't won 9 outta 10 La Liga away games.

We are absolutely toothless up front. When Benz doesn't score noone does unless a midfielder gets one from distance. We bought Bale for 100M just ponder on that for a second. He plays worse than our 18 year old players. We need a RW who can actually score or we won't be winning LaLiga. Not even with Ronaldo scoring 40 goals all by himself did we win it, nevermind with a guy scoring half of that and a guy who thinks a good shift is getting on the pitch

Jovic was suppose to be the supplement but either he is so much shit in training that Zidane is giving him the Mariano treatment or we simply wanted to spend 60-70 mil because we're generous.

As for Bale, yeah, a complete let down.

Our midfield creativity is atrocious... the forwards have to create their chances amongst each other. Nobody from our midfield can create in the final 1/3 worth a lick.

Barca is the same, which is why they struggle too btw.

Odegaard, we need you now. Any way we can bring him back over the winter?

That said, we should have scored in this game.  Some bad luck and some bad finishing.  

I didn't feel that our concentration was completely there.  We looked very sharp, organized and concentrated through the Barca game...  then in this game, the passing was off (bad passes that we usually don't make), movement wasn't coordinated and some lack of general sharpness.

Doc wrote:Jovic was suppose to be the supplement but either he is so much shit in training that Zidane is giving him the Mariano treatment or we simply wanted to spend 60-70 mil because we're generous.

As for Bale, yeah, a complete let down.

We can't play with 2 CFs and Jovic isn't able to play wide.

We miss Hazard like a lot. When you think how little Hazard has done this first half of the season and who else we have... it's a bit of a miracle that we've performed this well.

Again, we need Hazard. Not the fat Hazard mind you... i'm half afraid he put on 10kgs while injured.

Wouldnt one solution for u guys to try is to start Jovic if hes a good finisher to take the many chances created, and have Benzema out wide or something? Benzema is a creater and all rounder as I recall many's opinions.

Like I mentioned before, I’ve barely watched Jovic play for us. I recall him scoring at least one goal that was ruled off-side, and I believe he’s hit the bar a few times for us, but he hasn’t been featured long enough or frequently enough to build any kind of momentum. I have no clue whether he’s a dud or someone who simply hasn’t had a proper chance of showing what he’s capable of.

The guy went from being an undisputed starter, to being a bit part player who missed a lot of our pre-season to injury. I feel a bit bad for him, but with how rarely Zidane seems to give him time on the pitch, I can only assume he hasn’t performed well enough in training.

I actually saw Chad’s point in this game! Jovic and Benz were repeatedly trying to make runs and the midfield completely ignored them!

I can’t understand why Zidane fails to give a backup #9 sufficient playing time to allow him to get into form. It’s not just Jovic, it’s been that way with every backup #9 we’ve had under Zidane!

Bottom line if you want a bench player to be effective, you have to play him enough to establish his form and confidence.

Unfortunately, I missed it last night & I just watched a replay of Bilbao game.

Yes, Real Madrid definitely had awful luck and it could've been a goal.

But it makes absolutely no sense to scapegoat Benzema for the 0-0 draw. If you only going by what people says he, you would think he missed 10 sitters lol.

Benzema had only 1 great goalscoring opportunity, which he was unlucky from. He rounded Bilbao's GK and he would've scored if a Bilbao player didn't made a goal line clearence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPRVDdL3j3A

futbol_bill wrote:I actually saw Chad’s point in this game!

Varnagel wrote:Unfortunately, I missed it last night & I just watched a replay of Bilbao game.

Hilarious try, Chad

sportsczy wrote:

Doc wrote:Jovic was suppose to be the supplement but either he is so much shit in training that Zidane is giving him the Mariano treatment or we simply wanted to spend 60-70 mil because we're generous.

As for Bale, yeah, a complete let down.

We can't play with 2 CFs and Jovic isn't able to play wide.

We miss Hazard like a lot. When you think how little Hazard has done this first half of the season and who else we have... it's a bit of a miracle that we've performed this well.

Again, we need Hazard. Not the fat Hazard mind you... i'm half afraid he put on 10kgs while injured.

And here lies the issue. Jovic, as stated by Jovic himself, is someone Zidane wanted. If we cannot play a 2 striker system under Zidane, why even make this signing? That money could have been allocated to signing Ndombele, Van der Beek or even Tadic or Ziyech (the latter would have made at least ONE of us pretty happy). Feels like we legit wasted money on a player that is turning out to be unnecessary. I can't even call him a flop as he really has yet to do much flopping lol.

Pretty sure Hazard put on weight

He's not unnecessary. Benzema usually does miss about 6 weeks or so a season due to injury and he does fade a bit in the second part of the season (historically except last season).

Issue is that Benzema has suddenly become an iron man. Maybe he's extra motivated because Jovic is here?