Challenge Farca in midfield!

First off, Barca is a better team than when they played Inter because Pep was just getting his team together that year and he's replaced some the players that didn't fit his style since. As Nick said, Barca had Keita playing because Iniesta was out, Ibra was horrific and Messi was on the right. Now, they have Messi as the false 9, Sanchez and Villa. Just better players for their system and a better tuned engine. Yaya wasn't even able to play although he was on the bench. No yaya and no iniesta and floppy Ibra is a lot to overcome on the road. It was one of those nights when all the stars aligned for Inter.

Today, Barca has none of those weaknesses. They will miss Puyol. But Abidal is more than capable to cover the role, Fontas is an option and Adriano is performant on the left. They have also added Sanchez on the attack and presumably Cesc.

We have to bridge the gap in the midfield. That's the only way to actually control the games better as opposed to hoping for luck. Right now, we are a couple of people short... Sahin needs to get into it and Coentra needs to learn. We still don't have the horses.

Don't bother looking at it TMO... just a completely different Barca team. They are a lot better now.

sportsczy wrote:First off, Barca is a better team than when they played Inter because Pep was just getting his team together that year and he's replaced some the players that didn't fit his style since. As Nick said, Barca had Keita playing because Iniesta was out, Ibra was horrific and Messi was on the right. Now, they have Messi as the false 9, Sanchez and Villa. Just better players for their system and a better tuned engine. Yaya wasn't even able to play although he was on the bench. No yaya and no iniesta and floppy Ibra is a lot to overcome on the road. It was one of those nights when all the stars aligned for Inter.

Today, Barca has none of those weaknesses. They will miss Puyol. But Abidal is more than capable to cover the role, Fontas is an option and Adriano is performant on the left. They have also added Sanchez on the attack and presumably Cesc.

We have to bridge the gap in the midfield. That's the only way to actually control the games better as opposed to hoping for luck. Right now, we are a couple of people short... Sahin needs to get into it and Coentra needs to learn. We still don't have the horses.

hence my wish about improving our depth in the deeper mid. one injury, one suspension, and we will look like orphans.

We have a few things going for us too lol:
- Ceontrao will be better than Pepe in the midfield. It also allows Pepe to play CB. stabilizes both areas.
- Benzema is in the best shape of his life and in full form. He can come very high and help the midfield if we are having problems with our transition.
- Varane provides us with an athletic option if Carvalho is not performing. Much better than having to rely on Albiol.
- Marcelo is a year older and, hopefully, a year wise.
- Khedira seems a lot, lot more comfortable playing his game at Madrid. He was hesitant last year.
- Mou's system is engrained in the players.
- CR7 seems a lot more collective minded... meaning he's at least thinking about passing now. Hopefully, he doesn't revert in big moments.
- There's a lot of upside to this team as the year progresses.

k then.. with what we have atm, what do you expect for us to do to mae it dangerous for them?

how good do you expect us to be this year, because apperently its only getting closer to impossible to brake barcelona.

Because of Sahin's injury and Coentrao just learning the mid role, i think we need to play a highly tactical game like last year unfortunately. Need our shape defensively and the mid to be very tight and get them frustrated... and then hit them with counter attacks when you get the chance.

The dilemna is whether to have Ozil/Benzema in there or Di Maria/Higuain. I'm a bit torn. I would say that you go with Ozil/Benzema at home, since we need to try and win that one. At Barca, play even a tighter defensive game and have Di Maria/Higuain in there since they are more suited for counter attacks.

how good do you think we can become with this squad sports?

All depends on how Sahin recovers, Coentrao fits and whether khedira/xabi remain injury-free. If we can play a true 4-3-3, we can beat Barca.

I think the gap between Madrid/Barca and the rest is pretty big. We really have nobody else to worry about. With our improved depth and experience, we should be more consistent this year. So there shouldn't be a big gap between Barca and us like last year in La Liga.

Could be one of the best years ever for Madrid if most of our projects develop... or it could be pretty much the same as last year.

Cesc (if it happens), Sanchez and the inclusion of Thiago are massive upgrades for Barca. We're not more talented than them.

Honestly, we should just play like last season. It did work fine, we pressed them in 45 mins, I mean they had 1 shot and it wasn't even on target, while we had 7 on target. We were extremly unlucky to not score, when we should have.

Pepe did an incredible job against Messi and Xavi last season and almost single handedly neutralize the duo. I expect Mourinho to start him in midfield, there are still two more midfielders to provide creativity, and that should be Alonso and Khedira.

If I had my way I'd start Coentrao in place of Alonso, Alonso finds it difficult to create when he is pressed.
It could easily be Khedira - Pepe - Coentrao. But I expect Coentrao to play at left wing, Ronaldo in the centre and Di Maria on the right wing. Ronaldo can always shift to the wings or move up the field to help create play.

The alternative will be to play Benzema in the middle and Ronaldo on the left with Di Maria, but if last season's clasicos are anything to go by, then it's pretty improbable that the three would start the game.

I think many should acknowledge that currently barca aren't playing at there sharpest level, just remember last year right at the beginning of the season. They still didn't have a proper game with all the starters playing. I hope that could be an advantage for us now.

For the midfield I think we will need to sort it out before the clasico @ december, that's the important one imo. Hope we don't have many injuries by then.

its going to be hard, we cant lose or draw a game in la liga and we have to win every game in the cl.

oof.

defend as a team and attack as a team

As long as mourinho doesnt bad mouth barca and inspire them on the account of his players, Real Madrid will win the game or it will be pretty close at least.

We have improved alot, while barca stayed the same. I am pretty sure we surpassed them. La Liga is ours as of now with no injuries and all. CL will be tough though. Alot of teams have improved and will be stronger contenders than barca.

sportsczy wrote:We have a few things going for us too lol:
- Ceontrao will be better than Pepe in the midfield. It also allows Pepe to play CB. stabilizes both areas.
- Benzema is in the best shape of his life and in full form. He can come very high and help the midfield if we are having problems with our transition.
- Varane provides us with an athletic option if Carvalho is not performing. Much better than having to rely on Albiol.
- Marcelo is a year older and, hopefully, a year wise.
- Khedira seems a lot, lot more comfortable playing his game at Madrid. He was hesitant last year.
- Mou's system is engrained in the players.
- CR7 seems a lot more collective minded... meaning he's at least thinking about passing now. Hopefully, he doesn't revert in big moments.
- There's a lot of upside to this team as the year progresses.

+1 good post

I agree with Nick, that we still have a way to go to catch Barca, but I also agree with improvements that Sportsczy listed. I would like to see us take them head on with a normal starting line-up, just to see how close we are matched.

The midfield is the area that is a concern (by the way, expect to see Thiago in for them in these games. He's on fire right now). It would have been nice to have Sahin available for these two games, but that can be our surprise for the latter encounters. I would like to see Xabi and Khedira in mid-field with probably Coentrao for these games and Ozil possibly in for Di Maria. In the end these games are not all that important, so let's just see how close we are.