J 5 | Racing Santander - Real Madrid CF |21 . 9 . 2011 2000 CET

Real Madrid have had their bright start to the league dented by defeat to Levante, third away match in a row for Madrid and so far, not so good, Santander were defeated 4-0 by Atletico this weekend and are currently 18th in the league with just a point.


My predicted line up for this match

i want fcking callejon, where the f is he!?

I wouldn't start Callejon yet, as good as he is I don't think the time is quite right to bring him on yet, he should have a taste of la liga before starting a full match, I expect him to come on after half time if the team is leading.

i like you team but as much as Di Maria is diving
he does help out alot at the back with Ramos
but yeah we need to discipline
i hope Varane starts too

buddytaller wrote:I wouldn't start Callejon yet, as good as he is I don't think the time is quite right to bring him on yet, he should have a taste of la liga before starting a full match, I expect him to come on after half time if the team is leading.

im printing dozens of pages of di maria's face right now and taking a piss all over them. my boy from the 50s has to make his prescence shown.

The team also need rest, our second half performance against Levante was quite poor, we struggle to create chances, I hope Ozil, Granero and Higuain are well rested enough to start the match by Wednesday. I would like Varane to start too, but it's best not to put too much pressure on the boy, I'd prefer Arbeloa in defence.

I really would like for mou to change his three 'core' players [carvalho, coentrao, di maria], I'm not saying they are bad but carvalho really doesn't need to start every game with ramos, arbeloa [rb], albilol and varane.

Coentrao is our go to guy if someone is injured or can't play, does it mean he has to play every game? I don't think so, he can enter as a supersub or start in a trivote. He just doesn't handle the pivot role properly with alonso.

Now onto Di Maria, its clear he wasn't at his best in the last few game so why push it and still start him?

Mou should grow some balls and drop the workhorse type player for creative ones when necessary. I mean having Ozil alone, or the average Kaka alone won't bring you goals easily. He should also start both benz and higgy if they both deserve it [which was the case for this game].

Every team knows our weakness which is our midfield. Di Maria cannot fill the trivote role and ozil needs to get used to playing deeper to conceal this weakness. Also bring in Granero, give him a chance. Pair him with Alonso.

I'll be realistic though so I know mou won't change his usual line-up. He should drop the players above since it solves several things.

Coentrao should be the LB. His athleticism is superb. His stamina and work rate are second to none. Decent defensively and great at bombing forward. He is the ideal LB.

Marcelo is wishful thinking.

Changing the line-up comes with its consequences, players who usually start have the chemistry already and bringing in new players throws of the balance of the team, and we saw bits and pieces of that yesterday, I'm pretty sure we'd have wrapped up the match in the first half, had a fit and on-form Ronaldo and Ozil played.

No risks this time, our best starting line up must start, and sub when the game is under control.

This match will be hard. We're in bad form, away at a difficult venue. We have to bounce back, fix whats wrong with our team, and rest players too. And we have to win. If we get 3 points and do all this, we can hope that Barca slips at Valencia and we regain the lead, though 1st place isnt possible for now.

My XI:

-----------------Iker
-Arbeloa-Ramos-Pepe-Marcelo
----------Granero-Lass
-----Benzema-Ozil-Cristiano
---------------Higuain

buddytaller wrote:Changing the line-up comes with its consequences, players who usually start have the chemistry already and bringing in new players throws of the balance of the team, and we saw bits and pieces of that yesterday, I'm pretty sure we'd have wrapped up the match in the first half, had a fit and on-form Ronaldo and Ozil played.

atm there is no chemistry at all whatsoever even with the usual ones, but we do need one thing...an efficient player to score our goals

J 5? Thought this was Matchday 4 in La Liga...?!

brace yourselves guys, no pepe this time to save carvalhos arse as he is injured, also no coentrao good i guess

time for 4-4-2 or callejon in place of dimaria

no pepe no coentrao. i do hope varane gets the nod. and entre the lass.

Doc wrote:J 5? Thought this was Matchday 4 in La Liga...?!

Matchday one has been postponed, so this is essentially day 4 but officially it's still matchday 5.

I wanna see this line up:

Pepe and Coentrao are out of the game both suffered muscular injuries during the match against Levante and are expected to miss about 2 weeks each. So it might look like this.

We better win or I'm going to stab someone

Casillas; Arbeloa, Ramos, Carvalho, Marcelo; Xabi, Granero; Di Maria Ronaldo Ozil; Benzema;

Really really hoping for a Granero - Xabi combo.

Callejon should get some minutes too.

Crimson wrote:We better win or I'm going to stab someone

Stab TMO, he seems to be off his knockers these days...

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm real disappointed after last 2 games. I know everyone is blaming ref but I don't think they played well in either game. Below are just a few of my observations / disappointments.

Benzema - while he is showing good play making skills, he is missing what should be sure goals. In almost every game this year he misses at least one sure goal. He can't continue to do this and still be regarded as a top striler. Last game he missed 2 wide open chances.

Di Maria - good energy but always makes same initial dribble to left - too predictable. He wants to dribble and never looks for pass until it is too late.

Coentrao- I know Mou likes him and we have to value his work rate, but there are beeter starters, wingers and even LB than him. He should be a sub player not a starter.

Carvalho - just too slow this year. Let's give Varane some playing time )or Ramos).

Team chemistry - they are trying to do it individually and don't make any lateral passes (like they were when we palyed Barca). The only lateral passesin last 2 games was for the only goal Di Maria) that we got in past 2 games.

Mou - he insists on same line-up and insists that players have to be ready to play at any time, yet we know you can't be in game shape unless you get regular game action. Nad last game his subs were all the wrong replacements at wrong time. I also think he is very weak when organizing offensive plays.

Pepe - lost his head once again.

Di Maria - he's taking acting lessons from Busquets!!

Bottom line is we need a lot of improvement to get back to the form they were showing in pre season and early games. If they continue like this, we are not going to win anything this year (yet we should be best or second best team in both liga and CL.

We are going to face the same opponent strategy in 3 days. A tough away game against a solid team and we don't have the right to make a wrong performance. So everything is against us this wednesday except that we usually win all of our league matchs by Tue, Wed or Thursday since December '06 (Recreativo shame in SB)

I'm sure we gonna start the match with high moral and high confidence and therefore we gonna make some chances to score and we don't have to blow them. We have to kill the match since the first action otherwise we gonna suffocate and a 0-0 by HT will dive us into doubt and we will act hastily.
Better manage this game from the FH.

Dive Maria again for sure

Its still extremely early in the season, so missing sitters is expected, Benz will find his shooting boots soon enough.