Damn. Check out the Stats Man. Kudos.

Guys I missed the game. Can anyone give me a run down of how we played?

Thanks

Z... played a great game. Very creative and Kaka bossed believe it or not. So did most everyone other than Carvalho. Kaka and Benz both missed insane sitters. But they also each scored 1. CR7 scored the other (first goal) on a beautiful collective effort.

We've found the winning combo methinks with Kaka playing left and CR7 moving to the right. Starting areas don't really matter though as everyone kept switching around. More often than not, Kaka was left, CR7 was at CF and benz played SS or right.

Ozil, Khedira and Alonso (with spot help from Kaka and Benz) handled the midfield very well, which is what made me the most happy.

Easy game. We dominated after the first 15 mins.

Sweet, looks like we've over come our hic up in the past week.

The Kaka situation is interesting now. Di Maria's form has been horrid as of late and if Kaka really is stepping up to the plate then he should probably start.

Our squad is small though so I don't really think it's that important who the starters are because there will be rotations I reckon.

Now hope we smash Lyon home and away and put this group to bed early.

Anyway glad we won, on to the next one

Xabi Alonso was great in this match.

Checking out some highlights. Xabi is a golden god.

I'm excited. We can go far like this. Our counter attacking has proven itself to be jizz worthy. This game showed what Mous long term plan is, and I accept it. It's damn sexy.

And the galacticos are back. Kaka looks better than Di Maria IMO, he is a complete package - big game player, a sexy dribbler and a finesse shot that is deadly. And him and Özil has shown they can play together good.

We played way too much direct for my liking.

49 % possession at home certainly isnt impressive,we had no match control at all.Just pointing a flaw.

Ajax plays like Barca adit... They will almost always have more possession than their opponents. With teams who deploy tiki taka, you basically destroyed their tactics if you're at 50/50 possession. They spend so much time passing back and forth at the back and in non-dangerous zones that when they're only at 50 percent possession, you know that very little of it was in the final 1/3.

I have come to very shocking analysis after that game..Varane is just as good passer as Alonso ..Nah, I keed but Id to see him as a dm.

Talksport titled:
IS THIS THE BEST COUNTER-ATTACKING GOAL EVER? TAKE A BOW, REAL MADRID!

They had more possession than us and we didn't pressure enough. Our possession play was simply back 3'ing between Varane, Alonso and Carvalho and our goals once again came from counter-attacks.

One of the goals was one of the best counter-attacks from us though.

Just had to say guys... that goal was absolutely beautiful... Sublime football. I enjoy watching 2 types of football, and the type of football displayed in that goal is definitely one of them.

sportsczy wrote:Ajax plays like Barca adit... They will almost always have more possession than their opponents. With teams who deploy tiki taka, you basically destroyed their tactics if you're at 50/50 possession. They spend so much time passing back and forth at the back and in non-dangerous zones that when they're only at 50 percent possession, you know that very little of it was in the final 1/3.

Sportsczy, I agree with your comments and especially since it made De Boer and Cruff eat their words. They were both going on before game about our midfield being the weak link and how they could take advantage of this. Thanks also for the game update, I had to miss this one as I was flying at same time as game.

It sounds like Kaka is winning himself a starting position (over Di Maria). It was also good that Varane is playing so well, that hopefully Mou will use him more (and with the game Albiol had the other day maybe Mou will do a little more rotation with his CBs. I doubt whether Altintop got much of a chance to show anything but it's good to get him into the team. We just now need Sahin healthy.

I know most people don't think we had a crisis a couple of weeks ago, but the spanish fans, socios and team management certainly did. That's why Perez went to the locker room. With the 3 bad games (against much inferior teams), it could just as easily put us 6 or 7 points behind Barca which would likely have been unreachable. BUT, the team has come through it and it sounds (based upon the game I missed) they are looking again like a true contender for both La Liga and CL.

My opinion, is the basic problem has been MF with only Alonso and not an adequate partner plus Ozil playing too high (I won't bother mentioning the selfishness of Di Maria, Ronaldo nor Benzema missing obvious sitters nor Coentrao and Marcelo constantly bumping into each other). What started the turnaround was having both Kaka and Ozil in MF, one of them playing a little further back and having Khedira play with Alonso. This in my opinion dramactically changes team and for this Kaka gets to start over Di Maria. Back-up strategy will be to add Sahin to mix once he's healthy either in place of Kaka or Khedira (he obviously can spell off Alonso occasionally as well).

The big problem we have Bill is that our CFs aren't getting enough shots. This was the first game where Benzema got more than 3... and, guess what, he had a chance to redeem himself on an early bad miss. He has 4 goals on 19 shots in 7 games... That's 21+% accuracy, which is very good. But he's taking less than 3 shots a game (2.7 to be exact). That's just enough for our starting CF. He needs to be either perfect or the goat.

Any elite team needs to have their CF take a minimum of 4 and preferably more shots a game. Otherwise, they usually take shots without rhythm and feel for the game = bad misses at times.

Again, Ajax was the first game this year where we attacked properly and got the minimum of shots for the CF (Benz had 4 and scored 1 + 1 assist). It's one of those targets you must hit if you want a performant CF. I attribute to Kaka playing well and having a presence on the right side = more gaps in the box to exploit for the CF.

Just as a comparison... Villa has 5 goals on 23 shots in 7 games. So he's not getting enough shots either. But he's not playing CF. He's a wing/striker.

Which is another point... for all intents and purposes, CR7 is playing CF. So that they don't run into each other, Benz often comes up to the SS position or goes to a wing. He's not quite as wide as Villa is; but it's getting there lol.

Maybe i shouldn't harp on the stats you expect for CFs since our CF is not the one we put on paper... It's CR7.

Maybe this is not the thread but I've been reading about the General meeting (or something) that took place among the president and the socios. Read rather contrasting arguments that it either was great or it was a bunch of disagreeing with Perez only saying that we have the best manager in the world.

Would not mind if anyone can clarify what really took place during said meeting...

From what i read and heard about it, and i didnt do a lot of digging (but now im compelled to), Perez was acting as if Mourinho was the puppeteer behind him.

He pushed him as hard as he can, saying that mourinho defends the interests of madrid, and Mou is Senorio? well, that's what he said.

But i also heard about a lot of people complainning and disagreeing with Perez, namely, the president of La Plataforma Blanca, as always, was very critical of him, complaining about our debt, the power of Mou, the way Perez has been running the club again etc..

I'm going to try to read more about it.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:From what i read and heard about it, and i didnt do a lot of digging (but now im compelled to), Perez was acting as if Mourinho was the puppeteer behind him.

He pushed him as hard as he can, saying that mourinho defends the interests of madrid, and Mou is Senorio? well, that's what he said.

But i also heard about a lot of people complainning and disagreeing with Perez, namely, the president of La Plataforma Blanca, as always, was very critical of him, complaining about our debt, the power of Mou, the way Perez has been running the club again etc..

I'm going to try to read more about it.

Tbf to Perez what choice has he got. People tht are complaining about the power he handed to mou need to get a clue. Do they realise how much pressure he is under? Mou is the only manager that can potentially dethrone Barca.

There is a sentiment in Madrid, when they look at the way Spain is playing, then Barca, they dont think that the club is leaving up to the values and "greatness" of Spanish football.

Imo, if Madrid was playing anything like Valencia or Villarreal for example, with slick passing football, and was investing their millions on Spanish talent to give Madrid a stronger presence in the NT, the criticism would be of a different order.

There is of course a pressure to win, there always will, just like there will always be some criticism attached to Madrid, specially when they arent winning, but the sentinment wouldn't be the same.

And again, to say that Mou is the only manager that can potentially dethrone Barcelona is wrong. There is a way of playing football that gives trouble to Barcelona, and teams like Valencia, Villarreal or Valencia proved it.

You have to somewhat master the passing game with your side, because the only way to beat Barcelona trademark pressure play, is by moving the ball. Easier said than done, but the examples are out there.

If those clubs had the resources RM has in terms of buying power, then they would have hurt Barcelona a lot more, and with this line of reasoning, Mourinho is simply not "the only manager". I never believe that and i never will, it's almost like saying, "it's mourinho or doom". It's not true and people realize that.

Again, what upset people the most is the gap in "quality of football", which isnt close to the spanish tradition. I do think Valdano had this in mind when he pushed Perez to hire Pellegrini, but Perez never trusted him from day one.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:There is a sentiment in Madrid, when they look at the way Spain is playing, then Barca, they dont think that the club is leaving up to the values and "greatness" of Spanish football.

Imo, if Madrid was playing anything like Valencia or Villarreal for example, with slick passing football, and was investing their millions on Spanish talent to give Madrid a stronger presence in the NT, the criticism would be of a different order.

There is of course a pressure to win, there always will, just like there will always be some criticism attached to Madrid, specially when they arent winning, but the sentinment wouldn't be the same.

And again, to say that Mou is the only manager that can potentially dethrone Barcelona is wrong. There is a way of playing football that gives trouble to Barcelona, and teams like Valencia, Villarreal or Valencia proved it.

You have to somewhat master the passing game with your side, because the only way to beat Barcelona trademark pressure play, is by moving the ball. Easier said than done, but the examples are out there.

If those clubs had the resources RM has in terms of buying power, then they would have hurt Barcelona a lot more, and with this line of reasoning, Mourinho is simply not "the only manager". I never believe that and i never will, it's almost like saying, "it's mourinho or doom". It's not true and people realize that.

Again, what upset people the most is the gap in "quality of football", which isnt close to the spanish tradition. I do think Valdano had this in mind when he pushed Perez to hire Pellegrini, but Perez never trusted him from day one.

Valencia troubled Barcelona because Emery played his tactics very well, they aren't a slick passing side, they are a counter attacking side. I think the biggest problem for Perez is his reputation that he runs Rm more as a brand than a football club and it starts affecting his judgement. We all know his previous errros, selling Makelele, firing VDB, buying beckham over Ronaldinho, so in fact I think leaving the footballing matters to The manager is best for Madrid tbh, but Mou needs to calm down, he is letting this Barcelona team get to his head too much and tarnishing his reputation. He is just doing really radical stuff now and it's not funny anymore. The way you guys played Barcelona in the super cup is the way to go, collective pressuringa and quick one touches and breaking with speed. That's what Mou has been working on. The goal vs Ajax was beautiful and it would be the type of goal you should score against Barca. My worry for the problem you guys have is that we all know you can score against barca, but can you stop them from scoring? Messi is a massive tactical problem as his abilitie to drag players out of position and create space is second to none tbh. This season will be interesting but that Valencia game is the best I have seen the verlap in barcas RB position being exploited.

Let's scratch off Villareal for now...

the more perez trusts a coach the better as far as im concerned.. i certainly dont trust perez with any matter not concerning the economics of our club.

pellegrini was a victim

Doc wrote:Let's scratch off Villareal for now...

True, i'm always thinking of the old Villarreal

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

Doc wrote:Let's scratch off Villareal for now...

True, i'm always thinking of the old Villarreal

Which literally wasn't that far off in memory. I believe it was up to last year but yeah, definitely not the same at all this season...

Mou isnt the only coach who can dethrone Barca.

shuster with a very average squad with freaking GAGO as play maker beat them 4-1 with xavi and yaya running like headless chicken.