You wouldn't have been if you'd watched him in his last couple of starts.

Also, someone made a good point on twitter.

You have too many midfielders who look to drop deep to pick up the ball, all three of Casemeiro - Modric - Kroos look to do the same thing and have the same patterns. Literally someone like Ramsey would make such a difference as he wouldn't have the same desire to occupy the same spaces.

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 23 seconds ago
You wouldn't have been if you'd watched him in his last couple of starts.
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Has he been really that bad?

I wonder if it is worth converting him into a full-on striker now days.

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 9 minutes ago
Conte'nt, I think Barry's Valencian friend lives in sunny Scotland.
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Is Barry from sunny Scotland too ? I thought he was talking about Robb

I thought Asensio had a good game yesterday.

Edin, he was benched against Real Sociedad at the weekend.

Most thought it was just to give him some rest, but his previous two games (Valencia & Levante) h'd been absolutely abject. Was subbed off in both just after the hour.

It's odd, because before those games he'd actually been looking quite sharp.

Conte'nt, Barry was in Valencia a few months ago for a mate's wedding. Not sure if his mate's Valencian or married into a Valencian family. Maybe that's why you're confused.

Barry is indeed Scottish, he's actually one of the top three caber tos*ers in the country.

Who are the other two?

I dunno.

On your midfield comment, Casemiro's role is to shield the defence, that's it. In fact, his average position was being Marcelo's and almost wedged between the two CBs. If he ever carries the ball out or looks to make himself available, it should only really be to provide an option if it can't be played to either Kroos or Modric.

Modric or Kroos picking the ball up will depend on each circumstance.

Kovacic is more attack-minded than either of those two and doesn't drop as deep, but I actually prefer to have a variety of options for bringing the ball out.

was *behind* Marcelo's

I think the point was that, to put it simplistically, if you stretch the pitch into sectors:
Defensive line
space between defense and midfield
midfield
space between midfield and attack
attack

All the 3 RM CM's look to pick up the ball in that space between defense and midfield. Thus making it easier for other midfield's to defend against and causes the RM CM's to trip over each other.


Part of the reason Demebele has been so exceptional these past few weeks is due to Dele and the space he provides just behind the oppositions midfield. Causing Pogba, Khedira, Xhaka, Can etc huge problems in deciding who to mark and who to leave.

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
We were pretty poor last night. The result and Asensio's inspired cameo shouldn't hide the fact that we're an ageing team in urgent need of refreshing.

Bale is the only one of our starting front three who should be here next season, and that's currently on age more than on merit. Asensio shows promise, but we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking he's made the step up just yet. None of the other forwards are Madrid starting material.

Modric's time is also running out, and there's nobody to replace him in kind. Ceballos should be getting more opportunities in the league to see if he can raise his game.

Things aren't rosy at the back either. Ramos is now our only top CB, and only has a couple of seasons left in him tops - that's if his body doesn't start to give up on him beforehand. Varane really has not kicked on from his youth promise, Nacho is dependable and adaptable, but really not top drawer, and it's way too early to tell on Vallejo, but up until now 4th choice would seem to be his level.

Marcelo turns 30 this year, but that's the only position I think we have well covered for the future with Théo. Carvajal should still be around for years, but we need better RB cover. Nacho did excellently yesterday, but he isn't a RB.

The trouble is we don't currently have the same or similar quality replacements in the squad for the big players who we ought to be moving on now.

I'd be happy to accept that we need rebuilding over the next two or three seasons. Pérez won't though, which probably means we're about to enter a new two-managers-per-season cycle.
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We also have some decent youngsters out on loan. I'm liking the look of Valverde at Depor and Odegaard is getting some good first team experience in the Dutch league. Oscar Rodriguez is another player we should look at slowly integrating to the first team from Castilla.

But a CB is a must if Vallejo doesn't settle in. Just look at the rebuilding Pep has done at City. They've replaced all of their ageing defenders with quality young ones like Laporte. If needs must we must do the same thing and pay big to find a long term successor for Ramos.

Odegaard

comment by Edinspur (U1109)
posted 16 minutes ago
I think the point was that, to put it simplistically, if you stretch the pitch into sectors:
Defensive line
space between defense and midfield
midfield
space between midfield and attack
attack

All the 3 RM CM's look to pick up the ball in that space between defense and midfield. Thus making it easier for other midfield's to defend against and causes the RM CM's to trip over each other.


Part of the reason Demebele has been so exceptional these past few weeks is due to Dele and the space he provides just behind the oppositions midfield. Causing Pogba, Khedira, Xhaka, Can etc huge problems in deciding who to mark and who to leave.
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I've always rated Dembele. The guy has it all. On his day he's one of the best b2b centre mids in the world. If he was a couple of year's younger I wouldn't have minded him at Real

But in our team our "Attack Mid" Isco has a more free role. He drifts about all around the pitch, sometimes it's beneficial to the team but sometimes it hurts us as we have no outlet up front.

Nadz, we'll always have youngsters with good potential, but only a very small minority will eventually make it through. Pérez would never stand around for two or three seasons waiting to see which ones make it and which don't, and neither would most fans.

-------------------------------Navas------------------------------
Carvajal-------Ramos-------Varane-------Marcelo
------------------------------Casemiro----------------------
---------------------Modric-------------Kroos--------------
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Bale--------------------------Benz---------------------Ronaldo

Is our best starting 11. Isco could play instead of Bale depending on form and injuries.

These are the players we have that we have that are the ones we should focus on more next season. Give them more playing time etc.

Vallejo for Ramos
Theo for Marcelo
Kovacic for Modric
Asensio for Ronaldo

Now I think we already have decent replacements for the players we already have. The main question is who will we replace Ronaldo with. Will we go for someone like Hazard or Neymar? And regarding Benzema I think the number 1 target that we've been linked with is Kane/Icardi. I think we've got a solid base to build on but I do think we need fresh faces, not a lot, but definitely a striker and maybe a new CB.

Edin, it's not something I've analysed to be honest.

My impression was that if there was often too much space between our mid and forwards, it wasn't because our mids were too deep but because our wingers were reluctant to drop deep in support. It was generally Benzema who'd drop deeper for others to pivot around.

But then again, our main attacking strength is in our wingplay, so maybe it's just a trade-off we're willing to accept.

Dunno, tbh.

Some good games on paper at least this evening starting with Dortmund Atalanta.

It's nice to see Reus back playing.

Napoli Leipzig for later on I think.

Higher calibre of teams this season than last.

Zidane needs to shake up the Modric, Kroos and Casimero midfield. Start phasing out Modric and make Isco a regular fixture in the centre.

Also PSG

They're such bottlers.

Atalanta deservedly leading in Dortmund.

Only just caught the end of the Sociedad game and the start of the Leti one.

Leti could be 3-0 or 4-0 up but they're 1-0 down instead.

Atleti will win it. Napoli had a mare.

Celtic

NApoli weren't interested though, Forza told us ages ago.

Seems he wasn't the only one who knew either. 9,000 attendance was lower than their least attended league game last season.

That said, Wernher von Braun and HAL (GT and Hafi) were looking for him on the live footy thread last night.