La Liga 2020/21

Zehner

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Bit surprised it wasn't mentioned yet but during the halftime of Madrid - Gladbach microphones caught Benzema instructing Mendy to not play the ball to Vinicius Junior anymore after the latter had a bad first half (didn't see the game). Vinicius was walking next to them but apparently didn't understand French. Benzema didn't pass the ball to Vinicius in the second half and Mendy only half as much as in the first half. After the story emerged in the media Benzema twittered "The dogs bark but the number 9 continues".

What do the Real Madrid supporters think of that? Proper leader I suppose, saying such stuff about a 20 year old talent recovering from an injury crises. With the Valbuena incident and what he said about Giroud in mind, Benzema seems to be the biggest off the pitch cnut in the game right now. Probably sees himself as a mix of 2pac and Cantona though.
 

carvajal

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Bit surprised it wasn't mentioned yet but during the halftime of Madrid - Gladbach microphones caught Benzema instructing Mendy to not play the ball to Vinicius Junior anymore after the latter had a bad first half (didn't see the game). Vinicius was walking next to them but apparently didn't understand French. Benzema didn't pass the ball to Vinicius in the second half and Mendy only half as much as in the first half. After the story emerged in the media Benzema twittered "The dogs bark but the number 9 continues".

What do the Real Madrid supporters think of that? Proper leader I suppose, saying such stuff about a 20 year old talent recovering from an injury crises. With the Valbuena incident and what he said about Giroud in mind, Benzema seems to be the biggest off the pitch cnut in the game right now. Probably sees himself as a mix of 2pac and Cantona though.
It was commented on the Zidane thread Zehner.
Quite unexpected, seeing that Benzema seems quite close with young people, and in social media Vini frequently quotes Karim, as the best 9 in the world.
In the second half Karim and Mendy barely passed him balls.
I imagine these are regular conversations but terrible and very embarrassing when you get caught. Poor Vini must feel pretty betrayed.
Apparently today Benzema approached Vini in training.

Madrid players have to be more careful with the cameras. A few days ago they caught Isco analyzing/joking about the minutes in which Zidane uses to replace him
 

Zehner

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It was commented on the Zidane thread Zehner.
Quite unexpected, seeing that Benzema seems quite close with young people, and in social media Vini frequently quotes Karim, as the best 9 in the world.
In the second half Karim and Mendy barely passed him balls.
I imagine these are regular conversations but terrible and very embarrassing when you get caught. Poor Vini must feel pretty betrayed.
Apparently today Benzema approached Vini in training.

Madrid players have to be more careful with the cameras. A few days ago they caught Isco analyzing/joking about the minutes in which Zidane uses to replace him
Oh I see. Searched for a Benzema thread but there wasn't one. Didn't think of the Zidane thread.

Anyway, jokes are one thing but Benzema has quite a history of "betraying" team mates. That Valbuena story was already incredible but you might've thought he's matured since then. He's one of the stars at Madrid now, the club and his team supported him when he had a rough time and received much criticism and now he's telling such stuff about a young player. Not really a surprise that you guys are struggling right now if that's the way your senior players conduct themselves, especially since you've invested so much into young prospects like Vinicius, Rodrygo, Ödegaard etc.

The fact that he posts such an arrogant comment on social media is just the cherry on the cake. Sounds as if he's putting the blame on the media again when its clear as day that he's the one who fecked up. No self reflection. Comes across like a proper narcissist to me.
 

carvajal

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Oh I see. Searched for a Benzema thread but there wasn't one. Didn't think of the Zidane thread.

Anyway, jokes are one thing but Benzema has quite a history of "betraying" team mates. That Valbuena story was already incredible but you might've thought he's matured since then. He's one of the stars at Madrid now, the club and his team supported him when he had a rough time and received much criticism and now he's telling such stuff about a young player. Not really a surprise that you guys are struggling right now if that's the way your senior players conduct themselves, especially since you've invested so much into young prospects like Vinicius, Rodrygo, Ödegaard etc.

The fact that he posts such an arrogant comment on social media is just the cherry on the cake. Sounds as if he's putting the blame on the media again when its clear as day that he's the one who fecked up. No self reflection. Comes across like a proper narcissist to me.

I think he's not a bad boy, maybe a little naive or innocent. It seems that he wants to keep conserving / defending his friends, and I think his problems in the past, like the Valbuena case had to do with that.
Now it is said that with his children his character has changed a little.
Yes, he is totally narcissistic. Cars, parties and super star life.

I remember seeing his own documentary, which was a compendium of statistics, showing off how much money he earned and a few friends explaining their version of the Valbuena case / relationship with the French team.
These days reading on twitter Madrid is remembered a lot that in the past -in Higuaín's time- it was said in the locker room that he played because he was the president's darling, and that when the Bernabéu whistled him Cristiano had to ask them to stop.

It is also true that no teammate or coach has had complaints about him (except when Mourinho called him a cat).

A public complaint at this point may not suit anyone, although each time they coincide in the field, the issue will resume again.
His problem is that fans love Vini, regardless of whether Karim in that particularcomment to Mendy was absolutely right.
 

Zehner

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I think he's not a bad boy, maybe a little naive or innocent. It seems that he wants to keep conserving / defending his friends, and I think his problems in the past, like the Valbuena case had to do with that.
Now it is said that with his children his character has changed a little.
Yes, he is totally narcissistic. Cars, parties and super star life.

I remember seeing his own documentary, which was a compendium of statistics, showing off how much money he earned and a few friends explaining their version of the Valbuena case / relationship with the French team.
These days reading on twitter Madrid is remembered a lot that in the past -in Higuaín's time- it was said in the locker room that he played because he was the president's darling, and that when the Bernabéu whistled him Cristiano had to ask them to stop.

It is also true that no teammate or coach has had complaints about him (except when Mourinho called him a cat).

A public complaint at this point may not suit anyone, although each time they coincide in the field, the issue will resume again.
His problem is that fans love Vini, regardless of whether Karim in that particularcomment to Mendy was absolutely right.

Thing is, even if he was right that Vinicius had a terrible game, the way he brought that topic up is disgraceful for a player that should be a leader and role model for the younger players at this point. It's only getting worse because he himself was in similar situations, playing badly and receiving criticism for it, and got the support he denied Vinicius. And on top of that, the club even supported him when he clearly misconducted in one of the worst possible ways in the Valbuena case. In the end, we're not talking about a minor faux pas here but straight out blackmailing of a team mate, no matter the circumstances or who he wanted to protect. And as a cherry of the cake, he blames the media for publicizing his misbehavior towards Vinicius instead of apologizing for it, as if it was their fault that he said those things. All that combined paints a terrible, terrible picture of him as a character. This has nothing to do with being naive but it has to do with being a narcissist without any sort of self reflection but low responsibility.

Oh, and what's also being overlooked over Benzema being an absolute asshole to a young player is that he is actively undermining Zidane's authority through that. After all, it's the manager's responsibility to pick the players and if he chooses Vinicius Benzema has to live with it. He can discuss the issue with Zidane as one of the leaders of the squad but he just can't secretly tell players to not pass the ball to Vinicius. By doing so he prevents Zidane from seeing through his chosen tactics.

I get that at a club like Real Madrid you have to live with some sort of antics from your star players but this is far too much, I think. Such behavior wouldn't even be acceptable from a player like Cristiano and it surely isn't from Benzema, especially not with his history.
 

Peyroteo

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That kind of stuff is completely normal in a dressing room, I'm sure it's happened thousands of times and in every club at the top level. He was just stupid to do it in front of a camera. Should know better than that by now. Aside from that, he just wants to win the game and Vinicius had fecked up a couple of chances close to goal in the first half.

I watched the game and there was never any situation where the ball should have been passed to Vinicius but wasn't, if Vinicius was through on goal I'm sure Benzema would have passed him the ball anyway.
 

FootballHQ

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Cadiz been a great story so far, 2-0 up at Eibar. Very solid defensively and Negredo is a striker reborn after a few years in obscurity.

Got a similar setup to Granada last season so could make a run for the europa spots.
 

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Madrid 2-0 up at the half with a cracking goal from Hazard. Whatever troubles they’re having in the CL are not translating to the Liga.
 

giorno

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Madrid 2-0 up at the half with a cracking goal from Hazard. Whatever troubles they’re having in the CL are not translating to the Liga.
They do actually, Huesca is just much worse than gladbach
 

carvajal

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Kondogbia very near Atlético for 20m€
 

RoyH1

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They do actually, Huesca is just much worse than gladbach
Disagree. Barsa is not Huesca and they beat them comfortably.They are playing much more compact in La Liga and limiting opponents chances more.
 

giorno

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Disagree. Barsa is not Huesca and they beat them comfortably.They are playing much more compact in La Liga and limiting opponents chances more.
We actually did a decent job against barcelona, considering it was barcelona

Today we could have been down a couple before Hazard's thunderbastard and benzema's goal swinged the game our way. Second half was an exhibition though, pretty good
 

PepG

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As i said before Real will win comfortably La Liga again..There is just no competition there at the moment. As far the Champions League - los blancos are not ready yet to do what they usually do winning it so may be its time for Zizou to try to win the Spanish Cup at last?!
 

awop

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Kondogbia very near Atlético for 20m€
It's looking more and more that Atletico turned Toreira's head out of spite to try and feck up our plan to pay Partey's clause. They wanted to get rid of Herrera and he's starting every game. Now they want to buy Kondogbia...
 

Idxomer

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Messi has declined from the previous point where you'd say "he isn't as good as he was before but still the best around".

I don't think that applies anymore.
 

Eddy_JukeZ

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Messi's decline post lockdown is pretty amazing. He was still the best player in the world before then comfortably.

His shooting in particularly has been so off lately.
 

GifLord

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Messi has declined from the previous point where you'd say "he isn't as good as he was before but still the best around".

I don't think that applies anymore.
He looks like he doesn't give a shit anymore. That scene where he kicked the ball at the ref :lol:
lucky not to be sent off
 

90 + 5min

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This is the smallest problems Barcelona have at the moment.

They might not survive this season. There are worrying rumours spreading around that bankruptcy is not far away.
 

giorno

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Yeah they're winning this, no way alaves can last. Attack looks great now. Ansu Fati is unreal

They got screwed out of a penalty in the first half too :lol: