I'm glad to see Isco wasn't actually washed up. He's still got it.
La Liga 2023/24
- Thread starter carvajal
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Real Madrid Osasuna in 20 minutes.
Real Madrid: Kepa; Carvajal, Tchouameni, Rüdiger, Mendy; Valverde, Camavinga, Modric; Bellingham; Joselu, Vinicius.
Osasuna: Sergio Herrera; Areso, Catena, David García, Juan Cruz; Moncayola, Lucas Torró, Aimar Oroz; Rubén Peña, Budimir, Rubén García.
Real Madrid: Kepa; Carvajal, Tchouameni, Rüdiger, Mendy; Valverde, Camavinga, Modric; Bellingham; Joselu, Vinicius.
Osasuna: Sergio Herrera; Areso, Catena, David García, Juan Cruz; Moncayola, Lucas Torró, Aimar Oroz; Rubén Peña, Budimir, Rubén García.
Ok, so Bellingham scores the first goal and the fans go crazy and start singing Hey Jude.
And now he scores the 2-0. I was so damn wrong. Love it.
And he scores the second.
Who is this guy? Where does he come from? What does he eat?
Who is this guy? Where does he come from? What does he eat?
No way he was this good at Dortmund
Is this the blackest Madrid team in years? Bayern have landed on a similar recruitment policy. It's not race based as such, but the requirements have bought about a whole lot of young black men into the fore.
What are you trying to say?
Some small lad up front for Granada just turned Kounde inside out for his second. Barca down 2-0.
Also by coincidence I thought this Sergio Ramos look alike playing for Granada looks semi decent, googled him and it turns out it's Alvaro Fernandez on loan from United
Watching Barca last season was truly bizarre, clean sheet after clean sheet, with average at best defending.
Things have gone back to normal, at long last.
Things have gone back to normal, at long last.
Alvaro Fernandez has been very good defensively too. Very strong in his tackle, Lamine hasn't had a sniff
There was a time when Ter Stegen was playing like one of the best goalkeepers in the world. But he has been in terrible form this season. He failed against Mallorca and yesterday against Granada again.
He absolutely saved the day vs Porto though.
think Griezmann has to be a top ten Ballon Dor shout
What's going on at Girona?
Are they a legit challenger this season?
Are they a legit challenger this season?
Definitely not but they could sneak 4th. They play great attractive attacking football. I actually think Atletico will be a lot closer to the big 2 this year.
This is going to be a very decent game, Bilbao have loads of pace on the counter with the Williams brothers.
They can finish in CL places I reckon.
They played well last season after Michel took over and nearly made europa league.
Remember them beating Real Madrid 4-2 at back end of last season? They sold Castellanos to Lazio but his replacement Dovbyk already scored 5 in first 10 games. Still got Stuani for plan B aerial game and Yangel Herrera in midfield is a top box to box midfielder so the elements are there considering how much Sevilla and Valencia have declined in recent seasons.
Barca never look impressive when I watch them, should be losing and Athletic should’ve had a pen
They can win Liga this year. Since the second half of last season, their attack has really clicked and as long as they can keep Griezmann and De Paul fit, I think they have a great chance given that Barca and Madrid aren't great this season.
They have way too many players out right now and it shows in their football. FDJ, especially, is a huge loss for them.
La Masia is just incredible. Barca have some 17 year old come and he breaks the deadlock within a minute of coming on with his first involvement.
And the lad next to him is 16 and already looks a world class talent
There are good and interesting players in the academy. Although they are still very young.
- Marc Bernal - (16, pivot, 1.88)
- Pau Cubarsi - ( 16, CB)
- Guille Fernandez (15, CM, the jewel of La Masia right now)
Then there are 17-19 players who will surely have opportunities in the coming years.
Mika Faye - (19, CB)
Pau Prim - ( 17, Pivot)
Marc Casadó, Héctor Fort, Noah Darwich, Aleix Garrido...
The club should make few signings and they should be market opportunities and then academy players.
Nah, much better xG and by the end of the match they should have won. They haven't looked amazing this season but will look much better when FDJ and Pedri return.
Him and Pedri, exactly
Corrupt VAR on the Gerona v Celta viga. Gerona goalkeeper fumbled the ball and Celta viga scored. Only for it to be chalked off. Then the ref gave a red card to the bench 
Benitez surely going to get sacked soon. Well past it now.
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Belly's first real test
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I see the same person who writes United's twitter lineups also does Barca's
I have a bad feeling about this game. Lewandowski, Kounde and Raphinha trained yesterday for the first time in weeks, if they'll play at all then with painkillers. Felix's and especially Cancelo's performances became worse the last games. They are tired because they play every game for Xavi has no other options because of so many injured players. Inigo played like 2 full matches after 7 months injury and now has to defend against Vinicius and Bellingham. The omens couldn't be worse. Thankfully it's only an early league's clasico and no knock out match.
He isn't wrong though - speed is increasingly becoming absolutely essential at the top level, and black people are often faster than the other races, as is evident in the olympics. You have the exceptions like Rasmus Højlund and Gareth Bale, but yeah.
In other words i don't think the trend is anything other than the athletic aspect of football becoming ever more crucial, and teams pursuing players that have those attributes.
Carlo really needs to foh with those bullshit line-ups. Did it against Atletico and now against Barca.
What's wrong with it? It's the same formation as always.
He always comes up with some stupid formations for big games that bite us in the ass.
Alaba is a liability this season. Should not play.
Cama should always play, Kroos only works for teams that do nothing but sit back. It also forces Tchouameni to play differently when Kroos is next to him.
If you insist on playing Kroos, just move Cama to LB. Mendy and Garcia are poor.
Even if Joselu hadn’t been ill, he would have started Rodrygo who has been incredibly poor. Joselu shoud not be in our starting 11, but Rodrygo even less so at this moment.