Koulibaly and a top left back
Rebuilding Real Madrid - how do you do it? | Buy well
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
If last week's worldwide fan reaction was any indication, to rebuild Madrid, maybe they should start with rebuilding their image.
Get rid of the political and sleazy games at the administrative top. Apply more transparant finances. Select fewer cheats and divers in the team. Say what you want about Ronaldo btw, but at least he didn't take a purposeful booking several years ago when he was ordered to by Mourinho in the Ajax game they won. It's acts like this that made people hate them and revel in their demise. They just crossed so many ethical lines, not just with the fraudulent state sponsoring with UEFA looking the other way virtually every time.
Of course the team needs to rebuild, but I can't imagine Madrid not having the required players in their youth teams. Wildly going on an insane shopping spree once every while is exactly what made them so hated. Going for youths gives a team credit and time to rebuild with the fans and build for the long term. Not sure if Zidane will do so though, it seems to me he'll just demand to get what he didn't get when he quit. Which is to renew the team by shop-till-you-drop. Buy whoever he wants to, at no too insane cost. Which is the easy way out and given they can just bench some of those, might even work for a while if they can figure out a somewhat cooperative group with individual class.
Sure, Zidane is someone who let the players pretty much do whatever, which might help some creativity. But it's also saying you can't really train people, you can just line players who can figure things out themselves up a bit and then hope they see things more or less the same way. Possibly why there was (IMO) no consistent philosophy or strategy to be detected behind the Madrid team for the last couple of years other than "outclass them on individual basis and if that doesn't work, cheat and intimidate your way through if you have to".
Get rid of the political and sleazy games at the administrative top. Apply more transparant finances. Select fewer cheats and divers in the team. Say what you want about Ronaldo btw, but at least he didn't take a purposeful booking several years ago when he was ordered to by Mourinho in the Ajax game they won. It's acts like this that made people hate them and revel in their demise. They just crossed so many ethical lines, not just with the fraudulent state sponsoring with UEFA looking the other way virtually every time.
Of course the team needs to rebuild, but I can't imagine Madrid not having the required players in their youth teams. Wildly going on an insane shopping spree once every while is exactly what made them so hated. Going for youths gives a team credit and time to rebuild with the fans and build for the long term. Not sure if Zidane will do so though, it seems to me he'll just demand to get what he didn't get when he quit. Which is to renew the team by shop-till-you-drop. Buy whoever he wants to, at no too insane cost. Which is the easy way out and given they can just bench some of those, might even work for a while if they can figure out a somewhat cooperative group with individual class.
Sure, Zidane is someone who let the players pretty much do whatever, which might help some creativity. But it's also saying you can't really train people, you can just line players who can figure things out themselves up a bit and then hope they see things more or less the same way. Possibly why there was (IMO) no consistent philosophy or strategy to be detected behind the Madrid team for the last couple of years other than "outclass them on individual basis and if that doesn't work, cheat and intimidate your way through if you have to".
VVD, neymar, sane, salah
They don't care that they're hated or their bad image. They love it.
The day they stop being hated wil be the worst day in their history.
I think the art is to have somebody that can act as second striker in the box.
--------------------------Navas-------------------------
Carvajal------Militao-------------Hermoso-------Firpo
------------------------Casemiro-------------------
--------------Eriksen--------------Kroos-------------------
Vinicius-----------------Icardi------------------Hazard
Carvajal------Militao-------------Hermoso-------Firpo
------------------------Casemiro-------------------
--------------Eriksen--------------Kroos-------------------
Vinicius-----------------Icardi------------------Hazard
GK: Courtois, Navas
RB: Carvajal, Odriozola
LB: Hakimi, Theo Hernandez
CD: Ramos, Varane, Hermoso, Nacho
DM: Casemiro, Tonali
CMR: Kroos, Modric, Valverde
CML: Pogba (sorry, but it makes sense), Ceballos
AM: Hazard, Asensio, Brahim Diaz
ST: Benzema, Vinicius, Jovic, Rodrygo
317.5m total (Hermoso 7.5m buyback clause, Tonali 30m, Pogba 140m, Hazard 100m, Jovic 40m)
RB: Carvajal, Odriozola
LB: Hakimi, Theo Hernandez
CD: Ramos, Varane, Hermoso, Nacho
DM: Casemiro, Tonali
CMR: Kroos, Modric, Valverde
CML: Pogba (sorry, but it makes sense), Ceballos
AM: Hazard, Asensio, Brahim Diaz
ST: Benzema, Vinicius, Jovic, Rodrygo
317.5m total (Hermoso 7.5m buyback clause, Tonali 30m, Pogba 140m, Hazard 100m, Jovic 40m)
These threads are always too sensationalist and people go full muppet mode demanding large scale systemic (in the sense of the execs at the club) and player changes. The reality is that RM are a top side (top 3-4 in the world even on current form, a freak ajax result doesn't change that) and they definitely should not be 12 points behind Barcelona with the side they have. I remember at the beginning of the 2017 / 18 season, people were spelling the end for Barcelona because of the crazy amounts of money they spend on their wages, the aging squad etc. etc. And a couple of seasons in and no major changes, they're winning La Liga comfortably and are CL contenders.
On the other hand, replacing Ronaldo is going to be very hard and they just need to distribute the goals more evenly across the team now. Zidane being back will give them a boost and topping the squad off with a top quality player like Mbappe / Neymar should be enough to see them competing for both the league and the CL again.
The rest can just come slowly. They'll need a couple of fullbacks eventually and maybe a CB (I'd argue that Ramos and Varane are still really good, they just need to be more consistent as a team) and maybe a DM but they're not huge priorities IMO.
On the other hand, replacing Ronaldo is going to be very hard and they just need to distribute the goals more evenly across the team now. Zidane being back will give them a boost and topping the squad off with a top quality player like Mbappe / Neymar should be enough to see them competing for both the league and the CL again.
The rest can just come slowly. They'll need a couple of fullbacks eventually and maybe a CB (I'd argue that Ramos and Varane are still really good, they just need to be more consistent as a team) and maybe a DM but they're not huge priorities IMO.
Hazard and eriksen would be great signings. Hazard and kane would be incredible.
I can see them getting neymar and hazard then they need to get a decent partner for varane.
Has asensios star completely fallen?
I can see them getting neymar and hazard then they need to get a decent partner for varane.
Has asensios star completely fallen?
---------------------Allison-------------------
---Valencia----Rojo----Maguire---Darmian-
----------------------Kante-------------------
-----------De Bruyne-----Sanchez----------
-------Salah-------Sane------Sterling-------
Hazard, Bale on the bench to come on for Valencia and Darmian.
---Valencia----Rojo----Maguire---Darmian-
----------------------Kante-------------------
-----------De Bruyne-----Sanchez----------
-------Salah-------Sane------Sterling-------
Hazard, Bale on the bench to come on for Valencia and Darmian.
GK: Courtois, Navas
RB: Carvajal, Odriozola
LB: Marcelo, Reguilon
CB: Ramos, Varane, Militão, Nacho, Hermoso
DM: Casemiro, Llorente
CM: Kroos, Modric, Eriksen, Ceballos, Valverde
Wingers/AM: Hazard, Vinicius, Asensio, Isco, Lucas Vasquez
ST: Benzema, Jovic, Rodrygo
Sell Bale and Mariano. Loan or sell Brahim Diaz and Vallejo.
Signing Hazard is the logical step to take but that will be a serious blow to Vinicius imo and he's more than earned the starting spot.
RB: Carvajal, Odriozola
LB: Marcelo, Reguilon
CB: Ramos, Varane, Militão, Nacho, Hermoso
DM: Casemiro, Llorente
CM: Kroos, Modric, Eriksen, Ceballos, Valverde
Wingers/AM: Hazard, Vinicius, Asensio, Isco, Lucas Vasquez
ST: Benzema, Jovic, Rodrygo
Sell Bale and Mariano. Loan or sell Brahim Diaz and Vallejo.
Signing Hazard is the logical step to take but that will be a serious blow to Vinicius imo and he's more than earned the starting spot.
I think it will literally cost too much money to do in one season in this day and age.
They would need to pinch Hazard and Mbappé to have a realistic chance at replacing what Ronaldo give them. Can they afford anyone else if they bought those two? Even if they sold a couple?
I think they need too much...
They would need to pinch Hazard and Mbappé to have a realistic chance at replacing what Ronaldo give them. Can they afford anyone else if they bought those two? Even if they sold a couple?
I think they need too much...
I see some people saying that they could go for Hazard AND Neymar but how would those two work in the same team? They’re effectively the same player (both like to dribble and hog the ball and be at the forefront of every attacking move). They also both play from a similar starting position (LW/AM).
Hopefully they go through a phase of being absolutely crap for 4 or 5 seasons
[monocle] [raised eyebrow]
Or they're secretly all crying inside, lashing out against a world that doesn't reciprocate their love and therefore choose to go with the bad boy image, their incapacity to express their love obviously down to to a Nietzschian childhood with papa Franco's tough love.
[/pseudo-pseudo-psychoanalysis] [/monocle] [/raised eyebrow]
That is basically the philosophy, head the lista, but It is not so shady as you say.
Personally I love the political aspect. @Peyroteo understands well Madrid.Peyro, send greetings to whoever you know in the Aveiro clan
Just think of how many quality players They can get if sugar daddies didn't take over PSG & City.
Some people were talking yesterday about a couple of players I had not thought about.
The first one was Fede Valverde. Apparently coaches are very impressed with his progression in a very short period of time just training with the rest of players at Valdebebas. I knew they guy was talented (he's supposed to be if he's there) but the compliments were still surprising to me. However I don't know if the best option for him is to stay on the bench or get a loan somewhere.
The second one was Milinkovic-Savic. He's apparently a player Zidane likes very much and would consider his signing.
You’ve definitely been missing a more physical presence in midfield so it would make sense for a reasonable price.
It will be interesting to see where Zidane wants to take this team, I think he’ll need to change the style of play and experiment tactically.
Main reason I’d have you buying both Militão and Hermoso is that I think this Madrid should be playing with 3 at the back often.
I feel they would have gone for the megastar signings if it was upto Perez but now that Zidane is in charge of signings then I believe he will make more particular tactical signings . I can see him going for Hazard , Eriksen , De Ligt , Miltao and Icardi/Jovi . Together they will cost in excess of atleast 300 million pounds so I expect a few outgoings too .
Real Madrid possible starting line up for 2019/2020
--------------------------------Navas---------------------------
Carvajal-------De Ligt-----------Varane----Marcelo
-----------------Casemiro-----------Kroos-----------------
Asensio-----------------Eriksen-----------------Hazard
---------------------------Icardi/Jovic----------------------
Real Madrid possible starting line up for 2019/2020
--------------------------------Navas---------------------------
Carvajal-------De Ligt-----------Varane----Marcelo
-----------------Casemiro-----------Kroos-----------------
Asensio-----------------Eriksen-----------------Hazard
---------------------------Icardi/Jovic----------------------
Modric and Ramos are still their two best players. They aren’t just gonna go away
Buy a goalscorer and a defender and they'd probably be fine. Maybe they have to swap out some players that have lost their ambition. But after the season gone i doubt it'd be that hard to turn that around.
Well I believe that Real will start to phase them out from this season . Modric seems to want a move away and try a new league . Ramos is still their captain but he is getting older and with De Ligt impressing at the Bernabau I am sure Real will be very interested in signing him now . I believe Ramos will start the season as the starting centre back but I believe a new signing might end up taking his place before season ends .
Eder Militão signs 6 year contract for Real Madrid. Fee is around €50 million.Tweet
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Florentino trying to calm the fans with early signings.
Question for our Portuguese residents. How good do you think this guy is?
Question for our Portuguese residents. How good do you think this guy is?
Win 3 CL in a row, have a mediocre season the next one.
Most likely go and sign Pogba and Hazard.
Big club doing big club things.
Most likely go and sign Pogba and Hazard.
Big club doing big club things.
Ugh, the whole state sponsored Franco club myth is alive and well I see. People should document themselves more before just repeating what some media hacks reported years ago.
Franco didn’t care about football. If anything he cared about Atlético which was the club of the Spanish Air Force. He started hanging on to Real when they started winning all those European cups. At that time, Spain was behind the rest of Western European in most respects and Real provided one of the few positive PR cards for his regime.
That being said, he also supported Barsa by helping them rebuild the Camp Nou with public funds. And several of their executives were regime supporters too.
The whole di Stefano thing had nothing to do with Franco either. A botched transfer from a club in non FIFA league resulted in a tug of war between Madrid and Barsa. A judge was brought in and his salomonic ruling was that the clubs share the player. One year one place, one year the other starting with Madrid. Barsa rejected that deal and the rest is history. But 70 years later the Barsa PR machine keeps on milking the myth and the rest of the world gobbles it up.
Franco didn’t care about football. If anything he cared about Atlético which was the club of the Spanish Air Force. He started hanging on to Real when they started winning all those European cups. At that time, Spain was behind the rest of Western European in most respects and Real provided one of the few positive PR cards for his regime.
That being said, he also supported Barsa by helping them rebuild the Camp Nou with public funds. And several of their executives were regime supporters too.
The whole di Stefano thing had nothing to do with Franco either. A botched transfer from a club in non FIFA league resulted in a tug of war between Madrid and Barsa. A judge was brought in and his salomonic ruling was that the clubs share the player. One year one place, one year the other starting with Madrid. Barsa rejected that deal and the rest is history. But 70 years later the Barsa PR machine keeps on milking the myth and the rest of the world gobbles it up.
---------------------------Navas-------------------------
Carvajal------Varane---------------Ramos-------Alaba
------------------------Casemiro------------------------
-----------Eriksen-----------------------Kroos----------
-------------------------Hazard--------------------------
----------------------------------------Pogba------------
-------------Benzema------------------------------------
Carvajal------Varane---------------Ramos-------Alaba
------------------------Casemiro------------------------
-----------Eriksen-----------------------Kroos----------
-------------------------Hazard--------------------------
----------------------------------------Pogba------------
-------------Benzema------------------------------------
If Pogba and Hazard are the immediate future of Madrid, then, as a Barça supporter, I'm not worried.
But if they signed De Ligt and Mbappé, oh boy...
I can see Real Madrid doing something similar to what they did in 2009 when they bought Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema, Alonso etc. It's probably harder to do now though with the way the market has gone in terms of prices. Saying that though I remember back then thinking the £80 million we got for Ronaldo was very good business.
Have you met Ed Woodward?
So it seems like it's going to be something along the lines of Militão, Rodrygo, Ferland Mendy, Hazard, Jovic and then Pogba/Eriksen/Ndombele. Should be about 400 million that, they'll probably break the record for most money spent in a summer.
Navas is 100% leaving, more interesting than who comes in will be who they decide to sell imo.
Tweet
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Navas is 100% leaving, more interesting than who comes in will be who they decide to sell imo.
No attempt to get Neymar or Mbappe then?
He was hired as a right back, but as Porto lacked funds to replace Marcano in the market, Conceição adapted him to the center. He was by far the best center back of the league until January.
Then Real signed him and Porto signed Pepe to cover Militão exit, but Real Madrid delayed the transfer for next season, which created a problem in Porto's squad engineering.
Conceição then got torn between playing Pepe or keep playing a player who cannot be valued no more, and started to favour Pepe, which IMHO was a bad decision because Militão + Filipe were being the best CB partnership on the league. And Militão was placed on the right, which despite being his "natural" position, he clearly is a much better solution in the center.
But going straight to the point:
He is an excellent ball playing defender, but that's not his strongest point. Physically he is a beast: tall, strong and very fast.
But his strongest trait it's his positioning and anticipation. he is one of Europe's best players on anticipations, which makes him a player with huge potential when gaining experience.
That will be interesting, how Zidane fit all the players in to a team. My feeling is going to be difficult, even if they should improve a lot in the league compared to last few years.
Also interested to see what they do with Bale? Given money he's on and contract length you'd think will be hard to sell.
Also interested to see what they do with Bale? Given money he's on and contract length you'd think will be hard to sell.
They're going to have to sell at least for 200 million then. If they get all those guys, some big names will have to leave (Isco, Asensio, Kroos, Varane maybe?)
If I were Madrid I'd hang on a few months and pick up hazard and de gea for nothing other than a hefty signing on fee.
And this summer splaff a couple of hundred million on mbappe if possible... If not then neymar
And this summer splaff a couple of hundred million on mbappe if possible... If not then neymar
From PSG?
We'll be all over either of them the moment PSG is open to sell. Which will be never
Mbappé 2022
Get rid of Pogba!!