Real Madrid post match thread

[ONTHERUNWITHTHAKSIN]

Or he could've brought on Khusanov whose inexperience might have cost us all the same. The point many are making is we had the chance of proper succession planning over the previous two summer windows & didn't.

Because of this we're now in a situation where we're desperately short on bodies & quality in depth. Last night was just a culmination of our failure to commence our rebuild before a potential issue became a squad crisis. This is on City, as this match wasn't exactly an outlier for the season. What we're witnessing now, was set in motion two years ago.

Bang on

Fail to prepare
Prepare to fail

 

[thegoatsthegoat]

You cant pin last night on Gundo FFS

I didn't. It was an observation that he has come on several times now, in winning positions and we cannot see the game out. He wasn't at fault but it is clear he doesn't have legs to do that job either.

 

[blueabdi]

Peps subs brought all this on. for the first time in months this season I felt comfortable, mostly unnoticed but it was a great system of Ake-Dias, with Gvardiol-Stones-Akanji in front.
The only time we were under pressure was when our forward players lost the ball in ridiculous areas. bringing Lewis on for Akanji was a disaster. yes he was injured, but Khusanov should have come on. Why he took Ake off beggars belief unless he was injured, the moment we ended up with Kova and Gundo in the middle with lewis on right it was game over, lesser teams have been ploughing through them all season.

 

[uwerosler28]

Kev should have been off no later than 10 mins into the 2nd half he was fucked and couldn't run no idea why we persisted with him out there

 

[Kippax77]

Yep.. this season with an ageing injury-hit squad was asking far too much.
Coming up short is not a disgrace by any means and a winless season is ok and there is no shame.

It's hard to watch something so special on its last legs, it's like after the lord's mayor show you have to clean up

I feel this watching De Bruyne these days

 

[Damanino]

our lack of forward planning in squad building right when we won the treble caused this season alongside sentimental and complacent actions.

going for Rice, Bellingham and ending up with Nunes who is mostly an unused sub if we want to summarize his time at City.

let Alvarez go just before his prime years, add in the Palmer facepalm, signing the likes of Doku who may never have the career or Sterling, Mahrez...
Kovacic instead of prime Gundogan...

followed up with a summer transfer window of Gundo, Savinho in only. keeping Walker, Ederson when they would have been happy to forget about high level football and play around in Saudis for 3x the salary...

sadly the recruitment mistakes will impact us even into next season.

strengthen while you are at the top. has to be written on the wall of dressing room and Soriano's office same as we had no one won 4 in a row "YET" last year.

 

[uwerosler28]

Peps subs brought all this on. for the first time in months this season I felt comfortable, mostly unnoticed but it was a great system of Ake-Dias, with Gvardiol-Stones-Akanji in front.
The only time we were under pressure was when our forward players lost the ball in ridiculous areas. bringing Lewis on for Akanji was a disaster. yes he was injured, but Khusanov should have come on. Why he took Ake off beggars belief unless he was injured, the moment we ended up with Kova and Gundo in the middle with lewis on right it was game over, lesser teams have been ploughing through them all season.

Foden for Grealish was wrong as well , we were on top and Omar should have been the sub his pace and directness would have kept us on top.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

If I'm going to criticise, it's that we're too nice - far too nice. I was screaming at us to waste time that last ten minutes. When Ederson catches the ball - flop down, look up, laugh, slowly get to your feet - like Joe. Outfield - lets have a bit of fake cramp just as Madrid line up a free kick. Throw-ins - jeez, we're so quick to take a throw-in when were winning. Every other side - the throw-in taker accidentally on purpose drops the ball. We gifted them two and their sub in a tracksuit's celebrating in our box. Use the Madrid celebrations as motivation!!

 

[HarrytheBlue]

It was a painful night and many words was spoken, I really did fancy us and when 2.1 up i though we could win

But the truth and a sleep after the nightmare things was a lot worst than the score line, They should have been out of sight and had far to much for our ageing defence, Ederson's mistake sort of took all the blame from the game and result, but again the truth is he saved us 3 or 4 times in the game with great saves.

I take back all i said about Ederson last night and hold my hands up and say sorry

The damage and the rebuild will take more than 4 new winter signings and the summer window, We need full-backs and more midfield power and forwards, Pep must have a bigger squad to work with and options to change the games

The return leg next week we have to throw in the new signings, give them a taste of what is needed in a city shirt in the champions league, forget the result or any chance of going through and play without fear of losing

Correct.

 

[Rory Bluelow]

Impressed with Brahim Diaz showing our club some respect after scoring. Good to see.

 

[brazilians hurt]

Impressed with Brahim Diaz showing our club some respect after scoring. Good to see.

If he had genuine respect he would have put it wide like Kelechi

 

[ancoats]

I feel this watching De Bruyne these days

We carried him last night and stayed on the pitch far too long, Maybe we should use him from the bench rather than starting, The Legend KDB will live long in the memory

 

[Bluearmy]

Or he could've brought on Khusanov whose inexperience might have cost us all the same. The point many are making is we had the chance of proper succession planning over the previous two summer windows & didn't.

Because of this we're now in a situation where we're desperately short on bodies & quality in depth. Last night was just a culmination of our failure to commence our rebuild before a potential issue became a squad crisis. This is on City, as this match wasn't exactly an outlier for the season. What we're witnessing now, was set in motion two years ago.

Got to agree. We’ve been poor recruiting since the treble (both in and out - Alvarez/Palmer). The issues were obvious and we spent circa £200 mil in Jan and didnt address any of the main issues. GK, RB, LB, DM (Gonzalez is really an 8), Winger or 2 that can score, AM (Marmoush is a Striker)…

Why we bought 3 inexperienced Centre Backs for £70 mil when we had 6 Centre backs in the squad already, and huge issues elsewhere in the squad is barmy…? We had a chance to address some of the issues and try to rescue the season to some degree and we’ve probably cocked that up aswell… ffs

 

[Chak19]

Or he could've brought on Khusanov whose inexperience might have cost us all the same. The point many are making is we had the chance of proper succession planning over the previous two summer windows & didn't.

Because of this we're now in a situation where we're desperately short on bodies & quality in depth. Last night was just a culmination of our failure to commence our rebuild before a potential issue became a squad crisis. This is on City, as this match wasn't exactly an outlier for the season. What we're witnessing now, was set in motion two years ago.

So what ? I'd rather we lose with Khusanov and give him experience than play a guy who is obviously not a defender.

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

We play a ball to him in the channels, he gets there and plays it back, makes his run, Grealish plays the ball in behind and he scores, and we decide not to try that again for the rest of the game, oh and he was up against a midfielder and a youngster who's playing in his first senior season, sums up this team honestly.

It's absolutely criminal how our tactics are neglecting Haaland. Especially when we are in such dire straits.

I think even the most staunch fans of Pep's possession based tactics would have to admit that if we had been more direct to Haaland this season, we would probably still be in the title race and already qualified for the latter CL stages.

It borders abuse what we are doing to the guy. He's taken pelters from many people for lack of involvement in games, as if more touches out of the box would somehow result in more goals, when the reality is, more through balls to him would ABSOLUTELY result in more goals.

 

[domalino]

It's absolutely criminal how our tactics are neglecting Haaland. Especially when we are in such dire straits.

I think even the most staunch fans of Pep's possession based tactics would have to admit that if we had been more direct to Haaland this season, we would probably still be in the title race and already qualified for the latter CL stages.

It borders abuse what we are doing to the guy. He's taken pelters from many people for lack of involvement in games, as if more touches out of the box would somehow result in more goals, when the reality is, more through balls to him would ABSOLUTELY result in more goals.

He seems fine with it given the 10 year contract he just signed.

 

[TinFoilHat]

Looking back I think Pep threw all his eggs in one basket.

He knew at least 3 of those experienced starters weren't going to be fully fit but persisted to save an embarrassing defeat. Part of me wished we had lost by 3 clear goals rather than our own players fuckkery.

His calculated risk might be more damaging than we know.

In hindsight we should have gone out in the league stages. It's all about consistency in the league now and hopefully favourable cup draws to get to Wembley.

 

[mexico1970]

Looking back I think Pep threw all his eggs in one basket.

He knew at least 3 of those experienced starters weren't going to be fully fit but persisted to save an embarrassing defeat. Part of me wished we had lost by 3 clear goals rather than our own players fuckkery.

His calculated risk might be more damaging than we know.

In hindsight we should have gone out in the league stages. It's all about consistency in the league now and hopefully favourable cup draws to get to Wembley.

The problem with Pep is that he only plays one young player he leaves the others out of the side.

The worst young player we have too.

Controversial I know but there is is.

 

[inbetween]

Or he could've brought on Khusanov whose inexperience might have cost us all the same. The point many are making is we had the chance of proper succession planning over the previous two summer windows & didn't.

Because of this we're now in a situation where we're desperately short on bodies & quality in depth. Last night was just a culmination of our failure to commence our rebuild before a potential issue became a squad crisis. This is on City, as this match wasn't exactly an outlier for the season. What we're witnessing now, was set in motion two years ago.

I don't think it's a lack of quality, a lot of it comes from the upset in injuries at the back. I still do not understand why we have 5 central defenders and 50% of them are injured at any point in time.

We signed Khusanov because of these injuries but replacing Walker was more important than anything else so now we're doing the usual and having to reinvent the wheel.

You have to ask the question who is our best back 4? Anyone would probably say Gvardiol, Dias, Stones and Ake but that's 4 central defenders and at least 2 of them are injured every single game. We don't have a lack of quality but rather a lack of balance in the squad.

 

[wolviedinho]

No point blaming players anymore.

The clear out needs to begin in the summer.

For me personally,

Kova no where near good enough

Akanji or stones/Ake - 1 or 2 need to leave.

Rico sadly not good enough

Kdb sadly, would love to keep as an impact sub but can’t see the man agreeing to that and rightly so.

Bernardo? Maybe not if we recruit well again but also maybe time.

Mcatee - sadly not good enough.

Grealish is another who should maybe go. Injuries and form is non existent. Played well yesterday but again problems persist.

Ederson/ortega. The former needs to decide what he is doing as this year he has been crap and Ortega ain’t good enough for no 1.

Doku again is an injury waiting to happen so maybe time to cash in.

Pep? Has he anything left in the tank? I genuinely don’t know, he said something about not having the energy to go to another club and start again. Seems to me this season he has definitely struggled to pick a team to play his way. The subs not great and the ruthlessness gone. I hope he can get that fire again but honestly not sure this time around. I just wish he would give the new players and Reilly a proper chance now.

The club is at a crossroads. We did some good business on paper, let’s hope the new players can now take up the mantle otherwise our level will be reaching top 4.