Real Madrid post match thread

[Dogtanian]

Same old story, same players playing walking football and same players making the same mistakes over and over again

 

[Mancini’s Pastilles]

Am i the only one who thought we played really well? Couple individual errors along with bad substitutions from pep led to our loss

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Assuming none of their injured players are ready by next week. We actually can beat these guys.


Eddy
Khuza... Stones... Dias.... Gvardiol
............Gonzo..... Bernardo
..Savio....Foden ... Doku......
........... Haaland..........


Lets actually go attack them. Their fullbacks don't get that much help from midfield. I want Foden, Savio and Doku attacking these guys 1 v 1 early.

Madrid might be the least cohesive team outside of us left in the CL.

They don't press well, don't help on defense much either. We are really playing into their hands by slowing things down. :(

Pep needs to stop playing KDB as the second striker and play Omar there. KDB needs to play in the midfield, where he can float across the park picking passes and feeding the ball through. He made an entire fucking career out of this until Pep decided he was a second striker who should be wasting 90% of his energy chasing thin air in a half hearted press!

……………………Ederson
Khusanov Stones Dias Gvardiol
Savinho…Gonzales….Kovacic…KDB
………….Haaland……..Marmoush

In this formation, Stones can slide forward, with Khusanov stepping inside.

……………………Ederson
……Khusanov…Dias…Gvardiol
……Stones….Gonzales….Kovacic…
……………………..KDB
Savinho………….Haaland……..Marmoush

Conversely, we could play Foden or Bernardo in the Kovacic role, as all three of them can move forward.

 

[Briggs1969]

Yes.
Tactics.
Formations.. ect..

If players are fucked move them on.
If players are tired on 60 sub em..

If the oppo are cutting through us change it tactically..

If your asking my opinion peps fault.

He's too fuckin stubborn.
Teams have moved on tactically and he won't.

Oh... And ederson... ****.

Excellent post.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Am i the only one who thought we played really well? Couple individual errors along with bad substitutions from pep led to our loss

For about half the game it felt like the City of yesteryear, but the 2025 City played a cameo at the end and ruined what could have been a very good night’s work!

 

[Norman kneejerk]

I wss disappointed we didn't ask more questions of their make shift back four. It was clearly vulnerable as we saw with the tackle attempted on Phil for the pen.

 

[Paul1970]

Unless we change our style and pep swallows his pride in the second leg and brings better subs on then we are getting hammered .

 

[Double R]

Nope, a good nights sleep made no difference. Thats up there with the rags at home game on my pissed off scale.

 

[Bluekiwi]

We spent a lot of money on recognised defenders. I realise one isn't in the squad but the other should definitely start ahead of Lewis in the subs pecking order. Otherwise, why bother spending the money!

 

[akrh215]

View attachment 146449

I'd love to see us okay this line-up.

The problem with this lineup is that you can't dominate with it; the passing just isn't there. This setup is only good for counterattacking. That's why I'm saying we clearly need to buy technically gifted players in the summer. If it takes splashing 250 million on Wirtz, then so be it.

 

[Gabriel]

We patched up Ake who hadn’t played in a month, deployed Stones, Dias, and Akanji, none of whom are fully fit, and lost Grealish in 30 minutes. We rarely dominated play for prolonged periods and when we did we had the ball twenty yards back from where we could consistently threaten them. Disappointing to lose, of course, but probably better to exit the tournament now and concentrate on qualifying for it again.

 

[bluemoon32]

We're still in the tie but we'll probably panic again out there & fall to pieces.
We lack leaders on the pitch, someone to calm things down, someone to puff out their chest and say, they aint getting past us, we have no one like that

 

[ChicagoBlue]

We spent a lot of money on recognised defenders. I realise one isn't in the squad but the other should definitely start ahead of Lewis in the subs pecking order. Otherwise, why bother spending the money!

Because Pep‘s Game Plan was for BOTH full backs to invert in a 2-3 with Stones to force their 4 forwards to defend or we would dominate the middle of the park behind them.

When Akanji got injured, he knew Lewis could invert, but had no idea if Khusanov could do that job, as he’s been here 2 minutes and only played as a defender-defender!

Now, could we have just gone to a Back 3? Sure, but that wasn’t The Plan!

Much as it pains me to say it, Pep TRUSTS Rico to invert more than any other full back, even though Pep may give up something defensively in using him. Pep doesn’t appear to trust Nunes not to overcommit, either at the halfway line or inside the box, so…

 

[chesterbells]

Shit, that.

We were OK for the last 25 minutes of the first half but other than that, we were dominated. How they only scored 3 is beyond me.

A comedy of errors from so many players. Kovacic’s fucking back heeled flick - just clear the fucking thing! Lewis should be cleaning Vinicius out as soon as he knew he wasn’t getting there. Ederson with another error - just a shock this time it was with his feet. Should he be palming their second goal out into the danger area too? Not so sure, personally. Shame because he was mint up until the error for the second goal and saved our arses a few times.

It’s just a massive concern how weak we are mentally whenever we concede. When they got their second, you knew a third was coming. There’s no composure (again, fucking Kovacic) and game management to spot danger and know when to clear and when to play.

Stones, Gvardiol, Savinho, Haaland, Foden, Akanji and Dias all played alright. Stones and Akanji being the stand outs, but other than that. Too many passengers. Again. Namely Bernie (was he on?) and Kev, unfortunately. Same old story.

I wouldn’t have been comfortable with a 2 goal lead going to their place, never mind a 1 goal deficit.

Shame. Onto the FA Cup and top 4 in my eyes. Not good enough this season to win this competition, too many teams better than us.

Excellent post.
Unfortunately.

 

[KS55]

Well it wasn't good but we didn't get spanked and are still in the tie (just). Bigger shocks have happened in football than us going to their place and winning 3-1.

Brown envelopes required

 

[KS55]

Because Pep‘s Game Plan was for BOTH full backs to invert in a 2-3 with Stones to force their 4 forwards to defend or we would dominate the middle of the park behind them.

When Akanji got injured, he knew Lewis could invert, but had no idea if Khusanov could do that job, as he’s been here 2 minutes and only played as a defender-defender!

Now, could we have just gone to a Back 3? Sure, but that wasn’t The Plan!

Much as it pains me to say it, Pep TRUSTS Rico to invert more than any other full back, even though Pep may give up something defensively in using him. Pep doesn’t appear to trust Nunes not to overcommit, either at the halfway line or inside the box, so…

Rico is no full back in my book. He’s terrible there, despite his talent as a footballer.

 

[KS55]

Because Pep‘s Game Plan was for BOTH full backs to invert in a 2-3 with Stones to force their 4 forwards to defend or we would dominate the middle of the park behind them.

When Akanji got injured, he knew Lewis could invert, but had no idea if Khusanov could do that job, as he’s been here 2 minutes and only played as a defender-defender!

Now, could we have just gone to a Back 3? Sure, but that wasn’t The Plan!

Much as it pains me to say it, Pep TRUSTS Rico to invert more than any other full back, even though Pep may give up something defensively in using him. Pep doesn’t appear to trust Nunes not to overcommit, either at the halfway line or inside the box, so…

Khusanov is a CB by trade. Of course he can invert. And unlike Rico, he can win the ball.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Am i the only one who thought we played really well? Couple individual errors along with bad substitutions from pep led to our loss

You could argue really poor finishing and Ederson saved us from it being a bigger loss.

Assuming none of their injured players are ready by next week. We actually can beat these guys.


Eddy
Khuza... Stones... Dias.... Gvardiol
............Gonzo..... Bernardo
..Savio....Foden ... Doku......
........... Haaland..........


Lets actually go attack them. Their fullbacks don't get that much help from midfield. I want Foden, Savio and Doku attacking these guys 1 v 1 early.

Madrid might be the least cohesive team outside of us left in the CL.

They don't press well, don't help on defense much either. We are really playing into their hands by slowing things down. :(

if Eddy plays behind Khuza like that, leaving his goal unprotected I think we will lose :-)

I too think we should just go for it with a very attacking line up. I’d probably play Marmoush though with Foden and Savio out wide.

We have nothing to lose now and will almost certainly lose if we play like last night. We will need a lot of luck though and probably our performance of the season as they will create chances like they did last night.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Rico is no full back in my book. He’s terrible there, despite his talent as a footballer.

Pep didn’t want a full back, he wanted a midfielder who could go a shift at full back.

I’m not saying I agree with that, I’m saying that was the thought process.

Possess the ball and he plays midfield.
He plays midfield, we possess the ball.

 

[Goater101]

We spend £60 million + on new defenders this January because ours are constantly unavailable and none of them start or come on in a crucial game. We sign Marmoush because our attack except Haaland have been toothless all season and he’s sat on the bench. We made business in January because we absolutely needed it and our new signings don’t even feature (Marmoush got about 10 minutes). Pep’s loyalty to the old guard is killing us this season.