Sergio Ramos

[BigOscar]

Real Madrid defenders baffle me. Everyone seems to rate Marcelo as possible the best LB in the world, Ramos as possibly the best CB in the world, Varane as the best young CB in the world, Pepe as world class, yet every time I see them play they look all over the place defensively? They make so many individual mistakes and they rarely look like any kind of cohesive unit. There was one season where morinho managed to get them all well drilled and solid in the league, but they let in goals for fun the rest of the time.

 

[Andouble]

It's hard to rate defenders who's teams have 80% possession every game and score goals for fun - as both Real and Spain do. 100+ caps is nothing to sneeze at, but in my mind one of the more overrated players in world football. Most important CL games he and his back line usually get exposed as fraudulent...don't keep too many clean sheets against Barcelona or Atletico, either. Doing great defensively against the rest of La Liga teams less impressive.

 

[Dax777]

Real Madrid defenders baffle me. Everyone seems to rate Marcelo as possible the best LB in the world, Ramos as possibly the best CB in the world, Varane as the best young CB in the world, Pepe as world class, yet every time I see them play they look all over the place defensively? They make so many individual mistakes and they rarely look like any kind of cohesive unit. There was one season where morinho managed to get them all well drilled and solid in the league, but they let in goals for fun the rest of the time.

That is because defending takes more than just the defenders. Marcelo is considered one of the best LBs in the world because his offensive production is stupendous. And seeing as there aren't that many shutdown left backs anywhere, he is considered great. Ramos is a fantastic CD. ESpecially if you are looking for the ball playing type. There are few better in that regards. Varane is like Nasty, a young CD excelling at a top club. That automatically makes him rated. Peep is a fantastic tackler (vidic like in that respect.)
Yes, there defense sometimes looks haphazard, but the individual talents are undeniable.

 

[BigOscar]

It's hard to rate defenders who's teams have 80% possession every game and score goals for fun - as both Real and Spain do. 100+ caps is nothing to sneeze at, but in my mind one of the more overrated players in world football. Most important CL games he and his back line usually get exposed as fraudulent...don't keep too many clean sheets against Barcelona or Atletico, either. Doing great defensively against the rest of La Liga teams less impressive.

They don't even keep cleen sheets in La Liga, they've averaged more than a goal a game against them this year and last

 

[Andouble]

It's hard to rate defenders who's teams have 80% possession every game and score goals for fun - as both Real and Spain do. 100+ caps is nothing to sneeze at, but in my mind one of the more overrated players in world football. Most important CL games he and his back line usually get exposed as fraudulent...don't keep too many clean sheets against Barcelona or Atletico, either. Doing great defensively against the rest of La Liga teams less impressive.

They don't even keep cleen sheets in La Liga, they've averaged more than a goal a game against them this year and last

well there ya go then. For the valuation Perez said the other day, absolutely laughable. Considering age, quality, leadership, only Kompany as a CB would be worth that these days, and on the open market would only go for probably half of that.

 

[pee dubya]

You don't defend as individuals, you defend as a team. Sure the constituent parts are important, but organisation and discipline is probably more important. That's why you can have individual defenders of great quality within a team with a very average defence overall. You can also have it the other way, but in that situation you'd probably have to sacrifice your attacking capabilities.

 

[El Mago]

I would rather go for Vermalean now.

Cheaper and can form a good partnership with VK, and will not cost more than 10 mill due to his contract situation.

 

[BigOscar]

I'd avoid Vermalen like the plague, terrible defender. Absolutely no idea how the offside rule works and single handedly disorganizes any defence he's in. It's no suprise that Arsenal sorted their defence out the second they dropped him. Awful for Belgium aswell, so it's not as if him and Kompany have a proven partnership

 

[Neville Kneville]

Real Madrid defenders baffle me. Everyone seems to rate Marcelo as possible the best LB in the world, Ramos as possibly the best CB in the world, Varane as the best young CB in the world, Pepe as world class, yet every time I see them play they look all over the place defensively? They make so many individual mistakes and they rarely look like any kind of cohesive unit. There was one season where morinho managed to get them all well drilled and solid in the league, but they let in goals for fun the rest of the time.

That is because defending takes more than just the defenders. Marcelo is considered one of the best LBs in the world because his offensive production is stupendous. And seeing as there aren't that many shutdown left backs anywhere, he is considered great. Ramos is a fantastic CD. ESpecially if you are looking for the ball playing type. There are few better in that regards. Varane is like Nasty, a young CD excelling at a top club. That automatically makes him rated. Peep is a fantastic tackler (vidic like in that respect.)
Yes, there defense sometimes looks haphazard, but the individual talents are undeniable.

Varane is two yards quicker, jumps a foot higher & is much better on the ball than Nastasic. The main similarity is age. Verane has much better raw material.

All of Reals central defenders are quicker than our central defenders which makes them better suited to defending in desperate situations, with no cover, which they have to do in Real's team. Still can't cut it in the Champions League though. We need to find players of similar pace to play central defence in some of the big games, if we are to play such attacking football, but we still need to defend better as a team if we are to challenge the likes of Bayern.

Just having a quality back 4 won't solve it, without the whole team joining in when needed.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Various outlets reporting our interest again?

Why?