Real 1-1 Al Ittihad aka Its Preseason, Chill
By: Corey | July 26th, 2009
So its preseason, and the second game of the preseason at that for a squad that had some heavy turnover with more expected shortly as well as a new coach and administration in place. Sprinkle in to the mix a lack of seven of the teams best players and you have yourself a somewhat underwhelming game as far as a Real fan is concerned, although if you were cheering fro Ittihad, you probably threw your controller into your television set with all of the chances they missed. Pretty frustrating I would assume, and they played like a team that was nervously defending but bravely counter attacking against a sluggish and at sometimes indifferent defensive posture from Real. If only Ittihad was as indifferent about defending with 8 men behind the ball at all times, we may have seen more goals from Real.
As with the Shamrock game, my in-game thoughts in chronological order:
1st Half
—————-Dudek—————-
Torres—–Albiol—Metz—–Drenthe
Sneijder—-Lass—Gago—-Ronaldo
———-Raul—–Benzema———-
- Stadium looks great, as does the pitch. More space on the field hopefully will mean more chances and better ball movement.
- Dudek spills an early shot that he should have smothered on the ground. Going to be a long day with Dudek in goal…
- Ronaldo on the left, at least to start, does not do it for me. He is best on the right, so play him there, especially with Robben and Kaka better options on the left.
- I can not see Gago being the distributor that gets the offense going tonight. So many mis-placed passes already.
- Ronaldo and Benzema with a nice interchange of dribbles in the eighth minute. Pretty stuff.
- Drenthe with a good ball for once. Right on Raul’s head but the captain cant do much with it. He was not positioned the right way to meet the ball, so he turned on it and it flew wide.
- Gago with a nice burst forward to break up some play and leads to a quick chance.
- I am seeing a great deal of switching flanks from Sneijder and Ronaldo, and I am also seeing the play switched from side to side pretty quickly. Three passes max for a switch to take place before the space is filled again.
- Ittihad is really slow to move the ball around, and they are keeping most of their team behind their own line. Three man counter attacks should be easy to handle.
- Benzema is very creative in deeper positions, getting team mates involved with nice flicks and 1-2 plays. He may be better in the hole then as the point man, so Raul should be on notice.
- Old Sneijder is back with pointless shots from outside the box that are always blocked. Old Drenthe is also making an appearance with some duffed crosses that barely leave the ground and always hit the first defender.
- Raul as point man, Lass as the attacker in the center pairing. Two tactics I do not like. Its over kill with Gago and Lass in the center.
- Great hit from Raul. Wow, such refined technique to redirect an early Drenthe cross that was well saved by the Ittihad keeper. Drenthe has been forward often today, but Torres has been silent so far. Garay has not had much to do either.
- I am seeing a 4-2-2-2 in defensive postures for Real, as Pellegrini is leaving Ronaldo and Sneijder further forward then Lass and Gago.
- I just dont see what Sneijder brings compared to Guti, Kaka or Granero. Its different sure, but I do not think it works.
- Thong boy has been invisible today, as Lass and Gago rarely found him.
- Al Ittihad is really parking it, which has lead to little penetration from our attackers.
- Nice play here. Torres finds Raul deeper then usual and Raul plays 1-2 with Sneijder before releasing Ronaldo in the box. Thong boy is pushed down from behind, sure penalty, but its waived away. Curious choice ref.
- Drenthe skinned yet again, the defense is beginning to come unstuck. The chance is skied over the bar though, more poor finishing. Ittihad should have had 2 or 3 goals today. There play has been a little disjointed but they have countered superbly so far.
- Olala, Benzema and Thong plat tic-tac-toe with the ball with a series of deft touches and flick to one another before Ronaldo drills one to the back post which is well saved. Benzema looks awesome out there. He can create them as well as score them.
- Pellegrini has pushed Sneijder out so wide he has marginalized his effect, and was dependent on Gago to get things ticking, which has not happened. Sure do miss De la Red.
2nd Half
- Agus on for Garay. Not sure if thats because Pellegrini does not like Garay or he wants Agus to show him what he has got. Agus of course played in a preseason game against Depor two years ago when Schuster was a new coach, and more trusting of cantera boys. That evaporated quickly, and Agus’s performance in that game had something to do with that.
- Still little to no play in terms of horizontal passing in short bursts that moves the play forward. Or the right way to play football. Instead we still see long, vertical passing that often creates gaps between the player receiving the ball and the rest of the team so that isolation forces back passing more often then not.
- Nice turn by Raul off a Benzema pass for a shot that flies in to the corner of the net for a goal!!! Ittihad keeper had no chance, and neither did the defender who never got a whiff at the ball after an excellent shielding job from Raul. He has done really well today.
- Gago and Sneijder ran in to each other, HAHA!
- Agus is strong in the air just like Metzelder, but I dont see them as being a good partnership.
- Raul has dropped deep again and he switches the play very nicely, where Ronaldo receives before doing a rabona to Drenthe who crosses for the on rushing Raul that was cleared in time. I like what Raul offers when he drops deep.
- I think you have to consider Ruud and Negredo as the point striker or target men, while Benzema and Raul are the secondary striker or play in the hole. Higuain can play in either position, although he seems to flourish when play off center, as a false winger. I could see him doing well with Negredo or Benzema though.
- Ittihad scores off a well worked set piece that culminates in a header flying past Dudek in to the top corner. Gago was not marking his man tightly and he gets to the ball first. School boy defending by Gago, as he was the first defender and should have cleared easily from the short cross, but he was behind his man. I need to go to Madrid and teach that guy a few things.
- Guti, Robben and Higuain in for Benzema, Gago and Ronaldo. One Dm and one Cm seems a little more realistic from Pellegrini.
- Guti already strolling forward often to spray the ball around. For every two passes he gets right, he gets another wrong it seems. Still better then Gago in my opinion.
- Torres with a poor ball. He cut back and used his left instead of his right? Not sure why he did that.
- Granero comes on for Sneijder! Yes, the pirate! Phil just said Granero was better then De la Red??? I dont think so, and the other commentator agreed with me. Not a fair comparison Phil.
- Guti runs in to a shot that flies over. Hit it well enough but he had to avoid a hefty challenge to get the shot off and lost his balance.
- Graneor rips a shot from well out that curves past the keeper but clanks of the crossbar. Damn, what a nice shot that was. Robben fluffs the follow up chance with the goal begging.
- Nice back heel from Higuain to Robben who shots at the keeper and the ball is pushed over the bar for a corner. Better shooting accuracy Arjen!
- WOW! Shocking defending again as Ittihad strolls in 2 on 0 but Dudek races out to cut the angle and the shot is put wide. Failed offside trap there from Metzelder and Agus, looks like Drenthe may have been the culprit. That wont do against La Liga sides!
- Granero and Guti combine well before Robben is caught flat footed by a Guti pass. Guti yells at Robben to MOVE!
- Raul pushed from behind in the box with a ball coming his way from Granero. Was not as clear cut as the earlier Ronaldo push but Ittihad has gotten away with some rough housing in the penalty area.
- Lass has been a step behind today, very lazy and sloppy in the tackle giving away to many needless fouls.
- More chemistry in the team on the field after the substitutions, and much better passing. Only Robben can conspire to mess it up!
- Guti and Granero created more danger and a better fluidity in the ball movement in 20 minutes then Gago and Sneijder did all game. Im afraid thats still a ghost of the Schuster era.
- Another blown chance from Al Ittihad. Metzelder never followed his man after a 1-2, and he was all alone on Dudek who made himself big but in truth that was the chance of the game. Poor finishing.
- Torres was solid defensively today, but he offered little going forward, never delivering a ball in to the box. I suppose its what you like to see from your fullbacks. If Ronaldo is ahead of him and on song, then I would prefer Torres to the scatter brain of Sergio Ramos.
- Lass was pretty terrible today surprisingly, as was Dudek although you could credit him with scaring the Ittihad players from scoring on a few occasions I suppose. Ronaldo, Higuain, Gago and Agus did not do very good today. Drenthe, Torres, Benzema and Sneijder played well, but were not as decisive as they should have been. Especially Sneijder.
- Granero was excellent on his debut, while I think Guti, Robben and Metzelder had good games, although Metzelder is still very sluggish and Robben still ineffective in the final product, but its preseason. Raul was terrific today, would like to see more matches like that from the captain, and more service.
A lucky 1-1 draw because we were bested today in terms of chances, and even possession was fairly close. Still, its preseason and these games mean nothing so relax, have a beer and consider that we dont start league play for another month.
Interviews galore after the match: Agus/Granero, Pellegrini, Ronaldo, Gago/Garay and the cover for tomorrows Marca. Also, Garay was injured during the match, straining his right abductor. I never saw it happen but it explains Agus playing. The Confed Cup gang rejoin the team for training tomorrow although they wont play in the Peace Cup most likely.
The moral of the story here is that Real can not play that bad by the time they come to the US, so I will get to see a good game in DC!
Category: Team News
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Yah i wld also play abeloa in lb, i cnt wait 2 see cr9 n robben play together, thy bth r natural wingers unlike kaka, whch means they cn streach opp def, giv’n kaka more room in the middle 2 do his majic, bt at least we both agree el siete shld b benchd
Posted from
United States
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If Robben plays it would mean we play with 1 striker (Benzema) leaving Higuain on the bench, which I disagree with.
Posted from
Australia -
Its not lyk benz n pitita will play all the game n trust me we will all get our wish at 1 tym or the other, for me robben has earnd hs plc on the team afta lst ssn, cr9 n benzema av not, bt they all av my support
Posted from
United States -
I guess you know that I dont post on this page with a rivalry background. so hopefully you take it the way it is, as an objective opinion (or at least an attempt to be so).
I don’t actually see any similarities between Barcelona approach to the market to that’s of Madrid. Honestly talking.
1) Barcelona needed a new striker. Other than eto’o. I wrote about the reasoning of change on our blog (articles) and on Barcelona offside page (comments) so no need to make this comment longer by repeating the reasons here.
2) On the Barcelona page I break down Ibra transfer, it costs 65 M including Hleb. from the business perspective. Barcelona had two options Villa for 55M then they had to pay eto’o contract cancellation fee, or Ibra. The cost will be almost the same, but ibra is a better striker for barcelona. Or at least thats what the coach who won us the treble believe. And I agree with him.
3) in the other hand, RM situation was different. They had lot of options, but they picked the worst. Paying 100 M to get ronaldo is not better than paying the 100 M to get Ribery(50), Maicon(20), and mascherano/Xabi(30). They wouldnt cost that much at the beginning of the transfer period before the prices inflation caused by…hm…
4)I wouldnt take Kaka over ibra, honestly speaking. I respect Kaka and he is a quality player. But at the moment Ibra is better. at least harder to contain? You know that all what Barcelona and RM face in the liga is the defensive tactics the other teams apply to stop them right? And most importantly, he is a player with more hunger. Kaka already won everything. Which puts him in the same position as eto’o. Ibra wants the CL. He needs it. His eggo needs it. Dont underestimate this factor.
5) Regarding Laporta statements. It wasnt a foolish behavior. The moment the transfer market opened, Perez started to do the spendings. Knowing the two teams rivalry, the other teams started to take advantage of RM spendings to abuse the situation and raise the market value of every player Barcelona target (Deportivo?). So it was more a strategic statement that we will not get driven by the market status, we pay fair price. May be it was a lie, but not a foolish announcement that we will only spend 30 M this summer. in fact i predicted more spending since the first moment. If you can handle my emotional subjective style while writing about barcelona, I already wrote about what will happen before it happens here:
http://fcbtransfers.blogspot.com/2009/06/transfers-battle-chess-or-mess.html
6) Spending from your own money is obviously has an edge over diving in 250 M loan to buy players. I am not saying it was wrong or right, because its not my business after all. RM does what suits them. If you seriously feel this Perez adventure is perfect then good for you. But for me, if Ibra flop that will be a problem, but if he flops football wise and fail to earn back enough money for me to pay the dept I took to get him then tats catastrophic. But thats only me.
Mind you, i am actually happy about RM transfers, the same as Barcelona transfers. The spotlight is back on the liga, which will generate more money for all the teams. If Ronaldo indirectly increases Barcelona marketing revenues (which is true by the way9 hen i have no reason to complain. Football wise i believe the Liga destiny is not in the hands of Ronaldo, Kaka, or ibra. The less flashy players in the two teams who will end up deciding the success and failure of every club, working in the shadows.
Posted from
Sweden -
Personally, ive heard a lot of criticism about us paying 94 million euros for Ronaldo, and it being compared to the amounts paid for both Kaka and Ibrahimovic. I believe this is not a completely valid comparison because of the fact that Ronaldo is 3-4 years younger than the other 2. Which basically means that even if he somehow does flop sportingwise the next few years, he will have a resale value which will not be significantly decreased simply due to the fact that his marketing potential is unlikely to fall soon. Moreover there are now lots of owners with a lot of money who’d actually be willing to pay a lot to get Ronaldo on their team. As for any interest on the loan taken, it’ll probably have been covered by the shirt sales other marketing aspects. So, financially this deal is not going to lead us to bankruptcy. Sportswise im not so sure, id have preferred Ribery. And as for us getting the other players that Ramzi has talked about for 100 m euros, only Mascherano would have a good resale value in 2-3 years time, and none of them would have been good marketingwise. Which would have meant a bad time for us economically.
If you want to compare Kaka and Ibrahimovic, then yes thats a very valid comparison. However it would only be completely valid if both of them had been in similar deals, money only or player+money; and if their situations had been similar attitudewise. For Barca, this transfer may have been worth 65 million euros, as their finance chief calculated. But for Inter, im sure this deal was worth atleast 75-80 million. For the simple fact that Ibrahimovic wasnt happy at Inter and wanted out. Instead they get a player who will want to show Barca his worth by beating them in the Champs League. I doubt Real would have considered paying that much, unless it was also with players in exchange. Unfortunately Inter didnt want any of our players in return. Moreover Kaka fulfils a certain role in the side, which Ibrahimovic wouldnt. So personally, just as Ramzi wouldnt take Kaka, i wouldnt want us to take Ibrahimovic. He’d have had a huge destabilising effect, what with the mutiple ultrainflated egos around. (i still assume Ronaldo was the absolute first choice signing, even ahead of Kaka, even though the latter was signed first)
And as for the ethical issues of using your own money or money paid by loans, well, it all boils down to the way you look at it. Is the club a sporting project which must be run separate to the concept of other businesses or can it be considered a business venture as well? For virtually all the major corporations in the world take loans to undergo restructuring and expansion. Perez runs Real primarily according to this model, while Laporta seems to favour a more mix and match approach. If the assumption is that football clubs cannot be run as businesses, then yes, clubs such as Real Madrid, most of the EPL, and various other clubs should also be chastised.
But whatever the case is, like Ramzi, i think its awesome for La Liga to have both The Zlatan and CR94, and their egos and bags of flicks and tricks. Though Zlatan’s comments are truly unique.
Besides who knows, Valencia with Villa, Mata and Silva still there may actually become party poopers. This year is gonna be a lot of fun!!Posted from
United States -
Nihit, that was an intelligent comment. And I always like to read some of this level. But I will rephrase what you said. Sue me if you hate it
- Regardless of the fact that different positions offer different life cycles for players career , which is the life-chart to monitor over age, you say that In 3 years, If Ronaldo Flopped, you can sell him back for reasonable price (obviously less than the price you bought him for. And pay back a part of the loan you drew to buy him for and had to pay an interest for it along three years. That sound better from the financial aspect than If Ibra flopped with Barcelona and they sold him for say 20 Millions and used that money within their transfer budget to buy another substitute. Aside of the spor-side impact of the “flopping” case, I am not sure I understand that logic.
- Ronaldo will not offer his image rights for any club he signs for later on, so he won’t be as tempting in that mean. (just an additional notation).
- Winning competitions generate the best economic outcome for you. Forget that shirt sales thing. So will Ronaldo alone offer a better opportunity for RM to win more titles than having Maicon and ribery together operating on that same flank, with mascherano covering defensively? Again, not sure about that as well.
- You said “For Barca, this transfer may have been worth 65 million euros, as their finance chief calculated. But for Inter…” I admit being curious by nature, so i read what you mentioned after “for inter” but, hm…who care? I am so sure barcelona board were more focused to do barcelona interest rather than designing a deal to screw Inter
. Inter can evaluate the transfer as they wish. the bottom of the line they were able to afford cancelling the whole deal and ibra would have stayed, and played, and hailed. He has a secure contract. Not the same situation for barcelona-Eto’o. I Always feel happy when the buyer feels he screwed me in the deal i feel It was a bargain for me. It means he will be happy t do business with me again when i feel like to. Great! (I am jumping now and punching the air with joy!).- Real Madrid wouldnt mind exchange deals, neither they would have mind paying 70 m for ibra. But thats another story (as why it didnt happen).
- As for paying via loans, let me note something: There is absolutely no ethical issue in that. Not for me. i am not sure if thats how it is tackled by other comments, but here i am talking pure business. Based on Cost-Benefit analysis.
- Now regarding this special case of business, its true that financing investments through loans is a well known model. Infact I dont know another model beside that. Even if you have the money, as long as you can finance through loans its better to keep your cash flow in hand. No doubt. But there is another thing to take in consediration. Bad loans. its not the loan that I am critical about, but the investment financed by that loan. Perez tried this model before, and it failed. only selling one of the club assists saved him back then. I wouldnt consider that as success. (again in such a mature discussion lets keep rivalry aside). He was able to create a better team than the one you ended up having with 100 M less expenditure. Which means loaning 100 m less. The new signings will sell shirts as well. Not as many as Ronaldo will sell, but they difference will not be 100 M sales return. Putting that in the same scale with better team means more opportunities to win titles and less loan means less interest to pay give you a better idea about the new project.
In business you do not evaluate a process as “good or bad”, but as ” was this the best alternative to take? If not, then how far the alternative taken was worse than the best one to take”.
Finally, do not put lot of hopes on shirt sales. Regardless of what will be promoted thru the media. If Perez would have signed one big player at a time, then it would have gone better. But signing to many at the same time will cause cannibalization impact. In simple words each player shirt selling will eat from the share of the other player. unless if you believe every fan will buy three shirts each for a player. Adding that to the economic crises. Believe me it is not that rosy.
Does that mean Real madrid will either fly or bankrupt? no. I can insure that they will not bankrupt. They have the shelter that give them enough financial immunity when needed. But still that doesnt make this project a piece of art.
And I promise you that if Perez surprised me later with a genius business plan that i didnt expect, i will mention it here. Because I am monitoring this from the business aspect. Till then, I am not convinced.
Posted from
Sweden -
Jnice you seem to like twisting my words when did I say that laporta speaks for every cule ?
Ramzi , I’m pretty sure perez sold that land before he started buying galacticos in his first term they , even though were a failure ( from the sporting point of view that is ) in the later part of his tenure , made us a lot of money
And I don’t understand why you want us to buy maicon when we already have sergio ramos whom besides being in bad form last season is still world class or is it that you don’t rate him highly ? if you said that we should have focused on getting a world class left back then I could see where you’re coming from
Ronaldo vs ribery , ribery was my prefered choice too because I do not like ronaldo as a person but ronaldo will make the club a lot of money and I’m not basing that on the shirts alone, we got 50 % of his image rights and sporting wise you can’t say that this was a bad buy although I preferred ribery ronaldo is a world class player ( wasn’t he the best in the world just last year )Kaka vs ibra like nihit said just like you wouldn’t take kaka over ibra I wouldn’t take ibra over kaka either , because again as nihit pointed out he covers some positions for us that zlatan can not only that I think that kaka is an all around better player than ibra they have both played in the serie A kaka beat him to the individual awards every year( cept this year because kaka was injured for most part ) even though milan wasn’t winning jack and inter were dominating sure ibra is flashier but kaka brings it when it counts something the former can’t say everytime he’s faced strong oppositions he disappears kaka on the other hand single rip teams whether big or small apart and he is worth more than ibra marketing wise
So I think he was a very good buy any way you look at it
There is also something worth pointing , we had a lot of money saved up for ribery even after ronaldo and kaka came , perez wanted to buy him and still do but bayern don’t want to sellthe point you ‘ve made about making one big signing a summer is a valid one it would have definitly help us in the shirt sale department but would it have given us a chance to be as strong as barca ? That’s why perez and co decided they were gonna do ” what we normally would have done in 3 summers in just a single one ”
I’d rather they do that than them sitting around keeping this mediocre squad we had last year while we get knocked out at another cL round of 16 and watch barcelona winning everything just in order to keep us debt freePosted from
United States -
Andres, I am aware about the land selling timing. But its not when it was sold, but the impact of that sale on the whole project financially. Was the financial boost at Real madrid a result of selling shirts or selling lands? At the end of that era, RM financial pocket included less than the amount earned by selling the land. Do the calculations.
- Maicon is a quality Left back. He can play on two flanks. And I believe thats where he was going to play if RM suceeded to buy him.
- “ronaldo will make the club a lot of money”, I already pointed out that the team would have been able to generate more money while building a stronger team. But let time tell how right this cliche will turn to be.
- Regarding Ibra Vs Kaka, I didnt mean I will take Ibra over Kaka based on barcelona needs, so its not about RM needs. Ibra is a better player at the moment, and he has more potentials to keep on the highest level for a longer period than Kaka. That doesnt mean that i dont rate Kaka high. I may be wrong, but thats how I see it. Again, time will tell.
- Regarding Ribery, it would have been smart to buy him if you didnt get Ronaldo. Getting him now make things even worse. I mean, you are only allowed to play 11 players on the field, and that must include a goal keeper.
Posted from
Sweden -
Hector: I did not now KNOW Zlatan, but now I do. Thank you for the video.
Kxevin: I think we need a few more press conferences after games to get any good material on a nick name for Zlatan, although Fro is not bad.
So far in the stable of nick names we have Thong Boy, Jesus (Kaka), Pipita (Higuain), Pirata (Granero), Horse Face (Ruud), Mr. Bojangles (Robben) and GoldTrunks (Sergio Ramos) Surely I am forgetting some, I should do a post on that!
Posted from
United States -
Ramzi you HAVE to include a goal keeper in the first 11? Since when!! ? Lol nah just kidding
I think ronaldo would have played as a second striker in case ribery cameabout maicon I’ve never seen him play left back at inter but I won’t disagree that he could make a name for himself there
Re zlatan vs kaka I don’t get it when you say that zlatan has more potential to be even better , they’re the same age , can’t kaka get better as well ? But that’s opinion and I respect it but let’s all hope kaka comes out on top eh ?
Posted from
United States -
Glad you liked it, Corey
. You guys should just keep VdV and put him on the field in el Clasico. We can have a betting pool on which one of the two gets a straight red fouling the other first. I also have to respect somebody willing to engage in scissor armed mortal combat with Mido while at Ajax. That takes balls. In fairness though, he was a wild man at Ajax and Juve but has been almost a model citizen since getting married (to a woman with an MBA but also 11 years older no less).From Kaka I’ve heard and read stuff on the Barca board and other places including: God Boy, IBTJ (I Belong to Jesus), Richard (instead of Ricky Kaká), or simply Káka
(his name pronounced with the accent in the first A instead of the second one in Spanish means Crap).Posted from
United States -
fyi to those who might not know, madrid is playing quito in a few hours, nearly didnt notice it myself.. really hope negredo shows his worth
Posted from
Belgium -
For Kaka, I like WWKD (What Would Kaka Do?)
And Mr. Bojangles is genius. Pure genius. Who came up with that one?
Posted from
United States -
Another Kaka moment, inspired by baby talk: Poop! You know, as in “Mommy, I have to go ka-ka.”
We have some rippin’ good nicknames going here. Iniesta is Ghostface, to add to your list.
Posted from
United States -
I call iniesta casper !!
Posted from
United States -
We do sometimes too, Andres. Pretty difficult not to come up with ghost-like analogies with that dude. Those pics of him on vacation with his girlfriend (shirtless) should have come with sunglasses!
Posted from
United States -
LOL That’s a good one. We usually call him SPF45 (as in the most powerful sunblock rating) or Ghostface Killah.
I don’t even one to start with Guti
.Posted from
United States -
Goalll!!! Granero!!!! 2-0! After Ronaldo scored a penalty.
Posted from
Australia -
entertaining game, slow start but a well executed dribble & dive from R9 got things started. really happy about granero’s excellent game, negredo’s goal and salgado showing what a legend he is. i thought marcelo did well, until he was found guilty of bad timing for both goals. dudek showed some nice and crucial saves. robben, guti and gago were fairly useless, granero practically took over all of their tasks when he came on and starts to look like a 96 million signing. higuain, benzema, ronaldo and robben need to practice their interplay. a lot.
Posted from
Belgium -
Dont we all miss last seasons higuain? I’m glad this slump in form is coming in preseason, and hopefully will be gone by the beginning of the season!
Posted from
Germany -
I was especially critical of Robben and Gago in the first half. I guess I’m just going to have to get used to Fernando, but I’m beginning to think that if Robben can be used to bring in Alonso, I’d be okay with it.
Great match from Granero, and Pepe was massive. We’re really going to miss him in the first four games, especially against Depor and Villarreal.
Posted from
United States -
I’m worried with Higuain’s form too…
Was that REALLY Drenthe who put in the cross for Begredo’s goal? hahahah. Drenthe seems to be coming to life. Decent performance vs. Al Ittihad and just a while ago, it really looked to me like he put in 2-3 decent crosses including the one for Negredo’s goal.
Gago is really a disaster. How can he be wearing Zizou’s number playing like that? I wouldn’t mind seeing the world go in slow motion at the sight of Megan Fox…. but this Gago! Everything slows down when he gets the ball… and there’s a 50-50 or even a 60-40 chance he’ll pass the ball right to an opponent when he gets it. Gosh!
I’m super happy to see Granero and Negredo get on the scoresheet too!
In other news: they’re really saying that we’ve landed Arbeloa. Now I REALLY hope Negredo stays to form our new generation of canteranos in the squad. These 3 aren’t just canteranos, these 3 are top quality players who really have something to give the team.
Posted from
Singapore -
I agree with John: Pepe was huge. I’m dreading the first month of the season without him.
Posted from
Singapore -
while pepe has been great as usual, i found it even more important to note that metzelder has been playing quite well for the past couple of months. im not a big fan of his, but his form could be critical for that first month without pepe and a new defensive backline with albiol and arbeloa
Posted from
Belgium -
Si RM no adquiere por lo menos 2 titulos eso va hacer un decepcion por tanto q ha gastado esa temporada en compra de jugadores.segun lo q estoy viendo va a pasar lo mismo q el ano de los galacticos.
El milan esta muy atras en ganar competencias por el plantel tan viejo q tiene.Desde la ultima CL que gano no quiso renovar el plantelPosted from
United States
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