Thursday Bullets

By: Steve | August 23rd, 2007

Hala Madrid! I should start every post with that. Yeah baby, just like that…

Just a little something to start us off on the right foot…

Fabio Capello reams Calderon and Mijatovic.
as I’ve already made clear, I despise Goal.com for all the crap that comes through on it. Every now and then, you do find a nugget of truth, such as today’s synopsis of Marca’s interview with former coach Fabio Capello, the second of two parts. The first part I mentioned already yesterday, regarding the David Beckham benching and the idiocy of the president and sporting director. This time, he completely trashes the pair’s transfer policies (and confirms what we’ve all known).

It’s extremely difficult not to side with Don Fabio. He’s correct on every count: only given 30m euros to spend last summer vs. the 120m Schuster has gotten so far; the haphazard planning that verges on panic buying; ignoring the advice of technical staff who know what they’re talking about (with Milan’s new signing of Brazilian wunderkind Pato as a prime example)… it hurts, it really really hurts, to know that our beloved Blancos are actually hindered in their quest for glory by the directors of the club.

I mean, think about the job that Capello did last year… he took a team that was ravaged by the egos of the Galacticos, molded them into a team by discarding a fat Ronaldo and a useless Cassano, and led them to the title with some shrewd tactical moves within matches. He even threw himself on the fire by following orders to bench Becks. And they just BARELY managed to win the title vs. a Barcelona team that was at 75% all year and missing Eto’o for half the season and Ronaldinho being the midfielder formerly known as Ronaldinho. Does Calderon really think that throwing all this money at a half-decent coach will bring easy wins? ARGH… SO FRUSTRATING!!!
Cannavaro really losing the plot in international friendly vs Hungary.
Uh oh. This is not good news. Cannavaro was ravaged in the Italian press after a poor showing in yesterday’s friend vs. Hungary. I thought he progressed slowly but surely last season, but it’s clear he still hasn’t gotten anywhere near his 2006 form.

What makes this all the more worrying is that his supposed starting partner, Pepe, has not been convincing either. The 30m euro man has been alternately spectacular and spectacularly bad in the preseason. I wonder why Metzelder hasn’t had more playing time, he did pretty well in Germany’s 2-1 win vs. England yesterday.
Robben and Heinze officially presented as Real Madrid players.
Well, this is old news now, but I thought I’d link it anyways. There’s another link where Rafa Benitez whines about how Heinze was basically forced to leave England after the tribunal ruling against his move from Man U to Liverpool.

Also in the top story is a note that Cicinho is going to AS Roma. So the defense is much more balanced now, as Corey detailed earlier, but there could be further moves as evidenced by the next story…
Chelsea sign Belletti from Barcelona.
I only link this because of the ramifications of this move. Chelsea presumably have found the rightback they needed and will end their pursuit of Dani Alves. With Cicinho’s move to Roma, I suppose there’s a slim chance that Madrid could still go all-in for Alves, which would be a crazy move, since it would weaken a strong contender in Sevilla. I don’t know how that would help the defense though, because the move would push Sergio Ramos back to centreback, giving us with 3 international players at the position, plus a guy we spent 30m euros on. A bit of overkill, no?

Anyways, so let’s assume that we’re actually done with all the transfers. What I’d like to know is, if it came down again to the last game of the season, and assuming everyone was healthy, who would we field? Considering all our firepower, I agree with commenter elmeromero who suggested a 4-3-3 formation. I personally like this formation best, it’s the best reminder of old-school Dutch Total football.

Casillas is a given in goal. The back four would be Heinze on the left, Ramos on the right, and Cannavaro (for now) and Metzelder in the middle. The midfield would be more of an inverted triangle rather than a straight line, with Diarra holding, and Sneijder and Guti playing as distributors from the middle. Then, in a 3-pronged attack, you’d have Robben on the left wing, Robinho on the right wing, and van Nistelrooy as the lone striker who can poach the crosses, or hold up play to allow the wingers to come in (as Robben and Robinho like to do). That’s the team I’d be most comfortable playing with if it came down to it.