What now….
By: Cesar | September 16th, 2009
Hello again everybody. I just read on As.com that Xabi’s injury ig going to take him out of the nex two games, against Xerez (H), and Villarreal (A). The doctors say that after tomorrow’s medical, if it’s only a bruise, he’ll be out four to five days, missing the games I mentioned before; if there’s a rupture (please, please, please NO!!!) he’d be out between 2 and 4 weeks.
I’ve been so worried about Xabi’s injury and what it would mean to our team, that I started writing the following in the morning:
The image above could well represent the make or break moment of our season. I don’t want to sound as I’m panicking, although maybe I am, but the truth is I’M REALLY WORRIED about Xabi’s exit from yesterday’s game due to an injury in his Achilles heel, the extent of which we still don’t know, so we just have to wait and see how mild (hopefully), or bad (hopefully not) the injury really is.
We’ve seen from the start of the season just how important Xabi has been to the overall performance of the team, and how much of an upgrade he’s been compared to Gago and the other options we had before he finally arrived. Xabi’s ability to distribute the ball, dictate the tempo of the game, vertical passing, playmaking ability, long balls, help on defense, long range shooting, etc, have added another dimension to our club, and has allowed players like Lass and Kaka, to have more incidence on attack, because they know that Xabi is covering their backs.
So now the question is: if Xabi misses considerable time, who should come in for him??? Should we look for somebody on the December transfer market???
Of all the options we have at the moment, I would go with Granero; keep Lass further behind, and have Granero roam around the field; I think he’s the best option, and seeing the understanding he’s developing with Kaka, I’m sure he would be a great option while Xabi’s out.
Having read the article on As.com calmed me a little, because now we know the timetable for Xabi’s return. I think that for the Xerez game, Pellegrini is going to go with Granero from the start, with Lass, and Kaka in midfield, and Benzema, Raul, and CR9 up front.
As usual, I’d like your opinion on who should play while Xabi’s out, and what can we expect of the next two games against Xerez and Villarreal.
Thanks for your time, HALA MADRID!!!!
PS: FORZA INTER, SNEIJDER!!!!
Category: Team News
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Perfect way of replacing him is the three man midfield and NOT GAGO! Lass, Granero and Guti? Give more freedom for kaka upfront…
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United States
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right on Bassam i had the same thing in mind
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United States -
nooo way will dis mess up r season even if he is our for up 2 a month, lyk Bassam said Lass, Guti, Granero 3 man midfield is fine, i actualy prefer us wit a 3 man midfield cuz we played reli gd football in pre season usin it, nd if we wanted 2 keep it the sme den replace Xabi wit Diarra, we still aint see both Diarra’s 2gether in midfield, dat in theory shuld cover the defense just as much as the Xabi-Lass partnership, nd i’m gettin more confident wit Lass creatin skills now, nd we ave a lot of talent goin forward alredi so he shuldn’t need 2 do 2 much.
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United Kingdom -
3 man midfield wit Van der vaart mayb?
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United Kingdom -
I thought about it zizou, this could be his change to break into the squad… You can’t say alonso is not needed, as he is the one that does the work that no one sees. He connects. That is something we didn’t have before. Only thing that scares me is that Guti is not the most reliable player due to his inconsistency. As long as arbeloa is playing as a full back, we cant have two pivots as that will limit us in the attack. Maybe with Ramos coming back, and Drenthe/marcelo on the left, we can afford the double pivot since it will give our full backs more freedom. I mentioned this in our preseason discussions when getting Alonso seemed impossible… Hope its only two weeks. I would go with the three man midfield against Xerez, they dont seem to be any trouble at all.
Hala Madrid!
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United States -
oh yh i didn’t mean he wasn’t needed, cuz if he was fit without doubt he wuld b in the startin 11, just tryin 2 calm Cesar dwn lolz, was gettin 2 carried away sayin dis culd mke or break r season, i wuld b reli pissd if he got injured befor a big game tho, but also the fact dat we shuld b fine without him as we ave enuf depth 2 cover him, nd i reli wanna c a Diarra combination for 1 game, dnt get me wrong tho, i hope hes not out for a month nd defintly want him bck soon as.
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United Kingdom -
Yeah, I’m not going to sweat this too much. Agreed Xabi adds a lot to Real’s game, but with their stacked midfield, it’s just going to mean a slight shift in tactics. I’d love to see the Kaka/Lass/Granero midfield that Cesar proposed against Xerex.
And I HATE it when I find myself rooting for Inter, but I wanted Mad Sammy to score against the blaugrana SO BAD! He got done wrong, in my opinion.
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United States -
john uz shuld go join the debate dey avin ova at the inter blog its quiet fun 2 read..
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United Kingdom -
We should wait and see how long he is goine. My prediction is a 1-2 weeks. Against Xerez whoever we play we won’t be having problems but against Villarreal things are going to be tough. If i was the coach I’d go with a 4-3-2-1 with Lass-Granero-M.Diarra, Kaka-CRonaldo, Benzema. And according to how the game goes, bring Gago in if we want to protect a result or get Guti, Higuain in if we need goals.
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United States -
lol john, let it go, take comfort in knowing he’ll score against madrid if inter play madrid in the knockout stage
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United States -
So guys, i have just watched the FC Zurich match (compliments of my DVR) and i have come to a few conclusions (please feel free to correct me or interject your opinion because i certainly am not the world’s best football strategist):
1. looks like our ball work has improved, and is improving as we go along
2. Lass continues to impress me
3. CR9 seems to be getting more comfortable with the squad and willing to really open up and play like we have seen him play at Man U (i.e. showing the genius in free kicks, ball work, passing, shots and chemistry we saw last year when we were all watching him hoping we would have him in a white jersey this year, and lets face it, most of us were)
4. could this be the real Guti? the one we have seen glimpses of the past few seasons, but never really came together to form a great player?
5. Can i please see Ruud? (personal request for my favorite footballer)
6. Gago frustrates me
7. Guti + CR9 seems to be a good combination
8. as the game gets tougher, the better we get – kinda reminds me of the squad from 07-08 (i.e. – the more stress the better)
9. it IS possible for us to win the treble, there is a lot of work to be done, and if our boys can really come together, we can prove we are not just the best team on paper, we are the best team on the pitch!
Please give me feedback if you think im totally wrong or just an idiot, but that is a bit of what i have seen in this match and from the few we have had this seasonPosted from
United States -
I’d like to see a Diarra-Granero partnership to replace the Xabi-Lass. The way I see it is if you replace Xabi with Diarra, that puts too much pressure on Lass to create and is too defensive, espescially for Xerez. If you replace Xabi with Granero, Lass will have less freedom and have to lie deeper. I think with Marmaduke laying deep and Granero creating (links up well with Kaka) there will be a good balance.
However I do like Eladir’s lineup except Guti for Lass. Diarra deep Granero linking up with Kaka and Guti linking up with Cronaldo. There is a lot of space to roam up top too.
Not trying to knock Lass, but I think he needs a Xabi type player to be at his best. Its not always about putting the best players on the pitch, but about playing the ones who work well together and compliment each other.
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United States -
Both diara’s play’n 2gether, wldnt b interest’n 2 wtch both r 2 defensive, so 4 xerez game i wld gv mamadou some mins 2 see his form oh n rvn too
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United States -
@Christian, yea more or less that’s what everyone saw. Don’t know about the treble thing, we never really tried for the copa and there are teams playing better right now both in Spain (Barcelona) and in Europe (Chelsea). We have potential to be the best but we’ll have to wait and see how it goes. I’ll be happy even if we only win La Liga which is the main target of every team since that’s the competition you play most common. Champions Leuage and Copa include knockout rounds and sometimes its beyond your powers really. Except for having a good team you need luck too.
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i wuld very much lyk us 2 go for the copa as Raul still aint won it am i right?
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United Kingdom -
I honestly think we are the best team in Europe in terms of attacking at the moment, and we can only get better as the team gels. However defensively we are still vulnerable, particularly at set pieces. Hopefully we don’t lose Xabi Alonso for too long because he is as important as we all knew he would be.
Also I liked Drenthe’s performance and his performances since the beginning of the preseason have impressed me and I want him to be ahead of Marcelo in the pecking order based solely on his merits.
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And Corey, can you try and change the American flag under my post to an Australian one, since that is where I am from.
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United States -
Oh and lastly, for all you newcomers to this blog, have a look at this page:
http://real.theoffside.com/team-news/brians-pilgrimage-to-the-bernabeu.html
Its about my visit to the Bernabeu for that fateful El Clasico on May 3, 2009. There’s plenty of photos of the ggame as well as the tour of the Bernabeu and he museum, as well as one at the end of La Cibeles, so have a look.
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Thank God, Xabi’s only out for 2 weeks…
Posted from
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Brian says ur postin from the UK on my screen.
i remeber uz postin dese before, i’ve been der couple of tyms now but cbt believe uz got 2 c Real-Barca tho very lucky, ur pics of the game were wayyy beta den mine tho.
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United Kingdom -
yee Alonso injury 7-10 dais dat not as bad as this news dis Metzelder will b out for 2-3 weeks, which means Albiol nd Garay will ave 2 play nxt few games..
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dat not dis lolz
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Brian- I cant do much about that, its your IP address. Dont worry about it though, it is inconsequential, we all know your from Oz.
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Did everybody think guti looked good against zurich? I thought he faded out of it, and if you discount his goal he seemed to be lost most the time. As bad as gago looked, he appeared to me to have more of an idea of his purpose on the field than guti. Thoughts?
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Don’t worry Brian, the thing under your post changes a lot, for a while, it was showing we were posting from Iran lol.
As for the best team in Europe, i don’t think so, as someone mentioned, Barcelona are still better than us in Spain, and there are a couple of teams in Europe that out shine us. Up till now, all the opposition we have faced is easy, which is a good thing, since the team needs to work with each other as much as possible to raise their game. We are letting in too many goals in, and a quality squad like Barca, Man utd, Chelsea or even Milan with their experience up front would take advantage of that. We are working very well though on becoming the best, and props to Pelligrini on the job he is doing.
I like Corey’s confidence ahead of the game, although, i do think that a lot of players might be rested next game. Benzema will start ahead of Higuain, who has played 2 games in 5 games. Maybe Kaka will be rested too.
Hala Madrid!
Posted from
United States
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