Real Madrid C.F. 2008/09

The official lineups haven't been posted on Marca or AS but the predicted was:

--------------------Casillas

S. Ramos-----J. Garcia-----Pepe------Heinze

--------------------Diarra

---------v. d. Vaart---------Guti

---------Raul-------v. Nistelrooy------Robinho

Robinho !

er, how is Cristiano settling in at Madrid?

would it be safe to bet on a real madrid win?

Green Arrow wrote:er, how is Cristiano settling in at Madrid?

I don't know, how are you spending the £100m.?

Batman wrote:would it be safe to bet on a real madrid win?

In my opinion, no.

Batman wrote:would it be safe to bet on a real madrid win?

If your betting a small amount then yeah.

Real are having an inconsistent preseason tbh.

Jaime wrote:

Green Arrow wrote:er, how is Cristiano settling in at Madrid?

I don't know, how are you spending the £100m.?

Good one there Man Target!!!

So no TRW for you and my money transfer never took place - oh well, alls well ends well.

Now i doubt if he will ever really leave. Plus you are stuck with Robinho!

Green Arrow wrote:

Jaime wrote:

Green Arrow wrote:er, how is Cristiano settling in at Madrid?

I don't know, how are you spending the £100m.?

Good one there Man Target!!!

So no TRW for you and my money transfer never took place - oh well, alls well ends well.

Now i doubt if he will ever really leave. Plus you are stuck with Robinho!

We'll see, Scolari may whisk him away to London before it's all said and done.

Jaime wrote:

Green Arrow wrote:

Jaime wrote:

Green Arrow wrote:er, how is Cristiano settling in at Madrid?

I don't know, how are you spending the £100m.?

Good one there Man Target!!!

So no TRW for you and my money transfer never took place - oh well, alls well ends well.

Now i doubt if he will ever really leave. Plus you are stuck with Robinho!

We'll see, Scolari may whisk him away to London before it's all said and done.

Good i look forward to him being squeezed like a grape by The Rio-Vidic Machine!!!

Eintracht 1 Real Madrid 0 (Bellaid 12')

Almost exactly how the 1960 EC Final started...we're on track for another 3-7!

Jaime wrote:Almost exactly how the 1960 EC Final started...we're on track for another 3-7!

You don't have Franco to give you Di Stefano this time

I would be happy, but I remember last year Madrid lost to Hannover, and got destroyed by Sevilla in the Supercup, yet won the league.

Even though Valencia are looking awful so far, I'm not going to read anything into Madrid's poor pre-season results.

I'm quite encouraged by our performance so far. Our defense has looked very shaky, but we could have scored 3 or 4.

VDV just oozes class. He's already given 3 excellent through balls and had a decent long range effort saved by the goalie. Best player next to Diarra, who is starting to resemble the player we saw at Lyon many years ago.

Ramos and Pepe are clearly lacking matchfitness, and Robben, Raul and RVN have been nearly invisible.

Torres is a case apart. He's an absolute embarassment. He's a coladero in defense and he's screwed up at least 4 attacks, including that sublime pass that VDV gave him. We may just have another Raul Bravo in our hands if he keeps this up

I'm afraid there can only ever be one Raul Bravo

Accept no imitations

Robinho makes it 1-1!

"Vaya balonazo que se ha llevado Metzelder, que se ha quedado tendido en el suelo. Han entrado las asistencias médicas."

Very entertaining game. Any other day we would have scored 7 goals, but we had a bit of bad luck and that goalie had the performance of his life.

In these matches the score is the least important, so I don't mind that we drew. I think there were enough encouraging signs that our attack may not suffer as much as we think if we don't buy another number 9 (though of course, it should still remain an essential buy before the season starts)

What's been clear once again is that Raul and RVN CANNOT be in the field at the same time. That short amount of time when we saw Robinho, VDV, and Robben altogether saw us having an excellent spell of play in attack. This was despite Baptista giving the ball away every time he got it.

De la Red was OK in the second half, but I felt that he held back a bit. He didn't try enough through balls or long range shots as he should have. Hopefully Schuster will give him more minutes against Valencia.

Sunday will be the real test to see the level of the team, but I'm now significantly more optimistic after tonight's game.

Torrente wrote:Very entertaining game. Any other day we would have scored 7 goals, but we had a bit of bad luck and that goalie had the performance of his life.

In these matches the score is the least important, so I don't mind that we drew. I think there were enough encouraging signs that our attack may not suffer as much as we think if we don't buy another number 9 (though of course, it should still remain an essential buy before the season starts)

What's been clear once again is that Raul and RVN CANNOT be in the field at the same time. That short amount of time when we saw Robinho, VDV, and Robben altogether saw us having an excellent spell of play in attack. This was despite Baptista giving the ball away every time he got it.

De la Red was OK in the second half, but I felt that he held back a bit. He didn't try enough through balls or long range shots as he should have. Hopefully Schuster will give him more minutes against Valencia.

Sunday will be the real test to see the level of the team, but I'm now significantly more optimistic after tonight's game.

Good to hear because i only got the last 10 mins of the game and it didnt seem that good in defence at all. but we afford it if our attack finally works.

Super Madrid wrote:

Torrente wrote:Very entertaining game. Any other day we would have scored 7 goals, but we had a bit of bad luck and that goalie had the performance of his life.

In these matches the score is the least important, so I don't mind that we drew. I think there were enough encouraging signs that our attack may not suffer as much as we think if we don't buy another number 9 (though of course, it should still remain an essential buy before the season starts)

What's been clear once again is that Raul and RVN CANNOT be in the field at the same time. That short amount of time when we saw Robinho, VDV, and Robben altogether saw us having an excellent spell of play in attack. This was despite Baptista giving the ball away every time he got it.

De la Red was OK in the second half, but I felt that he held back a bit. He didn't try enough through balls or long range shots as he should have. Hopefully Schuster will give him more minutes against Valencia.

Sunday will be the real test to see the level of the team, but I'm now significantly more optimistic after tonight's game.

Good to hear because i only got the last 10 mins of the game and it didnt seem that good in defence at all. but we afford it if our attack finally works.

I'm not worried that our defense was Cr@p because Ramos and Pepe weren't matchfit and Torres isn't likely to play much. By the time you were watching, our defense had Salgado, Torres and Javi Garcia, so it was never going to look rock solid. If we get Garay this season then there isn't much to worry about besides a potential Ramos injury.

I was also encouraged by VDV, partly because he also looked very good when had to orchestrate plays from deeper in the field. So while he may be best as a media punta, he's shown signs that he's good enough to play a bit deeper if the lineup requires him to.

I take the whole preseason with a grain of salt. The only thing I wanted for today was to make sure no other players got injured significantly.

For me, several things still need to happen before the season starts:

1) Baptista & Saviola need to go - they offer absolutely nothing to this team

2) We either need to confirm that Garay is, in fact, joining us or find another central defender somewhere because I have no reason to believe that Metzelder, Heinze, and Pepe will all be fit for the whole season. Javi Garcia is a midfielder. Sergio Ramos is a right back. Not to mention Cannavaro is still recovering and he hasn't been that great since he joined us anyhow.

3) I agree with Torrente in the partnership of Raul and RVN. They are both just to static and old these days. I'd rather one (or both if we sign Villa ) dropped so that both Robben and Robinho (or an actual right winger) could play at the same time. I'd even be willing to play Higuain as a centre forward even though that's not his natural position.

Torrente wrote:

Super Madrid wrote:

Torrente wrote:Very entertaining game. Any other day we would have scored 7 goals, but we had a bit of bad luck and that goalie had the performance of his life.

In these matches the score is the least important, so I don't mind that we drew. I think there were enough encouraging signs that our attack may not suffer as much as we think if we don't buy another number 9 (though of course, it should still remain an essential buy before the season starts)

What's been clear once again is that Raul and RVN CANNOT be in the field at the same time. That short amount of time when we saw Robinho, VDV, and Robben altogether saw us having an excellent spell of play in attack. This was despite Baptista giving the ball away every time he got it.

De la Red was OK in the second half, but I felt that he held back a bit. He didn't try enough through balls or long range shots as he should have. Hopefully Schuster will give him more minutes against Valencia.

Sunday will be the real test to see the level of the team, but I'm now significantly more optimistic after tonight's game.

Good to hear because i only got the last 10 mins of the game and it didnt seem that good in defence at all. but we afford it if our attack finally works.

I'm not worried that our defense was Cr@p because Ramos and Pepe weren't matchfit and Torres isn't likely to play much. By the time you were watching, our defense had Salgado, Torres and Javi Garcia, so it was never going to look rock solid. If we get Garay this season then there isn't much to worry about besides a potential Ramos injury.

I was also encouraged by VDV, partly because he also looked very good when had to orchestrate plays from deeper in the field. So while he may be best as a media punta, he's shown signs that he's good enough to play a bit deeper if the lineup requires him to.

Exactly what i wanted to hear. we need for VDV to be able to win Gutis position because i dont think we can rely on Guti to consistently deliver. allthough perhaps good competition will bring that out of him. cant way to see how it goes against Valencia.

@Jaime

I agree that it would be interesting to give Higuain a chance as a number 9. He may not be as prolific as RVN, but his movement is excellent and having him, Robben and Robinho constantly swapping positions in attack could work very well.

Super Madrid wrote:

Torrente wrote:

Super Madrid wrote:

Torrente wrote:Very entertaining game. Any other day we would have scored 7 goals, but we had a bit of bad luck and that goalie had the performance of his life.

In these matches the score is the least important, so I don't mind that we drew. I think there were enough encouraging signs that our attack may not suffer as much as we think if we don't buy another number 9 (though of course, it should still remain an essential buy before the season starts)

What's been clear once again is that Raul and RVN CANNOT be in the field at the same time. That short amount of time when we saw Robinho, VDV, and Robben altogether saw us having an excellent spell of play in attack. This was despite Baptista giving the ball away every time he got it.

De la Red was OK in the second half, but I felt that he held back a bit. He didn't try enough through balls or long range shots as he should have. Hopefully Schuster will give him more minutes against Valencia.

Sunday will be the real test to see the level of the team, but I'm now significantly more optimistic after tonight's game.

Good to hear because i only got the last 10 mins of the game and it didnt seem that good in defence at all. but we afford it if our attack finally works.

I'm not worried that our defense was Cr@p because Ramos and Pepe weren't matchfit and Torres isn't likely to play much. By the time you were watching, our defense had Salgado, Torres and Javi Garcia, so it was never going to look rock solid. If we get Garay this season then there isn't much to worry about besides a potential Ramos injury.

I was also encouraged by VDV, partly because he also looked very good when had to orchestrate plays from deeper in the field. So while he may be best as a media punta, he's shown signs that he's good enough to play a bit deeper if the lineup requires him to.

Exactly what i wanted to hear. we need for VDV to be able to win Gutis position because i dont think we can rely on Guti to consistently deliver. allthough perhaps good competition will bring that out of him. cant way to see how it goes against Valencia.

Since rumors of VDV's signing started to emerge, Guti has been playing like a naggy idiot. By the time Sneijder and Gago are back I think we'll see Guti playing the bench-warming role again.

Torrente wrote:@Jaime

I agree that it would be interesting to give Higuain a chance as a number 9. He may not be as prolific as RVN, but his movement is excellent and having him, Robben and Robinho constantly swapping positions in attack could work very well.

I think we (myself included) have been a little harsh when judging his finishing. The reality is that last season he had the best goals-to-minutes played ratio out of all our forwards and he always seems to score when it really matters.

Jaime wrote:

Torrente wrote:@Jaime

I agree that it would be interesting to give Higuain a chance as a number 9. He may not be as prolific as RVN, but his movement is excellent and having him, Robben and Robinho constantly swapping positions in attack could work very well.

I think we (myself included) have been a little harsh when judging his finishing. The reality is that last season he had the best goals-to-minutes played ratio out of all our forwards and he always seems to score when it really matters.

I don't think there's much doubt that for over a year his finishing was attrocious. But since the "por fin la metio Higuain" game he's looked like a completely different player when finishing. It also showed a lot about his character since that game he missed 3 clearcut chances and some idiots in the Bernabeu started to boo him. But instead of sulking he kept trying and trying until he scored and hasn't stopped since. Let's see if he keeps it up this season.

It could work because Higuain in previous times has offered everything but goals and he even got many chances. now towards the end of last season he started to show that he could be clinical. now i dont know if it is wise to play with only on striker especially someone who likes to move outside the box aswell as inside the box. on top of that we need players to get in the box outside of our single striker and only Snejider really would do that.
I would prefer that we got someone like Milito instead of Villa because he would be cheaper and prob wouldnt mind missing some games. also he is a smart player.

Torrente wrote:

Jaime wrote:

Torrente wrote:@Jaime

I agree that it would be interesting to give Higuain a chance as a number 9. He may not be as prolific as RVN, but his movement is excellent and having him, Robben and Robinho constantly swapping positions in attack could work very well.

I think we (myself included) have been a little harsh when judging his finishing. The reality is that last season he had the best goals-to-minutes played ratio out of all our forwards and he always seems to score when it really matters.

I don't think there's much doubt that for over a year his finishing was attrocious. But since the "por fin la metio Higuain" game he's looked like a completely different player when finishing. It also showed a lot about his character since that game he missed 3 clearcut chances and some idiots in the Bernabeu started to boo him. But instead of sulking he kept trying and trying until he scored and hasn't stopped since. Let's see if he keeps it up this season.

The thing with strikers is that they need consistency. I'm not sure he will ever win the Pichichi but I think if he were consistently in the team he would could easily get 12-15 goals in the league year-in, year-out.