Real Madrid C.F. 2009/10

Pellegrini: "Guti volverá cuando él quiera ser convocado"

El entrenador del Real Madrid, Manuel Pellegrini, volvió a dejar fuera de la convocatoria a Guti para el partido de vuelta de los dieciseisavos de final de la Copa del Rey ante el Alcorcón.

Este es el cuarto encuentro consecutivo que el técnico chileno no convoca al centrocampista madrileño. Precisamente fue el choque de ida ante el Alcorcón el último partido al que fue convocado.

Pellegrini volvió a insistir que la 'no' convocatoria de Guti no es un castigo y aseguró que Guti volverá a una lista "cuando él quiera ser convocado". "Guti no va convocado esta semana tampoco", anunció. "El jugador va ir convocado cuando el cuerpo técnico lo considere y él también quiera ser convocado", explicó. "No es que no quiera ser citado. La capacidad y el espíritu de volver a ser el Guti de principio del año es lo que todos queremos. No hay castigo ni peleas. Ojalá tengamos pronto al jugador de principio de temporada", afirmó.

Además de la baja de Guti destacan las ausencias por decisión técnica de Benzema, Xabi Alonso, Casillas, Metzelder y Drenthe. Sergio Ramos tampoco está pero por sanción tras su expulsión en el derbi ante el Atlético.

http://www.marca.com/2009/11/09/futbol/equipos/real_madrid/1257766025.html

I forgot that Sergio Ramos can serve his suspension from the league in a Copa del Rey match.

CONVOCATORIA:

Porteros: Dudek y Adán
Defensas: Arbeloa, Pepe, Albiol, Garay, Marcelo
Centrocampistas: Gago, Diarra, Lass, Kaká, Granero, Van der Vaart
Delanteros: Raúl, Van Nistelrooy e Higuaín.

Lesionado: Cristiano Ronaldo
Sancionado: Sergio Ramos
Fuera por decisión técnica: Guti, Casillas, Xabi Alonso, Drenthe, Metzelder, Benzema

*Sigh* Only a squad of 16 called for the match. I really can't see why he wouldn't call a couple of canteranos (Marcos Alonso, Nacho, etc.) to fill out the squad. This is where they need to get some opportunities.

The Copa only allows 5 subs. But still no reason why a few kids shouldn't get to play anyway. Not like overturning 4-0 is a very likely task.

kas wrote:The Copa only allows 5 subs. But still no reason why a few kids shouldn't get to play anyway. Not like overturning 4-0 is a very likely task.

Oh, right.

But still, there should be a couple in the list...

This Cristiano thing is interesting...isn't it a FIFA rule that clubs must let the player join up with his national team, and after they inspect him they can send him back? I seem to remember it happening with an England player recently.

It's weird to find yourself reading FIFA statues and all that but here is what I found...

Article 4 Injured Players

A player who is unable to comply with a call-up from the Association that he is eligible to represent on the basis of his nationality owing to injury or illness shall, if the Association so requires, agree to undergo a medical examination by a doctor of that Association’s choice. If the player so wishes, such medical examination shall take place on the territory of the Association where he is registered.

1 An association that has called up a player who is unable to comply with the call-up due to injury or illness can request that the player be examined by a doctor chosen by this association in order to establish the effective health conditions of the player.

2 The player is entitled to ask that these medical examinations take place on the territory of the association where his club is registered. This prerogative is particularly practical whenever the association calling up the player is in another confederation to the one where the player is registered. In this way, for instance, the player can avoid a long intercontinental flight to a different time zone and can instead focus on his rehabilitation without interruption.

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/51/56/07/transfer_commentary_06_en_1843.pdf

So it seems that even a player is injured he can get a 'second opinion' from a federation appointed doctor if he so chooses. But only a player himself can renounce a call so even if his club has ruled him injured he can still go to the concentration and be 'cleared' to play by a different doctor.

Too bad my presence in the demon's nest didn't work as a jinx I was even subjected to watching a midfield of Toure/Keita/Busquets for 60 minutes, which is about as entertaining as watching Diarra/Emerson. What a waste of money

Either way, things haven't looked this good for Madrid for a long time. Guti is nowhere to be seen and after 5 years of suffering Raul finally looks to be an official substitute (I got worried with Pellegrini's "titularísimo" comments though).

Strange that Pellegrini didn't call Drenthe for the game. I think that after his Milan performance he at least deserves to be on the squad for Copa games, even if he looks almost certain to leave in January at this stage.

Also, what's up with Granero? He never seems to play anymore. The fact that even lady Gago is having more minutes than him is a real disgrace. I remember reading something about Granero leaving the stadium after being substituted before the game ended a while back and was hoping it was just rumors. But since then he's rarely played at all so I wonder if it did actually happen.

Well, I think with Granero it is a case of (finally) Pellegrini is repeating a team that has been playing pretty well and that has included Marcelo in midfield. Even after the substitution 'scandal' he was even in the XI to begin a couple of matches. For now I'm just glad Pellegrini is giving some consistency to one XI (which as you mention not surprisingly is also void of Guti and Raul)

Are you sure about that? I think Granero has only started the Alcorcon game since that happened. It also seems as if he's fallen behind VDV in the pecking order.

Well, I think so. The incident with him leaving early (which both he and the club "officially" deny) was pretty early in the season. Was it against Tenerife maybe? Because I remember he and VDV started against Valladolid and I thought Granero was also in the XI against Milan in the Bernabeu. Ok. I just checked. He started against Valladolid, then Milan, Sporting, and Alcorcon which of course was the worst patch of the season. Not that it was all his fault I wouldn't say but Pellegrini had to make changes after that run of games and Granero was one of the victims. And now that the team is playing well he's going to have to work to get back in.

OK, I didn't realize it happened so long ago. I thought the incident happened against Sporting. However, he has played 0 minutes in the last 3 games which is strange. But if the incident was against Tenerife then it obviously has nothing to do with his supposed "early exit".

I have wondered about the same torrente but his appearances since doesn't leave much credence to that theory. I can understand he wants to give more playing time to the same first 11 and I support that but it is beyond me why Granero hasn't gotten more playing time at least. Hopefully this is just a short period.

Who will we play with tonight?

I hope Granero/Drenthe/VDV in midfield and perhaps Ruud upfront with Gago and Diarra in midfield. Incredibly stupid that no youth players have been called up.

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo may be set to face the operating theatre and a further two months on the sidelines, according to Spanish publication ABC.

Under the advice of Dutch surgeon Niek van Dijk, Ronaldo should not return to action until at least November 20 and the surgeon has instructed a specific set of progressive exercises to test the strength of the ankle and if the ankle has healed he will return to training as normal and could face Racing Santander on November 22.

Real announced last week that surgery would not be necessary but if the bone in Ronaldo's ankle has not reset it is likely that he will have to go under the knife. Such a procedure would leave a recovery period of between 6-8 weeks, depending on the extend of the damage discovered by the surgery.

Should surgery be necessary, the 24-year-old will miss in the region of twelve more games for Los Blancos having already sat out eight games since being injured against Marseille on September 30.

Real Madrid will be hoping that the Portuguese Football Federation do not put the player at risk in the upcoming World Cup play-off games against Bosnia or their prize asset may end up being an expensive spectator.

Super Higuain wrote:I have wondered about the same torrente but his appearances since doesn't leave much credence to that theory. I can understand he wants to give more playing time to the same first 11 and I support that but it is beyond me why Granero hasn't gotten more playing time at least. Hopefully this is just a short period.

Who will we play with tonight?

I hope Granero/Drenthe/VDV in midfield and perhaps Ruud upfront with Gago and Diarra in midfield. Incredibly stupid that no youth players have been called up.

I posted Marca's predicted XI in the Copa del Rey thread:

------------------Dudek

Arbeloa-----Pepe-----Albiol-----Marcelo

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

------Higuain---------------Lass

------------------Kaka

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

Not the best midfield in my opinion. But I assume Pellegrini is going to hope we can just pile on the pressure and stay camped out in and around the Alcorcon penalty box.

Jaime wrote:

Super Higuain wrote:I have wondered about the same torrente but his appearances since doesn't leave much credence to that theory. I can understand he wants to give more playing time to the same first 11 and I support that but it is beyond me why Granero hasn't gotten more playing time at least. Hopefully this is just a short period.

Who will we play with tonight?

I hope Granero/Drenthe/VDV in midfield and perhaps Ruud upfront with Gago and Diarra in midfield. Incredibly stupid that no youth players have been called up.

I posted Marca's predicted XI in the Copa del Rey thread:

------------------Dudek

Arbeloa-----Pepe-----Albiol-----Marcelo

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

------Higuain---------------Lass

------------------Kaka

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

Not the best midfield in my opinion. But I assume Pellegrini is going to hope we can just pile on the pressure and stay camped out in and around the Alcorcon penalty box.

Are we trying to kill Lassana here or something. No way can he keep this up for a whole season. We made that mistake with Ramos when we let him run the entire right side for a whole season. We should have learnt our lesson then even if Lassana is a freak of nature. No Granero, No VDV, No Gago, No Garay.

Well, it is just a predicted lineup. There could end up being changes. We'll have to see. One hour and fifteen minutes until kickoff.

Higuain as a RCM! Awesomeness.

Cristiano is on his way back to Madrid. After being examined in Portugal he won't play either of the WC playoff matches.

To add insult to injury, apparently Ramos was available for last night's game because the committee that decides on suspensions did not convene on Monday (it was a holiday in Madrid). So Pellegrini did not call Ramos up thinking he was serving his suspension last night, but he will still have to serve it against Santander Apparently Valdano should have been well aware of this because the committee sent a letter to all La Liga teams in advance explaining the situation, but he didn't tell Pellegrini about it.

Where were all those people who made fun of Mijatovic for not knowing the rules? Admittedly this is not as bad as the Huntelaar/Lass fiasco but it's still pretty damn stupid

For me such issues happening again and again are an indication of problems with the club's administrative structure and "corporate culture" (which all big football clubs basically are nowadays).

We've heard ex-players and people in the press calling Real Madrid a circus...such incidents only serve to emphasise that tag.

In the end I think it's about having competent people in charge. Just looking at these two fiascos, we can see that they would have been easily avoided if the sporting directors were well aware of the rules. How Mijatovic, Pardesa and Valdano can let things like this slip by is just unbelievable.

What a big fucking surprise. Marca's reporting that Valdano did tell Pellegrini that Ramos was available.

The quicker this farcical project fails the better for RM in the long run.

It is rather embarassing. Not that Sergio Ramos' presence would have changed anything but still, you can't make errors like this. Like kas said, it just reflects badly on the club and there is no excuse for it.

Torrente wrote:OK, I didn't realize it happened so long ago. I thought the incident happened against Sporting. However, he has played 0 minutes in the last 3 games which is strange. But if the incident was against Tenerife then it obviously has nothing to do with his supposed "early exit".

Granero también se ve castigado por Pellegrini desde Alcorcón

No sólo Guti está atravesando un momento complicado en el Madrid. Esteban Granero también se siente castigado por Pellegrini desde su gris papel en el 4-0 del partido de ida frente al Alcorcón.

El canterano madridista fue uno de los futbolistas que quedó señalado por el desastre en Santo Domingo, donde fue titular y desde entonces ha pasado a tener un papel marginal: no ha vuelto a jugar ni un minuto en Liga (Getafe y Atlético), Champions (Milán) ni Copa (partido de ayer). Como consecuencia de ello, Granero ha visto cómo Van der Vaart le adelantaba en los planes de Pellegrini como principal recambio para el puesto de volante.

http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/futbol-granero-ve-castigado-pellegrini/dasftb/20091111dasdaiftb_23/Tes

Here are all the outcomes from the two-legged playoffs since the 03-04 season: 4 aggregate wins out of a possible 16.

2003-04 UEFA CL Bayern 1-2 Real Madrid
2003-04 UEFA CL Real Madrid 5-5 Monaco
2004-05 UEFA CL Real Madrid 1-2 Juventus
2005-06 Copa del Rey Athletic 0-5 Real Madrid
2005-06 Copa del Rey Betis 0-2 Real Madrid
2005-06 Copa del Rey Zaragoza 6-5 Real Madrid
2005-06 UEFA CL Real Madrid 0-1 Arsenal
2006-07 Copa del Rey Écija 2-6 Real Madrid
2006-07 Copa del Rey Betis 1-1 Real Madrid
2006-07 UEFA CL Real Madrid 4-4 Bayern
2007-08 Copa del Rey Alicante 2-3 Real Madrid
2007-08 Copa del Rey Mallorca 3-1 Real Madrid
2007-08 UEFA CL Roma 4-2 Real Madrid
2008-09 Copa del Rey Real Unión 6-6 Real Madrid
2008-09 UEFA CL Real Madrid 0-5 Liverpool
2009-10 Copa del Rey Alcorcón 4-1 Real Madrid

Jaime wrote:

Torrente wrote:OK, I didn't realize it happened so long ago. I thought the incident happened against Sporting. However, he has played 0 minutes in the last 3 games which is strange. But if the incident was against Tenerife then it obviously has nothing to do with his supposed "early exit".

Granero también se ve castigado por Pellegrini desde Alcorcón

No sólo Guti está atravesando un momento complicado en el Madrid. Esteban Granero también se siente castigado por Pellegrini desde su gris papel en el 4-0 del partido de ida frente al Alcorcón.

El canterano madridista fue uno de los futbolistas que quedó señalado por el desastre en Santo Domingo, donde fue titular y desde entonces ha pasado a tener un papel marginal: no ha vuelto a jugar ni un minuto en Liga (Getafe y Atlético), Champions (Milán) ni Copa (partido de ayer). Como consecuencia de ello, Granero ha visto cómo Van der Vaart le adelantaba en los planes de Pellegrini como principal recambio para el puesto de volante.

http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/futbol-granero-ve-castigado-pellegrini/dasftb/20091111dasdaiftb_23/Tes

Oh, quelle surprise another article about the evil Pellegrini. Do any of you really believe that the Ser Superior's not out to get him?

Olé wrote:

Jaime wrote:

Torrente wrote:OK, I didn't realize it happened so long ago. I thought the incident happened against Sporting. However, he has played 0 minutes in the last 3 games which is strange. But if the incident was against Tenerife then it obviously has nothing to do with his supposed "early exit".

Granero también se ve castigado por Pellegrini desde Alcorcón

No sólo Guti está atravesando un momento complicado en el Madrid. Esteban Granero también se siente castigado por Pellegrini desde su gris papel en el 4-0 del partido de ida frente al Alcorcón.

El canterano madridista fue uno de los futbolistas que quedó señalado por el desastre en Santo Domingo, donde fue titular y desde entonces ha pasado a tener un papel marginal: no ha vuelto a jugar ni un minuto en Liga (Getafe y Atlético), Champions (Milán) ni Copa (partido de ayer). Como consecuencia de ello, Granero ha visto cómo Van der Vaart le adelantaba en los planes de Pellegrini como principal recambio para el puesto de volante.

http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/futbol-granero-ve-castigado-pellegrini/dasftb/20091111dasdaiftb_23/Tes

Oh, quelle surprise another article about the evil Pellegrini. Do any of you really believe that the Ser Superior's not out to get him?

Well, I only posted it because we were trying to figure out when Granero was dropped from the team. I don't think Florentino is digging Pellegrini's grave...yet. We've gone out to a Segunda B. There was always going to be a backlash and the manager is always the first to be criticised. Still, there was an editorial in Marca (Mal Pellegrini, peor los jugadores) that pointed out that while Pellegrini shares some of the blame, ultimately the players are responsible for this embarassment. So it's not all anti-Pellegrini from AS and Marca.

We are one point behind Barca in La Liga. Sacking Pelligrini would be ridiculously premature.

Pellegrini tiene crédito hasta el Camp Nou

Florentino y sus pesos pesados lo decidieron tras el 'Alcorconazo'

Nada más pitar Fernández Borbalán el final del partidus horribilis con el Alcorcón, los pesos pesados de la directiva de Florentino se dirigieron al presidente para decirle: "Tenemos que hablar. Esta situación empieza a ser insostenible". Después de despedirse de sus invitados y de felicitar al presidente del Alcorcón, Florentino se fue a cenar con varios de ellos, entre los que se encontraban los dos vicepresidentes de su Junta: Fernando Fernández Tapias y Eduardo Fernández de Blas.

Los gritos de "¡Dimisión, dimisión!", que surgieron espontáneamente de la grada tras el inexplicable cambio de Lass, sirvieron de línea argumental durante la improvisada reunión para valorar si sería bueno hacer caso a la afición y tomar ya medidas drásticas. El presidente fue el más frío, a pesar del enfado mayúsculo que tenía por el bochorno vivido ante el Alcorcón una hora antes, y les pidió serenidad y apoyo para el chileno para afrontar con entereza y respaldo institucional las tres próximas citas: Racing, Zúrich... ¡Y el Barcelona en el Camp Nou el día 29!

En la informal conversación salieron varios reproches hacia el trabajo de Pellegrini. La falta de un once-tipo que permita jugar al equipo con unos automatismos claros, la elaboración de una alineación política para remontar un 4-0 ante el Alcorcón (no entendieron que Diarra, Gago, Raúl y Van Nistelrooy fueran titulares tras ser suplentes ante Getafe, Milán y Atlético), el descarte de jugadores de peso como Benzema y Xabi Alonso y, por último, el caso Sergio Ramos, que ha enfriado la relación entre el técnico y su valedor, Jorge Valdano. También salió en la cita la responsabilidad de Pellegrini en el ostracismo de Guti y Granero.

Sobre esto último, se duda de la fama de míster látigo que Pellegrini se ganó por su forma de llevar el caso de Riquelme en el Villarreal. En realidad, el chileno obedeció las órdenes directas que le dieron Fernando Roig y José Manuel Llaneza, que habían decidido que el argentino no debía seguir en El Madrigal. La directiva de Florentino duda del poder de mando de Pellegrini en el vestuario. Por ahora, aguantará hasta el Clásico...

http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/futbol-pellegrini-tiene-credito-camp/dasftb/20091112dasdaiftb_34/Tes



I love that people keep mentioning Pellegrini dropping Guti as a reason he should be 'under fire'. We've played our best football without the #14 who, apparently, would rather go out to discos now since he won't be able to when he is 60.

What Guti said about foreign players is laughable coming from someone who has fallen out with his last two managers, is a lazy c**t who strolls around after he loses the ball, and who has basically stayed at the club because he no one else would take him. I want his contract rescinded.