Real Madrid CF 2012/13

Sounds like Jose is not going to call Pepe for the remainder of the season.

Albiol-Ramos tonight.

Ahem..........

PROGRESS!

Fey wrote:I have no problem with the City's or he Chelsea's of this world. They are owned by an owner with private money. I dont care about that, it's HIS money. He should be able to do what he want with it. My problem is with the Valencia's of this world. Clubs that have massive loans with banks like Bankia, who need loans from the EU to stay alive. IE the Dutch taxpayer. Like you said, it shouldnt be our problem they dont have enough money

If you don't have a problem with Man City, then you shouldn't have one with Valencia. You should have one with Manuel Llorente. You can work out why for yourself

I have a problem with Fernando Llorente.

Not Mourinho's fault that Ozil/Benzema/Higuain can't score on open goals. We created enough chances to score and we didn't conceed too many chances either. Story of the season in a sense. Atletico simply outprogressed us and there is no shame in losing to such sides according to the progressive handbook.

All hail Diego Simeone

£4M to snap ties with Pellegrini.
£13.5 M - to break out of Mourinho out of his inter contract
£28M - for his services (3 full seasons)
probably
£12M more - to get rid of him
=£57.5M

Is this right

Not to mention the hundreds of millions they have spent on players since 2009 and only have one league title and one Copa Del Rey to show for it. The football hasn't been good to watch either. Perez is a idiot.

Now it looks like they will have to revamp the team again, to a degree anyway.

messiah wrote:£4M to snap ties with Pellegrini.
£13.5 M - to break out of Mourinho out of his inter contract
£28M - for his services (3 full seasons)
probably
£12M more - to get rid of him
=£57.5M

Is this right

Hmmm...not sure, I thought his buyout from Inter was 10m euro but it's not much difference either way. The bottom line is one league and one copa del rey is not a great return on the investment.

Super Mourinho wrote:Not Mourinho's fault that Ozil/Benzema/Higuain can't score on open goals. We created enough chances to score and we didn't conceed too many chances either. Story of the season in a sense. Atletico simply outprogressed us and there is no shame in losing to such sides according to the progressive handbook.

All hail Diego Simeone

Simeone is a great manager. Copa del Rey, Europa League, European Super Cup already. If anyone could get this Atletico to win a league it will be him. I hope they keep Falcao but either way, Simeone is going to make a very competitive team. It's a shame about his Atletico past cuz otherwise I'd have him in Real Madrid.

Have you seen his Atletico side play football. Simeone is even more progressive than Mourinho or Benitez.
This is why I like him so much but I don't get why others on this board who tend to like "good" football like him except for his results. He builds solid sides that defend well and this was especially impressive because Atletico's defence was the big problem before. I always respect a manager who can solve a leaky defence. Hopefully they will invest the money they get from Falcao well.

Simeone makes his team play like that because it is the best way for a team like Atletico to play. A team with little resources who therefore have very little creativity in their team, in fact Arda Turan is the ONLY truly creative player in their entire squad (Apart from 18 year old Oliver Torres). So that's why Simeone must organize his team to play defensively and play counter attack against the best teams. Against worst teams they often have more possession but can struggle to break teams because of a lack of creativity in their team.

Jose Mourinho has much better and more creative players at his disposal like Modric, Ozil, Marcelo,, Di Maria, Kaka and Benzema. Yet still, Mourinho seems incapable of playing good football, of making his team not get dominated by Barca, Bayern, Dortmund etc when he plays against them. Mourinho knows no other way of playing, see Madrids performances against Man United to see how tactically inept he is.

So before you go comparing managers of different teams, remember to apply context super mourinho.

Super Mourinho wrote:
Have you seen his Atletico side play football. Simeone is even more progressive than Mourinho or Benitez.
This is why I like him so much but I don't get why others on this board who tend to like "good" football like him except for his results. He builds solid sides that defend well and this was especially impressive because Atletico's defence was the big problem before. I always respect a manager who can solve a leaky defence. Hopefully they will invest the money they get from Falcao well.

There is a difference from building a side the defends well and employing anti football park the bus shit on a stick tactics. His teams attack with much more conviction than anything Benitez ever put out on the pitch. Look at the midfielders yesterday - Gabi, Suarez, Koke. They work hard for the team but not a single one of them is purely a facking runner just there to clatter into people. They are all vastly superior to Khedira. Even Gabi who is a very progressive midfielder can play football and pass the ball.

Super Mourinho wrote:
Have you seen his Atletico side play football. Simeone is even more progressive than Mourinho or Benitez.
This is why I like him so much but I don't get why others on this board who tend to like "good" football like him except for his results. He builds solid sides that defend well and this was especially impressive because Atletico's defence was the big problem before. I always respect a manager who can solve a leaky defence. Hopefully they will invest the money they get from Falcao well.

Huh? Atletico can attack too. Look at what they did to Chelsea in the Supercup. Simeone is an excellent coach so any thoughts of poaching him will result in a Curse.

I agree, Atletico were excellent in the supercup. However, Simeone acts like a total retard during the match. Now, being inferior latin americans I can understand that it's hard to be able to control your emotions, but yesterday was a disgrace again with the amount of psychopaths losing their cool again.

Modric is the future of Madrids midfield. Alonso is on the decline now and Khedira is a average player Modric has been by far their best midfielder in the 2nd Half of the season.I read a stat in Marca the other day that he recovers more balls than Khedira!! That doesn't even surprise me actually as have noticed how good Modric is at making smart interceptions. Modric is much more mobile than Alonso or Khedira and is better technically in tight spaces.

But I think Modric needs a new player to play alongside, a DM/CM who better defensively( More mobile) than Alonso but is also good on the ball. Like Vidal or Pogba for example. Javi Martinez would have been ideal.

Jaime wrote:

Super Mourinho wrote:
Have you seen his Atletico side play football. Simeone is even more progressive than Mourinho or Benitez.
This is why I like him so much but I don't get why others on this board who tend to like "good" football like him except for his results. He builds solid sides that defend well and this was especially impressive because Atletico's defence was the big problem before. I always respect a manager who can solve a leaky defence. Hopefully they will invest the money they get from Falcao well.

There is a difference from building a side the defends well and employing anti football park the bus shit on a stick tactics. His teams attack with much more conviction than anything Benitez ever put out on the pitch. Look at the midfielders yesterday - Gabi, Suarez, Koke. They work hard for the team but not a single one of them is purely a facking runner just there to clatter into people. They are all vastly superior to Khedira. Even Gabi who is a very progressive midfielder can play football and pass the ball.

EMP wrote:

Super Mourinho wrote:
Have you seen his Atletico side play football. Simeone is even more progressive than Mourinho or Benitez.
This is why I like him so much but I don't get why others on this board who tend to like "good" football like him except for his results. He builds solid sides that defend well and this was especially impressive because Atletico's defence was the big problem before. I always respect a manager who can solve a leaky defence. Hopefully they will invest the money they get from Falcao well.

Huh? Atletico can attack too. Look at what they did to Chelsea in the Supercup. Simeone is an excellent coach so any thoughts of poaching him will result in a Curse.

I have never disputed that they can get goals but there is nothing subtle about their approach. They are a very scrappy side and they have combined that with attacking players that have enough abilit, but not a lot. Reminds me a bit of Hodgson's Fulham side although with more South America bite.

Super Mourinho wrote:

Jaime wrote:

Super Mourinho wrote:
Have you seen his Atletico side play football. Simeone is even more progressive than Mourinho or Benitez.
This is why I like him so much but I don't get why others on this board who tend to like "good" football like him except for his results. He builds solid sides that defend well and this was especially impressive because Atletico's defence was the big problem before. I always respect a manager who can solve a leaky defence. Hopefully they will invest the money they get from Falcao well.

There is a difference from building a side the defends well and employing anti football park the bus shit on a stick tactics. His teams attack with much more conviction than anything Benitez ever put out on the pitch. Look at the midfielders yesterday - Gabi, Suarez, Koke. They work hard for the team but not a single one of them is purely a facking runner just there to clatter into people. They are all vastly superior to Khedira. Even Gabi who is a very progressive midfielder can play football and pass the ball.

EMP wrote:

Super Mourinho wrote:
Have you seen his Atletico side play football. Simeone is even more progressive than Mourinho or Benitez.
This is why I like him so much but I don't get why others on this board who tend to like "good" football like him except for his results. He builds solid sides that defend well and this was especially impressive because Atletico's defence was the big problem before. I always respect a manager who can solve a leaky defence. Hopefully they will invest the money they get from Falcao well.

Huh? Atletico can attack too. Look at what they did to Chelsea in the Supercup. Simeone is an excellent coach so any thoughts of poaching him will result in a Curse.

I have never disputed that they can get goals but there is nothing subtle about their approach. They are a very scrappy side and they have combined that with attacking players that have enough abilit, but not a lot. Reminds me a bit of Hodgson's Fulham side although with more South America bite.

You can't be serious. Did you see Falcao's assist for Diego's goal, what he did to Chelsea, etc. They have skill and plenty of ability and due respect to Hodgson and Fulham, but FFS Simeone's Atletico are a different class.

Their mauling of Chelsea was absolute top class, they could have easily won that game 6 or 7 nil, Chelseas goal came from only had 1 chance all game that come from a scrappy corner while Atletico missed a few excellent chances.

Atletico are a very good team indeed , they defend very well as a team and have no real weak link in the team. They are a hard bunch of fuckers as well, Simeone has clearly made them act like this. The thing that stops them from being among the elite teams 6 or 7 teams in the world (not necessarily being as good as them, just being in that bracket)is a lack of creativity from their midfielders. The likes of Gabi, Mario Suarez and Koke are very solid players and are decent technically as well but they are not going to split a defense open very often or control a game like a Xavi or even Modric. Arda Turan is world class on his day though, one of the best players in the world technically.

Koke is a player for the future though, I have been very impressed with him when I have seen him over the last year. He is a player that could potentially develop into a more creative player, great cross by him yesterday for the goal. And of course Oliver Torres who is one for the future at the tender age of 18, he has the potential to be a world class midfielder.

I can see where supermourinho is coming from comparing them to that Fulham side but this team is much more talented all over the pitch. I just looked at that Fulham team and there is not one player who would make Atleticos starting 11, in fact it's remarkable that a bunch of average players like that reached the EL final and where competitive against a good Atletico team with Forlan and Aguero in it. So Hodgson deserves credit for that cup run.

Back to Atletico they will probably sell Falcao unfortunately but if they use the money from his sale as well as their CL money on a quality striker to replace him and a quality AM/CM then they can be a more rounded team next season, despite not having as good a striker as Falcao.

Since Florentino's return, Atletico have won 5 trophies to our 3 trophies.

Atletico are the only ones to have won La Decima too. At the Bernabeu.

Marca reporting that the club will announce Jose's departure this week and Toril will take over the first team for the last two matches. AS reporting that the announcement will come after the final league match.

According to a poll by Marca, 87% of responders (of a large madridista base) believe Mourinho has failed during his 3 years at Madrid.

Some interesting gossip in the last 24 hours:

1. RM is planning to sell Pepe this summer. Nothing to do with his rant against Jose but rather because of his age and injuries in the past year the club feels his level has dropped off considerably. I tend to agree with this assessment but like Super has pointed out he is still at least a good back up to Ramos and Varane although for me if a good offer came I would be in favour of selling. Enter Man City. Apparently Pellegrini wants Pepe for his new project and if anyone is going to pay good money for Pepe it would be Man City. Of course that would mean Albiol would almost certainly stay because I can't see the club buying two centre backs in one summer (the last time they did we ended up with Samuel and Woodgate ffs!)

2. Kaka really wants to play next year to try and make Brazil's world cup squad. Rumour is that adidas may be willing to front a rather large sum of cash so that Kaka can move to Flamengo.

3. Juve have come out and said that they would find it easier to sign Tevez instead of Higuain because Tevez is in the last year of his contract. Sounds like Arsenal are the other big suitor for Higuain but not sure if they will be willing to pay the 25m that Florentino will be demanding.

4. The Borja Valero rumours continue to heat up. Fiorentina paid 7m for him last summer (what a f*cking bargain!) but would accept an offer in the range of 15m.

5. A new wrinkle in the Ronaldo saga. Apparently his decision to skip the medal presentation after the Copa del Rey final did not go over well with the club. Nobody cares that Jose skipped because he is going to f*ck off anyway but the club was expecting more from Ronaldo.

6. Leonardo has confirmed that Ancelotti has requested to abandon the last year of his contract so he can sign with Madrid. But he's also maintaining a strong stance that they expect Carlo (the "Italian Del Bosque" as Marca have dubbed him) to comply with his contract.

7. Jose wants to take Diego Lopez to Chelsea with him. Would be a bit odd with Cech already being there and Courtois looking very much like he would be ready to fight for the #1 at Stamford Bridge. Personally I would love for Diego to stay and to see a fair battle between him and Casillas for the starting goalkeeper position at Real Madrid.

Jaime wrote:Some interesting gossip in the last 24 hours:

1. RM is planning to sell Pepe this summer. Nothing to do with his rant against Jose but rather because of his age and injuries in the past year the club feels his level has dropped off considerably. I tend to agree with this assessment but like Super has pointed out he is still at least a good back up to Ramos and Varane although for me if a good offer came I would be in favour of selling. Enter Man City. Apparently Pellegrini wants Pepe for his new project and if anyone is going to pay good money for Pepe it would be Man City. Of course that would mean Albiol would almost certainly stay because I can't see the club buying two centre backs in one summer (the last time they did we ended up with Samuel and Woodgate ffs!)

2. Kaka really wants to play next year to try and make Brazil's world cup squad. Rumour is that adidas may be willing to front a rather large sum of cash so that Kaka can move to Flamengo.

3. Juve have come out and said that they would find it easier to sign Tevez instead of Higuain because Tevez is in the last year of his contract. Sounds like Arsenal are the other big suitor for Higuain but not sure if they will be willing to pay the 25m that Florentino will be demanding.

4. The Borja Valero rumours continue to heat up. Fiorentina paid 7m for him last summer (what a f*cking bargain!) but would accept an offer in the range of 15m.

5. A new wrinkle in the Ronaldo saga. Apparently his decision to skip the medal presentation after the Copa del Rey final did not go over well with the club. Nobody cares that Jose skipped because he is going to f*ck off anyway but the club was expecting more from Ronaldo.

6. Leonardo has confirmed that Ancelotti has requested to abandon the last year of his contract so he can sign with Madrid. But he's also maintaining a strong stance that they expect Carlo (the "Italian Del Bosque" as Marca have dubbed him) to comply with his contract.

7. Jose wants to take Diego Lopez to Chelsea with him. Would be a bit odd with Cech already being there and Courtois looking very much like he would be ready to fight for the #1 at Stamford Bridge. Personally I would love for Diego to stay and to see a fair battle between him and Casillas for the starting goalkeeper position at Real Madrid.

Jaime wrote:Some interesting gossip in the last 24 hours:

1. RM is planning to sell Pepe this summer. Nothing to do with his rant against Jose but rather because of his age and injuries in the past year the club feels his level has dropped off considerably. I tend to agree with this assessment but like Super has pointed out he is still at least a good back up to Ramos and Varane although for me if a good offer came I would be in favour of selling. Enter Man City. Apparently Pellegrini wants Pepe for his new project and if anyone is going to pay good money for Pepe it would be Man City. Of course that would mean Albiol would almost certainly stay because I can't see the club buying two centre backs in one summer (the last time they did we ended up with Samuel and Woodgate ffs!)

2. Kaka really wants to play next year to try and make Brazil's world cup squad. Rumour is that adidas may be willing to front a rather large sum of cash so that Kaka can move to Flamengo.

3. Juve have come out and said that they would find it easier to sign Tevez instead of Higuain because Tevez is in the last year of his contract. Sounds like Arsenal are the other big suitor for Higuain but not sure if they will be willing to pay the 25m that Florentino will be demanding.

4. The Borja Valero rumours continue to heat up. Fiorentina paid 7m for him last summer (what a f*cking bargain!) but would accept an offer in the range of 15m.

5. A new wrinkle in the Ronaldo saga. Apparently his decision to skip the medal presentation after the Copa del Rey final did not go over well with the club. Nobody cares that Jose skipped because he is going to f*ck off anyway but the club was expecting more from Ronaldo.

6. Leonardo has confirmed that Ancelotti has requested to abandon the last year of his contract so he can sign with Madrid. But he's also maintaining a strong stance that they expect Carlo (the "Italian Del Bosque" as Marca have dubbed him) to comply with his contract.

7. Jose wants to take Diego Lopez to Chelsea with him. Would be a bit odd with Cech already being there and Courtois looking very much like he would be ready to fight for the #1 at Stamford Bridge. Personally I would love for Diego to stay and to see a fair battle between him and Casillas for the starting goalkeeper position at Real Madrid.

Normally I don't like to shake up things too much in one part of the teambut we need to get rid of Albiol. He is not good enough to be third choice and I would rather give a chance to a youth player as fourth choice because Albiol has been below par for 3 seasons now.

Great news Borja Valero is being linked to us. Never thought that would happen and if it is by the request of Ancelotti he deserves praise for it. And increasingly it is becoming clear that Ancelotti will arrive and it is just a question of settling it with PSG who will want some symbolic amount to show they are not a small club.

The problem for Ancelotti is that our team is built on a 4-2-3-1 and I don't see us playing a diamond or christmas tree formation unless we sell Di Maria because now sure how he would fit in that tactic, especially the diamond. In case we solve the problem with Di Maria we would be well set though. Especially because we will have a more attacking fullback Carvajal on the right. Marcelo would also fit in well. Although I have hard time seeing how Valero would fit in the team.


----Khedira---Alonso---Modric

----------Ozil-----------

I doubt Ancelotti intends to play with 3 creative midfielders and while Borja could challenge Ozil I don't think he would dare to put Ozil on the bench. So I can't see why Borja would change club to sit on the bench. Would be great because I think he could probably challenge Ozil and perhaps compliment him.

Super Mourinho wrote:

Jaime wrote:Some interesting gossip in the last 24 hours:

1. RM is planning to sell Pepe this summer. Nothing to do with his rant against Jose but rather because of his age and injuries in the past year the club feels his level has dropped off considerably. I tend to agree with this assessment but like Super has pointed out he is still at least a good back up to Ramos and Varane although for me if a good offer came I would be in favour of selling. Enter Man City. Apparently Pellegrini wants Pepe for his new project and if anyone is going to pay good money for Pepe it would be Man City. Of course that would mean Albiol would almost certainly stay because I can't see the club buying two centre backs in one summer (the last time they did we ended up with Samuel and Woodgate ffs!)

2. Kaka really wants to play next year to try and make Brazil's world cup squad. Rumour is that adidas may be willing to front a rather large sum of cash so that Kaka can move to Flamengo.

3. Juve have come out and said that they would find it easier to sign Tevez instead of Higuain because Tevez is in the last year of his contract. Sounds like Arsenal are the other big suitor for Higuain but not sure if they will be willing to pay the 25m that Florentino will be demanding.

4. The Borja Valero rumours continue to heat up. Fiorentina paid 7m for him last summer (what a f*cking bargain!) but would accept an offer in the range of 15m.

5. A new wrinkle in the Ronaldo saga. Apparently his decision to skip the medal presentation after the Copa del Rey final did not go over well with the club. Nobody cares that Jose skipped because he is going to f*ck off anyway but the club was expecting more from Ronaldo.

6. Leonardo has confirmed that Ancelotti has requested to abandon the last year of his contract so he can sign with Madrid. But he's also maintaining a strong stance that they expect Carlo (the "Italian Del Bosque" as Marca have dubbed him) to comply with his contract.

7. Jose wants to take Diego Lopez to Chelsea with him. Would be a bit odd with Cech already being there and Courtois looking very much like he would be ready to fight for the #1 at Stamford Bridge. Personally I would love for Diego to stay and to see a fair battle between him and Casillas for the starting goalkeeper position at Real Madrid.

Normally I don't like to shake up things too much in one part of the teambut we need to get rid of Albiol. He is not good enough to be third choice and I would rather give a chance to a youth player as fourth choice because Albiol has been below par for 3 seasons now.

Great news Borja Valero is being linked to us. Never thought that would happen and if it is by the request of Ancelotti he deserves praise for it. And increasingly it is becoming clear that Ancelotti will arrive and it is just a question of settling it with PSG who will want some symbolic amount to show they are not a small club.

The problem for Ancelotti is that our team is built on a 4-2-3-1 and I don't see us playing a diamond or christmas tree formation unless we sell Di Maria because now sure how he would fit in that tactic, especially the diamond. In case we solve the problem with Di Maria we would be well set though. Especially because we will have a more attacking fullback Carvajal on the right. Marcelo would also fit in well. Although I have hard time seeing how Valero would fit in the team.


----Khedira---Alonso---Modric

----------Ozil-----------

I doubt Ancelotti intends to play with 3 creative midfielders and while Borja could challenge Ozil I don't think he would dare to put Ozil on the bench. So I can't see why Borja would change club to sit on the bench. Would be great because I think he could probably challenge Ozil and perhaps compliment him.

I think the good thing about Borja Valero is his versatility. Really he could play in any of the four midfield places. Instead of Khedira if we needed a more attacking team, in place of Alonso (he played similarly at times for Villarreal), in place of Modric (although having to take up positions on the left is maybe not ideal), or in place of Ozil (as he did so successfully for Mallorca).

The problem with Albiol is that we don't really have any decent centre backs in Castilla at the moment. Nacho plays there for Castilla but he is not really good enough to play there in the top flight. Jose only ever used him as a full back and rightly so. Mateos is like 27 and he is leaving in the summer. So is Ivan Gonzalez, who wasn't even that good. The best prospect is Derik but he has almost no experience playing even in Segunda B let alone the second division. I think if Albiol goes, there has to be two signings.

That is one reason I like him so much. He can play on the wings as well which he also did for Villarreal and at times for Fiorentina. However I'm not 100% he would change clubs if he wasn't going to have an obvious starting position even if he would get many games.

15 years ago today..........

What Madrid have lost and need most is an identity. What is Real Madrid's football philosophy these days?

Buying players and changing formations isn't the answer as long as this question remains unanswered.

blutgraetsche wrote:What Madrid have lost and need most is an identity. What is Real Madrid's football philosophy these days?

Buying players and changing formations isn't the answer as long as this question remains unanswered.

Counter pressing!