La Liga 24/25 thread

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Does Ancelotti not deserve making until the summer than have him step down?

And if the plan is for Xabi Alonso to arrive next summer, are they realistically going to get any better interim manager to join for 4/5 months? Probably not, so it would someone with RM background, like Guti, Hierro or Michel Gonzales?

X.Alonso will want his own type of players, so it wouldn't make sense to spend huge sums in January, even if a club like Real must always try to win every competition. How far off is Alaba from comeback, he was in the stands watching the Super Cup.
 
And if the plan is for Xabi Alonso to arrive next summer, are they realistically going to get any better interim manager to join for 4/5 months? Probably not, so it would someone with RM background, like Guti, Hierro or Michel Gonzales?

X.Alonso will want his own type of players, so it wouldn't make sense to spend huge sums in January, even if a club like Real must always try to win every competition. How far off is Alaba from comeback, he was in the stands watching the Super Cup.
Alaba is training with the team. He could be back in the next 2-3 weeks, I guess. Still, a guy coming from a huge injury won't fix everything... if anything.
 
When you have Tchouameni at CB and Ferland Mendy and Lucas Vazquez going against the likes of Yamal and Raphinha, you’re gonna get killed
I think that's 50-60% of the problem in their last 2 games vs Barca.
The other 40-50% is how you counter high press. And the answer is NOT the way RM is trying to do it.

La Liga teams figured it out. Barca has been struggling domestically cause the book on Flick is out. )well, tbf that, and Yamal was out for a bit)

Now, it's not EASY to counter high press, but the way you do it is:
- defensively drop deep
- clog down passing lanes
- be aggressive from your 35m-40m to your box
- win the ball, counter the high line

That's the easier part. The harder part is WITH the ball. How you do it:
- pass the ball in the defense and let Barca/Liverpool/City/whoever come to you
- a midfielder drops down to help
- at some point the ball is played into midfield into a good position to play the long ball and THEN (and ONLY THEN) is the ball played to a player in full sprint in behind the defense

It's not always pretty, but you can't really press Barca when Yamal is on the pitch, and the competent midfielders who will play him in behind the defense.
You play low, you wait, you win the ball. And when you have the ball, build up from behind, do not punt like you're the NY Giants.

This was easy with Modric and Kroos. There's no Kroos now, and Modric is used sparingly.

What RM does now:
- Curtois passes to Tchouameni/Rüdiger, they punt the ball forward. Barca wins the ball vs a cut-off Vini or Mbappe. That's it. That's their game.

My Modric homerism aside, I genuinely think that Madrid would have a better chance vs pressing teams with Modric on the pitch to actually do something with the ball, and Rodrygo on the bench.
Something like the formation from last year, with Bellingham as the "Raumdeuter" between the attackers and midfield, and Modric/Valverde/Camaving (Tchouameni) in midfield.

But yes, their defense is Rüdiger and 3 people who generally don't perform. Lord Vasquez is just not good enough (plus he's a winger, lets not forget), Tchoumeni out of position and Mendy out of form the entire season. Much like City, they need reinforcements.
Difference is, City seems willing to spend and bring in players, Flo doesn't apparently belive in January transfers.

...

As for Barca, they had somewhat of a crisis (helped by the Yamal injury), but they still look like a team with a plan every game. Their deficiencies are well hidden behind the press and well set-up tactics, and Flick is getting more out of some players that seemed possible (Raphinha most of all).
They're exciting to watch, games are fun, they score a bunch of goals, and best of all, a large part of that is coming from their kids (well, you argue Pedri isn't one, but still...).

Now, in a "normal" year I would say that the "one-trick pony" high press style eventually gets exposed by a high quality team capable of either countering it (Madrid usually) or playing it better (City or Bayern usually).

But all 3 of the recent giants seem off this year. Madrid, City, Bayern.
I don't think Barca should be going into any tie in the CL as second favorites.

The one thing I would not like them to do is sell Araujo. He's too good to sell, other than Flick presumably not liking him, I can't see why they would let him go to Juventus or wherever.
 

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