La Liga 24/25 thread

Brookbank

Registered User
Nov 15, 2022
2,336
2,182
Buyer's remorse so far on Mbappe. Dude looks mentally gone out there, as if he just wants the match to end.
According to this, he is being misused. And the team never thought through how they were going to play him
 

Vasilevskiy

The cat will be back
Dec 30, 2008
18,276
5,072
Barcelona
What are you talking about? @Duchene2MacKinnon literally just posted with a picture from the actual VAR technology showing Lewandowski wasn’t offside.
??? The picture he posted of VAR technology says it was offside showing lewa's tip of the boot.
The one below is not from VAR and even if it was you cannot conclude anything because it's so far out and such bad quality when the deciding factor of being offside or not was a couple cm.

I don't get what's all the fuss with this call (not talking about you, but here in the city people have gone crazy) when we had 3 similar calls go our away last weekend against Espanyol.
 

luiginb

Registered User
Aug 23, 2007
7,519
2,906
Barcelona
Fati out for a month with a hamstring injury, just when it looked like he was going to get more minutes. Kid is cursed.

Anyway he looked nowhere near Barca quality every time he did play, so probably he needs to go to the Valencias of the world to try and get his career back on track.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vasilevskiy

Vasilevskiy

The cat will be back
Dec 30, 2008
18,276
5,072
Barcelona
Fati out for a month with a hamstring injury, just when it looked like he was going to get more minutes. Kid is cursed.

Anyway he looked nowhere near Barca quality every time he did play, so probably he needs to go to the Valencias of the world to try and get his career back on track.
Agreed. Shame what could have been
 
  • Like
Reactions: luiginb

les Habs

Registered User
Sep 21, 2005
22,747
4,175
Wisconsin
??? The picture he posted of VAR technology says it was offside showing lewa's tip of the boot.
The one below is not from VAR and even if it was you cannot conclude anything because it's so far out and such bad quality when the deciding factor of being offside or not was a couple cm.

I don't get what's all the fuss with this call (not talking about you, but here in the city people have gone crazy) when we had 3 similar calls go our away last weekend against Espanyol.

From what I heard, and I don’t think the VAR picture is conclusive, that’s not Lewandowski’s boot.
 

Corto

Faceless Man
Sep 28, 2005
16,088
1,004
Braavos
According to this, he is being misused. And the team never thought through how they were going to play him

I mean, people can blame everything on Mbappe, sure.

But also, I think Flo believed his own hype and unwillingly stumbed into Galacticos again.
Buying young players and developing them (star talent, yes, but still young players) worked, the veterans were seasoned winners and mostly all the new players made sense.

That said, while Dani Carvajal had an all-time season in 2023-24, he was up-and-down and struggling with injuries the last, oh, 5 years. If he's not healthy and in-form, Madrid are in trouble.
It's not a coincidence that he hit good form in the second half of 2022 and the entire 2023-24, when RM won their last 2 CLs.
All this time, Flo never got a backup/replacement for him.
In the same pattern, he didn't get a RB now, and he didn't get a CB for this season.

If you right/left back is inadequate, your entire eleven is going to bleed and eventually that hemorrhaging will start showing.
Something similar happened to Barca a few years ago when Dani Alves left - and the rest of the team was basically a top-5/10 player at every position, but the bleeding just never stops. Your midfielders have to cover, your forwards have to drop back, they are not in position to bomb forward after you win a ball, frustration mounts, etc.

Enterting the season with an injured Alaba and Eder Militao coming off an ACL was asking for trouble.
Now both are gone, Carvajal is gone (he can also cover as CB if needed), Tchouameni out for a while.
Kroos is gone and Modric is back to having to start games cause the new kids - as talented as they are - are lacking in creativity, passing and press-resistance.

Mbappe isn't playing great.
But he is far from Madrid's biggest problem at the moment.
They are now back into the "quality over fit" mode, and fitting square pegs into round holes.

Mbappe isn't a natural #9, he's not a target man in the mold of Haaland or Lewa, but there's no reason he can't be a generational striker with other qualities.
He will have to learn the habits though, have them become second nature - stuff like ALWAYS attack the first post when crosses come in. He's hanging back too much, waiting for rebounds and second balls (as you do if you're the 2nd forward coming into the box, or the #10, a midfielder coming late etc.).

I love Ancelotti, I have since his early coaching days. I think he's a quality human who's a very good coach and a god tier man manager.
But I don't think he has much choice with that RM squad, Mbappe HAS TO work as a #9.
It's either it works, and they win - or it doesn't, and they lose.

But Madrid's problems start at the back, continue with the midfield which now suddenly has too many "young, athletic, moblie" guys and not enough creativity.

Mbappe is the easy scapegoat atm.
 

gary69

Registered User
Sep 22, 2004
9,607
2,176
Then and there
I saw a story that Mbappe has been hanging around with Hazard recently. Now there's a good example to follow and get advice regarding your Real Madrid career :laugh:
 

Incubajerks

Registered User
Feb 9, 2010
2,799
4,449
Roma
I saw a story that Mbappe has been hanging around with Hazard recently. Now there's a good example to follow and get advice regarding your Real Madrid career :laugh:

They did some go-karting from what I read.

In any case, in mid-November I wouldn't speak too badly of the RM. It seems a little premature to me and then many highly rated teams are having problems for now. Maybe they make a little more noise, but it's mid-November.
 

Duchene2MacKinnon

In the hands of Genius
Aug 8, 2006
46,798
10,079
I would stick with him too.
They have 3 years to find a young replacement like Ter was back in the day
Disagree evilo is correct. At this point it’s hard to differentiate MAtS from Pena. Plus we have Smokey Joe we needs game time at some point to see if he has anything left in the tank.

I hope this is just smoke from deco as there have been multiple reports they are targeting a keeeper and the French kid’s name came up. I think with the house in order the summer or hell even January they should make a move. Hearing Halaands name keep coming is so suicidal .
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad