Zinedine Zidane | Resigns

Unpopular opinion, but IMO the team that won La Decima under Ancelotti is still the best Real Madrid side I've ever seen.

Xabi Alonso was doing both Kroos and Casemiro's job in one. Bale was still in his prime (injuries have slowed him down) and Di Maria was at his absolute peak. The counterattacking football they played was absolutely devastating. The 0-4 demolition of Bayern was something else.

That side had so much pace with Ronaldo and Bale (both are slower today) and Di Maria who tore teams to shreds. Nowadays with Isco and Kroos in the team (instead of Di Maria and Bale), they play more possession oriented football.
 
Evertonians better worship Leighton Baines and make him a statue. The quality this guy had he could have been a monster of a full back for a big club. Not sure how good he'll be this season since he is 32 now.
 
shamans said:
Evertonians better worship Leighton Baines and make him a statue. The quality this guy had he could have been a monster of a full back for a big club. Not sure how good he'll be this season since he is 32 now.
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What an odd post.
 
Infordin said:
Unpopular opinion, but IMO the team that won La Decima under Ancelotti is still the best Real Madrid side I've ever seen.

Xabi Alonso was doing both Kroos and Casemiro's job in one. Bale was still in his prime (injuries have slowed him down) and Di Maria was at his absolute peak. The counterattacking football they played was absolutely devastating. The 0-4 demolition of Bayern was something else.
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That team was rampant at it's best but I think his only fault was not rotating enough or at least it felt like it as the team would end up the season pretty exhausted. Hope Bale can regain fitness and sharpness so we can rely on him now that Morata is gone.
 
Real Madrid are right now comfortably the best team in the world, when he took over he did inherit a talented squad however he has managed the combination of promoting youth and acquiring the best Spanish youth players available. Plus having the ability of keeping players like Kovacic, Isco and Lucas Vazquez happy being bench options for Real and still maintain a high squad morale.

Zidane has improved Real’s tactical gameplay quite a bit as well. I think his target is winning three Champions League in a row, which would be an incredible feat and I think they have got a very good chance of doing so.

That would in my opinion elevate this current Real team and Zidane into the history books as THE greatest team ever.
 
Solo Toure said:
That would in my opinion elevate this current Real team and Zidane into the history books as THE greatest team ever.
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I still don't rate them that highly, despite their success. They need to dominate in their own league for a few years. Winning one La Liga isn't anywhere near enough to go down as the greatest team in history. Not even the greatest RM team in history.
 
Mciahel Goodman said:
I still don't rate them that highly, despite their success. They need to dominate in their own league for a few years. Winning one La Liga isn't anywhere near enough to go down as the greatest team in history. Not even the greatest RM team in history.
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I disagree, when you remember all-time great teams, you look at Champion's League more than anything because that's an actual stage where teams from different leagues can be directly compared through competition. With La Liga, even if they go on a run of 2-3 La Ligas, people will say that they're playing in a league where really only Barcelona and maybe Atletico put up a challenge every year (and they're both weakened right now). A liga is not necessarily a measure of strength of a team as much as it can be about simply good timing and lack of competition. In the CL, you face the best Europe has to offer, teams with a lot of financial backing that can always re-up every year on new faces and challenges. If they win 3 champion's league, it's going to be extremely difficult to replicate, they've already achieved something that hadn't been done in decades.

I'm just incredibly impressed with the transition from Benitez to Zidane. He deserves coach of the year, and he is on track for an all-time great career as a manager; I never would have believed that.
 
Quite obvious he should be the national team's coach. He galvanizes a group of talented players and they can't complain about being led by him, since, in training, pretty much, he could just join them and would still be the best on the pitch.
 
7 points behind Barca after 5 matches. Worst home team of those who have played 3 at home. Pressure?
 
Samid said:
7 points behind Barca after 5 matches. Worst home team of those who have played 3 at home. Pressure?
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He is, but I do think he can deal with pressure well. I think that is one of the big reasons he has done so well at Real Madrid. He is tactically good and can motivate his players well although his big strength is that he has the mentality to deal with the pressure at a massive club like Real Madrid.
 
7 points because Barca haven't dropped a single point yet. No worries, just a slight bump in the road that's all.
 
The man's a footballing genius as far as I'm concerned. Never thought he'd be a success as a manager but he's defied any and all expectations. Very few genius players become top managers.
 
I think today the team was ok although I wouldn´t have changed Modric for a striker.I would have included Ceballos.In the second part the team rushed too much, however last week played very well in Anoeta.
It´s the first time from 95-96(Atlético won la liga) that Madrid lose points in the first 3 home games
 
Samid said:
7 points behind Barca after 5 matches. Worst home team of those who have played 3 at home. Pressure?
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Don't think so.

But letting Morata, James and Pepe go without replacements was madness. You shouldn't be starting your first home game of the season against Valencia with a cdm as a centre back.

Morata still managed 20 goals despite his limited starts. James had a few important moments too last season. You saw a few weeks ago injury to Benzema and Ronaldo out that they had no real cover.

I was very surprised about their lack of recruitment in the summer.
 
If he doesn't win anything he'll definitely leave because we all know Perez. However it's still early to think in this way.

He should have got a striker, though. That decision can cost him a lot through the season.
 
Bojan11 said:
Don't think so.

But letting Morata, James and Pepe go without replacements was madness. You shouldn't be starting your first home game of the season against Valencia with a cdm as a centre back.

Morata still managed 20 goals despite his limited starts. James had a few important moments too last season. You saw a few weeks ago injury to Benzema and Ronaldo out that they had no real cover.

I was very surprised about their lack of recruitment in the summer.
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Yeah, last season's squad was better than we are now. We've regressed.

I guess Zidane put a little bit too much faith in the youngsters he managed a few seasons ago.
 
el3mel said:
If he doesn't win anything he'll definitely leave because we all know Perez. However it's still early to think in this way.

He should have got a striker, though. That decision can cost him a lot through the season.
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The opinion of the press and the club can change very fast, but they would have to make an awful season. If they doubted whether sack or not Ancelotti, the same or even more will happen to Zidane.
Apparently the club believe that Mayoral may be better than Morata. At least always had much more fame in the academy, in addition Benzema has renewed , so it seems that the trust in Karim remains intact.
 
They have some of the issues Barca are facing too. Their backbone is aging, Ramos - Marcelo - Modric - Ronaldo and the ones who are supposed to replace them won't be as good.
 
Was Zidane making plans with the assumption that Mbappe was definitely coming?

Seems strange that he would let Morata go without bringing anyone in.
 
carvajal said:
The opinion of the press and the club can change very fast, but they would have to make an awful season. If they doubted whether sack or not Ancelotti, the same or even more will happen to Zidane.
Apparently the club believe that Mayoral may be better than Morata. At least always had much more fame in the academy, in addition Benzema has renewed , so it seems that the trust in Karim remains intact.
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Problem with both Benzema and Mayoral is they aren't consistent goal scorers. Madrid needs a consistent goal scorer player even from the bench and Morata was superp in this role. If Madrid weren't willing to pay a striker they should have at least kept Morata, but letting him leave without buying a good striker is a mistake.
 
serghei said:
They have some of the issues Barca are facing too. Their backbone is aging, Ramos - Marcelo - Modric - Ronaldo and the ones who are supposed to replace them won't be as good.
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We replaced ronaldo with Valencia and won the premier league the season after. They dont need to be as good, just better then the rest.
 
el3mel said:
Problem with both Benzema and Mayoral is they aren't consistent goal scorers. Madrid needs a consistent goal scorer player even from the bench and Morata was superp in this role. If Madrid weren't willing to pay a striker they should have at least kept Morata, but letting him leave without buying a good striker is a mistake.
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Perhaps they found themselves in the situation of having to replace Morata with another player who had to accept the bench and who might not be worthy for the price. I hate winter signings, hopefully we won´t get to that.
A couple of days ago Inda (a journalist) said that the club had thought of someone like Soldado or Negredo (:lol:) for the winter market although the dressing room including Zidane rejected the idea.
 
carvajal said:
Perhaps they found themselves in the situation of having to replace Morata with another player who had to accept the bench and who might not be worthy for the price. I hate winter signings, hopefully we won´t get to that.
A couple of days ago Inda (a journalist) said that the club had thought of someone like Soldado or Negredo (:lol:) for the winter market although the dressing room including Zidane rejected the idea.
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Could have at least sign a decent striker from La Liga to be on the bench and I don't think any striker in any La Liga team will refuse to set om Madrid's bench.

Winter transfers won't solve anything. Madrid should be go with this squad during the season but next summer signing a striker should be a top priority.
 
What's happening to them? I considered them to still be the benchmark and didn't think PSG or anyone would come close to them, but they are struggling. There's a stat going around that Messi this season has the same goals as the whole Madrid team, not sure if it's true, but that's shocking if true.
 
I don't think it's realistic to expect Morata and Rodriguez to continue being satisfied playing second fiddle, they're both too good for that. It is a pretty difficult situation, you need a good enough backup striker who will also be satisfied playing limited minutes.

It also looks that Benzema is a nailed on starter regardless of his form, that is probably another reason for Morata wanting to move.
 
Bojan11 said:
Don't think so.

But letting Morata, James and Pepe go without replacements was madness. You shouldn't be starting your first home game of the season against Valencia with a cdm as a centre back.

Morata still managed 20 goals despite his limited starts. James had a few important moments too last season. You saw a few weeks ago injury to Benzema and Ronaldo out that they had no real cover.

I was very surprised about their lack of recruitment in the summer.
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The entire hype surrounding the team throughout the summer did get to insane levels, the best team ever, who can stop them? yet the frontline is ageing. Real Madrid's summer 2015 to 17 is one of the biggest mystery's of football, they won 2 CL titles in those 3 years and not once did they hit the iron hot with some big signings, that used to be their calling card not resting on what they got, but going out there and freshening it up. If there was ever a chance to send a message to barcelona and keep to that ronaldo levels, signing neymar would have sealed real's place at the top for another 7 years. Squads slash players are always like the stock exchange, you got to know when you're a shareholder or a vegas gambler to leave the table while the player is up, and Real I do feel did not know when to let ronaldo go, cashing in on both ronaldo and bale, and signing neymar and another massive player could have really sent a message they moving forward. Madrid are on that thin line of regression, we did it in summer 99 and 08 onwards, arsenal did it in the summer of 2004, not going out there and getting those signings to keep it fresh. Its going to ask allot of ronaldo and bale, but no question they should have strengthened the attack especially who did leave. I do feel it does feel stale at Real, where once again they will most likely go with ronaldo, bale and benzema, it might work out for them again this season, but that is a gamble
 


Seems like Real are doing their living best to replicate the horrendous shooting of United 2016/2017.
 
What ever happens, I'm looking forward to seeing what Zidane does in his managerial career after Madrid. I'm sure he'll manage in Italy and maybe the French team at some point.
 
Womp said:
What's happening to them? I considered them to still be the benchmark and didn't think PSG or anyone would come close to them, but they are struggling. There's a stat going around that Messi this season has the same goals as the whole Madrid team, not sure if it's true, but that's shocking if true.
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He's scored as many goals in the league so far as the entire Real team.
 
Ronaldo's finishing was brutal today. I doubt that continues.

Though their squad is clearly not as good as last season. Surprised they didn't go for another striker.
 
Already 7 points dropped at home this season, random fact that's 3 more than Tottenham dropped at home the whole of last season
 
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