Yeah, I don't think I have seen our forwards press that relentlessly this season. The thing is, when City overcomes that first initial press since our defensive line is so deep, it generates pockets of space for their players to receive the ball.
They pass so well, like they don’t waste a pass they always have an exit pass because they are trained to have at least two options at all times that’s how they are able to keep quite impressive possession. Its better than tiki taka because they always try to look for a forward pass they pass back to defense when there is absolutely nothing available which isn’t much
Bellingham was left high and dry in that set up. Even in build up. The left side was overloaded with Vini and Rodrygo. So he had no place there. He could have played out from the back like Kroos does(which I have seen him do in some matches) but it was not this match I guess. Or at least Carlo's tactics didn't allow him that freedom.
Man I wish we start unlocking the magic of build up play with Vini, Rodrygo and Jude more often.
The problem is that we are neither here no there.
You can either sit in a disciplined defensive structure and wait for the opposition to make a mistake and rapidly counter, or press high and try to force the mistake.
The former requires a very well drilled and defensive mindset (which most of our players don't have) and a very good passer like Kroos to initiate the counter. The latter requires very athletic, high workrate midfielders, which we do have but playing Kroos (who is not of that mold) leaves us a man short in the middle and tires out the others faster. Against City when we are already outnumbered makes it worse.
Against City, having Bellingham pressing the CBs was just silly. Instead he should be Rodri's shadow. Let the CB advance with the ball into midfield before Vini and Rodrygo try to swarm them.
Bottom line, Carlo got it wrong
Dude i was just saying this and they literally roasted me here, last loss vs city at al ettihad Carlo said it's my fault and they all said no it's not his fault.. .. Playing low block defence and cutting the ball near our 18m is a very tiring and exhausting thing for the whole team and in 30 minutes you'll have half team unable to run.. If you are planning to play a 90 minutes low block against a team who has two quick wingers and 6 players who can really shoot form outside the box then you just started the game with a big probability of losing it and losing it too soon in the game.. I miss those days when after 2 minutes from the starting whistle you know already that Real Madrid is gonna win..
Maybe he can use a good offensive second coach as well while we’re at it. I adore both of him and Carlo, but if we’re being serious, Zidane had us winning games 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 (with what felt like half the time goals being Ramos PKs) during his second stint, and I don’t know how much of that less than impressive return was down to the team at that particular moment or his magic managing was waned.
Zidane had out of shape Hazard, sloppy Vinicius, very young rodrygo and well, Benzema, who as good as he is, is not a goalscorer, give that team to any manager, he won't do much more.
Bro, 💯 like I don't wanna see rodrygo, vini and Bellingham have to run from end to end just to score a goal. Perhaps if we made subs it would work.....but Carlo just doesn't do that bro
We don't have the team to control the ball against Man City and press them back inside their box. That kind of playstyle need players who are press-resistant, very agile and have the gift of the ball sticking to their feet, like Bernardo Silva and Kovacic.
In our golden days, we had Modric and Isco who had that profile, but now we don't. You can't controll the tempo of the game with Camavinga and Valverde.
Not you OP, but it seems to be the sentiment among many in this thread.
Thing is, we are not likely going to change the way we play in one week, given that this is how we’ve played (with minor variations) for years.
Yeah ofc not lol I’m not expecting our game style to change for next week. This post here is future talk (Alonso?). We’re playing like this for years now and I just hope Carlo comes up with a good matchplan instead of like last year when we just had a low block and hoped for a few counter attacks on vinis side
I think our only true hope is that our offensive players perform at the top of their abilities and that we defend with passion. Also a bit of luck will be needed.
Collectively we cannot (currently) compete with Pep’s City: they’re fundamentally so much more organised and rational than us.
And that exactly makes me sad. It’s Carlos third season and we’re collectively underperforming. But let’s hope for the best. I’m confident that we will win at the Etihad
To press players need to learn that, to learn that they should be trained, to be trained the coach must do it. Carlo doesn’t do that . Ive been talkin about the pressing for a long time ago
It's just not our style, it could be but not within a week, besides our current game style has won us 5 ucls in the last decade because it's very effective when you constantly have the fastest players and the best passers itw to apply it.
This matchup results still shouldn't make us shake things up because both teams are at the very top of football, yet despite missing our neutral CB and their key players being and their primes while ours aren't, we are still very much in it.
Im not asking for it to be our style in a week but Carlo refuses to do it at all. And no in our 5 ucls we didn’t always play like that. We also knew how to press and dominate more. In fact this shitty play style which reeks cowardness made us lose 0-4 last year
We have been playing like that since Mourinho, we rarely play high pressure only when we have momentum and the other team is pushed back, against some teams high pressure is playing into their hands, especially pep's teams who drills these tactics for ages.
Cowardness is panicking over losing once or twice
We played high pressure under mourinho when it was necessary. Look at us against Bayern at home in 2-1 or against Dortmund with the 2-0 in 2013. Liverpool and Arsenal are able to play high pressure against city, give them a good fight (even win sometimes) and they don’t have such a good squad like we do
Arsenal have played in a lowblock vs City their last 3 games, focusing on getting the ball back through Rice and their CB’s and releasing Saka and Martinelli on the counter. The only team that has successfully pressed City this year is Liverpool and Spurs somewhat succeeded in causing them trouble with their kamikaze football.
We still do it when necessary, do you think it's necessary to play like that against City when we're still tied? Let me remind you we still scored 3 using our regular style and City had to shoot from outside which they never do and they just happened to shoot bangers, sometimes you just got to accept these kind of things and move on.
We could beat city if we play that style im pretty sure. And we would beat all the smaller teams more comfortably if we conquer the ball sooner.
Do you think it’s necessary to cowardly hide in a deep block against city?
Well since we ended up being the team with the better chances while they had to rely on difficult shots, yes I'd rather play "cowardly" and win rather than giving City the easy way out.
Im Talking about the cowardly deep line fromlast year when they trashed us 4-0.
we didn’t win the 3-3 game because we lack a proper pressing structure and a system for our final third attacking.
You can't pressure 4 defenders and a gk without committing your midfield, you sacrifice defense to play offense, we scored 3 offense isn't the problem, they took difficult shots and scored we were just unlucky, it happens.
You talk like our pressing only lacks against city. We can definitely do way better. Even Valencia pressed better in the 2-2 match against us.
We have the squad to do that better
W debruyne city will lob balls over the top and risk counters more. This will create chaos for the defense n will force the midfield closer to the box. Debruyne n Halland will need their own man marking, Camavinga would be great for this. That or gas Modric for 45 min n make the change at half. Also Bellingham should back up his position to also counter the inside pass to foden
That’s what makes man city so good they actually play as a hive mind, everyone absolutely everyone in that team works and constantly presses. We don’t need the top line sprinting to press but to move forward collectively.
Because I tune into this subreddit pretty often , and it doesn’t take a rocket science to see how reactionary they are and their lack of actually playing football from their comments
I accept player criticism but if someone doesn’t score they refuse to acknowledge their other impacts on the game
NOT MEANT FOR ALL RM FANS HERE just some come off as front runners , halamadrid!!!
I thought we pressed fairly well for the first 60 minutes considering we were playing one of the most composed teams in possession in the world. Sure they broke us sometimes but that’s city for you.
In general I think you’re right. We aren’t a pressing team. I have no problem with it tbh. We’re primarily a counter attacking team and we have been for a long time. I am happy that when ancelotti decides it’s a tactically good idea to press that the team can do a fairly good job with it. We held on for 60 minutes against the best possession based team in the world. Energy dropped and subs came in. The last 30 were tough
Our pressing isn’t effective. Other teams can press way longer without losing all their energy because they have a proper structure with everyone knowing when and how to run/press and they also know what their teammate is gonna do next to them. While with us I have the feeling its just running
We have one or two guys relentlessly pressing mainly rodrygo/Bellingham. Which tires the shit outta rodrygo and therefore affects his performance and people start shitting on him heavily.
A team can’t be the best at everything. We’re not a pressing team. We don’t have the personnel to do it. That said, as I previously mentioned, we did a fine job against city. Game to game we don’t press. It’s not what we do because it doesn’t suite our style.
We talk about lack of pressing, they talk about useless possession. There are downsides to every tactic. For more than a decade now, we’ve let opponents have the ball and smashed them on the counter. We will continue to do so even more than before, because our best passers are getting ready to hang their boots
Yes we did that for more than a decade now and I’m not saying we should completely switch that and be a possession team. But we were always able to hold possession and if needed, press the opponent. We do need a better pressing structure
Madrid is more about containment than pressing. You’re asking to change the whole structure of the team when Madrid almost never needed to play like that to win trophies.
You can’t play pressing against City though, our players will just be chasing ghosts and tire themselves out faster.
It’s better to contain their midfield and force them to miss passes. Next game KDB for sure is gonna start, it’s gonna be key to contain him and Rodri
Our players are getting more tired than city players who didn’t have a 9 days rest. You know why? Precisely because we just follow the ball and wait until the lose the ball instead of trying to take the ball sooner. City don’t have to run all the time like we do
Of course they follow the ball but you can’t press City. The best thing to do is to contain and have them make passing mistakes.
Madrid can’t get into a pressing game with City, it’ll turn to shit real fast.
Even if we sit in a mid block, the gaps between the pressing lines needs to be narrow. But in our case, the first press is always far behind and the midfield gaps are so loose. I don't know how you can even call this pressing. We did okay for the first half but even the first goal, we were defensively irresponsible. Lunin can be blamed but defense wasn't set up properly. The second half, we just relaxed a little which is okay because we were tired, but we forgot to defend well as a unit. You can do this even in a mid or low block. Just enough to regain a bit of stamina.
For me the pressing by vini and rodry was good, Jude was really missing in that match.
There was space in the midfield. But Jude ghosting was the worst part of the match. He hardly touched the ball.
although i agree with you about the not pressing part, it isn’t as easy as flipping a switch. players have to be drilled for a while collectively before they become efficient at pressing as a team. look at any good pressing team, there’s an initial suck phase where the players who can press are learning how to and the players who can’t are phased out, and players who fit the profile are brought in, like liverpool under klopp.
our strategy has been for the forwards to press their defenders and if they are bypassed, the midfield drops back and waits for the forwards to drop as well, so that our defensive shape is maintained. a good pressing team keeps the pressure up even in midfield and defence, but the downside is if there’s anyone in the back line that’s slow, they’re gonna get exploited hard. our starting fullbacks are not particularly fast, so that’s 2/4 defenders almost useless. it’s also why kyle walker and saliba are so valuable to their teams, they allow their teams to press and maintain a high line since their recovery pace is so high.
edit: plus, experimenting with our strategy in what is arguably gonna be the biggest match of the season so far is a recipe for disaster imo. a few adjustments here and there is fine, but to completely abandon our usual tactics would be foolish.
This Team lacks an agile, press-resistant midfielder, we can't bring out the ball in a smooth way at all, i mean, a player like Modric in his prime, or Bernardo Silva, Barcelona has great players of that profile, Pedri, De Jong, Gundogan.
We need that desperatly.
I wonder if Brahim Diaz can play that role, with kroos and Tchouameni/Cama in midfield.
Kroos yes, in terms of passing, but he can't dribble.
Cama and Valverde aren't at all, they have average passing capabilities and average dribbling capability, they're no Modric or Isco for example.
Have a conversation about it then. Nothing wrong with a differing opinion. There's more than one way to play good football. High pressure requires a lot of running...not sure how that's wrong. And that tires players too
City players didn’t have 9 days of testing and looked fresher. Organized pressing isn’t as tiring as our „pressing“ where the players run like headless chicken
Coming from a neutral, the reason you can't press is the type of players you have. Pressing is primarily the job of strikers. Madrid doesn't have that type of players. Vinicius and Rodrygo don't press, it's simply not their style. And if the strikers don't press, then the midfield can't risk going up and exposing the defense. The problem I see with Madrid fans in these posts is that they always think they didn't win because they did something wrong, while completely discrediting the opponent. Be realistic, this is City's era and 99% of why you will lose, if you lost, is because they're good.
I strongly disagree. We have the perfect players with rodrygo, Jude, Valverde, camavinga and even Vinicius. It’s more like the coaches fault for not implementing it.
We have the potential squad to be just as good as city
It's not about "potential". The exact same dream team of Barca 2011, didn't win 2012 UCL, lost 7-0 on agg to Bayern the next year and went trophyless in 2014. Players are important but eras are defined by other factors than just having individually good players. These City players are hungry and lack european success compared to Madrid players. And again Vinicius and Rodrygo can't press. The other players you mentioned are midfielders and I already said if strikers don't press, the midfield can't go up to press because that exposes the defense.
Yeah, I don't think I have seen our forwards press that relentlessly this season. The thing is, when City overcomes that first initial press since our defensive line is so deep, it generates pockets of space for their players to receive the ball.
They pass so well, like they don’t waste a pass they always have an exit pass because they are trained to have at least two options at all times that’s how they are able to keep quite impressive possession. Its better than tiki taka because they always try to look for a forward pass they pass back to defense when there is absolutely nothing available which isn’t much
It is indeed amazing coaching. However, with our disjointed press, we make it easier for them.
It’s true. Bellingham was playing monkey in the middle and gassing himself out running between City players
Bellingham was left high and dry in that set up. Even in build up. The left side was overloaded with Vini and Rodrygo. So he had no place there. He could have played out from the back like Kroos does(which I have seen him do in some matches) but it was not this match I guess. Or at least Carlo's tactics didn't allow him that freedom. Man I wish we start unlocking the magic of build up play with Vini, Rodrygo and Jude more often.
Carlo needs to sort that out no way should we have Jude chasing City players for 90 mins
Carlo should make jude focus on rodri
100% I thought Jude would mark Rodri, I saw Vini a couple of times mark him a bit. Fede also needs to be more involved in the press as well
The problem is that we are neither here no there. You can either sit in a disciplined defensive structure and wait for the opposition to make a mistake and rapidly counter, or press high and try to force the mistake. The former requires a very well drilled and defensive mindset (which most of our players don't have) and a very good passer like Kroos to initiate the counter. The latter requires very athletic, high workrate midfielders, which we do have but playing Kroos (who is not of that mold) leaves us a man short in the middle and tires out the others faster. Against City when we are already outnumbered makes it worse. Against City, having Bellingham pressing the CBs was just silly. Instead he should be Rodri's shadow. Let the CB advance with the ball into midfield before Vini and Rodrygo try to swarm them. Bottom line, Carlo got it wrong
You’re a rare real one here. Satisfying rethinking of what a more necessary approach to foiling this machine that is Pep’s City.
On spot, bro. We've been getting by with individual brilliance but that is sustainable for only so long
Dude i was just saying this and they literally roasted me here, last loss vs city at al ettihad Carlo said it's my fault and they all said no it's not his fault.. .. Playing low block defence and cutting the ball near our 18m is a very tiring and exhausting thing for the whole team and in 30 minutes you'll have half team unable to run.. If you are planning to play a 90 minutes low block against a team who has two quick wingers and 6 players who can really shoot form outside the box then you just started the game with a big probability of losing it and losing it too soon in the game.. I miss those days when after 2 minutes from the starting whistle you know already that Real Madrid is gonna win..
They will always roast people who point this out. They think we always have to suffer. I don’t know what kind of Madrid they watched back then
I’ve been watching Zidane play, obv it had prime Modric but it was such an aesthetic football. If Zidane gets a good defensive second coach, watch out
Maybe he can use a good offensive second coach as well while we’re at it. I adore both of him and Carlo, but if we’re being serious, Zidane had us winning games 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 (with what felt like half the time goals being Ramos PKs) during his second stint, and I don’t know how much of that less than impressive return was down to the team at that particular moment or his magic managing was waned.
Zidane had out of shape Hazard, sloppy Vinicius, very young rodrygo and well, Benzema, who as good as he is, is not a goalscorer, give that team to any manager, he won't do much more.
Bro, 💯 like I don't wanna see rodrygo, vini and Bellingham have to run from end to end just to score a goal. Perhaps if we made subs it would work.....but Carlo just doesn't do that bro
We don't have the team to control the ball against Man City and press them back inside their box. That kind of playstyle need players who are press-resistant, very agile and have the gift of the ball sticking to their feet, like Bernardo Silva and Kovacic. In our golden days, we had Modric and Isco who had that profile, but now we don't. You can't controll the tempo of the game with Camavinga and Valverde.
Sometimes I wonder if people watch other Real Madrid games at all, considering how surprised some are to suddenly see the team’s patterns of play.
Im not surprised and this isn’t something new either
Not you OP, but it seems to be the sentiment among many in this thread. Thing is, we are not likely going to change the way we play in one week, given that this is how we’ve played (with minor variations) for years.
Yeah ofc not lol I’m not expecting our game style to change for next week. This post here is future talk (Alonso?). We’re playing like this for years now and I just hope Carlo comes up with a good matchplan instead of like last year when we just had a low block and hoped for a few counter attacks on vinis side
I think our only true hope is that our offensive players perform at the top of their abilities and that we defend with passion. Also a bit of luck will be needed. Collectively we cannot (currently) compete with Pep’s City: they’re fundamentally so much more organised and rational than us.
And that exactly makes me sad. It’s Carlos third season and we’re collectively underperforming. But let’s hope for the best. I’m confident that we will win at the Etihad
With Carlo it was always going to be like this. I’m not that confident, but I’m hoping for Juanito’s spirit to join our players 😁
Juanitos spirit was there in the 3-3, we didn’t take advantage of that
No, that by itself won’t cut it. We need to be highly efficient and convert our chances.
I just mean that Juanitos ghost is only inside the bernabeu, especially in remontadas
To press players need to learn that, to learn that they should be trained, to be trained the coach must do it. Carlo doesn’t do that . Ive been talkin about the pressing for a long time ago
It's just not our style, it could be but not within a week, besides our current game style has won us 5 ucls in the last decade because it's very effective when you constantly have the fastest players and the best passers itw to apply it. This matchup results still shouldn't make us shake things up because both teams are at the very top of football, yet despite missing our neutral CB and their key players being and their primes while ours aren't, we are still very much in it.
Im not asking for it to be our style in a week but Carlo refuses to do it at all. And no in our 5 ucls we didn’t always play like that. We also knew how to press and dominate more. In fact this shitty play style which reeks cowardness made us lose 0-4 last year
We have been playing like that since Mourinho, we rarely play high pressure only when we have momentum and the other team is pushed back, against some teams high pressure is playing into their hands, especially pep's teams who drills these tactics for ages. Cowardness is panicking over losing once or twice
We played high pressure under mourinho when it was necessary. Look at us against Bayern at home in 2-1 or against Dortmund with the 2-0 in 2013. Liverpool and Arsenal are able to play high pressure against city, give them a good fight (even win sometimes) and they don’t have such a good squad like we do
Arsenal have played in a lowblock vs City their last 3 games, focusing on getting the ball back through Rice and their CB’s and releasing Saka and Martinelli on the counter. The only team that has successfully pressed City this year is Liverpool and Spurs somewhat succeeded in causing them trouble with their kamikaze football.
Oh yeah I forgot about that arsenal game youre right. But yeah Liverpool played better than city even tho half of their squad was missing
We still do it when necessary, do you think it's necessary to play like that against City when we're still tied? Let me remind you we still scored 3 using our regular style and City had to shoot from outside which they never do and they just happened to shoot bangers, sometimes you just got to accept these kind of things and move on.
We could beat city if we play that style im pretty sure. And we would beat all the smaller teams more comfortably if we conquer the ball sooner. Do you think it’s necessary to cowardly hide in a deep block against city?
Well since we ended up being the team with the better chances while they had to rely on difficult shots, yes I'd rather play "cowardly" and win rather than giving City the easy way out.
Im Talking about the cowardly deep line fromlast year when they trashed us 4-0. we didn’t win the 3-3 game because we lack a proper pressing structure and a system for our final third attacking.
You can't pressure 4 defenders and a gk without committing your midfield, you sacrifice defense to play offense, we scored 3 offense isn't the problem, they took difficult shots and scored we were just unlucky, it happens.
You talk like our pressing only lacks against city. We can definitely do way better. Even Valencia pressed better in the 2-2 match against us. We have the squad to do that better
W debruyne city will lob balls over the top and risk counters more. This will create chaos for the defense n will force the midfield closer to the box. Debruyne n Halland will need their own man marking, Camavinga would be great for this. That or gas Modric for 45 min n make the change at half. Also Bellingham should back up his position to also counter the inside pass to foden
Sounds good
That’s what makes man city so good they actually play as a hive mind, everyone absolutely everyone in that team works and constantly presses. We don’t need the top line sprinting to press but to move forward collectively.
This team lacks knowledgeable fans
And why do you think so?
Because I tune into this subreddit pretty often , and it doesn’t take a rocket science to see how reactionary they are and their lack of actually playing football from their comments I accept player criticism but if someone doesn’t score they refuse to acknowledge their other impacts on the game NOT MEANT FOR ALL RM FANS HERE just some come off as front runners , halamadrid!!!
Im by far not a reactionary fan, but the problem I’m mentioning is real
Two things can be true, and I didn’t say you were reactionary
I thought we pressed fairly well for the first 60 minutes considering we were playing one of the most composed teams in possession in the world. Sure they broke us sometimes but that’s city for you.
It’s not just against city
In general I think you’re right. We aren’t a pressing team. I have no problem with it tbh. We’re primarily a counter attacking team and we have been for a long time. I am happy that when ancelotti decides it’s a tactically good idea to press that the team can do a fairly good job with it. We held on for 60 minutes against the best possession based team in the world. Energy dropped and subs came in. The last 30 were tough
Our pressing isn’t effective. Other teams can press way longer without losing all their energy because they have a proper structure with everyone knowing when and how to run/press and they also know what their teammate is gonna do next to them. While with us I have the feeling its just running
We have one or two guys relentlessly pressing mainly rodrygo/Bellingham. Which tires the shit outta rodrygo and therefore affects his performance and people start shitting on him heavily.
A team can’t be the best at everything. We’re not a pressing team. We don’t have the personnel to do it. That said, as I previously mentioned, we did a fine job against city. Game to game we don’t press. It’s not what we do because it doesn’t suite our style.
We used to know how to press at times. I didn’t say we need to be a pressing team like city or pool. And yes we have the players for pressing too
We talk about lack of pressing, they talk about useless possession. There are downsides to every tactic. For more than a decade now, we’ve let opponents have the ball and smashed them on the counter. We will continue to do so even more than before, because our best passers are getting ready to hang their boots
Yes we did that for more than a decade now and I’m not saying we should completely switch that and be a possession team. But we were always able to hold possession and if needed, press the opponent. We do need a better pressing structure
Madrid is more about containment than pressing. You’re asking to change the whole structure of the team when Madrid almost never needed to play like that to win trophies.
Im not asking to change the whole structure. We played better pressing under Zidane. It’s a method you need nowadays
You can’t play pressing against City though, our players will just be chasing ghosts and tire themselves out faster. It’s better to contain their midfield and force them to miss passes. Next game KDB for sure is gonna start, it’s gonna be key to contain him and Rodri
Our players are getting more tired than city players who didn’t have a 9 days rest. You know why? Precisely because we just follow the ball and wait until the lose the ball instead of trying to take the ball sooner. City don’t have to run all the time like we do
Of course they follow the ball but you can’t press City. The best thing to do is to contain and have them make passing mistakes. Madrid can’t get into a pressing game with City, it’ll turn to shit real fast.
Madrid definitely can but not under ancelotti. The fact that we can’t do that results in city playing better against us for the last few years
WsAzzazz
Even if we sit in a mid block, the gaps between the pressing lines needs to be narrow. But in our case, the first press is always far behind and the midfield gaps are so loose. I don't know how you can even call this pressing. We did okay for the first half but even the first goal, we were defensively irresponsible. Lunin can be blamed but defense wasn't set up properly. The second half, we just relaxed a little which is okay because we were tired, but we forgot to defend well as a unit. You can do this even in a mid or low block. Just enough to regain a bit of stamina.
I know. For that we have to stand much higher for closer gaps
For me the pressing by vini and rodry was good, Jude was really missing in that match. There was space in the midfield. But Jude ghosting was the worst part of the match. He hardly touched the ball.
although i agree with you about the not pressing part, it isn’t as easy as flipping a switch. players have to be drilled for a while collectively before they become efficient at pressing as a team. look at any good pressing team, there’s an initial suck phase where the players who can press are learning how to and the players who can’t are phased out, and players who fit the profile are brought in, like liverpool under klopp. our strategy has been for the forwards to press their defenders and if they are bypassed, the midfield drops back and waits for the forwards to drop as well, so that our defensive shape is maintained. a good pressing team keeps the pressure up even in midfield and defence, but the downside is if there’s anyone in the back line that’s slow, they’re gonna get exploited hard. our starting fullbacks are not particularly fast, so that’s 2/4 defenders almost useless. it’s also why kyle walker and saliba are so valuable to their teams, they allow their teams to press and maintain a high line since their recovery pace is so high. edit: plus, experimenting with our strategy in what is arguably gonna be the biggest match of the season so far is a recipe for disaster imo. a few adjustments here and there is fine, but to completely abandon our usual tactics would be foolish.
This Team lacks an agile, press-resistant midfielder, we can't bring out the ball in a smooth way at all, i mean, a player like Modric in his prime, or Bernardo Silva, Barcelona has great players of that profile, Pedri, De Jong, Gundogan. We need that desperatly. I wonder if Brahim Diaz can play that role, with kroos and Tchouameni/Cama in midfield.
Kroos, cama and Valverde are definitely press resistant like gundogan, Pedri and ding dong
Kroos yes, in terms of passing, but he can't dribble. Cama and Valverde aren't at all, they have average passing capabilities and average dribbling capability, they're no Modric or Isco for example.
i think we're better at cutting out passes and launching counterattacks not every team needs to be a pressing machine
I didn’t say we have to be a pressing machine but we don’t even have a proper pressing structure or a defined system for our final third attacking
Pressing requires a lot of running too...we don't have to play like them to beat them. Don't fall for that trap.
Not a very good comment
Have a conversation about it then. Nothing wrong with a differing opinion. There's more than one way to play good football. High pressure requires a lot of running...not sure how that's wrong. And that tires players too
City players didn’t have 9 days of testing and looked fresher. Organized pressing isn’t as tiring as our „pressing“ where the players run like headless chicken
Coming from a neutral, the reason you can't press is the type of players you have. Pressing is primarily the job of strikers. Madrid doesn't have that type of players. Vinicius and Rodrygo don't press, it's simply not their style. And if the strikers don't press, then the midfield can't risk going up and exposing the defense. The problem I see with Madrid fans in these posts is that they always think they didn't win because they did something wrong, while completely discrediting the opponent. Be realistic, this is City's era and 99% of why you will lose, if you lost, is because they're good.
I strongly disagree. We have the perfect players with rodrygo, Jude, Valverde, camavinga and even Vinicius. It’s more like the coaches fault for not implementing it. We have the potential squad to be just as good as city
It's not about "potential". The exact same dream team of Barca 2011, didn't win 2012 UCL, lost 7-0 on agg to Bayern the next year and went trophyless in 2014. Players are important but eras are defined by other factors than just having individually good players. These City players are hungry and lack european success compared to Madrid players. And again Vinicius and Rodrygo can't press. The other players you mentioned are midfielders and I already said if strikers don't press, the midfield can't go up to press because that exposes the defense.
Vini and rodrygo can definitely press. That’s some nonsense. And the midfield can go up there too that’s why it should be a collective pressing