Countdown To The New Season 7: Team - Real Madrid
The 9-times Champions of Europe have been going through a barren spell for the past 2 years with no trophies and their ageing galacticos don't help either. The only truly galactico last season was their goalkeeper Iker Casillas who was outstanding and Real must thank him for covering up their defensive frailties.
Real President Fiorentino Perez started the "galactico" trend by bringing in superstars like Zidane, Figo and followed it up with Ronaldo and Bechkam. Initially it did work with Zidane's magic at the Champions LEague finals against Leverkusen setting up their 9th European victory and they followed it up with a strong performance in their league too (I don't remember if they won).
In the 2002-03 season, Real Madrid managed to scrape their way to the league crown after their challenger Real Sociedad lost on the final day after leading for almost the entire season. But it was heartbreak for them in Europe as they lost to Juventus in the semifinals. Since then, they never went past the quarterfinals.
And, in the last 2 years, they have failed to win a trophy and their galactico policy is being blamed for their poor performance. I feel this policy is ridiculous and probably the cause of their lacklustre performances in recent times. A team of superstars will never workout. Ego clashes and lack of team spirit never helps a team and having seen Real play last season, I doubt it if they can succeed in Europe this season. They did play well towards the end of the season only because Zidane was injured and unfit to play.
Zidane might have won the World Player of the Year Award thrice but his magic on the ball is now on the wane. I have never seen him play more badly than he played against Barcelona in their home leg last season. He never could keep possession of the ball and his playmaking skills were rather subdued. As Geoffrey Boycott would say - "Even my grandmom would have done better". Luckily for Real, Barca's defensive nightmare that day resulted in a 4-2 win.
This season, Real has bought 2 Brazilian strikers - Robinho and Baptista, though the latter will play in midfield, I suppose. It was not proper on Real's part to keep Owen warming the bench when he was the one consistently providing the goals. A late surge of goals from Ronaldo towards the end of the season was too late to ensure the crown and Real finished 2nd behind Barcelona.
Owen is sure to follow in the footsteps of Figo and will leave Real with the arrival of more strikers. Now that, Real has sold misfit defender Samuel to Inter, will be looking to buy a defender and I am sure their eyes are on Rio Ferdinand who is yet to extend his contract with Man Utd.
Raul, the club captain has been disappointing the last 2 seasons and one of the main reasons for Real's failure. And letting go of Samuel Eto'o to rivals Barcelona was one of the most terrible mistakes and it came back to haunt them when Eto'o scored against Real and finished 2nd in the goalscoring charts behind Villareal's Diego Forlan.
Real would do well if they release Roberto Carlos, Zidane and Raul and form a team and not just a squad of superstars. They can take a cue from Chelsea and sign promising youngsters and develop them, instead of going for the big names. They have signed on two Latin American youngsters but I doubt it if they would get first team football when Zidane, Gravesen and Beckham are around.
I guess their team would be like this...
Real President Fiorentino Perez started the "galactico" trend by bringing in superstars like Zidane, Figo and followed it up with Ronaldo and Bechkam. Initially it did work with Zidane's magic at the Champions LEague finals against Leverkusen setting up their 9th European victory and they followed it up with a strong performance in their league too (I don't remember if they won).
In the 2002-03 season, Real Madrid managed to scrape their way to the league crown after their challenger Real Sociedad lost on the final day after leading for almost the entire season. But it was heartbreak for them in Europe as they lost to Juventus in the semifinals. Since then, they never went past the quarterfinals.
And, in the last 2 years, they have failed to win a trophy and their galactico policy is being blamed for their poor performance. I feel this policy is ridiculous and probably the cause of their lacklustre performances in recent times. A team of superstars will never workout. Ego clashes and lack of team spirit never helps a team and having seen Real play last season, I doubt it if they can succeed in Europe this season. They did play well towards the end of the season only because Zidane was injured and unfit to play.
Zidane might have won the World Player of the Year Award thrice but his magic on the ball is now on the wane. I have never seen him play more badly than he played against Barcelona in their home leg last season. He never could keep possession of the ball and his playmaking skills were rather subdued. As Geoffrey Boycott would say - "Even my grandmom would have done better". Luckily for Real, Barca's defensive nightmare that day resulted in a 4-2 win.
This season, Real has bought 2 Brazilian strikers - Robinho and Baptista, though the latter will play in midfield, I suppose. It was not proper on Real's part to keep Owen warming the bench when he was the one consistently providing the goals. A late surge of goals from Ronaldo towards the end of the season was too late to ensure the crown and Real finished 2nd behind Barcelona.
Owen is sure to follow in the footsteps of Figo and will leave Real with the arrival of more strikers. Now that, Real has sold misfit defender Samuel to Inter, will be looking to buy a defender and I am sure their eyes are on Rio Ferdinand who is yet to extend his contract with Man Utd.
Raul, the club captain has been disappointing the last 2 seasons and one of the main reasons for Real's failure. And letting go of Samuel Eto'o to rivals Barcelona was one of the most terrible mistakes and it came back to haunt them when Eto'o scored against Real and finished 2nd in the goalscoring charts behind Villareal's Diego Forlan.
Real would do well if they release Roberto Carlos, Zidane and Raul and form a team and not just a squad of superstars. They can take a cue from Chelsea and sign promising youngsters and develop them, instead of going for the big names. They have signed on two Latin American youngsters but I doubt it if they would get first team football when Zidane, Gravesen and Beckham are around.
I guess their team would be like this...
Casillas
Salgado Helguera Pavon Carlos
Beckham Gravesen Baptista Zidane
Robinho Ronaldo
posted by Lucas @ 4:30 PM
2 Comments:
Gravesen is doing good,if not better than makelele whom Real are missing very much.I'm not sure if Lux would dare drop the team's current nemesis in the form of its captain Raul.
The formation would be like this for almost certain. Defence will be the same. There will be a diamond shaped midfield with Raul/Robinho/Baptista rotating among themselves the positions of the attacking midfielder and one of the strikers.
One interesting point to note:I could not help comparing Manchester United to Real,mainly because their fall from grace has been identical.With lot of things to show for, these teams have failed miserably.But within their limitations, Barcelona and Arsenal have performed incredibly.Van Bommel only can save them the blushes.Otherwise I see a very leaky defence in the catalan lineup.
And Mr.Bejan Dharuwala who is predicting Arsenal to finish outside of the top four does not remember that Arsenal has not slipped below the second place in the last 8 years. And they suffered a crisis bigger than the post-Vieira era when they sold Petit,Overmars and Anelka for a combined sum of 63 million pounds.Then they bought 3 replacements.Here so far it has been 1 replacement for another.And Hleb looks a compact player. Their defence looks the worst, no wise guy will bet on Arsenal to succeed in Europe, but domestically they are a really strong force to reckon with,still.And they have a shrewd manager who is also keeping tabs on the debt rising due to the loaning for the new stadium apart from an incredible eye for european youngsters. He is still not into his lunatic prime unlike his old trafford counterpart.A crisis will come up, if Henry and Wenger leave at a time together within the next two years.
Let us see...
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