SirBalon

It would be romantic and in tune with what the true football fan would love to see. But you know the answer that that one mate which is money.

That’s the question everyone is asking and reserving judgement. There’s also the issue with the moment around February when the elite teams are at their best with form and fitness. Right now it’s all about motions which should be maintained so as to arrive alive for the trophies at the important end of the season. This is why Real Madrid aren’t sweating over their dodgy form early on as long as they stay in touch or involved.

I’ll put my two pence worth here... Jonathan (the younger of the two brothers) was unlucky to be honest although he bottled it. Giovanni chickened out of top end football almost from the outset. Much was expected of him at Barcelona but he couldn’t be bothered... Nothing like the effort Rafa Márquez put in.

Hahaha... I agree mate, but that can work to their benefit and end up winning the Champions League which is what gives you that worldwide accolade of being the best. Their league as it stands is terrible and was actually better last season where quality of the other teams is concerned. But their clubs got raped!

Right now it's you guys and PSG making all the headlines. Let's see what happens because the season is long...

I'm gonna add my two pence worth to this debate just to say something I've been going on about for a long time and that sometimes fans and even football pundits are quick to forget although I get in where punditry is concerned otherwise they wouldn't get too draw interesting lines on screens and pinpoint dots... The be all and end all of a great team starts and finishes with its midfield. Without a midfield attackers don't get fed the ball in great positions to score and without a great performing midfield a defence doesn't get the protection it needs so as to calculate more accurately what to do and where to be when the opposition is attacking. The proof in the pudding is Kanté being missing and results being crap for Chelsea on a large scale. Kanté breaks the play and adds stability to the creative side of the midfield so as they don't have to metamorphosise into something they're not. Having the type of player Kanté is that reads danger and pulls his midfield around is priceless... He then gives it to someone more creative with an easy pass and we then have what feeds those that score goals. Picking on individual defenders when a midfield has been dysfunctional is wrong!... Picking on a defence as a whole when the midfield isn't doing what it should is incorrect.

I don’t think he’s ever been on fire in Spain. He’s had sporadic moments which have always tended to be free run on goals but rarely anything resembling a dominant performace. For most in Spain his best moment was the goal in the first Champions League Final from a header which put Atlético Madrid to bed due to being physically wasted. For example that goal he scored against Barça in the Copa del Rey final isn’t really seen as something special in Spain because it was a free run on goal with only Piqué covering for Alves who’d gone on walkabout. In Spain he’s seen as a failure although at the same time people recognise that Real Madrid need goals right now and he may have been an outlet for that. He’s definitely needed right now.

Girona have been brilliant though mate considering it's their first season in La Liga ever. But yeah... There seems to be saturation in La Liga and it's not a case of there not being an abundance of talent in many sides. Real Betis for example have been amazing in my opinion and Setién is creating something special there. Infact Quíque Setién is one of the coaches of the future... The only thing about Setién I worry about is that he also has a personal "self destruct button" in his closet and tends to suffer from a character mulfunction after a while... Actually thinking about this, it seems to be a northern thing because Marcelino is from Asturias, Setién is from Cantabria next door and without forgetting Luis Enrique who takes no shit is also from Asturias. Then you have the old character from Galicia David Vidal who has been around as a coach since the 70s and coached that tremendous Cádiz of the 80s with Mágico González... The amount of hilarious mental moments he's had are too many to count. I remember Cruyff coaching Barça and they were playing Vidal's Cádiz where Vidal knocks on Cruyff's dressing room door to tell him he purposefully destroyed the grass for them the previous day and that his team were going to run all over Barça... The game ended in a draw and Cruyff went mental!

Sanabria is doing well... There's another interesting player that in this case doesn't belong to Barça but belongs to Manchester City and is on loan at Girona. I don't know if you've been following him, Pablo Maffeo. Apart from the game where Girona played Barcelona and Machí put him as Messi's shadow man marking, he's been a revelation this season and he's constantly making La Liga's team of the week. He's a central defender but plays perfectly also as a defensive midfielder... Guardiola is a clever man with these types of players.

I said at the start of the season that the first team was strong enough to compete against any of the other top sides around Europe... This present Barça side isn't superior to any of the top sides but it is on a par and that means that the players can't rest on their laurels and that they must give their all which is what they've been dong. It's actually beneficial this way because they know that nothing but 100% will be enough! No longer is there that massive superiority that was once there. I think Barça is going to be stretched now and one more injury and the team will be seriously tested. We could start to see very pragmatic displays so as to just concentrate on the result. The problem with this is that it doesn't inspire confidence in a team when you win in that manner. There are various stories as to when Dembélé will be back... Some say he is very advanced in his recovery and that it is at least a couple of weeks ahead of schedule to normality and other sources that are saying that even though it may be ahead of time, that the club medical team will use the normal timescale it takes to recover with this so as the player doesn't fall back with the same injury which can be detrimental and then have a situation where recovery takes twice the time.

I can’t beleive I’d ever be doing this but for the first time ever Florentino Pérez has nothing to do with the present situation with the squad. Every sale was requested by Zidane himself except for Morata who demanded it and Real thought it wasn’t going to happen and found themselves in a situation where they were late comers to an over inflated market at the final stages.

Nothing can stop Jesus! He is all powerful!!! As for a punt... I've never been a betting man and at most I do the lottery when I remember which is rarely hahaha. My brother is great at these things and always makes great earners.

4-1? Pre Season? Anyway... The bookies prices sound just about right for Arsenal these days.

When did you play Real Madrid? Anyway... Yep! Attacking you leaves spaces and in the Premier League City are definitely the best team around at exploiting things like that! But It wouldn't surprise me to see Wenger set-up to be defensive at The Etihad. It's not the first time he's tried that against you guys and it's not the first time it's been successful. It's al about the state of mind of the Arsenal players which these days is all over the place... One day it's ok and another day it's non league stuff.

Who are they going to convince that's good enough to bang in 15 goals or more this season and be happy on the bench? Benzema WON'T be dropped! Have you been following the hilarious spat between both Gary Lineker and Zidane? Lineker on Twitter has been laying into Zizou and Zidane has taken the bait by responding in press conferences all revolving the Benzema situation.

Napoli ARE much better than us on all fronts... Actually, defensively there's not much difference between the two although domestic football delivers other factors that nullifies one off games in Europe. It will have nothing to do with what you experienced against Napoli. Put it this way... If you whip us royally, it won't be any big surprise. But football doesn't work like that and when you're back in the bread and butter of your own domestic scene, things you don't expect tend to occur. You've found certain games against much poorer opposition in the Premier League not all that easy and we CAN offer conundrums in attack that others can't on our day. We're not competing for anything substantial apart from qualifying for a tournament we have no chance of ever winning right now. It's upto you guys to sort it out and take the three points.

It is really bad news mate because apart from in two games this season, Sergi Roberto has been playing in his proper position of central midfielder and he's been doing it marvellously. Infact one of my favourite players on the field everytime he's been there. He has something the others don't have, something Iniesta used to have coupled with his magic which was receiving the ball and bursting through the midfield which breaks your opponent's lines and puts them on an uncertain back foot... That creates chances and space for people like Messi. Iniesta no longer has that burst of pace after he's bamboozled his rivals into space.... He offers other attributes but Sergi has that burst of pace. Denis Sure is more a technician, a skilful player with an eye for goal and creating chances for others. Hopefully he gets more on field time now, but Sergi's diversity will be very sorely missed over the next four to five weeks. It's less options and more stretching a first team physically.

I think we're gonna beat you though! But that was funny!

He does look to be interesting for the future, but he's not quick. Plus this is Real Madrid and what he's been doing for his national team against other African nations is very different to what is required from him in the way Real Madrid play and attack coupled with the quality of adversary Real play against. He is nowhere near ready and I'm not even sure if his qualities are those required by Real. Achraf seems to be more valuable for the future in a team that plays a more static defence based on discipline while others do the dynamic work of attack and recover.

Real Madrid are weaker squad wise this season because they've replaced certain pieces of the 'B' side which were experienced with youth. It's true that in years to come the young players they've signed will bring them joy because they've brought in top top talent. But just to name three components from last season that would be extremely important to their success and are no longer plying their trade at the Santiago Bernabéu... When a defender is out, she are they calling on? Achraf instead of Danilo?... It's true that Danilo was one of the biggest wastes of money in the Florentino era, but he had experience and this kid literally had to change his underpants at half time at Wembley the other night. Who for Pepe? Yes it's true Pepe couldn't give Real Madrid 90 minutes week in week out anymore, but his experience and his long career at the top should've been enough to have convinced the Real Madrid technical team that they should've just given him those 2 years he wanted instead of the 1 year the club offered him. Zidane has been reverting to 3 at the back in many games by putting Casemiro there and the player has been murdered every single time by every team this has been used against. Mayoral for Morata? Mayoral looks a big talent for the future, but the experience the young legs of Morata already had was one of the biggest luxuries I've witnessed in football in a long time. In the end Morata demanded to leave with no more dodgy clauses, but Álvaro Morata was second top scorer at Real Madrid last season with 20 goals and that was coming off the bench. Then there are other vital issues occurring here... The trio in midfield are playing some incredibly low quality of football in the shape of Mordrić, Kroos and Casemiro. Two months ago against both Manchester United and FC Barcelona they arrived at those two pre-season title deciding games in mid-season form! It seems the emphasis and focus of the training staff was to have those players all ready and waiting for two teams that were for varying reasons still not ready and putting things in order. Man Utd once again had a whole bunch of marquee players to gel into Mourinho's philosophy in football and Barça had a new manager with also traumatically losing Neymar in a summer novel saga a week earlier... Both groggy and Real Madrid in top shape! This is at least what the serious analysts are saying is the main issue here with Real's form right now, especially the heart of the midfield. The only player in tip top shape and in great form in midfield for Real Madrid at the moment is Isco... That's it! Then we come to how Real Madrid attack their opponents which is using the flanks, wide play. Marcelo has come back from his injury and he is playing terrible football... He's still extremely important in attacking elements but defensively (where he's always been poor but in recent times not as poor) he's been a disaster since returning. That poor defending from him is the main reason when things aren't going well in a game Zidane resorts to a 3 at the back by pushing Marcelo forward up the field and relieving him from the majority of defensive duties. But the biggest and most massive knife in the gutt has come from their best player last season... No, not Cristiano Ronaldo who was also absolutely shite in the first half of last season. No... The biggest problem is the heart issue revolving Dani Carvajal! He's their everything in creating quality attacks and even though he seems to be on his way back and soon due to return, he's been MASSIVELY missed and a big part of their problem going forward. Also having the option of relying on Gareth Bale when you need a monotone man that just thinks about powering forward in a nonsensical manner but which is effective, then that's hurt too! Finally I come to something Zinedine Zidane is being attacked on left, right and centre! His fetish in the shape of Karim Benzema! The french player has been dragging his arse around the field for two months. He has been absolutely dismal and yet Zinedine Zidane has ignored everything and everyone by continuing to play him. For some, the reason is because of Benzema's Algerian origins and for others it's because of Benzema's Algerian origins but also so as to give Didier Deschamps more headaches in the saga revolving him not wanting to play Benzema ever again in the France national team. In other words Zidane may be trying to get Benzema to have more possibilities of going to the World Cup. Now whatever it is in the Benzema case, what's for sure is that he is playing absolutely shit! Cristiano Ronaldo isn't playing much better and only has 1 goal in La Liga this season. But Cristiano is Cristiano and there's no point in comparing the two. Zidane should be careful if he doesn't want to end up being sacked because at Real Madrid there is no credit system. You don't accumulate Nectar Points at Real Madrid CF where in times of need you can cash them in to save your arse for a while. At Real Madrid you are thanked for what you gave, given all the diamond encrusted watches you like and maybe even a statue or two can be commissioned. But rightly, the club live in the present because that's the way life is. It may be cruel, but that's it and if you're gonna try and do something different, then make sure you've covered your arse so as to not be pulled apart by the media and get Florentino Pérez throwing everything around in his office in a fit of rage.

I'm not being sarcastic at all. I WANT him to stay.... No more harm can be done and this is his and the board's mess for not telling him to fuck off 5 or 6 years ago (even longer ago for me). I changed my mind after someone I really respect in all of this showed me how THIS lot need to sort it all out because of what's to come and how the next people would just be the victims of it all. They created this... It's their mastermind.

I actually don’t want Wenger to go anymore mate. I changed my mind a few weeks into this season. As for the Galatasaray game... That was the UEFA CUP FINAL (Europa League these days) which Arsene lost.

Where did I get Galatasaray from then. Sorry mate... Was thinking about another club. Apologies for that.

Yeah, Galatasaray, Anderlecht, Monaco, Birmingham City etc... All have more resources than Arsenal. He’s a failure in European football. Let’s seenwhat happens this season in the Europa League because Bosz almost bossed it with Ajax and Sevilla have won 5 in recent years with a lot less resources than Arsenal.

Not now, for sure. But Wenger could've started to build some years back instead of the "I have faith in this team and can compete for the title" season upon season stuff! That's BOLLOCKS! Or bullshit if you prefer...