I’ve said this before. What transition year? This is basically the same starting 11 minus 1 player last season. If thats the case, then 99% of teams in Europe are having transition years every season.
Kroos, Nacho leaving without getting replaced is a big hole. Add to that never ending injury of Alaba, Carvajal getting injured, changing the structure of the team to accomodate Mbappe - that's quite a bit going on. We have tried to fit a round peg on a square hole for the nth time and not every single time its going to come off...majority perhaps had this popular notion we would be unstoppable with Mbappe while some were skeptical that he wouldnt be a good fit and perhaps would disrupt the formation, early days, we have to be patient to see how it turns out.
Fair points. But that still doesn’t explain why the backline is so poor even when Rudiger, Militao, Mendy, Thibo and Dani were all relatively fit and healthy. I say the defense is much more of a problem than the attack.
There's a cascading effect when one of the players is not defending at all. Add to that the midfield has also been very porous, teams have cut through us like a hot knife through butter.
People just can't handle the fact players aren't robots and Cristiano and Modric playing like aliens for so long mislead them to think all should be able to do so as well. These players played a long season where they won us the double then had to play the summer without much rest. Then they had a half-assed preseason and are having to adjust to us changing how we play every two or three matches. All we have been missing is goals and that is all due to shooting form. Once that sets many will forget we had thus rough start just like they forgot our struggles and all their complaints during last season.... which now they make to seem like was easy
Most top teams played approximately the same number of official matches last season though. Real Madrid 62 Borussia Dortmund 62 Manchester City 61 Bayern Munich 61 Liverpool 63 Arsenal 61 PSG 61 Barcelona 61 Inter 62
A couple of times it’s not just because of a “cascading effect”. Case and point, the last El Classico, wherein the back line was so disorganized the centre backs were ahead of the fullbacks more than they should.
Exactly the narrative that we are the only team over worked falls flat on statistics. In before injuries , we are not the only team with many crucial injuries either this season. Instead of admitting we are terribly coached the deflection and excuses are funny. Definitely funny in November. It is not about fitness anymore.
Everyone and their toddler knew about the miles yet we refused to properly find reinforcements. I didn't even know about the Rudiger knee issue. The club knew Alaba was coming along slower than usual. It's just straight up borderline neglect. Rudiger goes down and you might have an Alaba situation where he might not be able to come back as a useful player.
We lost more than Kroos. Nacho was a starter last season, we had Carvajal playing CB at one point the team was so thin at CB. Rodrygo was a striker in a 4-4-2 and Jude played as the AM. We changed systems to accommodate Mbappe. As a result both Jude and Rodrygo are playing in different positions (in addition to the loss of 2 starters). Clus priorities should have been at minimum replacing Kroos, Nacho and Joselu with a dependable backup CF. Instead whoever is on charge couldn't think past getting Mbappe.
Great now how many of them depended on a core limited amount of players for their run? How many of those players also had to play high level matches in the summer as well? Real life is not a video game. Our players are struggling for form at the moment. Compare the EPL table from last year to the start of this one. Arsenal's form has dropped. Only the Oil Club with unlimited resources in bench reserves has somewhat kept their pace. Look at La Liga... Look Serie A; the dominant Inter of last season falling behind a midtable Napoli this season... Look Bundesliga; Leverkusen a shell of themselves this season with a bad bayern last season looking dominated this season... Literally only the Oil Clubs keep the pace and that is because they can afford to hoard starting talent on their benches which makes fatigue and form not impact them as much. It's incredible this has to be explained to some of you but again you think these people aren't human and that their digital creations whom play at a specified level at all times.
Comparing rosters to City is arguing for the exemption. Madrid had one the best benches last season. If the coach doesn’t utilize it, that’s on him. He ran away with the league last season. Something which City didn’t do. You can’t be mad if backfires in the longrun.
Relevo is claiming to finance itself purely by advertisement, so they're basically creating as much clickbait as possible to drive adversiement revenue.
Didn't address shit I posted then created a strawman regarding City who just like the other dominant teams from last year are still having struggle with form.
Many of the sources quoted on RMBS are clickbait. Weren't Relevo the first to break that Rodri would win the BD'Or?
Then explain Barcelona starting off 11-0-1 with a +29 goal difference in their first 12 games? They played 62 games, they had key players (including arguably their best player) play seven games in the Euros, they've clearly shown zero ill effects so far. I'm not even disagreeing with the broader point but you're ignoring Barcelona entirely when that's the team we're the most concerned with.
He is right tho. Bellingham was basically playing next to Lucas, chasing Balde, instead of Balde chasing Bellingham. Clear Carlo instructions.