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But that's the same with any team. If Hummels and Subotic get injured Dortmund will struggle. If Ramos and Varane get injured RM will struggle. How many teams are there with more than 2 or 3 high quality CBs? Bayern and Chelsea maybe? Chelsea haven't been that good recently, and Bayern would...

Ok, so who do you think is good enough for 1st choice and also is available?

Spurs will say we're not selling, we're negotiating with Man U, we want a high price, we want all the money now blah blah. Real Madrid will say he's not in our plans, we can't raise the money from the banks, the price you are asking is too high blah blah. It's all negotiating tactics to get the...

It was enough to get a club record points in La Liga this season. Why isn't it enough for next too?

Better to get someone like Mathieu who you know can do a job as 4th choice than get some youngster who turns out to be another Henrique/Keirrison and never plays for the club. With Puyol being at fairly high risk of injury the priority is a CB that can play NOW, not someone for the future...

Getting a defender may not be a priority, but it shouldn't be that hard to at least get an el cheapo defender that's better than Barta for 4th choice.

Levy would negotiate with Man U just to help drive the price up for Madrid. There's a lot of money at stake, more than any other transfer in history so it's unsurprising that this is dragging on. The deals for Cristiano and Neymar had been largely negotiated the year before so they could happen...

Mathieu is good enough for 4th choice.

He's the real target. Fellaini is just a decoy.

He scored 11 goals last season and 15 the season before that. He's also had injuries both seasons.

No, it's not the same as last year. Last year he got injured in May, this year he's been out of action since March. Also, like you said, last year he played a friendly against PSG in August. This year they're not taking any risks and waiting for him to fully recover. So he's going to have 6...

Normally when Puyol gets injured he comes back early. This time however he recovered after the season ended, so he's had some extra time to just recover and get to full fitness. He's had almost half a year off so hopefully he can have a better season.

I would say overall they were considering: 1) Tito got cancer. 2) They could be complacent knowing they were going to win the league by a big margin. 3) Messi got injured. The second leg with Milan showed they were in good shape at that point. The end of the season they won all the games...

Not necessarily, it might make us lose 0-1 instead of winning 4-2.

No, that 100 points was your peak. And many would say it needed a lot of help from the referees to get it. This last season your team declined, not just because of a bad attitude but genuine decline. Alonso and Di Maria are two clear examples of players who declined. The 4-1 thrashing you got...

If they use Bartra and Adriano proactively as CB rotation from early on in the season, that would help protect the 3 frontline defenders from injury and mean they have a better chance available at the business end of the season.

That's a very real possibility. I see three pitfalls with pressing: 1) If not pressing means the team is operating at a low intensity then the team can increase and maintain intensity to win those tough games when needed. You could see the first half of the season, the team was fighting for...

Barca got 55 points out of the first 57. Even RM performing at their peak would have lost the league.

Conceding less goals is pointless if you end up conceding more points.

That's not necessarily a good thing. Tito got 55 points out of 57 by cutting back on the pressing...