Gareth Bale

[DonAndres]

The fact is if you gave us Ramos or Pepe or Varane we would use them better. Madrid in recent seasons conceded more and similar number of goals as us despite having better raw materials to work with. At set pieces despite having 4 or 5 better headers of the ball plus actual tall players Madrid do worse than us defensively at that for the last two years except when they play our midget team. Which is shocking.

You're absolutely right about this, except the fact is that the description is of seasons past under Mourinho who misused half his squad and never was able to get them to gel.

Under Ancelotti so far that is different, even Pepe has looked like a very stable and solid defender. In the coming season, I fear they will be a more organized and unified defensive force. Getting back Varane soon will help them much more, because Ramos+Varane was an amazing CB pairing. Under Ancelotti, they'll likely get a lot more out of their defensive ability than under Mourinho.

 

[big_man]

It does compute. Madrid give up more possession, which means the other team is likely to create more chances. In our system our team keeps the ball for 80% of the match and the other team only has the chance to launch three attacks per game.

They give up more possession, but to counter that, they sit back more with more bodies in the box to help against counters and the likes, much more protection than the Barca defenders. basically, it's way more complicated than you're implying.
We can only judge them factually on how they fare in their system, and the FACT is, they're about as affective as each other despite Barca's defence being at its absolute lowest point. Make of that what you will.

 

[big_man]

Statistics ....you can bend them as much as you like
First the main 4 CB includes Varane.. who played less than half a season + Iker injury ...
most of the disasters came early in the season before Varane was introduced... and after he was injured towards the end of the season

Our two main CB are one of the best CB pairing in the world... I think they are easily top 3 if not the best of the top 3...

Ahh the good old statistics bashing. "I watch it with my eyes so I must be right", well done.
In your best season in 2011/2012, you conceded 32 goals, 3 more than Barca, who was also very iffy defensively that season.
"Your two main CB's is one of the best pairing in the world" is based on absolutely fuck all, there is no defensive record to back it up, there's no shower of titles to back it up, nothing, we're just supposed to take your word for it
The fact that you are depending on a 19 year old excellent prospect who had a 6 month excellent spell under his belt to make that (wrong assertion) says it all. On that note, we'll agree to disagree.

 

[Hamzah]

Even that's not true. When they lose the ball, everyone is forward apart from alonso, Ramos, varane and the right back (khedira goes forward a lot aswell as marcelo) when we lose the ball busi, masch, piqué are back. They only have one extra player in defending counters. They are still vulnerable when they lose the ball and are not as bad as us in conceding from counters.

Also we have all of our players pressing as a team, that's a lot of protection for the back four. Our whole midfield and forwards press and that's protecting th back four. At Madrid, benzema, ozil and CR literally do fuck all defensively, I mean literally standing about doing nothing to help thier defence. Only three midfielders (alonso khedira and di Maria) cover thier back four. They have much less protection.

 

[big_man]

Even that's not true. When they lose the ball, everyone is forward apart from alonso, Ramos, varane and the right back (khedira goes forward a lot aswell as marcelo) when we lose the ball busi, masch, piqué are back. They only have one extra player in defending counters. They are still vulnerable when they lose the ball and are not as bad as us in conceding from counters.

Also we have all of our players pressing as a team, that's a lot of protection for the back four. Our whole midfield and forwards press and that's protecting th back four. At Madrid, benzema, ozil and CR literally do fuck all defensively, I mean literally standing about doing nothing to help thier defence. Only three midfielders (alonso khedira and di Maria) cover thier back four. They have much less protection.

Lack of pressing was the single biggest issue last season, the defenders got fuck all protection from the midfielders last season, yet they conceded less than Madrid last season. Essentially, that whole paragraph is based on a false assumption so i disagree very strongly with pretty much everything in it.
I will reiterate, I don't think Barcelona's defence or defenders at this point in time is anywhere near great, neither is Madrid's though, which is the simple point I've been making.

 

[Hamzah]

By our standards yes, but our midfield and attack still offers infinitely more protection than real Madrid.

 

[big_man]

You're absolutely right about this, except the fact is that the description is of seasons past under Mourinho who misused half his squad and never was able to get them to gel.

Under Ancelotti so far that is different, even Pepe has looked like a very stable and solid defender. In the coming season, I fear they will be a more organized and unified defensive force. Getting back Varane soon will help them much more, because Ramos+Varane was an amazing CB pairing. Under Ancelotti, they'll likely get a lot more out of their defensive ability than under Mourinho.

Again, this typifies the whole "grass is greener on the other side" thing. You're willing to make excuses for Madrid, yet not Barca who had a coach unfortunately battling with cancer that was out for half of the season (leaving the team bereft of any form of guidance, direction or organisation at the most important time of the season), Puyol out for most of the season..e.t.c.

You go on about this season, yet fail to mention that Betis(who is comfortably inferior to A.Madrid by the way) posed more threat to the Madrid defence than A.Madrid posed to Barca in the only games that have shown evidence of how both teams are performing this season.

 

[oz187]

Marcelo is a defensive liability, Arbeloa is average and Neymar would make mincemeat out of him, Carvajal is unproven, Ramos is a good player but does make silly errors sometimes, Pepe also can be crazy and Varane has shown potential but it remains to be seen if he can maintain his form and improve. RM also now have to contend without the managerial and organisation skills of Mourinho. Ancelloti is a good coach, but he's as likely to perform worse than Mourinho as he is to improve on him.

The Barca defense isn't great, but neither is the Madrid defense. If no one is saying Madrid needs a defender then no one is paying attention. They got rid of Albiol and Carvalho. They need a defender for fourth choice, otherwise they could have the same problems as us. The only advantage they have is that their 3 defenders haven't hit 35 and have not been too injury prone and so they are more likely to get away with it. But still, if they are smart they'd get another defender.

 

[SoMa]

Page 6

Buy him while his price is < 100 mil.

Prophet?

 

[coco1247]

Lol dafuq happened here?
Do we have better defenders? Yeah. Does it make it a great defense? No.
The truth is Varane and Ramos haven't gelled yet. It's a work in progress for these two, and the fact that Varane is injured isn't helping. Pepe is just...Pepe lol. Nothing to do there. Marcelo will hopefully improve under Carlo defensively as will Carvajal. He's a great young prospect but will need time to perform at the same level as the rest of the guys perform. Arbeloa is still shit, both defensively and offensively, there's no way around it.
Our problem was always the front 3 not defending plus the occasional brain farts. We never apply pressing like Barca do, or did, take it as you will, and have suffered in return. Benz is the CF, he shouldn't do a thing, but Ronaldo used to just stand in the middle of the pitch and act like a baby when he lost the ball. There's a slight change in attitude now with Carlo, he's getting back more often, although it's not the level of tracking back and pressing I'm totally happy with. Still need more of him tbh. Ozil is a mystery. That guy won't defend to save his life. It's funny because he knows he'll get compared to Isco a lot and you can see Isco applying pressure, tracking back, working like a horse...I just wish he'd do more of that.

Anyways, to get back on topic, Bale's in Spain, RM are preparing the Bernabeu for his unveiling and it all seems done. The only unknown is the price. I honestly hope Flo wasn't that stupid as to pay more than what we paid for Ronaldo. But I'm afraid that's exactly what's going to happen

 

[Meitux]

They are slowly becoming identical

 

[coco1247]

He looks like an elf in pink shorts. Hilarious.

 

[Trickykid]

What the HELL is that!?

 

[Meitux]

It looks more like a mini skirt rather than shorts

 

[coco1247]

It looks like he rolled them up to get a tan. But still. Pink?

You gotta pick your battles As we can see here from Ronaldo - The Fashionista, you either go super short and accentuate it with a nice flower in your hair or you go pink, but with a normal lenght. But NEVER the two at the same time. Bale is a noob, has a lot to learn from Ronaldo...