Zinedine Iniesco

Opinions differ for various reasons but i believe the majority want to see Casillas as the 1st choice keeper. I think im going to write a bit of a long post so bare with me. First of all the Spanish media and the fan base make a big deal out of this, they specially did so with Mourinho because most fans, AND the media considered it a political/power move from mourinho considering his history as a manager and in real madrid. But i do think that in the bottom line he was not comfortable or satisfied with Casillas' behavior and output. Now with Carlo it has stopped being an argument about the man doing this, and more about the goal keepers, of course the media and fans are thinking about Casillas' legend and status and want to see him start but if this has happened with both mourinho and carlo, its simply because indeed Lopez is providing good enough evidence that he can bench iker. I think that both Carlo and Mourinho have both in part benched Casillas for political reasons, but it is true that Iker has been in a bit of a decline over the past few seasons, and when looking at traits, Diego Lopez is a more complete goalkeeper than Casillas. Iker is all talent, reflexes, speed. When you get older you may start losing that. All in all the rumor is that Casillas will be used in CL games and Copa Del Rey while Diego will be used in La Liga games, this is happening because the coaches want to instill the firm fact that madrid must not let politics over run its football, and also because Iker is no doing enough to win the role over a very in form diego lopez. The rumor is that Iker could leave even by winter if his situation doesnt improve due to this being a WC year, but i doubt that since Del Bosque has so much faith in the hierarchy. I think that if Diego Lopez keeps this going then Iker may vary well end up leaving, and Madrid will either stay with Diego for a few years, or sell him and Replace him with a guy like De Gea. So the whole world isnt pointing fingers at carlo because it's a different man doing the same thing. Problem is Mou tried to bench the biggest Spanish pillars such as Ramos and Casillas when his power was dwindling due to the sporting and (other) failures while in madrid. Carlo starts clean slate with Zidane. If they have done this its because they want to gives games to Diego Lopez AND Iker, or leave one of them with ZERO if they dont perform. Either way this is not pointing well for iker, and if iker leaves it seems confusing to me what we would do with diego, as it would be a perhaps good move to go for De Gea. This is no longer Mourinho vs Casillas, its now full on war between Lopez and Casillas, as it should be, fact is that Mourinho had planned doing something like this for a long time apparently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE1qc98m-vo As a Madrid fan my self, i love iker but i want to see a change in scenery. I want De Gea here, i also want Arbeloa, Pepe, and Khedira to gtfo, heck even Benzema if he doesnt perform. Only worry is that it looks like his replacement would be Suarez and i dont want that kunt in madrid. I think that by next year atleast 2 of the names i mentioned will have left.

Ozil is the first step to something great for arsenal but they will need changes around the whole place to become a truly top class side. Its the move Arsenal needed to get the nails off of their coffin.

Daniel Carvajal. Still has work to do on his defensive skills, but this guy could be one of the world's best if he keeps on the good road.

No Arbeloa has always been crap in attack, he in his day was known for being an above average, reliable defender, but thats about it. His last performance a few days ago against bilbao was one of the best ive seen from him in a while, but he is so incompetent as an attacking fullback that when he goes forward he always sends the ball to the middle and is stopped before he can either out pace someone ( because he cant) and beat them, and or cross to the box. He will forever be that, and last season and specially in copa confederaciones he was shocking more times than not. Thats why most people welcome the arrival of daniel carvajal, a RM youth product 21 year old rb who madrid loaned to leverkusen and brought back for his good performances. He hasnt had the best of starts in league but had a good pre season. Only other young right back who impressed more arguably last season was di sciglio. I have high hopes on dani carvajal. I'll post a video of him for u to watch in the primera liga thread. Ramos and Pepe make me want to jump of a building. Its sad that they have all the physical attributes to be gods, but 0 brains for it. They are both clumsy and error prone, while pepe is almost a bloody thirsty nut case. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV53hxnO11M This is why the varane ramos partner ship is so much better. Varane keeps balance and cleans up mistakes and has superb, but i mean SUPERB ball playing technique. But if it were up to me, id ban ramos and pepe from wearing the madrid shirt again. Pains me too much to see them fail.

Truth is Ozil has many flaws to his game but in the right system you can make those flaws irrelevant, with some help from ozil's part as well of course. That's wenger's job to help ozil with. This is an excellent article here of what has happened with ozil against a midfield like bayern's. http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/04/17/bayern-munich-2-1-real-madrid-what-type-of-player-to-use-as-the-number-ten/

Maybe if they have success with his arrival it will bring more incentive for high quality players to want to go to arsenal, maybe this can serve as the beginning of a turn around for arsenal. Thing is though that Ozil is a defensive liability so if the plan is to build everything around ozil then you have to build it with good foundations. Madrid was a joke because ozil has no defensive skills and madrid lost all midfield battles against sides who were capable of stopping the slow alonso and khedira. The rest of the players like Ronaldo didnt help much either, arbeloa was good only defensively, the ramos and pepe pairing is luaghable, so all in all what im trying to say is that Ozil is just an important piece of a puzzle but they have to set something good up to make his acquiring relevant. Better striker, better defensive midfield, for this represent a revolution their has to be changes. This is ideally the first big step in a big plan for arsenal, other wise its a pipe dream to expect them to magically be miles better, its complicated. But they have Mesut Ozil ffs, best SSesque AM in the world. Doesnt matter what else they needed, now they have MESUT OZIL, this should be the first step towards more. Its like building a car, sure you need breaks and steering wheels, but u need a god darn great engine to start with. This is nothing like willian, more like getting a hazard.

Most Madrid fans are angry but just putting it out there that i stand by my opinion of him regardless of emotion. Mou has everything better suited for him @ england. Club, Fans, Press, and even team. He should do well but only time will tell. Have to see more of United, Tottenham, City, we cant really pin point who's where atm i suppose. Barca winning the title? Im not sure. Their defensive line is meh, their prodigious players aka iniesta, xavi, are getting older. Busquets could get injured more. ( dont know how long hes out due to his current injury.) Also still have to decide on whether Tata Martino is relevant as a manager, tactician, coach,etc. Carlo doesnt have a great league record, but these are different circumstances. I dont know atm but im not going to rule madrid or barca out, atm im gonna say its up in the air, im gonna go with madrid winning the la liga. We seem to have more "momentum" to put it in short terms. I wish the best to chelsea and i will try to watch more of it, and arsenal now due to ozil.

Well as i previously said, With carlo and the arrival of bale, two big problems arose for him. Carlo wants to bring more balance at madrid, he wants a team that can defend better together, thus the elimination of the 4-2-3-1 and his attempts at trying to change the identity of madrid from the previous 3 years. With Isco here ( a more complete player), and bale's arrival, ozil is a bit irrelevant, because ozil was infact not even playing in the same position anymore. He was playing in the right in a 4-2-2-2 or a 4-3-2-1 and with the arrival of bale, the limitations of ozil's game, and the implementation of a new system, its justifiable to see him leave imo. The biggest question mark for madrid is what will happen if isco gets injured. Right now i think u could move modric to isco's place and put illarramendi in modric's place, and one of casemiro or khedira in the other midfield place. Thats the only question mark due to ozil's departure imo. I would have expected to see benzema leave, and ozil perhaps try harder to learn to defend, but in the end this is what happened, mutual understanding between club, coach, and player that parting ways was the way to go. Ozil sent a nice message to madrid fans for his goodbye. My respect to this german maestro who i will never ever forget. Or stop watching for that matter.

edit: sorry my bad, coentrao stays in madrid, not going to united. The premier league is more exciting to me than ever. Tottenham looks exciting, so does arsenal with ozil, chelsea with mourinho, united...Im going to have to wake up earlier lol.

I edited my most recent reply I edited my most recent reply, it has my reply to what you edited. Madrid is the hardest job in the world. Florentino Perez is an economical master mind but when it comes to football he is a moron. If i ever meet Perez face to face, this is what i could do to him. Perez always makes a mistake, usually because they dont have correct footballistic foundations. This is why madrid has failed time and time again under him. His latest giant mistake is mourinho, he brought the wrong man for the club, the bets were too high, you dont bring an actor like mourinho to the biggest soap opera in the world without expectations of fallout if everything goes wrong, and it did. But the truth is that perez put his faith in mourinho and gave him the power NO MANAGER HAS EVER HAD IN MADRID, and mourinho failed. About barcelona, most of the league match losses and cl losses throughout the 3 years, had the faulty foundations mou built in the team, written all over it. I dont think barcelona is really a gigantic problem, they have also been a bit overrated, a calmer coach with better ideas would have been more successful than mourinho i think. You are correct that some jobs need different managers, this wasnt the right job for mou or the right acquisition from madrid. This is why carlo has been brought in, and he is starting off very good. A calmer person with different ideas.

Also i would like to say Ozil has an amazing final ball.Probably the best in the buisness. -Final Ball -Vision -Free Kicks -Corner Kicks -Crosses he is a goal making machine if in the right system. But the beautiful game has more substance than what we might see sometimes. That is why you will see very few great players with the "AM" title, that were as limited in a package as he is. Edit: As long as arsenal defends well as a team and has a good midfield when it comes to defense then ozil could be good. But overall Mesut is not so great organizing play from deep, or defending, 3 main reasons he leaves madrid are, bale arrives, ozil's downfalls, and also the fact that we dont play a formation where he can shine the way he used to any more in madrid. Ozil was irrelevant to madrid, and now hes at arsenal where he could thrive more than he ever did i think.

A few months ago i came to this forum and i gave my view point on mourinho, i think its still accurate but it was a bit negative lol, i will give my assessment of him here again in a more light hearted way. I have a blog i havent updated recently due to time constraints but here is an article i wrote about his time in madrid. http://therealmadridzone.blogspot.com/2013/06/mourinhos-legacy-bringing-mourinho-to.html Now on to my opinion. The only thing i really like about mourinho is his personality in a sense. A bit of a baddass (in a sense) but thats about it. Mourinho is not a tactical genius, he is a reactive coach. if he is left with 10 men he will try to fix that, if he sees an opportunity to exploit something, for example send balls on the top to get a guy like lukaku to exploit a shaky defender like sergio ramos or marcelo he will do it. He has always been a counter attacking specialist, you will not see what i call "total football" from him. The dutch and catalans interpret it as possession football, but i interpret it as intense pressing football where the whole team attacks and defends together. ( player like ozil is not ideal for this). You will see this kind of football from dortmund and bayern. They can play both possession football and counter attacking football very well, they are complete, total. (in a sense) I call it total football because of what klopp says here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PPcx_rnyzc This football takes time to produce, but if done well, and with time, it is amazing. Hence dortmund 4-1 bayern 4-0 against madrid and barca respectively. They sent a message. Mourinho on the other hand likes to counter, but in madrid he didnt do a good job at making a balanced team. We never had a competent right back, midfield, centre back partner ship, and the 3-1 part consisting of benzema, ronaldo, di maria, and ozil was very very unbalanced. Since his tactics are a bit limited he fails ironically because he tends to sit back and counter, well when other teams park the bus, he has had problems time and time again throughout his career at braking them apart, limited football. Guardiola is correct when he says "he with the ball controls the game". Problem is, mou is allergic to it. (in a sense) He also has a personality that can cut his time in places short as we have seen in the past with chelsea and now madrid. I explain this more in my blog. Mourinho in MY opinion is overrated. Due to time constraints ive only been able to watch chelsea-madrid, chelsea- hull, bayern- chelsea, from chelsea this season, but you can already see again that you are not going to see total football from him. But this is england..in time he can probably set up something good. I place my bets he will have a more successful time in chelsea than madrid, better atmosphere for him, and more balanced team than what madrid had at the time. Winning is what counts, but hes never done anything revolutionary, and his time in madrid leaves him in evidence as aside from barcelona, madrid failed almost every time it faced a true opponent, and only won 1 relevant trophy in 3 years and the most expensive side in the world. - the la liga trophy.

i think hes worth it as long as you have the right team around him. During his time in madrid, everything was very unbalanced, yet due to the talent level madrid managed to survive a bit, but the midfield problem was put in evidence almost every time madrid faced a top class opponent. Ozil has counter attacking philosophies in his veins, due to his silky movements and skill one might believe he prefers possession football, but i think he thrives in counter attacking football, he is more of an ss type of player, could maybe even play false 9 if he had a shot that was worth a dam. Arsenal will have to get a better defense midfield imo. The truth is that during his time in madrid, when the team was down, he never really came out with a performance that gave madrid a train ticket to paradise. Im talking about a game changing performance like messi vs arsenal or ronaldo vs porto, if the team was down ozil was down, hes a very special player in this sense. He also has horrible shooting skills in my opinion, he has pretty bad defending skills which is one of the reasons he is leaving madrid. He even got benched for it in his last ever game for madrid. THE LAST IMAGE MADRID FANS WILL FOREVER HAVE OF HIM, IS OZIL LEAVING THE PITCH IN ANGER AFTER BEING SUBSTITUTED. -bad defending - horrible shot - doubtful stamina but if you put him in a team that defends well, a potent midfield with good ball recovery men, then it could work. Ozil's father said about 2 years ago that he wanted hi son to be in a team that was molded around him, well lets see if wenger can do what he must to get the most out of ozil.

Ozil is the casualty, and rightly so. A very limited player, if anyone ever saw Guti from madrid play, Ozil is like a refined version him, the mold of what guti should have been, but he also has the same downfalls, no midfield play, ozil is basically a forward, doesnt help defend... He will need for arsenal to be wrapped around him more so that in madrid so that he can shine, lets see how wenger deals with the defending. Ozil not needed in madrid, good riddens to the german maestro. Its a trend that managers are punishing players who are "lazy" when it comes to defending, and are too 1 dimensional in a sense. This is what midfielders like isco, iniesta, oscar, kroos, gotze, have over guys like mata and ozil Thus mourinho trying to ostracize mata out with new signings that are more akin to his flavor, and ozil leaving.

I am seeing that two football forums are being hacked by "hacked by federal/morrocan from hell", anyone have an idea what the hell this is?

Mou is no tactical genius, but neither of these teams are finished products. So far though, Mourinho has clearly shown his tactical limitations.

So the day has come... The prodigal son returns... Question is, will there be goat? I think he starts with Lukaku, maybe van ginkel on bench.

Agree and agree Toli. He is likely going to the spurs.

One thing is for certain and thats that Mourinho doesnt want Mata, will eventually depart under mou imo.

Its a luaghable comparison because hes got it all wrong if he thinks Illarramendi and Kondogbia are the same type of midfielders. When thinking of someone like kondogbia thing of someone like makalele, when thinking of someone like Illarramendi think of someone like alonso, schweinsteiger, pirlo. illarra is a deep lying playmaker with defensive abilities, so considering that madrid wanted one of these players ( like verratti and gundogan) saying that kondogbia is almost as good illarramendi is making a comparison that is not even there. Illarramendi is a multi faceted player with drops of busquets and alonso in him.

Real Madrid can afford it, and if everything goes well with him the no one will even remember the price. Thats not a problem for Madrid. Only other two young options out there with similar traits are veratti and gundogan but they were not for sale. In any case now Asier has Alonso to learn from in the same team, and has good experience in the league. Konodgbia-Illarramendi is a luaghable comparison. (but a probable partnership)

Dont say that as people might take your statement seriously.

According to one of Spain's most reliable papers; El Confidencial, Mourinho doesnt want to see David on the pitch, in painting, or anywhere due to not being defensively capable enough to be part of his team. David Luiz to enter Barcelona's plans. http://www.elconfidencial.com/deportes/liga-bbva/2013/07/08/mourinho-abre-la-puerta-de-salida-a-david-luiz-y-se-convierte-en-el-favorito-del-barcelona-124527/ HM, if anything he should buy a new CB, but sell David Luiz?

I personally had no knowledge of any of this, and it really helps bring into context all these Formula One, and Football links nowadays.

http://outsideoftheboot.com/2013/03/19/inigo-martinez-scout-report/ http://www.whoscored.com/Players/106885/ Spain's Defensive Gem, is something Chelsea should probably be looking at.