The most interesting thing is that the lineup for last sundays game is madrid's first choice lineup. Comparing the teams on the left and the right the difference in class is sooooo obvious. The midfield of Zidane,Figo,McManaman and makelele won madrid 2 champions leagues,2 spanish leagues and a a uefa super cup. In this period madrid were so good that even they way barca play today with ronaldinho, messi, deco, giuly etc...they would have most probably been murdered.I know people will disagree with that statement but people who would have watched madrid's matches during that time would agree with me.
Madrid kept selling good players or players retired or they became too old and they never replaced them. No replacement was found for either Hierro(retired)or carlos or helguera or salgado who are all 33+. No replacement was found for makelele or zidane or figo or McManaman. Morientes and Eto were also sold. Madrid's last decent signing was Michael Owen who did really well to score 18 goals from about 30 apperances. Apparently that wasn't good enough and he was also sold!
But the biggest mistake was to sack Vicente Del Bosque. In 4 years incharge at real madrid he won 2 champions leagues and reached the semi-final twice,won 3 Spanish leagues,2 Spanish cups , 2 super cups and the world club cup. And he was fired because the then president thought that del Bosque wasn't good enough for the future!!
I feel kind of sad because I used to enjoy the brand of football Madrid used to play. No team plays like that anymore. All teams now depend on one or two individuals to provide creativity. With the old madrid you never knew who the threat was. Even defenders like carlos and Hierro were regular scorers. It think it was pretty much the "Total Football" of the modern era.
7 comments:
was it you who made this illustration ? you got the names of carlos , nistelrooy , casillas wrong
'even they way barca play today' - error
reg madrid of yore -: yeah I agree they were really good. eventhough I was a manU fan I didnt have words for Ronaldo(Brazilian)'s phenomenal performance on one particular European night against us
reg owen -: he didnot score 18 ; it was 13 I believe ; and he didnot leave madrid because his record wasnt good enough ; its because they managed to pull off the signatures of robinho and julio baptista ; and owen feared for his england future
reg total football -: no it was certainly not total football ; total football is not about defenders being able to score goals etc. ; its about being able to interchange positions and confuse opponents.
The only teams which come close are teams like portugal where the wingers switch wings constantly.
like germany wc06 - ballack and frings both being good box-to-box players exchanged their attacking and defensive duties in midfield
like spain wc06 - when carlos puyol( a central defender) 'swept' the ball up to participate in attack ( e.g. the torres goal against spain ) someone usually took his position in defense
pheww !! long comment
forgive me ; it must have been 'the torres goal against ukraine'
@ Sleeper How much of La Liga did u watch from 99 to 2003?? Go download some old matches watch them then write another comment. Owen did score 18 including all cups and friendlies and exhibition games(yes they all count!) And if madrid still sign an attacker while owen plays this way it's madrids way of telling him that he isín't good enuf for them.
As far as total football is concerned it's not about a few people replacing the other when somebody runs forward. In total football everybody can attack and everybody can defend. And that was the case with that madrid team.
@ shark
Economies of sale in club football ???
wtf man
you cant fucking include exhibition matches
"In total football everybody can attack and everybody can defend" -- Shark
I have never seen ronaldo track back to defend. And zidane never certainly did it on a consistent basis. You are just talking abt emergency defenders like carlos being able to attack. but you havent talked abt the reverse at all
'even they way barca play today' is a grammatical error
alrite ?
i dont know why you want me to watch those la-liga matches
for pointing out that you got the name of 'casillas' wrong ?
you didnot mention any reason
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