La Liga

[reza]

Messi
Goals & assists in the last 5 games: 0

[Mystik]

Not surprised at all. Travelling to South America for WCQ then coming back and having three games a week with no rotation by Enrique? That was never going to work.

[ACMILAN1983]

lol, took me a while to find this thread given the number of nonsense threads in this forum.

Anyway, I just read an article on goal.com about Zidane's first time as a coach

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editori...ed?ICID=OP

I'm not goal's biggest fan by any margin, but I agree that Zidane's turnaround at Real is impressive. He's bought stability after what was a turbulent time under Benitez. I was waiting to see how he'd do after being appointed and in all honesty I didn't really expect much, but 50 out of 57 points and CL final is nothing if not commendable.

[GeoTav]

lol, took me a while to find this thread given the number of nonsense threads in this forum.

Anyway, I just read an article on goal.com about Zidane's first time as a coach

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editori...ed?ICID=OP

I'm not goal's biggest fan by any margin, but I agree that Zidane's turnaround at Real is impressive. He's bought stability after what was a turbulent time under Benitez. I was waiting to see how he'd do after being appointed and in all honesty I didn't really expect much, but 50 out of 57 points and CL final is nothing if not commendable.

At this point, we don't know wether Zidane is the new Di Matteo or a kind of Ancelotti in the making ...

This guy is loved by the players, he arrived just after Benitez who was hated, so the players look less stressed and more disciplined inside and outside the pitch. At the same time, the way Real plays under Zidane is far to be impressive. So no matter what will happen in this end of season, the most important will be next year ... So far, he didn't do anything special except bringing calm in the dressing room, he even often uses the same formation and players as Benitez.

He can win all trophies in 2015-2016, or lose them all, that means nothing. 2016-2017 will be the first year to judge him.

[Mystik]

I was just coming to say something similar to what Geo was saying. Zizou has not really done anything much different from what Benitez was trying. The only difference is that Zizou has more respect from the squad and the board due to his career as a player while Benitez came in as the post-Ancelotti guy and was never going to be loved.

When Benitez wanted to introduce some kind of defensive balance to the team by introducing Casemiro, there was backlash from everywhere. Zizou does the same thing and everyone is quiet. Also, Real Madrid is quite lucky to be where they are in the CL. If Roma (Dezko) was half competent, and/or Real Madrid didn't get the easiest route to the final in history, they would have been eliminated long long ago. I think this is a case where the results are much better than performances on the pitch (opposite of Guardiola in Bayern where the results didn't always come but that's for another story..)

[ACMILAN1983]

I don't disagree with you guys, I was going to write something along the lines before that I'm not saying Zidane is the new Guardiola or anything, but didn't bother because it would have prolonged the post.

I just think the guy should be credited for making this a positive season after things looked somewhat rough earlier on. That isn't to say he's done anything spectacular imo, but there's little denying his points tally is very good.

[reza]

Made some threads like this one a sticky, will decide on those other threads, may just let them be as they have been.

[somedevil]

Benitez just has the shittiest luck as a manager. Chelsea fans hate him. Inter fans hate him. Real fans hate him. I think apart from LFC and Valencia fans, nobody really likes him.

[ACMILAN1983]

He should really stop following Mourinho

Seriously though, I think he's both made some poor managerial choices, especially the Inter job which was just set up for a major fail, but I think it also comes down to not being a great man manager. He's a tactician and a top level one, one of the best around imo, but as a man manager I think he's very flawed. I actually like Benitez, but I don't think his disappointments in his career are down to factors outside of his control. I think it's most interesting that his biggest successes were in Liverpool and Valencia. I think that while Valencia are big, they haven't got a strict identity or way of playing like other huge club, so Benitez was given the freedom to work in his ideas into the side and imprint his game. That said, Valencia had been a side with reasonable success around that period, so what he got wasn't exactly weak, but he did make it stronger.

At Liverpool, I think it was a similar situation. While Liverpool are huge and have a rich history, they were relatively strong under Houllier, but didn't have a strict identity Benitez had to follow. Basically, I think he was allowed to play his game without much contention from either fans, players or management. I think it suits Benitez to take clubs like these and build his teams. At Real though, any coach coming in has to buy into the ideas of the club, which is they think they are the best in the world. This means playing "champagne football" that will delight the fans, almost playing to entertain than to compete. That, along with the pressures to win, I don't think it was an environment for Benitez, especially compounded by the fact that he had to manage some massive egos, which going back to my original point, is far from his strong point.

[Mystik]

Messi being his royal GOATness today in a 6-2 win over Betis. Somewhat different Barcelona with Umtiti, Denis Suarez, Turan all starting and fitting in well.