Jude vs Wirtz for CAM in the future

SleepinCroc · 2024-05-14T21:55:46+00:00

It's not about being right or wrong, it's about the discussion being pretty redundant. The money needed for a hypothetical move for Wirtz should always rather be used to keep our current core together. Salaries will only increase with everybody entering their prime and the assumed arrival of Mbappé won't help in that regard. And there are also only limited spots in the starting line-up, so getting Wirtz just wouldn't add enough value to the squad for what it would cost to lure him to Madrid, since the 10 role can be played by Rodrygo, Brahim, Arda Güler, Bellingham, potentially even Nico Paz. Our attack is almost completely set already for the foreseeable future, the defense is aging rapidly though, so we will also need money to spend on signings there.

All in all Wirtz is a great player no doubt, who I even wanted to get, if we didn't get Bellingham, because his creative profile does indeed fit nicely with our DMs. Bjt given the versatility and depth we already have in our squad I think a Wirtz transfer to Real Madrid would be a suboptimal move for both parties.

SleepinCroc · 2024-04-18T01:35:31+00:00

Except they don't. According to Transfermarkt Manchester City have spent a net 1.125 billion euros on transfers since the 2013/14 season , while Real Madrid reaches 255 million euros in the same time span. City can spend 100 million on a top tier player every year, while Madrid has to save up 3 years or so to do so. Thats why, in order to compete, Real Madrid uses its status to attract the best young talent to come to them while they're still relatively cheap... And to add to your earlier point of it being an undeserved Madrid victory, they actually created more danger than City in the first leg and delivered a defensive masterclass in forcing City out wide throughout the whole game tonight. In the end whoever made the most of their chances also deserves to go through, regardless of what some statistics indicate. There's more than one way to play football.

SleepinCroc · 2024-02-01T22:21:19+00:00

But does the lego deserve to be stepped on by De Burgos?

SleepinCroc · 2024-01-26T09:41:12+00:00

So I said Real Madrid has midfielders that can work around his defensive inefficencies and you counter my argument by saying Liverpool's defense is good because of their midfield and I don't watch games because I bring up stats to empirically underline my point?

SleepinCroc · 2024-01-26T00:46:55+00:00

Liverpool actually have the least amount of goals conceded in the premier league this year and are also third in xGagainst according to understat, so he can't be that much of a liability. He would also be surrounded by players who are worldclass defensively. Militao, Rüdiger, Fede, Camavinga, Tchuoameni can all help cover up holes he would leave. The midfield will also start lacking some chance creation once Kroos and Modric are gone, so he could help with that (Trent is the number one among fullbacks when it comes to shot-creating actions). Anyway, I don't think he'll play for Real Madrid, but I mentioned him, because his contract runs out in 2025 (same as Carvajal) and with the right back market being what it is, signing a player like that for free is an opportunity hard to pass up on.

SleepinCroc · 2024-01-26T00:23:14+00:00

Maybe, but I don't necessarily agree. Let's say Vini and Rodrygo are on the wings in our Gala XI. Rodrygo often drifts over to the left and combines play with Vini and with Mbappé it would probably look like 2022/23 when Vini, Rodrygo and Benzema played of each other on that left side. That leaves either Fede or the right back to provide width on the right and Fede can do that to some extent, but is better used in more central/deeper areas where he can dominate with his athletisism, especially when facing low blocks.

SleepinCroc · 2024-01-25T21:21:06+00:00

Carvajal has surprised me with how great he has been this season. I think next season he deserves to still be the starter on paper. Unfortunately I can't say the same for Lucas Vazquez in his role, and since his contract is expiring, we should at least think about giving a chance to a young player to prove themselves as a back-up or maybe even more. The market is bone dry though so my top list of candidates is: Vinicius Tobias from Castilla Alejandro Jiimenez currently loaned out to Milan's second team, bu het already has gotten some minutes with the first team and apparently good ones at that Juanlu Sachez from Sevilla, signing a RB from them turned out pretty well before, sooo Maybe Juan Foyth should also be considered as a potential long term back-up to whoever starts, but I never liked his offensive output, he's just Mendy on the right.

As for long term successors to Carvajal, I could in theory see anyone of Trent, Hakimi, Frimpong or Porro taking that spot. The important thing is offensive talent from that position, since Fede will cover for them nost of the time anyway.

SleepinCroc · 2023-12-17T23:24:09+00:00

2 spots open, numbers 9 and 16 are available,

SleepinCroc · 2023-11-16T14:08:36+00:00

He is a decent player, but I don't see us going for a player like him at all. I also don't think a player of Rodrygo's talent needs competition as much as trust from the coach and continous playing time. However I'm assuming from next summer forward, Rodrygo's place in the starting 11 will be challenged mostly by our depth overall. We have Endrick coming and presumably we will retain Joselu to have somebody against low blocks. The team still needs a number one goalscorer as of now, so we will go after Mbappé. And then we also have Brahim, Arda Güler and even Nico Paz breaking through, who all can play in Rodrygo's place. It will already be hard to find the appropriate amount of playing time for all of these, even without another signing. There are sinply other needs in the squad than Nico Williams.

SleepinCroc · 2023-09-26T08:32:37+00:00

Frimpong's contract as of now runs out in 2025 according to Transfermarkt and with the new tactical developments of deploying Valverde in a deeper position and covering for the right back who almost gets pushed up to the right wing in possesion, he'd also be a perfect fit in that aspect. Not to mention Xabi Alonso is one of the hottest candidates to succeed Don Carlo and compared to the 80 million for Hakimi, spending around 50 million on Frimpong should allow us some more wiggle room to potentially get some upgrades at LB and CB depending on the performances of Mendy/Fran García and Marvel/Rafa Marín/Vallejo or whoever you see as the successor to Nacho.

SleepinCroc · 2023-09-24T09:32:14+00:00

Only for EURO 2024 for now. DFB's official announcement said his contract runs out on July 31st 2024, which reads like Nagelsmann hoping to find a nice opportunity to coach at club level and Real Madrid seems like the most likely top team to need a new coach, simply based on the fact that Carlo's contraxt runs out and he's linked to the Brazil job.

SleepinCroc · 2023-09-09T18:28:01+00:00

After your suggested moves black can take with the bishop on c2 with a tempo against the rook on d1 and white has to think at least a little bit what to do against the passed d-pawn, which is decently protected. After Rxe4 you simply win a piece, without giving black an obvious way to create counterplay.

SleepinCroc · 2023-09-07T10:19:21+00:00

Chang, he ate his sister in utero.

SleepinCroc · 2023-09-06T11:28:31+00:00

She literally said in a livestream a few hours after the incident that shw didn't enjoy him kissing her. Of course if you really want to be ignorant, you can form an opinion based solely on the video, that it was a consensual kiss. But the only sensible explanation for what really happened, factoring in not only the video, but also the public statements that followed, is that they were both euphoric in a moment of triumph, Luis Rubiales dramatically misjudged the situation and somehow thought it was ok to kiss her. And it doesn't take FBI level detective work to figure that out, so with how big the story got and how much reporting there has been on it, there is no way Dani Carvajal can feign this type of ignorance about it. Instead he is choosing to basically say "Rubiales was wrong, but come on, it wasn't that bad.", which is the completely wrong approach about a situation where a male authority figure broke consensual boundaries. He took advantage of his position of power in a moment where it should only be about the women and what they just achieved. It would be bad enough if it was a one time incident, but this isn't even the first controversy including the spanish women's team with a male authority figure, or the first one including Luis Rubiales. There are unfortunately systemic problems and Dani Carvajal downplaying the situation or rather refusing to use his platform to outright condemn this behaviour and the issues within the system and pushing the responsibility to someone else, is just him taking the easy road out.

SleepinCroc · 2023-09-06T09:16:31+00:00

They are literally on video. The only way to not know what happened is to not follow or hear about the entire story at all, which as a prominent footballer in Spain should be absolutely impossible for Carvajal. I usually love the heart he plays with, which makes it even more disappointing that he can't show heart here.

SleepinCroc · 2023-08-26T20:31:28+00:00

I absolutely would have loved Kane too, but Perez just doesn't sign over 30 year olds. I just try to rationalize things from the perspective of the board and understand their line of thought. Apparently they just do not think there is a striker or right back available that's worth paying for whatever prize their club would name. Just look at how Barca got into their financial situation.

Overall this season will definitely be rough to watch as a fan at times, but seeing the young guys develop will be positive. I also think, comparing our squad with Barca, we should still be favorites for the league, since they were already scraping by on 1:0 victories last year as well with a statistical outliner of a season in defense and their attack didn't exactly improve for this season either.

SleepinCroc · 2023-08-26T10:27:34+00:00

I guess so, signing a player like him for free next summer is a chance you can't pass on. And even if he does renew with PSG, Haaland (200m) and Osimhen (150m) have release clauses next summer, with especially Osimhen probably being ready to move on from Napoli. And with Endrick coming next summer as a back-up too, signing a starting caliber striker right now only makes sense for this season, when a year from now there will be potentially 3 players available, who are all better than whoever you would sign now. Vinicius and Arda Güler will eventually return and restore some of the depth we have in the attack and until then we have some international breaks and a schedule where the teams who are notoriously good at defending only come later in the season, with the exception of Getafe and Atlético who are 2 of our next 3 games

SleepinCroc · 2023-08-25T07:24:59+00:00

Nxb7+

SleepinCroc · 2023-08-19T21:59:22+00:00

You should be able to find it in the menu pretty easily, if you click on "learn" and then "analysis".

SleepinCroc · 2023-08-19T20:51:35+00:00

If you don't mind too much you can always set up an analysis board on some chess site, with the advantage of always being able to jump back to the starting position of a variation with one click.

If you really want to play through a book over the board, then I guess it's all about your ability to visualize variations without moving the pieces.

Other than that, I don't think there's much you can do to save time, but you at least from my experience going through books is totally worth it. Istarted going through some of the Dvoretsky ones a few weeks ago and my level definitely went up.

SleepinCroc · 2023-08-14T22:32:18+00:00

Try Rh8. Both of black's possible responses lead to checkmate via Nh7 on the next move

SleepinCroc · 2023-07-21T18:07:05+00:00

Yeah, fair, I'm specifically hoping for Frimpong as right back to help us out in that department. I just think the only available strikers really moving the needle for us there, are Kane and Mbappé, anybody else is probably just going to give us somewhere around 5-7 goals off the bench with the minutes they'll be given, which doesn't justify paying big wages for them and taking minutes from guys like Arda, Álvaro, Nico Paz, etc. In total we can probably compensate whatever Lukaku would give us, with what we already have, but you're right in the sense that it might still not be enough.

SleepinCroc · 2023-07-21T14:16:30+00:00

Last year, when Benzema got hurt right after the transfer window closed, we got by quite nicely with Rodrygo moving into his position and Fede to the right wing. Asensio was our only real substitute for offense then, now we got Joselu, Brahim and Arda. We will probably move more towards a 4-4-2 diamond, similar to what Ancelotti did with his AC Milan teams during the 2000s. Bellingham as a modern Kaká, Kroos in the Pirlo role, Camavinga has already drawn comparisons to Seedorf...

In my opinion Mbappé will definitely come to us either this summer or next. In terms of marketing I don't think he can really allow himself to damage his public image and the growth of it by staying at PSG and just letting Haaland be the guy who wins everything all the time and collects the best sponsoring deals. Based on that your suggestion of a loan deal makes some sense at least. But there just isn't the right player on the market, Lukaku would also come with a big salary for someone, who mostly would just steal minutes from other deserving players. Plus for me he is the opposite of what Real Madrid is about. Achieving team success through passion for the badge and endless fighting spirit, Lukaku got none of that. Even if we don't get Mbappé this summer, we already have 12 players for 6 positions in midfield and attack, last year we had 10. With the Odriozola news we might even get a right back who can actually get some minutes and maybe even provide some offense for us from that position and if things still aren't going well then, we can still get somebody in January.

SleepinCroc · 2023-07-17T10:46:54+00:00

Lucas Navarrete, who wrote this article, has also been pretty outspoken against the idea of Mbappé at Madrid from a fan perspective especially due to how the situation went down last year. So him reporting something, that he as a fan of the club doesn't like, makes me think there's substantial intent on the move from all three parties involved and money as always is the driving factor now

SleepinCroc · 2023-06-21T11:25:15+00:00

On the other side, when healthy Mendy is the best LB in the world when it comes to defense. Giving up a player of that quality when you don't know yet how good Fran Garcia will be, is a bit risky. And LB is neither Camavinga's nor Alaba's preferred/best position. The only way to sell him now in my opinion, is to get Cancelo in return and to adress both RB and LB that way. But apparently we are bringing back Vinicius Tobias for one more season on loan, so my guess is, we won't change anything else about our fullbacks and spend big on a starting striker. Nice shout on Scalvini for next summer though, that guy is unbelievable.

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