Real Madrid Galacticos

Bate Borisov vs Real Madrid Preview

Posted on 24. Nov, 2008 by Borris Becker in UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

This is a very important match for Real Madrid against BATE BORISOV away from home, so you must know that Real Madrid are ought to struggle.

It’s really unfair to criticize only Real Madrid for Real Madrid’s abysmal performances in recent weeks. Seriously. When you are talking about a club as big as Real Madrid, only winning counts, second place is a failure.

I mean, though Real Madrid have not been playing very well, we have been unfortunate enough to loose many of our key players. Also, the referee’s haven’t been doing us any favours.

Plus, Real Madrid’s management haven’t complied with the wishes of the coach Bernd Schuster so, I think, it would be very unfair to blame Schuster and the players for the recent run of unacceptable results.
Plus, players like Heinze and Saviola haven’t done Real Madrid any favours. The former makes mistakes on the field while the letter is just complete rubbish of a player. Don’t know what the heck was Schuster thinking when he signed Saviola.

I don’t mean to disrespect any of the players of Real Madrid, infact, if you look the names, it is very hard to comprehend as to why Real Madrid struggled against Real Union, Real Valladolid or even Recreativo Huelva, all tier 2 teams.

But if you think about it, who is the one player who can change a game with a swing of his sword? Huh?, I mean, where is that Messi, or Robinho or Ronaldo in our squad.

At best, only Van Nistelrooy or if you twist my arm, Sniejder may be the one who can be classified as game changers. According to Sergio Ramos, he thinks that we have no match winners in this squad.

The bench isn’t nearly as strong as it should be, fringe players like Metzelder, Saviola, Medzelder are just sitting there and getting the cheques in their pockets for watching matches from the bench.

I think Schuster is just upset with Ramon Calderon for not providing him with world class talent. NO wonder, he doesn’t communicate with these players because it would be just a waste of time. Seriously, Saviola? Please bomb him out of Madrid as soon as possible.

Player’s of that low quality do not deserve to wear the Real Madrid shirt.

It can be said that Schuster isn’t vocal as compared to Capello or Mourinho while coaching during the match. He just sits there and observes which may not go down well with some of the players who like to see their coach pumped up or at least look concerned about the game.

Obviously, he does stand up and cheers his players on when the team scores but other than that, he doesn’t use any of his physical presence while the players are on the pitch.

You know what I am saying. People like Ferguson and Mourinho. They are like actors on the sidelines. They guide their players even during the match. So that players know if the coach is satisfied with their work or not.

Regardless of all these factors, AWAY games are always difficult with Real Madrid, likewise for Barcelona as well. Real Madrid are already on a uncontrollable slide, recent poor results haven’t done any good to the side that won the League easily last year, and the injury to Higuain isn’t going to go down well with Schuster, because Higuain is Real Madrid’s top goal scorer and currently, he is the one who does all the work in attack.

Sniejder, I think will make it to BATE BORISOV, I think he will recover, but still, a fit sniejder is something very special, unfortunately, Sniejder has been hampered by injuries this season so hasn’t been able to play at his mentis best this season.

Bueno from the Castilla team, will probably join the squad. Schuster did bring him on at the end of the game against Recreativo Huelva, but hardly got possession so I don’t know what he is made of.

The Castilla team had been on a wonderful run of form but their unbeaten run came to end this weekend as they were beaten 2-0 by Las Palmas B. Castilla plays in the third division I think. Anyway, Bueno could be an option, I would certainly put him over Saviola. Please allow me to say this one more time. Saviola SUCKS, his face sucks, his body sucks, his football, we all know, sucks, so what does that tell us, yup, SAVIOLA SUCKS. Rant over.

As we all know that Cannavaro, Diarra, Robben and De La Red haven’t recovered yet, while the bad news is that Heinze is back after missing the La Liga game for suspension. Seriously, I mean, he looked a accomplished player at Manchester United, but I don’t know what happened to him at Real Madrid.
Anyway, Here is the full squad list:

Goalkeepers
Casillas, Dudek, Codina
Defenders
Torres, Marcelo, Heinze, Salgado, Pepe, Metzelder, Ramos
Midfielders
Gago, Guti, Snejder, Drenthe, Javi García, Van der Vaart
Forwards
Raúl, Saviola, Bueno

Talking about bad run of form. Bate Borisov aren’t in the best of forms themselves. They have lost 2 of their last 5 games I think. Their last Champions League game resulted in 0-2 defeat at the hand of Zenit at home. They drew their last league game too.

With that said, every team gets extra motivation to play against Real Madrid, we have such a reputation, winning 9 Champion League crowns, 5 of them consecutively is no small feat. So it’s, understandable that against Real Madrid, teams do put in a lot of effort to make some sort of an impression.

Schuster is a very unpredictable coach, he doesn’t give out his starting eleven just before the game, just to keep the journalists guessing and the players guessing too. Some say it is not a good practice as players themselves never know it they are playing or not.

I just want him to pick a sensible line up. Don’t go for Heinze, he sucks, better go with Marcelo or Torres, Secondly, I want him to send Saviola in exile. Banish him from the club. Hello, I hate that rabbit fact doofus.

So, I think Schuster is going to have to go with the line up which he used against Huelva, I liked it personally. I think the back four were simply awesome as compared with recent grouping Schuster used which were horrible.

Metzelder may get a chance. I don’t like him by the way. He is too tall and slow. The moment Real Madrid signed him, I knew it was a mistake. I would have gone with Mertesacker if Real Madrid were looking for physical presence in the centre of defense.

Torres-Pepe-Ramos-Marcelo would be the ideal line up. It’s is very balanced. Not too old nor a bunch of teenagers. I would think twice putting Cannavaro in there even if he was fit. Because, he is not the same player who played the world cup 2006.

He is not the player who won the Golden Ball or Ballon Dor whatever. He is just a old pro now, very rarely performs to the levels that is expected of him.

In the midfield, I would go for guti-van der vaart-sniejder-gago-Drenthe, yes a 5 man midfield, because now Higuain is injured so Schuster SHOULD either play Raul or Bueno. Mr.Logic says he will never go for Bueno from the start even against Bate Borisov. So it’s going to be Raul I imagine.

Now many would say that the 5 man midfield is not balanced. The answer to that is, yes I know but that is how, unbalanced this squad is. Either Guti or Van Der Vaart would have to play on the right.

I think the duo of Guti and Sniejder can be a deadly combination if Guti decides to show up from the start. I have a feeling that Sniejder is struggling with at least 2 injuries, that is why he is not playing his best.

I would put Gago in front of the back four, I really have hope in him. He is fantastic at controlling the play from the back. I think, he is going to be the next big thing at Real Madrid. I think he and Diarra, though both play at the same position, offer very different traits.

Diarra has more defensive qualities while Gago can play with the ball as well. Plus, he is faster than Diarra but Diarra is better in the air and can be a big bonus while defending corners.

Well, no one can argue about the attacking line up. Because we have ZERO recognized strikers and an improvised striker would be Raul. Saviola as I mentioned before sucks. So he is out.

I haven’t obviously been following BATE, but I have a feeling that they will not make it easy for us. Although they have a little chance of qualifying, they’ll do their best to win or at least get a draw.

Their strategy is going to be simple and plain. Defend in numbers and break on the counter attack from the wings. Whip crosses into the box of Real Madrid, to put Casillas (who is not enjoying his best form at the moment) and Ramos under pressure.

Real Madrid did not beat Bate borisov in the first leg, we barely managed a win in an unconvincing fashion, so now it would be a good chance to prove something to the critics like myself.

Optimistically, Schuster won’t put Heinze and Saviola on the field and would make substitutions when Real Madrid need them, not just for the sake of substitution. Remember, if we don’t win this game then it is going to be very difficult to get out of this group into the knockout stages, let alone topping the group, which I think is already out of Real Madrid’s hands.

My prediction is 1-2 to Real Madrid, with Sniejder and Raul scoring the goals.

What are your thoughts, prediction and lineup? Your voice counts. Who knows Mijatovic might be reading this blog because Rafael Nadal does read tennis blogs he says, so we shouldn’t take it for granted that Mijatovic would be too busy to surf for the internet.