Not really. We have a 19 year old attacking midfielder playing from deep and putting in man of the match performances against Barcelona and being hailed as the future (and present) of english football playing the same position. Arshavin can play any attacking position. Nasri goes left, right and centre. Walcott is a striker who can contibute the same thing from basically any position. Some players are just better footballers than others.

Capi, do you think Madrid´s players are THAT much better than ours then? Sure, we have no one close to what Ronaldo can offer, but do you really feel Di Maria and Özil on the wings are superior to Nasri and Walcott? Khedira/Pepe/Alonso better than Song/Jack/Cesc? Marcelo vs Clichy, Arbeloa vs Sagna, Carvalho/Ramos vs Kos/JD?

To me it seems pretty tight player for player, and yet Madrid played like a team, worked their asses off and were able to more or less nullify Barcelona´s attacks. We on the other hand conceded sooo many premium chances, especially from the wing positions.

Their key players are better than ours.

But that's beside the point, I'm just saying that moving slightly out of position doesn't have much of an impact on good footballers. Nullifying Barcelona's attacks is neither here not there for me; they play their way and we play ours.

Man for man Madrid are better. We dont have a defender in Carvalho's league, Casillas is probably the best keeper in the world, Khedira and Alonso is a far more experienced, more balanced central midfield combination than ours and Ronaldo is the second best player of his generation.

The rest of the players and combinations you can mix and match and you wont see much difference.

Caligula wrote:

Ronaldo will do anything you ask him to. He is one of the most complete footballers I've seen. His workrate is phenomenal, and his skill set is 2nd to none in the game.

The other players are just well-coached. There is no reason why any of our players can't do well in multiple conditions. It's not them. It's the coaching (tactics, man management, etc)

ronaldo was fantastic. even did a good job as a target man for real yesterday.

moving ronaldo up front and playing pepe in central midfield was a smart move by mourinho.

I stand by what I said about Casillas, Carvalho and Ronaldo. Those three players would walk straight in to any team in the world. The players we have that could get to that level are all young and have a lot still to prove.

With Khedira and Alonso, I feel that it's a nicely balanced combination, rather than them both being unbelievable players. There seems to have been some actual thought gone in to it, unlike a lot of our combinations. Both tactically disciplined, savvy, experienced and physical players with enough technical ability to make it work.

Di Maria and Ozil are definitely better than ours. I think our CMs are better but defensively Carvalho has been utterly excellent this season and Marcelo is definitely better than Clichy.

Their sole striker is more of a striker than RVP, so we only win them in really RB and CMs.

My composite team would have Arshavin, Djourou and Sagna in it.

I'm fairly confident Mourinho could make our lot play as well as that Real team.

Madrid don't play much better than we do, maybe them beating barca has warped opinion. They have a better squad but the main difference is that they have Ronaldo.

Kel Varnsen wrote:

Caligula wrote:

Ronaldo will do anything you ask him to. He is one of the most complete footballers I've seen. His workrate is phenomenal, and his skill set is 2nd to none in the game.

The other players are just well-coached. There is no reason why any of our players can't do well in multiple conditions. It's not them. It's the coaching (tactics, man management, etc)

ronaldo was fantastic. even did a good job as a target man for real yesterday.

moving ronaldo up front and playing pepe in central midfield was a smart move by mourinho.

would love pepe here. he's versatile, an tremendous athlete and he'd add fiestiness. Hates losing, none of players do - was checking out what the guys on twitter were saying and it seems none were annoyed, and said they'll prepare for sunday and maybe practice fifa

Captain wrote:

Madrid don't play much better than we do, maybe them beating barca has warped opinion. They have a better squad but the main difference is that they have Ronaldo.

I meant results wise.

:hmm:

Captain wrote:

Madrid don't play much better than we do, maybe them beating barca has warped opinion. They have a better squad but the main difference is that they have Ronaldo.

The main difference is they have Mourinho.

Biggus wrote:

Captain wrote:

Madrid don't play much better than we do, maybe them beating barca has warped opinion. They have a better squad but the main difference is that they have Ronaldo.

The main difference is they have Mourinho.

Nope, he's set to get a lower points total than Pellegrini did last year with a better team.

Points total- Bah.