Zinedine Zidane
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Raed
Dr. Raed St. Claire
Remove Bale (impossible) and with Ronaldo down time, these players will see more playing time. not to mention, modric who will be benched more because he also needs management.
JamDav1982
Senior Member
These players wont wont the down time they will want to be leading players for top teams where they could be elsewhere. Would be my guess in the long run.
BarcaOG
Banned
bale will miss games through injury. it is his fate.
CuleLife4Life
Active member
Isco still hasn't signed a contract extension that puts him in the same pay grade as Modric. There is no guarantee he stays this summer esp if he continues playing well and EPL teams are ready to tripple what he could get at Real.
James has ben great but I don't think Zidane cares too much for him. Only stayed because like someone on here said, he is a bit delusional about playing for Real.
Morata gave an interview practically begging for Conte to come for him a few weeks ago.
All of these guys are also players for their NT and guys like Isco and Morata are competing for starters spot for the World Cup next year.
Those are arguably the 3 best backups (although Asensio has quickly climbed the ranks). Losing even 2 out of 3 drops Real's bench quality by a lot and works to our favor. Gareth Bale isn't going anywhere as long as Florentino is in charge. Hoping he gets injured isn't a reliable backup plan for guys like Isco.
James has ben great but I don't think Zidane cares too much for him. Only stayed because like someone on here said, he is a bit delusional about playing for Real.
Morata gave an interview practically begging for Conte to come for him a few weeks ago.
All of these guys are also players for their NT and guys like Isco and Morata are competing for starters spot for the World Cup next year.
Those are arguably the 3 best backups (although Asensio has quickly climbed the ranks). Losing even 2 out of 3 drops Real's bench quality by a lot and works to our favor. Gareth Bale isn't going anywhere as long as Florentino is in charge. Hoping he gets injured isn't a reliable backup plan for guys like Isco.
Raed
Dr. Raed St. Claire
Isco hasn't signed but we want him to and the weird thing is that James seems more intent on remaining than Isco, but we'd part away with James more. It is a love triangle, LOL.
CuleLife4Life
Active member
James seems like a good player but I never understood where he fit. Ancelotti tried to shoe him in but it never really worked out. Isco on the other hand can fit in attack and midfield and has had a hand in winning every major Real trophy these past few seasons. Easy choice really.
Raed
Dr. Raed St. Claire
442 as a second striker
442 diamond as a AM or second striker
451 as an AM
4 3 3 as a jockey to the wingers
RMU ReBorn
New member
Got this write up from other Forum .seems a good one regarding 'Zidane the best mid fielder ever' Myth . so sharing it
Zidane never showed anything near the display of tactical intelligence possessed by M. Laudrup, and Iniesta. He was never the best at making key passes, organizing the midfield and was a bit of a ballhog. In 98 France, this was compensated by Deschamps who organized the midfield, and in Juve and RM, he had several other world-class players to tactically organize the game when needed, like Conte, Davids, Figo, Hierro, even compatriot Makelele. Nedved himself, brought to Juve to replace Zidane, played better for them between 2003 and 2005 than Zizou ever did. People who never watched him week after week forget that.
After his 2006 sendoff his popularity with casual and new football fans exploded, alongside thousands of youtube highlight reels showcasing his godly first touch and ball control. And this retroactively built a Zidane vs Brazilian Ronaldo manufactured rivalry, when everyone that actively watched football in the 90s knows that Ronaldo was miles above Zidane at the time, and the comparisons between them are actually between Zidane and post-injury Ronaldo.
He's often credited for the 98 WC even though he played average, was sent off in the group stage and only hit 2 headers from set pieces in the final. People are fooled by his elegant game, but older fans know that he did absolutely nothing up to the Final, and Djorkaeff was widely regarded as France's most dangerous player. In club football, he's often remembered for the volley against Leverkusen and RM highlight compilations, but what they don't show is that Zidane never, ever had a single truly proficient season where he shined throughout. On this regard, Iniesta is a much more consistent player the team can always rely on.
He's somehow credited as a "big game player" even though he only showed up for 2 finals in his whole career, and went invisible in most of the others:
1996 UEFA cup final - invisible, gets destroyed at home, team loses
1997 CL final - invisible, his team loss (the same team that had won it in 1996 without him)
1998 CL final - invisible, his team loses
1998 WC final - clutch, scores 2 headers from set pieces after being average the entire tournament, team wins
2000 Euro final - invisible, team wins because he's bailed out by Wiltord and Trezeguet (Zidane not involved in their goals)
2002 CL final - clutch, team wins
2002 CdR final - invisible, team loses
2004 CdR final - invisible, team loses against a lower mid table side
2006 WC final - chokes and gets sent off, team loses
Another little known fact: Zidane only ever gave 1 assist to Henry in their entire tenure with the France NT. And it was from a set piece. This is supposed to be the playmaker that defined a generation? No, I don't think so. He played his whole career as a bona fide #10, but he has a pitiable goal+assist/game ratio that doesn't even compare to modern #10s like James Rodríguez (ironically), De Bruyne, Fabregas and Ozil, let alone the true greats of yesteryear, like his contemporaries Nedved, Rivaldo, Del Piero, Ronaldo or Figo, who all put up far superior contributions to their teams in all of goals, assists, actual playmaking, be it from the center or from the wing. To put numbers to a single example, which I selected because of the similar amount of games:
Zidane
played 231 times in 5 seasons for Real Madrid, always as an AM
scored 49 goals, including 9 in the CL/Supercup
made 51 assists, including 10 in the CL/Supercup
played 108 times for France though his career, with 31 goals (including penalties) and 29 assists
Rivaldo
played 235 times in 5 seasons for Barcelona, as an LW (which he disliked) and as an AM
scored 130 goals, including 31 (THIRTY ONE) in the CL/Supercup
made 50 assists, including 6 in the CL/Supercup
played 79 times for Brazil, with 37 goals and 18 assists, not a penalty-taker
Yet somehow, all this highlights-based revisionism twists Zidane into somehow a better, more productive, more efficient, more legendary player than Rivaldo - a player with EIGHTY goals more than Zidane in a similar time-frame, playing in the same position. The exact same evaluation can be made for Totti (a MUCH better playmaker than Zidane ever was, whose passing, goals/assists tally and capacity to run a game at his prime were like three whole levels above Zizou's), Figo (also a much better playmaker, whose record of La Liga assists wasn't broken until Messi), Del Piero and Nedved (both better for Juve than Zidane ever was), Rui Costa (who was better in Serie A than Zidane, particularly for Fiorentina) and many, many other great, even better players who were simply marginalized by Zidane's two WC goals in the 98 Final, which FIFA and UEFA saw as an opportunity to market and big-up Zidane as some sort of Europe's answer to Ronaldo - his post-WC poster-boyism, his natural skill and elegance in ball control and his later move to the original Galacticos Madrid lending credibility to this marketing campaign. His 1998 FIFA WPOTY and Ballon D'or were based simply on that one game, completely disregarding how he was invisible during the CL Final against Real Madrid in the same year or in all the other games of that very same World Cup. Of course, statistics are not the be-all end-all, but Zidane's lack of tactical nous, famous inconsistence (as great managers have said, "inconsistence" is just a lack of tactical knowledge and application. the best tacticians are always the most consistent players) and lack of awareness for the final pass put him just way too far behind other top #10s to disregard the gap between them.
Zidane was a great player, for sure, but to put him in top 5s or top 10s in the history of football just reeks of revisionism based on idolized yet sparse highlights. Implying a player as inconsistent, ineffective, with relatively low end product and devoid of tactical finesse as Zidane is anywhere close to being a Top 10 player of all time is a crime to the history of football. In reality, he's barely top 50, if that. Platini was legitimately better, he just didn't deliver a WC - just ask older France or Juventus fans.
Last but not least, the folks at Big Soccer have put together a very interesting compilation on Zidane's performances, trying to list all of his matches based on the ratings the press assigned to that week's game, with corresponding videos when available:
http://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/zinedine-zidane-review-1996-2006.2006080/ (highly recommended read)
Those who, unlike the older folks like me (30+), didn't see him week in, week out, this is a place as good as any to see how damned inconsistent, erratic and unspectacular he could be.
tl;dr Zidane is overrated by millennials who only watched youtube highlights, love how "classy" he looked and remember the header on Materazzi. People who actively followed football before and during the 90s know better.
Zidane never showed anything near the display of tactical intelligence possessed by M. Laudrup, and Iniesta. He was never the best at making key passes, organizing the midfield and was a bit of a ballhog. In 98 France, this was compensated by Deschamps who organized the midfield, and in Juve and RM, he had several other world-class players to tactically organize the game when needed, like Conte, Davids, Figo, Hierro, even compatriot Makelele. Nedved himself, brought to Juve to replace Zidane, played better for them between 2003 and 2005 than Zizou ever did. People who never watched him week after week forget that.
After his 2006 sendoff his popularity with casual and new football fans exploded, alongside thousands of youtube highlight reels showcasing his godly first touch and ball control. And this retroactively built a Zidane vs Brazilian Ronaldo manufactured rivalry, when everyone that actively watched football in the 90s knows that Ronaldo was miles above Zidane at the time, and the comparisons between them are actually between Zidane and post-injury Ronaldo.
He's often credited for the 98 WC even though he played average, was sent off in the group stage and only hit 2 headers from set pieces in the final. People are fooled by his elegant game, but older fans know that he did absolutely nothing up to the Final, and Djorkaeff was widely regarded as France's most dangerous player. In club football, he's often remembered for the volley against Leverkusen and RM highlight compilations, but what they don't show is that Zidane never, ever had a single truly proficient season where he shined throughout. On this regard, Iniesta is a much more consistent player the team can always rely on.
He's somehow credited as a "big game player" even though he only showed up for 2 finals in his whole career, and went invisible in most of the others:
1996 UEFA cup final - invisible, gets destroyed at home, team loses
1997 CL final - invisible, his team loss (the same team that had won it in 1996 without him)
1998 CL final - invisible, his team loses
1998 WC final - clutch, scores 2 headers from set pieces after being average the entire tournament, team wins
2000 Euro final - invisible, team wins because he's bailed out by Wiltord and Trezeguet (Zidane not involved in their goals)
2002 CL final - clutch, team wins
2002 CdR final - invisible, team loses
2004 CdR final - invisible, team loses against a lower mid table side
2006 WC final - chokes and gets sent off, team loses
Another little known fact: Zidane only ever gave 1 assist to Henry in their entire tenure with the France NT. And it was from a set piece. This is supposed to be the playmaker that defined a generation? No, I don't think so. He played his whole career as a bona fide #10, but he has a pitiable goal+assist/game ratio that doesn't even compare to modern #10s like James Rodríguez (ironically), De Bruyne, Fabregas and Ozil, let alone the true greats of yesteryear, like his contemporaries Nedved, Rivaldo, Del Piero, Ronaldo or Figo, who all put up far superior contributions to their teams in all of goals, assists, actual playmaking, be it from the center or from the wing. To put numbers to a single example, which I selected because of the similar amount of games:
Zidane
played 231 times in 5 seasons for Real Madrid, always as an AM
scored 49 goals, including 9 in the CL/Supercup
made 51 assists, including 10 in the CL/Supercup
played 108 times for France though his career, with 31 goals (including penalties) and 29 assists
Rivaldo
played 235 times in 5 seasons for Barcelona, as an LW (which he disliked) and as an AM
scored 130 goals, including 31 (THIRTY ONE) in the CL/Supercup
made 50 assists, including 6 in the CL/Supercup
played 79 times for Brazil, with 37 goals and 18 assists, not a penalty-taker
Yet somehow, all this highlights-based revisionism twists Zidane into somehow a better, more productive, more efficient, more legendary player than Rivaldo - a player with EIGHTY goals more than Zidane in a similar time-frame, playing in the same position. The exact same evaluation can be made for Totti (a MUCH better playmaker than Zidane ever was, whose passing, goals/assists tally and capacity to run a game at his prime were like three whole levels above Zizou's), Figo (also a much better playmaker, whose record of La Liga assists wasn't broken until Messi), Del Piero and Nedved (both better for Juve than Zidane ever was), Rui Costa (who was better in Serie A than Zidane, particularly for Fiorentina) and many, many other great, even better players who were simply marginalized by Zidane's two WC goals in the 98 Final, which FIFA and UEFA saw as an opportunity to market and big-up Zidane as some sort of Europe's answer to Ronaldo - his post-WC poster-boyism, his natural skill and elegance in ball control and his later move to the original Galacticos Madrid lending credibility to this marketing campaign. His 1998 FIFA WPOTY and Ballon D'or were based simply on that one game, completely disregarding how he was invisible during the CL Final against Real Madrid in the same year or in all the other games of that very same World Cup. Of course, statistics are not the be-all end-all, but Zidane's lack of tactical nous, famous inconsistence (as great managers have said, "inconsistence" is just a lack of tactical knowledge and application. the best tacticians are always the most consistent players) and lack of awareness for the final pass put him just way too far behind other top #10s to disregard the gap between them.
Zidane was a great player, for sure, but to put him in top 5s or top 10s in the history of football just reeks of revisionism based on idolized yet sparse highlights. Implying a player as inconsistent, ineffective, with relatively low end product and devoid of tactical finesse as Zidane is anywhere close to being a Top 10 player of all time is a crime to the history of football. In reality, he's barely top 50, if that. Platini was legitimately better, he just didn't deliver a WC - just ask older France or Juventus fans.
Last but not least, the folks at Big Soccer have put together a very interesting compilation on Zidane's performances, trying to list all of his matches based on the ratings the press assigned to that week's game, with corresponding videos when available:
http://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/zinedine-zidane-review-1996-2006.2006080/ (highly recommended read)
Those who, unlike the older folks like me (30+), didn't see him week in, week out, this is a place as good as any to see how damned inconsistent, erratic and unspectacular he could be.
tl;dr Zidane is overrated by millennials who only watched youtube highlights, love how "classy" he looked and remember the header on Materazzi. People who actively followed football before and during the 90s know better.
TornAndFrayed
Banned
Interesting read, Zidane was definitely marketed as Europe's superstar (He also ended up with the title of "best european player of the century" over Cruyff or what have you).
I agree with a lot of that post, Zidane's great assets to his legacy are his peerless elegance and legendary moments ('98, '02, '06) combined with winning every competition. On his day there was hardly any better or more complete player but "his day" just didn't come around all that often.
Article is still biased against Zidane as per its agenda:
Zidane was possibly the best outfield player until his red card, and Buffon had to make an immense save to deny him another header. No mention in the article of his godly form at 34 during the entire KO stage.
Calling Zidane invisible because he wasn't involved in the goals seems just like the millenial logic that this article disses. Zidane was also the best player of this tournament.
Next, the article disses Zidane's '98 ballon d'or by bringing up the lost CL final that year. Hindsight is a bitch here as it actually reminds everyone that Zidane also reached CL final that season (on top of WC and scudetto)
The article also pits Zidane against players who were underrated in their own right (not just relative to Zidane), or criticizes Zidane's lack of Goals & Assists compared to more attacking players. (Djorkaeff and Rivaldo for example). There is even the classic Cesc > Iniesta argument with Zidane taking Iniesta's place.
I agree with a lot of that post, Zidane's great assets to his legacy are his peerless elegance and legendary moments ('98, '02, '06) combined with winning every competition. On his day there was hardly any better or more complete player but "his day" just didn't come around all that often.
Article is still biased against Zidane as per its agenda:
Zidane was possibly the best outfield player until his red card, and Buffon had to make an immense save to deny him another header. No mention in the article of his godly form at 34 during the entire KO stage.
Calling Zidane invisible because he wasn't involved in the goals seems just like the millenial logic that this article disses. Zidane was also the best player of this tournament.
Next, the article disses Zidane's '98 ballon d'or by bringing up the lost CL final that year. Hindsight is a bitch here as it actually reminds everyone that Zidane also reached CL final that season (on top of WC and scudetto)
The article also pits Zidane against players who were underrated in their own right (not just relative to Zidane), or criticizes Zidane's lack of Goals & Assists compared to more attacking players. (Djorkaeff and Rivaldo for example). There is even the classic Cesc > Iniesta argument with Zidane taking Iniesta's place.
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DonAK
President of FC Barcelona
Only argument against Zidane is how his inconsistency gets overlooked all the time.
But on his day......wow....on his day he was jaw dropping, and he had many of those days in big moments which is why he's revered.
In 2006 he carried that French team on his back to the final like Messi in Brazil. End result for both the same in the end. A loss.
He lost his head in the ET, but even if he hadn't, there's no guarantee that France had won. In fact, it's a testament of how dependent they were on him, a 34 year old Zidane, that some blame him for France's loss despite having other big names in their team.
But on his day......wow....on his day he was jaw dropping, and he had many of those days in big moments which is why he's revered.
In 2006 he carried that French team on his back to the final like Messi in Brazil. End result for both the same in the end. A loss.
He lost his head in the ET, but even if he hadn't, there's no guarantee that France had won. In fact, it's a testament of how dependent they were on him, a 34 year old Zidane, that some blame him for France's loss despite having other big names in their team.
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Deco 20
Scandinavian 101
James did
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