What better thing to talk about during the Summer Break of football than about Transfers?
The In N Out of This Transfer window looks very exciting and appropriate, Thus, here is my review about what i expect to happen, and my opinions about what has already happened (First team players only).
The In...
First i start with Daniel Carvajal.
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Here are Two Great Pieces on him that i'd like to share.
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/106883/
http://outsideoftheboot.com/2013/06/13/daniel-carvajal-scout-report/
Real Madrid has sorely missed a Proper Right Back for years, (For more information on Daniel, visit my earlier post about some of the young talents joining us this transfer window) and now we finally have one.
With Sergio Ramos we had someone who was never stellar enough in either attack or defense as a right back, and who was always supposed to Play at Centre Back really.
And with Arbeloa we had ( i do not expect him to start over Daniel) someone who was competent at Defending, non existant as an attacker, but who is now irrelevant as a starter due to his considerable decline.
Real Madrid has indeed lacked the presence of a true Relevant Right Back since the good days of Michel Salgado, but now we have a great situation with Daniel. In my opinion, he is the best young right back in the world. At age 20 he was transferred last season to Bayer Leverkusen in a buy back situation due to Mourinho's reluctance to use him. The transfer did him well as he showed his worth and established him self as the World's best young right back ( only Mattia De Sciglio) had a comparable impact, but not as explosive as Carvajal's.
Carvajal is a thumping attacking Right Back who offers an attacking presence comparable to Dani Alves, and Phillip Lahm, and shows great promise in his performances, and in the statistics behind them..
1 goal, 7 Assists, 80.3 % Pass Success, 3.5 Tackles and Interceptions per game, Two Dribbles, 1.5 Key Passes, and an average Match rating of 7.6 throughout the 12/13 season.
He is a great attacking fullback, and shows great potential in his defensive abilities as well, with his work rate.
He is still going to University part time, and due to this and his manner of playing and presenting himself, i see him as a hard worker who i put my full trust in.
At age 21 he managed to make an impact and impose himself as the best young right back out there at the moment(ages 18-22) just as Varane did as a centre back. Carvajal is a purchase we needed, the perfect one as he is a Real Madrid youth product and his circle is now complete.
*(I will omit Casemiro from my list because i'd like to see more of him, but also because i do not expect him to form part of the first team, which is what this article is about) In short he is a defensive midfielder, but not really a special talent the way i see it. He is known for having attitude problems, and if anything i see him being an important part of the Castilla team and possibly being sold later in either next season or the one after if nothing is done with him. He could occasionally appear for the first team.
Onto Isco...
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/82989/
http://outsideoftheboot.com/2012/12/28/ootb-scout-isco/
Rating 5/5
Isco is yet another great and exciting prospect and purchase from Real Madrid.
He is Spain's most promising Gem.
He had a great season for Malaga, and was awarded the Golden Boy Award, by Tuttosport for the 11/12 season, given to the player most deserving in their eyes, of being titled as the best U-21 player in europe.
He is a player capable of playing at many positions, and as he matures his variability should only increase. He has more of the attributes linked to a midfielder like Zidane and Iniesta, than does Ozil. Due to his abilities he has the potential of being able to be used in many roles and schemes and it should be no problem trying to play him with Mesut Ozil.
Isco is yet another Spanish Player, which only adds to the great idea of having many young spanish players in our squad, and he shows great potential to reach world class heights, and play in many positions. With Modric, Ozil, and Isco we have great options that are all different in their own good ways.
He had a great Euro U-21 Tournament and another very good season with Malaga, and now the 21 year old joins Madrid to play a major part in our team.
12/13 Stats.
Goals -15
Assists - 4
Passing Accuracy -85 percent
Average Match Rating -7.2
Tackles Per Game -1.2
Interceptions Per Game -0.8 ( Better defensive contribution stats than Iniesta or Ozil)
Great purchase from Madrid, and one needed by Madrid considering his skill set, talent, and what we already have in our team. Adds another powerful Dimension to our team.
Onto Asier Illarramendi....
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/87094
http://outsideoftheboot.com/2013/05/04/asier-illarramendi-scout-report/
Rating: 4.5/5
Illarramendi is a purchase we need.
I include him in here already because if every bit of news coming out from the most reliable sources is to be believed, Illarramendi is practically a done deal, and it's one that if handled correctly can in turn be of tremendous value.
Xabi Alonso is turning 32 years old this November, he is on his last year of contract, and he is physically not the same player he was a few seasons ago ( he was always a bit of a Nuisance when it came to his physical abilities such as speed and movement, and that had a negative effect on his playing abilities). Considering this, it is no wonder that Madrid have actively been looking for a replacement, as Alonso is on his last stretch.
If all rumors by Reliable sources such as El Confidencial are to be believed, Madrid first went after Gundogan earlier this year but Dortmund refused to sell until next season, thus we are in the current situation.
Illarramendi is a Deep Lying Centre Midfielder with great vision, intelligence, and defending abilities.
With Both Modric and Illarramendi in our team we have a potent future in the midfield. Illarramendi had a great season with Real Sociedad and went on to have a superb Euro U-21 as his talents got exposed to a wider audience, and in a much more illustrative form, as his great vision and control of the game had a great impact on how the spanish team was run, and came out of the tournament as the player with the highest passing success average in the entire tournament, with 95%.
If you want to think of Similar players then think of Alonso, Schweinsteiger, Pirlo, Sahin, Gundogan...
He is the type of player who has the ability to command the midfield, playmake from the back, and also put in a great defensive contribution.
12/13 Stats.
Tackles Per Game - 3.6
Interception - 2.2
Fouls - 1.4
Average Match Rating - 7.2
Shots Per Game- 1
Average Passes - 56 ( 86 with Spanish National Team)
Pass Success- 84%
Longballs -4.3
His role in Real Socidedad is not as Expressive as is his role in Spain, thus some considerable differences in Long Balls, Shots, and Passes.
With Alonso on his last stretch, a young promising talent is what Madrid could use, and illarramendi is exactly that. I would give him 5/5 Stars but he cost 10 million than what he probably should.
In any case, he is yet another important player in terms of potential and abilities, for the Madrid side.
Great Purchase with enormous potential.
So there ya have it, those are the Players that have pretty much arrived. Daniel Carvajal, Isco, and Illarramendi all show enormous potential as they have skill sets that can eventually make world class players out of them, with good progress. They have good potential and are the type of players real madrid need. They are young, they are spanish, and they are promising. Carvajal is the attacking thumping hard working Fullback that any world class side needs, and proves to be the most promising player of his kind at age 21, Isco is much of the same with shades of Iniesta in him and great potential at age 21 as well, and finally Illarramendi is 23, still very young, with huge potential, and a very valuable skill set with both him and Isco offering mouth watering possibilities for the present and future with their skill sets. We could build a world class midfield with these players, they were SORELY NEEDED imo, as we see a superb team with Bayern Munich with midfield options such as Luiz Gustavo, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Javi Martinez, Toni Kroos, and Thomas Muller, now we can reply in some way with Mesut Ozil, Asier Illarramendi, Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira, Luka Modric, and Isco.
Beautiful purchases, but we are not done yet in my opinion.
The N
I will refer to the purchases i think we still need as "The N" for the sake of keeping up with the In N Out reference :D.
Our team is still not complete in my opinion. Albeit we have made very good purchases thus far, there are two areas i believe we have to focus on.
Although i don't hold too much trust in Pepe or Albiol they are still adequate as Bench material, there are three areas i think we have to keep an eye on.
First is the left back position.
I personally don't think we can let go of Fabio Coentrao yet. I think he offers a great overall game as a Left Fullback, specially in his defensive side, and albeit Marcelo is a tremendous World Class attacking fullback (Wingback) he doesn't offer the defensive qualities at the moment to feel secure using him against top competition, specially considering hes coming back from injury. So we need a very capable alternative in case of injury or need. We need to make him stay and i think Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane will do something about this.
The Second Position is the Defensive Midfield.
At Madrid we haven't had a defensive powerhouse since the Man in the Pic (Claude Makalele) left back in 2003, these kind of players are vital in order to keep defensive composure, and we don't have that with Illarramendi, Alonso, Modric, or Khedira.
Khedira im afraid, does not possess the skills to offer anything worthy in the midfield, making him start with us is underachieving as there are possibilities out there that we as a club could and should go after.
We could try to pull of something Similar to what Spain have done in the midfield but it involves schemes that i don't think we will see in Madrid. I think it will always be great to have a very good midfielder who can offer exemplary defensive cover along with passing, and we dont have enough defensive cover in our players atm. We need one more player in my opinion.
There are players like De Rossi, Luiz Gustavo, Gonalons who could offer something but we have apparently gone no where near any of these options.
Geoffrey Kondogbia is the only player of such quality that has been linked to us, and for some time too, but he's a 20 year old raw talent that would be a great purchase if he were to sit on the bench and learn and enter as a sub over a more experienced pro like De Rossi. Either way in any case i would deem the Kondogbia purchase an adequate one, and even a loan to sevilla could be ideal if we find our selves with too many midfielders at the moment ( contradictory but if kondogbia is deemed as not being relevant enough to be part of the squad at the moment then this could happen).
The third area is the Striker position.
The problem is that both Morata and Benzema don't offer enough security when it comes to the position, specially considering all relevant european sides seem to have more adequate options in the front at the current moment.
Benzema has been more off form than in form in his time in Madrid and the only season in which he did impress justifiably was during the 11/12 campaign which was plagued with some inconsistency in it self. Some of this could be attributed to Ronaldo's role in the team but the matter in fact is that Benzema has not shown the consistency to rise to the top and this brings uncertainty into the situation. This along with the fact that hes not a traditional striker with phenomenal abilities to make defenses sweat as someone like Cavani or Falcao.
Benzema will have to show consistency and great performances to justify his presence. The club is posing their trust in him, and with Cavani and Suarez as the two prime possibilities to purchase, we could might as well give Benzema one last shot, albeit Suarez could have been a good alternative, despite his attitude problems.
He brings uncertainty and will be replaced come seasons end if he fails to impress. With Cavani rumored to go to PSG or Chelsea, and Suarez himself linked to Chelsea, Aguero seems to be one of the only possibilities for the future.
Morata is plain and simple a good talent but nothing too special and to have him behind Benzema just doubles the uncertainty and i'm sure that if he wasn't a Real Madrid youth product, a player like him would probably not take the position as second striker with such an apparent lack of thinking behind it.
The bet is risky.
P.S. - Bale is not to come this season as Tottenham won't sell, and as far as im concerned Real Madrid are not actively pursuing a Striker and i personally doubt this will change.
The Out
Ricardo Carvalho - Old Player, having reached irrelevant status by early 2012. Gone for Free.
Michael Essien - Back from loan to Chelsea.
Pedro Leon - Out for 6 Million to Getafe.
Gonzalo Higuain - Not out for less than 30 Million and pretty much an irrelevant player to have at this point as having him "compete" or much better but, stagnate next to Benzema is not needed any longer. I wish him the best in his next club as he can do a good job if given the starting role in my opinion. Benzema will be given the chance to impress.
Adan - Will probably leave with the door wide open for him. No need with Diego Lopez here.
Callejon - Rumored to leave to Napoli for 8 Million Euros, is surplus to the team, specially with Jese possibly joining.
Di Maria - Depends on what the Manager's opinions on him are. I will be indifferent to him as long as he benches, other wise he can leave as Isco will take his spot. ( Not literally, but certainly) in my opinion.
Conclusion: For my opinions on Jese and Morata visit this Article: http://therealmadridzone.blogspot.com/2013_06_01_archive.html
My opinion is that we have done a great job thus far with the Transfers, we need one more credible defensive midfielder, and we might be cleared out of argentinians come season end ( compared to 2 years ago when we had up to 4 of them). Thus far the transfer session has been exciting and rewarding, and i hope it ends with a positive bang,
Hala Madrid!
