Real Madrid are playing Atletico at the Calderon this weekend. As we all know, Madrid suffered multiple losses against Sevilla today (Which I couldn't be more pissed about) James & Ramos are 99% sure to miss the derby vs Atletico. Marcelo got a yellow card (Which he didn't deserve as he didn't even touch the Sevilla player) which bans him from playing the derby vs Atleti, but Real Madrid could appeal and get the yellow taken off as it was just a ridiculous decision from the ref. The only good news for Real is that Ronaldo will come back, but without some of our key players, it will still be hard. Bale is not on good form, Benzema is the type of player that can have an amazing game, or disappear completely. (lets hope he has an amazing game) and with James off, things will be complicated in attack for Real, specially considering Atletico LOVE, I repeat, LOVE, let me say that again just to make it clear, LOVE to park the bus. With Pepe injured and in doubt for the derby, the only options for center backs are Nacho and Varane, they are young and good, specially Varane, but Nacho is not mature enough and could make a few mistakes, he was very good vs Sevilla, but as you can see in Sevilla's goal, he doesn't have the best positioning and is prone to making a few mistakes. I have faith in our defense, but obviously they aren't having the best time, and with our best CB's injured, I dont see things going too smoothly for Real Madrid defensive-wise.

I sadly predict a 2-0 or 2-1 win for Atletico. I do indeed have faith in my team and have hopes they will pull off the win, because it is crucial for us at this point of the league, but with these many players suspended or injured, it is very difficult to beat Atleti. I pray that Atletico wont play as dirty as they usually do and wont injure any of our players. What are your thoughts for the derby and score predictions?

Modric is your key player IMO. We can analyze all we want and use all common sense like very body else, but a part from that, there are certain player who is so important and can mix up the whole opponent's system. That's not Ronaldo, Bale, James nor Ramos. He's Modric.

Having him, lots of your problem solve by themselves. Of course rotation is a must, but big games like this, a key player is so important.

My point is your 5 best players were substituted with very good players who would make starting line up in other top clubs . So, this not an excuse to loose with such incredible bad performance . Ronaldo alone should have made 3 shots on target !

Ofcourse , It is a team sport and Real failed as a team and Atletico outplayed Real like a team . Not player for Player because even if you compare player for player Real had slight advantage . Just your so called BBC line up then midfielders then in defense two wing backs and one world class defender with world goalie . So yeah still pretty good .

Nonetheless this result made me smile because it proved what I thought in the beginning of the season . Also, like to thank Atletico for demonstrating to others how it is done .

@Marcus

What did you think in the beginning of the season?

I feel as if we should switch to the 4-4-2 when facing big clubs. 4-3-3 doesn't cut it against Atletico, Valencia, Villareal, Sevilla, Barcelona, etc.

Marcus,

Nacho: Not a top player, about 25 years old and barely made it out of Castilla, decent at best, but wouldn't even start in the likes of Inter, Juve, Atletico, Dortmund, Wolfsburg, Chelsea, City, UTD, Southampton and other decent or world class teams.

REPLACEMENTS
Coentrao: Decent left back, but doesn't give much either in attack or defense. Not in any way shape or form an asset to any team. 3 of Atletico's 4 goals came from his wing, just helpless in both attacking and defending.

Varane: In my opinion, best young center back in the world, and will probably end up as one of the best in the world. As Zidane said, "he's the next Laurent Blanc" but with the defense in shambles, and with no real DM to help out, he can't do everything by himself, Carvajal wot be much help defensively when 90% of the damage is being done from Coentrao's side.

Illaramendi: Why exactly did we pay 40 MILLION euros for him? No idea. He's barely worth 10-15m max. Doesn't bring 1/4 of what Modric brings to the team. Gabi completely bossed him in the midfield.

Khedira: Used to be good, but since he got injured, hasn't been the same as he was with Mourinho. Completely lost in the midfield, doesn't defend, doesn't attack. He's lost his defensive touch, he is supposed to be a holding midfielder, giving the defence more security. But where was he in Thiago's goal? Or Saul's? No where to be seen, just horrible in all aspects of the game.

Jese: Tried his best, but couldn't do much, neither should we have expected to much from him anyways, with the team as bad as it was playing, there was barely anything he could do. One thing that has to be said it that you could notice he was actually giving it his all, unlike other players.

STARTERS
Bale: I don't know what to think of him... I want to defend him, I want him to do good, one of my favorite players, I've put so much faith in him, and he's scored so many important goals, but this season, I dont know what has gone wrong. Game after game he just flops... He scores once in a while, but he isn't that explosive winger we all saw at Tottenham, and even last season. If he doesn't start performing better, James & Isco will probably both get the starting role over him, but with Jame's injured, he still has a bit of time to perform better.

Ronaldo: I don't know what's happened with him, but in 2015, he hasn't been the same. He's started to drop form, and hasn't been performing to his standard, considering the outstanding start of the season he had, a dip in form was bound to happen, but not for this long... I have faith he will start to play better and be the same old Ronaldo that scores and assists day and day out.

Kroos: Our best player in midfield, didn't have a good game, but what can he do when Khedira is no where to be seen neither in attack or defense? Give's him less mobility, plus he had 2-3 Atletico Madrid players always on him. Kind off reminds me of the 2012 Euro final, Spain vs Italy. Spain completely marked Pirlo to the point where Italy didn't have control of the ball what so ever, the game, just as this one, ended 4-0. This same tactic was applied by Siemone, just as good as it was applied by Del Bosque in that final.

Isco: Didn't have his best game, but was still ok. Not good, but ok. Couldn't do much with BBC having one of their worst games of the season.

Benzema: Completely lost, can't remember a single play where he, Ronaldo, or Bale created real danger in Atletico's area. Can't blame him when the whole team is playing bad and the opposition defends with the whole team. Didn't expect much of him in this game anyways.

Carvajal: Him, Isco, and Kroos, our best players, still all 3 played very poorly, but were our best players the whole match, Dani brought more danger through the right wing than Bale did the entire match. One out of the 4 goals came from his wing, (Saul's goal). Culd have done better marking Siqueira's cross, but no one was marking Saul

Casillas: Not much to say about him, could have done better saving Thiago's goal, but the rest of the goals there was nothing he could do.

Just proves how important James, Modric, Ramos, Pepe, and Marcelo are for the team

I feel as if I've just written a book :P

Don't forget Jese: fantastic young winger who was wreaking havoc all around Atleti's defense and midfield. So exciting to watch, and such a creative talent. A shame he got injured during the 2013/14 season. IMO he should replace Bale until Bale picks up his old form again. Bale's been absolute trash this season.

@RealMadrid17: Nice stuff man. One thing is, due to the rotation issue, a lot of players got exshauted and they drop forms.

@RealMadrid17: Nice analysis.

However, I think Madrid are suffering somewhat from complacency as much as anything else. They did just win the CL, after all, and are still in pole position in La Liga. And simply LOOK at the goal-scoring numbers. 70 in La Liga, this year.

Bale has hardly been 'trash' on the wing when he's scored 14 goals in 29 appearances; the 3rd-highest at the club. That's only 3 less than Benzema (17 in 31), the club's starting CF, and certainly more than Isco's 4 goals in 25 appearances.

The 'problem' is that there's only one Ronaldo, who has scored, uh, 36 goals this season ALREADY.

That's a lot of goals coming from only one person, and when that person can't make the breakthrough, the rest struggle to do so instead of him. The entire team is used to being able to rely upon Ronaldo to get an opener, or to double a lead, or kill the game off with a 3rd/4th etc, etc. It all got too easy for them.

Atletico (that is: Simeone) just totally out-thought Real (that is: Ancellotti) in this game. These games do happen.

Look at full-strength Chelsea letting in 5 goals against Tottenham, for instance... O:)

Wake-up calls happen in sports. I don't anticipate that Madrid are going to surrender 1st place, this season. I do however think that someone else will be raising the CL trophy.

@Lodatz completely agree, but the problem comes when our key players get injured, and since Ancelotti doesn't really like to rotate the squad a lot, there is no chemistry when 3-4 subs have to play in the starting 11.

Isco has 4 goals, but has honestly contributed MUCH more to the team than Bale, He's been amazing defensively, and attacking wise. He's brought balance to the team, and playing an Inieta'esq type football. He's been amazing in every aspect of the game.

Bale started off the season pretty good, not amazing, but still good, he then suffered an injury, and then came back, and had a few decent performances here and there, but not overall. In the last games, he's just been worse and worse.

And, I really don't think scoring that many goals and starting off the season so well is an excuses to losing, if anything it is a motivation to play even better, and try to win all titles and break all records possible.

@lodatz you are on point. Stop going away from footy.

sad day for football...... -:(

Bale's problem is that he isn't involved enough in our build-up. He usually stays on the wing, unable to either deliver accurate crosses or link up with Ronaldo and Benzema. He needs to cut in on his left foot more often and shoot or try some through balls. He needs to move towards the goal, rather than towards the by-line. Getting Bale involved is key, otherwise we are simply wasting 100+ Million Euros. He needs to be as involved as he was last season, and then we'll see Bale be back at his best again.

To many comments to state the obvious... RM has lot a bunch of games this season against Atletico so why is it such a surprise that they lost again by a bigger margin when 40% of their starting XI wasnt playing?

Just to have Nacho instead of Ramos makes a huge difference and that change alone could had perfectly defined the outcome game.

There is no need in justifying each defeat, even by a 4-0, when you are facing a rival like Atletico those things are always a possibility. They were simply the better team.

What else have you been discussing here? I dont feel like reading al 70+ comments...

"Bale's problem is that he isn't involved enough in our build-up. [...] unable to either deliver accurate crosses or link up with Ronaldo and Benzema"

And yet he's got 14 goals and 6 assists in 29 appearances, in a team which has scored 103 goals in all competitions.

How can there be this problem with him when he is the 3rd highest scorer in a squad that has scored over 100 goals?

Maybe the problem isn't with Bale, but with others?

After all, we don't hear anyone complaining about Benzema, but, he's scored only 3 more than Bale.

For heaven's sake, this is NOT a crisis for Madrid.

Tbh bale is actually a great player and didn't perform bad but above average, he just needs to cool his head and dribble more and not relying on pace only, he can do it, remember schakle? He just needs to relax, plus judging his performance at the derby game is unfair, Atletico applied pressure to every player on madrids side, Bale can't go past 3 players of atletico, maybe any other team, but atletico I doubt it.

Lets be realistic, dont expect Bale to drible as he used to do in England, even Ronaldo couldnt do the same in Spanish league, the game in Spain is less crazy, defenders defend as one block and close spaces for those who use mainly speed to go pass them...

On the other hand, Bale will be deadly in CL against other styles teams, agaisnt teams with tall-strong defenders but slow Bale will be key, gives Madrid versatility against Athletic teams, i can see lately some evolution in managing small spaces and his learning is far from being ended.

Bale and Benz scores less, but scored important goals, and its not shocking to see them performing better in CL, the more the game is crazy and the spaces uncovered, the more they will get freedom, space to run for Bale and to combine quick passes for Benz.

You cant ask Bale to do what Isco does, he didnt learn Football the same way, one practised Futsal before playing on a big field and the other is a powerhorse who show his power when he has the space to, and still has a deadly left foot to shoot from distance if the bus is parked.

Bale cant use his skills at 100% in the Liga, but he is not the only one, Suarez came as a finished product and still he needs to learn to adapt to the new defensive approach in Spain, Neymar and Alexis didnt dribble that much in their first year for the same reason, and Neymar of Santos or Brazil isnt Neymar of Barça, in fact the league cant let him do his things.

@real
They are still quality players and many top clubs would want them in starting 11 . I am just saying , there is no excuse for multi billion dollar team to loose 4-0 and dont make a single shot on target . That particular match should be unacceptable .

@tik I know what you doing ))

Bale in EPL vs La liga comparison not relevant because he had a fantastic first season . We are talking about this season in La liga . I think he is doing just fine, so no need to single him out based on Atletico match or dip in performance compare to first season .

I believe Suarez is central forward and big shot is taking his spot forcing him to play on the wing. Are you expecting a player to perform like he did in EPL , while playing him out of his favored position ? It is not the league that does not allow player to flourish , it is Barca . Nothing wrong with it other than that player has less freedom for individual skills . It works for the team , so kuddos .

@Marcus Thats what i think im not doing anything here...

Im not talking about Suarez amount of goals, there is no need to compare him where he was the main threat and the absolute star of a team, or even the league comparing to his actual role at Barça and his place between all the stars...

Im talking about the ability to drible, to turn quickly with the ball when defenders are at his back, Suarez was averaging 3.6 dribbles per game in PL, he does barely half of it in Spain and its mainly due to the league style of defenders. ( Im satisfaied of Suarez work rate and his off ball work that gives that little space for Messi to rule the game, thats alone is worth +80m imo )

Sanchez at the opposite doubled his amount of dribbles in England, he couldnt dribble as much in Spain and Neymar, oh well he is learning fast Specially for Messi, but cant expect him to do solo runs as he used to do at Santos.

Im not saying that a style is better than the other, lets take other sports as an example, the anglosaxon approach of swimming is to create powerhoses able to crawl with pace and strenght, the latin approach is more about doing the right move the right time...

Football isnt learned the same way depending on the country, and its very good to have many styles of players and combine them to get the perfect team, a team able to dominate weaker opposition to them ( doesnt mean weak but weaker in comparison ) at the same time, the team should not be bullied physically by a less technical team but far more strong.

The equilibrium reached between Strenght, technic and tactic is key to be able to beat any side and having the versatility needed to perform in CL.

You have the proof in front of you, look at the difference of last year Chelsea and this years one with the addition of Tactical awarness/Technical player.

^I actually agree with tiki, Dribbling past defenders is pretty easy in the BPL atm, in fact the BPL before 2010 was way ore intense and tough, the defenders of any team give absolute no space and tackle harsh enough for an injury, but now, Dribbling has been a thing on the bpl, u will notice anyone can dribble but in la liga it's much harder, the only players who can dribble are Messi, neymar, isco, Ronaldo Turan, Griezman and the players that I enjoy the most are luka and iniesta (there are more players but I can't remember their names clearly)

The fact is in the BPL before, every games was intense and not a specific game, they weren't any team that had a positive victory, even now but not all the games,