Pick Your Real Madrid Team

[Pat Murphy]

Spanish Debate: Pick Your Real Madrid Team

Ewan Macdonald invites readers to examine the Real Madrid CF squad for 2008-09 and pick a formation and squad suited to the players on offer...

Real Madrid haven't been too active in the transfer market this summer, but the two major incoming signings so far - well, one major and one modest - give any would-be coach no end of selection headaches.

With Rubén de la Red now being joined by Dutch master Rafael van der Vaart, there are many, many more midfield permutations than most managers would know what to do with. And with Javi García also now in the frame, the defence and defensive midfield have their own options, too.

Meanwhile up front coach Bernd Schuster is thought to have asked sporting director Pedja Mijatovic to find him a striker, but as that search continues Javier Saviola has thrust himself back into contention with some confident performances.

Pepe, meanwhile, didn't have the best of games against Eintracht Frankfurt this week and a leaky back line remains something of an issue heading into the new campaign.

Thus picking an ideal formation is in no way easy. Indeed, it could be the case that there is no one, magical formula that will see Real Madrid repeat their heroics of last season. Perhaps home games and away games should be treated differently; maybe Europe and the Liga are a world apart. Do you wish to specify substitutes? This is all up to you.

With this in mind, why not look at the current Real Madridsquad list and pick out an ideal XI or two? If you think one team has what it takes to play all the big games, just provide one: if you'd rather add some contingencies or conditions, feel free to do that, too.

Just note one thing: it's difficult to format the text that goes into the comments box, so it makes more sense to provide a team where players are separated by commas and positions by semi-colons, running right to left. For example, here is the team that won the Champions League back in 2002 rendered thus.

César Sánchez; Salgado, Hierro, Helguera, Roberto Carlos; Figo, Makélélé, Zidane, Solari; Raúl, Morientes. --- Subs: Casillas; Aitor Karanka, Pavón; McManaman, Guti, Flávio; Munitis.

Anyway, here is the squad as of today. There may be still a striker to come, but for now there are plenty of options (and Ronaldo isn't one of them.) Enjoy!

Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas, Jordi Codina, Jerzy Dudek.

Defenders: Fabio Cannavaro, Gabriel Heinze, Marcelo, Metzelder, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Míchel Salgado, Miguel Torres.

Midfielders: Mahamadou Diarra, Fernando Gago, Julio Baptista, Rubén de la Red, Javi García, Royston Drenthe, 'Guti', Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Rafael van der Vaart.

Forwards: Gonzalo Higuaín, Raúl, Robinho, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Javier Saviola.


Ewan Macdonald, Goal.com

Should be a challenge fitting the midfield around. It's also possible that a new striker might come but they're sorted in defence with Garay arriving next season.

[Dellas]

My team would be:


.........................Casillas...............

..Ramos.........Pepe......Cannavaro.....Marcelo...

......................Gago.......Diarra........... ................

....Robben................Sneijder/VdV................Robinho...

....................................RvN........... .........................

Drenthe should also be given a chance when Robben is injured. VdV will start in the middle now that Sneijder is out. Marcelo has impressed me at the Olympics and so I would play him more than Heinze. Raul I guess will play after his season last year but I think he should be an impact sub, as well as Guti, so that the younger players are given more chances to grow.

[Pennywise]

Looks like Robinho will be gone, so I will avoid him.

Against hard opponents away, Madrid should play 4-2-3-1:

Casillas

Ramos - Pepe - Cannavaro - Marcelo

--------Diarra--------Gago---------

Sneijder - VdR - Robben

---------Van Nistelrooy

Home and against 'weaker' teams, they should play 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 offensive:

Casillas

Ramos - Pepe - Cannavaro - Marcelo

Sneijder - Diarra - Robben

-------Van der Vaart

Van Nistelrooy - Higuain

[Dellas]

Originally Posted by Pennywise

Looks like Robinho will be gone, so I will avoid him.

Against hard opponents away, Madrid should play 4-2-3-1:

Casillas

Ramos - Pepe - Cannavaro - Marcelo

--------Diarra--------Gago---------

Sneijder - VdR - Robben

---------Van Nistelrooy

Home and against 'weaker' teams, they should play 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 offensive:

Casillas

Ramos - Pepe - Cannavaro - Marcelo

Sneijder - Diarra - Robben

-------Van der Vaart

Van Nistelrooy - Higuain

Surely Drenthe deserves a chance?

[Pennywise]

I am a big fan of Drenthe and I hope he will get much time on the pitch this coming season, however, he is not ready to reach a place in the starting lineup when everyone is fit...yet.