The Spanish Football Thread

Disaster. Casillas must be fuming right now - even if he could not have averted this result. Adan hasn't done badly but nor has he covered himself in glory.

I'll be amazed if Mourinho is in charge by the time the United game rolls around in February.

How far are Madrid behind Barca now? If they drop to embarrassingly levels then I imagine Perez will wield the axe, if this guy axed Del Bosque so soon after winning the CL (or was it the league?) then I can't imagine he'll waste time with a guy who sadly seems to have tarnished Madrid's image also. Who knows, maybe a new face might unite the squad and help them in February's leg and further on.

He seems keen to just go out with a bang - busts up with his players, journalists and am sure Perez is crying into his coffee as to why he appointed him in the first place.

Pathetic performance tbh.

Casillas would have saved the santa cruz goal, shouldn't get beat at the near post like that, he got his angles completely wrong. Malaga deserved it, real definitely need the christmas break. That was a pitiful performance. The 3 at the back tactic wasn't working either. It smelt more of desperation (not even mancini style desperation) than a tactical substitution.

Ronaldo was piss poor today. The thing about ronaldo is that when he's not performing, he doesn't contribute to anything when on a sulk, poor crosses, robben style greediness. Honestly when I was looking at real today there was no movement between players. Their 2 goals were as lucky as you can get. Benzema trying overhead kicks when he could just hold up the ball or get in a better position as he was never going to generate enough power for the shot.

I honestly think mourinho went into the job trying to stabilize real madrid and buy hardworking players compared to superstars so he could stay there for longer.

What has happened to Madrid this season??!!! They've gone from a formidable force that steamrolls all before them to a shambolic group of players who can't string a few passes together! It's very worrying for Madrid. La Liga is already one, but if they don't get their act together Madrid could lose against United aswell. Utterly abject performance tonight. To give Malaga their dues, they were fantastic tonight and Isco is a terrific talent.

This is a perfect example of the public trying to kick Ronaldo and Mourinho whilst their down.

Mourinho said after the last game that the league is over. In addition, critics have told him that he needs to give the youth more game-time, instead of just buying superstars. As a result, he chose to give a goalkeeper (full of potential) a go against a respectable side. It obviously didn't work in this particular game. But it doesn't matter. The league is over, only idiots could possibly think Barcelona will throw it away.

Likewise, Ronaldo had a bad game tonight. But I disagree with your points on him being selfish. He put an amazing ball through to Di Maria, who scuffed it. He hooked the ball back across to Benzema for the first goal. Last season, he got 12 assists in the league. Iniesta got 9. Xavi got 7. Fabregas got 8. Ronaldo isn't selfish. That's just what the media want you to believe.

Without dragging them into comparisons with other managers/players, this is what makes them the greatest. They take all this **** off people like you, and still come back week after week.

People need to learn that Madrid will use the La Liga as practice-matches now. In preparation for the Champions League.

Antonio adan is 25... six years younger than casillas. Not a 'youth keeper full of potential' If he really wanted to bring in the youth, he would have used morata or jese, more promising youngsters. Casillas was dropped over an argument with mourinho.

I'm not kicking ronaldo or mourinho, I love mourinho, I've said many times he's the best manager that's existed and ronaldo is going through a bad patch.

I'm not saying he's selfish as a character either, I actually think he's a team player, but today, he was non existent and like benzema was just trying to score from far.

Last season he would have dragged them out of a hole scoring a hattrick or something. Real madrids best players today were the malaga defence and it was a pathetic performance, being a mourinho fan, I don't think he's been able to control the players

Why should madrid use la liga as practice matches, do they want their city rivals to be spouting **** that they're a better team than them, despite the fact they haven't beaten them for 13 years?

I'm not really fussed about the league anymore, but we really need to get our act together before the CL round of 16 starts, and also make sure we don't slide any further down the table. The league title is out of the picture, but I'd expect us to at least salvage second place as well. Third place behind Atleti really isn't acceptable unless we win the CL.

Interesting stat: Barca have only lost 6 of their last 132 league matches.

That's ridiculous.

Yeah, Madrid have just been awful all season. I think it may be due to the personalties. The Spanish players don't seem to get along with Mourinho. There seems to be a divide. When the team wins, everyone loves each other. But it's when the team loses that proves how strong the relationships are. Bust-ups are constantly being leaked into Marca. I realise I may be bias, but I think Manchester United will 'steamroll' Madrid in the CL at this rate.

I also think we owe it to Malaga to praise them. They were terrific. All of them. The keeper pulled off a few good saves, the defence were almost solid, and their possession play was comparable to Barcelona (slight exaggeration perhaps).

I think every club in the world would take Isco right now. Fabulous player.

We'll see. Mourinho has 6 weeks to sort it out and Madrid still have the better team on paper.

Yeah. Although, Ronaldo admitting that he wants to return to us at the end of the season is another plus for us (concerning the actual Champions League tie).

Thought that was bullocks, but yeah, 3 games lost last season, 2 games lost in 10-11 and 1 game lost in the 09-10 season. Absolutely ridiculous. Weird that guardiola's best season he had the worst points total in the league. Maybe the teams under were stronger(saying that madrid were battered 6-2)

Going by that pattern though, you guys are going to lose 4 games this season

Do we think Villa will be sold soon? If so who would we like to replace him? A current big name player or a younger Barca player?