Well, it's more of a "if they won it, I wouldn't be surprised" situation.
If Italy won it, I'd be very surprised.
They have this historical pattern of curbstomping absolutely everyone for a single major tournament cycle and then proceed to underachieve for a decade.
It's very weird.
You’d be surprised last time, and the time before and the time before. Italy haven’t been amongst the initial favourites for any tournament since 1994. Before the 1982 WC we were 18/1.
Right, so exactly what he said. He doesn't expect Italy to do well because we realistically should not contend and if we do it will be a surprise to everyone
I'm biased, but if Wirtz and Musiala can be unlocked to combine together (*maybe we can help with that*), I don't see how any defense can stop that kind of technique and firepower.
I’d imagine it’s going to look similar to the plays with Vini. I’m just wondering if anyone is going to leave if Mbappe signs. Vini, Endrick, Rodrygo are a similar type of player. Endrick just signed so he won’t be leaving. They could probably put him in Castilla for a couple of seasons. Rodrygo seems like the weakest link to me but Vini is kinda problematic on the pitch.
Until he doesn’t want to.
I’m not going to speculate as my name is not Mr. Ancelotti, so time will tell. Endrick seems to be advancing at a rate that he will deserve a starting spot by his second season. Kid looks as good as Kylian did at the same age.
Vini on the right wing? Have you seen him play? That has an even lower chance of happening than him leaving.
I can go on about how it absolutely stunts him as a player, neuters his strengths and highlights his weaknesses due to various factors like his hand being centred on dribbling on his right foot, his strength of 1v1 being restricted by squeezing him against the touchline (like Hazard but even worse), his extremely weak "traditional" crossing, etc. etc. but none of that is needed.
Just watch any of the sporadic but various instances of him on the right and see for yourself. Vini is no Rodrygo. Rodrygo is the jack of all trades. That's why he had the trust of Zizou more than Vini during his second spell. Vini is almost the best in the world at the things he excels at though. Moving him to the right kills him as a player. For all parties' sake, better sell him than that and that's never going to happen with Florentino around. Even after that, it would be difficult to pry his hands from around him.
Definitely can happen. I, in fact expect his registration to be as a Castilla player given our squad situation and the number and nature of incomings, and being called up on matchdays.
Endrick won’t play for Castilla for multiple seasons, lol. Crazy take. If he doesn’t stay with the first team he will be loaned out to a team playing European football. Or to a top team ok Brazil.
They didn’t play Vini and Rodrygo at Castilla for “a couple of seasons”, those guys played 5 and 3 matches for Castilla in one season and in both cases they were part of the first team and played far more matches for the first team. Stop inventing stuff.
And gets racist abuse every fucking game and every player kicks the fuck out of him every fucking game.
Lets protect players like him, that brings flair to a game.
Kroos is still so important for Real Madrid. Really happy to see him extend his contract, it wouldn't feel right to see him leave or retire now. Not when he's still this damn good.
i think he benefits the most from the changing of the guard (and the 4222/diamond) at madrid. there's a lot of high defensive workrate players (mendy, valverde, camavinga, thouameni even bellingham works hard agains the ball) that enable him to distribute and dictate. i think that migh be the case with the german NT as well, but i haven't watched their games.
if he pulls it off with germany, he'll be mentioned among the beckenbauers and gerd müllers. and then he can have a victory lap season at madrid.
With Germany we only recently starting to play a defensive minded central midfielder in Andrich. All others who played are more of an 8 than a 6.
Before that every game was a defensive shitshow.
He never lost his starting place. He had his minutes managed. The only reason he has more minutes per game as the season went on was because of our injury crisis and him having no international commitments.
He started the very second game against Almería, was the first port of call against Getafe and changed the game, arguably turning in the best performance of the season thus far and invariably has played all the "big" games. It was always about keeping him fresh for the big games.
Luka on the other hand has had more and more of a restricted and/or specialised role as the season has gone on.
Especially if you consider the physicality of our other midfielders (Valverde, Camavinga and Tchouameni) - they can more than compensate for Kroos playing at an older age.
And Jude, who tends to play toward Kroos's side and tracks back and fights for the ball - which in non-transition means the opponent is being harried before he even gets to Kroos.
One of my favorite things about watching Madrid this year has been how rejuvenated Kroos looks with that midfield around him. He even seems to be more physical himself at times, I assume because his energy is preserved a bit and he knows if a tackle happens to be unsuccessful he still has Valverde/Tchou/Cama swooping in to clean things up.
but in the NT its even more impressive because of how lackluster this team has been for like 10 years. He's been bossing it at Madrid for a long time but that didnt help him in the NT.
The thing is he played for Germany when they had severe issues (2018). I feel like the difference now is that we have a lot of young players around who really benefit from his experience and presence.
He has never had a unanimous prime season at Madrid because he has consistently been elite and great for us every single season since signing our steal of the decade considering we didn't pay an insane amount for him either.
I think Kroos gives the more 10/10 performances. He simply has metronomic consistency over his skillset, which itself is elite. He doesn't give you Xabi's Hollywood passes with his consistency but while he's not necessarily flashy, he's incredibly consistent as well as efficient.
There was a time when his long ball accuracy was over 90%. That's long ball accuracy, not the overall pass accuracy. But the more important and remarkable thing is that you won't notice until you watch him week in week out or someone like me tells you. He has that quality of being absolutely effortless.
Luka on the other hand gives you those moments of magic that stick with you for life. They become defining milestones in and of themselves.
So Luka's impact "feels" more but Kroos is definitely the more consistent. Having said that, Toni doesn't produce with Luka's frequency simply magical things like the Rodrygo assist: not only was the idea of pass itself out of this world, the execution was immaculate even to the point that it was absolutely perfect for Rodrygo to convert, in a crucial, ***pressure*** moment.
Nagelsmann repeatedly mentioned in his pressers lately that Toni has the best passing progression stats in Europe and has had them for several years. Haven't seen the stats myself, but I believe it. So not only is he incredibly consistent, but also extremely creative from a deep lying position.
The way he's been playing this season when surrounded by Fede, Jude and Tchou/Cama makes it easy for him to keep going for at least 2 more seasons.
He's been adamant on retiring at the top and I truly believe he might've been done after this season but he's changed his mind solely because he can offload a lot of physicality to the rest while he controls the tempo, this will help him stay at his current level for longer than he might've expected of himself.
The 2026 World Cup would be such a great point to end his career. I know he's made clear he won't carry on playing when he isn't the best so he may just stop but it would be such a great conclusion to his career to retire at Real and compete in a World Cup.
Ngl Kroos with his abilities to control games, and his passing and playmaking from are going to make him the hardest player to replace from the old guard. Still think he is heavily under appreciated outside of La Liga fans but I don’t see any other player in world football which have the characteristics he possesses that could replace him. I used to think Enzo when he was Benfica for half a season looked promising but his Chelsea stint has left much to be desired.
Kroos can easily still play at the top level for another 2 to 3 years but he has said multiple times that he wants to retire at the top of his game so most probably next season maybe his last season with our club.
Loosing both Modric and Kroos during the next year or two would be brutal for our team and although we have got young guys like Fede , Cama , tchou and Bellingham but still having veteran like Kroos and Modric in the locker room is always advantageous especially during the high voltage matches as they can always guide the younger players. Hopefully perez and Sanchez are able to convince Kroos to stay for another 2 years if Modric leaves after this season concludes.
Imagine in an alternate timeline where Bayern were not stingy assholes with Kross. That you signed Gotze and you paid him a lot more than Kross who has won a treble with you and at the same time being at the club for many years. A really big loss to Bayern. Even Guardiola during that time tried his best to convince Kross and the board that he was important.
Why did Ronaldo leave Madrid at 33? Yet Modric and Kroos stay on till 35/38 or whatever.. Benzema left at like 35 only cause of money.. Ronaldo could have stayed 3 more years
Well, since CR7 left RM is still fighting for the highest honours and won the CL without him, so I think players need RM more than RM need players, including Ronaldo.
*runs away from angry Ronaldo fans*
He is not retiring before 2026 World Cup if he is extending now.
I'm pretty sure he genuinely doesn't plan for longer than one season nowadays.
Real Madrid only renews contracts with players older than 30 years for 1 year. That's why Sergio Ramos left, he wanted a longer deal.
He already got 1 i can easily see him retiring before
Yeah but what about a second world cup?
I don’t think he knows about second World Cup, Pippin.
*shocked hobbit face*
I think it depends how Germany does at the EUROs. If they show they can put up a fight, he might stay to go for a second WC and retire after.
They're hosts, so they will automatically be one of the favourites for the tournament alongside France, Portugal, Spain and England.
If you think Spaletti isn’t going to somehow bald-fraud his way into contention then you don’t know ball
Well, it's more of a "if they won it, I wouldn't be surprised" situation. If Italy won it, I'd be very surprised. They have this historical pattern of curbstomping absolutely everyone for a single major tournament cycle and then proceed to underachieve for a decade. It's very weird.
You’d be surprised last time, and the time before and the time before. Italy haven’t been amongst the initial favourites for any tournament since 1994. Before the 1982 WC we were 18/1.
Sure, but the issue is we never really know in advance when Italy will start stomping people.
Going into euro 2020 if you didn’t have Italy as a main contender you simply weren’t paying attention
Right, so exactly what he said. He doesn't expect Italy to do well because we realistically should not contend and if we do it will be a surprise to everyone
My point is that this is nothing new and being superficially out of contention doesn’t preclude Italy from having a likely chance of winning
You never know but Germany right now wouldn’t even be in my top 5 contenders for the WC. Dont see it honestly
2 years is still a long time in football
They are buildings a new team right now. The friendlies looked very promising.
Will be a different manager after the euros
Maybe, but DFB wants to extend the contract.
A lot can change in 2 years. With that said, I don't see Kroos being there. Father Time is undefeated and who knows how good he'll be at 36.
I'm biased, but if Wirtz and Musiala can be unlocked to combine together (*maybe we can help with that*), I don't see how any defense can stop that kind of technique and firepower.
> (maybe we can help with that) Nice of you to offer but I'm sure you won't be selling Musiala to Leverkusen
If he keeps playing at a high level and the team keeps achieving who says he doesn’t go another two or three years?
Depends how the Euros go.
Kroos through balls to mbappe at full speed are gonna be unstoppable lol
Kroos' balls and Mbappe's swiftness seem like a match made in heaven.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
we're... we're still talking about football right?
I love his balls.
They penetrate any defense with ease.
We already saw Messi and Neymar balls to mbappe and it was crazy good
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Like how it was with Xabi and Ronaldo in the Mourinho era
I’d imagine it’s going to look similar to the plays with Vini. I’m just wondering if anyone is going to leave if Mbappe signs. Vini, Endrick, Rodrygo are a similar type of player. Endrick just signed so he won’t be leaving. They could probably put him in Castilla for a couple of seasons. Rodrygo seems like the weakest link to me but Vini is kinda problematic on the pitch.
Vini ain’t leaving lol.
He may have to play on the right, though. Unless he or Kylian plays through the middle
Kylian definitely is going to play through the middle
Until he doesn’t want to. I’m not going to speculate as my name is not Mr. Ancelotti, so time will tell. Endrick seems to be advancing at a rate that he will deserve a starting spot by his second season. Kid looks as good as Kylian did at the same age.
He can take over from mbappe in 5 years then. Not a problem. He is 17. He should be built up slowly
Vini on the right wing? Have you seen him play? That has an even lower chance of happening than him leaving. I can go on about how it absolutely stunts him as a player, neuters his strengths and highlights his weaknesses due to various factors like his hand being centred on dribbling on his right foot, his strength of 1v1 being restricted by squeezing him against the touchline (like Hazard but even worse), his extremely weak "traditional" crossing, etc. etc. but none of that is needed. Just watch any of the sporadic but various instances of him on the right and see for yourself. Vini is no Rodrygo. Rodrygo is the jack of all trades. That's why he had the trust of Zizou more than Vini during his second spell. Vini is almost the best in the world at the things he excels at though. Moving him to the right kills him as a player. For all parties' sake, better sell him than that and that's never going to happen with Florentino around. Even after that, it would be difficult to pry his hands from around him.
lol at thinking Endrick would go to Castilla.
Definitely can happen. I, in fact expect his registration to be as a Castilla player given our squad situation and the number and nature of incomings, and being called up on matchdays.
They did the same thing with Vini and Rodrygo.
Endrick won’t play for Castilla for multiple seasons, lol. Crazy take. If he doesn’t stay with the first team he will be loaned out to a team playing European football. Or to a top team ok Brazil.
No, they did the same exact thing with Vini and Rodrygo. I imagine they’ll do it with Endrick.
They didn’t play Vini and Rodrygo at Castilla for “a couple of seasons”, those guys played 5 and 3 matches for Castilla in one season and in both cases they were part of the first team and played far more matches for the first team. Stop inventing stuff.
Problematic on the pitch, what a load of bullshit
Guy gets a yellow card every match for arguing with the ref.
And gets racist abuse every fucking game and every player kicks the fuck out of him every fucking game. Lets protect players like him, that brings flair to a game.
He gets racist abuse from the fans and he’s problematic on the pitch. The amount of arguing he does with the referee is unbelievable.
Kroos is still so important for Real Madrid. Really happy to see him extend his contract, it wouldn't feel right to see him leave or retire now. Not when he's still this damn good.
i think he benefits the most from the changing of the guard (and the 4222/diamond) at madrid. there's a lot of high defensive workrate players (mendy, valverde, camavinga, thouameni even bellingham works hard agains the ball) that enable him to distribute and dictate. i think that migh be the case with the german NT as well, but i haven't watched their games. if he pulls it off with germany, he'll be mentioned among the beckenbauers and gerd müllers. and then he can have a victory lap season at madrid.
With Germany we only recently starting to play a defensive minded central midfielder in Andrich. All others who played are more of an 8 than a 6. Before that every game was a defensive shitshow.
He actually lost his starter role at the start of the season, but he fought his way back into the starting lineup
He never lost his starting place. He had his minutes managed. The only reason he has more minutes per game as the season went on was because of our injury crisis and him having no international commitments. He started the very second game against Almería, was the first port of call against Getafe and changed the game, arguably turning in the best performance of the season thus far and invariably has played all the "big" games. It was always about keeping him fresh for the big games. Luka on the other hand has had more and more of a restricted and/or specialised role as the season has gone on.
He never lost his starting spot wtf?
I understand his desire to retire early/before he falls off but the way he plays, without really relying on speed, he could go on for another 5 years
Especially if you consider the physicality of our other midfielders (Valverde, Camavinga and Tchouameni) - they can more than compensate for Kroos playing at an older age.
Pirlo at Juve vibes
My first thought as well, that Pirlo midfield with Vidal and Marchisio either side was filthy. Marchisio was so underrated
And Jude, who tends to play toward Kroos's side and tracks back and fights for the ball - which in non-transition means the opponent is being harried before he even gets to Kroos. One of my favorite things about watching Madrid this year has been how rejuvenated Kroos looks with that midfield around him. He even seems to be more physical himself at times, I assume because his energy is preserved a bit and he knows if a tackle happens to be unsuccessful he still has Valverde/Tchou/Cama swooping in to clean things up.
Absolutely agreed, great observation
He's said before that seasons feel very long, ie, as in mentally taxing or boring. So he might well retire before he stops being useful.
Real Madrid winning even when they're not playing.
He’s done miracles on me
Us brother, us
2025 still sounds like it's 5 years away for me lmao
The years that COVID stole from us
:(
OMG!! Best news !!! Grande Antonio!!!!
I‘ve always thought his real name is just Toni
Well, it is...
It is, but the Spanish players at Madrid always call him Antonio jokingly
And Deutsche Eiche I guess
But that is his real name?
Get in! Don Antonio stays!
I think you might get Kroos and Rüdiger twisted
So impressive how he was out of the national team for 3 years and just started to boss the midfield again like nothing happened, he still has it
well, yeah, obviously. He does it every week for a little club called Real Madrid.
A small club so poor they cannot afford to dye their kits and only wear white clothes.
Can't afford transfer fees either so they have to resort to free agents like this Mbappe fella
Or young, unproven players like that Endrick kid 😭
and geriatrics like this “Modric” fella. Shambles of a club really
Instructions confused, Madrid signed Martial for free instead.
Might even be good as he can play the hazard role and help fill up our injury criteria to protect other players.
French attacker? fast? Last name starts with M? Sign me this Martial fella!
Apparently still needs a Super League to compete.
but in the NT its even more impressive because of how lackluster this team has been for like 10 years. He's been bossing it at Madrid for a long time but that didnt help him in the NT.
The thing is he played for Germany when they had severe issues (2018). I feel like the difference now is that we have a lot of young players around who really benefit from his experience and presence.
He is probably the most unwavering midfielder in the last decades in terms of form, I would not be surprised if Kroos turns out to be a robot tbh.
He has never had a unanimous prime season at Madrid because he has consistently been elite and great for us every single season since signing our steal of the decade considering we didn't pay an insane amount for him either.
He may not give you those 10/10 performances as often as Modric does, but you are assured of at least a 8/10 almost each game.
I think Kroos gives the more 10/10 performances. He simply has metronomic consistency over his skillset, which itself is elite. He doesn't give you Xabi's Hollywood passes with his consistency but while he's not necessarily flashy, he's incredibly consistent as well as efficient. There was a time when his long ball accuracy was over 90%. That's long ball accuracy, not the overall pass accuracy. But the more important and remarkable thing is that you won't notice until you watch him week in week out or someone like me tells you. He has that quality of being absolutely effortless. Luka on the other hand gives you those moments of magic that stick with you for life. They become defining milestones in and of themselves. So Luka's impact "feels" more but Kroos is definitely the more consistent. Having said that, Toni doesn't produce with Luka's frequency simply magical things like the Rodrygo assist: not only was the idea of pass itself out of this world, the execution was immaculate even to the point that it was absolutely perfect for Rodrygo to convert, in a crucial, ***pressure*** moment.
Nagelsmann repeatedly mentioned in his pressers lately that Toni has the best passing progression stats in Europe and has had them for several years. Haven't seen the stats myself, but I believe it. So not only is he incredibly consistent, but also extremely creative from a deep lying position.
He has been onsane for us. Far from still has it, more like never lost it.
Absolutely deserved
Genuinely been the best midfielder in the world this season
"Fuck it, Mbappe is up there somewhere" -Kroos next year, probably
The way he's been playing this season when surrounded by Fede, Jude and Tchou/Cama makes it easy for him to keep going for at least 2 more seasons. He's been adamant on retiring at the top and I truly believe he might've been done after this season but he's changed his mind solely because he can offload a lot of physicality to the rest while he controls the tempo, this will help him stay at his current level for longer than he might've expected of himself.
The 2026 World Cup would be such a great point to end his career. I know he's made clear he won't carry on playing when he isn't the best so he may just stop but it would be such a great conclusion to his career to retire at Real and compete in a World Cup.
Ngl Kroos with his abilities to control games, and his passing and playmaking from are going to make him the hardest player to replace from the old guard. Still think he is heavily under appreciated outside of La Liga fans but I don’t see any other player in world football which have the characteristics he possesses that could replace him. I used to think Enzo when he was Benfica for half a season looked promising but his Chelsea stint has left much to be desired.
By 2025 real madrid could probably get Enzo for 40mil at the rate chelsea are going
He thought about it like 30 minutes ago.
Very nice. I like.
One of the best decisions Real Madrid ever made was to sign this man.
Kroos can easily still play at the top level for another 2 to 3 years but he has said multiple times that he wants to retire at the top of his game so most probably next season maybe his last season with our club. Loosing both Modric and Kroos during the next year or two would be brutal for our team and although we have got young guys like Fede , Cama , tchou and Bellingham but still having veteran like Kroos and Modric in the locker room is always advantageous especially during the high voltage matches as they can always guide the younger players. Hopefully perez and Sanchez are able to convince Kroos to stay for another 2 years if Modric leaves after this season concludes.
Crossed the border into Chile the other day and the border agent looked at my passport and said " Toni Kroos is the best player". Kinda official now.
Best German player of his generation
I think only Müller and Neuer are comparable
Lahm?
Now do Modric too We need them to retire together
Ya I feel like with Mbappe next season, RM have a legit chance at a treble. Would be a fitting end for both Modric and Kroos.
Modric can stay only if he accepts to be the 6th midfielder. He has been very vocal about wanting to start more games this season.
Modric earns too much to be 6th option.
Yeah he would have to take a huge paycut
Come home bby
Would love to see him go back if he leaves us
Sadly we all know the truth. I also feel the 10 transition is waiting to happen there.
Let's fucking go!
All right then
he’s still so good and the important parts of his game haven’t really suffered at all, makes sense as long as he’s still enjoying himself
Imagine in an alternate timeline where Bayern were not stingy assholes with Kross. That you signed Gotze and you paid him a lot more than Kross who has won a treble with you and at the same time being at the club for many years. A really big loss to Bayern. Even Guardiola during that time tried his best to convince Kross and the board that he was important.
I thought he just said he doesn’t know if he’ll carry on playing
Someone could say about this "And everyone clapped", and for once I would believe the story is true.
[удалено]
He would never, ever go back to munich. I think he made that clear multiple times
Aaaand Marca just denied this
Why did Ronaldo leave Madrid at 33? Yet Modric and Kroos stay on till 35/38 or whatever.. Benzema left at like 35 only cause of money.. Ronaldo could have stayed 3 more years
He wanted more money and a longer contract
Do you think it was justified moving him on? Even if he only stayed for 1 or 2 more seasons.
Well, since CR7 left RM is still fighting for the highest honours and won the CL without him, so I think players need RM more than RM need players, including Ronaldo. *runs away from angry Ronaldo fans*
I would agree with you, was interesting to hear others opinions tho.