Varane..

Talented player. No doubt. Makes many mistakes as well. You are right in saying that his positioning is suspect sometimes. Will develop with experience. At the moment he is only a good prospect.

I think he's fine for such a young CB who's still learning the trade. Doesn't help that he's constantly in and out of the team, because central defence is all about striking up partnerships.

Talking of which, Ramos was subbed off very early on last night, which meant Varane partnering Nacho who, if my memory serves, he'd never played with. A second important factor was that in front of him Khedira was all over the place and Kroos didn't pull his weight in defence, constantly losing Iborra, who was one of Sevilla's main danger men.

On positioning, it's not unusual for CBs at Madrid to look poor, because we generally play an attacking game, with marauding full backs and central mids with a penchant for attacking, meaning that the CBs are often left with too many holes to plug - not the best system for centre halves to shine in terms of positioning. Don't know where you get that he's no good in the air tbh.

Either way, each to his own but we're delighted to have Varane at Madrid.

itsonlyagame - Let's go bowling! (U6426)
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Yesterday was a horror show from your defenders, even the short time Ramos was on you guys were all over the place.

As I said though, it can be misleading imo to look at the CBs in isolation, their positioning is bound to look suspect when they have to plug holes all the time. Vitolo had a field day with Arbeloa (fortunately for us, Carvajal was just being rested); Marcelo's always all over the place, and neither Kroos nor Khedira provided the CBs with the protection they ought to.

Doesn't bode well for the derby at the weekend, but tbh my main concern is when Modric will be fit to return, our game's declined drastically since he's been out. Still at least another 2 weeks before he returns.