Thoughts for the day: CR pushing himself too hard? Jese, Khedira and Ramos return to training. Real getting ready for Levante, Kroos will score in El Classico? The international break is over for the Real players (for now) and they have returned (mostly) injury-free. Which allows Carlo Ancelotti to breathe a sigh of relief, considering the fact that Real usually have very serious injuries to deal with after these breaks. The start of the international break did bring some bad news for players like Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo, but Benzema and Cristiano managed to shake it off and continue. Ronaldo was substituted in the last game, but according to the physicians this was more of a precaution than anything else. This of course might be the truth, but it far better story would be that Ronaldo is pushing himself too hard, especially on the international stage. After the devastating World Cup 2014 performance he put down, largely due to injury, he feels that he owes the world something and the upcoming European Championships could be his last chance to help Portugal in achieving international glory. Ramos received an injury blow during the first few days of training with the national side and was immediately ruled out of further participation, so his injury could be considered the worst of all the others. Nonetheless the time he spent of the sideline gave him some much needed rest and he seems to be recovering rapidly. He might feature against Levante, but with players like Nacho Fernández Iglesias and Raphaël Varane itching for a start, Ancelotti could potentially rest Ramos. The filpside to this is that Ramos will have one match less to prepare for the Classico, but hes a professional so one match less should no be a problem for him. Benzema was reported to have picked up an injury during training with France, but he seemed to have shaken that off fairly quickly, so he should be ready for Levante. Ancelotti would be wise to let him start. He needs all the match-rhythm he can get, because he always seems to play on a different level when facing Barcelona and Real need that mindset if they want to win against a team that has (momentarily) one of the best defenses in La Liga. Not much can be said about Jese, but all the signs point to a quick return, perhaps he might feature this saturday, for a little while, but for now fans are just happy to see him recovering well. The writers of this page have dared to speculate that Toni Kroos will score his first goal for Real during the Classico and it seems like Kroos heard this, because he has been steadily increasing his shots on goal (this was obviously inevitable, but we have chosen to interpret this in our benefit). The culmination of this came during his recent match against Ireland. A game where he managed to score a very neat goal (with some help by the post), but a goal is a goal and if he keeps it up, hell surely put one in during Classico. Fingers crossed #HalaMadrid #RealMadrid #ComoNoTeVoyAQuerer #HalaMadridyNadaMas
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 20:32:17 +0000