Tactical disaster at the Madrid white house

I have always heard that it is all about being better than the Champions. Being the Champion in the first place is not easy and now beating the Champions, it does not look that difficult right? Let us take the La Liga for an example. Real Madrid are going for their third successive title in as many years and it would indeed become a disgrace to the other 19 teams in the league, in one of the most volatile leagues in Europe. Since the turn of the new millennium Real have won the La Liga 4 times in this period, which is literally every other year, twice as much as Barca. Still press around the world except Madrid Marca maybe seemingly have a problem with Real Madrid. It is almost as though Madrid are followed by their own shadows. Inevitably there would be stats and other facts to prove that Real scrape through to their wins. Even when they win big games, there is hardly anything positive coming out of this.

I say this because what transpired on Sunday was by no means becoming of a Champion. Especially when Barca are steamrolling past opponents scoring at will, it does no good to your confidence when you have to settle for a draw against Almeria who were destroyed last week by Barca. Schuster is a very keen tactician, but he also makes some big mistakes in line ups and substitutions. He has been pretty consistent when it goes to good decisions almost the majority of last season, except maybe the home game against Valencia that come to my mind. Madrid had injury problems in attack with Van Nistelrooy injured after his suspension last weekend. But that was the only major player missing for the defending Champions. Schuster is in a difficult position, when every week he does not have the Dutch goal machine in his line up it reiterates the disastrous transfer summer for Madrid. The lack of a genuine replacement comes evident in each of these games. But a good Manager ought to work with what you have.


With all his first choice defenders starting, it was an unnecessarily defensive midfield, with both Gago and Diarra joining Sneijder in midfield. Higuain and Raul upfront and Robben on the wings indeed looked as though there would be some goals coming up. Much more than the formation, putting Diarra and Gago on the pitch together did not seem to be working. For one i hate when two defensive midfielders play together, second off Diarra was playing in a much advanced position than Gago, but in reality the Argentine is a better link man.

Higuain finally put in a precise cross in for Raul to score with a diving header. The Captain who was sure to be criticized if he did not score in this match in the absence of Van Nistelrooy, scored with Andy Gray's favorite diving header. 0-1 Madrid leading at half time.

Second period was interesting as Almeria came out and spread out on the pitch which ensured that their more illustrious opponents were pinned in their own half. Against a relatively lesser opponent why the hell would you not go for the kill and finish off the game? Schuster had to make a substitution by taking the injured Pepe out and introduce Metzelder in. Pepe and Cannavaro were doing well in the heart of defence, and i would not want to say that Metzelder dropped the ball. He did well and got some important tackles in, but he looks so old fashioned a CB, slowest of the slowest in pace. The big German does not attack balls, because if he is turned inside out by any striker with decent pace then its kiss goodbye.


With two more substitutions that Schuster could make and the signs of threat from Almeria, he had to bring flair into a bunch of players seemingly performing under par. The problem was both wing backs in Heinze- goofy, lunging into tackles and too clumsy and Sergio Ramos-reprimanded, consoled and questioned by many for his comments in the press last week. Robben was switching wings consistently, but how should i put it, i will take a leaf out of someone and say he was more like a chicken with no head. He was not the same threat in running at defenders, could not even take a decent shot at goal and not even a good ball in for the strikers.

What is puzzling is with this situation prevailing, Schuster brought in more midfielders in Guti and Van der Vaart. He did not take out any midfielders to bring these guys in, it was a replacement for Sneijder and Higuain. If Raul was left all on his own in the first half just imagine when you have a team plugged with midfielders and Raul as the lone striker. If Schuster did this with the intention to give some kind of playing time then this was the wrong game. Guti and VDV were seemingly no where to be found and hardly got any touches on the ball. With 9 minutes to go, Almeria equalized and Madrid came back losing 2 points rather than earning a point.

When Real Manager complaints that he does not have a striker, and almost everyone in the team gets playing time, if i was Saviola i would rather hang up my boots.