It was not an El Classico whitewash after all...

From the postings on my blog it is clear to many that i am a Real Madrid fan. I would not want to have the word "fan" in there, because i believe i am fairly a good critic as well. Having seen them play for over a decade, it is only natural that i write most of my posts on them. The reasons why i even started watching the great Whites in the first place have moved on, but still they somehow retain a certain class. On certain other days, the disgrace and the disappointment to their fans is just outright humiliation. I have been reading many articles, discussions and forums on predictions on the El Classico. You are looking at a Real Madrid team, who are struggling for results, a new Manager and half the team in the hospital playing a team who look the closest to some of the best football i have seen, almost the same as Man U in some of their best games last year. Naturally the weight of the past which we call as "form" was heavily supporting Barca and some of the polls were pretty interesting. 5-0, 7-0 or even 10-0 in favor of Barcelona were the poll results. One website that i keenly follow had their experts giving some really interesting predictions. All of the predicted that it would be a tight game with not many goals scored.

From my knowledge of Real Madrid, i knew one thing for sure, this particular game was not going to be a whitewash. Madrid somehow plays poorly when and in games that nobody expects them to do so, and they win coming from behind in games that no one gives them a chance in hell. El Classicos' never are free flowing games, some exceptions granted when a few years ago Ronaldinho lead a Madrid destruction and last season Madrid thumped Barca 4-1. Barca have had issues putting Madrid away at the Nou Camp in almost 2 years, and Guardiola had his best 4-3-3 team to do the job for him this time. Henry on the left, Eto in the lone striker role and Messi on the right meant that the Madrid defense comprising of an unproven combination of non regular first team players would need a lot of help from a recently suspect Casillas and the rest of the team. Juande Ramos had used Metzelder at RB and Salgado at LB in the match against Zenit and possibly this had nothing to do with the possible players against Barca. Ramos even continued to use Marcelo in an attacking midfield position on the left so that he did not risk Drenthe. Messi was sure to hang out on the right side of midfield and cut inside so that he can get a shot away with his favorite left foot, this meant that the game would be over in the first 10 minutes if Salgado was to mark him. Ramos played Salgado at RB to mark Henry and Sergio Ramos was to play at LB to mark Messi.

From the kick off it was clear what Juande had in mind, his strikers in Raul and Higuain were at the half line, the formation was compact and he basically made sure that Sneijder was on the right and which gave some extra protection to mark Henry. Madrid had everyone covering back and the first real ball possession from the whites came in the 18th minute when they strung a few passes. From there on to almost the entire game, the percentages of ball possession was to remain over 75-25 in favor of Barcelona. Sergio Ramos was right on Messi and as one should expect constantly ended up fouling him and got an early yellow card. It was not just Messi that is a danger for Barca on the right, we also have Dani Alves who though having to mark Drenthe was looking more to contribute in attack. His defensive frailties could have put the game to rest, if Drenthe could have made a calm finish when put one-one with Valdes by Raul, with acres of space and time. That was the miss of the match and also i knew that minute that Madrid are bound to have a lapse somewhere in 90 minutes.


At half time though it was Barca and Guardiola who should have been worried. Right after half an hour Ramos took out a laboring Sneijder and replaced him surprisingly with 20 year old B team player Palanca when he had Van der Vaart on the bench. The second half saw Madrid playing with a bit more ease and a much improved effort in spreading the play. Palanca noticeably had a good second half when he was a handful for Abidal and also tested Valdes with a stinger. But another area of question for Madrid was Casillas, the keeper who has come under a lot of criticism, i am no exception to this. Casillas almost as though enough is enough put in a herculean effort and was supported well by Cannavaro and Metzelder, the latter made up for his lack of pace with some real last ditch tackles on the floor. Salgado was not running back towards his goal for once and was constantly trying his best to have his old legs keep up with the long legged Frenchman.


A suspect penalty decision on Salgado for bringing down Sergio B and the penalty that followed was saved well by Casillas meant that Barca would have to try extra hard to keep up to the predictions. The heroes from Madrid could have walked away and possibly even come back in their hunt for the La Liga if they had a bit more luck on their side and a little bit more concentration. In the 83rd minute Metzelder was found lacking in marking Eto in a corner when Puyol headed it across goal and went in off the Cameroonians thigh. With a possible defeat on their face, Madrid threw caution to the wind and came out attacking, which resulted in a counter attack where Henry passed to Messi for him to finish, with a last ditch effort from Cannavaro colliding with the goal post. This scene at the end was unfortunately what a great performance came to for Madrid. A superb Casillas finally ended up conceding two goals and one of the better players on the night Cannavaro was seen lying on the floor writhing in pain.

Following the match, there was some good press coverage on the Madrid performance. Press across the world called Madrid the brave hearts though they wilted away in the last 10 minutes to non stop pressure from high quality Barca team. Juande Ramos has brought discipline back for sure and is making things easy by playing a 4-2-2 diamond formation. The new Manager was able to make his player believe in the concept that even the midfielders and wingers have to dig deep to help out the defense. From the zone marking during Schuster, there is an evident switch to man marking. During the second half of the match, when Messi moved to the middle and Eto onto the right so did the Madrid defense. Metzelder and Ramos did switch places to accommodate the attacking changes by Barca. There is no doubt in my mind that 12 points away from the league leaders that Madrid find themselves, now guarantees that barring a miracle they are not achieving their 3rd title in a row. But if they can put up 70% of this level of performance in their forthcoming matches they can finish runner up, which is under question now by the critics. Juande Ramos is known to be a knock out tournament specialist but with a depleted team, it would not be a smart move to focus only on the Champions League as many say.

Pull up your White pants it is not a pleasant crack anymore

Work and more work, pretty much like the same time last year has kept me not so motivated to spend the evenings writing. I end up on the couch either with my Fifa 09 manager mode game where i recently earned 20K points for not simulating even a single game for an entire season as a Manager. The last time i wrote, it was an entire post on why it is not a crisis that Madrid is going through. The board this time around have indeed come out and rectified a portion of it, which is to get a replacement for Van Nistelrooy who is out for the season. From many names that were discussed for a couple of weeks, Madrid swiftly closed the deal with one promising youngster. This was one of the smartest business deals they have done in a few seasons, especially considering the summer fiasco. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar known as the "Hunter" was signed from Ajax with a possible full amount of 27M. Though Huntelaar is currently injured with an ankle injury, he should be fit and completely ready by Jan 1st when he is eligible to play for the Whites. His scoring record is just phenomenal and many think that he will be Van Nistelrooy's flag bearer for the Netherlands. It will be interesting to see how he steps up to the demands of the La Liga.

People who follow my blog would very well know that my last post pointed out a few things, which of course some of my readers did not agree with. After their humiliating defeat at the hands of Getafe last week, Madrid were to host Sevilla at the Bernabeu. It was not that Getafe played superb, it was just that Madrid was trying their level best to be as poor as possible. After missing this match due to my travels during Thanks Giving holidays, i had my eyes set on the Sevilla clash this Sunday. This is a team to whom Madrid always lose on their trips to Seville. Schuster though on thin ice was saving his job because of the only reason that half of his first team was in the hospital. The game against Sevilla welcomed back Robben, Higuain and Cannavaro. Robben and Higuain made their impact felt in the match and so did Cannavaro i should say but not a positive one. The Sevilla match was indication that it was not just injuries. I have mentioned even in my previous post that Madrid have no problem scoring, actually they are very good in making come backs when we would have written them off. This Sunday was no exception Madrid were down 3 goals to 1 at half time. But a change in strategy at half time which saw two wingers playing saw Madrid come back and level the game at 3-3, but this time only to lose a man and lose the match 4-3.

7 goals are nothing new for Real Madrid, if i remember right this is their 4th already this season with the same scoreline. The only problem this time was that this was the first time they were on the losing side. If a team is conceding 3 goals or 4 goals in a match, its time to look at the defense, organize it and add players if need be. I would like to add a few points taken from an interview with Madrid keeper after the Sevilla match.


“I have been playing in La Liga for ten seasons and this is the worst start I have ever had,” True, Casillas and the Madrid defense are struggling to keep a single clean sheet. At least he is accepting the problem.

"Defensively, we are very vulnerable, including myself. It just seems that when teams attack us three times, they score three goals and it is clear that everyone in the team is at fault."
It was true against Sevilla, when each time they put an attacking move together the Madrid defense struggled. Casillas made a fool of himself when he came out for a cross and got thin air and then he never came out for any of the other crosses. Whereas his counterpart at Sevilla Andres Pallop made nearly 9 saves though he conceded 3 goals.

“With the way we are playing now, we will not be able to win the title. But I believe that we are just going through a bad streak and there’s still a long to go in the season. Two years ago, we were eight points behind Barcelona but we came back and we won La Liga on the last day,”
Any sensible man who sees Barca go out week after week clobber teams and fire 4 and 5 goals past them, and see Madrid struggle against these very same teams the following week should know, that barring the same injury crisis at Barca there is no points for guessing who is going to win the league.

Losing was not just it, Madrid wanted to lose in a way that people will never forget and will for sure get their coach fired soon. I have a few reasons:

Marcelo was seen out of position on more than one occasion which resulted in crosses coming in from his flank, got himself booked, from the resulting free-kick Sevilla scored one of their 4 goals. When you think that he was out of position defensively, maybe he was contributing in attack. I sure don't remember any positive effect. His booking was the 5th yellow card which means he is suspended for the match against Barca. With Heinze and Torres injured, Schuster might have to find someone from the B team to play here.

Cannavaro was almost so uncomfortable playing alongside Sergio Ramos, that he left his position on numerous occasions, both defenders challenging the same players and finally the inability to win balls. I think he should maybe return to Napoli and save his reputation or retire.

Robben dubbed the "Glass man" gets a game finally after all his starts-stops and what does he do? For the most part of the game, he played well, turning defenders inside out, but either the final ball was poor or he was un-lucky with his shots. But collecting a second yellow card for arguing and abusing the referee for getting booked is just plain stupid. This meant Madrid were down to 10 men when the scoreline was 3-3 and that he would be unavailable for the game against Barca. He may have lost not just the game against Sevilla but something more. With the medical reports flowing in at the Madrid camp, it seems now Drenthe is carrying an injury which makes him doubtful for the Barca game and thus no wingers at all. I hope there is some disciplinary action taken against such behavior.

Now for the Manager, there is no excuses anymore. Actually i think Schuster might actually be looking for jobs elsewhere. If he is not he should definitely, as only a miracle can turn this team into a league winning position. The team just has forgotten to win, and there seems to be no discipline. Van Nistelrooy out for the season and now Diarra too would mean the players coming in to replace them, have to step up their game. Gonzalo Higuain is doing his part, and Gago is really doing well. Schuster needs to organize the defenders. With Casillas himself struggling it is not going to be easy, but you cannot concede 4 goals against 3rd division side Real Union and claim that we are plagued by injuries.

Last i also cannot help wonder about the medical staff at Madrid. Is something wrong? Are they rushing players back into action? Jonathan Woodgate was injured when he got to Madrid and was always injured, but he got back to England and started playing fairly on a regular basis. Brazilian striker Ronaldo took almost 4 months to get fit after signing for Madrid, this is after winning the golden boot the same summer in the World Cup. Antonio Cassano was struggling to stay fit and also was overweight, but is now a superstar in Italian Serie A. You see young De la Red fall unconscious on the pitch, and players after players getting injured, its time to look at your Physios and strength training techniques.