2 months can change who fears whom- Its Champions league time!!

Two months ago when the first knock out stage draw was made for the Champions league, Rafa Benitez and Liverpool fans would have been the first to jump up in joy for the relatively easy tie against the struggling Real Madrid. Liverpool were in top form having made one of the starts of the season in their premiership history. At the same time Real Madrid were a mess, with just not the numerous problems in the board, a new coach and an injury list as long as an old lady's shopping list.

Two months later Real Madrid have cut down the lead Barca hold to 7 points and with the El Classico Bernabeu fixture still pending, they now can think that the La Liga is not over yet. New coach Juande Ramos definitely has what it takes to occupy the hot seat. People generally were skeptical on the chances the Spaniard, trophies out of the question and it was about how to stop the landslide. Ramos did that, went about making his formations click, bring the discipline back and grind out the victories. There were no complains from Madrid, on the injury list, and the problems in the board, they just went about winning. There was no pressure on them as almost the entire world maybe including the Madrid fan base had written off the chances of winning the La Liga for the third year running. With Barca having a 12 point lead it was not just up to Real Madrid winning, but they had to hope that the swashbuckling Barcelona would slip.

The last two weeks saw exactly the same, Barca dropped 2 points with a draw at Real Betis which itself was a point saved from a last gasp effort from Eto. To make the league interesting Real Madrid who were expected to have a tough match against the same Real Betis, fired six goals past them in the first half. Barca on the same day lost to Espanyol cutting down their lead to 7 points, and it was their first home loss in over a year. Real Madrid players eased the pressure on Juande Ramos from the fans and the media that though Madrid are winning they had become a totally unattractive unit to watch. With Robben, Sneijder and Guti coming back from injury, Juande still stuck to his formation, appreciation to him for his guts for playing 3 outright strikers, Higuain, Huntelaar and Raul in the hole.


The Gago-Lass combination in the center of midfield has for sure been the difference from December. Higuain opened the scoring when he was through from Raul's header and the cool finished showed why he is the striker whom Madrid will rely on this season. Huntelaar scored two goals, the first when the ball kindly fell at his feet from a Ricardo punch. The second was a tap in when his thunderous header was saved and put back at his feet by Ricardo. The Betis keeper who kept out the mighty Barca till the last few minutes of their encounter the previous week, was left with a lot to do with his defenders left all over the pitch. Captain fantastic who had recently become the leading scorer in La Liga just took over center stage when his first finish was a sweet left footed first time strike from outside the box, the second was a sweet flick over the advancing Ricardo when he was put through by Gago.

Sergio Ramos was having one the games of the season. Right from the beginning of the match the presence of Mark Gonzalez was not enough to put him in his side of the pitch and he was just terrific in his defending and his attacking contribution. He capped off a brilliant match with a fine diving header from a Madrid set piece. The second half saw Juande shuffling his team, by taking off Raul, Higuain and Cannavaro. Sergio Ramos slipped into the center of defense and still defended extremely well, Lass slipped into RB, Robben on the right and Sneijder and Guti in the middle. Right on the restart Sneijder put in Robben, but the Dutchman was a little too casual on his cut back. Guti showed that he is almost back to full match fitness as he was threading in a lot of his trade mark through balls.

The problem for Juande when Real Madrid welcome Liverpool on Wednesday is to get the monkey off the back. Madrid had great success in the Champions League from 1998-2001, but since then have struggled to get past the first knock out stages. For a team of such pedigree these stats are often the reason for coaches losing their jobs even after bringing domestic glory. In coach Juande Ramos, he brings a lot of success in knock out tournaments. Liverpool on the other hand are struggling, having almost completely lost out on the chance to win the Premiership. Not only are they struggling to keep up with the defending champions but if they are to put up the same show they had against Man City this weekend when they travel to the Bernabeu on Wednesday, their good run in Champions League tournaments in recent years would be cut short.

For me the Real Madrid V Liverpool match will be a pleasant contradiction- most likely there would be more Spanish players in the visiting English team's line up than the Spanish capital city team. But since an English team is playing, there is a high possibility that the match would be on ESPN 2 with English commentary.......

Politics, Money and Football in one sentence???

Just when it looked like Calderon and gang knew how they were running the White house, things have changed. Controversy after another and the President was forced to resign his post. Second in command Vicente Boluda has taken charge till summer which will mean that there will be elections then. Former President and Galactico creator Florontino Perez is who the press is already talking about with the possibility of Zidane coming in to a Sporting Director's role. Now as much as this seems to be a movie story line, this is what the press has put together from separate incidents that happened over the last year. In my opinion this is the primary negative in a Board controlled PLC like Real Madrid. There is bound to be a lot of politics and people go to any extend to achieve their goals. While promising to sign some of the world's best players may seem to be the only main strategy of Presidential candidates, the whole election process is not sans controversy. Mail in votes and now non members approving the Madrid budget?

When the mess in running the club was on, the players were back and was ready to face bottom place Osasuna at the Bernabeu on Sunday. As i have written earlier, it is conviction of what he is doing that sets Juande Ramos apart. He is not doing a whole lot different. Of course he has a lot of players back from injury but even then his man management skills have to be given special mention. Osasuna as they showed last week against Barca is no walk over and they showed exactly that when they went ahead first. Madrid rallied back and won the game 3-1, a scoreline which is more glorified as it was a struggle in totality. A few things that i have noticed that Juande Ramos has done to his formation is that, for one he plays both Gago and Lass together in midfield. I know Guti was injured but i guess he is back to full fitness. In a way Gago and Lass seem to be performing well together. Instead of a Diarra and Guti combination, the two midfielders in a central role seem to be giving Madrid more stability. The only problem yesterday was that Lass was not the best compared to the standard he set in his previous two matches. While he was holding the ball well, he was being too slow in counter attack and was running out of ideas in distribution. Second off Juande Ramos has made it clear with the formation that Robben is to play a role similar to Messi. Robben is a player who is going to dribble and wind his way around defenders and take a shot at goal. He is not a left winger who is going to put in telling crosses into the penalty box. Since Ramos has taken charge Robben is playing on the right side of midfield and is scoring a lot of goals. Ramos also has his best backline now at his disposal and that has contributed to the clean sheets that Madrid are able to maintain.
The match was not without a new set of controversy. This time it was with the refereeing and i think people who complain have a point. Now i have seen this guy referee a lot of Madrid games which is a little weird, and former Madrid player at Osasuna Juanfran would have some complaints. First there was this tackle from Gago inside the penalty box from the side, which looked a little 50-50. First look at normal speed i called penalty here, but then when you look at the replay and think that Gago missed the ball and Juanfran with his original tackle and the ball would not have been recovered by Juanfran and the protests on the dive was enough for the Referee to be convinced to dish out the yellow card to the bewildered youngster. Towards the end of the game, one-one with Pepe, Juanfran was brought down, again a first look "penalty" i shouted and the referee did blow, but the assistant referee suggested that it was a dive and Juanfran was give the marching orders.


There is still a 12 point difference between leaders Barca and Real Madrid, and if anyone is hopeful that Barca will slip up they should have seen their demolition of Deportivo on Saturday. Now Madrid are doing the right thing which is to do their part and that is to keep winning.

When we speak of politics that is ruining clubs like Madrid it is Money and a hell lot of Money thats in the news. Man City reportedly bid a world record of over 110M for Brazilian superstar Kaka and press in Italy and England were convinced that Milan could not resist the lure. Sure Milan could do really well with the money to re-build an aging team. But if Dubai money and a trillion of that thinks that a Kaka or a Robinho can change anything, then he should look at the Premiership table. Granted Man City have a decent young talent pool including the like of Micah Richards and have bought Shawn Wright Phillips back, but to think that the former World Player of the year would leave one of the best clubs in the world to a wannabe club with a lot of Money is just preposterous. Oh really? As Robinho.


I have read that Kaka is from a good background back in Brazil and that is why the decision came today from the Brazilian superstar that he never even for 30 seconds thought about leaving Milan and that he would have been disappointed if Milan had accepted the offer. Now i believe there was a whole lot of pressure on Milan not to accept the bid from the public. No offense to Man City but i don't think Kaka would want to join them for the big money when he has declined offers from Real Madrid.

I can imagine the outburst by a lot of fans and the public alike that when the whole world goes through a financial crisis, spending over 275M in transfer fees and player wage is how should i put it? CRIMINAL! Kaka maybe the golden boy of football, but i thought that was only an expression, did folks in Dubai take that for real?

Glass man on target for rejuvenated Madrid

Juande Ramos took the reins of Madrid with a week to go for El Classico. Though he tasted victory in the first match in charge against Zenit, the heartbreaking El Classico loss was no consolation. But the way i look at it there were a lot of positives out of the the match. This definitely translated the following week when they played Valencia. Wesley Sneijder's superb strike made sure that Real went into the Christmas break on a high. The two weeks break would also see Madrid get some replacements to their shrinking roster. Huntelaar would be the one to get the goals for Madrid and it would be Lassana Diarra signed from Portsmouth who will be the cover for the injured name sake.

Controversy has already kicked off with regards to the Madrid Sporting division headed by Mijatovic making a mistake in dishing out almost 40M on two players who have both played in UEFA cup competitions with their respective clubs. UEFA Champions league clause would mean that only one of the two can play for Madrid post January in the Champions League. After yesterday's match against Villareal i know for sure that Ramos would be a fool not to pick Lass. It is not that Huntelaar made a bad start yesterday, but i think Madrid don't have an issue in scoring goals with Raul, Higuain and Saviola and it is the defensive midfielder position that does not have cover other than the young Gago.

With Higuain out for a week with tonsillitis, it was sure that new signing Huntelaar who is fully recovered from the ankle injury would get to step on the Bernabeu in front of his new fans. He played well for the time he was on the pitch. The Dutchman used his size well and held the ball up well, and could have capped off his debut with a goal when he controlled the ball well but his shot was superbly saved by Diego Lopez. Juande Ramos had his first line defense back, with Heinze finally off the injury list, Pepe and Cannavaro in the center and Ramos at RB. As is the case with the match against Valencia Robben was to start on the right wing and Sneijder on the left side. The difference in the center was that Juande Ramos did not put the entire responsibility on either Gago or Lass. Instead he lined up both of them side by side and had Raul and Huntelaar up front. This move actually worked well for the Madrid midfield as Gago and Lass were just breaking up each and every move.


The first half saw some superb slick passing from Madrid and it was clear who everyone was looking for to pass to and yes it was one of the games that Robben was unstoppable. He was creating too much of trouble for the Villareal defense. Sneijder was also getting into some good positions but was not able to get a good shot off. I was really impressed with the way Gago and Lass played together, and if Madrid forwards could take their chances it would have been an almost perfect match. Seeing Lass play, i am not sure he can exist on his own as the defensive midfielder, because he looks almost a prototype of Gago. He is extremely quick, not that great in the air, but has a good range of passing and ball recovery is also good. It will be interesting to see if Juande Ramos will indeed give him the sole responsibility in that role and add Guti or another play maker to the midfield.

Juande Ramos has a specific plan in place and i think Madrid would buy a winger this January, and i am pretty positive that it will be a left sided midfielder. There is a conscious move to play Robben on the right and he seems to be enjoying the responsibility. The only problem in playing a left footed player on the right is that, his attacking moves become predictable and he has to cut inside in order to get a shot away or a cross. It was evident for the Villareal that Robben would have to cut inside and bring the ball on to his preferred left foot before he attempts anything. With Madrid seemingly struggling to convert or create any final chances it was Robben's predictability that finally paid off. He dribbled past the wing back and then cut inside past one center back and past another sliding in defender and finally placed a stunning shot past Diego Lopez who did not stand a chance. As the flying Dutchman later said it was his best goal in the Madrid shirt.


It was a nerve end to the match for Madrid and Juande Ramos as Villareal came at them with everything they have. It was some good defending from Madrid and the brilliance of Casillas that saved the night. Royston Drenthe made a substitute appearance and again showed positive signs of how far he has come as a player. Cannavaro was superb against Valencia and he was good in the first half of the match, but his marking was suspect in the second period. Pepe on his return was extra ordinary till the end when he made a comical clearance. Sergio Ramos showed signs of what he was becoming famous for. He never looked foolish and ably supported Robben in attack on the right wing. Heinze for a change was solid did not make any mistakes with his usual stupid hustles. Nihat and Rossi were completely kept in check by Pepe and Cannavaro, and Gago and Lass kept Cazorla under control. A few more weeks in Lass and Huntelaar are bound to gain more match fitness and with Higuain expected back next week, Juande Ramos has more players to try out.

There is definitely discipline and organization that has come in to the Madrid play, but they surely need to get some one take up the goal scoring responsibility. Higuain seems to be the most likely candidate having already scores 11 goals in the league. Barca maintained their 12 point lead on Madrid after their hard fought match against Mallorca and Valencia won against Atletico, this mean that Madrid's victory put them one point below Valencia on third, but for all practicality there is no catching up to Barca. With almost two months to go for the Liverpool game, i think this should be the ideal season for the players and the coach to focus on getting past the first knock out stage jinx.

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.

Real Madrid in crisis or just stupid?

I just had a weird two weeks or so where i suddenly faced a writers block so as to say. The work days were so long and stressful that my past time was not a passion anymore and i was finding it difficult to focus and write what i was feeling. Now all the news in the press has prompted me to touch upon the one thing that everyone is talking about. There is a crisis at Real Madrid and that the recent results are there to prove this point. Real Madrid lost at The Bernabeu in a long time when they lost to Juventus last week in the Champions League. The Italian club did the double on Madrid but unlike the game in Turin this was pretty one sided and which was in favor of Juventus. It was a clean game, with nothing to complain about but the players. Juventus outclassed the Madrid players in every department. I would rather not want to get into the details of this game, but would bring this back up in other parts of the post. Madrid followed this up with a 4-3 win at home over Malaga. This game though from a neutral point of view was a superb watch and personally for Higuain who smashed 4 goals, this for sure exposed the issues Madrid currently face. If this was not enough Madrid faced third division club Real Union in the return leg of the Spanish cup. The first leg ended in favor of Real Union at 3-2. The return leg in the Bernabeu though ended in a win for Real, the score line was 4-3 which meant that Real Union would progress on away goals.

I read numerous articles on what is going wrong in Madrid and whether there is a crisis or not right now. Here is my take on how we define the situation. Real Madrid are trailing Barcelona the league leaders in La liga by two points, considering the fact that this is after 10 rounds of games there is no concern of worry here. In the Champions League Madrid got off to a superb start in the group of death and now have had back to back defeats against Juventus. They could still top the group if they beat Bate away and Zenit at home. There are other teams who have had less than inspiring results in the Champions league, i will take the example of Chelsea who had a goalless draw against a nobody team and then lost to Roma. The Spanish super cup loss is not a big deal for the club. Though every year they come out and say that they consider this tournament very important, it is for sure just an opportunity to test some of the youngsters. Madrid almost every year have been knocked out early in the past few years. So if all is well, then what is everyone talking about? Here are my thoughts:

Can Casillas ever keep a clean sheet?

I have no intention in putting all the blame on someone who is widely regarded as one of the best keepers in the world now. A Goal Keeper who is in the prime running for the European player of the year and the winner of the best keeper trophy in Spain last season is someone who will go unnoticed amongst a flurry of mistakes by defenders. No doubt Casillas was phenomenal last season and was indeed a major contribution to the success of Madrid and Spain. The defenders have not changed this season. People under estimate Pepe, but it is he who makes others play better. Somehow there is a thought that Cannavaro is a leader and he organizes the defenders. If he claims one day in the press that he knows Del Pierro like the back of his hand and then becomes the reason for the same man scoring three goals, i dont think many younger lads would want to look up to him. Cannavaro was at fault for the first goal Del Pierro scored in Turin, the first goal at the Bernabeu was a repeat of the same event and then he conceded the free kick that led to the third goal Del Pierro scored. Another thing to notice in all three goals was, the first time around Casillas did not attempt a dive, same with the second and for the third the free kick he made the criminal mistake of organizing a poor wall. Chasing Christiano Ronaldo was not just the only bad move Madrid management made during the summer transfer window, they signed Esquel Garay from Racing Santander and let him go on loan. Gaby Heinze does not have the pace or positioning skills to be a LB, he can only play as a CB, but makes too many mistakes. At this age and experience, there is something wrong with this guy if he things that bundling over people is what you call a tackle. Sergio Ramos should never be played as a CB and Schuster knows this. He is one the best Right Backs in the world currently, but has lost the heart in the past few weeks with all the controversies. Schuster has the other genuine option in Metzelder who if not injured does not give any confidence to his Manager with his performance.

So is it all about the defenders or Casillas? When you look around most clubs in Europe they do not have the big names that Madrid can boast of defense. I will take Liverpool as an example a back four of Carragher, Agger, Arbeola and Aurelio is in no way comparable to what Madrid have. This is in paper, but collectively they are way more effective than the super star defenders. So there is something in the way they are organized? Well yes, for one there are far too many changes in the back 4 because of injuries or otherwise. This does not pass on any confidence between these defenders or between them and the keeper. Capello brought discipline to this Madrid team, now this does not come easy, he made them play compact and curbed the super attacking team into defending their half. With Capello fired for the reason that Madrid were playing unattractive brand of football, Schuster has advanced the line of defense, the whole team plays up the pitch. There is limited help from the midfielders and with one winger, one of the wings would be exposed when the wing back attacks. This was evident when all Nedved was doing was to keep Ramos back and Marcelo was having all the space but no imagination. The success of the Juventus backline was that they never even let the Madrid strikers make a turn. Chiellini for that matter was outstanding in both ties. The Madrid defenders don't have the strength or the skill to do this. This is where Schuster should know that he needs to play a layer of midfield closer to the defense. Again space marking or man marking needs to be thought about. As always "space" does not score goals, men do is the point. I was seeing the highlights of the Real Union match and the last goal the visitors scored in the dying minutes was from a header and who was in the middle of the penalty box jumping for the ball? Of all people Marcelo!

It is evident that Madrid defenders and goal keeper together are not functioning as a unit. Some lack confidence, and some just make poor mistakes. Schuster should thinking of going back a bit to the Capello plan. Real Madrid will for sure score goals, but you cannot have a beginning to a season where your team is struggling to keep a clean sheet and you have already played 3 games ending in 4-3 score line. I for one believe that Casillas has lost his Halo and now the only way out of this is to function as a group.

Midfield Circus

Now I can debate on this for years. Schuster just gives us one reason after the other. From 30 midfield combinations last season, to more this season, there is no plan in place. I believe that the squad formation should change with the players in hand and not to fit a player into a squad formation. Van der vaart is not a CF and the past few games this is where Schuster is playing him. He is the best player who can link well with Gago or Diarra and the defense and still go forward and score goals. The hat trick he scored against Sporting earlier this season was the classic example of it. I can understand the problem Schuster has-he has too many midfielders performing the same act in his circus. The answer to this is not to keep changing your formation and hope that the dice falls on the perfect "1". It is not difficult to figure out that Schuster cannot have all of these names on the team sheet at the same time. With Robben living up to his name of "Glass Man" the only wing option is in Drenthe. This leaves Sergio Ramos with the Herculean task of providing the attacking flair on the right and also falling back to support the cracks in defense.

Van Goal-less

Schuster has had his worst nightmare come true. Van Nistelrooy who is to undergo knee surgery is to be out of action for more than 9 months which will mean the remainder of the season. He has had recurrence of his knee injury he had in 2000 with PSV which almost canceled his move to Man Utd. With the Dutchman out Schuster knows what he has in hand. There is Raul who is way past his prime and has more games where he is invisible than the ones like Real Union where he scored a hat trick and in the process crossed 300 goals in the white shirt. Then the big positive of the season, Higuain who has now established himself this season as a clinical finisher. With a total of 9 goals in La liga, his 4 goals against Malaga, though 2 from penalties was just the best finishing i have seen in a while. With Saviola the only option on bench whom Schuster has no confidence in, Real would have to buy a striker come January transfer window.
Do they invest in some young talent from South America or Europe similar to the likes of Higuain, Gago or Marcelo, Hell Yes!. But is that the answer for this season- Hell NO! Madrid signed 16 year old Brazilian Alipio Duarte Brandao and is joining the Madrid B team. Brandao known as the "little Ronaldo" is for sure a talent to look out for the future.

When Madrid ventures into the January transfer market, the answer to their problems would come in strikers who are cup tied. You are not going to get the players of the quality of Podolski or Carlos Tevez free to play for them in the Champions league. The most feasible in this looks primarily Carlos Tevez and Andrei Arshavin. Man Utd's loan deal on the player is about to end and they are due 37M on the player. Would Sir Alex be able to convince the board to shell out this kind of money when another expensive signing this season Berbatov is keeping the Argentine away from the starting line up? Arshavin is unhappy and wants to go come January, but is he the right choice for Madrid? I don't think so, he is a CF with a lot of pace but is not an outright goal scorer. Tevez in the other hand can play second striker and still score. The only choice for Madrid board and Schuster is to go and buy a quality striker who may be cup tied but who can help to save the La liga. The latest news is that Madrid is following Inter striker Hernan Crespo who is bound to be headed out in January. The advantage in this case would be that the experienced Argentine is not cup tied as he was not picked by Mourinho for the Champions League.


I do not agree that the right term here is Crisis. Real Madrid are facing issues which everyone knew they would face right from the beginning. Sending Esquel Garay on a loan deal when you are facing problems in defense, the wild goose chase in Christiano Ronaldo, letting Robinho go without a proper replacement and not re-enforcing the striking department were reasons enough to think that this situation would arise. Schuster's neck is on the chopping board. If he wants to retain his position, not only does he need to win against Valladolid this weekend, they need to get back into the habit of maintaining clean sheets. If Schuster is not able to create a turn around, reports claim that former Inter coach Robert Mancini, former Tottenham coach Juande Ramos and former Getafe coach and Madrid player Michael Laudrup are supposedly in the Madrid shortlist. But if i am Schuster, there is a small but growing injury list that is worrying. Apart from Van Nistelrooy out for the season, Cannavaro and Metzelder picked up injuries mid week, Pepe is out for a month or so, De la Red and Diarra are out for a further week and Robben is out for a month or so. So should everyone be tagging this as a crisis or is it a result of some stupid decisions?

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.