Sleepwalking Too Rarly and Sleep-Waking Too Late

No, Real Madrid
is NOT in Crisis. We are merely in a slump. 5 dropped points over 2 games
against La Liga teams whose objective is to stave off relegation is proof of
that. Maybe Jose Mourinho’s sarcastic remarks prior to the Levante game about
just wanting to stay up were taken seriously by the team: prompting them to
play as if we were a team battling relegation.

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On a more
serious note: I can only speculate that perhaps the team is tired. The team did
have an intensive preseason and looked supremely fit for the Super Copa and the
opening of La Liga. Since the international break however, the team has looked
flat, out of ideas and mentally and physically tired. Is this a case of the
team peaking at the wrong time? Or maybe Mourinho’s fitness regimen really
designed things this way given the lack of top-level opposition at this point
in time in our calendar? (But he didn’t anticipate we’d be bad enough to drop
points)

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Team Selection

On the back of
my hypothesis that the team might be mentally and physically fatigued, I will
not criticize the rotations instituted by Mourinho for last night’s game.
Vanilla Joe (Callejon) did indeed deserve a start while Di Maria clearly
deserved some form of punishment for demonstrating his credentials to join
Argentina’s Diving Team for the London 2012 games. Arbeloa’s entry into the
starting XI is also logical to me – as I’ve always pined for him to start.
Ramos going to the bench might have been a bit curious, but I’m willing to
chalk it up to rotation: after all, it would be 7 games of football every 3
days for the boys (Getafe-Zagreb-Levante-Racing-Rayo-Ajax-Espanyol). It was
however the decision to start Varane as opposed to Albiol to be Carvalho’s
partner that gave credence to the internal Portuguese-vs.-Spanish clique warthat some reporters / conspiracy theorists have been abuzz about. At midfield, the selection of Lass also seemed to be the logical choice
given Khedira’s suspension and Coentrao + Pepe’s injuries.

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Having said the
above, let me be the first to say that in my opinion, Varane had a good game
and found his performance to be shockingly impressive for a teenager who was playing
in the reserves of a relegation-battling Ligue 1 team at this same time last
season. My clamors to see Arbeloa start were also rightly justified as well.
All in all, I thought we did well in the defensive department. Even the
recently-oft-criticized Carvalho wasn’t bad – nevermind Iker Casillas who had a
signature reflexes were on show for all of us last night. And speaking of the
Captain, I would also like to point out that his ball distribution out of his
penalty box has improved immensely as we have seen his tendency to make
pointless hoofing kicks out of his box less and less and more intelligent
throws to streaking players to start plays instead.

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Sadly, that’s
about as positive as I can get re: what I have to say from last night’s
performances.

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The First Half – Sleepwalking

Our first half
performance could essentially be described as the Team Sleepwalking. The team
was sluggish, unimaginative and lacking in assertion to seize control of the
game and take the game to Racing Santander. Every Real Madrid supported on
twitter also pretty much noticed how little the off-the-ball movement was from
Real’s players: an ultimate sign of ‘Sleepwalking.’

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And apart from
being a big bleh in terms of performance, Real Madrid played a very unusual
game tactically in the first half  as
well. Mesut Ozil, was frequenoziltly on the flanks while Ronaldo would be in the
‘10’ position – it is a positional arrangement that benefits / maximizes the
capabilities of neither Cristiano nor Ozil.

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Apart from the
already-mentioned positive performances from Arbeloa + Varane, perhaps only
Xabi Alonso deserves a mention. His midfield partner Lass however did try… to
match Xabi’s passing numbers… but in fouls (uff!). This game was no longer just
about the popular criticism of Real Madrid for not finishing their chances
created – because in the first half there were hardly any scoring chances
created by our Men in Black-and-White.

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Real Madrid did
find some measure of control of the game late in the first half, but there
would be no goal… or even good scoring opportunities created.

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The Second Half – Waking From Sleep Too Late.

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Mourinho did try
to change things up for Real Madrid: initiating 2 bold moves meant to intensify
Real Madrid’s attack on the Racing goal. His first move was to convert his
4-2-3-1 into a more conventional 4-4-2 with Pipita coming on to join Benzema in
attack in place of Ozil. The switch to a classic 4-4-2 also involved placing
Ronaldo and Di Maria (who had come on for Callejon) in the Right and Left side
of the midfield respectivel while Xabi Alonso and Lass remained as the pivots
of the match.

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The second
tactical change Mourinho put late in the second half was the conversion of this
4-4-2 into a diamond 4-4-2 with a single pivot (not the narrow CM-centric
version you see in Serie A nowadays): with Xabi Alonso playing the single pivot
at the base of the diamond while Kaka, who came on for Lass played at the tip
of the diamond. Once again, I thought Kaka looked bright but still lacking in
the ‘final product’ for Real Madrid that it so badly needed but never managed
to get in the game.

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The Truly Worrisome Thing

On the back of
what was visibly an improvement in terms of the team’s performance, I
personally cannot find fault with the IN-GAME adjustments Mourinho made to his
team to get the win – because both ‘degrees’ of tactical modification appeared
to me like they worked in terms of tightening the screw around the neck of
Racing. The truly worrisome thing about was that at the end of the day, the
ultimate objective of scoring a winning goal (nevermind creating adequate
scoring chances), was not achieved. All the signs are now clearly pointing
towards the possibility that Real Madrid have in fact had a massive drop in
terms mental and physical fitness.

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3 Games. 1 Win,
1 Loss, 1 Draw. 1 Goal Scored. These are definitely not the numbers of a
title-contending team. At this point, then perhaps only  the comfort / consolation we can get from
last night was Barca’s lost points (we have Unai Emery to thank for that).

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Injuries and Experiments

Rayo Vallecano
visit us at the Bernabeu this weekend and it’s looking like Ricardo Carvalho
will not be available amidst reports that he may not want to make the match
because of a head injury. With a slew of other injuries and a lengthening list
of players whose forms are dropping off, Perhaps Mourinho should re-think the
tactical options available to him as his 3 options of varying tactical systems
all failed to secure us the win.

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Maybe Jose
should give a couple of other tactical systems a try too…

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A voice inside
of me at this time however is just offering up a much simpler solution: That
the team stops Sleep Walking and instead Wakes from their Sleep. 

Domino Effect

Angel DI(VE) Maria. He earned his nickname last Sunday. The Olympics are next year you Jackass

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1.0  What have we done?

It just HAD to be the absence of Khedira once again that
made the difference. Only this time, we weren’t talking about the difference
between winning by 4-0 or 4-2. This time, we are talking about actually winning
or losing: 3 points, 1 point or nothing. And as was the case last night, we
ended with zilch: putting to waste the points dropped by Barca vs. Sociedad and
the ones we gained vs. Getafe
last week. Now, Barca’s 8-0 massacre of Osasuna feels that much more orgasmic to
the cules thanks to the freakshow we put out last night.

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Losing points like this regardless of what Mourinho says (“we’re
better of losing 1 than drawing 2”) hurts – because believe it or not, the La
Liga Title is NOT won during the clasicos but in games like this. Last season
we dropped points to teams like Levante, Sporting and Zaragoza:
points that would’ve allowed us that tiny advantage to win La Liga: lost
clasicos or not.

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I’ve always imagined / hoped that our squad, considerably
larger than Barca’s and whose fitness has reached peak levels can rattle off
win after win going into early December for the first clasico. On the other
hand, many in the know, among them cules, anticipate Barca to drop points here
and there till they reach full fitness and go about their annual weekly
massacres by end November-early December heading into the Clasico. I was hoping
our early season fitness advantage would see us 4 – 5 points ahead of Barca
heading into the December clasico: meaning that not even a loss then would cost
us League Leadership. But it was not to be.

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I would have accepted dropping points to La Liga’s other
top-level sides too: the rejuvenated Diego+Falcao-led Atleti (who hammered
Racing last night), the Soldado-inspired Valencia,
the Negredo-spearheaded Sevilla or even the Millionaires at Malaga…
all are legitimate Madrid
upsetters. But Levante? Come on!

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… And none of that Levante-is-a-bogey-team-crap please! I’m
not interested in constructing a reincarnation of the Riazor.

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2.0  Di(ve) Maria

His Thank-You-Speech: "I would like to thank Sami Khedira for taking a Red Card for me... I will never forget this!"

The subject of much conversation / irritation / hatred of
course had to be the man who started the Domino effect that led to all this:
Mr. Angel Di(ve) Maria. Was he trying to ‘fit in’ because he mistakenly thought
that he was playing in the Camp
Nou because of Levante’s
‘Blaugrana Colors’?  In a world where
Madridistas rebelliously stand in disgust at Barca and their Biscuit Boy divers
and whiners, Di Maria robbed us of all of the credibility to do so.

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Although I do partly agree with Mourinho’s statement that
Khedira ‘walked right into the trap’ when he pushed Ballesteros aside to defend
his teammate, I’m having a very difficult time imagining anyone else except for
Di Maria who set that trap. Di Maria owes Khedira and his teammates an apology
for this stunt that cost us the game, Khedira for at least another game, his
other teammates for yellow cards accumulated because of the tempestuous affair
the match had become and of course, the fans given how terrible the game turned
out to be for Madrid after Khedira’s sending off.

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The sending off of Khedira thanks to Di Maria’s moments of
childish mindlessness triggered the Domino Effect that completely sucked Real
Madrid’s momentum out of the game.

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3.0  Tactics & Personnel

3.1  Pre-Khedira Expulsion

While Madrid
press were salivating about what a rich, handsome, great AND brave footballer (the
latter adjective used to describe his insistence to play) Ronaldo was, I was
just happy to see Sami Khedira back. I also didn’t mind seeing Kaka in place of
Ozil.

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Until Di Maria’s childish antics got the better of the team,
the German panzer made the Real Madrid Midfield robust, and much more effective
and ‘enveloping’ Levante’s goal. His ability to ‘fade away’ from attention but
always be there for a ball recovery, a simple pass, or tackle, gave Xabi Alonso
the perfect platform to do his thing. On the other hand, I totally didn’t mind
seeing Coentrao in Ronaldo’s role. As for Kaka, his starting XI place seemed a
just reward for his standout cameos off the bench in place of Ozil who seems to
need to adjust to life as a player-against-whom-defenses-are-designed-to-stop.
Kaka looked refreshing last night during the first half: confidently using his
acceleration to knife through Levante’s defense and showing us glimpses of the
confidence-applied-to-his-directness qualities that made many a Madridista
dream of seeing him in white during his days with the Rossoneri.

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While it is true that Levante played reasonably well (I
thought Ballesteros was very good for them) to repel us and ensure that they
weren’t going to get a hiding ala Osasuna, I was pretty confident that we
would’ve walked away with at least a 2-0 on the back of our first 40-mins.
performance.

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3.2  Post-Khedira Tactics

Apart from Di Maria explosion of immaturity last night, what
really drove me up the wall was how the team played post-Khedira. The team came
out in the second half sending Ronaldo in for Benzema, pushing Coentrao to
partner with Xabi Alonso: give us a headless 4-2-3 shape (without the 1). It is
still a fundamentally sound tactic, playing with 10 men: sending in a hybrid
winger-cum-striker (Ronaldo) in for a pure striker (Benzema).

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Once again however, my problem with the team lay with
Coentrao playing as a CM. Forced by the urgency to score a goal, Coentrao
failed to give us a presence at midfield that we so badly needed without
Khedira. Xabi Alonso played his role heroically – but it wasn’t enough. With
the presence of Lass on the bench as a direct replacement and Arbeloa as well
(to push Ramos to CB and give Pepe the DM role), Mourinho instead opted for his
compatriot to play a role unsuitable for the ‘15’. Kaka got no service (neither
did Ozil when he came on) and the attack went stale. To top it all off, Real
Madrid shockingly began to play long ball soccer in the second half too: with
Pepe, Carvalho and Coentrao hoofing up speculative balls for Ronaldo and Di
Maria to chase. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Route 1 football: I
do have a problem with us playing it, without a proper ‘9’.

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It was as awful as it was ineffective and ultimately,
dangerous: CBs and DMs hoofing up long balls for Cristiano, Di Maria and the
Fullbacks to chase – leaving space for Levante to strike and threaten with
counters. The cycle repeated itself over and over again – it wouldn’t be long
before they had more chances on goal during the second half than us. Soon
enough, a dagger would find itself into our chests with Kone’s goal.

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And while Mourinho is predictably ‘protecting his team’:
talking about the state of the pitch, penalties not given, etc. I’m pretty sure
(or hoping at least) that once he watches the DVD of last night’s game, he will
be asking the same question: Why the hell were we playing long ball football to
get back into the game?

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Somehow we all saw it coming. bit by bit: Di Maria’s little
tumble knocks over one domino piece after another…

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… A nasty tackle that earns him a yellow.

… A little poke in the face that gives him the opportunity
to do a Sergio Busquets

… A telling off from Ballesteros that provokes Khedira’s
protective instinct for a teammage

… A second yellow for Khedira. Expulsion

… The game turns ugly for Madrid, they lose the momentum

… Levante find the opportunity to turn the tide and score.

… Real Madrid
lose 1-0.

… And Just like that, a not-yet-fully-fit Barca are now a
point ahead of us

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How far does this domino effect go? And when does it stop?

The answer is quite simple: when we choose to grow up, stop
fucking around and play some bloody football.

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originally posted in Real Madrid Football Blog here

Fairytale Friendlies

Now THAT’s what a friendly’s supposed to be like!

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Instead of a lone insane fan willing to charge a moving golf-cart, you get hoardes of fans putting a stop to the operations of a shopping mall as they trail not pretty boy Cristiano Ronaldo… but Jose Mourinho (who supposedly insisted that George Clooney would be the best man to play him in a biopic)

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Instead of solitary pictures with one Will Ferrell, you get 101 kids to run around the pitch with Benzema, Xabi Alonso and Co.

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And of course, the best part: instead of waiting for a 3-goal blitz from Ronaldo within 15 minutes to get a 3-1 victory, we get ourselves an orgasmic 7-1 win.

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Mourinho has had his pre-season: UCLA, serious training, tactical experiments, MLS, Mexican and European sparring partners with solid (*cough* boring *cough*), convincing wins.

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Now Florentino is having his: a few billion asian fans going nuts for Real Madrid and letting Barca know how they feel about the Cules, setting up international relations with foreign football academies, sponsored events and of course… 7-1 goalscoring orgies.

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All in one summer!

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Whoever said that Mourinho the Paragmatist and Perez the Social-Marketing Butterfly would never live comfortably together are probably changing their minds now.

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Seriously, though I do acknowledge the importance of serious ‘Mourinho Road Trips’ to develop team chemistry away from European paparazzi or Asian fans that come in Hoardes, I welcome Real Madrid’s return to this continent. It is after all high time for the merengues to show Asian Fans what quality football really is: beyond the we-are-so-awesome-because-we’re-from-England nonsense that we get from EPL teams or the stench of patronizing, self-congratulatory and self-righteous mumbo jumbo that come from teams that get professional diving classes from mammals of other species.

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The message is nice and simple:

“Hello. We are Real Madrid. Thanks for paying us millions to show up. And to express our thanks, here are our star players to score 7 goals of pure eye-candy for you to enjoy. Enjoy the show. You are all Welcome.”

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But beyond the entertainment on offer in last night’s matches, here are some thoughts on some key individuals from last night’s game:

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Benze-CAT

Benz in Boots? The Frenchman seems to have become much more ferocious that that

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I disagree with this whole notion that dogs are better hunter than cats. I also disagree that Benzema has transitioned into another species (dog). His aloof, quiet demeanor still makes him very much ‘cat-like’ – except this time, he’s no Garfield or Puss-in-Boots – he’s evolved instead into those cats you see on Nat Geo who take down wilder beasts for fun (The Lyon King?). Now capable of combining his exquisite technical ability with constant awareness, alertness and constant involvement: he is fast becoming the player we were all expecting to see when he joined us. It was all on show last night: always available to receive passes, aware of goalscoring chances for his teammates (e.g. Khedira’s goal), fully linked up and ready to finish his teammates’ attacking plays (see his first goal off CRon’s backheel pass), and with full confidence in his superb technical abilities (e.g. his second goal is a display both of audacity and impeccable finishing skill).

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Higua-DOG

Benze-Cat has always been the more talented player. But Pipita till now has been the better player on the back of his workrate and the intangibles he brings to the team. One season after playing under Mourinho for Bezema while poor Pipita is on the sidelines with an injury and here we are: with Pipita looking like he will face an uphill battle to be the first choice striker. Over the last few games, Higua-DOG, with his string of missed sitters has looked more like Snoopy rather than the ravenous wolf that he used to be when healthy and in form. It’s been a disappointing few games for Pipita and his performance last night was summed up in his clumsy and lazy lunging tackle on a Guangzhou player that would have earned him an automatic red had they not been playing a friendly. It was sad to see him this way on a game where he wore the captain’s armband.

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Ozil

I get it now: the 2 dots on top of the letter ‘O’ on his name symbolize his eyes. What vision – is it really because of those googly eyes (maybe he has better peripheral vision because of them)?. People compare him to Guti because of this (not the eyes, the vision). But Guti doesn’t have his pace and mobility. He doesn’t have Guti’s petulance either. And at age 23, he’s already way better than Guti. I am so going to get me an Ozil jersey this season.

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Kaka

When I start wearing my Ozil shirt around, I’ll stop wearing my Kaka one. What’s happened to him? Did I jinx him when I praised his performance after the Galaxy game? He will have a preseason this time around and will have no ‘lack of fitness’ excuses to hide behind. If he ‘fails’ yet again, then I will hope to see a battle-tested Sergio Canales and/or Pablo Sarabia wearing Real Madrid’s ‘8’ next season as our second-choice fantasista.

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Vanilla Joe

For those who are too young to understand the Vanilla Ice reference, check out his one hit in the you tube video above and discover the inspiration behind his hairdo . When news broke that Callejon would be joining us this season, everyone thought he was coming back as transfer fodder… or as a replacement to our 10m Euro Ball Boy Pedro Leon. His role during these preseason games suggests that he will be more than a mannequin wearing Real Madrid’s #21 on the squad list. His performances also seem to hint that he won’t be the subject of another tirade from Mourinho that will include references to Zidane. Quick, direct and refreshingly effective: he seems like a legitimate substitute for Di Maria.

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Di Maria

I thought I had read a Mourinho interview revealing that he’s just gotten married but is spending his honeymoon in China with his teammates. I guess we all saw for ourselves how much pent up energy he had inside of him when he came in at 60’: we were supposed to see the game die down gradually until he put on his please-don’t-bench-me-Mou performance. El Fideo (The Noodle) as he’s called, showed his full array of attacking capability in the land of Rice and Noodles: leaving his defenders as a heap of twisted limbs as he scored a goal by pulling off the footbaling-equivalent of a basketball pump fake. This was of course after assisting Jesse with a cross that would have qualified him for ‘So You Think You Can Dance’. Jesse of course, just had to respond in kind by scoring with his shoulder.

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Oh what fun it was! Last night was the stuff of child-like football fairytales. There will be another one on Saturday to look forward to as well. After that, we’re off to war in the SuperCopa: no more fairytales, just epics.