La Liga Weekly

Look at the scoreline and you’ll see all the evidence you’ll need. Barcelona were one goal better than Real Madrid. Real Madrid were 3 points worse than their rivals. That’s what most people will see. The cules will strut and the merengues will stoop and they’ll think winning was the only important bit of data that mattered in this contest, and they’d be right I’d tend to think, but there are some as important as that.

Criticisms:
Marcelo is the week link. He is, but most of his critics get it wrong, it isn’t the defensive part of his game that is his downfall, when a professional player lacks all rudimentary defensive skill how can someone then fault him? Madrid have converted this once promising left-back into a winger, but even that has pluses and minuses. He doesn’t track back well enough to win back the ball, and he doesn’t combine well offensively with new left-back Arbeloa on little one-twos on the wing to merit inclusion as a midfielder. No, his problem is offensive (in more than one way). Look at a well-designed counter in the early minutes of this game: Kaka releases to a bursting Cristiano leaving Puyol in his wake, he centers and Kaka leaves it for Marcelo who is in better position to score and the winger skies it. A honest mistake, sure, but wouldn’t someone with maybe a better right foot, someone who could interchange better with Kaka and Ronaldo, who can play on either side, be better suited? With this Real Madrid team it isn’t so much who they’ve bought that’s influencing their play but who they haven’t. A Franck Ribery would have buried that shot.

Pellegrini should take the blame for this loss. An obvious critique, he takes off the club’s one true dynamic player in Cristiano, in the waning moments with , and replaces him with Benzema who has suffered in Galactico comparisons with the other two obviously. Real Madrid were a man up at the time and Pellegrini should have taken off a more defensive player. Is this the match that gets Pellegrini fired? It shouldn’t. He scores high marks in this match. Look at how he matched the triangular passing of Barclona with his own triangularized defending. Most clubs will either kick Barcelona off the ball like Espanyol did last year, or pack their own half and hit on the counter like Chelsea did last year, but Real Madrid played great team defending, pressuring with three defenders on the ball, funneling any attacks off-center, and would have won if they had only finished well.

Madrid are too Ronaldo-dependent. Ronaldo was an important cog in the Real Madrid performance, but they did not lose because of any lack of form on his part or lack of trust in his fitness on Pellegrini’s part. Simply put, in the early chances in which Real Madrid had the opportunity to score, it was more on the performances of Barca’s oft maligned keeper and central defenders that kept los blancos off the score sheet. On 19 minutes, Kaka runs with space in front of him and only Pique and Abidal to the side, rather than shoot, he lays it off for Ronaldo and Valdez makes a diving kick save with his right boot. The announcers bamed Kaka for his lack of selfishness, others called it a lack of form for C. Ron, but give it up Valdez in a pinch.

Galacticos and goats: A galactico isn’t someone who gets paid ton of money to waste space on a bench. In this match, Sergio Ramos was indispensable. He tackled well, he disrupted passing lanes and he was smarter than usual when he joined the attack. That my friends is coaching; getting the ex-Sevillista to think on his feet better. The obvious choice for goat is Marcelo, but I’ll forego that because it’s too easy. Choose Lass. Choose a one-dimensional midfielder. Choose wasted passes, a yellow card magnet who doesn’t link well with attack. Choose someone as prone to kick his opponent as the ball. Choose a boring defensive midfielder for boring France. Choose red cards in close games. Choose Lass. As for Barcelona’s galactico, I won’t get musical, but Dani Alves had the kind of game that is often overlooked for a World Cup defender for Brasil. It is obvious that when you double and triple team Messi on your weak side, you open the game for his partner, but his runs on the wing were nontheless the only danger in the less-than stellar Barca first half. He of course set-up the games only goal. A goat? It is obvious that Thierry Henry does not have the pace to be a factor as a winger in the Barcelona trident. He can’t interchange sides with Messi like Eto’o did as a center forward, and he doesn’t fit with Ibra. It is no wonder that Barca looked dangerous only when Henry left for Zlatan in the second half.

Conclusion: Take this to heart. Real Madrid were the better team for the entire first half. They made chances and controlled the most potent offense in Spain if not the world. Just as a similarly reeling Real Madrid squad came to the Nou Camp under Juande Ramos last year and changed their season, I believe this bitterly contested loss will do the same if not much, much more for this year’s bunch.