La Liga Weekly

As the Merengues try to mold themselves into the team their fans expect them to be, and the team they expect themselves to be, fingers start being pointed at any “under” performing player. As logic partakes, the more expensive that player is, the higher the expectations are. High expectations come with Media focus and in depth analysis of the player’s every move happen every second. At Real Madrid, this is ever true. With the club known to be a high spender in the transfer market, especially under the reign of current president Florentino Perez and his “Galactico” policy, Real Madrid players are subject to media scrutiny more than any other team. Whether it started with the first big signing in Galactico era 1 with Figo, or whether it was for the ridiculous 94 million spent on Christiano Ronaldo, the media has acted the same. While the media thrives on players like CR9 due to their active and unstable social life, players like Kaka fail to impress in that area.

You will not open Marca one day reading that Kaka was spotted bar hopping in Madrid, or running around with 50 condoms (Robinho anyone?). Kaka is a devout Christian, as many of you remember his famous celebration of pointing up to the skies, and his usual “I Belong to Jesus” under shirt. The player is married, and honestly, will be the last guy to be suspected of cheating on his wife. So what does this leave the Spanish media with to hamper the 3^rd most expensive signing in the world? Well, that is simple, it’s his performances.

Kaka was the first Galactico signing this summer for Don Florentino with a hefty signing fee of around 65 million. He comes to the Spanish capital having won the Footballer of the year award with Milan a year earlier. He also has a Champions league, a Serie A and a World Cup Trophy to his name. Big things are expected of a player that cost that much, and despite CR9 costing more, pressure was still on the Brazilian midfielder.

He started the season very slowly, with Real playing him upfront along with CR9 and Benzema, the other two Galactic signings. He got his first goal from the penalty spot, in the 5^th week of the league from the penalty spot. With Pelligrini still not sure what the best starting 11 should be, Kaka was being moved around a lot in an attempt to find the best “formation”. Playing at first as a false left winger, with CR9 on the wing and Higuain and Benzema upfront, and then switching to an attacking midfielder position, the Brazilian was obviously not in his best form. A couple of months into the season and Madrid fans were wondering if this is the beginning of a sad story of 65 million wasted. There was a glimmer of hope though. With CR9 destined to sit out for a month and a half on the bench, this was the chance for Kaka to rise up and show that he is worth every dime. While many would argue with this, but to a certain extent, the player played better with CR9 away. Still not the displays that the coach or the fans wanted, and with players like VDV and Granero waiting anxiously for a chance to start, Kaka still had a lot to prove.

As Kaka was starting to hit some sort of form, the worse thing happened. His former hernia problem re appeared, and a media frenzy took place. With many claiming that Kaka was sold to Madrid injured, and others claiming that he will live with this hernia problem forever, many started panicking. This also formed an outlet and an explanation to why Kaka was not scoring goals as frequently as say, CR9 was? After his return from injury, and in the last couple of weeks to be exact, the Brazilian seems to have hit a nice run of form, scoring and assisting at the same time. He also seems to have formed a nice friendship with fellow Galactico CR9, as they are the first to celebrate together when a goal is scored.

So you wonder know if Kaka’s form is because the last couple of games have been easy for Madrid, or because he is really back to his best. Well I have the answer for you. Well, kinda…

The three top leagues in the world, in my opinion, are the Italian, English and Spanish league. Despite all being strong leagues (despite the Italian league losing its spark as of late), there is a lot of difference in the style of play of the teams in those leagues. While the EPL is known for its physicality and pace, the Spanish league is more known for its technique, speed and passing. So what does this mean when we look at Kaka’s performances this season? Simple, the Italian league is much, MUCH, slower than La Liga. Not only that, but La Liga defenses tend to push up and close down players very fast, while Serie A defenses tend to sit deep and allow teams to slowly build up play and attack them. The Serie A thus allows the midfield to actually make runs at them, while they try and stop them physically. La Liga defenses try to beat you to the ball using speed and try to follow you around.

This is exactly the change that Kaka is taking time to adapt to. While he is used to have time to push the ball around in Italy with all the space, in Spain, he is finding that hard. If you review Kaka’s previous games, you see that he used to lose the ball a lot as he tries to make the turn around and advance on to attack. He is also facing a much faster defense that would rather take the ball from you with technique rather than physicality. This is a big change for a player to deal with. In the last 3 games for Madrid, I have observed that Kaka has adopted his game to try and avoid these mistakes. He made much less attempts at dribbling at defenders, opting for the one touch and release kind of football. He also learned that to get spaces, you have to lose your marker, and to do that, you need to move better off the ball.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that La Liga has less space for movement than Serie A, on the contrary of course. I am saying that since Serie A teams play much deeper, players like Kaka used to find more space when they dropped deeper to get the ball. La Liga has much more space upfront as the teams tend to push up more. This is partly the reason why more goals are scored in La Liga than in Serie A. Any way off topic. Concentrate!

So with that said, and with the huge differences between leagues, I think it was normal for Kaka to have a hard start to his Madrid career. A true professional though is a player than can work on his weaknesses, and adapt his game accordingly. There are few professionals as smart and modest as Kaka, and I think if there is a player that can understand the game and adapt it, then it is him. With criticisms being thrown at him, I think one must remember another legend of this game, the great Zinadine Zidan. When he first arrived from Juventus to Madrid, he had a slow start, but as I explained, he was able to adapt the way he approaches his game in a way that fits his surroundings. I have faith that Kaka can do the same.

Kaka is currently not doing that bad though, with the last 3 games boosting his CV for goals and assists. With 7 goals to his name and 6 assists in a sum of 20 games, one would argue that if this is Kaka while in bad form, then watch out world when he hits form. He has been recently quoted saying that he has gotten over his Hernia problem and he is ready to show Madrid fans what he can really do. I say, if he plays every game the same as he did in the last three, then we are in for a treat.

Hala Kaka! Hala Madrid!