La Liga Weekly

Browse through any of the Real Madrid forums like I do, it’s an occupational hazard I must say but I wear protection and at least my BS detector still works, and you’ll see tons of posts on Cristiano’s abs, his step-overs, his hair care products, his endorsements, I mean it’s a veritable Cristiano love-in on some of these forums, but there is little love for his partner in the Super-Dimension-Fortress Galactico. Some will come to his aid, stating that they “have to wait” or “he’s just saving himself for the World Cup” but the worst bile comes from that madridista sect that believes he’s just crap: “Milan are gangsters, they sold us a bill of goods”, “we overpaid for him”, or even the sort that say “he’s just not fit to wear the shirt.”

I’ll take those one at a time. Should Madrid wait longer to see the best of Kaka and is he the reason that Real Madrid weren’t clicking? Highly doubtful. It is easy to mistake the “midfield brilliance” of Guti and Rafa Van der Vaart and compare them to Kaka, when he’s obliviously not a central play-maker like they are. He’s a support striker and hasn’t played the distributor’s role since his first or second year at Milan.

Secondly, Kaka’s game is built on running into space and playing off of another player (like Robinho on the national squad or Pato at Milan), especially when coming off a break. Milan’s squads were built traditionally as counter-attacking sides, quick-strike offenses, the ball is won and Pirlo distributes quickly to Kaka who runs on the wing at the backpedaling defenders. Under Juande Ramos last year or especially Capello of a few years ago, Kaka would have done well as both liked to hit teams on the counter. Pellegrini on the other hand plays a traditional South American game, slow buildup through the center, and that negates Kaka’s greatest strength. Is Ricardo slower this years as some madridistas are espousing, or is just that the tactics are not advantageous for his skill-set. I think the latter.

Lastly, the stats don’t lie. Last year at Milan, Kaka played 38 games in all competitions and right now he’s played 37. He has 6 fewer goals in all competitions. There are countless number of league games, international friendlies and Champions League matches left to catch up. His assists are about the same but his shots on goal are way down, does that mean that maybe his value to the team is still there but he’s adapting to the selfishness of not just Cristiano, but of Higuain and Benzema as well? I mean they all have things to prove in a World Cup year I’m afraid.

Look, I saw him play alot last year at Milan and this is absolutely not Kaka at his best. He’s still injured I believe and doesn’t want to risk his place on the Brasil squad. He has adapted his game not only to a new league, a new system and to a new group of team-mates that he may or may not be ideally suited to spearheading. It’s unfair to cast him as a failure. He’s not. He has a Champions League trophy with Milan something that Rafa Van der Vaart doesn’t have and Guti? Well, I’d be insane if I were to trust Guti week in and week out despite his three Champions League trophies.