Madridista Mac

Role Reversal

2018-01-10T14:29:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year Everyone!
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Sadly, for Real Madrid, the mid-point of the 2017-2018 season… the beginning of 2018 hasn’t been a happy one. I am honestly sick and tired of all the ‘celebrating’ over what a great calendar year 2017 has been for Real Madrid. This is football people - and in football, we measure time by ‘seasons’, not by calendar year. To be endlessly talking about what a great 2017 Real Madrid had reeks of propaganda. Perhaps that’s the good part of the new year: that we can finally move on out of this phase where the club has been in denial over how awful Real Madrid has been since September.
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Squad Building: Pride Before the Fall

I am of the view that missing out on the signing of Kylian Mbappe was a catastrophic error on the part of Real Madrid.

After convincing wins in 2 Supercups against Barcelona and Manchester United, Madridisimo had been bursting with pride. Not only did we have a team that won the Champions League back-to-back for the first time (with 3 in 4 years), the club also seemed to have emerged as a model for squad development. We had a bonafide world super star who won yet another Balon D’ Or, after peaking at the season’s business end (following an agreement to be rested during stretches of the season) and he was surrounded by a starting XI of players who were all among the world’s best in their positions. And to top it all off, we boasted to having the best group of young reserves in our bench all ready to take over.

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On the other side of the divide, we sneered at Barca’s aging squad, their loss of form (Suarez), the loss of one of their superstars (Neymar), their decision to overpay (by a LOT) for an exciting young prospect (Dembele), their failure to land their primary target (Coutinho) and their having to settle for a Premier League bust plying his trade in China (Paulinho).
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Fast forward to today, following his recovery from injury, Dembele is now back playing again, Paulinho has turned into a good player for them… and they’ve just signed Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool. They have now regrouped with a starting XI as good as any in world football. And did I mention that they have a 16-point lead at the top of the La Liga table?
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Looking at ourselves in the mirror, we stacked the world’s best midfield with Spain’s best youngsters: Dani Ceballos and Marcos Llorente, allowing the 2 to mostly rot on the bench (or in the stands!). While upfront, we sat on our laurels, allowing both our 2nd and 3rd choice strikers Alvaro Morata and Mariano to leave, contented for the 2 to be replaced a youngster returning from a largely unproductive loan spell in Wolfsburg (2 goals in 21 mostly bit-part appearances). And when the opportunity came to sign the world’s best young striker (Kylian Mbappe), many arrogantly believed: “he wouldn’t have had a chance to play in our team anyway!”, “why upset Ronaldo by paying him a high salary when we don’t really need him?” it wasn’t just complacency, it wasn’t just pride, it was arrogance.
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The Players’ Disease: Fat Cat Syndrome
Apart from the arrogance of believing in our squad’s invincibility, the players who remained also began to contract the Champions’ disease: “Fat Cat Syndrome.” I’m not suggesting that our boys have become willfully lazy. Fat Cat Syndrome mostly operates in the subconsciousness: less 1% here, 2% there… results in the loss of that all-important extra 5-10% you get out of sheer hunger, and when you multiply that across an entire squad, the drop, though minimal, makes a difference.
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Coaching Blues: Unpaid Faith and Clunky Tactics

Is it blind faith in the players and his system? Is it towing the company line? Or is it all Zidane knows to do as a coach?

Zinedine Zidane is not only the reason why I am a Real Madrid fan, he is also the reason why I am a football fan. It is for this reason that I tread with much care and conflict (in my heart) as I examine what’s gone wrong with the team’s coaching). I see 2 critical and related issues that’s wrong with the team set up.
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The first is his seemingly blind faith in his players. I understand that Zidane is no tactical master. That he is, for the most part, a man manager, a superstar-whisperer. In his first season and a half, the combination of his motivational ability together with his faith in his players, had paid massive dividends. It was a positive cycle: Superstar players agreed to be rotated for recovery purposes while hungry youngsters eager to prove did the job. This in turn made the superstars buck up even more, taking full advantage of their rest days to turn in triple-A performances when called upon.
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Bereft of quality depth across the squad (except midfield), there has been no antidote to the fat cat syndrome. Without Pepe, Ramos and Varane are now 100% sure they will play unless injured or suspended. With Bale injured and without Morata, Cristiano and Benzema can look Zidane in the eye and tell him ‘we’re your ONLY chance of scoring in this game’. To make things worse, the midfield has seen little rotation (those on social media will know the #FreeCeballos movement). The result is a negative cycle instead: starters with fat cat syndrome enjoying the coach’s blind faith with reserves resigned to not getting their chance which magnifies and reinforces the Fat Cat Syndrome.
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Injuries (Bale) and blind faith have also resulted in tactics where the coach relies on his ‘chosen ones’ to win them the game, rather than a good hard look at the how the team performs tactically. We are now playing solely to win on talent. Playing a midfield diamond with Casemiro, Kroos, Modric and Isco with a front 2 of Benzema and the 2017-2018 version of Cristiano Ronaldo (who can be beaten by Atleti’s Juanfran in a sprint), offers too much of the same thing: endless possession, a slow tempo with a midfield clusterfuck and an over-reliance on the fullbacks to provide width and penetration. There was a time when the most frightening thing to see in world football was a Real Madrid counterattack. Those days are gone. Without Bale, there is no one capable of running into space to receive an outlet ball, beat defenders on 1-on1s, or suck multiple defenders. All we do now is an endless drone of (mostly) sideways passing, relying solely on fullbacks to provide penetration and making them extra vulnerable on the counter..
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Finding a Path Forward

The time has come for us to accept that the era of the BBC has come to an end

Though La Liga is lost, the season isn’t. There is an achievable consolation prize remaining (Copa Del Rey) and a month to prepare for Neymar and Mbappe’s visit for the Champions League. The path forward is in the hands of those in the club. For Uncle Flo and his men-in-suits to work those phones for the summer transfer window... For the players to wake the hell up, shed the arrogance, and play with the hunger that the shirt demands… and for Zizou remove the rose-tinted glasses he views his ‘scared cows’ with.
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On the pitch, as controversial as it may be, I’d like to see ZZ try a lineup where only 3 out of Casemiro, Kroos, Modric and Isco gets to play. Yes, I said it: I would like to see ZZ try having one of Kroos, Isco or Modric on the bench for each game. It is my opinion that the team’s ability to dominate possession and control the tempo of the game will not be greatly diminished if one of them were on the bench. And with the objective of giving the team more penetration and verticality, the time has also come for Ronaldo to learn to play without his personal assistant (Benzema). The now-slower and pace-less Ronaldo should instead be played with Bale (who hopefully can keep himself fit) and the young Asensio.
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In the boardroom, it is time for Uncle Flo and his men-in-suits to plan for the post-Cristiano Ronaldo era. The first to go sadly ought to be his loyal assistant Benzema. When Cristiano Ronaldo arrived in 2009, apart from being a goalscoring monster, he was a pacy and explosive dribbling wizard. Karim Benzema was the perfect partner: an unselfish, technical, intelligent and cultured forward. 9 years later, without his pace and explosiveness, the job description for Cristiano Ronaldo’s assistant has drastically changed - rendering Benzema redundant. His virtues and tendencies have contributed to the current ‘too much of the same thing’ tactical malaise of the team. Without pace, incisiveness, physical power and natural goalscoring ability, Benzema fails to offer anything that the team is currently in short supply of.
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With regards to Ronaldo, while acknowledging his greatness, it also is time to admit that his current contract with Madrid ought to be his last. And should a suitable place to depart to is found, it is my opinion that moving his massive wages off the books would be the wise move too. Since the beginning of the 2017-2018 season, Cristiano Ronaldo has not done anything on the pitch to demonstrate that he deserves to be on the same pay bracket as Messi and Neymar. Though this may sound like blasphemy to Real Madrid and Cristiano fans, this is also the truth.
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It is also not lost on me that I contradict myself when I identify Gareth Bale’s play as the key to salvage something from the season and yet say that if a good offer comes, that he too, should be allowed to leave. I have also said many times that Gareth Bale is Kaka v2.0: a wonderful player because of his directness and explosiveness, whose time at the top will come to an end as soon as the jets leave his legs. With his injury history, and with the age of 30 coming soon for him, a suitable offer must be sought and accepted for him in the summer window.
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If you haven’t figured it out just yet, it is my opinion that Real Madrid move on from the BBC. It brought us a Copa Del Rey, a La Liga title and 3 Champions League titles. Yet the writing is on the wall - there are very few things left for us to achieve with the team built around them.
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New Beginnings
In the world of new emerging powers in football (PSG, Pep’s Man City, even more Premier League money), the thought of imagining a post-Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid (a team that may still involve him, but not necessarily built around him) is a terrifying but necessary one. It is my opinion that we have now reached a point where we need to choose between mindlessly harking back to past glories, or fearlessly facing the world, looking into its eyes and accepting the realities of today for what they really are. It is time for new beginnings. After all, it is a new year.

Opening Salvo (Deportivo La Coruna 0 – Real Madrid 3)

2017-08-21T13:49:00.001+08:00

Another La Liga Season, another Sergio Ramos double-yellow = Red Card. What is up with El Capitan? Is he operating with the mindset of “If I don’t score a goal that wins us a trophy, then I must find a way to get myself sent off”?

Kidding aside, last night, Real Madrid put in a commanding performance to kick start the La Liga campaign with the comfortable 0-3 demolition of Pepe Mel’s pretty good Deportivo La Coruna. It was a performance that showed a Real Madrid that oozed the confidence of title-favorites. Each player played embracing this idea of being the title front-runners: from our best-in-the-world midfield, to non-first-choice Nacho, to just-back-from-a-long-injury-spell Gareth Bale and of course the super-in-form Isco.

Midfield Diamond

Though there were stretches of the match where it looked like we were playing a 4-3-3. With Isco on the left and Benzema on the right, I’d say though we played mostly as a midfield diamond: with the #22 floating across the pitch to receive the ball at pretty much any area and move across / make plays at any area he fancies. To put it simply: Zidane had given him the license to roam to any area of the pitch which we wanted to influence the match as he saw fit. There were many times of course that he chose to be on the left flank, prompting Benzema and Bale to adjust accordingly, but all in all, the role Isco was given was one which any aspiring footballer would day dream of: to put on Real Madrid white and be allowed to pretty much do anything you want on the pitch. And based on how he’s been playing these past months, it was a role he deserved too.

Real Madrid’s dominance of the midfield was so absolute that we’ve also started to see some ‘twists’ and ‘wrinkles’ being tested out by Zidane and his midfield boys. Last night, we saw a few phases of the game where Toni Kroos was manning the central pivot role, while Modric and Casemiro (!) were pushing forward. The conservative-minded might view this as arrogance, but I’d say that the occasional switch up has its benefits. When the opponent is in ‘Park the Bus’ mode, seeing a defensive midfielder (who has scored 8 goals in 2017!) burst through your lines can be unsettling. Sending Casemiro up the pitch can also have benefits if we choose to press high up the pitch.

Real Madrid’s midfield dominance was encapsulated in that second goal: a 40+-pass sequence that ended in a Marcelo cross turned into the net by none other than, surprise! Casemiro.

The Role of the Front 2 in a Diamond

Casemiro scores AGAIN. He's becoming more than ball winning midfielder.

The inherent weakness of the midfield diamond is that while a team is able to concentrate its resources at the center of the pitch to dominate possession, a team that plays its defensive cards right can blunt the attack. This then forces the team playing the diamond to deploy its fullbacks to create width, leaving space behind vulnerable on the counter. With Isco leading the tip of a diamond comprising of the world’s best midfield, and with arguably the world’s best full backs too, a Real Madrid attack brings an unbearable amount of pressure on an opposition’s penalty area. I will say though, that it won’t take long before someone can organize a team well enough to resist our attacks for a period of time that’s enough for them to release a free man behind our bombing fullbacks to hit us on the counter.

With this inherent weakness in the flanks that comes with the diamond, it becomes important to review the role of the front 2 to see if there is a way to mitigate this weakness…. And Zidane has the right idea. Apart from being the world’s greatest goalscorer, CR also used to be the greatest winger. With his tendencies to drift wide and cut in remaining intact (see his goal vs. Barca in the supercup), his skill set is suited to the system. Karim Benzema not being a traditional ‘9’, with his tendency to move between the lines, occasionally going wide, deep, or into the box also works well for the system.

Many are asking however why Gareth Bale seems to be struggling in the system. His similarities with CR7 are obvious: he is gifted with pace and explosiveness and is a capable goal-scorer, even in the air. His best season at Spurs saw him play behind the striker, able to roam free as he pleased. On paper, there is little reason for him to struggle in his role in this system. One thought I had was the nature of the opponent: Deportivo played it tight defensively, suitable for players with sick technical skills in tight spaces like Isco and Benzema, and not so for the gazelles like Bale who like wide open spaces to run to. If that was the case though, then why did Bale struggle against Barcelona in the Supercup? We were all waiting for him to embarrass Pique the way he did Bartra.

The fact that Cristiano did was no surprise… the fact that Asensio did too however can / should be seen as writing on the wall. More and more, it is becoming obvious that Marco Asensio will be a Balon d’Or contender (possibly a winner) in 5 years. Assuming everyone is fit, Bale’s place in the pecking order is now at 50/50 vs. Isco. It would not surprise me if he lost his place to Isco entirely as the team’s first choice player next to CR7 and Benzema, pushing him down to ‘first attacking player off the bench’ status. But here’s the scary part: it shouldn’t surprise us too if Asensio pips him to that role too. At Asensio’s current rate of growth, he should make that role his own this season.

The fact that Bale scored tonight (a tap-in off a rebound) might temporarily keep the questions about him out of people’s minds, but they will come soon enough. It is time for the Welshman to unleash the dragon in him Game-of-Thrones style (see Season 7, Episode 4: ‘The Spoils of War’). Because at age 28, the clock is ticking for him.

The Playmaking Striker

If you're an Apex predator goalscorer, you're gonna LOVE having Karim Benzema playing next to you.

‘Play-making Striker’ – now that’s an oxymoron. After the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup, I called on Karim Benzema to change his mindset in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo on the team – that he needs to become the goal-scoring predator out there. Last night, he blatantly refused this call and taught me a lesson on what Karim Benzema does.

We live in a world where for elite football clubs, strikers who are ‘just goalscorers’ are not enough (see Chicharito Hernandez). If you are curious as to what else a striker is supposed to do for an elite team, then you only need to look at what Karim Benzema did last night.

Benzema possesses a languid, slowly-jog body language of someone who exudes laziness. This is highlighted even further when he’s playing next to Cristiano Ronaldo who foams at the mouth on the possibility of scoring a goal. The opposite however is true. Karim runs the channels, makes diverting runs, presses his opponents and is always available for an outlet pass for a teammate attacking the opponents’ goal. Along the way, he’ll give you 15-20 goals / season.

What Karim Benzema might be however, is the world’s greatest play-making striker. He’s big and strong enough to receive ‘outlet balls’ from deep to hold up play, tall enough to be a target of a looping pass or cross. His pace is also decent enough to make him the target for through balls. All of this however is not done in service of becoming a dominant 30-40 goal striker, but is done to link the play of his teammates. So perhaps it’s time to stop expecting him to turn into his idol Ronaldo Nazario.

All of his skills were on full display last night: creating the chance for Bale’s opener and being part of Real Madrid’s dizzying 40+ pass sequence that led to Casemiro’s goal. His contributions however are embodied in Madrid’s 3^rd goal as his ability to retain possession and control in the Depor danger zone naturally sucked the entire team towards the opponents’ goal: encouraging his midfielders to make late runs into the box to score. Last night, it was Toni Kroos who was tee-ed up for a strike.

It is now time for me, and the rest of us to stop measuring Karim Benzema based on the traditional standards of what is expected of a striker (goals, conversion rate, etc.). To do so would be to ignore his true qualities as a footballer and a disservice to the beautiful game.

Dominance (Real Madrid 2 - Barcelona 0)

2017-08-17T18:52:00.000+08:00

How can I be paying obscene amounts of money for 2 cable TV subscriptions (the only 2 available in Singapore) and still NOT be able to watch an El Clasico Supercup on TV? Oh yeah, now I remember, because I live in a country that thinks Paul Pogba is the best CM in the world after performing well against Mark Noble and Pedro Obiang, nevermind that he got abused by Luka Modric and Toni Kroos a couple of days before that.

By the time I managed to find an ‘online resource’ to watch the match, Real Madrid were up 1-0 last night. When I searched for a clip of Asensio’s goal: I began cursing Singtel and Starhub once again. How could I have missed that!?!? Yes I named you 2 shit cable TV companies whom I pay good money to… because you take my money but can’t be bothered to broadcast an incredibly important match between the best team in the world, and the best team at deluding themselves that they’re the best team in the world (yes, I’m talking about you this time, FC Barcelona).

Confidence or Contextual Tactics?

Luka, the man has a family, please stop violating his human rights

Last night, Zidane left Isco, Bale and Casemiro on the bench, abandoning the now-familiar 4-4-2 diamond and reverting to the 4-3-3. The midfield alignment was an interesting one too: instead of placing Toni Kroos as the team’s pivot (as we’ve seen post-Xabi Alonso, and many times without Casemiro), it was Kovacic who was assigned to the role. Was it to replicate his excellent tracking of Messi from the first leg? And up front, without Isco, Zidane opted for Asensio and Lucas Vazquez on the wings.

My first impression for this re-alignment was straightforward. Zidane wanted to rotate the squad, confident in the wake of the first leg result, but decided to keep the team’s cornerstones in place (defensive line, Kroos + Modric and Benzema as the front line facilitator). Should something go wrong, all it took was 3 substitutions, and we’re right back to a CR-less first choice XI on the pitch.

Having several hours to mull over the match, I have another theory for Zidane’s team selection: He wanted us to be specifically geared to counter attack. This might explain the decision to place Kovacic in the midfield pivot position – since the Croatian’s first instinct is to weave his way out of trouble with a bursting midfield run (rather than the simple 5-10 yard pass Casemiro makes), which many times starts a counter-attack. This might also explain why the far more direct Asensio and Vazquez was chosen over Isco.

Last night’s lineup might not just be about confidence in the result of the tie, but about adopting the team’s tactics to the circumstances of the game (facing a Barca team that needed 3 at least 3 goals to turn the tie around). If this is the case, then there’s even more reason to admire Zidane’s coaching.

Where Casemiro makes a 5-10 yard pass once he recovers the ball, Kovacic does filthy things like this (to Busquets in this instance) and then pushes the ball up to start an attack much more directly.

What Happened, Barca?

The truth is that seeing Barca play 3 at the back isn’t a surprise. Deulofeu laid an egg in the Camp Nou over the weekend. Thus is was logical for Valverde to opt for a lineup with more players he felt that he could rely on (e.g. Macherano) rather than guys who have let him down (Deulofeu). The lineup also acknowledges Barca’s Neymar-less reality. It’s now a front 2, not a front 3.

What was troubling about Barca however was how truly awful they were. Last night, they played as if all their fighting spirit has been drained from them. The wing backs, whose work rate determine the success or failure of a 3-at-the-back system, were lackadaisical in their duties and often left the back 3 unprotected versus Madrid’s front 3 + 2 fullbacks, creating 5 vs. 3 situations. Benzema’s goal, despite being a brilliant piece of skill was a result of just bad defending by Umtiti (a total lack of awareness, and a lazy reaction upon realizing his compatriot’s presence behind him to receive the ball in a dangerous area).

Though it is true that last night’s Barca team played without Neymar and Iniesta, it is also true that the absence of those 2 should NOT mean that they should be as awful as they were last night. Forget being more than the sum of their parts. Last night Barca were less than the sum of their parts.

Some might say that tactics played a part (Barca played much better with 4 at the back when Semedo came on). I’d argue however that the tie was dead by then and Real Madrid were just going through the motions looking forward to lifting the trophy and celebrating title #2 for the season.

Goals

Like every Real Madrid fan, I love seeing how truly awesome and deep the squad is. This however does not change the fact that I worry deeply about the lack of final product and goals from the team’s front line. Cristiano turns 33 this season, Benzema is on the wrong side of 30 too, while reason tells us Gareth Bale will miss important stretches of the season to injury. Having lost Morata and James, the team is in need of players who can fill the goal-scoring void left by the 2. It is with this thought that I question myself if it is naïve to believe that perhaps Isco, on the cusp of superstardom and Asensio, whose current trajectory will demand a starting place, might put my fears at ease this season… that these 2 players, often capable of making go ‘oooh’ and ‘aaaah’ might also make us yell ‘goooooooaaaaaal!’ a lot too.

Football Gets in the Way (Barcelona 1 – Real Madrid 3)

2017-08-14T15:11:00.002+08:00

Bow down to the Master! All hail Cristiano Ronaldo!

It’s been way too long since I’ve blogged about Real Madrid. Heck, we’ve won a La Liga title and another Champions League title since I last posted here. But like I said, life gets in the way. Things get intense at work, while the kids get bigger and thus demand more attention. Every time I find myself saying ‘time to officially shut the blog down’ though, I hear the other voice saying ‘don’t do it just yet’ – and I guess that the source of this voice comes from the same part of me that’s feeling this way… where the things I feel and the thoughts in my mind seem to generate a sort of electricity in my fingers to just put them all into words. And if you’re out there reading this, then let’s just call it a window into my mind about this wonderful team. I stopped blogging and podcasting because ‘life got in the way.’

Well today, it’s the other way around: Football got in the way. I’ll have to put my life on hold for a couple of hours just to write about this so here goes:

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Jerseys

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO 'LOS BLANCOS' (The Whites)???: Barca's kit was predominantly blue.... and Real Madrid chose to wear Blue too. For my 38-year old eyes. It was a problem watching.

It’s Barcelona vs. Real Madrid. The bloody Spanish Super Cup: Copa Del Rey Champions vs. La Liga Champions. The 2 best teams of the past God-knows-how-long. This was a match real stakes, real intensity. So why the FUCK was Real Madrid NOT playing in their all-white kit?

I understand that we want to sell shirts and make money, even if the jersey looks like it was designed NOT for Real Madrid’s football team and instead for the club’s Minecraft team. Do that then in the ‘friendly Clasico’ played with half-fit teams, unlimited substitutions in front of people willing to spend $15,000+ USD for people who have nothing better to do with their money. Rant Over.

The ‘10’ Question

This Real Madrid team today not only show Zidane’s true key principles as a manager, both from a personnel and tactical point of view but also his evolution and growth.

Yes he was there during La Decima as Ancelotti’s deputy: where we saw a Real Madrid team play a 4-3-3 in attack and a 4-4-2 on defense. But that was also the regime that struggled to deal with the ’10 Question’ what to do with among 2 of the world’s best ‘10s’ (Isco and James) sitting on the bench without a proper slot given to the very nature of their game. Ancelotti made it work for a few months with a Kroos-Modric-James midfield, but it ultimately didn’t last: fatigue, injury and circumstances ultimately did us in and cost Ancelotti his job.

And yes, it was clearly Zidane’s team that won La Undecima on penalities. It was a team built on the insistence of specialist defensive midfielder Casemiro being in the team. Kroos and Modric flourished. Yet the vaunted BBC front line ‘crawled’ across the finish line: with an injured CR7 and Bale barely able to make their presence felt in the final games and the 2 genius 10s still relegated to peripheral roles.

Last season, we saw Zidane implement the same tactical system but inject his own beliefs in personnel management on the way to a double. In doing so, he managed to not only secure key contributions from the entire squad, but more importantly, lay down a roadmap to accommodate the use of #10s into the team. James Rodriguez, deemed a peripheral player, finished last season with a not-too-bad 11 goals and 12 assists in all competitions. It was Isco however who captivated our imagination completely.

The Birth of the Diamond

Partly out of necessity (Bale injured for most of the season), partly because Isco had developed to a point where he could no longer be ignored, Zidane began playing Isco as part of the front 3, but given the license to roam as he chooses. This not only allowed him to play within his comfort zone, but it has done the same for both of the team’s strikers, neither of whom are pure 9s. This allowed Ronaldo, to still attack the penalty box the way he likes, with darting runs from the wings. For Benzema, this also allowed more roaming freedom wide. And in theory (yet to materialize), the use of Bale’s pace also attacking from the wings could be used as part of a pair of forwards. It was under these circumstances, heading into the business end of last season where Zidane’s Diamond was born.

And while one could lament the loss of James, who could have greatly thrived having his turn at the tip of the diamond, we must also consider the fact that this too is the role that Gareth Bale aspired to play (as a ’10’ under Rafa’s doomed stint), and a more mature Marco Asensio could play one day (more on him next time).

Setting aside a ‘designated’ slot for a ‘10’, using the diamond also opens up opportunities for Zidane’s wealth of midfield talent with Ceballos, Kovacic and Llorente having better chances to playing opportunities to cover for the world’s current best midfield 3 (Kroos-Casemiro-Modric).

Last night, the diamond, without Modric (following a ridiculous 3-year old suspension) did to Barcelona what I’ve forgotten was ever possible: dominate it. Real Madrid’s midfield are no longer haplessly chasing Barca’s shadows or even tactically waiting for a chance to pounce. They are now a unit with the intelligence, skill and physicality not just with the ability to match Barcelona’s midfield, but to outplay them completely. Casemiro’s ball-winning has improved to match his boldness. Kroos can pass better than any Barcelona midfielder. And with Kovacic’s ability to push the ball forward with Isco’s magic wiggle in and out of every corner on the pitch, Barcelona were outmatched in midfield. I never imagined I’d say that one day.

Firepower

What Madrid disturbingly lacked however, particularly in the first half, was final product and firepower. While the diamond allowed us to beat down Barca’s midfield, the first half scoreline did not reflect it. Gareth Bale (who has pined for the opportunity to become more than a winger) was given the tactical freedom he sought: he had the choice of flanks to run as well as plenty of chances to drift to the middle, including the spaces normally reserved only for Cristiano Ronaldo. He didn’t produce.

Karim Benzema on the other hand, played as if he had forgotten that Cristiano Ronaldo was not on the pitch. When CR7 is on the pitch he is Robin (and he’s the best in the world in this role) to Ronaldo’s batman. Without the main man however, his mindset needs to change: HE needs to be THE alpha predator patrolling the opposition box.

It is for this reason that I worry deeply about this season’s front line having lost Alvaro Morata to Chelsea (who debuted with a goal and an assist) and looking like we’re going to lose the Kylian Mbappe sweepstakes to PSG. CR7 is 32 (turning 33 this season). If Benzema (19 goals / 6 assists) and Bale (9 goals / 3 assists) have a repeat of last season, I have deep concerns on an over-reliance on a 33-year old CR7, even if he’s the greatest goalscorer in the history of football.

These concerns were all validated last night, we had to rely on Pique to score our first goal for us (which I enjoyed tremendously). And to get our go-ahead goal, we had to call on an only-partially-fit CR7 to win it for us. His first strike (saved) was circa-CR7@age 32: taking on his man and striking the ball across his body with his (slightly) weaker left foot. For the go-ahead goal, he needed to turn back the clock to circa-CR7@age 28: baiting his man (Pique again) to commit to a tackle, before cutting to his favoured right foot to score a signature goal from 5 years ago.

As great as Cristiano Ronaldo is, I do not believe that it would be sustainable for us to expect him to carry the goalscoring burden of the team as big as it is now. Perhaps Isco, Asensio and hopefully less injury-prone Bale can compensate for Morata and James’ goals. Fingers crossed.

Officiating / Player Behavior

BAD MOVE: The ref made the wrong call, but Cristiano Ronaldo has no business putting his hand/s on the ref.

“Show him your jersey!” I yelled at the TV (it was 5am in the morning), when Cristiano scored Real Madrid’s winning goal (I didn’t realize he did it until after the match when I saw it on Twitter). This was my reaction as a fan in a cathartic moment. It proved to be stupid. The ref had already made the ridiculous error of awarding Barca a penalty for a blatant Suarez dive, we shouldn’t have to be surprised he’s capable of making an equally grave error in giving CR7 a second yellow for simulation despite the legitimate contact. That moment of emotional recklessness would return to haunt him as it meant a red card. Worst of all, CR lost his head, that slight shove of the referee, could reportedly cost CR7 as much as 4-12 matches in suspension.

Barring a PSG-like collapse at home, I have confidence in the team seeing out the Super Copa win on Wednesday without CR. The problem lies however beyond that. With the rest of the team in search of goals, a long suspension for CR7 can hurt us.

The Shoe in the Other Foot

Despite all that though, I am totally enjoying this moment. It feels great ‘wearing the shoe in the other foot’ (i.e. seeing the tide turn in our favour). For too long, Real Madrid have been the team that embodied being rich and clueless: buying senselessly glamorous players who couldn’t fit into the team, hiring buffoons to coach / run the team, etc. Then we became the villains (Mourinho era). Now, we’re the guys who buy superstars for 4m and sell backup ‘reject’ fullbacks for 30m. We’re no longer the team filled with overpaid, unmotivated, over-aged has-beens. We’re now the team with a CL+La Liga winning starting XI backed up by the best group of under-25 players in club football.

This season there are 6 titles up for grabs… and with plenty of reason to believe we can lift the 2^nd this Wednesday, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I think about the season just about to begin. Let’s get it on.

When the Solution to the Weakness becomes the Weakness too (Espanyol 0 - Real Madrid 2)

2016-09-19T16:04:00.001+08:00

2 games. 2 victories. 2 UN-convincing victories. La Liga League Leaders nonetheless.

It is true though that some consideration must be placed on the fact that the BBC isn't fit. Ronaldo clearly isn't at his best yet. Despite missing Euro 2016, Benzema isn't 100% either and now, Bale has joined the party in the infirmary too.

So which narrative would we like to pursue? That we should be alarmed and filled with skepticism over the mostly-meh football (especially in the light of seeing Barca butcher Celtic 7-0)? Or should we trot out the age-old "Great teams can win without playing well" (especially in light of the fact that our BBC isn't fit)? I stand somewhere in the middle.

The Benefits of Great Squad Depth

Last Wednesday's Champions League groups stage match vs. Sporting Lisbon was a great display of our squad depth. I really enjoy watching the impact that subs can make on a game. It was something which we lost for a while (for some years), but this season's team has enough strength and have enough hungry players sitting on the bench, whether they are of star / semi-star quality (James, Isco, Morata) or just young players eager to make a splash (Vasquez, Kovacic, Asensio). Our current squad depth currently allows us to sleep the night before a match knowing a first choice player is injured, suspended or is being rested.

Last night's match was no different. With no Ronaldo and Bale, we had seen enough of Asensio and Vasquez to believe that achieving victory was possible even in a match away from home. To top it all off, last night was also a game where Zidane decided to reward James' Sporting Lisbon performance with a starting berth at the expense of Toni Kroos.

When the Solution to the Weakness becomes the Weakness too.

Casemiro: An Asset and a Liability at the same time.

After the mid-week Sporting Lisbon match, most of us celebrated Ronaldo's return from injury (a goal in his first La Liga appearance and his free kick goal after 2,345,450,934 tries) as well as Morata's late goal. We also found ourselves beating our chests with war cries about Real Madrid's 'remontada heritage' and 'noventi minuti en el Bernabeu es molto longo', etc. All this is true. But in many ways, it also masked (at least to many) certain 'inherent' issues with the team.

Too much has been written about how important Casemiro proved to me for us last season, on how Zidane's decision to shun big names like James and Isco in favor of Brazilian was what ultimately brought balance to the squad - hat it was Casemiro who proved to be the 'Solution to the Weakness.' Last Wednesday however, against the clever Jorge Jesus' Sporting Lisbon, we were mostly unspectacular, and bordering on the undeserving for 3 points. It was a match that I believe, we won 'by default', that we won simply because we had the more talented squad. I also believe however, that Jorge Jesus uncovered the team's new weakness: Casemiro. Yes, the same man who proved to be the 'Solution to the Weakness."

Last Wednesday, our current '14' was blitzed endlessly on possession. Now, if this was done to our old '14' (Xabi Alonso), this normally resulted in a long looping pass that would instantaneously become a scoring chance for our boys up front, but Casemiro is no Alonso. Thus, pressing him in possession normally resulted in a backpass or at best, a lateral pass. At worst, it resulted in the loss of possession and thus explains our midweek struggles against Sporting Lisbon.

Last night, Espanyol repeated the approach, and was quite effective: stunting Real Madrid's capability to create in midfield. Espanyol's pressing of Casemiro was actually so intense that it resulted in the Brazilian getting a knoc. And it was this that proved to be Espanyol's undoing: his injury ultimately forcing the Brazilian off and Kroos on - which finally gave Real Madrid the capacity to pass their way out of midfield and greatly improve on the team's capacity for ball retention and the construction of attacking play.

I am certain that every manager / coach worth his salt (including Borussia Dortmund's impressive Thomas Tuchel) would have noted this and will be forcing Zidane into a dilemma: stick to Casemiro and have a perpetual target for pressing, or utilize his ball players (e.g. Kroos) and ultimately be less defensively secure. This might be Zidane's current catch 22.

Quick Hits: Real Madrid Reunion

It was great to see a Real Madrid re-union of sorts out there on the pitch, seeing all the players out there who have worn both the white of Real Madrid and the blue-and-white of Espanyol: Asensio (on loan to Espanyol last season), Vasquez and Casilla (bought back from Espanyol) for Real Madrid and Diego Lopez for Espanyol, also keeping Napoli's Jose Callejon who scored over the weekend vs. Milan and played for both clubs. The recent shared history between the 2 clubs is heart-warming.

Quick Hit: Color Blind

Purple vs. Blue and White - way to make my eyes hurt!

I like the purple jerseys. But why wear them against a team wearing Blue and White??? My eyes are extra tired today because of this.

Merengue Bites - The Undecima Edition.

2016-06-01T09:42:00.000+08:00

Rahul was too drunk celebrating . But Kaushik, Ryan and I still managed to have a 'celebratory discussion' about that beautiful night in Milan.

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The podcast can also be listened to / downloaded here:

Deserve (Real Madrid 1 - Atletico Madrid 1, Real Madrid win on Penalties)

2016-05-30T18:47:00.000+08:00

Seriously: Does Any Club do Title Celebrations better than Real Madrid?

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I'm still in shock. Did we really just win our 11th European Cup? Yes we did... and judging from the images of the team's celebrations, I'd say that no one celebrates titles like Real Madrid too.

The season started horribly. Firing Carlo Ancelotti was a mistake - I continue to believe that (and I say 'Congratulations' to Bayern Munich and their fans for hiring him). Hiring Rafa Benitez was an even bigger mistake. Despite having magnificent players in the team, as a Real Madrid fan, I cannot help but feel like we merely somehow 'stumbled' into the Champions League final: getting a series of lucky draws (beatable teams: Roma, Wolfsburg, Man City), and forgiven for our foibles (i.e. Wolfsburg). This Real Madrid team institutionally felt like Chelsea's Champions League-winning team under Roberto Di Mateo - born into crisis, grafting our way towards glory, rather than the all-conquering 2014 team (is there a better way to arrive in a Champions League final than beating Bayern Munich 5-0 on aggregate?).

But isn't that perhaps where we can find the beauty in this side? In this title? That it is just as capable of earning its silverware in a blaze of Hollywood glory (2014) just as it is capable of crawling beyond the finish line after a bloody trench war which ends with hardly a player able to walk (2016)? We are the club that has the most European Cups because we know more than one way to win it. We can win it with pure glamour just as we can with pure graft.

The Tactical Tale
The comparison to Chelsea's Champions League-winning 2012 side is not just because of the way we won (by penalties after a 1-1 draw) but of how we played the final to win it: pure graft. One could perhaps say that the match might have unfolded in a completely different manner had events taken place differently as well.
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Going into the match, I had one thought whilst considering Atleti: watch out for Griezmann. Atleti play a rock solid game of back-and-forth with any team they face, waiting for a mistake - a misplaced pass, a defensive lapse in managing the offside trap, a slip, a miscontrolled ball. If any such events happened, it normally meant that Antoine Griezmann would have his way with your defense and score, or create a scoring chance. It was, I thought, going to be a game of chicken: a waiting game for the first team to blink and concede. Whoever would do so, will have to spend the rest of the match chasing the game. It was for this reason that I believed in my mind that Atleti were favorites - it was only in my heart who refused to let go of a Real Madrid win.
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Perhaps it was fate that immediately before the match, I stumbled into an article highlighting the one area where Real Madrid are clearly superior over Atleti - the air. It was as if fate was speaking to me then: as Casemiro (thanks to Bale's Free Kick) forced Oblak into a world-class save in the early exchanges. Later on, the ghost of Ramos would haunt Atleti again - their Champions League final boogie man come to life as he bundled in Bale's man-bun flick from Toni Kroos' delivery into the goal. A Griezmann counter-attack, my worst nightmare, would not come to pass, it was Atleti's worst nightmare come true instead - the onus was on them to attack. It would be our turn, via Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo to hit them on the counter.
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It is for this reason why perhaps, there are many who believe that Atleti deserved it more. After all, if you spend +/-65 minutes on the attack (the time between Ramos' goal and Carrasco's), you will look like the hungrier side. This is most especially so given that it was also at this point where we discovered that Cristiano Ronaldo was not fit to play - with only Bale giving us glimpses of an opportunity to hit them back on the counter. It was rear guard action for us for most of the match, forcing Atleti to play a game they aren't comfortable with: possession.
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Yannick Carrasco: the slick winger with the blonde bombshell Girlfriend waiting for him in the crowd with the kiss. This is certainly a far more interesting goal than Ramos barely touching the ball to score the opener.

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Maybe it's luck for them that it didn't take long after Carrasco's introduction that Carvajal, the man who had Neymar in his pocket in the last Clasico, had to be subbed off - and Danilo, the greatest waste of 35m euros, came on for him. And when you take the fresh legs of Carrasco, his skill, his drive, his incisiveness, and you apply it against the hapless Danilo (who is seriously making me believe that he is Cicinho v2.0), it's not hard to see Atleti looking the better side. For almost 30 minutes, Carrasco skinned Danilo over and over again, giving Atleti the incisiveness they needed to carve out the openings in the Madrid defense to give Atleti hope (and for neutrals, the entertainment) to turn the match into a contest. It was only poetic justice that Carrasco would score, and given how the penalty shootout would later unfold, that Juanfran assist the goal.
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Atleti's equalizer, scored moments after Madrid had a magnificent chance to make it 2-0, was a nightmare come true to me. "Are we about to see the a reversal of the 2014 final???" I asked myself. The patterns were eerily similar: an early goal from a setpiece scored by a CB (Godin in 2014, Ramos in 2016), followed by a spell of countless waves of attacks from the team behind, then a late goal (Ramos in 2014, Carrasco in 2016) - ceding the momentum to the team that had just scored. For 5 minutes, Real Madrid were reeling like a boxer stunned by a punch, ready to be stricken down by a knockout blow.
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But who knew that unlike Real Madrid circa 2014, Atleti didn't have anything left in the tank after their equalizer. They were spent. I would argue in fact, that if there was a team that looked likelier to score after the equalizer, it was Real Madrid, injured Ronaldo, cramped up Bale and all.
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Real Madrid scored the early goal and held them off for an hour with our one legged superstar pretending to be fit. And by the time they scored their much needed equalizer, they had nothing left. Tactically speaking, it sounds like we ripped a page right out of Jose Mourinho's playbook. I'm reminded of that ill-fated Semi-final vs. Heynckes' Bayern Munich which we lost on penalties. It was the same approach with a different outcome (we scored an early goal, chose to defend the lead, conceded in the second half but lost on penalties). Yes, yes, yes, it wasn't a glamorous tactical approach. It was a risky one too. But considering the fact that we played with only a mockup of Cristiano Ronaldo for 120 minutes, credit must be given for successfully pulling the ploy off.
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"There is no such thing as justice in football. Whoever wins deserves to win. There are no excuses" - Diego Simeone

I disagree with the notion that Real Madrid didn't deserve to win. No less than Diego Simeone has the same opinion too - knowing full well that if Atleti were going to win last Saturday, they probably would have won in the manner we did. Did we win by defensive tactics? Absolutely. Would we have applied different tactics had we not scored to early. For sure. At the end of the day, we won because we adopted our tactics to the circumstances of the game and executed them just well enough to get across the line.
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We DESERVED to win.
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Tactical Tidbits
If there was criticism to be levelled towards Zidane for his tactics - and we are nitpicking here, I'd probably be critical towards his substitution of Kroos for Isco. I get the intent. CR and Bale's legs were gone, Kroos' long passing wouldn't have been as effective as Isco's fresh legs and disco moves pushing the ball forward. But losing Kroos' dead ball delivery might have allowed us to avoid penalties (Modric had some horrible corners late in the game). The choice to bring on Lucas Vazquez's fresh legs and work rate was an inspired choice though.
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If what I read is true that Simeone won the penalty coin toss but chose to allow Madrid to kick first then I'd say that he committed a tactical error: given that 60% of penalty shootout winners kick first. Oblak's decision to 'wait' for a kick to be taken centrally also deserves criticism - especially with Simeone's assistant (Burgos) being a goalkeeper himself. Many clubs keep records of their opponents' penalty taking tendencies, which are supposedly relayed to their goalkeepers for moments like this. Oblak's decision to 'wait' for the centrally taken penalty is a sign that homework wasn't carried out.
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On the opposite end, Zidane's 'order' of penalty takers was bizarre in my view. It is a well-known statistical fact that the most decisive penalties are the first and the fourth ones - especially to put young Lucas Vazquez first to take the penalties. Zidane's choices proved right though as young Lucas showed nerves of steel and ice in his veins to put his penalty away. His instinctive primal scream to celebrate, slapping his jersey, emphasizing the badge on his shirt might have dictated the mood of the proceedings as well - as 'penalty observers' noted how Madrid's players celebrated their successful penalties with joyous rage while Atleti's players' demeanors were far more subdued and nervous. In the end, 'Angry Ramos' taking and successfully scoring the 'decisive' fourth worked out - and the decision to leave our best taker, Cristiano Ronaldo to deliver the 'death blow' proved to be the right choice as well.
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It's clear I've spent way too much time over-analyzing / over-thinking the match. What can I say, that's what you do when you realize that the club you love and support has just won it's 11th European Cup.
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A Few Words for my Idol

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Zinedine Zidane: The man who is the reason why I am a Real Madrid fan today.

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Those who have read enough of my writings and have heard enough of the podcasts I've participated in know that the reason I am a Real Madrid fan today is because of a man named Zinedine Zidane. I watched and marvelled at his accomplishments as a player and continue to struggle to think of a player who can make my heart stop in the manner he did as a player. Today, my heart swells with pride at seeing this man - who made me fall in love with this club - lift this trophy that my club is madly in love with. Today it is my love for this club that keeps the teenager in me alive.
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Today we celebrate the 11th. What a beautiful Day.

Merengue Bites: Happy Bridesmaids

2016-05-18T16:11:00.000+08:00

It was only 2nd place in La Liga for us - but a great run nonetheless for Zidane and the boys as they recovered from the Rafa regime. Ryan, Rahul and I also talked about our chances vs. Atleti in the UCL Final

The Podcast can also be streamed / downloaded here:

Merengue Bites: A May Day Comeback

2016-05-04T09:38:00.002+08:00

Long Time, No Talk. I even forgot the name of the podcast before recording. But here we are after a long time.
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We talked about the suddenly-available possibilities of end-of-season trophies and what we'd like to see happen beyond.
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Enjoy!

Warm-Up (Real Madrid 4 - Sevilla 0)

2016-03-21T19:00:00.000+08:00

Keylor Navas was brilliant AGAIN last night for us.

Applause is in order for Real Madrid last night. Nevermind that we faced Sevilla at home (who are terrible on the road) - we were always the favorites to win anyway. Let's make no mistake about it: Zinedine Zidane is doing a 'live practice season' as we speak: we are out of La Liga (nevemind that both Atleti and Barca dropped points this weekend) and we are out of the Copa Del Rey. We did we get lucky avoiding Barca, Atleti, Bayern and PSG in the Champions League Quarter-final though, facing one of them in the semi-final however, is an inevitability. And let's not kid ourselves too much about having the ability to beat them. The moment we get to the CL semi-finals, when we begin to tread in the waters of Barca and Bayern, it's good to be honest with ourselves as to the team's current capability. We as fans are not playing for anything any longer. Zidane and the boys however are: they are playing for their places in the team next season. So when Sevilla turns up in town, it's best for them to be on their best 'behaviour' - most especially if it's a prelude to a clasico.

Letdowns

It was good to see Jese get on the scoresheet again last night. I did notice though that Vasquez was warming up too: I'm pretty sure it would have been Vasquez to play had Madrid not scored that late flurry of goals last night.

One of the things that I have found curious about Zidane's few months in charge is that he has displayed a tremendous amount of pragmatism in his spell as manager. His early weeks in charge have displayed a preference to work based not on the foundations laid out by Rafa Benitez at the start of the season, but on the principles of Carlo Ancelotti. We saw a 4-3-3 on attack that switched into a 4-4-2 on defense, featuring Kroos as the team's central 'pivot' with Modric pushing up and down to the German's right, whilst accompanied by a '10' on this left. We saw Gareth Bale deployed on the right wing and we also saw the resumption of the "Jese development project".

Specific to Zidane however was the selection of Isco over James in the '10' spot beside Kroos, presumably over James' injury and fitness issues. But then things started to go badly... the Isco/James-as-part-of-the-midfield-3 experiment was only ever going to work if the 2 were willing to put in the sort of effort that Angel Di Maria applied into the role. And neither did so. Isco was, to use basketball terminology, a 'ball-stopper' too: that player who dribbled too much instead of making the necessary quick touch passes to create momentum for the team on attack. So as far as Isco was concerned, he essentially reached a point where he wasn't giving what the team needed on attack (because he was a 'ball-stopper') and neither was we giving what the team needed in defense. Jese wasn't doing enough to merit his 'development project' status as well. He became too inconsistent and stopped taking his playing opportunities with both hands like he used to. To put it simply, many of these guys were not repaying Zidane's faith in them. They were becoming letdowns.

'Re-Discovering Rafa'

Casemiro's performances have necessitated for us to to re-open the conversation again: Should Real Madrid play with a specialist defensive midfielder again? I'm on the 'yes' camp.

So to put it simply, Zidane began 're-discovering' Rafa Benitez's findings. Lucas Vasquez got playing time and repaid Zizou's faith in him with a couple of assists. And most importantly, Carlos Casemiro was unearthed from the bench to give the team that much-needed player who would happily sit in front of the back 4, tackle and make the 4-yard pass. Yes, yes,, yes, he is no Xabi Alonso. But he is no Lass Diarra either. Remember him? The 'great' tackling midfielder who asked for the '10' jersey and would suffer fits of hallucination on the pitch where he thought he was Zidane and dribbled the ball on solo-slaloming runs to the opposition third - only to be dispossessed and concede a counterattacking chance to his opponent? Yes - I remember him. He was the one some delusional fans used to describe as 'Lass is Class'.

Carlos Casemiro isn't Claude Makelele just yet either. The young Brazilian however is happy to play the role and nothing more. He will tackle anything that comes near him (even if after the referee blows his whistle, which was how he got his yellow card yesterday), he will recover balls to keep the momentum of the attack, and he will make simple passes no longer than 10 yards to the guy next to him (who most frequently are Kroos or Modric). Having played with Makelele, Zidane knows not just the value, but the absolute need for a player like Casemiro on the team.

At our team's very best, we've always had great players in this role for us everytime we won titles: Redondo, Makelele and most recently, Khedira (for Mourinho's 100 point, 100 goal league-title-winning team). Most recently, this role was equally shared by Xabi Alonso and Angel Di Maria. Neither are still with us and we are in season #2 of trying to re-create the combination. Perhaps it's time to search for Makelele, or Khedira again - and that Casemiro might be the man for the job. When on the pitch, Casemiro allows Kroos to push up higher allowing Real Madrid's 'attacking platform' to be a good 10-15 meters closer to the opponents' goal.

I really believe that Kroos can still deputize in that role for games without Casemiro. But more and more, I am becoming convinced that if we are in need of a proper defensive midfielder out there. Isco and James will have to wait for their turn as alternatives to Modric and Kroos for the rest of the season.

The BBC Broadcasts again

The BBC was at it again last night

In this season of Barcelona's South American (a unique combo of Argentine, Uruguayan and Brazilian talent) ''MSN' trio destroying everything in its wake. it's too easy to forget that this has been the season where our own European (a Portuguese, A Frenchman and a Welshman) 'BBC' trident has had an injury-plagued season. And when Benzema hasn't been hurt, he's been embroiled in a sex-tape scandal, and now in a drug-trafficking scandal. I know that Messi's had to miss a part of the season and that Neymar owes the taxman 45m Euros (or dollars?), but Madrid's trident have missed a bigger part of the season and have had to play larger parts of it only partially fit.

But let's not argue. On talent alone, the MSN are in my opinion easily better than the BBC. Messi is better than Ronaldo, Neymar is better than Bale and Suarez is better than Benzema. Yeah, I said it. being better on talent alone however doesn't make a better team. After all I watched the 'Fantastic 4' (Etoo, Ronaldinho, Messi and Henry) fall against a squad that featured an ageing Raul, RVN and a young 'can't hit the wide side of a barn' Gonzalo Higuain. What is key the the team's chemistry and its ability to function TOGETHER as a unit. At the moment, the MSN is better at this than the BBC too.

Last night's performance however showed glimpses of the BBC re-synchronizing with each other again: with Benzema's goal assisted by Bale, and Bale's goal started by Ronaldo and assisted by Benzema. It's a good start.

Warm-Up

I will leave it to you the reader whether you prefer to see last night's game as a good warm up for next week's clasico or if like me, you prefer to see last night's match as a positive step for Zidane for his warmup for next season (where things will really count for him). What I choose to take heart from is that the team is taking steps towards the right direction under his guidance. His principles of attacking, attractive football are there to see - but the clarity of this thinking and his willingness to immediately act on problems he identifies are there to see as well. Philosophy alone (that which purists in the Blaugrana camp obssess about) will not impress me - the ability to apply pragmatism when a situation calls for it is just as important to me. Above all, those who currently play for the team are playing on merit, not on reputation, pay grade, sentiment, color of passport or 'philosophy'.

These may be small steps in the right direction for the team. But many of these small steps put together can establish and rework the team's dressing room culture. It is an approach for the long haul - and it is an opportunity that Zidane knows he enjoys which no other Madrid manager in the immediate past has ever enjoyed (how many coaches do you know have a brief that states: this season is a goner, now take the next 6 months, work something out for us to achieve things NEXT season?). Looking long term has never been Madrid's strength, and whether by design or accident, the opportunity to do so is in Zidane's hands. And based on how he's been handling things these past few months, I can only say that I'm mostly getting a nice warm feeling inside.

Andalusian Blues (Malaga 1 - Real Madrid 1)

2016-02-22T17:56:00.000+08:00

The Eraserheads: Andalusian Dog

I thought I'd start with that with a semi-obscure song (to their casual fans) from the Eraserheads (a legendary rock band from the Philippines I worship), Andalusian Dog - given that trips to Andalusia have constantly been giving Real Madrid fits of trouble. Last night's trip to Malaga, which ended in a 1-1 draw was no different. It was a result that leaves us 9 points behind Barcelona - making it practically official that we are only just playing for pride in La Liga from this point forward.

And here's the thing: we shouldn't even be just looking at the result. We should be looking at the performance too - and it was awful! Last night's match was a rare instance I could catch Real Madrid at a decent hour (11pm) - and their performance still had me dozing off during stretches. That first half seemed like it was taking forever! Make no mistake about it - last night's match was not 2 points lost for Real Madrid - it was 1 point won. We played awfully, scored an offside goal (granted that 'justice' was done with Ronaldo missing the penalty - perhaps he should have tried that Messi-Suarez trick?) and had Keylor Navas saving our skins yet again.

I get that it was a tough match on the road (a second consecutive one at that), but this is a team that claims to be title contenders. And title contending teams either play well but lose the odd road game, especially if it's the second of a back-to-back... or they win playing ugly with a massive dose of luck (e.g. an allowed offside goal against the run of play).

Tactics & Personnel

The days before the game were brought unpleasant news of Karim Benzema being injured and unavailable for last night. I thus found myself wondering how Zidane would set the team up expecting both James and Isco to play with either Kovacic or Jese getting the nod in the starting XI. I will admit that I applauded Zidane's brave move to bench James (probably against Florentino's will) and start with Kovacic with Modric and Kroos at midfield. This was Zizou recognizing the fact that we were playing a serious team on the road and that we needed more solidity at midfield (Kovacic) and pace on the flanks (Jese). The game started with me wondering whether Jese would be played in his favored left wing position (where he could cut in and shoot), or whether Isco would be given this task. I always expected Ronaldo to move into the center to be the #9.

Except this wasn't the case. Last night, it looked to me like Isco was deployed as a false 9, who looked to play CR7 and Jese into space - much like Diego Perrotti for Roma midweek. It was an experiment Ancelotti tried on numerous occasions which just didnt' work. Last night, Zidane tried it again and the outcome was similar. It disappointed me even more that after 45 mins. of the system not working, Zidane, perhaps encouraged by the (offside) goal we scored, persisted with the system. It didn't work. Malaga's equalizer came past the 60th minute and at the point where we were chasing the game, having a focal point to our attack would have been needed. We didn't have it. I was disappointed with how we managed our tactics to get back into the game.

Performances

It's funny how small circumstances can completely change the narrative. By the 33rd minute: Cristiano Ronaldo had scored in consecutive away games against a good level team. That was the narrative, if you had chosen to ignore the fact that he was a yard offside. By the 36th minute, he had won a penalty that would have had the storyline say: Ronaldo carries Madrid to victory in tough road game. But alas he misses the penalty, and with it the feel-good narrative about his road to recovery and Madrid's declaration of its championship credentials.

A closer look must go to the 2 beneficiaries of Madrid's injury crisis as well: Jese and Mateo Kovacic. Both gave good accounts of themselves in their substitute appearances midweek and logically, both were expected to provide a positive spark to their team last night after being rewarded with an opportunity to start. Instead, it was disappointment everywhere for the 2. Kovacic failed to add the invention and verticality his runs with the ball normally had and lost the ball in many of his touches with it. Jese too lost the ball on many occasions and hardly beat anyone off the dribble and gave the game very little of the pace which he was introduced into the game for.

Lucas Vasquez later came on (for Jese) and seemed to add a bit, but it was ultimately not enough. Zidane also did the logical thing of 'trying' James in Isco's role (who was graciously applauded by the Malaga fans). But is there perhaps a merit to trying Casemiro? It seems the counter-intuitive thing to do, but I find the idea of sending Casemiro in to sit as the sole holder at midfield, to allow Kroos and Modric up the pitch to have some merit.

The simple truth to it however is that the team as a whole were just not at the races today - particularly the defense. After an imperious performance in Rome, Ramos looked as shaky as ever last night at La Rosaleda, sloppy with the ball and somehow always a step behind the pace of the match.

Finding Purpose

It's embarrassing to admit: but La Liga has become like Ligue 1 with Barcelona romping through un-opposed. As Real Madrid fans, it's not wrong to expect our team to put up a stronger challenge to them than what we've shown so far.

La Liga is the latest league to follow the Bundesliga and Ligue 1: in that the league leaders are essentially romping through the competition unopposed. In Germany and France though, the economic might of the leaders (Bayern and PSG) when compared to the rest of the competition, is an easy explanation for the situation. The same can be said about Atleti in Spain - who are punching above their weight thanks to the work of Simeone. The same however, cannot be said about Real Madrid.

For a club that prides itself as the top dog in Deloitte's Football Money league, it's an embarrassment that we've practically surrendered the league title to Barca in Feburary. There is no excuse. We are not a club with budget constraints. Madrid is not an industrial wasteland or some rural backwater. It is a beautiful, modern cosmopolitan city with lovely weather, offering the world's best footballers and their families the absolute best quality of life. Our squad deficiencies are an outcome of poor planning, the lack of a sporting vision and a childish fickle-mindedness in the making of sporting decisions.

Unless the Monstars from Space Jam 'steal' the powers of Barca's players, particularly the MSN, La Liga is practically gone.

This season is a writeoff. The Copa Del Rey is gone because we eliminated ourselves from it. Unless the Monstars from Space Jam 'steal' the powers of Barca's players, particularly the MSN, La Liga is practically gone too. Zidane now has a massive problem on his hands. Though we still have a chance at the Champions League, the only way you can win it is if the team reaches a level of hyper-focus, sharpness and motivation. And the only stage to facilitate this is the League campaign, where the players can compete on a weekly basis. But despite the 'We will fight to the death' statements, how are we to believe that the players will genuinely have the highest level of motivation whilst faced with the common sense knowledge that Barca are too far ahead already? This will be Zidane's challenge.

But even before we can even begin to explore these questions about the players' levels of motivation and focus, we have to get down to an even more basic and simple question: How do you even get them to play better?

Levelling Up (AS Roma 0 - Real Madrid 2)

2016-02-18T17:55:00.001+08:00

The match's key events as they happened. Info Graphic is thanks to Sporticos.com

Not long after this (early) morning's (3:45am) viewing of Real Madrid's 0-2 victory at the Stadio Olimpico over Roma, I began reading reports and commentaries of the match. To my shock and rage, I found one of the pieces written in a critical manner about the way Real Madrid played. I was absolutely outraged. This is the Champions League people! And no, we weren't playing some team from Luxembourg who fielded a bunch of semi-pros that had day jobs waiting for them the next day. This was Roma, now coached by Luciano Spaletti - the same man who orchestrated our elimination 2-4 on aggregate in 2008, the same man who introduced the term 'false 9' into my football vocabulary.

After the sacking of Rudy Garcia, prior to this morning's match. Roma had been unbeaten in 6 of their last 7 matches (losing 1-0 to Juventus). Pjanic (I am still scarred by his goal for Lyon which eliminated us many years back). and Nainggolan would walk into the squad of any of the world's best clubs and while El Shaarawy and Mohammed Salah might have had a few career bumps recently (for Milan and Chelsea respectively), they are easily better than Amatino Mancini and Mirko Vucinic (scorers of Roma's winning goals in the respective legs of the 2008 tie that saw us eliminated).

Real Madrid are expected to win. I get that. But it's not fair to expect Real Madrid to swoop into the Stadio Olimpico and butcher the Romans 5-0.

The Tactical Battle

It was 4-3-3 vs. 4-3-3 this morning at Rome.

The game turned out as I expected actually. It was a cagey affair. Both sides played a 4-3-3 with Roma deploying ex-Sevilla winger Diego Perotti as a false 9. Spalletti's intent was clear: he was going to expose the space left behind by Carvajal and Marcelo to play El Sharaawy and Salah into space on the counter. And without the ball, he would keep it tight and organized.

This approach (of using pace on the counter) is nothing new to anyone at Real Madrid. Our 2 seasons under Carlo Ancelotti plus the fact that Zidane's tactical approach has been very similar to that of Ancelotti's have meant that the team has learned to use possession and ball movement to unlock defenses. When faced with a team which played in a manner as organized as Roma this morning however, 'picking the lock' just takes a bit more time.

Ancelotti and Zidane however are not dogmatic in their beliefs and do not obsess over philosophies. Thus, they do not consider it a violation of some form of football morals to use direct play to create scoring chances. They have no qualms about using a long ball (if the opportunity arises) to reach our 'athletes' (a word used in a semi-derogatory manner by Pep Guardiola to describe some of our players) up front, namely Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale. This morning however, with James playing as part of the front 3 instead of the injured Gareth Bale, Real Madrid have had to use passing and movement even more so to pick the Roma defense open.

Bale's absence made Ronaldo's presence in the wide areas even more critical to the team's play, together with the presence of Carvajal on the right. It was thus an absolutely pleasant surprise to see Marcelo fit to play (and play such a critical role) this morning.

Tale of the tape: Real Madrid dominated the match in terms of possession and shots.

With their organization, Roma resisted us and executed their game plan well. The first half was a chess match between Isco-Kroos-Modric and Pjanic-Vanqueur-Nainggolan at midfield. Roma also managed to give Salah and El Sharaawy plenty of opportunities to break away, only to be met with the imperious Rafa Varane. Madrid enjoyed the domination of possession - and as with all teams who do so, what ultimately matters is how the possession is used. I am of the belief that barring the conccession of a goal on the counter, our control of the game, even during the cagey first half would eventually wear them out and give us an opening.

This opportunity would come at the second half, ironically, of us giving them a taste of their own medicine. It was a transition of play, that allowed Marcelo to play our wide man (Cristiano Ronaldo) through to make it 0-1 Real Madrid.

Cristiano Ronaldo

His walkout during the pre-match interview had been the much-talked about item prior to the match. A pundit remarked that he should rise above it and respond on the pitch instead. It was exactly what he did. Not only did Cristiano score, he also created plenty for Karim 'Mr. Champions League' Benzema too, which the Frenchman sadly was not able to capitalize on.

Since last season, I've written extensively on my aspiration to see Cristiano Ronaldo make a transition to become a full-fledged striker now that he is on the wrong side of 30 and has clearly lost a step in terms of his explosiveness, whilst still possessing his finishing ability, aerial power and physical strength. His resistance to this has been frustrating to me. Under Rafa Benitez, he has neither become a full fledged striker, nor has he retained his usual threat from the wing.

It seems though, that under Zidane, he is making a return to the left wing where he has been so effective since Mourinho's Madrid - following his usual M.O. of running at his defender, beating him, cutting in to his right, and firing a missile towards the goal. Throughout most of this season, I've noticed Ronaldo receiving the ball at a left-sided forward position, running towards goal, and using his left foot to shoot across his body at goal. The usual outcome of this is a goalkeeper save - because even though CR7 can shoot with equal power on his left foot, shots from his left boot can't quite swerve, dip and bobble with the same deftness as those from his right boot. I cannot count the number of times I've yelled at (the image of) Ronaldo (on my TV) this season to cut into his right foot to shoot, rather than use his left leg to take a square shot accross his body.

Last weekend, against Athletic Bilbao, he did just that to score his first goal. This morning, he did exactly the same thing. In both cases, the goalkeeper had no chance. As a fan, it awakened something within me: "Yeah!!!! That's the CR7 I know!" I screamed within. I get the feeling that his team mates feel the same way too.

It was an away game, against a serious opponent, with high stakes - and Cristiano Ronaldo came up big. I am truly enjoying this these familiar sensations of my beloved club's superstar player producing the goods when it truly counts.

Zidane's Managerial Chops

While it is true that Zidane has been greatly aided by an easy schedule to start his coaching career, there isn't much I can fault him with. His decision to re-implement Carlo Ancelotti's 4-3-3-on-attack-4-4-2-on-defense system has proven to be the right thing to do: It has brought out the the best in Modric and revived Kroos' poor start to the season. He has also revived the 'Jese Development Project', which was derailed by the poor kid's injury as well as Rafa Benitez.

But Zidane didn't just pull the 'Ancelotti blueprint' out of a photocopying machine: he is also exhibiting an awareness of Ancelotti's mistakes. We've seen him sub Modric and Kroos out of matches with Madrid holding healthy leads to give the 2 key players a rest while giving the likes of Mateo Kovacic a chance to get their feet wet (he even gave the young Croatian a start last weekend where the #16 turned in a good performance).

All this was in full display this morning. Zizou played the system to a first half stalemate in the first half, and kept the faith on his players' quality to come through. Not long after taking the lead, Zidane made the pragmatic (and in my opinion, correct) decision, to pull Isco out and introduce Kovacic in - providing fresher legs and his knack for pushing the ball up vertically an added dimension to a more open game, less in need of Isco's lock-picking. Once again, the young Croatian played well alongside Kroos and his compatriot, Modric. This was duly followed by the introduction of Jese - both as part of the 'Jese Development Project' and to add pace and directness to a game that saw Roma pushing forward in a bid to get something out of the game. The young Las Palmas native duly fulfilled his role, scoring a goal on a counter-attacking move thanks to his pace. And finally, with his 0-2 away lead, we were all shocked to see Ronaldo subbed off in place of Casemiro who was tasked to 'close the shop.'

It was a great display of Zidane's management chops: a system that maximized his players' talent, patience after a goalless and cagey first half, the reconfiguration of his team to a more direct one following the lead, and finally pragmatically closing the shop to end the game.

Zidane as a coach might not turn out to be some trophy-hogging genius like Pep Guardiola. But one thing's for sure, he's NOT a supermodel-figurehead-talking head-all-flash/no-substance coach. He knows what he's doing.

Time to Level Up

After starting our Zidane era mostly playing weak teams at home and away, at the beginning of the year, the time has come for the degree of difficulty to start rising. A tricky trip to Malaga awaits us this weekend, which is only a prelude to the Madrid derby afterwards. We've had plenty of time to settle in with Zidane. Now come the challenges of what's left of the season to test the team if it has found the road to recovery... or if this is just yet another of many false dawns.

Merengue Bites Podcast: 2015-2016: Episode 3.

2016-01-19T09:44:00.000+08:00

New Manager. New Optimism / Enthusiasm. It was a full crew as Ryan, Kaushik, Rahul and myself decided there was enough of a feel-good vibe within the club for us to get together to talk Real Madrid once again.

The Podcast can also be downloaded / streamed here:

Sifting Through the Rubble (Real Madrid 0 - Barcelona 4)

2015-11-24T22:12:00.000+08:00

It was hard to openly admit it coming into the match, but I have to now confess heading into this game that I truly believed we would lose last night's clasico. That we would be humiliated in the manner that we were however, was a totally different matter.
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Prior to last Saturday's clasico, Barcelona have been flying. With the odds stacked against them, they have overcome a transfer ban that has forced them to work with a depleted squad, they have overcome various injuries and suspensions (Pique) and more importantly, they have managed to keep racking up the wins and did so in glorious fashion (not just 'getting the 3 points') without the greatest player in their club's history. Just as the Bernabeu showed its class by giving Andres Iniesta an ovation last night (on the 10 year anniversary of Ronaldinho being given the same honor), we as Madridistas must tip our hats to Barcelona for that they have achieved. From their management, to their coaching, down to the players: their accomplishments given the obstacles that have been laid their way should be applauded, praised and congratulated by Madridisimo.
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Last Saturday's debacle however was not only the product of Barcelona playing some blindingly impressive football. It was also a product of a catastrophic failure of Real Madrid on multiple levels - from the management (President), the coaching and the players. There is a very understandable outburst of anger aimed particularly at Florentino Perez and Rafa Benitez at the moment as seen in the panoladas that started at a disturbingly early part of the match (who could blame the Bernabeu, the team was getting skinned alive from kickoff?). The 2 surely must take responsibility for last night. EVERYONE in the club however must collectively take responsibility and look at themselves in the mirror.

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Is this the Death Spiral of Florentino's 2nd Presidency?

The Infamous Panolada happened at the Bernabeu last Saturday. Is this the omen for the Death Spiral of Florentino's 2nd Presidency?

Florentino famously won trophies during the early years of his first presidency, doing so while amassing superstar talent which reinforced the club's reputation as the world's most glamorous football club. He also infamously fired a classy, level-headed and much-loved manager (both by fans and players) - Vicente Del Bosque, before the club went into a death spiral that led to Perez's own resignation.
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At the end of last season, Perez's 2nd presidency has essentially been marked by winning every trophy already: the Copa Del Rey, the La Liga Title (both won by Mourinho) and the elusive La Decima. Having completed, this 'cycle' of trophies, he then fired the man many consider the 'The Italian Del Bosque'. If we were to refer to the pattern of Perez's first presidency, this might be the beginning of the death spiral for his second presidency.
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Does Florentino Perez live in a bubble or not? The arguments in favor of Uncle Flo living in a bubble lies in his failure to see that the sacking of Carlo Ancelotti, a coach loved both by the players and fans. was just plainly, a stupid idea. The idea of him NOT living in a bubble is this: if the fans and players don't blame Ancelotti for last season's failures, then surely the eyes of blame would all be focused on him. Cynical a view as it may be, during bad times, having a wildly popular, respected and loved coach like Ancelotti would NOT be good for the president. It exposes what's wrong with the system (the fact that Florentino Perez and Jose Angel Sanchez, a construction magnate and a financial guru respectively, are the club's de facto Sporting Directors).
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In fairness to Florentino, this summer's transfer activity was not one spent obsessing mindlessly over a 'galactico'. His failed summer courtship of David De Gea was a clear attempt to address a problem position we had (anyone who tells me he knew Keylor was going to be at Iker Casillas's level circa 2000-2010 is lying). The re-acquisition of Casemiro from Porto has been an inspired decision whilst choosing to listen to Rafa's recommendation on Lucas Vasquez was wise as well. There are those who are crying foul over Danilo. The signing of the Brazilian to me was not to upgrade our Right Back position, but to prevent Barcelona from upgrading theirs.
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In my opinion, Florentino deserved the jeers, white handkerchiefs and calls for resignation. Those in my opinion however ought to be the end of his 'punishment' - I do not believe he deserves to fall on his sword for this. The public firestorm over last Saturday's embarrassment ought to be a sobering enough reminder to him, that the fans will not fall for his coach scapegoating tricks. That we know he's part of the problem.
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Rafa Benitez - from a Buffoon to a Coward

It's been 10 years since 'The Miracle of Istanbul'. Was that Rafa's peak and are we now riding his decline?

"I'd hire a Pole!" was the reply by a dear Madridista friend to my question to him of "who would you replace Rafa with?" in my response to his "Rafa out!"stance. That many Madridistas feel that a wooden stick would do a better job of coaching this team than Rafa Benitez is indicative of what a massive failure last Saturday was for him.
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Before last night, many Madrid fans perceived Rafa Benitez as a sub-Real Madrid standard manager who clumsily bundled his way into the Real Madrid job. It's been 10 years since 'The Miracle of Istanbul', whilst 'The Debacle of Napoli' is still fresh in all our minds. These days, we associate Rafa Benitez more as a buffoon who eats the plastic wrap of his sandwich more than as some form of tactical mastermind.
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The truth is that before last Saturday, I actually thought that Rafa was doing a relatively decent job. The team was winning despite a long list of injuries to key players (Modric, Bale, James, Benzema, Marcelo, Kovacic, Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Pepe, even Keylor Navas), whilst previously unheralded players were getting their chances and turning in some good performances (Kovacic, Casemiro, Vasquez, Nacho). The defense has looked pretty good too (perhaps partly helped by Keylor being absolutely brilliant). I also do not see his constant swopping of formations to be a bad thing either: having tried the 4-2-3-1, the 4-3-3 and even the 4-4-2. A new coach trying different systems to find the best fit for his ever-changing list of available players to me shows pro-activeness and open-mindedness.
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What I cannot stand however is cowardice. If Rafa believes in defensive football (or to use his term 'balance'), then he should own it. He should play the team he wants and in the way that he wants, not what he thinks others want. The team he should have fielded last Saturday should have been the team which he felt would give us the best possible chance of winning, NOT the team that he feels will get him the least amount of flak afterwards.
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Gareth Bale (injured), James (injured / flew in from South American Internationals), Benzema (injured / involved in a sextape+extortion scandal) had all hardly played leading up to last Saturday. Even if they were physically 100%, they were all not match fit for sure (which is why I am not going to criticize his decision to go with Danilo over Carvajal). That James, Bale and Benzema created chances or almost scored is a different matter. Instead, the likes of Casemiro, who was fit and on form was excluded.
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Why? Because Florentino pressured him to play the super star team? Because the fans would crucify him for being defensive by playing Casemiro? Because the team's 'senior players' supposedly confronted him and pressured him into 'attacking Barcelona'??? Rafa was a coward because he opted for what turned out to be this false notion of 'attacking' Barca even if he didn't believe in it deep down inside. He broke under the will and pressure of the whispers of those around him to field a team that was ideal personnel-wise or prepared tactics-wise to face Barcelona instead of the team which he knew in his heart of hearts would have done something more meaningful out there.
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Real Madrid were tactically a broken team. They gave Barcelona an ocean of space to operate and and do as they wished.

Real Madrid played as a broken team, with a sea of space for Barca's players to enjoy their passing and find their angles for Suarez and Neymar to rip our hearts out... and no one enjoyed this more than Andres Iniesta. On this false notion of intending to 'attack' Barcelona, the team hoped for a gun-slinging match like during the latter-Mourinho / early-Ancelotti era. Last Saturday was no cowboy-style gun-slinging duel: Madrid played like shadows chasing shadows.
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The ultimate and sad irony of it all is that the root Rafa's cowardice was his decision to pretend to be brave and 'attack' Barca with his superstar team - pretending to be someone he's not, and making decisions to avoid criticism in the coming days' post-match analysis, rather than making decisions to win. There is no cowardice in facing yourself and living up to who you are and owning your own actions. That is true bravery. And it is in that where Rafa failed us all last Saturday.
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The Players - From the Walking Wounded to the Sulking Sissies
We will never know if Sergio Ramos (who probably took another pain-killing injection on his shoulder to play) or Marcelo (who had to be subbed off the game) will pay a dear price for sacrificing / forcing themselves to play last Saturday. To be honest, it might not matter for the league campaign: with a 6 point advantage, Messi regaining fitness and the transfer ban being lifted on January, there is little to suggest that Barca will not run away to yet another league title. All I can do is applaud their bravery / stupidity for putting their injured bodies on the line for the cause.
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My beef with the players however have to be trained upon the 2 most expensive players in the history of the sport: Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.
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This season, Rafa Benitez fulfilled Gareth Bale's wish of playing behind the striker, as some sort of super mobile, super explosive '10', not in the Ozil mould (to feed balls for CR7 and Benzema to score), but to terrorize La Liga's slower and physically weaker defensive midfielders with his pace and power. We saw him play this role quite effectively at the beginning of the season (before he was injured). Against the slow-footed Sergi Busquets, Bale was supposed to have the same effect. As the man supposedly the target of any outlet balls from midfield or defense, his job was to drop deep (if necessary) and use his pace and explosiveness to overpower and blow by Barca's midfield line. Last Saturday however, he did NOT do this. He instead, together with Ronaldo, Benzema and James, waited for the ball to arrive to their side of the pitch, leaving the midfield and defense to suffer at the hands of Barca's midfield and front 3 who were enjoying a massive, ocean-sized space to operate and pass their way through our defense.
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Ronaldo's Wrong Road

By taking the 'right road', Ronaldo can put himself in a position to win the Ballon D'Or once again. If he takes the wrong road, he will find himself down the same road as Shevchenko, Torres, Owen and Kaka.

At age 30, Cristiano Ronaldo is at a crossroads in his career. He must choose between 2 roads. The first road is one that will lead to a glorious destiny: as the world's best '9'. He has all the physical tools to achieve this: strength, pace over a short stretch, mobility, the poacher's instinct, aerial power, the ability to shoot with both feet and above all, a greed for goals. To reach this point, Ronaldo must lock himself up in a room, and watch 12 hours of Karim Benzema playing: memorizing the Frenchman's intelligence at running, creating space, making himself available for passes to his teammates, holding up the ball and various other skills that are expected of strikers. He must then edit out some of Benzema's reactions in the final third (which is to look to pass to Ronaldo) and replace them with his greed for goals. A 30-year old Cristiano Ronaldo who runs the channels, holds the ball up, creates space, etc. will score 60 goals/season for the next 2-3 seasons. Next, Ronaldo must also spend another 12 hours watching film of his former team mate, the recently-retired Raul. With even less pace, and even less strength and with almost zero aerial ability, Raul in his final 2-3 seasons at Madrid was still good for nearly 20 goals per season. Playing like that at age 33-37, Ronaldo would still be a guarantee for at least 30-40 goals a season at the highest level.
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The second road is a path that is now all too familiar to many of us: the sad fate of a player who has built his entire game on his pace and explosiveness but has lost it due to father time and/or injury. This was the sad road taken by the likes of Andriy Shevchenko, Fernando Torres, Michael Owen and more recently, CR7's former Real Madrid teammate, Kaka. For the strikers in particular, they have (d)evolved into 'mere' finishers - wandering around the penalty box, waiting for a ball they can stick their boot into for a shot at goal. It doesn't take long for managers to realize that such players are only of use if they score. And without their goals, their teams are effectively only playing with 10 men.
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Having played as the striker for the last few weeks due to Benzema's absence, I am dismayed to see Cristiano Ronaldo opt for the latter road. His participation in the build up of play has been next to none, and has spent most games jogging about disinterestedly, waiting for the ball to reach his space, where he seems to only be interested to finish an attacking move with a shot at goal. Beyond the goals, he offered little else. Last Saturday, Cristiano Ronaldo did nothing but sulk and curse his luck as up to 3 great scoring chances came calling with no goal to show for. He offered little beyond that.
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It is with these thoughts that I made my wife nearly spit her coffee out over breakfast this morning when I sullenly confessed to her that I have come to believe that Cristiano Ronaldo has now been surpassed by Luis Suarez and Neymar as Messi's only contender/s to the title of 'Best player in the world'. Yes, there you have it - I said it. And it is with this thinking that I find myself believing, that unless CR7 'changes his ways' and turns toward the other road, that Real Madrid must accept any 'stupid money offer' that many come this summer. Perhaps the 'lesser' French League can mask his decline whilst keep his glamorous reputation intact playing in the City of Light (Paris). Perhaps a return to the club and the city (Manchester) that made him a man can nudge Ronaldo to the right road. Either way, something has to give.
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Something Does Have to Give
My assessment of Rafa at the beginning of the season stands: his tactical approach (4-2-3-1) gives a natural place to our playing personnel (James, Isco and Bale) while his rotation policy can help allow us avoid last season's mistakes (Ancelotti's refusal to rotate the squad resulted in the team succumbing to fatigue late in the season). His personality however is a massive question mark to motivate a team of superstars and mega-egos and get them onboard to his methods.
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What we are seeing at the moment seems to show that his personality is having a very negative impact towards the team - a team so good in terms of talent, that the tactical system employed to use them matters far less compared to the need to keep them motivated and focused. Without having to make the readers read between the lines, this is my way of saying that I do not believe that the team or its performance will suffer if Rafa Benitez is sacked. Because of the team's dysfunctional chemistry thanks to the coach, it is essentially now playing merely on talent rather than tactics, or organization. As my good friend believes: "A bloody pole can coach this team better than him."
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The massive hurdle however is the institutional damage that Real Madrid will suffer over the firing of a newly-hired coach just months into the season. As it stands, I am not optimistic that we can win La Liga. Having said that, a season with a trophy is not yet out of the cards - but even then, with all this going on, I'm not sure even a trophy can stop us all from concluding that this has been one butt-fuck ugly season.

A Tribute to an Artist

2015-11-16T12:20:00.001+08:00

I recently had the privilege of 'meeting' an unbelievably talented artist by the name of Karl Maxwell.
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Get this: he HAND DRAWS these amazing works of football-inspired art. He recently sent me this beautiful Real Madrid piece which took him 500 - FIVE HUNDRED HOURS to do. All his work is hand drawn, numbered and signed.
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In a world of easy downloads, mindless fabrication and copy-catting, true artists and craftsemen like Karl are a rarity.
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Madridistas can/should buy his work in his website, his etsy page or his Bigcartel page. You can find him online through Twitter (@KMaxArt), Facebook (Karl Maxwell Art), Instagram (KMaxArt) and Pinterest (KMaxArt).

Revisting Rafa's Dilemmas

2015-10-01T17:03:00.000+08:00

For the past few matches, Real Madrid have been without 2 of our key attacking players: Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez. And though there is much left to be desired over our last 2 matches (0-0 to Malaga, and a doze-worthy 2-0 against Malmo last night), it's easy to fall into the wrong conclusions generated by a few superficial observations.

It's undeniable that following our 6-0 drubbing of Espanyol, things have been a tad dry from a goal scoring point of view (1-0 over Granada, 1-2 over Athletic Bilbao, 0-0 against Malaga and 0-2 over Malmo). Fingers have been pointing and whispers have been directed towards Cristiano Ronaldo and how his 5 goals in La Liga are a deception since they have come from a single game only. I on the other hand, personally believe that the fingers are pointed at the wrong people. We should be looking at Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez instead. We have been without Gareth Bale since the Granada game and the goals have dried up since. In his 4 appearances so far this season, Bale has scored 2 goals and dished out 3 assists - and we're not yet counting plays which include winning penalties or plays which he helps to create but isn't credited with a goal or assist for. So as surprising as it may seem to be, it's difficult not to come to a conclusion that Gareth Bale has become incredibly important to Rafa Benitez's system.

Rafa's Dilemma: System vs. Personnel

Like most managers, even the rotation-obsessed Rafa Benitez has an A-List and B-List of players in his squad. Having lost 2 of his prime A-listers however (Bale and James), Rafa Benitez has had a look at his bench and has found that he only has one remaining A-lister to deploy: Isco.

So against Granada, he did a very characteristically Rafa Benitez thing: he started Lucas Vasquez on the right side of a 4-2-3-1 to replace James while Isco played as a classic 10 - keeping his 4-2-3-1. It was a drab 1-0 win for us which clearly needed a re-look at his approach to squad management.

What is Rafa Benitez to do now that without Bale and James, and with only Isco as only the remainig 'A-lister' from the bench, he finds himself with more affinity to his B-List Central midfielders (Kovacic, Casemiro) than his attacking wingers (Jese, Cheryshev, Vasquez). What he ultimately decided to do after the Granada game, was a big surprise.

Revisiting the 4-3-3

Real Madrid's lineup vs. Athletic Bilbao - A classic Ancelotti 4-3-3 formation. Stats and diagrams courtesy of whoscored.com

It was thus a shock when against Bilbao, he took a different tact: shocking us all by going for a Carlo Ancelotti-esque 4-3-3: with a midfield trio of Kovacic-Kroos-Modric. He noted in a post-match interview later that he used 3 different formations throughout the match: 4-3-3, 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1. The composition of the midfield was classic Real Madrid Ancelotti - with Kroos sitting deep center, flanked by Modric to his right, and his fellow Croatian Kovacic (who is proving to be an astute signing) on the left. The front line mostly played narrow with Cristiano drifting center lots of times in a bid to get into goal scoring positions, while Isco played on the right, looking also to drift closer to his operating comfort zone. The game was decided by Benzema, and did not see the sort of fluid, attacking brand of football that we associate with Benitez's predecessor.

Against Malaga last weekend, Isco played as part of the midfield - but given his instincts as a '10' pushed up a lot more aggressively compared to Modric. Kroos carried on playing the same role he performed last year under Ancelotti. Stats and diagrams courtesy of whoscored.com

Benitez seems to have been pleased with the outcome of the Athletic game too: repeating the approach last weekend in our home game vs. Malaga, this time with Isco as part of the midfield 3 and with Jese joining the front 3. It was a dissappointing 0-0 draw than saw us lose the lead we took during the last matchday. It was however still a game where we took a staggering 31 shots with Cristiano taking a whopping 14 of them. In the end, we can't call it a totally bad performance - given that the match turned into the annual Carlos Kameni-denying-Real-Madrid-3 points festival (as he has done so for many many years.

Last night's formation looked EVEN more Ancelotti-esque: with the 4-3-3 executthed to resemble a Carletto's 'Christmas Tree' (4-3-2-1) formation. The introduction of Lucas Vasquez and Dennis Cheryshev later in the game would made the team resemble a 4-3-3 more. Stats and diagrams courtesy of whoscored.com

Last night's Champions League match vs. Malmo saw the same approach, with different personnel: with Casemiro was deployed as the pivot man (I really like the way he plays) in front of the defense with Kroos and Modric on either side of him. Isco, Ronaldo and Benzema would comprise the front 3 just as against Athletic Bilbao. What is interesting to notice however was that last night, Benzema and Isco spent so much time dropping deeper and centrally that the formation began looking more like Ancelotti's 'Christmas Tree' (4-3-2-1) - and it was only the late introductions of Cheryshev and Vasquez that re-formed the formation to look more like the 4-3-3 it was probably intended to be.

Personnel vs. System

I am not yet ready to participate in a debate re: the merits of opting for guys like Jese, Cheryshev and Vasquez, young Spanish players from the cantera, as opposed to our more expensive foreign recruits (who are just as young) such as Kovacic and Casemiro. Jese is after all yet to reach the levels he showed prior to his injury while Cheryshev hasn't been given the chance to showcase the player who was so important for Villarreal last season. Of our 3 young, newly-promoted canteranos, it has only been Vasquez who has shone in periodic moments to assist a few goals (2). What this tells me however is that in his dilemma of Personnel vs. System, Rafa is opting for the former - choosing to go with the players he trusts the most, and working out a system for them to fit in, rather than to shoehorn them into positions on the pitch unsuited to them. Rafa Benitez has always been a pragmatist in his football, but rarely at the expense of a pre-conceived tactical system / philosophy - that he is willing to be flexible about this is a pleasant surprise to me.

A Trip to the Calderon

A trip to the Calderon awaits us this weekend where there is speculation that Gareth Bale might be fit to play. If so, we should probably expect a 4-2-3-1. We all know however that tactics will not count for much in a Madrid derby. It won't matter whether we've used a 4-2-3-1, a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3. The winner will be the team that keeps their heads, avoids mistakes, and keeps the ice in their veins should the opportunity come to strike. We've seen Rafa tinker with his tactics and to a certain extent, we've also seen some of his man managing capabilities. This weekend however, we will see him tested in yet another facet of his capabilities as a manager. Carlo failed this test multiple times last season. Let's all hope that Rafa will do better.

Merengue Bites: Season 3 Episode 1

2015-09-21T14:29:00.001+08:00

Rahul was on holiday in Keylor Navas Land, but Kaushik, Ryan and I got together anyway to talk Real Madrid in what will be our new monthly format. We talked about our first few matches and pondered on what has been a disastrous transfer market.
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The podcast can also be downloaded here:

Real Madrid Steak (Real Madrid 5 - Real Betis 0)

2015-08-31T18:49:00.001+08:00

When the season started with an away trip to Sporting Gijon, I somehow had a sinking feeling that our season opener will end with a draw. Managers’ debut games tend to be underwhelming: Capello started with a draw, while Pellegrini and Mourinho probably did as well. I remember Ancelotti starting his career with a drab win over Villarreal with Gareth Bale scoring. So when Rafa Benitez debuted with a 0-0 at the Molinon, it wasn’t surprising to me. I spent the entire week last week quizzing my colleagues in the office who inquired about the result: “Didn’t you know??? Real Madrid are only going to have 38 points at the end of this La Liga season!” Before they could even figure out what I meant, I would finish off with “With Rafa Benitez, every game this season will be 0-0 or 1-1.” It was a good joke to get laughs from my friends. It’s no joke for a serious Real Madrid fan though.

Steak and Rafa the Chef

One such Real Madrid fan was my good friend Nomz. While I was grappling with the shitty fact that despite paying more than $200 monthly (combined) for 2 cable TV subscriptions but can’t get a La Liga TV broadcast, Nomz eagerly watched the season opener and walked away with fury at how badly we played. “They were all shit!” he said.

Like most Real Madrid fans, he was furious at where Rafa Benitez seemed to be taking us. Barcelona are unable to incorporate any of their new signings till January. They lost Neymar to Mumps, and lost Pique for 4 games for being potty-mouthed. If there was ever any time for us to race into a good head start in the La Liga race, it was now. But we were blowing it.

Make no mistake about it, many of Rafa’s core tactical beliefs fit perfectly with Real Madrid: a 4-2-3-1 system that can take advantage of having 2 world-class #10s in our squad (James and Isco), and a rotation policy that can keep our squad players from getting disgruntled and our first choice players from burning out. He is however not known to be a great man manager and has a reputation to being tactically over-bearing - characteristics that have proven fatal for other coaches in Real Madrid’s past.

Having been taken to Singapore’s best steak restaurant for a heavenly late-Friday meal, I saw it fit to compare Rafa Benitez to a chef as Nomz and I pondered Real Madrid’s tactics. With Valencia and Liverpool back in the day, Rafa had a few good ingredients to work with: a core of 5-7 great players surrounded by mostly mediocre players. Like a chef working with a limited pantry, Rafa configured his sides to maximize his best ingredients and mask the limitations of his mediocre ones to create a great dish.

Real Madrid however (and THIS particular side especially) are different. Every member of our team #1-25, is a great player, a golden ingredient. If Real Madrid was a dish, it didn’t need to be covered in garnish, coated with unnecessary sauces, or artistically plated for the visual pleasure of a food blogger’s instagram account. If Real Madrid was a dish, it would have looked like and tasted like the steak that was served to me last Friday night. A single slice of perfectly-cooked USDA grain-fed, 35-day old slice of Angus Beef on a warm plate. It had bit of a crunch on the outside, with a salty caramelized edge, cooked to a perfect medium-rare at the center: pink, juicy and it melted in your mouth after a single knife stroke on your plate. Gastronomic orgasm would follow after you washed it down with a sip of fine red wine.

At our best with Ancelotti, we were that steak. Minimal tactical gimmicks: just 11 of the best players in the world doing their thing. For teams like ours, I fear managers like Rafa because he’s the sort to take a perfect slice of wagyu beef meant to become a steak, and put it into a meat processor to become a sausage or meat balls. We have to be fair to him though, 2 games isn’t enough to judge him.

Wingers as #10s

Our 5-0 win last Saturday at home against Betis was the sort of result Rafa needed to put people at ease about his tactical intentions. We played the sort of football we expected from Real Madrid: starting the game with a mouth-watering series of 1-2 passes, pinging about across the pitch until James’ cross would find Bale’s head for the 1-0.

The bone of contention between many pundits and Rafa Benitez at the moment is El Gordo’s decision to play Gareth Bale behind the striker, as a #10 - presumably to re-create his most successful spell at Tottenham where he was given a free role behind the striker. Those who watched those Spurs games would do well to remember though that despite Gareth Bale scoring 20+ goals that season, making him the Premier League’s best player, there were a few wrinkles that must not be over-looked. First was that many games Gareth Bale won for Spurs (mostly thanks to goals scored by him) were drab games that featured 1 or 2 moments of brilliance of Bale scoring goals similar to his second goal last saturday (where he races up the pitch with space in front of him to launch a missile at goal), second is that while at Spurs, there was no other player on the team who was remotely close to his level in terms of quality.

At Real Madrid, winning the game 1-0 or 2-1 thanks to a moment like that from Gareth Bale is not good enough. Wins like last Saturday (5-0, with 3 different goal scorers) are par for the course. Also, at Real Madrid, every member of the squad is at the same league as him quality-wise. In fact, he’s not even among the team’s top 3, (even 5 players).

We must also note that wingers being played as #10s is not a Rafa Benitez thing alone. Mourinho has been playing Hazard-Willian-Pedro behind Diego Costa at Chelsea (at the cost of Oscar), while Louis Van Gaal has been playing Adnan Januzaj and Memphis Depay behind the striker while shunting Juan Mata to the right wing at Manchester United. Have a look at the results of those 2 teams and you know you have something to worry about.

I get that Rafa wants to liberate Gareth Bale from the shackles of being on the right wing. He was far too predictable there last season and was thus far from the 100m player we expect him to be. But we must not forget that James and Isco aren’t chopped liver either. the key to finding ways for Gareth Bale to succeed is to work out a system where the front 4 (including the striker) can swap places systematically to create tactical chaos for the opponent, but not for Madrid. Benzema is after all, comfortable with dropping deep while Ronaldo has now become a lethal 1-touch goalscorer (let’s not fuss too much about his goal drought - 2 consecutive hat tricks are coming soon when the law of the averages kicks in). James has had experience playing on the right, just like Bale.

We saw signs of this last Saturday of course: with Benzema’s goal assisted by Bale from the right wing while James’ spectacular second goal was scored with him playing centrally. The substitutions offer promise as well: Isco entrance to the game pushed Ronaldo to the striker’s role where Isco managed to feed him a forward ball for a clear-cut goalscoring chance Adan managed to save. The key is for the formation not to be executed statically. CR, Bale, Benzema and James/Isco must have a system to swap places while in attack: giving each other turns to enjoy their favorite spots on the pitch while confusing their markers.

Rotations and the Back line.

Credit must also be given to Benitez for his changes. At 4-0, he wasted no time in sending Isco in to rest the only-partially-fit Benzema and duly rested the midfield (Kroos and Modric) for their understudies (Casemiro + Kovacic) - the sort of substitutions we didn’t see enough of last season, which probably cost us dearly.

I also have to admit seeing Carvajal relegated to the bench bothers me deeply. Danilo looked good, but there’s no reason for Carvajal to be rotting on the bench nonetheless. I’m counting on the coming international break to see Carvajal back in the starting XI as the Brazil NT duties tend to mean inter-continental flights which would mean it makes more sense for Carvajal to be starting our next league game.

Props must also go to Keylor Navas for his performance last Saturday. I never fancied him in a Real Madrid shirt until last Saturday’s performance: which made me start asking myself “Maybe he is Real Madrid material.” Either way, tonight will be the final hours of the David De Gea saga for the next few months - and whether he comes or goes, I’ll be happy to not hear about it for a while.

Meatballs

It’s too early to draw conclusions about Real Madrid version 2015-2016. There are reasons to be optimistic and reasons to despair. At the end of the day though, I have to say that starting your week with a 5-0 win in your head (plus those goals from James), is a great way to get going.

Last night, I messaged Nomz: “Well it turned out to be a great result.”

He replied: “True that. But in reality, Betis sucked balls.”

I suppose he meant Meat Balls. Either way, eating up those meat balls were great, but they are nothing compared to a great steak.

Coming to Terms

2015-07-14T11:53:00.000+08:00

I'm in shock.

But contrary to the logical reason why a Madridista would be in shock, which is over sadness and grief of Iker moving on, my shock is because I do NOT feel that way. I started my weekend watching 'The Minions' with my son and ended it watching Federer duke it out with Djokovic in the Wimbledon final. I confess that as most of Madridisimo had enough tears over the weekend to mourn Iker's departure, his was a footnote to mine.

For people who follow the show Grey's Anatomy, perhaps I'm being like Amelia Shepherd, in the way she reacted to her brother's death (she spent the first months joking about it tastelessly and then almost suffered a nervous breakdown as it finally sank into her)... but not even I can promise that will happen. For all I know, maybe I've accepted for quite some time already that he needed to move on and this was merely a formality. For angry outsiders, they just might yell: 'Mourinhista! Mourinhista!' at me - they are free to do so. But here are my reflections on our saint.

Polarizing Figure

It's hard to imagine a guy like Iker Casillas ever becoming a polarizing figure in the way that he has become over the last several years. A look into his history and his character as a person shows nothing polarizing about him. He is an incredibly likeable and admirable man and player. How could you dislike a guy who comes from such humble beginnings, who works his way into the world's greatest football club and becomes that club and his country's greatest ever goalkeeper? But it happened - Iker Casillas became a source of a divide amongst Madridisimo. And as unbelievable as it seems, it was written in the stars many years ago.

Ramon Calderon: The Economic Foundation

If I remember correctly, Iker's current contract was signed in the Ramon Calderon era. It was a 'lifetime contract' which was offered to the likes of him, Guti and Raul. My knowledge of the contract is sketchy, but the contract supposedly 'self-renews' itself upon the player completing a given number of the games for the season. What I was was not aware of however, was the pay packet that the contract supposedly comes with, which we now know to be a significant amount. Simply put, the amount and the terms of the contract did not take into account the possibility of the player's physical decline and performance on the pitch, and thus we are left to deal with a gap between how much he makes vs. how much he contributes on the pitch.

Those who have been following the saga of his departure know that the bone of contention between him and the club has always been the remaining amount of his contract. Many potential suitors fell by the wayside upon learning how much money they have to fork out for his services. Neither side can be blamed for the impasse: it is Iker's duty to himself and his family to get the best possible contract in the twilight of his footballing career, while Real Madrid has a wage structure to stand by on, as well as possible FFP compliance issues to deal with regarding the matter.

But neither side are blameless on the matter either: can't Real Madrid, the richest club in the world just give this club legend his money as a good will 'retirement gift?' And as for Iker: I point my finger to the NBA's San Antonio Spurs where Tim Duncan and David West took massive paycuts for the team. Granted that the paycut they took is to join the Spurs and not to leave it - but a good will monetary gesture is due nonetheless. It goes both ways. In the end, Iker departs to Porto where part of his salary will be paid for by Real Madrid, an fair enough arrangement in my opinion.

Florentino Perez and his celebrity-starved, money-making obssession maybe the easy target here, but let's look deeper. The root of the economic problem was one he inherited, he merely had to finish it off. It is however too simplistic to demonize him for doing his job of protecting the economic interest of the football club. He did not become a successful businessman by being stupid and sentimental with his own money, nor did he achieve Real Madrid's unparalleled economic success by being wasteful with money.

Iker's Sporting Decline: A Call to Self-Admission

Every true Real Madrid fan knows what great football looks like. We know this having watched the Quita Del Buitre, Raul, Roberto Carlos, Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc. And by the same token, every true Real Madrid fan also knows what a great goalkeeper is: we know this because we've seen Iker Casillas play. Though we admired more 'conventional' hulking goalkeepers like Buffon, Cech and Neuer, we mostly didn't give a shit because he had Iker - and we laughed our heads off anytime people wanted to compare someone with him (just like how we as Madridistas collectively chuckled at the suggestion that Victor Valdes was as good as him). Truly knowing what a great goalkeeper is because of Iker Casillas also means however, that we need to admit that the Iker Casillas that we saw over the last 3 years has not been a great example of what a great goalkeeper is.

We must concede in our heart of hearts that the Iker Casillas we've been watching over the past couple of seasons, is not the same player who once created a forcefield around Real Madrid's goal many years ago, consistently for many many years.

Iker Casillas' virtues as a shot-stopper had always been dependent on his cat-quick reflexes, and equally cat-like agility - all rooted in his athleticism. Father time as they say however, is undefeated. And at age 34, Iker's athleticism and his ability to react has begun to decline. He does not have the physical characteristics to command the box the way the likes of Buffon and Cech do, and is thus unable to compensate for his declining physical abilities. Like many aging superstars, Iker is still capable of show flashes of his old self. He is however, not an outfield player. If it's still 0-0 at the 70th minute, it's logical to pull out your 34-year old striker who is having a stinker and can't convert his chances, and let a fresh young prospect try his luck. If you're down 2-0 however because your goalkeeper is having a stinker, subbing him out on the 70th minute probably won't make a difference.

I am not interested in sifting through the rubble of half-truths of whether Mourinho spotted or caused Iker's decline. I only know that he IS declining. And that it was time for Madrid to move on, just as how we've moved on from Bodo Illger, Santi Canizares and Cesar Sanchez before Iker. Iker Casillas will not be the last great goalkeeper for Real Madrid, though he might possibly be its greatest ever of all time.

Iker's Shadow

There was always the option of keeping Iker around as a locker room presence, just as how we've seen Ryan Giggs gracefully transition from star player, to role player, to bench player, to part-player/part-coach to full-time coach. The difference however is the reaction to such transitions. There is no need to debate whether it was Iker, members of the media, his entourage, or just fans who raised a howl over his benching. We only know that his gargantuan shadow looms over any man between the sticks for Real Madrid not-named-Casillas. Just ask the excellent Diego Lopez.

The truth is that his history and his legend will always place a burden on anyone who chooses to follow him. Iker still believes that he deserves and expects to be #1 (nothing wrong with that). He believed it whilst competing against Adan, Lopez and Navas - and would have continued to do so against De Gea (if he were to come). Raul and Guti were reportedly told ready themselves to become squad players and reacted by opting for starring roles for Schalke and Besiktas respectively. At the end of the day, Iker chose the same path: and will be treated as royalty in Porto as he deserves, departing with the money which he has rightfully earned at Real Madrid. There is nothing wrong with this.

The Manner of his Departure

Florentino Perez - a man obsessed with image and its positive projection for the club would have foreseen the impact of Iker's 'lonely' departure from the club. He knew that Madrid would be vilified for the manner by which Iker left - which is the reason why I truly believe he did not want Iker's farewell to happen in the simple, austere way it did. It is for this reason that he sent Raul and Guti off with much more pomp and ceremony: putting their trophies won on display in their farewell press conferences, getting their mentors to speak (Jorge Valdano, in Raul's case - or was it Butragueno), heart-wrenching videos and incredible tributes. And it is for this reason why after being vilified and demonized in the media for Iker's first farewell, that he's had to scramble to put together an awkward follow up.

It was widely reported that the stadium was being prepared for Iker's departure - that Perez was seeking Porto out to play the Trofeo De Santiago Bernabeu to honor Iker. And that all of this was supposedly turned down by Iker himself.

I have too much respect for Iker to believe that he purposely chose this austere departure from Real Madrid to make Madrid look bad and ungrateful - to be criticized and vilified the world over... and for Madrid fans around the world to be humiliated by other club supporters by giving them bullets to criticize us with. His emotions were real: he shattered to leave Madrid. But his heart is not filled with the same bitterness and spite as that of his parents, or for that matter, as that of many of his die-hard supporters.

I would rather believe that Iker chose to leave in a manner that was true to who he was: a simple boy from Mostoles who never fussed about the glamour or gliteratti.

Thank You

I'd like to end with some wise words from a Twitter Friend:

"It is possible to have wanted Iker Casillas replaced on a sporting level, while also respecting him."

I whole-heartedly agree with this. The time had indeed come for him to leave - perhaps it even came too late. As painful as it was to realize it, I had reached this conclusion some time ago and was more expectant and curious rather than anxious, angry and bitter about his departure. It was never going to be easy.

I've openly told people that I am a Real Madrid fan today thanks to Zinedine Zidane. It has been 10 years since he retired, and in those 10 years, players like Kaka (Milan), Ronaldinho, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi have emerged possibly as greater players than him in the bigger scheme of things. Yet none have made my heart stop like Zidane.

Real Madrid will have many other great goalkeepers in the years and decades to come. None of them however will ever be greater than Iker Casillas. I say that with part objectivity and part sentimentality.

A Big Thanks Capi!

Trying to Turn The Page (Real Madrid 1 - Juventus 1)

2015-05-15T15:30:00.000+08:00

Kaushik, Ryan and I pondered the end of Real Madrid's season over last Friday's recording of the Merengue Bites Podcast. The podcast can also be listened to/downloaded from here:

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The 2014-2015 season for Real Madrid is over. So what if there are 2 more La Liga games to go? It's over for us. No Copa Del Rey, No La Liga, No Champions League. The season that could have yielded 6 titles only yielded 2: and neither of them were the big ones.

It was of course poetic justice of sorts that a goal in each leg from Alvaro Morata would end our season - the sort of nightmare Deja Vu that brought painful memories of Fernando Morientes into the minds of every Real Madrid fan old enough to remember that bitter night in 2004.

Still convulsing in heartache, I find myself in a state of reflection, going through an 'examination of the (football) conscience' - reflecting on the season that has been. I am trying to do this whilst clearing away the debris left in the wake of last night's disappointment vs. Juventus (a Big congratulations is in order for the Old Lady). I also find myself recalling the intense twitter debate I found myself in post-match (until I decided that getting 2 hours of sleep for a full day at work was more important than getting my points across).

I have to confess that after last weekend's 'loss' to Valencia, my conscience began telling me deep down inside that the season would end in disappointment. The probability of repeating as European Champions was very low (no one had done it before) and having to do it by beating a Barcelona who have found its groove was no simple matter. In a way it was like waiting for death to come, hoping against hope that it wouldn't. And when it did, it was still awful.

With the benefit of an honest attempt to clear the red mist from my head, I have started to process the failures of this season for Real Madrid. And so far, the conclusion that I am coming to regarding last night's game is this: that last night's elimination at the hands of Juventus pretty much revealed everything that was wrong with the team. I suppose that's the sort of thing that can happen at this level of the competition: your weaknesses will be exposed and laid bare for all the world to see. It might be natural at first to be defensive about it - but like I said, now that the season is over, it's time to reflect, so here goes:

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Don't Mess with the Economic Model
Many level-headed critics have their fingers being pointed at Florentino Perez and the board, while some have the misguided notion of blaming Ancelotti re: the club's 'showbiz policy'. There is a lot of truth to the criticism of course: we signed a coach who wanted to play a 4-3-3 whilst acquiring 2 '10s' during Ancelotti's 2 summer transfer windows at the club (Isco, James): this is classic 'showbiz policy'. The key to making the policy work however was to get a coach who could make it work - and Ancelotti was the perfect man for the job.
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Here's where things get all muddled up though: those who insist in pushing the 'showbiz narrative' however also seem keen to add the departure Xabi Alonso and Angel Di Maria, 2 very good but non-showbiz types as part of the club's decision-making to further the 'showbiz narrative'. This is absolutely false. Di Maria's disagreements about pay were well-documented even before the last summer transfer window and Alonso insisted on leaving (at a very bad time!). Kroos was NEVER brought in to replace Alonso. I would argue in fact, that Ancelotti dreamt of lining up a Kroos-Alonso-Modric midfield 3 until Xabi's head was turned by Pep in Munich.
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The point I wish to make is that while I agree that over-doing the showbiz policy will bring us back to the dark days of the Galactico Era v1.0, I also believe that no one is making the effort to push us there either, Florentino Perez included. We must also embrace the fact that the 'showbiz economic model' is vital to Real Madrid in this age of the Premier League multi-billion pound TV deal and Bayern's economic overlord status in Germany (where they are nicknamed FC Hollywood). La Liga's TV deal has gone the right direction of being based on a collective deal for the entire league - but that brings a setback to Real Madrid's income, and the club must rely more than ever on its 'Showbiz Economic model' to bring financial juice to the club. Without it, Real Madrid's ability to draw from the cream of world football's crop will be greatly diminished and will see it gradually slide into mediocrity if we do not maximize all our income-generating avenues for the club.
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The key is to find balance. And if there's one thing that we should at least give Florentino credit for in this second presidency, it is that he is willing to spend money also for the role player (37m for Illara, 35m for Coentrao, 35m for Alonso) and not just the showbiz superstar (CR, Kaka, Bale, James).
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Thus, I urge Madridistas the world over to see this season as being the equivalent to spilling coffee onto the upholstery of our new car and then rear-ending in against someone else's. There is no need to put dynamite into it to blow it up.
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Squad Construction

The ridiculousness of the English Media (The Daily Telegraph) being spewed in the local papers here in Singapore.

If one was to summarize the season, it would go something like this:

-Things were great, we won 22 straight games, but somewhere along the way, Modric and James got hurt. And then we lost our mojo

-But then, they recovered and we started playing well again.

-But Modric got hurt again, and so did Benzema and Bale and without them at their best, things fell apart.

-End of Season

Modric's recovery (together with James) was the second wind the team needed to finish the season strong to put pressure on Barcelona and play at the highest level of world football: the final elimination rounds of the Champions League. But when he went down again, things just began falling apart. Ancelotti was left with too many attacking players, with too few competent alternatives to hold the middle down. Khedira's mind was on vacation, Lucas Silva too raw and Illaramendi has become Fernando Gago v2.0.

I've spoken about my 'A-list' and 'B-list' theory in the podcasts: Ancelotti essentially has an 'A-list' and a 'B-list' of players. A-list players are those whom Carletto would select to play with no worries regardless if they were automatic starters (e.g. Varane, Isco). The plain and simple truth however is that Ancelotti only had 2 'A-list' Central Midfielders (Kroos and Modric), thus when one of them went down, Ancelotti was left with 2 perilous choices:

1.) To play a 'B-Lister' (Illaramendi, Silva, Khedira). The results were mostly ineffective,

2.) To play an 'A-lister' who didn't really fit the role perfectly (e.g. Ramos as a midfielder or play both Isco and James, both 10s with Kroos like last night). The results have been mixed.

Looking back, despite Angel Di Maria's departure on the horizon last summer, it was clearly offset by the acquisition of James (who played the role pretty well having amassed 15 goals and 15 assists across 3 competitions so far). This would have left us with 5 'A-list players' (Kroos, Alonso, Modric, James and Isco) to rotate between 3 midfield slots. Of the 3 midfield slots, 2 of them needed to be occupied by either Kroos, Alonso or Modric. The loss of Alonso late in the transfer window however, was not compensated for. so we were left either scraping the B-list barrel, or forcing A-list round pegs in to square holes. And at this level, that's not good enough.

Squad Management

There is an argument that some blame (or some say a significant amount of it) needs to be placed on Ancelotti's shoulders. Kroos, among many wearing white on the pitch last night, looked ragged midway through the second half in last night's hot conditions. Looking back, it's not hard to recall matches where the team was up 3-4 goals with 30 mins. to go where the 'B-listers' might have been given the chance to give the likes of Kroos a rest. It didn't happen enough and there is thus strong merit to the thought that Carletto might have 'overplayed' most of our 'A-listers.' And that such fatigue has eventually accumulated and caught up with us late in the season.

The Search for Solutions: Cristiano Ronaldo's Evolution

I am of the belief that as he has hit his 30s, Cristiano Ronaldo is slowly transforming into a '9'

Most of the 'noise' following the first leg loss at Turin were focused on Bale. Much of that noise carried over following the verbal diarrhoea perpetuated by Bale's agent which preceded last night where the Welshman had a slew of chances but couldn't covert. Many have gone back however and started asking "What about Ronaldo? What did he do apart from scoring a penalty (with accompanying comparisons to Messi who often turns provider when unable to score)?"

My answer to this is that Ronaldo has been evolving in front of us and many of us aren't seeing it or are in denial about it. Newsflash: Ronaldo isn't a winger anymore (not that he's ever been one in a traditional sense). As he has now hit his 30s, and has started to feel the stiff hamstring every now and then, Ronaldo has gradually lost his Usain Bolt-like explosiveness and is beginning to evolve into his destined role: a striker. I'm not saying that he's become a Zlatan / Lewandowski-type of player (not yet anyway), but we are seeing him play much closer to goal than he was when he first arrived at Real Madrid or when he was blasting down the left touchline whilst playing under Mourinho's Formula 1 Football.

Last night, someone on twitter made the excellent observation that Ronaldo is becoming like another goal monster from Madrid's past: Hugo Sanchez. Sanchez was not a player who will participate much in the build-up, but will stab your heart with a goal when given the chance. The transformation may not be complete yet, but the signs are there.

I am also of the belief that the 'solution' to the Ronaldo and the 'Bale Problem' can be the same. If we accept that Ronaldo has become a striker (or at least a 'second striker' given that his evolution is not yet complete), then we must also accept that Bale has never fully acclimatized to playing on the right. At his best in Tottenham, the Welshman was either allowed to roam freely behind a striker or play on the left side (where he played in his now-famous 'taxi for Maicon' game). Unlike Ronaldo, Bale doesn't need to cut in, shift to his strong foot and shoot.

We must all consider the possibility that this evolved Ronaldo who plays much closer to goal now, can vacate his old stomping ground on the left wing (or do so on more occasions) to allow Bale more opportunities to play there. Bale after all has the skills to reprise the role of Ronaldo circa-2010-2013 to combine with Marcelo (who is also comfortable roaming to the middle with the ball on attack) and Ronaldo himself (now a forward) to create the world's most lethal left-sided attack.

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Embracing Ronaldo's transformation into a striker might also save us the potential for a Morata / Chicharito dilemma: having a striker who doesn't play 80-90% of the time, but becomes uber-critical to the team when Benzema is unavailable. C-Ron and Benzema can both play with each other or split time playing as the team's striker, whilst allowing one of Bale or James (who can also contest for spots at midfield) spells of rest every now and then.
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The Search for Solutions: Extending the A-List

Dani Carvajal looked like he was about to vomit his lungs out midway through the second half last night. With Danilo in the squad next season, I expect this not to happen if the 2 can share the load at Right Back.

The heart of the problem however is the heart of the midfield. Ancelotti needs to have a good look at Lucas Silva in the offseason / pre-season as well as the returning Casemiro (who impressed at Porto while on loan this season) and decide if they are A-List or even B+ List material. If the answer is no, and money is no object in the transfer market (as is usually is the case with Real Madrid), then Ancelotti must be allowed to shop for his next A-List Midfielder. And since we lack power, strength and muscle in the midfield, there is a strong argument to participate in the Paul Pogba sweepstakes this summer.

The Search for Solutions: Stop Playing Games Between the Saint and the Shit.

Last week in Turin, Iker the shit turned up. Last night, it was Iker the saint. Every week and every game we play starts with anxiety as we wonder which Iker will turn up. A team that aspires to League and European Titles every season cannot afford to dick around playing such games. The girlfriend of Spain's next great goalkeeper recently described the English city they live in as 'uglier than the back of a fridge'. David De Gea also happens to be a Madrileno (nevermind that he used to play for Atleti, he wouldn't be the first to move to the fairer side of town anyway). I also am a believer that when deprived of a choice, Mourinho would have no problems starting with Petr Cech in goal just as he has trusted John Terry all season at CB. David De Gea and to a lesser extent, Thibaut Courtois are both within reach for Real Madrid. 30m? 40m? To secure our goal for the next 10 years? A fair price in my opinion.

The Search for Solutions: Keep Ancelotti

AS says that majority of the fans would like to see Ancelotti remain with Real Madrid. I am one of them.

If we stop being in denial about the fact that we employ a 'showbiz economic model' at the club, and that we only need to tune it down just a bit, then we must also acknowledge that the best man to coach this team is Carlo Ancelotti.
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Let's all also admit the fact that Real Madrid is not the sort of team where you can sustainably force star players to accept lesser roles (i.e. long spells on the bench) to fit a preconceived tactical system. This normally results in the club inefficiently spending copious amounts of energy fighting battles in the media to justify benchings and the exclusions of star players.
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We have now, thanks to Ancelotti a tactical model which can for the most part, flexibly accommodate a multitude of star 'glamour' players in the team. And while many credit Ancelotti for his uncanny ability to breed team chemistry, not many give him enough credit for his tactical nous. His ability to 'massage' players to accept roles which may partially be beyond their comfort zone is normally linked to his 'don't rock the boat' attitude in facing upper management. It's tempting to fit this into Ancelotti's 'Mr. Harmony' narrative and less about his tactical approach. A look at his CV however tells a different story: Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf, Angel Di Maria, and Toni Kroos have all been given unfamiliar roles where they have succeeded tremendously on an individual and team level, whilst giving Ancelotti's teams the much-needed added dimension to win titles.
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Let's not be Toddlers
Some time last year, my son (he turns 4 at the end of the month) received a gift of a coloring book with a set of colored pencils. He enjoyed the gift tremendously and got to coloring the pages with aplomb almost as soon as he opened the gift. At about the 4th page, perhaps he was too over-eager, with the heavy, clumsy hand of a toddler, he pressed the colored pencil against the page so hard as he was coloring it that he ended up tearing it. He stopped, put his pencil down and almost with a sudden fury in his face, ripped the page from the coloring book. I was shocked. He then looked at me, exploded in tears and asked me to buy him another brand new coloring book exactly like the one he whose 4th page he had just ruined. He was inconsolable, livid and he wanted a do-over.
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There was of course, no need for a do over. There was another page waiting to be colored.
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Maybe it was Florentino's transfer policy that tore up this season's page of the Real Madrid coloring book. Maybe it was Ancelotti's poor (or non-existent) rotation policy. Maybe it was just darned luck with the injuries. At the end of they day however, there is no need to set the coloring book on fire. Because even if we've spoiled this season's page, there are still plenty of great things that can happen with what we have if we can learn our lessons and make the right adjustments.
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Let's not be toddlers to petulantly demand for a do over. It's the time to cry, to process heartbreak, to reflect on mistakes made and contemplate the lessons which need to be learned. And when we're ready, we can turn the page and try again.

ABCs and 123s (Juventus 2 - Real Madrid 1)

2015-05-07T17:34:00.000+08:00

What a shit performance. At age 35 (turning 36 this year), I am finding it harder and harder to get up at 2:45 or 3:45 am Singapore time (depending on European Daylight Savings time) to watch Champions League matches. And when you get up in the middle of the night, on 2-3 hours sleep to watch a match like that, and then get another 2 hour shut-eye session before heading to work - your day is pretty much fucked up before it even began.

I am not by the way, referring to the result. I am referring to the performance. Champions League (or and form of Cup Competition) semi-finals are supposed to be cagey affairs. The remaining teams are normally there on pure merit and the matches are normally decided by fine margins. A yellow card, a sending off, a tiny defensive error, a minor tactical oversight or such minute things are supposed to decide such things. They are not supposed to be decided by basic, fundamental errors like how Ancelotti and his boys allowed things to transpire last night.

If we lost last night because of such fine margins, I'd be half-awake at this moment ruing such minor details and half-cursing our luck. But here I am today, half-awake with the entirety of my conscious self livid over our boys' shortcomings on the ABCs and the 123s of top level Cup football.

Tactics

Juventus as they lined up in their last 2 Champions League Matches. A 3-5-2 vs. Monaco and a 4-4-2 Diamond vs. us last night

The tactical question re: Juventus coming into this game had always been 'will they play 3 or 4 at the back?' With 3 at the back, Juve play a 3-5-2. With 4 at the back, they play a midfield diamond. Both systems deploy their numbers through the center of the pitch, presumably to 'protect' Andrea Pirlo. And for a team like Real Madrid, with forwards like Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo and fullbacks like Carvajal and Marcelo, we had the opportunity to take advantage of their weakness - the flanks.

Last night, Juve lined up with 4 at the back and a midfield diamond. We on the other hand, lined up in a narrow 4-4-2 (or a Brazilian style 4-2-2-2). It was a sound approach: with Isco and James drifting to the middle, we could match their numbers at the center. When on attack mode however, with CR and Bale up front, when paired with Isco + Marcelo (on the left) and James + Carvajal (on the right), We had superiority on the flanks or force their CMs (Marchisio and Sturaro) to be drawn out from their comfort zones in the middle.

The goal that Ronaldo scored, created by an overalapping fullback (Carvajal), combining with a wide midfielder (James) to reach our striker (CR), was the sort of goal Carlo Ancelotti envisioned us scoring in this tactical battle.

The system though, had its key weakness. as we saw in Luxemburgo Real Madrid in the first galactico era, and in Brazil's ill-fated 2006 World Cup campaign. Playing natural 10s as wide midfielders usually meant that attacking width only came from the fullbacks: leaving acres of space behind them vulnerable to be counter-attacked by opposing wide players.

Kaushik, Rahul and I all agreed in last weekend's podcast that Morata's large frame concealed the fact that he's got good pace and could hurt us with it. You can also listen / download the podcast here:

Without natural wide players though, Juventus SEEMED at a disadvantage and unable to capitalize on our weakness. But with pacy forwards like Morata (as pointed out in last weekend's podcast) and the hyper-active Carlos Tevez, Juventus had 2 players up front who enjoyed attacking the space left behind by our attacking full-backs. Juventus' opening goal was a result of Carlos Tevez finding himself open in a sea of green open space behind Marcelo, away from Kroos, and even further away from Varane. It was Morata who stabbed us in the heart, but it was El Apache who found the opening in our 'armor.' (if you can call it that).
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Personnel

While Ancelotti's tactics for the match were sound, his personnel selection proved to be greatly flawed. The selection of Sergio Ramos against a defensive Atletico Madrid side who are lethal on set pieces was a brilliant move. It was clear that night however, that Ramos was uncomfortable in the role but was important for Atleti's aerial game and to stymie Mario Mandzukic. Against Juventus' 4-man midfield looking to press him in possession, Ramos was totally exposed and useless. His passes were mostly backpasses and any ones that weren't resulted in the loss of possession. About 3 of them turned out to be wayward crossfield balls seemingly aimed at members of the crowd.
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When playing with 2 pivots, both men need to win balls and distribute them forward. Last night, Real Madrid's pivots could only perform one function each. As Ramos continuously lost possession, the space behind Kroos became the base from where Carlos Tevez terrorized Casillas and his defenders.
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You could say that injuries have made Carlo Ancelotti's team selection one that was conducted 'by default.' Modric is hurt and Illara can't cut it. Well now Carlo, let's call it what it is: Against Juventus, Ramos can't cut it either. He will have to re-examine Illaramendi, Lucas Silva, a lightweight midfield with Kroos, Isco and James, or some other kooky idea against Juventus especially for the return leg where we must also now likely prepare for a match against the world's best young central midfielder: the mow-hawked Paul Pogba.
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Iker, Iker, Iker,

Before the match, I read a piece asking wondering which Iker Casillas would turn up: San Iker? or Iker 'What the fuck are you doing!?!' Casillas - (the Iker Casillas who was described as someone 'who flapped at crosses, and spoons shots into the path of opposing attackers tap the rebound in'). Every match, this question looms dreadfully over the thoughts of every Real Madrid fan. Last night, Iker 'What the fuck are you doing!?!' Casillas turned up.
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He started the match with an error that nearly led to a goal, then almost got caught off his line (by Morata) and then finally he spooned Carlos Tevez's long distance attempt right into the waiting boot of Morata.
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Let me finally say this unequivocally: this summer, we should buy a goalkeeper. I don't care if we spend 50, 60, 70m, not for a goalkeeper to 'compete' with Iker, but one who will clearly, and with no doubts replace him as the team's #1. At this level, the absolute highest level, Iker's time is up.
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Dani, Dani, Dani

The biggest boo-boo of the match sadly has to go Dani Carvajal. Just like what happened with Marcelo, the space he left behind when bombing forward became a comfortable operating zone for his fellow Real Madrid Castilla classmate Alvaro Morata (which as I pointed out, is a natural consequence of the formation we play). His big boo-boo however was obviously the penalty conceded to give Junvetus the match and the advantage of the tie.
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Let's be clear about this though: the counterattack we conceded to Juventus was the fault of the entire team. How could we be in a situation where we didn't have a single CB or Defensive Midfielder around to protect us from a counter attack? The penalty conceded though, was all Carvajal - and it was a mental meltdown of epic proportions.
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As Marcelo's deflected shot capriciously bounced into Tevez's path to create the counter-attacking opportunity, Real Madrid were forced into stopping a 2 vs. 2 counter-attacking opportunity. Tevez was being harried by Carvajal to drift to Madrid's right flank as Morata was bursting through the middle tailed by Marcelo. The play unfolded in everyone's mind before it could even happen: if Tevez could somehow cross or thread the ball to a Morata who could brush Marcelo off, it would be Morata vs. Casillas and possibly a goal. Marcelo was keenly aware of this and thus decided to tactically foul and bring down Morata at the cost of a yellow card - leaving Carvajal 1-v-1 against Tevez who was being forced to his left. By the time Tevez arrived in the penalty box, Casillas was already in position, covering the near post with Tevez having no angle to shoot as he was far too much to the left side. Carvajal only needed to hold this position for long enough for Pepe, Varane and Ramos to catch up. His inexperience however got the best of him - sticking his feet out in an attempt to poke the ball off Tevez's feet. He missed. Penalty. Goal. Ouch.
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The tie turned from one where we had a clear advantage (we were going for a 2-1, to give us a series lead and 2 away goals), to one where we are now: lagging behind.

Was it a red card offense? Perhaps. I've seen them given, and Juventus had a legitimate claim to ask for one. I personally felt lucky the red card didn't come out: Carvajal after all was the last man. A few post-match pundits though did point out to the fact that when the (missed) tackle happened, Tevez was already ferried out off a direct goalscoring position and thus the foul did not merit a red card. Either way, we were lucky there was no red card.
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A Look on the Bright Side
Despite a host of rudimentary errors, our prospects to win the tie remain pretty good. A 1-0 at home wins us the tie, a 2-1 brings the match into extra time. That's a pretty good outlook for a team that completely fucked things up for themselves in the first leg.
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We are by no means in an ideal situation with the absences of Benzema and Modric. We were however a team that was in touching distance of the Champions League final despite all these absences. And if we only managed to get our basics, our ABCs and 123s down to pat, we might have had one foot in Berlin already.
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So next week, there is no reason not to believe that these rudimentary basics will be sorted out. And hopefully, this time next week, we will have then moved on from ABCs and 123s to arithmetic and spelling.
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W-I-N. 2-1, 1-0.

88th Minute, Finally Getting a Win on the 8th Try

2015-04-24T16:17:00.002+08:00

It seems like a scene composed for an epic oil painting.

Orgasm. Catharsis. Nirvana.

These were the words that I used to describe the sensations I felt at seeing Chicharito score last Wednesday's 88th minute goal and at hearing the referee blow the full time whistle that confirmed our entry to the Champions League Semi-finals, and sealed our first victory against Atletico Madrid in 7 matches.

I once found myself describing the current La Liga landscape to my Premier League-supporting colleagues at work: For Real Madrid and Barcelona, the goal was to win the treble EVERY season. For Sevilla, Valencia (pre-Peter Lim), Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal: Europa League Minimum, hopefully a Copa Del Rey Final appearance but to at least have a shot at grabbing that last Champions League Spot. And for Atleti, or rather, the Diego Simeone Atleti: to challenge the big 2 for the league title (Champions League qualification as a minomum) and to win Copa Del Rey. But perhaps more importantly for Simeone's Atleti - to win the derbies against us... and if they can't win or even draw - to at the absolute very least, kick the shit out of us while trying.

And in that regard, Diego Simeone's Atleti have been massively successful. After 6 winless games against them, a cloud seemed to have gathered above Real Madrid: it was as if the supernatural power that prevented them from beating us for more than 10 years not too long ago had changed sides and was now taking its grip over Real Madrid.

Last week, we didn't manage to beat them again. And though it was more ammunition for them to believe that the 'curse' had shifted fully onto us, our boys walked off the Calderon's turf believing that the curse had been broken. With Modric and James back in our midfield, not only were we unafraid of the physical brutality and the irritating gamesmanship they were capable of perpetrating, we actually beat them back into their own half, forcing them into a tiny little corner with only Jan Oblak there to save their skins. Our boys walked off the Calderon pitch with their heads held high, nodding in unison: 'we'll get you in the Bernabeu'. Until Benzema, Bale and Modric got hurt. And then the quivering began again (at least among fans like myself).

Carlo's Clever Move

Carlo Ancelotti however, was completely unshaken. 'Why worry about those who can't play? We should instead think about those who can." he said (I paraphrase). "I have the best squad in the world" he confidently said. It seemed like a statement meant to induce confidence at a time of uncertainty and worry over the loss of so many key players. Today, I now know that it was uttered in absolute self-confidence.

Carlo it turned out, had a clever little idea in his mind. While Madridisimo shook in fear, recalling Borussia Dortmund and Schalke at the thought of Illaramendi and Khedira taking up Modric's midfield place, Carlo pondered a series of facts: outside of Isco, he did not fully trust any of our midfielders completely beyond the first choice XI. He did however have an oversupply of world-class talent at CB. So he boldly decided to revisit his old idea of playing one of his CBs as a CM (he was vilified for it when he tried it in his first clasico).

His choice amongst the 3 was also as inspired as it was clever. Pepe could push the ball up on 'raids' forward (both offensively in runs with the ball that might remind some of the Brazilian Lucio and defensively in the manner Mourinho deployed him in the infamous 'trivote'), but we didn't need someone who could do so recklessly and risk defensive positioning. He needed someone who could hold his position, spray a few passes and bang bodies in the midfield. Occasionally, this player would also need to defend the right flank when Carvajal is caught upfield, and might even need to deliver a cross from the right flank should he find himself in that position while his team had the ball. Ramos, an ex-RB was the perfect choice.

This also had another knock-on effect: it gave us another tool to counter Atleti's favorite attacking weapon: the set piece. Having Ramos, Varane and Pepe all on the pitch meant there were more defenders on crosses and corners into our box. It also meant more targets for our attacking players to deliver crosses and corners to.

Make no mistake about it: Ramos is no Modric. His passes were mostly redundant sideways passes or back passes. He hardly penetrated the Atleti defense either. But thinking about it: how was that any different to what Illaramendi or Khedira could deliver for us in that role? Apart from set piece contributions, Ramos was also a bruiser - a meathead enforcer capable of trading blows and dirty tricks with Atleti's Dark Arts Masters - Arda Turan and his red card would tell you all about it.

JCC (James, Chicharito and Cristiano)

JCC doesn't have quite the same ring as BBC. The decision to push James to the front 3 whilst Isco took his midfield place was completely logical and is something that we've seen before. With Ronaldo's explosive pace seemingly gone however, large part of last Wednesday's game felt like it was in dire need of Gareth Bale. Without the Welshman however, our next best speed demon was Jese, and literally just minutes before we scored, I had tweeted my wish to see Ronaldo pushed on to become a full-fledged Center Forward and to have Jese replace Chicharito.

But alas, Carlo's faith in that front 3 combination would pay off with the move that won us the tie: a 1-2 combination between CR and James - Ronaldo drawing 4-5 defenders, plus the goalkeeper's full attention, then a pass to Chicharito who scored his trademark late-game tap-in.

Ancelotti's Triumph

Carlo Ancelotti was the undisputed winner in the battle between the 2 Madrid coaches last Wednesday

It was an absolute triiumph for Carlo Ancelotti. On defense, Varane headed away 32,871,239 Atletico Madrid deliveries to the box, At midfield, the Ramos gamble gave us solidity, and extra man on set pieces and a talismanic figure who not only kept Atleti's bullies away, he managed to get one of them (Turan) sent away too! Simeone waited for Carletto's boys to lose patience, lose their nerves and make a mistake to pounce on. They didn't. The boys embraced the virtue of patience Carlo preached. And as they did, Simeone found himself playing a waiting game for extra time and penalties, sinking deeper and deeper into defensive mode. By the time Chicharito scored, Simeone had 10 men, 3 used substitutes and a spent Mario Mandzukic as his only offensive weapon.

Our wily Italian coach, had backed their supposedly fearsome Argentine coach into a cul-de-sac he couldn't get himself out of.

There are only 2 hours to go for the Champions League Semi-final draw as I write this. There are no more draws that can be deemed easier than the other. We are in true European giant territory now - the place for everyone to be at their absolute best.

We should not forget however that our hunt for La Liga resumes on Sunday as Barca play the Catalan Derby at Cornelia El Prat while we travel away to Vigo to face Luis Enrique's old charges, Celta. There will still be no Modric and no Bale. And just like last Wednesday, no room for error.

Arise Real Madrid, Arise! (Real Madrid 9 - Granada 1)

2015-04-07T09:23:00.000+08:00

Kaushik and I talked with glee about Real Madrid's 9-1 win vs. Granada. You may also listen to/download the podcast here:

As a Real Madrid fan living in Singapore, I’ve had all sorts of meals watching my team play during ungodly hours: mostly ‘midnight snacks ’ for 2/3am kickoffs and unusually early breakfasts for 4-6am kickoffs and if I was lucky, dessert for 9-11 pm kickoffs. I have had, on occasion enjoyed a Real Madrid game over dinner (8-9pm kickoffs). I have however, never had caught a Real Madrid game BEFORE dinner. Last night was my first – watching the game between split-seconds of spoon feeding a toddler. It was a lunch time kickoff for Real Madrid, and I imagine the schedule of the match was a tricky one for their meal schedules too. So they decided to have Granada for Lunch.

9-1. It was exactly the scoreline and the performance that our team needed following last matchday’s clasico loss. Nevermind that Granada were shit. Apart from fitness and fresh legs, what the team REALLY needed was a boost in confidence. And if a 9-1 win can’t give you a psychological shot-in-the-arm, then absolutely nothing will.

Midfield – James is Back

They are now all asking who sits on the bench now that James is back. While this may be bad for one of the 2, this is NOT bad for the team - and we should all think on those terms at this point of the season

We received the news that James started training with the team following the Clasico. The sceptic in me thought of it as a PR stunt meant to revive the downtrodden morale of the Real Madrid faithful, but if it was serious, then it was great news. With a fully-fit squad, we can have at least 2-3 weapons off the bench when things soured for us. I had thus earmarked the 2 Champions League Derby games for us to see a fully-fit James Rodriguez: expecting to see a 30-minute cameo, followed by a 1 hour performance, before we finally see him play a full 90 minutes, hoping that he could hit peak form in time for the 2 derbies. I was thus expecting to see Lucas Silva play instead of the suspended Isco last night. It was instead a pleasant surprise to see James start.

‘Simplicity’ was a word constantly used by my fellow Merengue Bites Podcaster Ryan to describe James’ play. It is however not a word we would normally associate with a player whose natural position is as a ‘10’. Players such as James normally have their team built around them and are relied upon to ‘elaborate’ the game in the final third to create scoring chances for their teammates.

The ‘simplicity’ required to play a central midfield role in a 4-3-3 however, is a very difficult level to achieve. Deciding when to make a one-touch pass, to stop the ball and pass it again, to pass it backwards (to the holding player / a CB) to ‘recycle’ the ball, to run with it, to loop it over swarming defenders or to attempt to thread the ball ala Guti is a very tricky balance that very few Central Midfielders can do. Modric comes to mind, but beyond that, there are very few. And for a natural ‘10’, James seems to be quite a natural for the role as well.

With him and Modric on either side of Kroos, a very natural fluid rhythm settles in to the team, making the play very fluid and keeping the momentum going. It brings our minds back to the 22-consecutive-match-winning team of the 2014-2015 Real Madrid. And I will admit that I haven’t realized how important he is to the team all this while. Maybe it’s because I’ve been blind to his 11 goals and 12 assists so far this season (across La Liga, CL, and CDR): that’s 23 goals he’s been directly involved in!

The BBC starts broadcasting again!

Cristiano's BAAAACK!

Real Madrid fans have had genuine reason to be alarmed by the very dramatic dip in form across the board that has happened to our front 3. Benzema started 2015 with promise but tailed off as the year went on. Ronaldo was reportedly nursing some sort of knee ache (a fact that made us hold our breaths for a while when we saw him slam his knee onto the goalpost), which also went along with his post-Irina heartache. Gareth Bale on the other hand couldn’t make an obvious pass when an open teammate was clearly within reach, nor could he score on legitimate chances which last year’s Gareth Bale would have handily put away.

Last night however, the BBC was back in full broadcast mode. The opener came from Gareth Bale, who pulled off a manoeuvre that had flashes of Raul and Emilio Butragueno’s goals running through my mind – nearly the last sort of players I’d ever find myself reminding me of Gareth Bale (who is more about pace and power rather than touch and finesse). Bale was in full service mode too: assisting goals and associating well with those around him.

And while we all marvel that the technical brilliance of Karim Benzema yet again (who has ‘quietly’ amassed 21 goals and 10 assists in La Liga, CL and CDR – and we have 2 months to go in the season), everyone’s attention last night was on Cristiano Ronaldo. Cristiano was finally back to his ‘usual’ self last night: unstoppable, irresistible and irrepressible. It was a classic case of Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s ‘Ketchup Theory’. Cristiano Ronaldo simply needed to un-choke the bottle. Last night, he completely shattered it. The key thing for me however was that many of the goals that Ronaldo scored last night were goals that the early-2015 CR7 would NOT have scored. His 5-goal burst is sure to give him that burst of confidence that he has sorely been missing these past few weeks / months, which will serve him in good stead as we head onto the business end of the season.

30/30

Prior to the match, AS published a 30/30 campaign – a rallying call to repeat the accomplishment of Fabio Capello’s epic team that pipped Barca to the La Liga title for the first time in 5 years (?). It was an epic title run that I shall forever remember for little anecdotes like Ruud Van Nistelrooy holding up Gonzalo Higuain’s jersey to the Bernabeu crowd after an epic 4-3 win vs. Espanyol and Espanyol’s own Raul Tamudo torpedoing Barca’s title hopes with a late goal at Montujic. It was an improbable run of consecutive wins when all seemed lost until the title was won and Real Madrid fans the world over caused the Club’s official site to crash.

As Barca struggle to 1-0 wins off improbable goals scored by their Center Backs towards this business end of the season, while our best players are regaining form and fitness, the time to get the momentum to build up has come. Real Madrid will not need to leave their city in the next 5 matches (until they visit Celta). It’s the perfect time to gain momentum (like last night), vanquish ghosts from the past (Atleti) and complete the resurrection that might just have begun this past Easter.

Warm Up for the Weekend?

2015-03-20T09:24:00.003+08:00

Recovery (Real Madrid 2 - Levante 0)

2015-03-17T19:12:00.000+08:00

Kaushik, Ryan and I talked about last Sunday's win vs. Levante, rejoice over Modric and Ramos' return and ponder the Bernabeu's right to boo. The podcast can also be listened to / downloaded here:

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Ah, a win at last. I never thought I'd find myself saying that while referring to this Real Madrid, but here I am. We've lost to Athletic Bilbao and then a really embarrassing one to Schalke - a week before a Clasico. That's the absolute WORST way to 'prepare' for the game which may decide the fate of our league campaign. We needed a win really badly, not just because the night started with Barcelona ahead of us by 4 points on the table, but also because we needed that vital sense of self-belief that we are capable of winning at the Camp Nou.

Physical Recovery

Sergio Ramos started and played the full 90 minutes. Luka Modric started and played more than 70. Toni Kroos on the other hand, did not play. All three went through some form of a recovery process. Whether it's to get themselves into up-to-par conditions in terms of match fitness after missing so many games (Ramos, Modric), or getting a rest (Kroos), Real Madrid are getting the much-needed physical recovery that's critical for the homestretch of the season. If there was ever a reason to have optimism in the face of the 2015's bad results, those reasons have always rested on the return of our key players who had gone down through injuries (Modric, Ramos, James) as well being able to find the opportunity to allow the team's 'over-played' members to recuperate from having too much mileage on their legs (Kroos).

Coming away with a win while resting Kroos in particular was very important. Kroos is not the most physically gifted player of the team, his game instead is an extremely cerebral and technical one. Rahul summed this up with a very astute observation (in a comment he made in last weekend's podcast): that the German seems to have a 'sixth sense' of knowing that a tackle is coming and where it's coming from. As fatigue sets in however, his ability to do this diminishes, and so does his other critical mental / cognitive faculties in reading the game, facilitating play, opening spaces for team mates and dictating the tempo of the game.

Tactical Recovery
Last night, there was a noticeable drop in Real Madrid's level in terms of dictating the tempo of the game from the 'Kroos position', which was played by Lucas Silva. That drop however (also possibly due to the quality, or lack thereof of our opponents) wasn't too significant - and thus Real Madrid did not suffer too much in Kroos' absence. Because while Lucas did not have Kroos' considerable 'court vision', Lucas is not a 'ball stopper.' The momentum of the team's buildup play basically doesn't come to a halt when the ball is played to him, as he is capable of pinging it about even if it won't necessarily pierce the heart of the opponents' defense. It must also be noted that Lucas Silva also has an impressive passing range and offers an added layer of physicality to the center of the Madrid midfield. Finding an understudy to Kroos who isn't a ball stopper (like Illaramendi) is a big step forward for the club: it enables us to rest the German ahead of big matches without paying too steep tactical price.
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The best part of the night however for me as a Real Madrid fan, was seeing a short scrawny Croatian midfielder wearing #19 play. Madridisimo has greatly missed Luka Modric and it's easy to tell that the team plays at a much higher level with him on the pitch. Even in that disastrous performance midweek last week against Schalke, Real Madrid looked far better and far more balanced with Modric around. The really funny thing about Modric however is the team not only becomes considerably far better when pushing the ball forward to attack when he's around. Defensively, we are a far better side too with him - and this is a big surprise when we realize that the players who have recently been asked to fill the void he has left in his absence are players whom we all perceive to be more defensive than him (Khedira, Illaramendi and to a lesser extent, Lucas Silva).
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The key to Modric's success in his position is his very deep understanding of it, and the fact that he is comfortable in both the advanced areas and deeper positions of the pitch. This gives him the ability to know when to push up with / without the ball and when to sit back. This is in contrast to Khedira and Illara who are both more comfortable sitting deep and so when asked to perform the 'Modric role', either get lost at sea mindlessly wandering forward while leaving gaps behind without necessarily contributing significantly on attack (Khedira), so sitting so deep that his front 3 become isolated and become ineffective (Illaramendi). The troubling thing for the 2 however is that they also seem to be ineffective in ball recovery once its lost. This thus brings us to the ultimate curiosity re: Modric - that Modric is also better at performing the defensive requirements of his role as compared to his naturlly 'more defensive' substitutes (Khedira and Illara).
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Mental Recovery

So only after he scores 2 goals does the Spanish Media start talking about Bale's extra hours in training to regain his form.

What was perhaps most encouraging for me last Sunday however was how Real Madrid did NOT start the game asleep. Within seconds from kickoff, the match's 'zone of play' almost immediately shifted to the final third of the pitch around Levante's goal, with possession, ball recovery and movement into space creating danger and scoring chances for Real Madrid.
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It must be said however, that if there was one Madridista whose game was characterized as a form of mental recovery, then it would have to be Gareth Bale. His first goal was an astute finish with his weaker right foot, an instinctive finish of great class. His second goal in my opinion was really more of a fluke. To me at least, the replays clearly show Bale attempting to GET OUT of the way from the ball's path upon Ronaldo's vicious strike. It deflected off his shin as he attempted to backpedal away from the path of the ball, and into the net. And just like for the first goal, Ronaldo's strike looked to be on target, but this time with a cannon-ball-like speed towards goal.
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For Gareth Bale however, I would also like to look at his performance not merely because he was able to get on the scoresheet and break the unpleasant streak of 8-9 games without a goal. Gareth Bale's performance on the night reminded me of the sort of performance we see from Chelsea's Eden Hazard: he's not the destroyer of worlds in the way that CR and Messi are, but he was most definitely the man who gave you the feeling that if his team was going to get on the scoresheet, that he was somehow going to be involved. This is the sort of performance we need to encourage from the Welshman: that if the goals and assists aren't necessarily coming, the constant effort and willingness to be an absolute pest on attack ought to be the minimum we should expect from him. With the benefit of hindsight, I would think that I'd still be praising his performance even if he did not score the goal.
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Recovering Ronaldo
In startling contrast to Bale however is our very own superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Much has been said about his performance and also his reactions during the game - some of which have shockingly earned him boos, whistles and white handkerchiefs. And let me just say that I'm deeply disappointed by the behavior of these spoiled fans. Many of them seem to have forgotten that if it weren't for Cristiano, we would be out of the Champions League by now.
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Ronaldo had a bad game, let's all admit that. Even he knows that, which in my opinion, explains his reactions on the night. Cristiano is lacking that final edge of sharpness: that final inch of precision in his game that would turn a touch into a goal and a flick into a perfectly-laid assist. Playing time and confidence and encouragement are the only antidotes to Ronaldo's current doldrums. This is not a player who spent the night before the match in a nightclub chugging booze. This is a player who spends every second of his existence to the perfection of his craft as a footballer. And on the days where things don't come off, fans like ourselves ought to rally behind him to offer him support, and lay down our brickbats.
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The most disappointing criticism of all in my opinion come from those who knock on Ronaldo by claiming that he isn't happy for Bale's success (at scoring 2 goals, both created by him). This is horseshit. Watch the replays again and one will realize that Ronaldo is pounding the floor NOT because Bale had slammed in the rebound of his acrobatic shot cleared off the line, and thus scored, but because he is upset with himself as to why his body was not able to contort itself to the perfect state in needed to be in to execute that magnificent attempt at a bicycle kick. Ronaldo is NOT unhappy over his teammates' success. He is unhappy because he is trying so hard to find his groove and is frustrated that he still can't manage to snap into it.
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Recovering The League

I'd feel pretty good about the chances of this Starting XI against Barca at the Camp Nou this weekend.

With the exception of James (who is replaced by the wonderful Isco), Real Madrid have completed the recovery of its team as it heads to the season's homestretch. Modric has the look of a man ready to play 90 minutes against Barcelona, and so does Ramos, following injuries to the 2. Kroos on the other hand got himself a much-needed rest while Bale got his much-needed goals.
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To tilt things further to our advantage: Barca have a midweek Champions League tie against Manchester City. Barcelona hold a 1 goal lead but have 2 away goals as they face a Manchester City side whose pride have been wounded by a weekend loss to Burnley. This is no dead rubber match. City have pride, survival and silverware at stake and can scare or damage Barca just as much as Schalke did with us.
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We on the other hand have a full week to recover. Let's us all hope that by the end of Sunday, the League has been recovered too.