The Mourinho Version: Can Real Madrid outshine Barcelona this time?
One year ago, when Real Madrid transfer news were creating the massive chaos across the globe and generating predictions about dominance, I wrote the controversial article “Why will real Madrid fail this season?”. Mind you, that was the same time when Kaka bought the champions’ league tickets to the Champions' league final.
Did Real Madrid fail last season?
It depends on the criteria of success. The team won no titles. That’s in Real Madrid’s dictionary: A failure. In the champions’ league, they failed to pass Lyon. In the Spanish cup, and even though they used a first class selection, they failed to pass Alcorcón. In the league, they didn’t come first. They no doubt collected enough points to deserve the title. But was that a sign of their strength or the lack of balance between the big two quality and the rest is still debatable.
Yet, nothing is either white or black. The team performance was improving every day. Manuel Pellegrini did an amazing job for a team under construction. It’s not easy for any coach to sew all the newcomers Real Madrid signed in one harmonized selection. He struggled to find the perfect balance at the beginning but with time he became more and more assure of the resources and options in hand. The title was so close. But they were competing with an established team and there was no shame in coming second. You could imagine that the following season can only get better for the coach and the club. The board of directors thought otherwise, and the coach was sacked. Welcome Mourinho.
This situation is perfectly fitting for Mourinho. Ranieri had to manage the mess when Abramovich bought Chelsea and started showering the squad by new quality signings. Mourinho came the following season with everything arranged for him to pick the fruit. At Inter, after the Calciopoli, Inter had a chance to dominate the Serie A like never before. They signed players in numbers and Mancini was the coach supposed to do the re-engineering. Mancini’s era was full of experiments with the board signing a player the first day and selling him in the very next day. Mourinho came and inherited a squad that only needed some tuning, and he was the best for the job. One can only expect more of the same with Real Madrid. Yet, while the competition against Chelsea was weak the first two seasons with Mourinho in the hood, the competition was almost nonexistent in Italy. That will not be the case in Spain. A different challenge if you look at it this way.
What are the reasons of Madrid’s underperformance last season?
Back to last season’s article “Why will real Madrid fail this season?” it worth reviewing some of the statements written there:
Defense hidden stitches: 1) Leadership:
Real Madrid defense for this season will have to answer the same question they faced when Hierro left (or was kicked out of) the team.(…) The defense lacked leadership, which is not acceptable in a big team that competes on the highest level.
Canavaro’s qualities declined notably with time. But he was still capable of pulling all the strings together, instructing, organizing, screaming and leading. Now that he left, the question is: Who will lead the defense this season?
Midfield and Up:
In midfield the team has lot of quality. The question is about the perfect mix. Not on papers, but on the field.
For example, the holding midfielders on paper are obviously Xabi-Lass. But I can argue that the two players do not really complement each other. Lass is young enough to improve, but his natural attributes are closer to Xabi than to a pure defensive oriented midfielder. I still believe Mascherano was a better signing for Real than Xabi. The team weakness last season was building up offense, no doubt. But through buying Xabi they ignored the fact that the new signings Granero and Kaka are more than enough to solve that problem.(…)
…Selling Álvaro Negredo was a mistake. He is a strong young bull that you need to run over the opponent defense and create holes for his teammates. Benzema and Higuain are naturally second strikers more than being target men.
Player’s compatibility and teamwork efficiency:
...Some master slow tempo and Patience offense build up, others are more explosive. Some are more static, positioning sense; others prefer versatility and switching positions. It may sound a weak argument, but even though it will be barely notices while launching counter attacks, it’s the time that will tell us who will dictate the offense tempo in a static situation. That’s a very crucial challenge that will decide how far the players will click together creating a harmonized group dynamic.
I do believe that Real Madrid suffered lack of leadership in defense regardless of the fact that they were solid defensively. Whenever the defense was tested it faced troubles. And I still insist that Xabi is not a holding midfielder because he needs someone behind him to create cover –and it is good to see that more of Real Madrid fans are starting to accept this argument than one year ago.
One of the reasons Kaka struggled was the conflicts of roles between him and Xabi in the midfield, which brings me to the assumption that Mascherano was a better signing for Madrid than Xabi even though the hindsight conclusion suggests that he should have been signed instead of Kaka. The offense lack of a target man is no brainer. When they needed that static threat inside the box, they didn’t find it. The similarities between Benzema and Higuain made the life of the newcomer a bit more complicated.
Will Real Madrid have a better team this season?
They no doubt fixed lot of the bugs mentioned in the last season’s article. For example, last season they had lack of quality on the flanks. This season they are flooded with options there. Offloading Raul and Guti is also good news for the club because it will help the coach to have more control on the dressing room.
Their defenders are one season more experienced. That may help breeding the leader they need for their defense. Ramos is a world cup winner. Pep had some bad crazy moments and some injury crisis. If it didn’t hurt him psychologically then no doubt it made him stronger. Most importantly, they signed Carvalho who may prove an experienced option with leadership qualities when needed.
The players they signed last season are well adapted to the club and the liga by now. The pressure coming from price tags declined as well. They have immense depth in the squad and they have a Mourinho who do things his way, not as dictated by the board, media, or fans.
The players they signed are hard workers with a point to prove. That’s exactly what you need beside the established stars. There is also the confidence after they proved being able to compete with Barcelona till the last moment for the title.
Yet, there are also good reasons to cast doubts on Real Madrid hopes to clinch the title next season. Referring to the previously mentioned points, there are still questions about the holding midfielder position. There is still no player you can crown as a defensive midfielder insurance card. There is also the offense structure where they lack a fox in the box. They club has only two natural forwards. Three counting Ronaldo. The left back leaves lot to be desired and the players they signed on the flanks still have to prove their quality, especially if Ronaldo played in the Center.
Squad size is also a worrisome issue. While depth is needed, too many players competing for playing time may cause troubles. Valdano pointed out that they will sell players. The question is: Who will they sell? He said that no Spanish player will leave, which leave us with obvious candidates: Gago, The two Diarras, and Van der Vaart. Selling Gago and the two Diarras expose the holding midfielder position. If the new signings needed time to adapt, selling Van der vaart may prove being as smart as selling Sneijder one year earlier. But even with all the mentioned being sold; there will still be lot of complexities. All depending on how will Mourinho structure his tactics. If he plays a 4-3-3, than may check some of the boxes though it will create new challenges.
With all the changes on the squad, the biggest doubt will come from the ability of creating enough chemistry on and off the pitch. That makes the argument made last season still as valid as before:
For Arrigo Sacchi: “Today’s football is about managing the Characteristics of Individuals, and that’s why you see the proliferation of specialists. The individual has trumped the collective. But it’s a sign of weakness. It’s reactive, not pro-active.” Then he explains the Real Madrid galacticos policy (the old version), saying: “There was no project. It was about exploiting qualities. So, for example, we knew that Zidane, Raul and Figo didn’t track back, so we had to put a guy in front of the back four who would defend. But that’s reactionary football. It doesn’t multiply the players’ qualities exponentially. Which actually is the point of tactics: To achieve this multiplying effect on the players’ abilities. Football is becoming all about specialists. Is football a collective and harmonious game? Or is it a question of putting X amount of talented players in and balancing them out with Y amount of specialists?”
Now of course, one can admit that Sacchi is an extremist when it comes to being system-oriented. Besides, the new Madrid squad is a bit younger than the previous one which will provide a better work rate for the group dynamics. Yet there is a very valid sense in his argument about team building.
If you compare Real Madrid to Barcelona for example, it’s not which team embrace more quality individuals. Defensively, it’s not if Pepe better or Pique, Puyol or Albiol, Ramos or Alves, Abidal or Arbeloa, Maxwell or Marcelo, etc… But it’s the defensive quality of the team as a whole. The group contribution in defense is the main issue. Henry defensive contribution is as important as Pique’s. Messi contributes defensively as much as Alves does. Will that be the case at Real Madrid? And how far defensive contribution of the forward line will decrease their offense output? Will Kaka (the Madrid Version) do continuous pressure on the opponent and still after twenty games from now deliver the same quality offense as he used to offer at Milan where he had less (if any) defensive duties?
....So it’s an endless discussion to judge who is better Xavi or Kaka, Messi or Ronaldo… will the duet “Ronaldo-Kaka” deliver a better Understanding and higher performance than the “Xavi-Messi”? Comparing Messi performance with Argentina to his performance for Barcelona gives you an idea how the chemistry between Messi and Xavi delivers a better output than the summation of pure individual qualities of the two players (if Mathematical expressions is a valid terminology in football). Add Iniesta to the Mix, Yaya, Henry, Keita etc…
Ibravimovic situation is a very bold example. He is a quality player no doubt. But he is still not clicking completely with the rest so he usually dances on a different tempo than the one his teammates play. Yet again, the established identity at Barcelona draws clear guidelines. He already knows exactly what to improve and how, so it’s a matter of time. At Madrid, it’s still an ongoing uncertain process.
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Posted by Ramzi
on 04:10.
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