Forget all the nice things I said in my clasico preview, disregard it almost; as a Madridista who “tries” to be objective and unbiased….I will be completely frank, it was a horrible game, and I will be a little cliché, it was painful to watch.
Barcelona began attacking early, with a nice shot from the biter himself, Luis Suarez, the Catalans were up on the scoreboard in the eleventh minute. Real Madrid could not do much, they seemed dazed and confused, soon enough, youngster Neymar, would make it two-nil, creating more of an advantage for Barcelona, and going into halftime, the Catalans had a nice lead.
Even though Rafa Benitez used his good ammo, and by that I mean he used his most prolific players, they seemed weak to a Barcelona who saw their main man, Lionel Messi return to the pitch after battling a knee injury that has kept him away for almost two months.
The way this Madrid played, was nothing compared to the Madrid we are used to seeing, it was almost an unrecognizable team, perhaps I may be exaggerating a bit, but in a clasico, Madrid always plays at the same level as its opponent. This time, that was not the case. Madrid seemed weak, lost, confused, it even seemed they did not know how to play, and the worse thing was that they were in their home pitch, the Santiago Bernabeu. So what happened? Why was this Real Madrid so lost, so weak with an opponent they are used to facing? Before I get a bit into that, and start making “assumptions” ill finish recapping this game, in the second half, with Lionel Messi in the pitch, one of the qualitative players Barcelona has, Andres Iniesta, would put salt on Madrid’s wound, by making the scoreboard three-nil. Even with the BBC (Bale, Benzema, and Cristiano), Barcelona could not be tamed. Madrid had very few if any chances of actually getting a goal, it was pitiful it was a merciless Madrid against a hungry Barcelona. Neymar would soon make it four-nil and Madrid could not make a comeback and the game ended with the Catalans rising well above los blancos in their own pitch. With a four-nil win, Barcelona continues atop of the Spanish league, with a six point difference between them and Real Madrid.
Heads must roll and names must be thrown into the pit fire, who is to blame for this drastic loss, that even though it’s only Real’s second loss of the season, it’s quite significant and it seems it is their tenth loss, obviously I’m exaggerating a bit, but Rafa’s men were helpless, and there is only one person everyone is blaming and that is Mr. Benitez himself. I do realize that Benitez came into the team and a lot of the most prolific players got injured and he had to change his alignment and the players he would choose for the games in the league, he had to modify his options and work out the best plan to continue their quest for the Spanish League title.
But I have said this before, Florentino Perez did a terrible job in firing Carlo Ancelotti. Ancelotti picked up Real Madrid from the pieces it was in after the Mourinho era and made it a force to be reckoned with. Sure, Real didn’t win any silverware last season, but it’s not easy to remain at the top and repeat the same success as the previous season, that’s not how futbol works. I have tried to give Benitez the benefit of the doubt because his tactics and his knowledge of futbol are appreciated, but honestly he seems like a fish out of water with Real Madrid, it seems he tells his players do this and then he wishes for good luck, so that “his plan” works out. I’m not bashing Benitez’s work because I do appreciate the work he has done, especially with Keylor Navas, but you can tell he has a lot of work to do and very little time do it. Should he be sacked given the fact that he has lost two games, but one of them being the clasico? Or is it too soon? They say that things that start out badly always end up worse and I will probably sound like a hypocrite because I sided with Benitez for a bit, I tried to like him, but this loss is not easy to digest, the team looked awful, and I could probably continue filling this article with adjectives that describe how terrible the game or should I say the loss was, but I’ll stop. It seems a lot of the players are not being used to their full potential because the positions they have been given to play do not suit them, Cristiano Ronaldo is a clear example, as is James Rodriguez among others.
Drastic changes need to occur, and now is the time to attempt to fix it, because later in the season, it will be too late. But since I love futbol, I will end by saying that win or lose, I’ll side with the team I cheer for, Hala Madrid.