El Clasico
By: Corey | December 11th, 2008
Saturday, December 13th 2008
22 GMT
4pm eastern time
The only thing that matters all weekend
All things lead to El Classico is what my Uruguayan management professor once said to me. This is a man who as a very young boy saw Di Stefano play for Millinarios, and has been a life long Real Madrid fan. He has some really interesting stories, most of which I take with a grain of salt due to his flair for exaggeration, but they are great stories none the less. And this is where this post begins, with all roads leading to El Classico on Saturday.
This is of course a big game every year, but this year there has been a change in the dynamic of Spanish football, with Real looking less then impressive, culminating in their coach being sacked and out cry for the sacking of the president and his staff. Their has also been a creative signing in the way of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to fill in for the long term absence of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, while Mamadou Diarra finds himself out for the season with a knee injury, and the same is probably true for Ruben De la Red. Short term injuries have plagued Real throughout the season and currently Pepe, Heinze, Sneijder, and Miguel Torres are all injured, although Sneijder may have a chance at playing in the game if he passes fit.
Madrid’s form has been poor to say the least, as they have lost three of its past four league matches, while Barcelona has won 11 and drawn one of its past 12, during which it has amassed 43 goals for. Real has slipped to 5th in the table with their poor form, while Barca now holds a 9 point gap over them, with 2nd place Vilarreal 6 points back. If you look at the goal differential for Barca, an impressive 35 stands out amongst single digit numbers at the top of the table. Real has a even goal differential on the road, and a 3-1-3 record, while Barca has a 21+ goal differential at home and a record of 5-2-0.
The history of this great game goes way back, and a brief history in English can be found here. Its not that I am not proud of the history of this historic match up, its just that I have wrote it about a million times and always end up leaving something out or I say something that gets nit-picked to death, so Wikipedia will have to suffice. Isaiah may post a Barca-slanted history on his page, but it would be worth a read to know where the enemy is coming from. Also, as a reminder, this is a very heated and intense rivalry, but lets keep the rheotoric and slurs out of our posts, either here or on the Barca page, Isaiah and I already had to deal with one person who made a distasteful reference and we would prefer not to have to do that again. You can let the cules have it, but keep the banter constructive and poignant please.
This game is Juande’s second game in charge, not exactly easing into the job here. A positive 3-0 result (a clean sheet?!? whats that?) against Zenit in the final game of the CL was a great warm-up for the Barca game, but he has had little time to adjust the team to his liking I am sure. Questions marks will undoubtedly be on his tactics and team selections for the next few weeks, but a quick way to silence the critics would be to win in the Nou Camp. Not an easy task, but if Bernd Schuster could do it, then why cant he?
As for the squad, I have listed all of our injuries above, but we also have the suspensions for Marcelo and Robben. Marcelo is not a huge loss, but then again we dont have a fit left back unless you want to throw Chema Anton into his first professional game at the Nou Camp. Odds on favorite for the left back spot is Michel Salgado, who was tried out their in the second half of the Zenit game. I didnt see the match, couldnt find a decent stream, but from what I read he did pretty well, not that Zenit really pressed him hard though. With Salgado on the left, it seems pretty likely that one of Metzelder or Ramos will be on the right. Conventional wisdom says Ramos, but his poor form there has been disturbing, so Metzelder was played on the right in the second half against Zenit and did reasonably well.
Metzelder has some experience on the right, having played there more then a few times for Borussia Dortmund and once or twice for the National ManSchaft! He did an adequate job the few times I saw him play there for Borussia Dortmund, as I use to watch the Bundesliga Saturday morning match on FSC so many years ago and saw him often. His lack of pace is a huge concern, so I dont expect him to be pushed to far forward as he looks to cope with Henry or Messi. Salgado will have the test of his life against Messi, which just seems like a horrible mismatch, and may be the final coffin in the Salgado-retirement train.
The Ramos-Pepe partnership still looks promising, and Juande will of course instill more discipline in their positioning which had been the main problem with Schuster. Ramos and Pepe both rushed forward far to often, leaving huge gaps to exploit, when they really should have let Gago or someone else deal with a high ball or a short pass out to a striker. The other problem with our center back pairing is that Schuster thought it perfectly suitable for the center backs to rush over to cover the wing backs, again needlessly dragging them out of position. While this is sometimes justifiable, the defensive midfielder should be doing this, if not the midfielder on that particular side. Gago was seen doing this alot against Zenit, which helped keeped the shape of the backline. In turn, Guti dropped deeper to cover the top of the box, and was often left with a great deal of space centrally in which to counter attack, or atleast maintain possession with a few quick passes.
It is vital that when one player is pushed out of position, another player is able to cover. So when say Marcelo is left up field and Gago covers, the midfield will fall like dominoes into their new positions. Guti will drop deeper in Gago’s slot, while Raul moves into our own half as the quick outlet and to fight for the ball if it is cleared to the team center midfielders. The winger, Robben or Drenthe, will drop into our own half as well and cover the opposing full back until about 20 metres out, where he becomes the responsibility of our fullback, who should be back by now. Most likely Gago will have allowed a cross in, which means he will move into the center of the field where Guti and VdV or Sneijder is closing down passing lanes and Raul is shadowing the oppositions deepest midfielder. Robben will have moved further up field, at an angle as which to receive a knock-on from Pipita. Pepe and Ramos will have pushed their line forward to the top of the box, and Salgado/Metzelder will then need to stay in line with the center backs. Once Marcelo is restored to his position, no more switching needs to occur.
Thats something we never saw with Schuster, his player positioning was to rigid, and coverage was almost unseen. Players have greater responsibility in this positional swap type system, while they are also forced to pressure a little deeper but at the same time keep the lines more compact. If the defensive line can stay reasonably high up, it create a compact pressing zone that many teams wont be able to pass around. Barca is one of those teams. Lets just say Gago is forced to run out wide right/left often to help with the dangerous wing play. Raul, Guti and Van de Vaart will then be watching Xavi, and only Xavi. Yaya Toure can be left alone, with maybe Raul looking to make sure he doesnt move forward without a mark on him. Drenthe and Pipita will be able to keep the backline on their toes, but watch for Guti, VdV and Raul to to force Xavi to play the ball forward much quicker then he likes to. He thrives on the horizontal passes, as he then repositions himself for another go at it. If Drenthe is not so far foward as he was with Schuster, he can keep Messi and the wing back isolated from the horizontal pass, while VdV will have to play wider right to do the same. This is of course if Barca have the ball, more specifically Xavi.
if Gago is not pulled out of position, then he will try to keep Xavi from getting the ball. Its pretty easy, yet no one seems to do it because everyone is worried about Henry, Messi, Etoo and Hleb. Coaches often look to shut down those main attacking threats, but if they dont get the ball then they dont need to be hounded as much. The same goes for Xavi. If he doesnt see the ball, even if he is as far back field as his center backs, then what harm can he cause? This means that when Xavi doesnt have the ball, close down Toure and Busquets/Gudjohnsen. They usually slide the ball his way with little fuss because they sit so deep. Keep our lines compact, have Guti press further upfield with VDV and Raul on Toure and the other center midfielder and you have yourself alot of playing the ball along the back line. Its a hall mark of Pep’s system, where its fine to keep the ball moving horizontally even at the defensive line. And we dont care if the 4 defenders get 10-20 touches on the ball every possession as long as the ball does not move to Xavi, because thats when the damage hurts.
As far as attacking Barca, it seems to me he only logical crack in the armor is to get behind Dani Alves and exploit the space he leaves when he moves forward. But our left side is, well, weak. Salgado will have a hell of a time with Messi/Hleb and Alves probably wont need to move forward all that often. Drenthe is not gonna beat Alves with his pace, and his moves are…well he tries. So it then becomes interesting to see if Pipita will be instructed to move out wide right more often then not to see if Abidal is exploitable. He is, but it remains to be seen if that will happen. I have a game plan, but I dont have the players to properly execute is what I am saying to myself right now, and its probably what Juande is thinking also.
Real Madrid Group:
Goalkeepers: Casillas, Dudek
Defenders: Cannavaro, Sergio Ramos, Salgado, Metzelder, Chema Antón, Agus
Midfielders: Sneijder, Gago, Guti, Drenthe, Javi García, Van der Vaart
Forwards: Raúl, Higuaín, Saviola, Palanca, Bueno
Vilafane and Mateos also trained with the first team today, so they may be in contention in the coming weeks. Seems Agus is back from the dead, I was pretty sure he was going to be sold, while Palanca will have pace to burn if he gets on the field. Nice to see more youth team players getting involved, they deserves a shot.
Barcelona Group:
Isaiah’s predicted lineup, which I agree with except for Gudjohnsen, he could be replaced by two or three players:
Valdés, Alves, Márquez, Puyol, Abidal, Touré, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Messi, Henry, Eto’o
Juande’s Pre-Match Presser:
From what Ive read from his first few press conferences, I like Juande’s style so far. Lets hope the results come with it, because he talks the talk, he promotes from within and he is a hell of alot friendlier with his players then Schuster ever was.
How well prepared for the Barcelona match do you think your team is?
I think the players are very excited about it. You don’t need to do much to motivate them. We have to climb positions in the league and we are convinced of our chances to win tomorrow. There’s never a clear favourite.
Do you think Sergio Ramos is the ‘antidote’ for Messi?
Sergio has my total support. I’m sure everyone will do a good job. Playing with five defenders is a valid possibility because one must use different systems to achieve the goals at hand.
What do you think of Barcelona?
There’s nothing I can say to highlight how good they are. They are playing very well and we will therefore have to pay attention to several aspects of their game. I think we can manage.
Do you think your team can pull off a draw? Will Sneijder play?
I only think about winning the match. ‘Draw’ is a word that doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. The doctors are thinking about what to do with Sneijder tomorrow. We miss several players and we must also take good care of the ones we still have.
You won at Camp Nou several years ago with Rayo Vallecano. How did you motivate your men back then?
I really don’t remember. All I remember is that there were two or three games left in the season and that nothing was at stake for us, so we won.
Barcelona are clear favourites on all the betting boards…
Then tomorrow is clearly a great day in which to become a millionaire if you bet on us.
What do you know of De la Red’s situation?
I’ve only focused on the technical aspects of the game. I only know I won’t be able to count on him.
You managed to defeat Barcelona also in the European Super Cup when they were clear favourites…
This situation reminds me of that one. Everyone bet on Barça to win, and that greatly motivated us.
Have you started to leave your mark on the team?
It will be more noticeable as time moves on. This is the first day in which we’ve managed to properly train with the squad. It’s normal for the players not to be sure of what I expect of them at this stage.
How’s the morale on the squad?
The victory against Zenit has done us a lot of good. My players’ confidence is greater than before the clash and we hope it will be even greater next week if we win tomorrow.
What do you think of the job Guardiola is doing as Barcelona’s coach?
Guardiola is doing a great job and could begin a new era if he continues to do this well. The team plays excellent football, but their style can be fought with hard work and high levels of concentration. I think we can win tomorow.
What will be the key to winning the game?
The start of the match will be very important. Our confidence could be undermined if we concede an early goal, but I think we can win even if that happens.
You are the boss of six Dutch players…
Good players always have room on any team. They must have done something well in order to be here. They will have to do their best for the Club. I believe Van der Vaart and Sneijder can play together.
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