It Wasnt Pretty As They Say

By: Corey | January 5th, 2009

Real Madrid 1-0 Vilarreal Sunday 1/04/09 11am Santiago Bernabeu Madrid, Spain

Lineups
Real Madrid
Casillas
Sergio Ramos
Cannavaro
Pepe
Heinze
Gago
Lass
Robben Goal 32′
Sneijder
Raúl
Huntelaar

Villarreal
Diego López
Ángel
Gonzalo
Godín
Capdevila
Senna
Eguren
Cazorla
Pires
Rossi
Nihat

Real battled Vilarreal to a hard fought 1-0 win and a valuable 3 points at the Bernabeu this afternoon, gaining ground on Sevilla to move up to third and casting an eye on Valencia in 2nd, only 1 point better. Of course our chances of catching Barcelona still look slim to none, as they played poorly against Mallorca but still found a way to win. Then again, Real played poorly for my tastes against Vilarreal and still found a way to win.

Playing poorly was almost to be expected though. Juande brings about a more disciplined, rigid formation and tactic approach to his team then Schuster did. I watched a old Clasico game, 1984, at the Camp Nou, where Bernd Schuster was in his prime for Barcelona and Butragueno and Sanchis were young pups, Sanchis actually making his debut. What I noticed, and you can call me crazy for this because its a pretty loose connection, was that Bernd did not really have a position on the field, which I guess was sort of the style in those days. He was a “libero” if you will, but in truth he just ran all over the place and got involved in everything.

Now having this mentality, this freedom of play, which I am sure most players would love, influenced his view on the game, and thus impacted his tactical setup of his teams. Did Real players have set positions? Well sure, but was their alot of floating around the field by the creative player? Oh yes. Was there a lack of a set play in one position every game? Yes, usually the right winger but sometimes the whole midfield. My point is that it became very clear why Schuster’s tactics were so confusing, it was because it was something only he could understand. Anyways, the game.

My overall impression is that Real lined up to win, they got a goal in the first half and they then kept things pretty tight. Lass and Gago were effective, and clearly bested Senna and Eguren, which was the key to the match really. This meant Vilarreal were not able to maintain possession comfortably, and they were on the back foot for most of the match. It must also be said that while Ramos and Heinze had good games, Pires and Cazorla were pretty useless out there. There was very little creativity from the Submarines, and you could see it was frustrating the team, with Rossi going in hard alot.

Robben was inspirational at times, but again, he looses the ball often and still has poor decision making in key moments. He waits, and waits and waits for something to open up, when he really should just pick the first pass he sees. His goal was great and his pace and tricks kept Capdevila from attacking much, while Angel did not attack much either even though he theoretically had no one to cover unless Robben was on his wing.

Sneijder played well enough, but I still dont think he is the type of creative “crack” that the team needs. Van der Vaart had that promise, but his brief cameo was subdued. Guti being out meant there was not much by way of balls to run on to, so we saw some hoofed balls to Hunter. He did alright, his control let him down a few times and he had a glorious chance to score that he couldnt convert. We will see better from him as he adapts to the team. Drenthe too fluffed a few chances he had, and its frustrating to know that he is the best option we have for a wide player, because if we are down a goal, he certainly is not gonna come on and provide us with one, either by a cross or a shot. Like I have said before, he is no Savio, Solari or Amavisca.

Raul was involved, but quiet and usual. Seeing him on the bench will become more common place of course, and he realized that. The game in 1984 I watched had Santillana on the bench, something I was surprised about until I realized he was on the down slope at that point. Higuain and Hunter could be a good combo, but until Hunter gets in to some sort of form, he should be left on the bench. We wont see much of Saviola anymore then!

Juande Post-Match:

“We could have scored another goal that would have given us more peace of mind. The team got tired in the second half. We had men out there who hadn’t played in quite a while and others coming off injury. The team worked hard but also suffered. We had plenty of chances to score more goals.”

“Our intention was to play as advances as possible, but in the last two matches our opponent was losing and forced us to move closer to our goal. It does however give us room to work with and seek the second goal.”

“Our most recent matches have been against direct rivals. We have two wins and one defeat in La Liga and a victory against Zenit in the Champions League. Our results have been good, but we need to continue working and improving. We have several days to train and prepare for forthcoming matches.”

“I think Lass and Huntelaar performed well. Lass only played an hour but asked to be subbed out because he hasn’t played in a while. Huntelaar put in an acceptable performance in the first half, but he was tired and hadn’t played in a long time either, which is why I tookk him out.”

“You have to play well to win. We want to win by playing well because it’s the best way to earn the victory. We weren’t able to score in the second half because we played worse than we did in the first half.”

Robben:

“I feel good and I am happy. We won because the team worked hard. It’s a new year and we started off the best way possible.”

“Not conceding any goals is important, but we also have to score. We had plenty of chances and would have felt better having scored more. 1-0 proved to be enought today, but we must improve.”

“We knew we had four tough matches, and after losing to Barcelona and Sevilla, we managed to win the last two. They were against the four best teams in the league, but now we must think about the future and win the remaining matches.”

“We have until late February to work hard, improve and play better.”

“Huntelaar is a good player, but it was hard for him because he was coming off an injury and he started in what was his first match. He was a little unlucky, but he had a great opportunity. I am sure he will score a lot of goals for Real Madrid in the future.”

Pepe:
“It was an interesting match. We played well in the first half and proved many things. We left too much open space in the second however. We have created many scoring chances since the Valencia match but have scored very little. The team did a great job and fought as a team.”

“I didn’t take any time off at Christmas. I was in La Coruña working with my physiotherapist Carlos Lalín. Things turned out well and it showed against Villarreal. The fact that we have a couple months during which we only play on weekends can help us.”

Fernando Gago:
“Lass and I were comfortable playing together. The coach told us what he wanted and we understood one another. We had to win. This victory gives us confidence heading into the rest of the month.”

“We played well, but the score could have been higher. Our forwards can score at any moment. This time it was Arjen Robben’s turn, but I’d also like to point out our defence’s strong performance.”

“We have to continue winning and not think about other teams. As long as we win we will continue pouring on the pressure.”