I saw quite a bit of football over the weekend, but then again, that’s what the weekend is for. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid played on Saturday, the former away to Almeria and the latter at home to Rayo Vallecano, and the contrasts were illuminating.
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The most obvious one was financial. On a post-Champions League weekend, some of the richer sides tend to rest players, or ‘rotate’ their squad to give the less frequent figures a chance to shine – but they’ll only do this if the fixture looks like a fairly comfortable one. Barcelona travelled to humble Almeria, and left both Neymar and Luis Suarez on the bench – a questionable decision by Luis Enrique since Suarez needs minutes and the line-up, though hardly a poor one, looked slightly condescending towards the hosts. Almeria hadn’t managed a home win all season (they still haven’t) but anyway, it didn’t look a great decision, particularly following on from two straight league defeats.
The complete stats from the 2-1 win in Almeria http://t.co/OB8lROKQhl pic.twitter.com/qEDwdimF1Z
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) November 8, 2014
Interestingly, Barcelona’s bench at the start of the game was worth 234 million euros, the sum of the money paid for Neymar, Suarez, Dani Alves, Andre Ter Stegen and Gerard Pique (again left out of the side), with Martin Montoya and Xavi the only free youth-team graduates. Barcelona’s entire first-team squad is calculated to be worth 587 million euros, three million fewer than the squad of Real Madrid, and considerably more than that of Almeria, next to bottom of La Liga’s player collateral ladder with a squad worth 30 million – according to the website ‘futbolfinanzas’. Leo Messi, valued at 120 million, is worth four times the entire Almería squad.
Absurd? Yes, but that’s the way things have developed. Thus it was with considerable glee that the Madrid-based press attacked Luis Enrique on Sunday morning (he’s not their favourite person) for lacking the courage of his own convictions and bringing both Suarez and Neymar into the fray for the second half, with his team trailing 1-0 after the speedy Thievy Bifouma’s 37th-minute opener. It worked, of course, with Suarez showing the enthusiasm and hunger that characterises his play and setting up his side’s two winning goals, converted by Neymar and Jordi Alba. Leo Messi remains two short of Zarra’s all-time scoring record, and hit the post again. One supposes that unless he is abducted by aliens, he will eventually surpass Zarra, but for the time being he remains tantalisingly below the summit, trying a little too hard to score and not playing particularly well. Sometimes, without Andres Iniesta and Xavi, Messi looks like a little boy lost again. And when he’s lost, Barcelona don’t look quite the same.
Of course, if they’d won easily with the initial line-up, Luis Enrique would have been praised for his innovation and vision, and for his confidence in youth (Munir and Rafinha). After next weekend’s break for internationals, Barcelona host Sevilla, a side who have suddenly slowed up after a fine start, but the game will hardly be a stroll for the Catalans.
Later in the evening, Real Madrid took on Rayo Vallecano at the Bernabéu, in the rather less fashionable city derby. Madrid did make some changes, but one was enforced (Nacho for Carvajal), one was tactical (or enforced – depending on how you see it), with Gareth Bale in for Isco, and the other was whimsical – Keylor Navas coming in for Iker Casillas for the first time since September when he played against Elche. It’s doubtful that Ancelotti wants to return to the old system of playing one keeper in the Champions League and the other in the domestic campaign, as when Diego Lopez was there, and it has to be said that when Casillas is playing regularly for Real Madrid, the capital seems to settle down of an evening, the traffic seems less noisy, and the sunshine is more golden in Retiro Park. Like in an Elizabethan tragedy, Madridistas seemed to feel that the cosmos was somehow out of kilter, and that the apocalypse was around the corner, when Iker was off form. They had even begun to doubt their saint, and had begun to fear the worst after his calamitous last appearance for Spain. But now all is well, Keylor Navas looks nervous and timorous – at fault for Rayo’s only goal – and Iker will be back for the next game.
Rayo Vallecano (worth 41 million euros – or one of Ronaldo’s boots) are such a different institution to their wealthier neighbours that the fixture is always slightly poetic. Last season I went to their tiny stadium to watch a match, and nipped to the club shop before the game to buy a Rayo wallet for my son’s collection. The woman behind the counter seemed amused by my enquiry as to the price of a club wallet. “Wallet?” she chortled. ‘We don’t have wallets here. That’s because we don’t have any money to put in them” – upon which she offered me a Che Guevara beret with ‘Rayo Revolution’ sewn into the fabric. That probably wouldn’t happen at the Bernabéu, and on Saturday night Rayo put up a decent fight, even out-possessing their hosts by 48% to 52% overall. Madrid still won 5-1, although they were assisted a little by the linesman who failed to see that Karim Benzema was offside for his goal, whereas the one by Leo Baptistao that was disallowed at 2-1 was rather more debatable.
Toni Kroos scored his first goal for Real Madrid with a brilliant finish! https://t.co/WJZldvHAcO | More goals http://t.co/WUlCbbSvfV
— goalsparade.com (@goalsparade) November 10, 2014
Real Madrid have now scored an astonishing 42 goals in their opening eleven games, a statistic which equals their previous best-ever start, in 1950. They have also won 13 games on the trot, and are edging towards the 15 that José Mourinho managed with them in the 2011-12 campaign. Oh – and Ronaldo scored again, putting him on 18 in the league, only 13 less than he scored during the entire campaign last season. All seems well in the house of Florentino, with Gareth Bale also silencing the doubters with a potent display (and a goal). To continue the theme of princes and paupers, Madrid’s next game after the break is away at Eibar, the true Cinderella of La Liga, but whose temporary golden carriage still hasn’t turned into a pumpkin after midnight. Madrid won’t be relishing the trip, and it should be an historic event.
To conclude, Atlétco Madrid lost ground on the two leaders with a surprise 2-1 defeat to struggling Real Sociedad, still without a manager as of Sunday night, and still chasing David Moyes. I was at the game and thoroughly enjoyed it, since Sociedad have simply been down on their luck of late. They still have a good squad, and looked the better side for much of the match, even before Atlético were reduced to 10 men when Guilherme Siqueira was sent off for a second yellow.
Funny game football, in its contrasts and comparisons. Atlético had won eight from their last nine, and were in buoyant mood after their win at Malmo in midweek. Sociedad were in the slough of despond and had not won since beating Real Madrid back at the end of August. The betting houses may regret the result, but at least some of us went home happy.
Follow Phil Ball on Twitter: @philballtweets
