La Liga: Tweets, bleats & Ter Stegen’s howler

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  • La Liga this week

    In a week marked by public-figure indiscretions, with England’s Sam Allardyce taking pole position in the rankings and Rangers’ Joey Barton not far behind, I was discussing with a friend over pre-Sunday-lunch tapas just why footballers are incapable of writing on social media without messing up. Admittedly, the concision required to say something safe, snappy and insightful in 140 characters is both a linguistic and cognitive challenge, but the dangers inherent to a system that allows sudden thoughts to be broadcast at the click of a button are pretty obvious.

    All clubs, right down to semi-pro level, have social media policies written into players’ contracts, but they’re rarely read in any detail. Some players, like Gerard Pique, learn to tone it down but others just can’t seem to resist the chance to have their little say. Maybe this has something to do with the stifling world of modern professional football, in which all comments are carefully mediated, most press-conferences cliché strewn and bland, and top players spin-doctored into using the correct neutral discourse – at least when the mic is thrust under their dripping post-match noses.

    If a player or coach wishes to criticise, they can only do it implicitly, hinting at what they might mean, but couching it in such terms that legally protect them and which conform to the requirements of their contracts. Small wonder then that people who shoot from the hip are becoming ever-more popular – the reason why Barton’s autobiography is keenly anticipated, and why certain global political figures are doing rather better than anyone imagined they might. And of course, social media outlets allow players a megaphone, whether they’re supposed to use it or not. Legally speaking, no club can ban players from using social media, only advise them on how to use it. Nevertheless, plenty of players still seem unable to zip up.

    Take Real Madrid’s Danilo for example. After Real’s midweek 2-2 draw in Dortmund, he tweeted that Eibar, Sunday’s visitors to the Bernabéu, would “pagar los platos rotos”, literally “pay for the broken plates”, which in sporting terms is meant to suggest that the losers on the previous day will come out fighting harder the next. Which is fine in theory – but Danilo’s comment showed a typical lack of footballer forethought.

    Eibar’s down to earth and rather more sensible coach José Luis Mendilibar, born and raised before the digital age and visitor to the Bernabéu nine times in his managerial career (with five different clubs) had never managed even a point there. Eibar themselves had never even scored at the Bernabéu in their history, but Danilo obviously hadn’t noticed that they had managed to score in all their previous league games this season so far. Real Madrid had too, but you kind of expect that. Mendilibar chose to ignore Danilo, whose comment showed not only scant respect for his professional counterparts but also a lack of insight into the game itself. He also motivated Eibar further, if such were necessary. To the delight of neutrals everywhere, Fran Rico’s excellent header after a mere five minutes broke Eibar’s Bernabéu duck, and condemned the hosts to a fourth consecutive draw – not too worrying for most clubs, but in Madrid a crisis of bubonic proportions.

    Eibar were excellent in all departments (Madrid were missing Casemiro and Luka Modric, with Ramos ‘rested’) but curiously left elegant midfielder Jota Peleteiro at home. Jota was not picked for the previous win at home to Real Sociedad either, and took to Twitter himself on Saturday (when the squad became public) to state in Spanish that, “The great thing about life is that in the end, time puts everyone in their place.” Some fatal ambiguity there, but the rumours are that Mendilibar doesn’t like Jota’s semi-glamorous lifestyle, partner to a semi-famous model who allegedly wants to go back to London. You can imagine it’s true, good though Jota is. Stay off the tweets boy. You know it makes sense.

    Celta de Vigo are a team that have also had some problems with player indiscretions in the past, but fortunately no-one was tempted to post a pre-match tweet suggesting that they would once again score four goals against the visitors, Barcelona. Last year’s game, around this time of the season (late September) saw Celta welcome Luis Enrique back with a 4-1 thumping, but at least this time Barcelona did rather better by managing three goals themselves.

    The problem resided in the fact that at no point did Barcelona ever lead the game, largely a victim of their own defensive frailty. With Sergio Busquets looking a bit ponderous these days, Marc-Andre ter Stegen desperately trying to prove that he is Claudio Bravo’s equal with his feet, Lionel Messi still missing and Andres Iniesta on the bench, Celta were 3-0 up at half-time and cruising, although they hadn’t needed to do a great deal to be in that position. With Iniesta on for the second half, and the score restored to 3-2 largely through Gerard Piqué’s efforts, a famous comeback looked on the cards until Ter Stegen committed a bizarre error for Celta’s fourth. He really won’t enjoy the replays, particularly given that his team had Celta on the ropes at that point. Commentator Michael Robinson memorably remarked that “Ter Stegen thinks he’s Garrincha. He’s not.” Piqué got another one back for 4-3, but it wasn’t to be.

    Now Atlético Madrid lead La Liga on goal difference from Real Madrid, with Barcelona skulking in fourth place behind Sevilla, who scraped 2-1 past a plucky Alavés, with a last-minute goal from the interesting Wissam Ben Yedder, helping the Sevilla fans to forget Kevin Gameiro. He also scored a late goal for Atlético in their 2-0 win at Valencia – a more awkward game than it looked, given the home side’s improvement of late.

    And what a fine sight La Liga’s table looks at the moment, with this rare and welcome outbreak of democracy. Three points separate the top six sides, which is an unusual state of affairs indeed. The Spanish media seems to view this as a crisis, but for everyone else it looks pretty healthy. Neither Barcelona nor Madrid seem able to currently overcome the disruption caused by injuries to key players, and the improving upper-middle classes are taking advantage.

    Atlético still look the most solid outfit on show, with the only fissure in their side their inability to score from penalties. It remains Antoine Griezmann’s Achilles heel, but apart from that he’s looking every week like he’s the new member of the world’s top three. Throughout the side, Atlético are strong – on an individual and collective basis. Every season it looks like they might be in decline, but it doesn’t happen. Once again they’ve got the meanest defence (only two conceded) and in midweek they looked superior to Bayern Munich in every department, but particularly in their overall organisation. Early season form can flatter and deceive, it’s true, but they look kind of scary. And the occasional indiscretion from Griezmann aside, they tend to avoid social media gaffes. You wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of Diego Simeone.

    Next weekend sees another La Liga break for the 2018 qualifiers, with Spain facing an interesting trip to Italy on Thursday and then a further game in Albania next Sunday. Spain’s new coach Julen Lopetegui will be hoping that the recent ‘crises’ at the national team’s main two suppliers doesn’t carry over to the international scene. We shall see.

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