Contrasting approaches shine in Clasico

You may recall the thesis (prominent in the Madrid-based media), around this time last season, that the Barcelona coach was allegedly a poor man manager. Yeah, right.

Compare and contrast Luis Enrique’s decision to Rafa Benitez’ misplaced confidence in Karim Benzema, who spent most of Saturday evening with his gaze fixed firmly to the floor, as if the lack of support from his absent midfield suppliers and the continued prospect of a prison sentence were more on his mind than scoring goals. He only looked up once, to direct a late header towards Barcelona’s goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, who of course stopped it in the manner of the rest of the shots that the hosts managed during their torrid evening – most of them coming in the second half when the game was already lost.

The interesting thing about writing up a report on the clásico is that you know that your readers will have been among the 600 million others who saw the entire game through some medium or other. 

There is, therefore, less need to describe the action than to analyse its possible causes and consequences, and perhaps to slot the game into its historical context. And to continue the thread from the introduction, Messi limited himself to an enjoyable work-out, since by the time he came on his opponents were more concerned with trying to save their dignity than with massing their defence in an attempt to stop him.  

The damage had already been done, and by two of the players who have grown ever more in Messi’s absence, namely Luis Suarez and Neymar. With these two being possibly the most in-form players on the planet, Benitez’s decision to start with the BBC, with James Rodriguez preferred to Isco in the free-floating role (although he never seemed free, and he certainly didn’t float), seems in hindsight to have been a little odd. It was as though the coach, under fire from the local media for his alleged tendency towards caution and pernickety tactical decisions, had decided to confound this criticism by fielding the whole of his arsenal, and to hell with the consequences. 

Well – the path to hell is paved with good intentions, but the parallel decisions to leave out the in-form Casemiro, and to prefer the dithering full-back Danilo to the popular Dani Carvajal, simply dampened the gunpowder up front. Why? Because the two guys in midfield, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, were simply overrun and/or bypassed. 

The distance between Madrid’s alleged midfield and their forwards was an abyss, and with Gareth Bale lacking the tactical nous to drop off and hook up effectively with the players behind him, Barcelona came, saw and conquered.  

Modric was simply off-colour, but Kroos remains an enigmatic creature.  Lacking the instincts of a defender, and devoid of the vision of a Xabi Alonso, his sole virtue – an ability to slow the pace of the game and to bring other players into the action – is simply pointless when those other players are not functioning. 

Kroos was Madrid’s idea of a Sergio Busquets, but the difference remains considerable. You could argue that Busquets’ efficient simplicity thrives off the buzzing hive of creativity that always surrounds him, but the point is that the Barcelona pivot functions perfectly within a recognisable system. At the moment, it’s unclear what Benitez’s system really is.

The 0-4 now joins these celebrations of humiliation, and until Real Madrid return the favour to Barcelona, the scoreline will both damage and intimidate

It is worth recalling that last season around the same time as this, the same side minus Iker Casillas, Danilo and Pepe defeated Barcelona convincingly, 3-1. For this and other reasons, Benitez is now Public Enemy Number One, or possibly Number 2, behind his president and employer, Florentino Pérez. Saturday’s game ended with a ‘pañolada’ – the Spanish hanky-waving ritual from bullfighting that signals a desire, in the words of Sunday’s tabloid ‘Marca’, for heads to roll. 

But what can Pérez do? He’s never been one to fall on his own sword, and Benitez was of course his choice – despite the obvious and publicly-acclaimed fact that the players (and the fans) were happy with Carlo Ancelotti. He will opt to ride out the storm, but with Real’s next game a tricky visit up to in-form Eibar, the consequences of a defeat at the hands of a club whose entire squad earns less in a month than Cristiano Ronaldo in a week, are grave – to say the least.

Crushing defeats at home to the eternal enemy almost always bring on a crisis. This is true for both Real Madrid and Barcelona, and although it would be unfair to blame everything on Benitez, he does cut a slightly unprepossessing figure these days. There’s something cold about him, slightly aloof, as if he fears real contact or communication with either the press or his players. It’s not difficult to see that the players themselves are unhappy, despite the good start that the team enjoyed to the season. 

To make matters worse, neighbours Atlético won 1-0 at Betis on Sunday night, and moved into second place, pushing Real down into third. If the unthinkable happens, and they lose to Eibar, the Basque minnows will only be a single point behind them. 

Next week Barcelona entertain Real Sociedad in the Camp Nou, and despite the Basques’ 2-0 victory at home to Sevilla, and the fact that the replacement for David Moyes is ex-Barcelona hero Eusebio Sacristan, the game shouldn’t provide the Catalans with too many worries. It ain’t looking good for the Bernabéu, and meanwhile, Barcelona just seem to get better and better. 

Luis Enrique, fairly magnanimous in victory (he thought that Madrid had actually played quite well), nonetheless rewarded the press with a pearl when he admitted that fitting Messi back into the current side is ‘un problema de la hostia’ (‘a major problem’) although ‘la hostia’ in Spanish is the sacramental bread of the Eucharist – literally the ‘Holy Host’, and its jokey use here was unusual in public discourse in Spain.

Luis Enrique was implying that he was relaxed, and so he could even swear a little. Why not, he seemed to be saying?  After all, this result was up there with the other two historic hidings meted out to the white-shirted (unholy) hosts, the infamous Johann Cruyff-inspired 0-5 in 1974 and the 2-6 of more recent memory. These results burn themselves into the collective psyche of the two clubs, and they pattern the two clubs’ mental landscapes like totems. 

The 0-4 now joins these celebrations of humiliation, and until Real Madrid return the favour to Barcelona, the scoreline will both damage and intimidate. Gerard Piqué’s desire to score a fifth, and thus condemn Madrid to a ‘manita’ (a little hand), led him to join the attack late on, only to be foiled by Munir’s poor finish. Bizarrely, this was the only positive thing for Real Madrid on the night, escaping from the weirdly symbolic shame of a ‘manita’. All the rest is doom and gloom. 

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning Andres Iniesta’s wonderful goal – only his 3rd in 33 clásico appearances.  Whilst Cristiano Ronaldo spent the two-week break talking animatedly about his film and himself in London, in a gel-fuelled ego fest that knew no bounds, Andres Iniesta – who always looks like the fall-guy in a low-budget ‘B’ movie – stayed as quiet as ever, took his dog for a daily walk, and then let his feet do the talking on the Saturday night.