Radamel Falcao: On the wrong side of Madrid?

As everyone knows by now, Real Madrid slumped to yet another defeat, this time at the hands of Sevilla. So, that leaves them 12th in the La Liga table with just 4 points from 4 games. Although it is way too early to predict where they’ll end up at the end of the season, the momentum definitely seems to be with Barcelona, who have a 100 percent record so far. ‘The Special One’ has begun complaining about how he’s lacking a team and that the players need to be more committed and focused on the pitch. But if you did happen to see the Madrid-Sevilla game, you would have realised that it was Madrid who boasted the best chances in the game, with a couple of shots hitting the woodwork, a few brilliant saves by the Sevilla custodian Andres Palop and quite a few missed chances by Gonzalo Higuain and the lack of any real spark from substitute Karim Benzema. Even the corner which resulted in Sevilla goal was due to a rather uncharacteristic error by Iker Casillas and the resulting goal was product of, quite frankly, woeful marking by the Madrid defence. It was a very narrow defeat, but a very costly one, in the eyes of the Real Madrid faithful.

The reason for this rather disappointing start to the season is, in my opinion, Cristiano Ronaldo. Now, before hurling the brickbats, hear me out. Ronaldo was playing the best football of his life last season, even better than Messi, some would say. The Real Madrid of last season was, like it or not, based around Cristiano Ronaldo and his breathtaking skills which propelled Madrid to win the La Liga title, whilst shattering many records along the way. But as any neutral observer would point out, a slump in Cristiano’s form affects the entire team far too much. The goals simply dry up and there is no one really knows where to find them. Even the most ardent Madrid supporter will admit that as talented as Benzema and Higuain are, they are highly inconsistent, something that has and will continue to cause Madrid to drop points in the future. So, with Cristiano off his game (irrespective of how long that lasts), Madrid need a goal-scorer who they can depend on in any situation. And such a striker lives in the same city, just on the wrong side. Radamel Falcao García Zárate.

Falcao has suddenly been catapulted to fame following his demolition of Chelsea in the UEFA Super Cup final. But anyone who has been following the Spanish League last season will know that Falcao was a force to reckon with long before that. Previously playing for Porto, Falcao scored 34 goals in all competitions for them and scored a record-breaking 17 goals in the Europa League the following season before making a 40 million euro transfer to Atletico Madrid, where he scored 36 goals in all competitions in the 2011-12 season, a record for a player playing his first season in the history of the club. And even this season, he’s already scored 4 goals in three league games.

Here’s a compilation of all the goals he scored for Atletico last season:

Now, as you can see, Falcao is the complete striker, if such a thing exists. He is exceptionally strong in the air, quick, two-footed and most importantly, has an eye for goal like very few players do. This is a man who every club in the world would kill to have in their team, a man who puts fear into the hearts of the opposition defenders. This is exactly the kind of striker that Madrid are missing. With Ronaldo and Falcao playing side-by-side, they would destroy any opposition that comes their way. A match made in heaven, one would say.

Moreover, with the midfield Madrid possesses (barring Cristiano of course), Falcao would run riot. With the pace and crossing of De Maria and Ozil, the creative genius of Modric and the long balls of Khedira and especially Alonso, Falcao would be unstoppable.

Here’s the formation that I think would work wonders for Madrid:

Now, I know the chances of Falcao making the move to Real seems near impossible, but if such a thing were to happen, I truly think Madrid would be unstoppable and maybe Mourinho wouldn’t complain so damn much!

Please leave comments regarding what you think about this fantasy of mine.