Breaking the Bar(ca)code - Mourinho style

“Madrid should start enjoying their football” said former Real Madrid player Roberto Carlos in a recent interview. I thought about that and asked myself, ‘Really’?

That is not to say that I’m questioning the Brazilian’s motives. Football is ‘the beautiful game’ and is first and foremost a sport which is meant to be enjoyed. And in an ideal world, that is the way forward. However, in an ideal world (especially for a Real Madrid fan) a team of the caliber of Guardiola’s Barcelona does not exist. And trying to play pretty football can lead you to 6 trophyless years (ask Arsene Wenger). My point being, it is nearly as impossible to beat the Catalans at their own game, as it is to break a diamond.

Don’t get me wrong, that is not to say that the present Real Madrid team is lacking in ability in any probable way. If anything, on paper, man for man, Real would not only be equal but be better than Barcelona. But as the cliché goes, ‘games are not played on paper’. And the fact that this Barca team has players of the ability of Messi-Iniesta-Xavi-Busquets-Puyol-Valdes who have all been playing together for more than a decade now, is priceless.Two years ago, when Florentino Perez decided to loosen his pockets and bring back the Galactico era, some thought that that was ‘the’ solution to dethrone the brilliant Barcelona. And to be fair, adding the likes of Benzema, Kaka, Xabi Alonso and Cristiano Ronaldo to a team that already boasted world class players such as Raul and Higuain didn’t seem that bad an idea. But then again, when it comes to beating Guardiola’s Barcelona, having the ability and the desire isn’t quite enough. I say desire because the ‘Real’ Galacticos seemed to have lost theirs. The players who were brought in however, had not. Far from it.

So Real bought all these players and gave them to Manuel Pellegrini. It was like engineering a car as good as the present Red Bull and then handing it over to Narain Karthikeyan. To Pellegrini’s credit though, he did do quite a good job. Getting 95 points in a season in an ideal world does give you the league title. But then again, it is not an ideal world we are living in. Also to his credit, Pellegrini did it the right way- playing good, attractive football. He only fell short on two fronts – one, not being able to overcome Barca in the two Clasicos and the other, getting knocked out early in the Champions League (in a rather unfortunate manner against Lyon). In retrospect though, it wasn’t as unfortunate as it seemed. I say that because if Real had gone ahead in the Champions League that year, there would have been a slight chance of Pellegrini being retained as the manager. And that would have meant not making the kind of progress the team has now, under Mourinho.

The sacking of Pellegrini and seeing Mourinho lift the Champions League trophy the same year with Inter and that too at the Bernabeu, meant that his appointment was a mere formality. One of Mourinho’s very first claims as the new Los Blancos manager happened to be the promise of a Madrid team that plays good attractive pleasing-on-the-eye football. And in his defence, he did live up to his word. In one of the most anticipated Clasicos (as every Clasico is these days), he did put out a team that would play football in the right manner. However, all that did was that bring about a humiliating 5-0 defeat and reiterated that, it is in fact impossible to beat the Catalans at their own game. Quickly realizing this, Mourinho reverted to his tried and tested philosophy.

The 6 bullets in the Real Madrid arsenal: Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema, Ozil, Higuain, Di Maria. (Image courtesy Marca)

All great Mourinho teams have been fantastic on the counter attack: Sitting back defending, soaking up the pressure from opponents and then hitting them hard on the break. This Real Madrid team, could be the finest of the lot. And why not, with the kind of resources available to the master-mind manager. The lightning pace that runs through the team in its players such as Ronaldo, Di Maria, Ozil, Kaka, Benzema etc. is ideal for that philosophy of electrifying, mystifying counter-attack that can leave teams chasing shadows, Ajax‘s Frank De Boer would tell you all about it. Mourinho has already proven in the past that this is the way to beat Barca. He first did it with Chelsea in 2005 and although that Barca team and the present one are not the same, that team too was a world beater and played the same brand of dazzling football that the Catalans still play. He repeated the feat, in the second season of his managerial reign at Inter where he went on to lift the Champions League. This just re-emphasized his hypothesis on how Barcelona can be undone. The theory worked yet again with Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey final. The ploy of playing a very tight defense and then hitting them on the break, right at the death, worked perfectly. It was working yet again in the Champions League semi final before Beautiful Barca’s ugly face showed up in the form of play-acting as Real were made to bow out.

Mourinho is now in his second season with Real. And we all know that it is in the second year that all Mourinho teams come of age. But as we have already witnessed, this Barca team poses a never-before-seen challenge and requires something special to overcome it. And who better to do it than ‘the Special One’ himself? It is, in my opinion a ploy only to beat Barca, that Mourinho deploys his troops in a ‘defensive’ manner, and even against teams such as Ajax and Betis we try to hit them on the counter. He wants them to perfect the art of ‘the counter attack’ and build Real as the best side in the world employing that methodology. There have already been glimpses of it, and that laws-of-physics defying goal against Ajax was a perfect example.

It is a sad reality that today, La Liga is very weak. Real and Barca are the only two teams truly competing for the title. Hence preparing for battle against Catalans is an absolute top priority. The Clasico virtually defines who lifts the trophy at the end of the year because its more than just one match. It psychologically shapes the season for both teams. Real Madrid fans are surely sick of seeing their team lose and crumble. They would much rather see the team win the league in May than try playing attractive football and lose yet again at the end of the year.

It is a well known fact that a Real Madrid manager would always be on the critic’s radar for one reason or the other. True to tradition, Mourinho hasn’t been able to dodge it either. This time, he is being criticized for playing his team with what they say is a ‘defensive’ approach that relies too much on the counter attack even when the team is winning by a 3 goal margin on almost every other occasion. The only way forward, as of now, is the Mourinho way. Because believe me as much as Madrid fans would love to see their team ‘enjoy their football’, they would much rather have them ‘enjoy winning trophies’ instead.