Seville 1-0 Madrid: Donde esta los campeones?

I was one of the many Madridistas who watched in horror as Real Madrid self destructed in front of me, not for the first time this season. This write-up is my analysis of the Seville – Madrid game, notwithstanding my insane love for Madrid and my bias thereof. But before I start, I’d like to say that the current brand of football that Madrid have displayed is deeply disturbing. Their commitment, their attitude and their belief are non existent. Well, maybe the attitude exists – but evidently, it is a very negative one. As much as Madrid have grown to depend on Cristiano Ronaldo, I can honestly say nobody cares about how/why Ronaldo is sad as long as he performs. He has forever been the glory hog and starved for attention – but I thought I saw this change last season when he built up his assist record and was a team player and not an individualistic gas bag. With his upcoming discussion with Florentino Perez, I hope for Ronaldo’s sake, for Madrid’s sake and finally for the fan’s sake (me included), his “sadness” is dealt with. And now, the analysis.

Phase – 1A: The Andalusia Attack

Real Madrid started with Higuain – a positive move considering that he has been Madrid’s top scorer this season and has been far more convincing than Benzema. Mourinho employed his trademark 4-2-3-1 and within 2 minutes, his gameplan blew up. Seville had a very well thought out game plan and that was to attack the Madrid defence right from kickoff. I think even they were surprised when they were rewarded with Trochowski’s goal in the second minute. The pace of the game was completely dictated by Seville and the instructions given to them by Michel (the Seville coach) were obvious. Keep attacking and do not let them settle into a rhythm. Madrid have become accustomed to keeping the football for long spells of time and employing the long passes and through balls that cut through defences. This is in complete contrast to the tiki-taka that has worked so well for Barcelona.

From the onset, Seville denied Madrid the opportunity to play their long passes as they kept stealing the ball or attacking further. This meant that the game was far more physical than Madrid would have expected, clearly evidenced by Higuain’s tantrum even though he had won his side a free kick. The key asset for Seville was in the form of Jesus Navas who completely outclassed Marcelo with his darts on the right. This led to Marcelo having to abandon his usual style of being able to involve himself in the attack because every time he got forward, he was pegged back for defensive duties courtesy Jesus Navas.

As for the Madrid defence, well the less said the better. They have shown time and again that they are vulnerable when it comes to guarding set pieces. I still cannot understand how Trochowski was left completely unmarked. But perhaps the key part of the Andalusia attack was their constant threat to both Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira. Alonso is a player with a very vivid imagination and is often the one who sets up the shot that sets up the assist. If Ozil, Di Maria or any of the other guys in the front are able to make plays, it is often because of Alonso’s creativity and Khedira’s sheer physical dominance. Both these men were completely useless because they were constantly hounded by the Seville attack. Alonso, in particular, is someone who needs the ball for a couple of seconds to survey what is happening around him and then engineer his play. For the briefest of minutes, it looked like Real had figured this out when they swapped Khedira and Alonso, but Alonso was man marked – so as it turned out, it wasn’t much of a change!

Phase – 2A: The Andalusia Defense

The Seville entrenador did something brilliant here. Maduro, who usually plays the Xabi Alsonso role for Seville, was playing as a false centerback yesterday, almost as though he was guarding the back 4. This was key when it came to defending against Angel Di Maria and more importantly, in making Mesut Ozil completely useless. I did not notice this at first last night and I must confess, I do not watch much of Seville’s football to notice where Maduro usually plays. But when I looked up the last few games that Seville had played, I noticed that his traditional position is different from where he played yesterday and then I watched the game tape again. Brilliant move indeed by the Seville manager. He may have even learned this from Mourinho who had done something similar in the second Clasico of the 2010 season when he used Pepe as a holding midfielder to great effect.

Phase – 1A: Real Double Substitution … Real Double Trouble

What I would have given to be a fly on the wall of the Madrid dressing room last night! Mourinho would have absolutely destroyed his players! No doubt, the core of his frustration would be his largely ineffective full backs and with due credit to Arbeloa, he has not been able to guard the right flank well at all. With 2 center backs who, albeit geniuses, are famous for getting booked and are quite in-disciplined, one would need Marcelo and Arbeloa to do a much better job as the fullbacks. It would not surprise me if Mourinho did something interesting like shift Pepe to right back and bring in Varane to partner Ramos at center back. Raul Albiol is the obvious choice, but I see a future for Varane and this may be the right time to bring him in to try something different. But I digress.

Di Maria and Ozil were subbed out at the 45th minute. One was expected, the other was a surprise. Di Maria was absolutely horrid throughout the game and was extremely lucky to not pick up a second yellow card during his midfield collision with the Seville defender. He resorted to his usual theatrics and Mourinho must have been beside himself with rage. Di Maria was subbed out for Benzema. A positive move by Mourinho and this would give the Real attack the option of switching between Higuain as the striker with Benzema toggling between the role of a right winger and the secondary forward.

There was only one problem though. Nobody told Benzema what his role needed to be! He appeared to be all over the place and was making a nuisance of himself to the rest of the Madrid attack. There were times when he was standing inches away from Higuain and looked very unsure of himself. Mourinho could be seen gesturing wildly from the touchlines as he wanted to have a wider attack, but Benzema did not look comfortable running in from the right. Higuain too missed several opportunities where he should have converted. The surprise substitution was Ozil for Modric. No doubt that the switch was happening – but I thought the timing was surprising. Ozil has had plenty of experience playing with both Benzema and Higuain and would have probably done a good job of being able to supply them the ball more often.

But in came Modric. He was effective almost immediately when his long range attempt struck the post. So, Real now had Casillas, Arbeloa, Ramos, Pepe, Marcelo, Alonso, Khedira, Modric, Benzema, Higuain and Ronaldo on the field – but not in a 4-2-3-1 formation anymore. The intention was to play 4-2-2-2 under the guise of 4-2-3-1 with Benzema switching between winger and striker with Ronaldo and Modric on the wings. Alonso then did something interesting. Knowing he was man marked, he kept darting between deep defensive midfield to central midfield. Modric’s game style allowed him to do this. Alonso began to find some rhythm, but was unable to do any magic with it.

Phase – 1B: The stench of desperation

As the clock ticked on and Madrid were unable to do anything of consequence, Mourinho began to get desperate. And with good reason. A loss against Seville would mean his team could be 8 points behind league leaders Barcelona. Madrid had not had such an abysmal start to a season since … I cannot even remember! What was worse was the hugely daunting task of facing Manchester City mid week. He needed the team to fire, he needed the team to work together and produce the magic. He needed them to believe in themselves and not focus on what the media had to say about “sadness”.

In a last ditch attempt, he threw the kitchen sink at Seville. He pulled Arbeloa out and introduced another attacker in the form of Jose Callejon. A bold move. And with Pepe already on a yellow card, a risky move! Madrid’s formation now changed to 3-4-3 with Alonso and Khedira joining Modric and Ronaldo in the attacking midfield and Real playing 3 strikers in Higuain, Benzema and Callejon. But Seville had smelled this approach from a mile away. Their substitutions were equally, if not more, effective. Callejon found no room to move, Ronaldo could not handle the bruise to his ego when he found himself in the defence at one stage, (thank you Marcelo!) man marking a Seville shirt who almost outsmarted him with a series of stepovers.

Benzema was still clueless and Higuain was firing blanks. Modric looked to be the only one with any semblance of trying. But, Seville were too strong. A desperate plead for a penalty was not given and the free kicks were either deflected away or were powerless. It was the sort of day where one felt that even if Madrid were awarded the penalty, Ronaldo would miss. The body language was negative. The team did not exist. There were 11 players with green shirts (well, 10 plus Casillas!) on the field. That was it. There was no team. Seville took a well deserved victory and planted themselves at #3 in the La Liga BBVA table.

Closing

The post match press conference was eagerly awaited. Mourinho trudged in and with his temper barely in check said what Perez and the others in the front office hoped he wouldn’t say. He said that he had no team. He had no players. They learned nothing from their earlier mistakes. He was correct. But where other coaches get dejected, we have grown to expect Mourinho to revolutionize something like this. He breathes life into a dead team and inspires them. What is happening here? Has Real reached the bottom of the barrel? Is Mourinho wondering why he signed a contract extension? Is Ronaldo sad? If yes, does anyone care? If yes, why?

The problem is the speculation. Madrid need to do what they do best. Win games. For that, egos need to be set aside and the team needs to come first. I had previously spoken about how Real have lost their way. I don’t think they’ve found the right direction yet. It might help that Mancini’s team won’t be carrying much momentum when they come to Madrid next week as they too managed a 1-1 draw. But with Aguero set to return and Tevez in the form that he is, we should be in for a cracker of a match. In the meantime, as a Madridista, all I can do is to wait patiently until Mourinho and the boys rediscover the magic. Los Blancos for life!