ok I know it's a bit too soon to blog after I wrote something an hour or two ago - but i just had to get all my concerns and worries out of my chest now before I get more worried as the days go by...
The date for El Classico is looming. 29th Nov, Monday. I don't quite know what to expect or make out of it. From today's game, my confidence in our abilities have fallen by a lurch. Sad, eh? To be honest, I've always feared that the only reason we've won most of our games was due to much weaker oppositions. Unfair? Perhaps so - but we've never really been tested. We have not faced numero 3 Villareal (whom Barca thumped 3-1 yesterday - gulp) and not many top 10 teams in the La Liga. Looking at the table now, we have not played Bilbao and Sevilla too - all of whom Barca whacked (if I'm not wrong). What does this say?
My personal feeling is that our players have not truly gelled up and in a very screwed up way, I think we're still a tad lightweight. We're still far and away from being a team that can understand each other so well that they can play with their eyes closed. The reason why this is important is because Barca can do it (this includes Villa). It's a bit of an unfair statement since majority of Barca's players have been playing together for a LONG time - and comparing them to this exceptionally young but talented 3-month old team that is still a WIP is harsh. Sadly and because we live in the REAL world, there's no escape as the el Classico results will probably be critical to determining the La Liga winner.
To me, RM plays wonderful football (except today where the passing was ALL OVER THE PLACE!!) - but I don't think we can do this when playing vs Barca as I think we'll be starved for the ball. I'm likening the styles to Germany (RM) vs Spain (Barca) - and from WC10 we know that Spain wins in the possession game. We have excellent forwards - but they have the Messi-ah. As much as I like CR7, he is not at Messi's level - when pressured, he loses the ball very quickly and he isn't the type of player that can create a goal from nothing. He has the knack to search for the goal in the penalty area or scoring from free kicks - but his one-on-one, which he used to execute so much when he was with MU (this kinda highlights the difference of quality of players between the 2 leagues!) has become non-existent now. Actually, I think the only person who can probably do this is Ozil - but from his current form, I find it hard to be convinced. I'm sure Ozil has already improved since the WC and I forgive his binary games (ie, one game excellent, one game MIA) due to his young age - but I don't know which form he would display whilst facing Barca?
Our other weakness is that we can't cope that well in high pressing game - just as illustrated today. When the opponent presses us, our passing goes all over the place. I know Barca plays that style - they constantly press the attackers when they defend due to their remarkable fitness levels - I don't know if we can cope with that. RM doesn't play pressing football so we never look aggressive when we face our opponents - from my very humble knowledge of football and from watching the past couple of RM's matches, we usually wait for our opponents to make mistakes and swipe for the kill after that. We don't force them to make mistakes like Barca.
Higuain fluffs too much - he should convert his chances a bit more. I know it's easier said than done, but if he could do that, I think we'll be in a much better position. It's strange that while I never expect CR7 to change a game (or to play well for that matter!), my expectations of Ozil is always unrealistically sky high. I'm always waiting for him to make a killer move or something that makes me go WOW. Obviously that's just silly of me (and I'm not afraid to admit it) but I guess I expect more from him because I know he can do it. I really like Di Maria now - I think he's fast, excellent with the ball, pretty good at defending and has become less of a ball-hog. Maybe he can be the weapon that makes the difference for that match? Benz is a good alternative - if he can win us a match, I don't even mind him replacing Ozil - but these two players are too different. I don't think Ozil is replaceable...and I've noticed that Mou never subs Ozil (no matter how crappy he looks/plays) until we have safely "won" the match.
Xabi and Khedira are solid - but as can be seen today - can be rattled. Xabi wasn't great today because he was pressed a lot and his passing became a bit un-Xabi-like. Both of them will have a tall order handling the Barca midfield and attackers. In the Xabi vs Xavi competition, sadly Xavi does win hands down though.
Our defence...Carvalho is the stable rock. Pepe is great when he's playing well but sometimes he fouls a bit too much or kicks the ball in the most awkward manner. Marcelo is great on his day (not today!) and so is Ramos (ditto!!). However, today's match kinda showed both left- and right-backs were constantly over-ran and were struggling to keep up with Gijon. Barca's back four somehow exude a more solid feel: Pique, Puyol, Alves and Maxwell.
I guess the main reason why I think we're lightweight (only relative to Barca as I'm sure we can take out almost any European champions today) is that if we compare our players with theirs on a like-for-like basis, we don't quite match up. Maybe match up is not the right term to use but I guess our players are more "unproven". I think we just "don't know how good we are" and today's match just points us to the "we have an excellent team but it may be too soon to beat Barca" direction - something I really worry about. We lost badly last year - and that team was supposedly solid. We can't and don't play like FC Copenhagen OR Inter Milan so we can't use those tactics against Barca.
As you know I've left out commenting on the goal keepers - both sides have excellent keepers so there's nothing to say about them. On coaches, I think Pep has an amazing team - probably the most amazing team in Spain (or for the world for that matter) for a long, long time. I've never even seen them playing "badly" if that makes sense (Ok I did miss the Hercules match - maybe I should watch that and see where their weaknesses are). They are a team where I really struggle to find a weakness - every player is excellent and most importantly, usually at least 80% of them are on form and are pretty consistent. On Mou, I like to trust him and I like to think that he knows exactly what he's doing - one thing that I'm almost certain is that his players practically worship him and he probably commands the highest respect from all of them. He is calculating all the time - and is probably scheming numerous plans to topple Barca. He has done it before with a 2-year veteran Inter team - can he repeat it with this 3-month bunch of kids? The idealistic me likes to believe so - to defeat them at Camp Nou would be amazing. But my logical brains are telling me that the best we should be aiming for is a draw but then to beat them at the Bernabeu next year.
I'm impatient. And I love Madrid. So there you go =).
*Listening to Hopeful Romantic by This Century*
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