Jose fall for the fans and press talk about Real will play defensive and try to get a result.... he decided to open up and take them on... Big mistake... Real not strong enough or fast enough in mid and defense to try to play against them... they had to stay real tight and probably play Ronaldo through the center as a Striker
I sure he will regret that..hr could have been boring and dirty and been on top of the league.... instead of getting hit for 5 when it could have been 10
Which is the better question for the only football fans... yea 5 nil is more fun for the neutral..but wouldnt Real rather a snooze fest and go home on top?
Trophies is what it is all about.... I would take a 0-0 anyday If it meant not getting opened up and losing the grip in the race....
Jose still young...he get bold and figure because Real destroying the lack of quality teams in La Liga he could beat the team that plays the best football by trying to match them... wrong... unfortunately Real fans and Jose will hadda take 5 to realise this...
I don't agree that Jose went out to "outplay" Barca. Madrid started the game very conservatively, and put everyone behind the ball. They sat deep in a zonal formation and they played flat at the back. He tried to beat Barca the same way he beat them with Inter. A deep zonal formation that allowed Barca to play with the ball in front of them, with a focus on closing down Messi who starts his runs from deep.
There were some big differences however:
1- David Villa runs the channels alot better than Ibra. If you have horses up front running the channels like Villa and Pedro, you can't allow Messi and Xavi and Iniesta to keep the ball so much with that much time. They will pick you off, and so they did- almost every through pass was a dangerous opportunity on goal- which highlighted another difference:
2- They were too flat at the back! There was no cover....almost every through pass was successful. Against Barca last season, Inter didn't have to worry as much because the ball was being flighted into Ibra who plays with his back to the goal...so you could play flat and focus on Messi who makes all of his runs from deep...But the way Villa moves is a different story- a flat backline is asking for problems. I don't think they (Inter) played as flat last season against Barca...
3- The defensive shift that Eto'o put in as a forward was no where matched by C. Ronaldo or Benzema.
4- There was no midfielder on RM yesterday who could release the ball as quickly and accurately as Sneijder did for Inter last season, when Real actual gained possession of it.
All in all Barca just played a fantastic game all around- They would have beaten anyone the way they played last night. I don't think that they are a 5 goals better than Madrid. I mean they beat lesser teams by less.
Madrid was slightly unfortunate not to weather the early storm, and at 2-0 the game was over. By the time Mourinho made the tactical switch by bringing Lass on to close up the channels, it was too late. Barca found a rhythm that was simply unbreakable on the night.
Barca is better than Madrid no doubt (I've admitted that since the start of this thread), but on a good day Madrid has the quality to play with them if they get the tactics right. Yesterday was not that good day...not even close.
With all the money that Madrid has spent on players, some guys still need to prove themselves in the Madrid shirt. Ozil and Di Maria for e.g. don't show me enough over 90 minutes, and the team relies on them for creativity. Ozil hides for long periods, and Di Maria is so raw sometimes he looks like can't even trap the ball cleanly and make a sharp cut without falling down. Khedira (sp?) needs to build some personality as well...He was invisible last night as he often is...
As Jose said, it's a work in progress (the team)...we'll see...
