Managing Madrid

Real Madrid put the onus on Barcelona to keep up their winning streak at Sevilla on Sunday with an assured 2-0 win against giant-killing Hércules.  Benzema scored goals on either side of halftime to secure three points for Los Blancos in a match that the Castellana side never looked like losing.  Madrid played the game at a fairly slow pace, no doubt in order to conserve energy for the crucial Lyon tie in in midweek.

Mourinho decided to rest a number of key players ahead of the Lyon match, including the Portuguese centerback duo Pepe and Carvalho as well as Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira, who made a return from injury as a substitute.  Top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo also missed the match through injury, although he is scheduled to play against Lyon.  Casillas started in goal, with Albiol and Sergio Ramos in central defense flanked by Arbeloa and Marcelo.  Lass, Granero, Özil and di María lined up in midfield behind the offensive pairing of Adebayor and the red hot Benzema.

Benzema came into the Hércules game with five goals in his last three games and did not disappoint in his dress rehearsal for the match against his hometown club with another brace.  Los Vikingos started strongly, dominating possession and pinning Hércules deep in their own half.  Hércules did manage to string together a good sequence of possession, however, resulting in a shot by Portillo and an easy save by Casillas.

Aside from a couple of good Granero efforts from free kicks, Madrid failed to create any clear-cut chances until the 24th minute, when the electric Özil slipped a beautiful pass to put Arbeloa through on the right and the Spaniard played a perfect square pass into the path of Benzema's clever run for the Frenchman to finish emphatically with a drilled shot.  Hércules responded well but failed to take advantage of their possession before the halftime whistle.

Just after the restart, Adebayor was unlucky not to get his name on the scoresheet as di María's lobbed pass found the unmarked Togolese, whose shot cannoned off the crossbar with the keeper beaten.  Catalayud was then forced to make a good save to keep out Benzema's shot from a narrow angle after another good bit of play from the diminutive Argentine.

In the 56th minute, Benzema grabbed a second with a superb piece of individual skill, latching onto a great ball from di María setting him free on the left before cutting inside, beating a defender, touching the ball onto his stronger foot and then lashing a fine strike inside the far post.

After going 2-0 up, Mourinho made several changes, bringing in Khedira and Alonso for di María and Granero, perhaps with the idea of allowing the first-choice pair some minutes before the Champions League game in midweek.  Los Blancos peppered the Hércules goal with a series of chances, but Catalayud stood strong to keep the scoreline respectable, saving from an excellent Özil free kick as well as shots by Marcelo, Benzema and Adebayor.

With this victory, Mourinho's men find themselves four points behind Barcelona before the Catalan club's game in the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán against Sevilla.  Even if Sevilla manage to take full points off of Barça, Madrid would still need to beat the Catalans in the Bernabéu and hope that Barcelona draws or loses again in order to have a chance of winning the league.

Madrid effectively conceded the league this afternoon with their goalless draw at the Riazor as Barcelona breezed past Mallorca 3-0 to extend their lead to seven points at the top of the table.  Dani Aranzubia was again the hero as the veteran keeper, coming off of scoring a vital goal for his side in the previous round of fixtures, managed to keep los Blancos at bay with a series of excellent stops.  Deportivo broke up Madrid's attacking rhythm effectively with persistent fouling in the first half before putting ten men behind the ball in the second to withstand a flurry of chances.  Ultimately, wasteful finishing was the culprit, as the Merengues had numerous chances to put themselves in front.

Ronaldo played well, putting a ball in the net that was correctly ruled offsides before drawing superb saves from Aranzubia off of shots and a free kick.  The Portuguese winger also hit the post with a low drive and played a terrific cross to leave Benzema with a tap-in for the chance of the game, but the Frenchman was unable to score.  Adebayor, coming in as a late substitute, also managed to hit the post.

Karim Benzema's profligacy in front of goal cost Madrid the three points today, despite his having a good first half.  Perhaps this is a signal to Mourinho that he should consider playing Benzema as an impact sub for Adebayor in the second half as he did to great effect against Lyon, where his energy and dynamic movement wreaked havoc with a tired defense.  The Togolese was particularly effective tonight, drawing fouls left and right as well as having a number of good chances.

One issue with the team was the inefficacy of the fullbacks.  Sergio Ramos and Marcelo were both wasteful and ineffective in attack and overly troubled with a weak Depor offense.  Playing against a highly defensive team that chooses to pack ten men behind the ball, cede the wings and occupy the center, having good overlap play down the flanks becomes crucial to draw defenders out and create space for the attacking players.

Madrid had looked unlikely to win the league before this draw, which really puts the team out of effective contention.  Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, however.  So long as Barcelona remained in real touching distance, the team would have been forced to commit valuable attention and resources to what was still the longest of long shots.  Now, Madrid can focus on the more realistic and frankly important objective of the Champions League as well as the Copa final against Barcelona.

My view is (and perhaps Gabe will disagree) that La Liga is no longer worth anything to win as a competition.  It has become so non-competitive with only Madrid or Barcelona having any chance whatsoever of winning it that it has ceased to be a valuable prize.  Much like in Scotland, the only question is whether one team or the other has the upper hand in that particular year.  The Champions League has to be our real objective, as Madrid have underperformed in the competition for years and reclaiming it is vital to our reestablishment as one of the top teams in Europe and the reclamation of our lost respect.  It used to be that teams quaked in their boots when they drew Madrid in Europe, and this simply has not been the case for the past six years.  This is much more crucial than winning the league over a Barcelona side whose star is already on the wane.