A Spanish colleague writing in El Pais suggested earlier in the week that tomorrow’s El Clasico could be an era defining match, with Real Madrid players determined to give FC Barcelona such a thrashing as to leave no doubt that supremacy has shifted back to the men in white as in the pre-Laporta era. It’s the kind of hype, not entirely unbiased , that one expects from the Madrid and Barcelona media in the run up to an El Clasico but a prediction which nonetheless is worth considering.
On form alone Real Madrid have shown a consistency as the season has progressed that has been lacking in their rivals, looking increasingly impressive on an upward curve, when Barca has been on a kind of helter-skelter of not great peaks and embarrassing troughs.
The contrast has had to do I believe in large measure not with luck but as a consequence of the nature of management and team selection. While Real Madrid has found a certain stability and cohesion, not to mention ethical compass, post-Mourinho, FC Barcelona seems to have been hoisted on the petard of its own mythology-that it is more than just a club, destined to be more deserving of support than its historic rival .
After the trauma of Guardiola’s departure and his replacement by the heroic but ultimately flawed Tito Vilanova project, Barca has been entrusted to an Argentine coach/manager -untested in European club football-that has opted for a strategy of rotation that had yet to prove its effectiveness, other than to possibly leave some important players of Spain’s national team not quite as exhausted as they approach this summer’s World Cup as they were in last season’s Confederation’s Cup final.
Such is the uncertainty that Tata Martino has fuelled , that at this critical stage in the season there is no consensus of opinion as to which of Barca’s various potential line outs works best, not least in attack where Neymar has yet to earn the right to claim that he is worth leaving Pedro and Alexis Sanchez on the bench for .
Against Osasuna last weekend, Neymar was left on the bench, and Barca crushed the opposition 7-0, with Messi finding a spark that seems to have eluded him for much of the season when playing alongside the Brazilian.
As it is, Real Madrid, not withstanding the injury of this season’s great revelation Jese Rodriguez, can still present a far greater challenge to FC Barcelona’s defence than any other team in La Liga, with the likes of Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Morata, and Isco a clear and present danger not just in swift counter-attacks but in set pieces.
For its part, Barca arrive at the Bernabeu dragging behind it a season during which serious questions have been asked about the probity of its biggest signing , Messi’s fitness and state of mind, and the robustness or lack of it of Barca’s defence. And this is without mentioning Qatar, FC Barcelona’s main sponsor that this weekend became embroiled in fresh allegations about bribes linked to its Word Cup bid.
And yet whatever the outcome, tomorrow’s match while perhaps defining the outcome of the League championship will be just another battle between the two great rivals-one set to continue this season with the final of the King’s Cup, and the Champions League which by the way still has Russia Gazprom as its major sponsor-for now at least.
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