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Three talking points ahead of Real Madrid vs Elche | La Liga MD 28
Real Madrid are still flying high in the euphoria of their stellar midweek performance against Manchester City – one that will go down in history for Federico Valverde’s first-half hat-trick.
Before the reverse fixture in England next week, however, Los Blancos have another mission to complete. They play host to Elche at the Santiago Bernabeu and cannot afford to drop points in the La Liga title race.
Elche are currently in 17th place in the league standings and have fallen off after a positive start to the season. They have won just five games in the league so far, losing and drawing on 11 occasions each.
Furthermore, they are winless in their last 11 games across all competitions and have lost seven of them.
Madrid Universal brings you three talking points ahead of Real Madrid vs Elche.
Crucial intermediary
Given the course Real Madrid’s season has taken so far, not many expected half as dominant a performance from them against Manchester City as they delivered.
The Merengues, after all, have been struggling in La Liga in recent weeks and are being tormented by a massive injury crisis, one that saw them enter the UCL game as slight underdogs.
Taking to the field, however, they were dominant over Pep Guardiola’s side and took a 3-0 lead on the night, setting the stage for their progression to the UCL quarterfinal.
At the level of the Champions League and given how the Cityzens will try to push for a comeback at Etihad Stadium next week, however, it is clear that Real Madrid must be up for a gruelling clash in England.
Tomorrow’s game, thus, becomes crucial as the one intermediary between the two legs of the tie against Manchester City. Managing the squad, performance, result and optimising resources adequately, needless to say, will be easier said than done.
Alvaro Arbeloa will have pressure on his shoulders right from selecting the right XI, rotating key players, and striking the balance between the best XI and a competitive XI on the night.
An interesting stylistic clash
Real Madrid, over the years, has carved out a reputation as being one of football’s most dynamic teams that can play against any tactics. In recent times, however, that has not been the case.
Despite being a team who thrive on counter-attacks, Los Blancos are often the ones with more possession and control over proceedings especially in domestic games. They often face low blocks and are forced to break down defences.
Elche, however, bring a completely different style of football to the table as they closely mimic the Barcelona style – play high with all-out attack, a tireless press, and a high defensive line.
Taking on Elche, thus, will be challenging for Real Madrid on two fronts. First, they will not be able to dominate possession as much as they would want to.
More importantly, Elche’s dominance may open the doors to Thibaut Courtois’ goal multiple times given how the Real Madrid defence is still shaky.
Concurrently, however, Los Blancos will also look at Elche’s high line as a potential attacking opportunity as they should be able to get behind the defenders with the right tactics.
The tactical battle on Saturday, thus, will be fascinating to witness.
Two left backs out
An unexpected injury to Alvaro Carreras kept the player out of the Celta Vigo and Manchester City games, and he was expected to be back in just a few days. As it stands, however, he appears to be out of tomorrow’s game too.
In the Spaniard’s place, Arbeloa opted to hand Ferland Mendy the start to make a statement at Real Madrid and prove fans wrong that he is now past his injury crisis.
Unfortunately, however, the inevitable has struck again and Mendy is back on the sidelines, this time with a hamstring injury that appears set to keep him out for the next week or so.
The situation at left-back, thus, demands Fran Garcia’s return to the lineup in what will be a momentous and crucial moment for the player. After all, he has steeply fallen down the manager’s pecking order in recent times.
Garcia came close to leaving Real Madrid in the winter when the club blocked his move and forced him to stay. It is unclear what will transpire around his future next summer, but tomorrow’s clash will be a massive one for him regardless.
Be it to impress the manager or potential destinations, Garcia must look to bring his A game on the night for there is too much on the line for him.
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Clean sheet at last, Vinicius’ moment of madness | Three takeaways from Real Madrid 1-0 Villarreal
Real Madrid took all three points against Villarreal on Saturday night to get back on track after the international break, and thus ensured they did not continue sinking after the defeat at the Madrid derby.
Jose Mourinho made some bold decisions in his starting XI as he benched Vinicius Jr., playing Yan Diomande on the left-flank and Arda Guler on the right flank.
The dynamics worked out decently well, and it was eventually the new record signing who scored for the club to hand them the lead and the win.
Compared to performances before the international break, there was an improvement in terms of Real Madrid’s level, but the team are still far off from where they must be to make a strong case to be title contenders.
Madrid Universal brings you three takeaways from Real Madrid 1-0 Villarreal.
The struggle continues
All of Real Madrid’s season so far has been of struggles and difficult wins, and the same theme continued last night as the team returned from the international break.
Los Blancos have failed to look convincing for a long time now, and they did not dominate Villarreal in any capacity last night as well.
Continuing with the same theme of winning by narrow margins and scraping past the finish line, they registered yet another 1-0 win that did not leave anyone convinced.
Yan Diomande’s goal was the only positive takeaway from the night, and even that was made possible only after a narrow offside decision went in their favor. With the firepower they have, struggling to create chances to such an extent seems inexcusable.
With a difficult month ahead, last night’s game did not give fans any reason to believe matters have changed after the international break. At this rate, the coming month could be a bleak one for Los Blancos.
Vinicius’ moment of madness
Of all the events that transpired at the Santiago Bernabeu last night, the most memorable one was the incident involving Vinicius Jr.’s goal, and embarrassingly so.
Having seemingly scored a great goal ten minutes after Diomande’s opener, the Brazilian star was on his way to celebrate the achievement, but what unfolded thereafter was embarrassing.
The VAR found an incident of Vinicius pulling the hair of a Villarreal player for no apparent reason in the build-up to the goal, and at this point there can be no arguments defending the player’s behavior.
As one of the biggest names of one of Europe’s biggest clubs, there has to be a sense of responsibility in one’s role – something Vinicius simply does not seem to have. What he did last night was simply inexcusable.
A lot can be said about VAR’s selective interference, but what cannot be argued is that what Vinicius did last night was a clear red card offense.
He will now miss El Clasico and will serve at least a two-game suspension. Whether that is a boon or a bane for Real Madrid, at this point, remains unknown and only time will tell.
A clean sheet at last
Ahead of last night’s win over Villarreal, Real Madrid had only overseen one clean sheet in eight games across competitions.
In that sense, simply keeping the opposition from scoring last night was an achievement in itself for Los Blancos, and it could not have come at a better time.
Real Madrid entered the game without many of their regular defenders available, especially with Dean Huijsen suspended and Eder Militao and Raul Asencio out through injury.
Ibrahima Konate and Antonio Rudiger, thus, started in central defense on the night and both did phenomenally well for Los Blancos. They were joined by Alvaro Carreras and Trent Alexander-Arnold, both of whom complemented the duo well.
The right-back was a relatively weak link defensively, but Konate and Rudiger were spot-on with their reading of the game to keep the Villarreal attack from scoring. They both did eventually pick up yellow cards, but Villarreal finished the game without a single big chance created.
Finding defensive stability, which is the cornerstone of Mourinho’s project, is massive for the manager, and he will be pleased to have a new working formula.
What happens after Huijsen’s return, however, remains to be seen, as the manager may well like to hand the new duo some more chances to prove their consistency.
