Clasico pits mediocrity & apathy

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This article was published 23/10/2020 (2125 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This in not your typical Clasico.

Ahead of today’s clash at Camp Nou, neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid are in La Liga’s top two, and both are coming off losses in the Spanish top flight. Combined, they’ve won only five of nine matches; predictably, their mouthpiece tabloids are in full panic mode. 

One can only imagine the meltdown at the club that comes out on the losing end of world football’s most famous national derby.

Barcelona’s troubles, unlike Madrid’s, are mostly off the pitch. They have yet to put that 8-2 punishment by Bayern Munich behind them, and now senior players, including Lionel Messi, are openly warring with the club’s administration.

President Josep Maria Bartomeu, they charge, has been using boiler plate accounts on social media to defame them — as if asking the squad to take pay cuts wasn’t enough of an insult. “Barcagate” is now before the courts, and Bartomeu and his senior staff may well be called to testify next month.

It’s hard to think of a single loss in any sport that kicked off such a furious reaction. Sure, Barcelona were thoroughly embarrassed by Bayern, and the defeat brought long-simmering dissatisfaction with management to the fore, but that was more than two months and a transfer period ago. At some point you’d think they’d move on.

For what it’s worth, it’s Bartomeu and not the players who has turned the Champions League drubbing into an existential crisis. The sale of Luis Suarez to Atletico Madrid was designed to break up the troublemakers and raise a bit of cash, although the club could have bettered its dire financial situation by selling Messi during the summer. He wanted to go, and in forcing him to stay they picked a fight with the best player in the world.

You get the feeling that whenever the players step onto the pitch, whenever they play good football and win matches, they do so as an act of defiance. They believe management is against them, that any success they enjoy is in spite of Bartomeu & Co.

The situation is reversed at Real Madrid.

President Florentino Perez, while occasionally unpopular, is still living off the club’s four European Cups in five years. Last season’s La Liga title only added to his legacy, and he benefits from a fan culture in the capital that blames players first and administration second. Which happens to be the case right now.

“Real Madrid approach El Clasico in a state of crisis,” screamed a Marca headline on Friday. Apparently six games across all competitions is a sufficient sample size for panicking, never mind the fact that Madrid could go top of the table with a Clasico win and losses or draws from Real Sociedad and Villareal.

That said, it is rather alarming that Madrid are struggling mightily to find the back of the net. Striker Karim Benzema has scored just once this term, and but for a treble of goals from Vinicius the champions would find themselves in the bottom half of the table.

Manager Zinedine Zidane, however, remains well-liked, and it’s worth pointing out that his teams are undefeated at Camp Nou. After losses to promoted Cadiz and a weakened Shakhtar Donetsk, the Clasico might be just thing to snap Madrid out of their malaise.

Given Barcelona’s boardroom drama and Madrid’s lackadaisical performances, this won’t exactly be a typical Clasico. But the stakes are high, perhaps higher than usual, which means the contest could have greater importance than it usually does. And that’s saying something.

Spot-kicks

z Don’t look now, but Sassuolo remain unbeaten in Serie A and are playing some of the best football in the Italian top flight. They’ve scored four goals in each of their last three outings and Domenico Berardi has tallied in all of them. But the real star of the side is midfielder Manuel Locatelli, who can do just about anything both with and without the ball. Playmaker Filip Djuricic is also enjoying a prolonged spell of form.

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z Look up, way up, to the top of the Premier League table. That’s right. You’re seeing correctly. It’s Everton atop the standings. And they deserve to be there. The acquisition of James Rodriguez has revolutionized manager Carlo Ancelotti’s squad, and Ancelotti, himself, was named manager of the month for September. League-leading goal scorer Dominic Calvert-Lewin won the players’ honour and in early October scored his first goal for England. The Toffees visit Southampton on Sunday and should return to Liverpool with all three points.

z Eintracht Frankfurt are one of German football’s surprise stories of the season to date. Coming off a respectable ninth-place finish in 2019-20, they’ve yet to lose this term and will put their record up against Bayern Munich today. Centring a back three, Martin Hinteregger has been one of the better defenders in the Bundesliga this season, and the potent tandem of Bas Dost and Andre Silva should cause a problem or two for a Bayern defence that has been wobbly of late.

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