Derby Loss

So, Real Madrid lost to Atletico Madrid at home, courtesy of Diego Costa's 11th minute goal. I wasn't surprised at this loss, but disappointed. There wasn't any surprise because what has happened over the last few games with Real Madrid, happened even in this game. So, there was nothing to be surprised about. And Atletico played just like the way anyone thought they would play.

The first thing that wasn't a surprise is what everybody knew - how Atletico would approach the game, their style of play, their man attacking threat. Carlo Ancelotti knows, Zidane knows, the players know, I know and the whole world knows. I will tell you their style of play. They played physically - attacked every ball in their own half, tackled hard, quickly closed down the player without giving him any space or time and ran tirelessly. Even I know this because I happened to watch both legs of Super Copa Espana between Atletico and Barcelona. First leg at Atletico, both the teams scored a goal, meaning Barcelona has one away goal. At Camp nou, Atletico played very rough, Barcelona with all it's tiki-taka style couldn't penetrate Atleti's defence. There were  many fouls by Atleti's players, but nevertheless, not a single goal for Barcelona's side. So, there was clear knowledge as to how Atletico would approach the game. And then, coming into this match, Diego Costa was in super form, joint top scorer in La Liga alongside Messi. You would assume that he would be tightly marked and not given any time on the ball. But no, that's not the case. When Di Maria looses the ball in midfield and Koke passed the ball to Diego Costa, there was no one marking him, very poor positioning by Pepe and Arbeloa. He would be Atletico's release man, and boy, what a game did he have. I've read that he was some how involved in entire Real's back four getting yellow cards and now that I think of it, I realise it's true.


The other thing that is happening often in recent times and not at all a surprise is 'conceding an early goal'. If opposite team scores first, then they can simply sit back, defend and try to hit us on the counter. You'd think Real would've learned from their mistake and did something about it, but no. We conceded an early goal again. It's one thing if opposite teams play excellently, create a chance and finishes it off. It's excusable, it happens against quality teams, accepted. But all these goals came from defensive mistakes such as lapse passing in midfield or giving ball away in midfield against average mid-table teams, except for Atletico of course. We conceded an early first goal in four of the seven league matches till now.

14th minute goal against Real Betis at home.
21st minute goal against Villarreal away from home.
05th minute goal against Getafe at home.
11th minute goal against Atletico at home

The third thing that I wasn't surprised is at our inability to break down defences. Of course, we have had this problem since the times of Mourinho. But in players' defence, they played a lot different style to what they play now. So, they can be excused if they couldn't penetrate, because up until now they played counter-attacking style. They need time to adapt to this possession based footballing style. Come to think of it, I am surprised why Ozil was sold. From now on, where do we find his defence splitting passes feeding Ronaldo? But I am not that worried about this because I am sure Ancelotti and team knows better than I regarding this stuff.

Let me tell you, loosing isn't a bad thing at all. Be it a derby or an 'El Classico' or just any other match against weaker teams. It is the way we lost, in which I am disappointed. First, we conceded an early goal. Then, we could've easily lost 0-2 or 0-3 had Atletico managed to convert one or two of those glorious chances. I know all of their missed chances came on the break, but from our side, I felt like our players weren't tracking back when they counter-attacked. One more thing is we created very few chances and I will not be entirely wrong if I say we didn't create a single promising chance at all. Benzema's header, Morata's bicycle kick, Courtouis spill of Ronaldo's shot, Modric's bullet shot whizzing past the post are all hopeful shots, some of them from long distance. What I meant by lack of promising chance is, we didn't trouble their goal-keeper much and their defenders didn't need to make super tackles or goal line clearances and stuff like that. Anyway, I think that, this comes down to our adapting new style of play.

Of course, there is no need to panic yet, but one thing that must happen right away is, our defence must become like rock solid. We can not score goals against tough opponents, it is okay, but there is no excuse for us in cheaply conceding goals. Ancelotti talked about attitude, but it seemed to me that for most part we were very serious thanks to the players' emotions, the chance of bragging rights, physicality of play involving rough tackles etc, our players have put in hard work. I still believe we can win the league. Let's see how we play our next CL game against FC Copenhagen, remember that this team, at their home, held off Juventus for a draw in their last CL match.

Yesterday was a pretty weird day for me. I slept off in the afternoon and woke up in the evening and kept watching back-to-back football matches. First Spurs hosting Chelsea, then Man U loosing to West Brom and then Arsenal winning at Swansea. I preferred to watch Arsenal's match over Barcelona's, because of Ozil. After Man U lost to West Brom at Old Trafford, I taunted my friend, who is an avid Red devils fan, of loosing at home. I know he will return the favour to me, but in my defence Atletico played incredibly well and Real unlike Man U, played with lot of intensity, but it just wasn't their day. Anyway, once Arsenal match got over, I took a break of one hour and then went back to watch Madrid derby. So, no study yesterday at all. By the way, I am reading this novel 'Right Ho, Jeeves', which is released as 'Brinkley Manor' in United States. I plan to finish it by today or tomorrow, so mostly the break in my preparation goes on.

Later...