These observations — where I look at Real Madrid’s history, its players on loan, Castilla, tactical tidbits, and other relevant thoughts — are now a regular thing. All previous editions can be found
here.Here is a new thing I’m committing to this season: Five semi-informal bullet points after each game.
Also, check out the post-game podcast where Mehedi and I break down the win (and more) for 47 minutes for Members.
- Jose Mourinho’s perfect plan.
Welcome to the Jose Mourinho 2.0 era, where no one in the Spanish media knows anything
and leaks are either non-existent or intentionally drizzled out with misinformation. Almost every media outlet said that Aurelien Tchouameni and Eduardo Camavinga would start together. Another potential option was Fede Valverde on the right wing with Denzel Dumfries behind him.
But no one saw the Bernardo Silva wrinkle coming. Immediately when I saw the starting XI, I breathed a sigh of relief that, at the very least, we were going to give ourselves the best chance to win with competency and ball control on the field.
Mourinho made room for all our best attackers and ball progressors: Kylian Mbappe, Yan Diomande, Jude Bellingham, Arda Güler, Bernardo, Valverde; while still having his enforcer, Aurelien Tchouameni, on the field. I also particularly liked Dean Huijsen’s inclusion for obvious reasons: Barca will press, and you need ball-playing center-backs.
I think Bernardo’s inclusion helped bring calm to the backline. He’s experienced enough that situations like this won’t bother him, and his energy was infectious.
Mourinho coupled his ideal starting XI with the right blueprint: sit in a mid-block, rotate quickly, track and hunt, and when the ball is won, find the diagonal switch or ball over the top to Diomande while Mbappe makes the third-man run in behind. If the ball to Diomande isn’t on, work it around until you find it. Real Madrid’s opening goal came through such a sequence.
Barcelona looked lost trying to find openings while supremely vulnerable with their high line — particularly behind Xavi Espart, Alejandro Balde, and Joao Cancelo. In the pre-game, I said that Bellingham and Güler won’t win the possession battle, but they can win the transition battle. And they did.
The Eduardo Camavinga sub, and Mourinho’s ensuing instructions to him, iced the game.
“I told Camavinga: go and attack the space,” Mourinho said after the game. “It’s difficult for any attackers to attack space against Barcelona; the only solution is to do it with your midfielders. When your attackers do it, Barca’s defence is prepared and coached for that, and your attackers end up being offside, or the pass ends up being cut out by Joan García.
“The solution is to use midfielders like Camavinga and Bellingham to break that line, and it worked.”
- Andriy Lunin love
This guy deserves books — dozens of books — written about him, because someone will have to explain how whenever Real Madrid have to play without the best goalkeeper in the world — and one of the top-five all time, and arguably the greatest ever — that it’s not consequential because Andriy Lunin ensures he meets the required level.
It’s one thing to be the back-up to the best goalkeeper in the world; it’s another thing to be the back-up to the best goalkeeper in the world, virtually never playing as a result, and anytime Real Madrid need you — once in a blue moon — you come in ‘cold’ and put in a man-of-the-match performance.
Lunin is the *perfect* back-up goalkeeper. An impossible role to fill, filled to a science.
You know how Brad Pitt tells that kid in Troy “that’s why no one will remember your name?”. Guess what: that kid was not Lunin, because everyone will remember Lunin’s name. Forever.
- Aurelien Tchouameni, taking souls
That was one of the most impressive Tchouameni performances I’ve seen. In the first half alone, he had four crucial defensive interventions. On top of his defensive masterclass, his distribution was about as great as you can ask for a deep lying midfielder who is under immense pressure.
Tchouameni was under so much scrutiny in the past few months, but there’s no question that he stepped up to the call. Bravo.
- The noticeable drop off from Fede to Dumfries
There are two reasons why Fede Valverde, an unnatural right-back, is starting over both of the team’s two pure right-backs. Reason number one: Fede Valverde is the best two-way right-back in the team despite it not being his ‘natural’ position (although, who would have the audacity to argue that it’s not his natural position at this point?); and 2) The team drops multiple levels when Dumfries is the right-back.
(I still would give Trent Alexander-Arnold more looks, but that’s another discussion.)
These are the games that remind you Valverde can be the leader that was envisioned for him years ago, but it’s also worth pointing out his leadership comes out depending on the position he plays — and at right-back, his leadership comes to the fore because of his immense ability to play the right pass or touch out of pressure, bomb up and down the wing, lock down wingers, create, lead by example, combine with the players around him, and give direction to players like Arda Güler just ahead of him.
We didn’t see Valverde make many of his trademark unstoppable runs, but that was clearly by design. His on-ball impact came mostly in escaping pressure and staying calm on the ball, while his defensive impact is easy to measure: he tracked, hunted, covered, and had four interceptions.
And he did all of this on one leg!
Whatever Dumfries is struggling with, Real Madrid need him to sort it out. The build-up suffered immediately when that switch was made, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that change alone gave Barcelona some life in the second half.
- The heroic Huijsen – Cucurella tandem.
These two are starting to form symbiosis and it’s something to be excited about. Cucurella locked down Lamine Yamal:
But also the coverage from Huijsen was immense in the left half space. Check this: Huijsen had a whopping 10 clearances and four blocked shots, and, apart from a couple shaky passes early in the game, was phenomenal with the ball at his feet.
Shoutout to a rock-solid Ibrahima Konaté as well.
Also shoutout to Kylian Mbapper (the Barca killer), Jude Bellingham (the unstoppable force), Arda Güler (the wizard), and Yan Diomandé (the kid that made every Barcelona fan shrivel every time he had the ball at his feet).
- Bonus: My first experience at the Camp Nou was one I’ll never forget:
