La Liga in focus: Time for Real Madrid to prove Barca haven’t left them behind

Andy Mitten notes that with the return from a short break, Real Madrid still find themselves widely perceived in a class below Barcelona. For Rafa Benitez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Co, it's time to disprove that.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid are third in the Primera Liga following the holiday break. Juan Medina / Reuters
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With two league games in five days, it's a critical week for Real Madrid. Rafa Benitez has only been in the job five months, but despite only being three points behind (having played a game more) a Barcelona side, albeit one which destroyed them in el clasico, and having shone in the Champions League, his position is already precarious.

Benitez’s stock from being a Madrileno, former Real Madrid reserve player and coach may have been initially high, but now that he is first team manager he is judged by results and they have not been to the expected standards. Madrid are Spain’s leading scorers, but they have lost three of their 16 matches in a season where there have been many shocks.

Benitez has found both private and public support from club president Florentino Perez, but even Perez has gone quiet in recent weeks as the crowd have abused him. As Benitez retreated to his English home near Liverpool, polls have been conducted among match going fans asking who they would like to see in charge.

Primera Liga half-time talk

Perez is often guided by the views of fans and a poll in Marca in August which gave overwhelming support for keeping Keylor Navas as Madrid's keeper was believed to be why the Bernabeu club didn't push for David de Gea.

Zinedine Zidane has long been expected to take over Madrid at some point. In charge of the side’s reserve team, he would be a popular initial choice.

Jose Mourinho also remains very popular with the very people whose opinions Perez likes to gauge, especially the vocal hardcore support. They feel that Mourinho understood the club and that his self-assured arrogance reflected how they felt.

Former player and Madrid-born Esteban Granero, may play for Real Sociedad, but he is a Madrid cheerleader in the media and said: “Mourinho returning would be good for Real Madrid.” Granero also said that Benitez should be judged at the end of the season, but such balance gets lost.

Not every player shares the enthusiasm for Mourinho. He made several enemies in the dressing room and some of those are still at the club. Madrid’s dressing room is a difficult beast to tame, though Carlo Ancelotti was popular with players.

Benitez is believed to divide opinion, though in mitigation his squad has been heavily depleted by injury.

At least one of those players, his captain Sergio Ramos, should be back although he missed training on Tuesday. Such is his influence, Madrid have won 10 and drawn one of the 11 games the defender has played this season.

It also wasn’t Benitez’s fault that Madrid fielded an ineligible player, Denis Cheryshev, in a Copa del Rey game against Cadiz. On Monday, Spain’s top sports court rejected Madrid’s appeal against being thrown out of the competition, denying them the opportunity of an important trophy.

Madrid next face Real Sociedad at the Bernabeu, one of four of their next six games which are at home. Madrid are expected to win them all and in a suitably stellar style, but Sunday’s game at Valencia, under their new English manager, is a tough one.

Madrid will finish an inglorious, trophy free year, hoping for a turn in fortunes. They boast superb players, but too many have been misfiring, injured or out of form.

Thanks to Barcelona’s attacking three who’ve just gotten better and better, Madrid have been left behind. Though they’re still only two points off the top, they’ve played a game more than Barca and have a worse head-to-head record after their Bernabeu thrashing.

The rise of Neymar and Luis Suarez in 2015 is such that they have closed the gap on the duopoly of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the world’s best players.

If Ronaldo, still Madrid’s talisman, doesn’t find greater consistency, then he will be stepping off the winners’ podium. Just like his team.

Moneyball

As they conclude another superlative year in which they have won five trophies, Barcelona’s greatest threat in the medium term isn’t either of the Madrid giants, but England’s Premier League.

The Catalans host mid-table Real Betis on Wednesday night in their final league game of the year, when they will be applauded onto the pitch as newly crowned world champions, an honour they have won three times in six years. They have three of the four best players in the world in their attack and Luis Enrique’s team are football’s pre-eminent force.

With new signings Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal allowed to play from this weekend, they have every reason to be optimistic, but the club officials are concerned about the financial might of the Premier League.

The Premier League's £5.14 billion (Dh28bn) domestic television deal is four times the size of the Primera Liga's. With a further deal for international television rights imminent, the total monies for the Premier league are expected to be worth £9bn. Just by finishing in the top four, an English club would earn £220m per season from television money alone.

Barca are the most attractive club on the planet to sponsors, yet they still trail Manchester United domestically and globally. Great Britain has 30 per cent more people than Spain and its average GDP is 50 per cent higher than a country which is still coming out of a deep recession, but the Premier League is also far more popular internationally than the Spanish top flight.

Though technically inferior, it is seen as more competitive and fairer. The full stadiums help, the greater mix of players from around the globe.

England’s biggest club Manchester United have already made audacious attempts to sign Neymar. United’s Ed Woodward has long maintained that his club won’t be beaten on price by either Spanish giant. That’s true, but a dysfunctional United who don’t score goals and play in a rainy city isn’t as attractive as playing for and living in Barcelona or Madrid.

United or their neighbours City would need to blow Madrid or Barca out of the water financially – and that’s what they believe they will be able to do. United think that a player will be sold for £200m within five years.

Barcelona also have to pay to redevelop Camp Nou. Starting in 2017, they will expand the capacity over five years, enlarging from 98,600 to 105,000.

Costing €500m (Dh2bn), the rebuilding will see the stadium fully covered and add thousands of executive seats which are currently lacking. It will lead to greater revenues and Barcelona can rely on a tourist trade far in excess of the big Manchester duo, but they have been left behind with television revenues.

Game of the week

Villarreal v Valencia: The hosts welcome Valencia Thursday night at El Madrigal. The “Yellow Submarines” have been a success of this season, defeating both the Madrid teams at home, topping the Primera Liga for the first time in their history. Currently fifth, they have done it playing attractive attacking football with a spine of long term players. Valencia’s season had been turbulent. Currently ninth, they have changed coaches and Gary Neville takes charge for his third league game, with two draws so far. Villarreal’s home form is excellent, Valencia’s away form poor, Neville needs to avoid defeat to keep the momentum going which came with his arrival.

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