It has taken a while but it seems that Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid side are finally showing the dividends of working with “The best manager in the world”. Saturday’s destruction of Racing Santander showed Real in full flight, Ronaldo rampaging, Ozil glittering and a newfound austerity in defence marshalled by Mourinho’s go-to central defender Ricardo Carvalho.
The revolution at Real started slowly with an unconvincing nil-nil draw at Real Mallorca followed by unconvincing victories home and away against Osasuna and Real Sociedad respectively. Doubts were immediately rising amongst the notoriously impatient Madridistas. The results were coming but not with the swagger and sparkle that is expected from Real Madrid – the last three weeks however have changed all of that and public perception of Mourinho has again reverted to nigh-on worship for the man from Setubal. Madrid have scored sixteen goals in three Primera Liga games and sit at the summit of Spanish football looking down at bitter rivals Barcelona.
Mourinho has settled on his formation and starting eleven and, as seen at Porto, Chelsea and Inter, this will rarely change. This coupled with a squad unrivalled in world football for strength in depth gives Mourinho fantastic weaponry in the fight of the La Liga title. Jose Mourinho has the luxury of inheriting a squad that, in any other league in the world, would have romped to the title last season; finishing on 96 points and scoring 102 goals. Yet La Liga isn’t any league and the shadow of Barcelona is always lingering over the efforts at the Bernebau. Yet in Mourinho they seemingly have the only man in world football that knows how to stop the Barcelona football machine. Last season whilst with Inter, he contrived to dump the then European champions out with apparent ease.
Barcelona represent Real’s only hurdle for the league; if they had won one of the two Gran Classico’s last season they would have won the league. It is that tight between the two Spanish superpowers. The rest of the league are inconsequential in terms of the title race and La Liga is fast becoming a slightly higher quality version of the SPL. No team will trouble the top two consistently. Villarreal and Valencia are currently in close proximity but will almost certainly fall away sooner or later, just as they did last season when the top two finished 25 points away from Valencia in third place.
On paper you have to see Real Madrid as favourites for La Liga (though, admittedly, in a one on one match you would favour the Catalans). This is because Barcelona will struggle if hit with injuries, especially if they are to essential players such as Messi, Pique or Xavi. They have little to no established strength in depth due to the levels of debt the Laporta regime left his successor Sandro Rossell. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Dmytro Chygrynskiy were both sold at massive losses to bring in much needed capital and the pursuit of Cesc Fabregas was curtailed by Arsenal’s refusal to sell their captain for anything less than a premium price. Real meanwhile have no such troubles and although this summer didn’t match the previous summer’s reckless spending they managed to get several important players in for exceptionally good value; the German duo Sami Khedira and Mesut Oezil cost less than James Milner. Real also have established quality in depth with Karim Benzema, Lassana Diarra, Fernando Gago and the exceptional Sergio Canales all on the fringes of the first team.
All of Real’s recent form has to be put in some form of perspective. Like Chelsea’s start in the Premier League, Real couldn’t have picked much more of an easy start than the one they have been given. Real haven’t played any team you would expect to trouble them, therefore the team is effectively untested. Barcelona on the other hand have won away at Athletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, alongside a hard earned victory at home to Valencia. It is only at the turn of the year and the winter break that we will have a much more accurate view of the La Liga table. Real will have played at home to Athletico Madrid, Bilbao, Sevilla and Valencia. Then there is the small matter of the first Gran Classico of the season at the Camp Nou. Where Real will be looking for their first win against Barcelona for two seasons. Including the humiliating 2-6 victory for Barcelona at the Bernabeu in May 2009. Real will need every shred of Mourinho’s tactial astuteness to end this dire record and fully establish his Real revolution. It is a challenge that Mourinho will relish.