El Clasico, Barcelona Vs. Real Madrid: Where Do Jose Mourinho, Madrid Go From Here?

Even before Sergio Ramos was embarrassing himself in stoppage time, José Mourinho’s thoughts had to start venturing to April. That’s the next time Real Madrid faces Barcelona. While Madridistras’ annual call to look toward Champions League will try to overshadow the next Clasico, five straight losses to Barcelona means only one thing: Real Madrid success is defined in terms of Barcelona.

Real Madrid could win Champions League, but unless they eliminate Barcelona along the way, there will always be caveats. They could pass Barcelona to win La Liga, but unless they defeat Barça while doing so, their title will be seen as Barcelona hitting a bad patch. That’s the upshot to the two club world Real Madrid occupies with Barça. Unless you can compete against your rival, it doesn’t matter how you do against everybody else. As illogical as that sounds, that’s the reality of Mourinho’s Tuesday morning, where one loss in Catalonia has rendered an undefeated fall meaningless.

The other side of that coin: One win in April will turn all this around. All the doubts, negativity, and criticism his team will see over the next five months will disappear with a win over Barcelona at the Bernabeu. Now all he has to do is figure out how to do it, not an easy task considering the four or five best players on the Nou Camp’s pitch were wearing red and blue.

Sometimes, Their Players Are Just That Much Better

This is where discussion of Monday’s tactics will break down. There will be questions as to why Mesut Ozil started, why Mourinho didn’t handle Messi the same way he did in last year’s Champions League, and why Ángel Di Maria was turned into Dirk Kuyt, but this match wasn’t about how Real Madrid and Barcelona were deployed. Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi and David Villa were just better thank their counterparts. The only thing Mourinho could have possibly done is prepare his players better, and it’s always debatable how much a manager can affect a player’s mindset. Sometimes, players just don’t perform well.

That was clearly the case in the midfield, the place of Madrid’s biggest failing. I can’t remember the last time a match approaching this magnitude featured such an imbalance in the middle of the pitch. True, Barcelona got great performances from Andrés Iniesta and Xavi, but Real Madrid’s midfielders were shockingly bad. I was literally shocked at what I wasn’t seeing. Their performance created the type of mismatch usually reversed for when league leaders take on relegation battlers (see Barcelona versus Almeria). You don’t expect that disparity when the supposed two best clubs in the world are playing.

Dividing Blame, Midfield Versus Defense

The trio of Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Xabi Alonso were collectively, perhaps conspiratorially bad. No, I don’t really believe they planned that performance, though that would be the most reasonable explanation for why each decided to have their worst performance of the season on the same day. Where Barcelona was destined to hog possession, those three were going to have to be tenacious, yet they were anything but. At points in the first half, they seemed frozen, standing on their toes looking down at their counterparts’ feet, waiting to see where the ball would go (rather than trying to stop it). That’s not the best defensive posture to have when the Iniesta and Xavi are sprinting through holes your defense’s channels. No pressure on the ball combined with no tracking of runners leads a defense to be picked apart.

That’s why I have a hard time indicting Real Madrid’s defense. Clearly, the back line had a poor match, particularly Marcelo. But if you give Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi too much time on the ball, they’ll pick apart any defense. See goals one, three, and four, and to a certain extent, the extended built-up to goal number two. The defenders could very well be a problem, but when the midfield is that poor, it’s very difficult to tell.

Asking the Obvious Questions

After Monday, it has to be asked: Does Real Madrid have the right players midfield? At least, the right players to compete with Barcelona?

It seems to early to pass judgment on Mesut Ozil and Semi Khedira, but the way the soccer world works, José Mourinho now has five weeks until the winter transfer window opens. By then, he needs to know whether his midfield needs reinforcements. If Mourinho is trying to replicate the success he had with Internazionale, he should ask whether Real Madrid has an Esteban Cambiasso. Where are the Thiago Mottas and Dejan Stankovics? Are there Javier Zanettis or Cristian Chivus in this team? Who amongst the squad can provide some iron in the middle of the park?

Solutions Forgotten, Never Considered, Which Might Not Work

There are some options within the current squad, fortunate because against Barcelona, it doesn’t seem like playing both Mesut Ozil and Xabi Alonso can work. Alonso was invisible today, and a ball winner’s role really doesn’t suit him. He’s a deep-sitting distributor, but against Barcelona, you need players at that level to be destroyers. If Mourinho wants to keep Alonso in the team, he needs to sit Ozil can start a better ball winner. He tried that in the second half with Lassana Diarra, but the player that needs to come back in the team is Fernando Gago. Today, Madrid was missing somebody with the Argentine’s edge.

Against Barça, Mourinho should considering moving Pepe into the same role he’s played for Portugal - a deep midfielder that protects the defense. If the team isn’t going to sign anybody in January and Mourinho determines he can’t count on Ozil, Khedira and Alonso to play aggressively come April, bringing Pepe into midfield (and starting Raul Albiol or Ezequiel Garay) will provide some needed bite. Where Mourinho’s main problem on Monday was a midfield trio that gave no resistance to Xavi and Iniesta, Pepe and Gago might be a needed piece of overcompensation.

Oh, Then There’s This

Regardless of what happens in midfield, Mourinho needs to find a left back that will keep him from having to take Ángel Di Maria out of an attacking role. That’s what happened today, with Di Maria doing a Dirk Kuyt, Park Ji-Sung impression against Daniel Alves. Such was the lack of confidence Mourinho had in Marcelo’s defending (begging the question of why he’s being started over Alvaro Arbeloa). If Real Madrid had a Zanetti or Chivu at the back, Di Maria could have stayed in an advanced role. With Ozil having a bad day and Gonzalo Higuain hurt, this was one day Madrid couldn’t afford to sacrifice an attacker.

But occupying Ángel Di Maria is down on Real Madrid’s list of problems. Top of that inventory: Solving the midfield problem. Come Tuesday morning, José Mourinho has to start his evaluation of Ozil, Khedira and (to a lesser extent) Alonso. Are those three viable for April? If not, does the team buy in January? Because if they don’t, internal options like Fernando Gago, Pepe, perhaps even Mahamadou Diarra have to be considered.