Half-time report: Atléti clear at the top, but it’s close at the bottom
THE HALFWAY point of the league season has now been passed and it’s time to take stock of things. So, in this week’s column I’m going to be looking at the title race and the relegation threatened clubs to see if we can cast our eyes forwards to the end of this surreal season and see how things are likely to pan out.
Before a ball was kicked in the league, there would have been plenty of people suggesting that, at this stage, the top three clubs in LaLiga would be Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid. Very few however, I venture to suggest, would have put Atléti ten points clear of the other two clubs – and with a game in hand. But, that’s how we look at the moment.
Last Sunday, Simeone’s team did what Simeone’s team does. What looked, on paper, as a potentially tricky visit to Cádiz turned out to be just that, but in their inimitable way, Atléti got the job done. When Luis Suárez notched his second goal of the game from the penalty spot to give Atlético the lead, it looked like the winner. Álvaro Negrado though reduced the arrears with 20 minutes to play and, for a short while there was plenty of pressure on Jan Oblak’s goal. Atléti are nothing if not determined however and they saw it through when Koke closed out the scoring. The win produced that tenpoint gap to second place – with a game in hand. It probably means that Atléti will need to lose at least four
games, to give the other clubs any kind of chance of ripping the title away. Given Atléti have only lost one game all season and both Real Madrid and Barcelona are struggling, surely the LaLiga title is ending up at the Wanda Metropolitano.
After the 1-4 win at Alavés, fans of Los Blancos were hoping a corner had been turned, but an insipid display in surrendering all three points at home to Levante quickly crushed such thoughts. In mitigation, the team were missing Sergio Ramos, Dani Carvajal, Lucas Vázquez, Nacho, Fede Valverde and Rodrygo, but it was the ease with which the visitors snaffled the points that would be most worrying for a convalescing Zidane as he recovers from Covid. Watching that game live certainly wouldn’t have helped his recovery.
An early red card for Militão didn’t help matters for the champions, and neither did the idea of moving Casemiro into the backline instead of using the specialised defender Víctor Chust from the bench. Levante could even afford to miss a penalty and still win the game. Roger Marti scored the winner a dozen minutes from time after missing that earlier penalty. In a strange quirk of fate, it’s the third time that the forward has failed to convert from 12 yards, but then gone on to notch the winning goal in a game. In recent times, trailing at home would be the trigger for an allout rescue from Los Blancos, but not this time. The title looks to almost have been surrendered.
Almost as worrying as the general decline in fortunes is the abject form of Eden Hazard. The club’s star signing a season and a half ago still looks to be misfiring. That encouraging flare against Alavés now looks to be an all too brief exception, rather than the herald of a return to his Chelsea form. Domestically, secondplace looks the best that Zidane can achieve this season unless Atléti blow up – and that hardly looks likely. It could bring the French coach’s second term in the capital to an end in the summer, unless a seemingly unlikely Champions League triumph steadies the rocking ship.
That second place is hardly a certainty. Real Madrid’s last five games have brought two wins, two draws and a defeat. Throw in that embarrassing Copa del Rey result though and the picture looks even worse. To increase the pressure, just as the champions are struggling for any kind of form, Barcelona appear to be finding at least a measure of rhythm. A 2-1 weekend win over Athletic Club was hardly devastatingly convincing but, it brought three points, and meant they had won their last five league fixtures, in stark contrast to Real Madrid’s stumbling form.
Over last weekend, El Mundo released information regarding Messi and the money the club has paid him from his most recent contract. Amounting to an eye-watering €555,237,619, it’s a figure only compounded by the additional reported detail that the Argentine is due a further sum in excess of €20million in respect of a ‘loyalty bonus’ this summer. Given that it remains likely that he will leave the club at the end of the season, the name seems a little inappropriate.
Some may say that these sums are the reason why the club is in such torrid financial waters but that may merely be an easy plaster for the directors to apply to the wound. Messi remains the club’s most valuable asset and, just as it takes two to tango, it requires two parties to agree a deal and no one had a gun to Bartomeu’s head when the contract was being negotiated. Mismanagement seems to have been the default stance at the club, and yet they may still edge out Real Madrid for second place.
At the foot of the table, Huesca’s encouraging win at Real Valladolid may have ignited hopes of survival. Given it was only their second win of the term however, there needs to be a bit more sustained form before realistic aspirations of survival have genuine merit. Sad to say that my local boys, Elche, are also mired in the relegation quagmire. The early season promise has evaporated and, while it would be good to see them rally, it looks to be a struggle.
If those two do tumble out of the top tier, the final place alongside them could be between Eibar, Valladolid, Osasuna, and Alavés. Little Eibar are case-hardened at this sort of thing, and I’d be surprised if they tumble away. Next week’s game against Osasuna could have a big bearing on things.
Let’s see how the next few weeks pan out. Hasta luego!