New season, but old issues for Zidane
Last season, Real Madrid won the league title with a strike force that was just one serious injury away from disaster. After each game, Zinedine Zidane must have dropped French striker Karim Benzema into a box of cotton wool, and wrapped him up safe from harm until the next game. As mentioned in these columns previously, Benzema netted 21 goals in Los Blancos’ pursuit of the title with Sergio Ramos the only other player hitting double figures and no other forward scoring any more than three.
That stat reveals how vulnerable the team was, and how close it was to becoming virtually toothless should any misfortune have befallen Benzema, rendering him unavailable. It was tightrope walking for the highest of stakes. So far however, with transfer the window winding into its last few weeks, there’s precious little visible activity from Florentino Perez in addressing the problem by securing a top notch back up for the striker. It seems incredible that the champions will go into the new term still a hostage to fortune and cornering the market in cotton wool. And yet, unless there’s a late breakthrough, crossed fingers may just be a key tactic at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu until next January at least.
If anyone wanted an illustration of how much of a problem this could be, it came when the champions travelled up to San Sebastián to face Real Sociedad at, what is now officially called the ‘ Reale Arena’ due to sponsorship agreement, but will always be known to me as the Anoeta. Despite Martin Ødegaard kicking off his new season back in the Gipuzkoa region of the Basque Country where he had spent a highly successful period last season on loan with La Real, this time he was in the Away dressing room after returning to his parent club. His inclusion in the starting eleven suggested that perhaps Zidane views him as a key figure for the coming season and perhaps hopes he can build on the often outstanding form he showed for the Basque club. To some however, myself included, it was a surprise to see him selected ahead of Casemiro, who was one of Zidane’s top talents last term, looking the perfect man to inherit Luka Modri’s role, when the Croat moves on. It was a decision reversed after 70 minutes with Madrid struggling to find any kind of breakthrough against the home defence – and therein lies the problem.
With Eden Hazard again absent, and Benzema not having the best of days, La Real hardly seemed overstretched to restrict the visitors to infrequent attacks of genuine threat and, by the end of the game, Los Blancos had run out of ideas as the game drifted away into a goalless draw. Of course, it’s entirely relevant to say that there’ll be more than a few teams visit the Anoeta and return without a victory, but often on opening day – albeit a delayed one for Real Madrid – a statement performance and victory can do much to fire momentum
into the next run of games. Next Matchday, the champions travel to the other end of the country to play tabletopping Real Betis. A win will be necessary, almost as necessary in fact as Zidane not having to put all his goalscoring eggs in Monsieur Benzema’s basket this season, in fact. ¿ Está escuchando, señor Pérez?
Talking of Betis, Los Verdiblancos have enjoyed a terrific start to the new season under Manuel Pellegrini. After a miserable experience last term, exacerbated by the success of city neighbours, Sevilla, there’s a raging thirst at the Estadio Benito Villamarín for a taste of success. Following up their opening day win at Alavés, with a 20 home victory over Real Valladolid, the team have offered a welcome draught of success to the Betis fans, and if they can follow up on that with tumbling the champions when Real Madrid visit Andalusia, the Beticos will be quaffing from the cask of glory, convinced that the good times may well be on the way back.
Sharing top spot with Betis is another team with two wins from their opening games, Granada. Many will have thought that Diego Martínez had the Nazaríes overperforming last season. Sixth place and entry to the second qualifying round of the Europa League was a phenomenally successful term for a newlypromoted club who had finished eight points behind Segunda División champions Osasuna in 201819. A heavy dose of ‘ second season syndrome’ reality had been widely predicted to kick in this term. So far though, such thoughts seem wide of the mark. A creditable 20 opening day win over Athletic Club, followed by a 21 victory against Alavés – who sit at the foot of the table alongside Athletic Club and Levante, and look in dire need of a win at home to
Getafe on Sunday – have them set fair. The upcoming visit to Atlético will be a real test of their credentials.
With these games going on, there are still four clubs yet to kick a ball in anger. Barcelona and Sevilla had their start delayed due to late European commitments, whilst Atlético Madrid were struck by a Covid outbreak. But spare a thought for Elche. Granted the prime opening day fixture of a home game against Barcelona to welcome them back to the Primera División and then a visit to Europa League winners, Sevilla, both games have been postponed. With luck however, this weekend, the Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero will welcome back top tier football with the visit of Real Sociedad.
Off the field, there’s some interesting transfer activity surrounding Atléti. Apparently coming to the same conclusion that Chelsea did about Alvaro Morata when they decided to write off the money spent and move him on, the forward looks to be on his way to Juventus, with Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona castoff, Luis Suárez, primed to replace him. If Simeone pairs the Uruguayan with Diego Costa, at the Wanda Metropolitano, it could be the most aggressive Atléti front two for many a year. Fireworks would be guaranteed.
There’s also persistent talk that Arsenal’s pursuit of Thomas Partey could bring some tangible reward before long. Mikel Arteta sees the Ghanaian as ideally suited to the English game and the perfect man to complete his midfield jigsaw. So far though, the club’s powerbrokers, Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, Idan Ofer and Enrique Cerezo, have rebuffed the Gunners’ advances. With talk of Uruguayan Lucas Torreira now being part of the deal though, it might just break the logjam.
With all the clubs in action this weekend – or so far as we know at the moment, there’ll be plenty to reflect on after Matchday 3, so reserve your copy of Costa Blanca News, order yourself a nice café con leche and we’ll talk again next week.
¡ Hasta luego, mis amigos!