Sorry for the delay in this post, I wanted to christen the new layout with an edition of winners and losers. So for the record you can be expecting winners and losers as a weekly format for the foreseeable future, which means I will have to redouble my efforts when it comes to thinking up clever (at least let me pretend they are clever) edition titles. So without any further ado we look back at that nervy match against Getafe to find out who did their reputation a favor and who did not.
Winners
Sergio Ramos- If rumors are to be believed, which is rarely the case, Mourinho is considering shifting Ramos in the defensive line and returning him to the right fullback position in order to reunite the Pepe+Carvalho pairing in the center of the defense. Now the Portuguese centerback setup has done an admirable job, but with Ramos playing the way he does at CB it seems absurd. Like putting Ronaldo at CM so that Khedira and Ozil can form a German connection as attacking midfielders. Well, honestly Ramos is a quite accomplished RB, but you just get the sense (as I have for years now) that he has a ceiling at fullback that is much lower than his astronomical ceiling as a centerback... hence the calls of 'the heir to Hierro'- scoring goals and picking up cards like him no doubt, or 'the heir to Maldini' as the venerable Italian defender himself suggested and as someone that followed a similar transition from fullback to central defender. Now to bring it back to his performance on Saturday, you just got to hope regardless of what Mourinho does, Ramos continues to perform at such an amazing level. Its impressive that with our tall squad, Ramos still manages to consistently be the most threatening aerial presence on set pieces.
Alvaro Arbeloa- A return to form for the dependable fullback. For whatever reason he has not been playing particularly well recently and consistency is 9/10ths of the value in Arbeloa so that was a major hit to the squad. Thankfully it looks like that is behind him as he put in a confident disply against Getafe. He wasn't the shining star for Madrid, but honestly we rarely need him to be.
Mesut Oezil- If we are lucky then this isn't just a stupendously in-form Mesut, but rather indicative of merely his slump being over. He is a wizard with the ball and brilliantly entertaining to watch for it, even in a particularly drab game. A great corner led to the game winning goal.
Cristiano Ronaldo- Could have had a penalty, but didn't and those are the breaks. Still he played particularly well and always looked dangerous. Still, one could sense that perhaps it was the weather, but Ronaldo just looked a touch off- that's my explanation for his scuffed volley at least. That's my reason for it at least.
Losers
Karim Benzema- Can't seem to find the proverbial ketchup. He will score again soon, but it just was not his night. He really needs to get in goal scoring form for our Champion's League fixture though since he is our most efficient European striker.
Kaká- The inverse of Oezil, we must hope that the Brazilian is not returning to standard Kaká levels, but rather is suffering a brief dip in form. He looks to be capable of so much more and hopefully this poor outing didn't spoil his cofidence.
Pedro León- Is he still out injured? Technically still on our books, and I do still have a fondness for him, but he doesn't seem to be getting any play time at Getafe. If the figures I looked at are correct he has 6 appearances for Getafe and not a single match, before or after his late October major injury, has he played the whole way through. The details of his loan probably prevented him from playing against us regardless, but still it is tragic to see his career stalling so seriously after a single season with us. What makes it extra difficult is that he was very careful about not jumping to us earlier in his career, since he didn't want to overextend himself. Hopefully Peter the lion will be tearing up La Liga again some day, but it looks impossible that it will be in our white kit.
Pablo Sarabia- Another Getafe player that is really a Real Madrid player (effectively, given the buyback clause) and another disappointment. He has made more appearances (11) but he hasn't seen the pitch since the middle of December. Troubling considering he made the jump from Madrid so that he could see first team action. Even at 18 he is clearly the most technically gifted player in Getafe's squad (maybe Peter Lion gives him some competition) yet all the technique and no play time. Lots of Madridistas, myself included, were hoping he would make such a big splash that bringing him back would be a guarantee.
Finally a special congratulations goes out to Míchel, former Madrid great, cantera coach, and Getafe coach, who is now in charge of Sevilla. Hopefully he will be able to bring some class to an otherwise decidedly unclassy club, thanks in no small part to del Nido. Míchel has a few weeks before he has to take points from Barcelona, and with any luck by the time we meet him in April, La Liga will already be pretty much ours.
So now comes the time to let me know who should have made the list and who shouldn’t have. What do you think of Pepe’s performance? Not quite good enough to get him on the winners and his extracurriculars weren’t quite bad enough to land him on the losers right? You tell me!
