(ESP-ENG) Supremacía inglesa!
Hello friends, good vibes to all.
Both the crises and the good moments of the clubs are defined and accentuated in the big games, it is not the same to lose against Valladolid or beat Ipswich, to give a few examples, than to do the same against elite teams. Real Madrid - Liverpool is one of those great classics in Europe, one of those matches that nobody wants to miss and yesterday's match was no exception; a match, as I said, that showed the great moment in which Arne Slot's team is in and the tremendous crisis in which the Merengue club finds itself. Because yes friends, even though Los Blancos won 3-0 in La Liga on Sunday, Leganes is not Liverpool.
The English are very solid at the top of the Premier League with 8 points ahead of City while Madrid are in second place with 30 points, 4 points behind leaders Barcelona. Yesterday's game was very important because Liverpool had provisionally lost the lead in this new Champions League format to Inter, so they had to score to regain it, while Ancelotti's team had to win if they wanted to stay in the top eight. Madrid arrived with the absence of Vinicius plus the already known ones of Rodrygo, Militao, Carvajal and now Camavinga who, being one of the best yesterday, also suffered and had to leave the game. It was Mbappé's time to shine, to be the leader and the player everyone was waiting for, unfortunately that moment did not come.
Liverpool's eleven was the luxury, maybe with a couple of rotations but it was a fearsome team at last; Madrid looks like an experiment which Ancelotti is forming in fits and starts. Fede Valverde at right back, he has played there before but it is not his position; a certain Raul Asencio as a center back (one of the best on the pitch) and finally Arda Guler as a starter, but not because the coach trusts him but because of the urgency in which the squad is. It must be said that the real tragedy yesterday was not Madrid's performance as a team because there were passages where they had the ball, especially in the first half, but the non-existence of their stars. Kylian Mbappé forgot to play soccer, he does not give a good pass, loses balls, stumbles, misses penalties, does not kick the goal; where is the player we once saw?
Part of the Frenchman's ineffectiveness was due to one man, a man barely 21 years old, Conor Bradley, the architect of the fateful night of the Madrid 9. The game of this right back was to be framed, a guy who stifled Mbappé, he did not let him be, he cut him down, every play in that lane was harshly stopped by the young Briton. Liverpool's goals came from oversights, the first by Mac Allister was precisely for the loss of the ball in midfield; the second by Gakpo was a header alone in the area where they forgot to mark it. The English were far superior, especially in the second half, with high marks, taking advantage of spaces and with a very lethal offensive presence that, had it not been for Courtois, the Whites would have left with 5 or 6 goals in the bag.
I think Mbappé's crisis is purely mental, he is going through a very big block that does not allow him to move forward on the pitch. It is difficult for me to assimilate that a player of his stature has lowered his soccer level so much because this Kylian is not even the shadow of what he once was at PSG or with the French national team. But it's not just him, Bellingham is absent too, he looks like a ghost on the pitch, I think little is being said about his slump because Mbappé's is taking all the spotlight. We'll see if they move in the winter market because if they don't, the season may come to an end faster than imagined.
And well, Liverpool's game yesterday ratifies that they are serious favorites to win the Champions League, it may be too early to think about it but there is a lot of level of play in that club. I think their own fans didn't expect such a top performance after Klopp's departure from the club. Being undefeated in this Champions League is no small thing, 5 games, 5 wins. It is true that the format, at least for me, does not convince me, so perhaps it is a little more accessible than the previous one, but we should not detract from what this club has done. Yesterday they crushed Madrid and left them in a serious crisis. We will see what the future holds.
¡Un abrazo a todos, nos leemos en la próxima!
Well my people that's all for today, I hope you liked it.
¡Hugs to all, see you next time!
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Más allá de lo que se le pueda achacar o no a Kylian Mbappe, creo que este Real Madrid no tiene un cerebro, me decía un amigo madridista, de que te sirve tener un equipo galáctico si no tienes un cerebro que guíe, un club de fútbol es como el cuerpo y a ese club le falta un hombre como Toni Kroos
En efecto. Desde el retiro de Toni el Madrid no ha tenido el control pleno del medio campo porque no tiene un sustituto natural en su plantilla. Pero ese es uno de los tantos problemas que tiene. Los pocos minutos de Guler y que Mbappe no es el mismo, muy lejos de su nivel está.