Real Madrid Preview 2011

Main Storylines: despite this relatively quiet transfer market for the club that quite often rules the roost in player movement, Real Madrid have continued the unglamorous task of building a squad that compliments the talent they already have. José had no use for Sergio Canales and Pedro León, so he brought in Nuri Sahin and José Callejon who fit the Mourinho profile a little better. The pearl of the transfer window is Fábio Coentrão however. He´s versatile, tall and offers more defensive qualities on the ball and on the man than Marcelo does, which allows the Brazilian to maximize his potential as an attacker. In a nutshell, José is building a squad that does just that for each other. There is no perfect player, but there are perfect compliments of players. They cover others weaknesses so that they can play at their maximum level. That said, it has been a rather schizophrenic Summer from los blancos. While anyone who has bothered to ask José has come from the meeting with a feeling that Madrid are almost finished other than signing a striker, more than likely bringing an Adebayor who knows Mou´s system and adapted himself to his role last year, the club (meaning specifically his royal highness Don Florentino Perez) have continued on their merry way, negotiating at first with want-away Atléti striker Sergio ¨El Kún¨ Agüero who settled disappointedly with Manchester City because Real Madrid would not come with a serious offer, and then tapped-up Santos´ Brasilian phenomenon Neymar after the Copa Libertadores final. They both serve the dual purpose of great player with the sort of shirt-potential that Perez´s Galacticos usually bring to the club, but neither suits what the club need, nor what José Mourinho is kown for. In Kún you have stocky forward with a low center of gravity that José rarely features and in Neymar a flair-player who rarely tracks back and who isn´t ready physically for the assignment that José requires. The first would likely sit, much as Shevchenko did at Chelsea, and the other would spend most matches fuming as either Di María or Callejon played on the wing in his stead, or Özil or Kaká played centrally. Who do you sit for the luxury of bringing Neymar? Better yet, who do you bring in to cover his weaknesses? It´s why I think he won´t come until after José Mourinho leaves Real Madrid.

Forwards: What is there to be said about there forward line? Cristiano Ronaldo has become one of the most complete forwards in football. He can play on the wings or more centrally and exploits the empty spaces in front of goal better than practically any other forward. He´s no central striker though, holding the ball is not really a job that exploits his considerable skills well, so Benzema and Higuaín will likely cover that role and each other. The player in form will start while competing for minutes, but José likes to spring 4 and 5 attacker sets late in games, so both will play alot. The only negative I can think of is that they are a bit light in terms of numbers, but since for most of the match Mourinho likes to use one guy up top, there really isn´t any real problem. Ones to watch: José Callejón. The former Castilla player who returned after two promising years at Espanyol, gives them more directness on the wing than Di Maria, who is often indecisive and loses the ball in the corner, and can spell the Argentine when he gets tired late in games.

Midfielders: I think they solved one of their two their most pressing problems in the midfield. Talk is always of Ronaldo-dependence, but what the club have is Xabi-dependence. The former Liverpool is an organizer, a distributor and a leader in the midfield, but his greatest contribution to a club like Real Madrid is springing their deadly counter-attack with those deadly cross-field 60 yard passes. I think that´s why they brought in Sahín who has that sort of game to him from what I´ve seen. Özil was a great find, the central creative force that sent Kaká to the bench. Sami Khedira and Esteban Granero have their roles, but neither is the complete dominator centrally that they need. Lass Diarra is acceptable in that role if he were playing at any other team, but he´s not Claude Makelele. Coentrão and Pepe can play there in a pinch, but you lose what they bring to your club in their primary roles as center-back and full-back. Ones to watch: Everyone is writing off Kaká. I think even Perez wants to see the backside of him, but I can´t help thinking that there is still some gas left in the tank for the former Brasilian great. Whether he shows it for Madrid depends if he stays.

Defenders: Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Ricardo Carvalho and Fábio Coentrão, with Marcelo to play minutes there, but mainly up the pitch more as a midfielder. Arbeloa can play on either wing and Ramos can play centrally. There is some depth there, but I can´t help but think that Carvalho is getting on with smoke and mirrors. How much time does he have left? I know his positioning is without equal, but he´s the sort who gets beat now that he has lost a few steps and gets carded late in games for those mistakes of age. I like that they bought Varane, but he´s a year away at best to start contributing amongst those physical beasts around him. Ones to watch: Hamit Altintop. I know he has said that he already wants to leave the club for lack of respect, but he´s the sort of grinder that Mou likes. Don´t be surprised if he helps out more than expected.

Keepers: Iker Casillas is the best in the world bar none. He is athletic, a born leader and he makes the difficult save look easy and the easy save look even easier than it should be which is a far cry from many a keeper who loses concentration on the likeliest of saves. With the exit of Dudek, Castilla keeper Adán takes over the role of backup. It is not likely we will see him play much.

Projection: they certainly are better overall, a much deeper and more complimentary squad, but there are still holes to be patched up in the midfield and if this were any other league I would say that Real Madrid would have no problem winning the Premier League by 6 games or Serie A by 10. The league is disproportionately poor at the bottom of the table. There are not a lot of teams at the bottom of the table that can consistently take points off either front-runner so the Clásicos have and will take on more of a deciding role. Unfortunately, they play in a league with FC Barcelona and they have improved immensely. Sure, Cesc and Aléxis Sanchez leave starting roles for back-up roles at Barça but that doesn´t take into the account what modern clubs use their full squads for. Rotation is a bad-word for alot of people, but modern clubs need to rotate players and Barcelona can rotate a different quality of player in than their rivals. Second again in the league, but I think (unlike the blaugrana) that this squad looks like it was built specifically for Europe. I think this is the year that Real Madrid wins their 10th European title.