Midfield Selections and Battleground Will Shape Clasico Outcome
The biggest club match in the world’s fixture calendar is upon us: El Clasico. Barcelona and Real Madrid will duel for the 233rd time on Saturday and bring us the latest installment of Luis Enrique vs. Zinedine Zidane, white vs. Blaugrana, and, of course, Lionel Messi vs. Cristiano Ronaldo.
The last time these two teams met at the Camp Nou, Zidane’s men claimed their 93rd Clasico victory courtesy of Karim Benzema and Ronaldo goals. It would spark an astonishing three-match home losing streak that placed Barca’s Liga title hopes in jeopardy, but five wins on the bounce to finish the season meant the Blaugrana secured the title on the final day.
Coming into this one, the table has been turned. Los Blancos are six points clear of their rivals, and a win here would stretch that to nine. Few leads are unassailable, but that’s a big gap.
Real Madrid remain unbeaten in all competitions this season and warmed up for this match with a 2-1 win over Sporting Gijon. A 3-0 demolition of neighbours Atletico Madrid not long in the past means confidence is soaring.
Barcelona, meanwhile, endured a frustrating evening at Anoeta this past weekend, as they once again failed to beat bogey team Real Sociedad. The respective teams’ forms are markedly different.
Barcelona Team News
The positive news as far as Barca are concerned is that Andres Iniesta has been passed fit. Exactly how fit that is remains to be seen, but he’s eligible to play and will likely start.
Unfortunately, Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba are both nursing knocks coming into this one. The pair missed the Copa del Rey tussle with Hercules on Wednesday, though they’re both hopeful of recovering and could feature.
Alba’s injury is a result of him powering on and playing hurt against Real Sociedad, which makes it all the more frustrating.
Jeremy Mathieu will miss the next two to three weeks, the club announced (h/t ESPN FC’s Samuel Marsden), meaning back-up at both left-back and centre-back is lacking.
Real Madrid Team News
Real Madrid will be without long-term absentees Gareth Bale, Alvaro Morata and Toni Kroos for El Clasico, but they might be able to welcome one key figure back from injury.
Casemiro made his long-awaited return in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday evening, playing the full 90 minutes against Cultural Leonesa. Asked at a news conference whether he could be parachuted in for Saturday’s game, Zidane said, “we shall see."
It’s not that Real are in any sort of crisis—the Luka Modric-Mateo Kovacic midfield pairing has been excellent despite having no cover behind it—but it will surely be tempting to plug the Brazilian back in.
Isco will lose his spot if Zidane commits to the change, but Lucas Vazquez is doing a fine job deputising for Bale on the flank and is expected to continue here.
Pressure Point 1: Bullying Barca
In Barcelona’s last few games, worrying on-pitch trends have emerged. Perhaps the failure to win could be partially excused if the team was playing well, but they’re quite often not even doing that.
Barca manager Luis Enrique seems generally livid, and the magnifying glass zoomed in further following the leaking of a players’ meeting to discuss the poor form.
The Blaugrana’s victory over Sevilla on Nov. 6 came courtesy of some Messi magic, and that’s what grabbed the headlines, but the performance was bad.
The midfield and defence consistently turned the ball over while under pressure at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium. Sevilla’s pressing caused Barca fits and ruined the flow of their play, and they spent much of their time trying to amend for their own mistakes.
The chief issues here have been that Iniesta has been injured, and that Sergio Busquets is enduring what has to be the worst patch of form he’s experienced. Without these two key players on the pitch, or playing well, it’s all collapsed to an extent.
Iniesta is fit for Saturday's match, but again, we must see how fit. It’s more than reasonable to assume that, given Barca have struggled to move the ball into the front line smoothly without him—and given Real are on such an imperious streak—he’s being rushed back a little and isn’t able to do a full 90 minutes.
Other midfield options have disappointed, to an extent. Ivan Rakitic has been sloppy in his distribution; Denis Suarez isn’t a chief creator from the middle; Rafinha scores a few goals but doesn’t do that much else in general play; and Andre Gomes—arguably the best of the lot in recent weeks—has been OK, but nothing more.
This becomes especially alarming for Barca when you consider Real Madrid start games quickly—or at least try to. It’s one of the things Zidane drills into his team, and if Los Blancos begin by pressing and harrying, Barca might fall out of their rhythm early—just as they did against Sevilla.
Pressure point 2: Isco or Casemiro? 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3?
There’s no doubt that although Ronaldo stole the headlines for his hat-trick against Atletico Madrid earlier this month, Isco was the most influential tactical player on the pitch.
The performance he put in felt like it had been a long time coming—for weeks, he had disappointed despite Zidane giving him chance after chance—but all of that was quickly forgotten when he started slicing Diego Simeone’s team open at will.
With Kovacic and Modric as a midfield pair, Isco has been able to roam in the No. 10 space and impact play high up the pitch. On paper, this Croatian duo seems a weak point given its perceived lack of defensive awareness, but as a trio, they have worked well together—partially because Kovacic has been magnificent.
But now comes the time for a big decision: Should Zidane swap Isco out for Casemiro, reverting from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3? While Isco was stunning against Atleti, it should not be forgotten quickly that Casemiro was arguably the man of the match when these two teams met at the Camp Nou in April.
The Brazilian would bring an added dose of solidity to the midfield, and given Iniesta’s return, his tracking and positional talents might well come in handy. But would the installation of Casemiro slow down the rampant start Zidane expects? Can Real Madrid throw their opponents off their groove and begin forcing errors early if they’re set deeper and have no No. 10 to naturally press Busquets?
Amazingly, it almost seems like a gamble either way for Zidane, as both strategies are perfectly workable, but if he uses one and it doesn’t work, expect the finger to be pointed.
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