Although Real Madrid tore Real Valladolid apart in the second half of a 3-0 win, it took them some time to get going. Furthermore, it has been Real’s only win to this point in the LaLiga season after three games.
The new-look attack with blockbuster signing Kylian Mbappe has looked worse than last year’s iteration, with Mbappe cutting a frustrated – and often selfish – figure up top, failing to connect with his more successful teammates, Rodrygo Goes and Vinicius Junior.
Real Madrid drew 1-1 to both Mallorca and Las Palmas, and with Barcelona putting together a commanding 7-0 display against Real Valladolid reminiscent of LaLiga of 10 years ago, the Blaugrana suddenly look like the stronger side.
After Barcelona decimated Valladolid in a vintage Hansi Flick coaching display, Real Valladolid’s manager Paulo Pezzolano took an underhanded shot at Real Madrid in a subtle way that makes the insult land that much more brutally:
“Yes, we went out to play the same today as we did at the Bernabéu, but this team [Barcelona] knew how to play against low blocks”
Every time Real Madrid fans celebrate too much and try to rub it in the faces of Barcelona, they are humbled badly. It happened in the 2022/23 season after Real Madrid boasted about winning the Champions League and LaLiga by light years, only to be dominated by a resurgent Blaugrana.
Now, Real Madrid are coming off another Champions League and LaLiga double with the added bonus of signing Mbappe. Yet how quickly the narrative changes when it dawns on some of these young, naive supporters that every season is a fresh one.
Barcelona look like a well-oiled, tactical machine under Flick, to the extent that the criticism within the fanbase and locker room of Xavi has seemingly already been vindicated by the 2019/20 treble-winning coach at Bayern Munich.
Meanwhile, attacking-whisperer Carlo Ancelotti is still figuring out how to deconstruct low blocks, which has been a huge problem for Real Madrid since they lost Cristiano Ronaldo, who papered over a lot of the club’s problems that have been rooted in the organization since the failed Galactico days.
Are we headed for Los Galacticos 2.0 with a squad that is, quite frankly, less talented than the one from the 2000s? No, because this squad was good enough to win the Champions League last season, even if it was by the skin of their teeth in the two rounds before an easy Final.
But juxtaposing Barcelona dominated Real Valladolid to Real Madrid’s struggles in three games outside of a 45-minute window against Valladolid is an example of how humble the Merengue club must remain.
