Mourinho the resuscitator breathes new life into Benzema as Real stand tall

Posted Wednesday, November 03, 2010 by theguardian.com

La Liga is a two-horse race, again, as imperious Real Madrid and Barcelona crush the hopes of the also-rans

Mourinho the resuscitator breathes new life into Benzema as Real stand tall
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates with Karim Benzema after scoring Real's 3rd goal against Hercules FC

Reports of their deaths were greatly exaggerated. They said Karim Benzema was dead, that David Villa was deader, and that coaches everywhere were dying, the beep-beep-beep of the life support machine a solitary blip away from becoming a solitary bleep. Miguel-Angel Portugal was drifting away at Racing Santander. So was José Aurelio Gay at Zaragoza. Down in Almería, Juan Manuel Lillo was looking a little peaky.

And Miguel-Angel Lotina was drawing his last breath. By his own admission, in midweek he was ready to kill himself;his president was going to pull the plug, and though it was sad to see, no one blamed him. It would be a mercy killing, not so much Deportivo as Dignitas. The suffering had lasted too long. Especially for anyone who has watched his team.

But the plug remained unpulled. Week nine was billed as the jornada in which four coaches got sacked and two star strikers, with a combined worth of almost €80m (£69.3m), continued their descent, one making his way towards the exit and the other proving that he just isn't a big-team player after all. Yet it didn't turn out that way. Benzema was brought back from the dead and, despite the gleefully gloomy prognosis, Villa's condition was never really critical. Meanwhile, Portugal didn't die, Gay didn't die, Lillo didn't die, and miraculously, even Lotina didn't die.

Instead, what did die was the faint hope that the league might be more than a two-horse race. What died this weekend was the pretence. Still, at least it lasted nine weeks. Which is eight more than it did last year.

After his side had been defeated by Barcelona on Saturday night, the Sevilla coach, Gregorio Manzano, said: "The key to the match is that there was no match." In a phrase, he had said it all. Not just about his game but about the weekend. About the whole season. It will be all about Real Madrid and Barcelona, after all. Because while none of the coaches who are a defeat away from a death warrant lost this weekend, none of the sides that were supposed to compete with the big two for the title won.

Lotina's Deportivo somehow scored three. Racing Santander hammered Osasuna 4-1. Almería got a draw at Atlético Madrid. And Zaragoza drew 1-1 at Valencia, who now haven't won in three.

Nine weeks into this season and La Liga has a familiar look this morning. One that somehow manages to be exciting and tedious at once. For the first time this season, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are first and second. Beneath the rhetoric, another "Third Way" proves to be a myth. Read that last paragraph again: Valencia and Atlético, two "alternatives" to the big two, drew 1-1 against teams whose coaches were on their last legs. So did Villarreal, who needed a 93rd-minute penalty in Gijón. And Sevilla were not just beaten by Barcelona, they were battered. Five-nil. As for Real Madrid, they found themselves trailing for the first time this season. But still won 3-1 against Hércules.

As Madrid's players left the Rico Pérez on Saturday night, they were all freshly showered – which is more than can be said for their opponents who had refused to train the previous day after arriving to find there was no water or electricity.

They were also all singing from the score sheet. "I'm pleased for Benzema", said Iker Casillas; "Benzema was the key," said Cristiano Ronaldo. The French striker had come on at 1-1. It was his shot, helpfully spilled by a goalkeeper who can't catch, that led to the second goal and his pass that led to the third. It was quite a resurrection for a man who Marca had declared "dead" only three days before. Not only that, but they'd decided it was time to bury him after a year of insisting that he was better than Gonzalo Higuaín even though the Argentinian had scored 33 league goals compared to Benzema's nine. And Mourinho had made it so easy for them.

Before Madrid's Copa del Rey game with Second Division B side Murcia he had warned: "If anyone lets me down, I'll put a cross on him and he's dead." Most assumed he was talking about Benzema and when the striker was withdrawn, having failed to score, the conclusion was clear. Now, though, he had been reborn. "Mourinho, the resuscitator," cheered Marca's cover, "makes Benzema come on and change the game." Inside, its editorial, drawing on other cases of Mourinho's resurrections – like Samuel Eto'o, whom the Portuguese somehow turned into a treble winner despite having been a disaster the previous season when he only won the Copa del Rey, the league and the Champions League, and scored a pathetic 36 goals – insisted that "Mourinho's magical skills have an effect: Benzema is back."

Trouble is, if Benzema was back, so was David Villa. That same morning, Mourinho had sought to take the pressure off Benzema by insisting: "There are other strikers that have signed for big clubs and can't score against anyone." Again, conclusions were leapt to. He was winding Barcelona up; he was talking about Villa, who had two league goals, four in total, but had not scored in five games; who, they happily predicted, couldn't settle at the Camp Nou. Never mind the four shots against the post, he was anxious, misfiring, a big fish for a small pond, not a small fish for a big sea.

Mourinho's magic powers worked once more. If Benzema was good this weekend, Villa was better, scoring two wonderful goals. "Villa shuts Mourinho's mouth", cheered Sport, "thanks for the MOUtivation!"; "Take that, Mou!", shouted El Mundo Deportivo - its cartoon showing Villa's shot ripping the net and screeching into the Portuguese manager's mouth.

It was not just about Villa, though. Leo Messi scored two, taking his total to 41 in his past 42 league games, 61 in his past 61 in total. Just as Ronaldo now boasts 38 in his 38 league games for Real Madrid. And while they are completely brilliant the fear is that they are just too brilliant.

"Madrid and Barcelona play a different sport to the rest of us," said Manzano. Others were going further. "After the minor readjustments of the opening weeks, Madrid and Barcelona are again swatting away flies with their tails as they wait for each other," moans Roberto Palomar. "Welcome to another tyranny: this is like watching wrestling: one of the two men in the ring is just there to make a play of fighting it out. You know what the result will be."

The fear is that we know what the result will be for some time to come. Last season, third-placed Valencia were closer to the relegation zone than the title; this year they are weakened. And so, in theory, are everybody else. And while the difference shouldn't be as huge – Pep Guardiola called it "fucking barbaric" – this weekend underlined the chasm. Benzema and Villa are the kind of "dead" players most clubs would love to the chance to resuscitate. In terms of net spend, not one side spent even half of their values this summer. Not one has a budget greater than a quarter of the big two's.

Against Madrid, Hércules were stymied by the absence of their key creative player – Royston Drenthe, the man Madrid considered a joke and loaned out because they couldn't find a buyer (but still felt entitled to prevent playing against them, while the league felt entitled to let them). Sevilla could only watch as former player Dani Alves scored against them and Adriano was a sub. Seydou Keita didn't play at all.

Even the great hope offers little hope. Spain's financial inequality, routed in separate TV deals where the third biggest earning club earns less than the team that finishes bottom of the Premier League and where Barcelona and Madrid take home €125m compared to €12m at Racing has been analysed here before. Details are now emerging of the proposed new deal. It will be collective and for the first time there will be a parachute payment to protect relegated clubs.

But inequality remains an inescapable and self-perpetuating reality. Madrid and Barcelona will keep 34%, 11% will go to Valencia and Atlético, 9% to the second division and 45% will be shared amongst the remaining sixteen clubs, at a little under 3% each.

"Some seem annoyed at the prospect of us getting even half rich; they think it's in their interests to keep us poor," moaned Villarreal president Fernando Roig. But it was Sevilla's José María del Nido who went furthest. "The other eighteen clubs should get together and kick Barcelona and Madrid out. Let them go and play in France or Portugal," he said. "We won't mind competing in a different league to them."

Not least because they already do.

Talking points

• He's alive! Love for Lotina: If in doubt, batten down the hatches. Deportivo, whose only goal from open play until now was a consolation in a 6-1 thrashing, turned even more defensive, switching to five at the back and scoring three, thus doubling their tally for the whole season. It might have been a case of the sun even shining on a dog's arse some days – all three goals came from set plays and they still have Rikki in the box, no money in the bank and a place in the relegation zone – but it meant survival for the league's second longest-serving manager. And everyone was delighted for a coach who's extremely well liked despite the fact that he couldn't wear a longer face if Edvard Munch made him a mask.

A few weeks ago, fans turned up at training armed with fireworks and drums and banners and instead of protesting proceeded to cheer coach and squad through their every step. On Saturday, president Augusto César Lendoiro admitted with a heavy heart that he couldn't guarantee Lotina's continuity and Lotina couldn't complain, shrugging sadly: "Everything he says is entirely logical. He's hoping we'll win so I can carry on, but if we don't then what has to happen will happen." When Alberto Lopo scored last night, he began blowing kisses at his coach. Soon he and his team-mates were over by the bench, engulfing their coach in a group hug.

"There are lots of fakers in football," said Lotina, searching for the right words and somehow not coming up with 'complete', 'utter' or 'tossers'. "But," he added, "there are some great people too – and Lopo is one of them."

• Not dead yet. Those other survivors this weekend. Racing climbed out of the relegation zone and moved five points up the table to keep Miguel-Angel Portugal in a job. They'd be entitled to think that whose desperate start to the season was as much to do with facing Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia and Villarreal in the first eight weeks as actually being rubbish. Lillo insists that his team are playing "brilliant" football, even though they have only won once and his players are right behind him. For once, that sentence shouldn't be rounded off with "clutching knives", either. And Gay said he was satisfied after his team's 1-1 draw at Valencia but despite the fact that it was well deserved, Zaragoza still don't look very good at all.

Next weekend there's another head on the line. Jesualdo Ferreira, whose Malaga side have now slipped into the relegation zone after losing their fifth home match out of five, despite being one of the very few clubs that can actually boast huge piles of cash.

Results: Valencia 1–1 Zaragoza, Hércules 1–3 Madrid, Barcelona 5–0 Sevilla, Sporting 1–1 Villarreal Racing 4–1 Osasuna, Málaga 1–2 Real Sociedad, Deportivo 3–0 Espanyol, Atlético 1–1 Almería, Athletic 3–0 Getafe.