It is a fact that Real Madrid did not lose this Clasico because of the absence of Benzema.
Spain's champion-elect were awful individually and collectively, as well as being well-planned, well-coached and as effective as Xavi's Barcelona. It starts with the coaching team.
Carlo Ancelotti is not just an old-school gentleman and a blessing in Spanish football, he is a talented, high-achieving and extremely clever man-manager who, barring something horrendous happening, will collect 17 points or more in his next nine La Liga matches.
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In order to lift the Spanish title, Barcelona would need to take 28 out of their next 30 points, which is a ridiculously large ask. It would be an immense achievement for the reborn Blaugrana army to win nine and draw one of their last 10 games. Los Blancos need just 17 points from their remaining nine matches to get to 83 and avoid going on head-to-head scores between the clubs this season.
If either Thibaut Courtois or Benzema were suddenly absent for a long period of time, the vista would change. It is hard to imagine that Madrid would not bring the title that they deserve. If you haven't been paying attention to Florentino Perez over the past 22 years, can you imagine how continuity hasPukiWikiPukiWikiPukiWikis hanging by the slenderest of threads?
The last time a Madrid side lost a home Clasico, the manager was given six more LaLiga matches and then, after a draw at Valencia, was fired. In Paris a month ago, a Madrid side played with a lack of attention to detail or lack of competitive spirit.
I still think that he got the equivalent of a yellow card from his employer. Even for Madrid, defeat is inevitable. It is a different matter if the display is impoverished and embarrassing the President.
This analysis is looking at how Florentino Perez thinks and acts. By any normal standards, the final year of Carlo Ancelotti's contract should be safe if he follows a trophy-less season with a league and Super Cup double. It's worth noting that Jupp Heynckes was sacked in 1998 after winning the European Championship.
The past few coaches at Santiago Bernabeu have had trouble with elements. President Perez wants to keep his financial reserves away and not spend a lot in order to sign Kylian Mbappe. The investment in renewing the Santiago Bernabeu will make it the greatest football stadium in the world. The economic impact of a Pandemic on spectator sport. It has been said that Madrid's squad hasn't been rejuvenated, renewed and upgraded to the necessary degree.
If he finished the season with two trophies, he should be given a wreath for his head and called a hero. It will surprise me if Florentino Perez and his guard don't start looking for a replacement for the Italian after the Clasico humiliation, the home defeat to FC Sheriff and the away loss in Paris.
Sunday night's evidence does him no favors.
Barcelona came to town with a clear game plan, and the confidence that Benzema was missing was a big boost. They came to fight.
The one his team defeated so easily at Camp Nou in the Autumn was one of the ideas that Ancelotti had about how to cope with Benzema's absence. His ideas were based on a Barcelona that could be hustled, bullied and robbed of possession, where Ter Stegen was an antagonized and uncertain of themselves, and where the Catalan club were glass-chinned and uncertain of themselves.
Barcelona haven't been playing like that for a while now.
Where did the scouting take place? If he thought that the exertions of Barcelona winning in Istanbul, flying back tired, but jubilant, and the lack of meaningful training time between, was the reason for the counter- voices in his team saying "right bet at the wrong time, boss!" He got it wrong.
Messi leaving Barcelona has been the catalyst for young talent to grow at Camp Nou.
For those of you who are only interested in the game, here is what the coach tried to do.
The second line of press was waiting to pick up the merest scraps, so they wanted Vinicius, Rodrygo, and Federico Valverde to buzz around Ter Stegen, Ronald Araujo, and Eric Garcia. The latter pair wanted to use Barcelona's lost possession to smash them with a series of quick passes in the last third of the pitch.
Madrid's press was largely made to look like what it is, a recent concept and a weekend-DIY project rather than expert and industrially strong. Barcelona had vastly superior numbers in the middle of the field and were free to mount precise, damaging attacking pass after pass because of their superior numbers in the middle of the field.
The change midway through the half helped, as Modric was back in deep in the middle, Casemiro supported him, and they tried to play on the counter rather than use their badly executed, ill-designed press. There was an immediate catastrophe, but neither Benzema nor Ancelotti had anything to do with it.
Before Araujo effectively kills the game with his headed goal for 2-0, you need to look at the schoolboy state of Madrid. Vinicius and Madrid were arguing with the referee on the edge of their own box, nobody paying attention to Araujo. The best head of the ball in the Barcelona squad is not marked by Eder Militao or David Alaba, it is left free by the visitors and headed past Thibaut Courtois.
This ex-striker who dreams of one day returning to play up front will probably score the easiest goal of his life. If you watch closely, you will see Modric complain that Araujo bumped his hand as he ran past him, and that he was berating the referee while the corner was being taken.
All my fault.
Modric is the embodiment of talent meeting winner-mentality. He is behaving as if it is a Sunday afternoon kick-about on the beach. I would argue that the behavior of the most competitive player in Madrid has something to do with Benzema's absence. How is that the fault of Ancelotti?
This type of thing was happening all over the field. Militao had his worst performance of the last two seasons. As for the person named Dani Carvajal? There is some blame to be assigned to Ancelotti. The Spain international has not played well for weeks. He should not have started the match. The decision was wrong.
He got more wrong at the half-time break. The idea of going to three at the back allowed Barcelona to go one-on-one against an improvised line of Militao and Alaba. It was the gesture of someone who has lost a lot of money and thinks a big gamble might change his fate. Spectacular when they come off.
Eduardo Camavinga, on at half-time, copied his elders and betters by, within a couple of minutes, gifting the ball away cheaply then being robbed, easily, by Frenkie De Jong to create the third goal. Casemiro wanders back, completely uncompetitive, un-athletic, for the fourth goal, but makes a healthy job of arguing with the referee over whether Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's second goal should or shouldn't stand. Priorities, Casemiro.
He had a bad night. I fear that he will pay a lot. Benzema, with Courtois and Modric, is the leader of this team, and he is playing like a footballing god right now. His absence didn't require Madrid's Italian manager to create a 4-1-4-1 formation or to risk a 3-5-2 formation when the back was bad. The absence of Benzema shouldn't have caused the majority of Madrid's players to turn in low-grade, lazy, listless performances.
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