Real Madrid, as a club – manager and players all together, simply took a rifle and shot themselves in the foot. Instead of keeping Barcelona at an unreachable place behind them, 10 impossible to catch up and erase points, it suddenly six, with Mourinho and his players completely flipping out during their 1-1 draw with Villareal, as Mourinho, Sergio Ramos and Mesut Ozil got sent off.
I have no problem with the Ramos red card, completely deserved. About Ozil and Mourinho? I don’t know. I don’t know what they said. But it’s easy to see how Mourinho’s actions led to a complete breakdown and havoc in the Real structure. Instead of being confident and patient, suddenly six points seem like nothing at all, and two draws, something Real hardly remember, seem like tragedies.
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Maybe it was Mourinho opening his mouth. He’s been reserved, almost too quiet all season. I’ve theorized more than once that his lack of media air time and useless jabbing of Barcelona has benefited with Real Madrid. He’s fully concentrated on winning the league title and making the most out of his very talented squad, instead of diverting attention from his failures. This season, he’s been practically flawless, if you don’t count the Barcelona matches.
But why should he care? In a recent reddit survey, always a great place to learn about the minds and hearts of fans, everyone agreed that winning the title is just fine, even without beating your biggest rivals. If fans can live with that, I’m sure Mourinho can. Well, instead of letting us wonder, he decided to make a race of it again.
Maybe he bought in to the Guardiola crap of not believing Barcelona can actually catch Real Madrid. The players don’t seem to buy into it, especially when Dani Alves takes the mic. Mourinho spoke before the Malaga match about that he doesn’t even pay attention to Barcelona anymore. It’s all about his team and what they achieve. First of all, he’s right. It’s (still) in their hands, no matter how many matches Barcelona win.
But taking your feet of the physiological and motivational pedal never seems to benefit clubs, even ones as solid as Real, playing the best football in Europe for short stretches this season. No one has been more impressive in their consistent dominance and relative ease of winning matches. But the Malaga draw shifted some of the pressure back to them. Maybe even the draw at CSKA.
How will this insane finish to the Villareal match effect Mourinho and his troops? Do you believe they’ll actually implode? I don’t believe he’ll let that happen, that they’ll let it happen. With Cristiano Ronaldo at this current scoring form, It’d be foolish to bet against them. But still, maybe we did count out Barcelona’s chances to win or make more of a fight for the title too soon. The Nou Camp Clasico looks more and more appealing with every passing moment.