{"id":1088693,"date":"2019-05-12T19:54:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-12T18:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1088693"},"modified":"2021-09-14T16:52:58","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T15:52:58","slug":"five-things-learned-la-liga-zidane-messi-valverde","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/five-things-learned-la-liga-zidane-messi-valverde\/","title":{"rendered":"“A palpable, shuddering mess” – Five Things Learned from La Liga’s penultimate gameweek"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was an exciting penultimate day of action in La Liga.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We saw legends say goodbye to home crowds and iconic players get absolutely splattered all over the place by young upstarts, but what did we learn?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Boring Boring Bar\u00e7a<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In terms of “things that are possible” – making a team with Leo Messi in it a chore to watch should be right up there with pig’s flying. yet Ernesto Valverde’s Barcelona churned out yet another mundane win in La Liga. This has become a calling card of the Valverde-era: absolutely trudging through the medium and little games with little structure or cohesion.<\/p>\n

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Barcelona spent pretty much all of their match against Getafe looking completely out of sorts. They played with such sporadic cohesion and baffling indifference to ideas of tactical beauty that one has to wonder if Ernesto Valverde was paying attention midweek when an approach like this resulted in his side getting blasted off Anfield and out of the Champions League.<\/p>\n

Sergi Roberto, Philippe Coutinho and Arturo Vidal bizarrely retained their places – and Vidal actually scored and had a pretty good game, which is largely because he performs best in open and chaotic games, the kind that Barcelona should never really play. Isn’t that something? A player who’s at his best when his team are at their worst.<\/p>\n

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Coutinho was so bad and his every touch so whistled that some of the Camp Nou even started applauding him out of pity. The game limped from one improvised attack to the next with no sense of identity. Even a late cameo from young hotshot forward Abel Ruiz and a superb second goal from Leo Messi couldn’t lift proceedings from “meh” to “Mehmorable.” It was pretty bad and honestly, playing like this the Copa del Rey final against Valencia is far from a formality. This season could yet get worse for the Blaugrana!<\/p>\n

2. Real Madrid are a mess<\/strong><\/h2>\n

No matter how bad Barcelona get this season they can always console themselves with the fact that they are not Real Madrid, who followed up last season’s embarrassing league campaign by blundering through their matches like everyone on the pitch was drunk.<\/p>\n

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Julen Lopetegui, Santi Solari, even a returned Zinedine Zidane… no one could get a tune out of Los Blancos this season. Gareth Bale has been exiled to the stand, missing two consecutive match day squads even though he’s fit. Keylor Navas’ injury allowed Thibaut Courtois to play again but the Belgian was once more horrific, a shadow of the man who was so good at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

In midfield they had no control even after bringing on Luka Modric. In attack they were thoroughly impotent bar one magical and mystical dribble and shot from Brahim Diaz. And in defence? Oh goodness gracious the defence… Jesus Vallejo was sent off a 1-0 down, conceding a penalty that Willian Jos\u00e9 punted right at Courtois. Marcelo defended with all the rigour of a small child doing their maths homework and Nacho continued his grand Real Madrid career of being out there on the pitch.<\/p>\n

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Real Madrid are a mess. A palpable, shuddering mess. They’ve lost 11 games this season. 11! They’re going hard for Eden Hazard but by the looks of this game (and this season) they’re going to need a whole new midfield and defence as well as a striker to finish the chances Hazard will create. Zidane’s got a big task on his hands.<\/p>\n