Sangria Hangover: The Special One's Real Madrid Debut Especially Ordinary

Real Madrid’s lackluster 0-0 draw with Mallorca was the biggest story to emerge out of an interesting first week of the La Liga season. While Los Merengues were far from their best, the Mallorca team that drew them deserves credit for executing Michael Laudrup’s gameplan to perfection. Goalkeeper Dudu Aouate deserves the majority of that credit after putting in an absolutely masterful performance. Mallorca have been tipped as relegation candidates by many because of their financial problems and talent exodus, but they appear to be a team that will be inexplicably fighting for a top half place once again.

While Mallorca deserve credit for an admirable performance, Jose Mourinho didn’t do his team any favors with his squad selection. Assuming everyone in the 18 was match fit, the selections of Lassana Diarra and Angel Di Maria over Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil were curious. Unsurprisingly, Real looked considerably better when Özil was introduced. They weren’t able to score, though, and a lot of that came down to Karim Benzema.

Benzema’s incredible lack of confidence and decision making skills once he entered the match were baffling. If there’s one thing that Jose Mourinho can be happy about, it’s that Benzema is making his job much easier. Higuain is surely an automatic selection whenever he is fit.

So, was this just a slight blip or a real indicator of Real Madrid’s deficiencies?  Either way, they can’t afford to drop points in home games against mid-table sides any more this season. They’re likely to be in a tight title race all the way to the final weeks of the season, assuming that this was just a minor blip. Barcelona are unlikely to drop points in matches like their fixture against Mallorca, so Real would be wise to put those games away in the future.

Barcelona looked dominant in their opening fixture, although to be fair, Racing Santander are a very poor side who will do well to avoid relegation after losing Sergio Canales. Regardless, Barcelona were on top of their game. Messi and Villa looked at times like they had been playing together for 10 years, which has to be a scary sight for Real Madrid and their competitors in the Champions League. Xavi’s assist and Messi’s finish on the first goal was vintage Xavi and Messi, Iniesta’s volley was ridiculous, and Villa’s header was class. Real didn’t look like Real, but Barca looked like Barca.

Surprise spenders Màlaga played very solid football against Valencia, but Joaquin was just too much in the end as his side posted a 3-1 win. Màlaga’s goal came from Sebastian Fernandez, their new signing from Argentinean side Banfield, a team who has been ravaged by European clubs in the transfer window. Fernandez didn’t have the greatest goal scoring rate in Argentina, but his talent is undeniable and La Liga should suit his style of play well.

Valencia looked solid, but their win came down more to good individual performances than great team football. Joaquin’s performance in particular was a bit of an outlier. It was a good win for Los Che, but not necessarily indicative of how they will perform this season. 

Two of the other contenders for Champions League places, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla, performed brilliantly. Sevilla had very poor opponents and both Sevilla and Atleti were heavy favorites in their matches, but emphatic four goal performances are always impressive, regardless of opposition. Right back Abdoulay Konko found the back of the net twice for Sevilla while Diego Forlan scored a brace for Atleti.

Week one wasn’t nearly as kind to Villarreal, though. The Yellow Submarine fell 1-0 on the road to newly promoted Basque side Real Sociedad. Despite having 64% of the possession and registering 23 goal attempts, Villarreal could not manage to score. It will be interesting to see if they stay with the same tactics. On the weekend, they set up in a 4-2-3-1 with Giuseppe Rossi as a lone striker. Patience might be a virtue for Villarreal, but when the ball isn’t going into the back of the net, it will be difficult for Nilmar to remain patient on the bench.

Scores

Hercules 0-1 Athletic Bilbao

Malaga 1-3 Valencia

Levante 1-4 Sevilla

Deportivo La Coruna 0-0 Real Zaragoza

Espanyol 3-1 Getafe

Osasuna 0-0 Almeria

Real Sociedad 1-0 Villarreal

Racing Santander 0-3 Barcelona

Mallorca 0-0 Real Madrid

Atletico Madrid 4-0 Sporting Gijon

Stud of the Week

Without question, the man most deserving of this award is the dominant Diego Forlan. After a World Cup that firmly established his reputation as one of the finest attacking players in the world, Forlan picked up for Atletico where he left off for Uruguay and thoroughly dismantled Sporting Gijon. With Atletico’s likely improvement and the likely drop-off of their competition, don’t be surprised if Forlan puts up 20-25 goals and 8-12 assists this season.

Dud of the Week

Real Madrid as a whole might have been disappointing, but the biggest disappointment of all was Karim Benzema. In a game that seemed to be screaming for his services, Jose Mourinho gave him a shot to prove he deserved to be in the team. Benzema proved the exact opposite, looking completely lost in his time on the pitch. Benzema didn’t just look like he had no place in the Real Madrid team, he didn’t look like he was good enough to play at this level of football, period.

That’s all for this week’s Sangria Hangover. La Liga is off this week because of the international break and that means La Furia Liga is off as well. We will return a week from Friday to preview all of the action taking place in the second week of La Liga’s season.

Kevin McCauley is a United States based soccer writer and podcaster who covers Major League Soccer and La Liga for Goal.com.  To read his work on other subjects regarding the beautiful game, check out All Things Footy.