Madrid’s Liverpool clash will test Perez’s Super League claims

While Real Madrid are not in an outright disastrous position at this halfway stage of the revamped Champions League, there is no getting around the fact that they are in a precarious – not to say embarrassing – situation.

With Wednesday’s game against Liverpool at Anfield staring them aggressively in the face, at a time when Los Blancos’ The injury list is debilitating and when Carlo Ancelotti’s side have shown their vulnerable side, they are in mid-table, which means 18th and two points from the relegation zone.

Before we go any further, ask yourself this: can you ever remember Real Madrid being mid-table, 18th or two points above the relegation zone in anything, in your life, ever?

OK, there’s no real need to panic.

Including this visit to the Premier League and Champions League leaders, the European champions have four games left to lift themselves either into a more secure position, which will bring a play-off in the spring, or into automatic qualification for the quarter-finals if they can manage firm. in the top eight.

But if Madrid are beaten in the north-west of England – and that is not entirely unlikely – they could be overtaken by a handful of teams such as Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan or Benfica and could slide further towards the bottom of the 36-team league, where the danger begins to look serious.

The hard fact is that despite two recent domestic dunks handed out to lower-tier teams, the reigning European champions head to Anfield with far too many problems in their bags. Their absent list of injured stars includes: Eder Militão, David Alaba, Dani Carvajal, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Rodrygo and crucially, Vinicius Junior. Terrible.

They still have a robust squad and they will still field an XI that would be the envy of many clubs in the upper echelons of world football – but it is a bleeding of extraordinarily brave, talented, experienced, high-quality staff that they have little.

Last season, Ancelotti’s team became champions despite a series of crippling injuries, but never so many at the same time. There is a balance factor in Thibaut Courtois returning in goal, which is of absolutely monumental importance. Jude Bellingham returns to form and Lucas Vázquez will be able to travel with the squad and potentially play at right-back.

Still, losing Vinícius to a hamstring injury is a huge blow for Madrid, especially against Liverpool. The Brazilian has been an eternal nightmare for the Premier League side. The Spanish champions have an extraordinary recent record against the Reds, losing to them competitively just twice, going unbeaten in 15 years and defeating Liverpool in the last two Champions League finals.

Vinícius has been at the heart of much of this, producing goals and assists (seven in total) to torment the Anfield men. This season, the devastating Brazilian has contributed 20 goals – scored or assisted – in just 18 appearances in all competitions. What a loss.

But whether or not Madrid confirms their eternal “You can’t hurt us, we’re Teflon!” attitude and win, or be defeated and forced to lick their wounds and then prepare for “All on deck!” over the remaining three games, it’s worth pointing out that this situation has helped expose more of Florentino Perez’s hypocrisy.

I don’t think it was a good weekend for Madrid’s president, who used the annual general meeting to trumpet his views to the club’s members and collectively via the media to the world. He trotted out with some nonsense about how Vinícius would have won the Ballon d’Or if it wasn’t for the strange behavior of voting nations like Uganda, Namibia, Albania and Finland.

It was nothing more than a stroke of the arm of a haughty billionaire at the boardroom table. He unilaterally dismissed the football value or relevance of these countries. In his speech he was clear that from his point of view the people who voted from these countries were nobody and known by nobody. He treated their international credibility in a humiliating way.

What he forgot to take into account was that these nations gave votes and points to Karim Benzema or Courtois when the Frenchman won and the Belgian finished seventh in the Ballon d’Or 2022. There were no complaints then: simply a quiet satisfaction that the serfs had voted as they should.

Perez was hypocritical then, but even more so when he threw mud at the Champions League format. Perez went on to claim that a year-old European court ruling had freed football from the tyrannical yoke of FIFA and UEFA. Twelve months later, and don’t forget, nothing specific has happened because of that judgment. But Madrid’s president still thought it important to suggest that the sport had enjoyed a ludicrous liberation.

That seemed frivolous in itself, but he compounded the error by ranting about his beloved Super League project, saying there was growing support for it, ignoring the fact that he and his allies were not only defeated, last time they brought this. project to the table, but also humiliated by their inept timing, their communication and by the way a landslide of mainstream football opinion went against them.

Yet he continues to proclaim it. What he wants most out of it is more income for the big clubs. He suggests it could be a panacea for the amount football fans have to pay to watch the teams – not an unfair complaint – and a solution to the way the governing bodies squeeze out all the goodness, creativity and durability. of our best footballers.

What was always at the heart, and I suspect is still at the heart of Perez’s Superliga idea, is that the big clubs play the big clubs non-stop. No riffraff. The inherent injury to domestic football around Europe was the Achilles heel that he failed to understand that fans would (still) riot over.

At least, only on a glimmering and superficial level, the idea of ​​Europe’s big names playing each other repeatedly, and not having to bother with arduous trips to the Czech Republic, Scotland, Finland or Norway etc. seem seductive to some.

What Perez failed to mention was that the very type of game they crave in this new hypothetical competition is about to happen for Real Madrid this week at Anfield. Exactly when Los Blancos would much rather play a minion that is easy to topple.

I don’t mind that I want Real Madrid to progress in this tournament because they bring excitement and an irresistible will to win and they are the proven emperors of this competition. No question, no argument.

But the wry, cynical laughter that will follow them if they either struggle or are knocked out due to failure against Liverpool and Milan, the very midweek games they crave again and again in their Super League, would be revenge served ice-cold for them . contrary to Perez’s selfish plans.

Wednesday will be an occasion where footballers such as Kylian MbappéCourtois, Bellingham and Federico Valverde absolutely need to shine and a draw will be more than enough. But there is a chance of defeat for the champions, which would leave their ambitious president and his team in a terribly difficult qualification position.