Last weekend, Real Madrid beat Levante 5-0. Cristiano Ronaldo bagged two of them, making it an utterly absurd 19 goals in 12 league and cup ...
Last weekend, Real Madrid beat Levante 5-0. Cristiano Ronaldo bagged two of them, making it an utterly absurd 19 goals in 12 league and cup appearances.
His 15 in seven Primera Liga games is the same as Sevilla, currently second in the table, have scored, and it is more than 16 of the division's 20 clubs. Only Barcelona and Valencia have scored more than Ronaldo.
He isn't doing it on his own, either. Karim Benzema has a perfectly respectable five from ten starts, Gareth Bale has five in 13, and Javier Hernandez appears to have rediscovered his scoring touch, netting three despite spending much of his time on the bench.
That victory was Real's seventh in a row in all competitions, games in which they have prevailed by an aggregate score of 33-4. The numbers are scary for their next opponents.
A few hours after Real were putting their league opponents to the sword, Liverpool were bumbling to one of the most ridiculous wins in Premier League history. It's hard to recall a team winning a game while playing quite so incompetently as Liverpool did against QPR, relying on two own goals and throwing their lead away twice on the way to a 3-2 victory.
Add this to Liverpool being without their most potent striker in Daniel Sturridge, and with Mario Balotelli playing so listlessly, it's pretty difficult to see how they could possibly resist the seemingly irresistible force of Real when they visit Anfield in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers spoke about the strengths of their opponents in an interview with Guillem Balague for Spanish newspaper AS, reported by Sky Sports:
They have amazing talents all over the field and they have the technique to play in small spaces and when the space opens up there is no one better on the counter-attack in Ronaldo and Bale because, they are two players that could be in the Olympic 100 metres final.
They are as strong a team now as they have been for many years. They have everything, big experience, big players, speed, technique and a great manager in (Carlo) Ancelotti, a good man who works with players and who is a good person.
However, there are some chinks of light for Rodgers and his team.
For a start, Real actually aren't quite as irresistible as they looked at the weekend. It's easy to forget, among all the mind-boggling statistics from Ronaldo and friends that they have already lost twice in this nascent season, once in a shambolic performance at Real Sociedad and another at home to Atletico Madrid in the early part of the season.
They are potentially vulnerable, as Bulgarian minnow Ludogorets illustrated in their last Champions League game, giving the Spanish giants an almighty scare even though Real eventually ran out 2-1 winners.
In addition, Real will be without two key players for the trip. As reported by Sky Sports, neither Gareth Bale (suffering with an abdominal injury) nor Sergio Ramos (who has a calf problem) travelled to England, while Karim Benzema and one of Ramos' potential replacements, Raphael Varane, missed the Levante game with a fever and so are unlikely to be playing at peak fitness.
Real do not have many weaknesses in their team, but one area that Liverpool might want to target is their full-backs. Dani Carvajal and Marcelo are likely to be the two choices on the flanks of Real's defence, and while both are undoubtedly happy going forward, both have positional issues that Liverpool could exploit.
Rodgers has the players to do this as well. Raheem Sterling has generally excelled through the centre, but he is equally dangerous on the flank, while Adam Lallana is beginning to find his feet in a Liverpool shirt. If both players are told to attack their markers at pace and look for space behind them, Liverpool could find some success in that area.
Additionally, Real do not generally play with a traditional holding midfielder (unless Sami Khedira is recalled), so deploying a 4-2-3-1 with Philippe Coutinho as the central man in the attacking three could exploit the space in front of their defence.
Of course, with Ronaldo in the team, any other weaknesses are potentially moot, so the question becomes how to stop the Portuguese genius. As many managers have concluded over the years, this is virtually impossible, and the best method is to try and cut off service to him.
In Real's case, that service will come from Toni Kroos and Luka Modric in the heart of midfield. This is where Jordan Henderson will be a key man for the Reds, as he will be asked to do the bulk of the work in closing down Kroos and Modric, not allowing the two to create the opportunities for Ronaldo.
