Madrid’s clash with Liverpool will test Perez’s Super League aspirations

While Real Madrid are not in a completely disastrous position at the halfway point of the revamped Champions League, there is no denying the fact that they are in a precarious – not to say embarrassing – position.

With Wednesday’s game against Liverpool at Anfield they are aggressively approaching at a time when Los Blancos The injury list is debilitating and if Carlo Ancelotti’s side have shown their vulnerable side, they sit mid-table, 18th, two points above the relegation zone.

Before we go any further, ask yourself this: Can you ever remember Real Madrid ever in your life being in the middle of the table, in 18th place or two points above the relegation zone?

Okay, there’s actually no need to panic.

Including this visit to the Premier League and Champions League leaders, the European champions have four games left to either move into a safer position, which will lead to a playoff in the spring, or automatically qualify for the quarter-finals , if they can break through into the top eight.

But if Madrid are beaten in northwest England – and that’s not entirely unlikely – they could be overtaken by a handful of teams like Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan or Benfica and slip further towards the bottom of the 36-team league, in which the danger begins to become serious.

The fact is that, despite two recent defeats against lower-class teams, the reigning European champions travel to Anfield with far too many problems in their backpacks. The list of injured stars includes: Éder Militão, David Alaba, Dani Carvajal, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Rodrygo and, above all, Vinícius Júnior. Terrible.

They still have a strong squad and will still field an XI that would be the envy of many clubs in the upper echelons of world football – but that is a hemorrhage of the extraordinarily brave, talented, experienced and highly skilled personnel they have. I suffered.

Last season Ancelotti’s team won champions despite a series of crippling injuries, but never so many at once. A balancing factor is the return of Thibaut Courtois in goal, which is absolutely monumental. Jude Bellingham is back in form and Lucas Vázquez can travel with the team and potentially play at right-back.

Still, the loss of Vinícius to a hamstring injury is a huge blow for Madrid, especially against Liverpool. The Brazilian was a perpetual nightmare for the Premier League team. The Spanish champions have had an exceptional record against the Reds in recent times: they have only lost to them twice in competition, have not suffered defeat in 15 years and have recently beaten Liverpool in two Champions League finals.

Vinícius was involved in many of these events, providing goals and assists (seven in total) to torment the Anfield team. This season, the outstanding Brazilian has scored or assisted 20 goals in just 18 appearances across all competitions. What a loss.

But regardless of whether Madrid confirms its eternal “You can’t damage us, we’re Teflon!” or not. Stand your ground and win, or be defeated and forced to lick their wounds and then prepare for “All on deck!” In the remaining three games, it is worth noting that this situation has served to further expose Florentino Perez’s hypocrisy.

I don’t think it was a good weekend for the president of Madrid, who took advantage of the annual general meeting to announce his views to the club’s members and therefore through the world’s media. He spouted some nonsense about how Vinícius would have won the Ballon d’Or if it hadn’t been for the strange behavior of elective nations like Uganda, Namibia, Albania and Finland.

It was nothing more than a slap in the arm from a haughty billionaire at the boardroom table. He unilaterally rejected the footballing value or relevance of these countries. In his diatribe he made it clear that, in his view, the voters from these countries were nobody and were known to nobody. He treated their international credibility in a humiliating manner.

He forgot to take into account that these nations gave votes and points to Karim Benzema or Courtois when the Frenchman won and the Belgian finished seventh in the 2022 Ballon d’Or. There was no complaining then: just a quiet satisfaction that the serfs had voted the way they were supposed to vote.

Perez was hypocritical then, but even more so when he threw dirt on the Champions League format. Perez further claimed that a year-old European court ruling had freed football from the tyrannical yoke of FIFA and UEFA. Twelve months later, nothing concrete has happened as a result of this ruling. Don’t forget. But Madrid’s president still felt it was important to suggest that sport had undergone a ridiculous emancipation.

In itself it seemed nonsensical, but he compounded the mistake by talking about his beloved Super League project, declaring that there was growing support for it, and ignoring the fact that he and his allies last time around They brought this forward not only having suffered a resounding defeat in their project on the table, but also humiliated by the ineptitude of their timing, their communication and by the way a landslide in general football opinion went against them.

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Gab and Juls discuss Real Madrid’s injury problems after Éder Militão was forced off the pitch with a cruciate ligament injury.

Nevertheless, he continues to advertise it. Above all, he would like more income for the big clubs. He submits that 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 governing bodies ignore all the goodness, creativity and durability squeezing our best footballers.

What was always central to Perez’s Super League idea, and I suspect is still central to it, is that the big clubs play the big clubs non-stop. No riffraff. He didn’t realize the inherent disadvantage to domestic football across Europe was the Achilles’ heel that fans would (still) revolt over.

However, on a dazzling and superficial level, the idea of ​​Europe’s big names playing against each other again and again and not having to bother with arduous trips to the Czech Republic, Scotland, Finland or Norway etc. might seem seductive to some.

What Perez failed to mention was that exactly the kind of encounter they crave in this new hypothetical competition will take place against Real Madrid at Anfield this week. Exactly when Los Blancos would much rather play a minion that is easy to knock down.

I make no secret of the fact that I want Real Madrid to progress in this tournament because they bring excitement and an irresistible will to win and are the proven emperors of this competition. No question, no argument.

But the wry, cynical laughter that will follow them as they either struggle or are eliminated due to defeat against Liverpool and Milan, the midweek games they always crave in their Super League, would be ice-cold revenge for her against Perez’s selfish plans.

On Wednesday, footballers like Kylian Mbappé, Courtois, Bellingham and Federico Valverde will have to absolutely shine and a draw will be more than enough. But there is the possibility of defeat for the champions, which would leave their ambitious president and his team in a terribly difficult qualifying position.