1. Barça lost 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu on an afternoon that no one will remember for a year. In a poor but entertaining match for spectators who were neither on either side, everything seemed to happen in the first half, but nothing happened in the second. And that favored the home team, who had everything going for them: the scoreboard, the intensity, the depth of the bench, and a motivated crowd that gave their all this Sunday because they were fired up at Chamartín. About the referee? More on that later. After the break, something significant did happen. Szczesny saved a penalty from Mbappé. It would have made it 3-1 and practically sealed the deal. But the Polish goalkeeper rounded off one of his best performances since leaving golden retirement in Marbella to do Barça a favor and enhance his resume. Yesterday, the Pole, aside from the penalty, made seven very good saves. But when the man with the gloves is the best on your team, it's a bad sign. Yesterday, Barça barely created any scoring chances; they were incredibly inaccurate, and it proved that faith, football, and the generosity of Pedri and De Jong's efforts aren't enough. More must be done well to beat a rival with a great squad and, so far, a very disjointed team. After eleven matches, Madrid leads Barça by five points. Too far. But we're not at Tots Sants yet, and therefore, there's still plenty of La Liga left for the team to rebuild. But right now, the list of absences, Flick's disorientation, the unnecessary noise, and the refereeing obsession will make it very difficult to win this La Liga. We're just scraping by.
2. Julio Tous, when he arrived as the new fitness coach, promised that there would be 50% of the injuries compared to before. The result is exactly the opposite. The forward line that amazed the world last year—Lamine Yamal, Lewandowski, and Raphinha—are gone. The Pole and the Brazilian scored 76 goals together. Now they're not playing. Lamine is playing at half speed because, given his injury, he should rest. Raphinha has relapsed three times with a muscle injury that was supposed to heal in three weeks, and at this rate, it might take two months. The short roster, with so many injuries, doesn't mean we're winning the war. Hopefully, by the time everyone recovers, we won't have made a mess of things.
3. It seems that the players, with their bellies full from last season's three titles, aren't as hungry as they were a year ago, when a new coach arrived to whom they had to showcase their talent. For Flick, the season hasn't started well either. His bad mood stems from the summer, where preseason wasn't what he had planned, with a coming-of-age party for Lamine Yamal that he couldn't stomach, and with Iñigo Martínez's gift to Arab football, whose dressing room is slipping through his fingers. Flick wasn't on the bench yesterday, but skipping the pre-match press conference (a Madrid-Barça match!) sends a bad message. Even worse was seeing how the team ended up: with Casadó and De Jong at center-back, Araujo at striker, and Lamine Yamal crossing balls from the back. The mess has also made its way onto the coach's whiteboard.
4That Laporta and Lamine Yamal's father, before a Clásico, send optimistic messages that ignite Madrid isn't a provocation. It's part of the game. That we've seen Lamine Yamal, in the decisive week, making a fool of himself in the King's League for more than two days in a row is beyond comprehension. And even less so that no one at the club can stop him. The man from Rocafonda has everything to be like Messi and, depending on how things turn out, he could end up like Neymar. And the referee? In the 11th minute, the score was 0-0. Without VAR, it would have been 2-0, due to a penalty that wasn't awarded and an offside goal by Mbappé. That's all there is to it. Gil Manzano had already done the dirty work a week ago, sending off Hansi Flick.
