Pressure on Mourinho mounts but title is Real's to lose

Spanish Football / Ben Lyttleton / 23 January 2012 / 1 Comments

Jose is feeling the pressure after Madrid fans booed him on Sunday

"Sergio Ramos undermined Mourinho’s authority by claiming that he can’t understand everything because he never played the game."

Dressing room bust-ups, indiscipline on the field and a viscious press are making life difficult for Jose Mourinho, says Ben Lyttleton. But the Special One's team remain top of La Liga and could well deny Barcelona a fourth consecutive title...

This is a landmark week for Jose Mourinho and not just because the Real Madrid coach turns 49 on Thursday. One day before then, his team take on Barcelona at Camp Nou in the Copa Del Rey quarter-final second leg, with his team 2-1 down after last week's home loss. Madrid are [9.2] to get through while the price for a red card is [1.92].

The fall-out from the first leg continued into Sunday night's 4-1 win over a decent Athletic Bilbao side, who took the lead and could consider themselves unfortunate not to be ahead at half-time (it was 1-1). After Madrid scored their fourth, the Ultra fans behind the goal started chanting the coach's name, whereupon the rest of stadum booed and whistled.

Mourinho admitted after the game that he had never been whistled by his own fans before: 'Not at Porto, Inter or Chelsea, but it's no problem for me, it's happened to Zidane, Ronaldo and Cristiano here," he said after the game. But it did seem significant, not least as this team is five points clear at the top of La Liga. Madrid are [1.68] to end Barcelona's run of three straight titles, with the reigning champions [2.4].

So what was the cause of the Madridristas' displeasure? It was a story that ran in the anti-Mourinho paper Marca on the morning of the game, concerning the dressing-room split in the camp in the aftermath of the Barcelona loss.Mourinho, the paper claimed, had a furious row with Sergio Ramos during which the defender is said to have undermined Mourinho's authority by claiming that he can't understand everything because he never played the game.

Mourinho hit back and accused the Spanish players in the dressing-room of being "over-protected by the World Cup and your media contacts". Iker Casillas, the club captain who played his 600th game on Sunday and whose girlfriend Sara Carbonero is a reporter for Telecinco, was not happy:

"There's days where I'll get mad at someone and someone with me but the relationship is normal," he said after the game, while Alvaro Arbeloa ueged the fans to get behind the team. "Whistling Mourinho is like whistling us," he said.

The coach's continued support of Pepe, who has turned into the villain of this clasico series after his stamp on Lionel Messi last week went unnoticed, as described here by The Daily Telegraph's Paul Hayward, has antagonised the Spanish media and Marca's hounding of Mourinho - the paper wants him out, and ran the front-page 'Deadly Sins' headline charting all his mistakes against Barcelona last week - will not stop now.

What's astonishing is that Real Madrid still have the title fate in their own hands despite all these issues. Even if they lose to Barcelona again, if they win all their other games, it will be enough. (It may be that Spain's big two may both end the season happy, if Madrid win La Liga and Barcelona retain the Champions League, for which they are [2.54].

While once again attention focuses on the big two, the teams they beat this weekend deserve mention: Athletic were impressive in the first-half and Marcelo Bielsa's introduction as coach seems to be working. Barcelona beat big-spending Malaga 4-1, and Malaga's experiment, so far at least, has been less successful. Sixteen new players, over €80m invested and they are in tenth place, but it speaks volumes of La Liga's competitive balance that they are still only six points off the fourth Champions League qualifying place.

There are seven teams in contention for that fourth spot while the team currently there, Levante, have won just two of their last ten games. Only four teams outside the top two have a positive goals difference and the race for that final spot could be between Athletic Bilbao, [5.0] to finish in the top four, Malaga, [3.25], Espanyol, [4.4], and Atletico Madrid, who have won back-to-back games under new coach Diego Simeone, and are [2.36]. Mourinho may make all the headlines again this week, but the race for fourth place is developing into a nice sub-plot, and despite last night's defeat, Bielsa's Bilbao represent decent value.

Comments (1)

1. leslie Agyare | 24 January 2012

   "THE SPECIAL ONE IS THE REAL COACH FOR MARDRID AND THERE IS NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT"