Real Madrid beat Barcelona in a huge match on Sunday night, and a lot of credit went to the top performers of the night. Rightfully so, as well, because Real Madrid could not have achieved what they did without the entire team producing a really high level of performance against their biggest rivals in a time of desperate need.
Almost all of Real Madrid's starters had fantastic games, and it just seemed like everything worked perfectly for the Real Madrid players. Now what matters is to be able to continue this run for as long as possible so that they can keep competing for La Liga.
However, a lot of the credit should also go to manager Jose Mourinho. He made absolutely zero mistakes with the starting XI and almost zero mistakes with everything else too.
Jose Mourinho platformed Real Madrid perfectly
The setup that Real Madrid used was absolutely perfect - starting a ball-dominant midfielder alongside Aurelien Tchouameni was definitely the right call. Fede Valverde was a brilliant performer at right back, and Arda Guler had the brilliant chance creation that you would want one of the attackers to always have. It was all working like clockwork, and the lineup was exactly what fans wanted to see from Real Madrid.
Then you go on to the substitutions. Apart from Denzel Dumfries, all of Real Madrid's substitutes worked well too. Dumfries was only there because Valverde had to play a lot of the match in pain. The Dutch fullback was probably Real Madrid's worst player on the night, but he wasn't bad enough to let the win slip away, which is what matters most. The substitution of Eduardo Camavinga was also a stroke of genius from Mourinho, as it opened up the Barcelona side a lot more than fans thought.
There is also the case of the actual tactics for the game. Madrid could have easily played a very low block and relied on counterattacks, but against Barcelona, that simply would not have worked because they would have had Real Madrid pinned in their half due to their extraordinarily high line. Instead, Real Madrid continued to press and force Barcelona defenders and midfielders into turnovers to create chances in the attack. Bernardo Silva was also instrumental in helping with Real Madrid's build-up by constantly supporting his teammates.
Even if Barcelona had won this game, Real Madrid fans would not have been able to blame Jose Mourinho because he did exactly what he should have done to win this game. He platformed this team perfectly and was able to build the perfect lineup for this match. Had Real Madrid lost, it would be down to the players and not the manager. It was a really good performance, and hopefully this is the way to go for Real Madrid going forward too.
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