El Clasico: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo absent – who can enlighten El Clasico?

The most famous football match in the world: El Clasico.

Over the past 10 years, it has been a personal playground for two larger-than-life global icons. But neither one nor the other will play Sunday afternoon when Barcelona and Real Madrid will play at Nou Camp 's horn.

Cristiano Ronaldo, of course, left for Juventus after a nine-year stint in Madrid, which brought in 450 goals and 15 trophies, including four Champions League crowns.

And now, Lionel Messi is also absent. The Barca's talisman was sidelined after he broke his arm during last weekend's 4-2 win over Sevilla. A result that allowed the defending champions to be at the top of the standings and give them the opportunity to win seven points on the Real. on Sunday.

It will be the first Clasico to be neither Messi nor Ronaldo since December 2007, while the Real triumphed with a solitary goal of Julio Baptista in a game containing other defenses of the past such as Deco, Gianluca Zambrotta, Gabriel Heinze and Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Since then, Messi and Ronaldo have been the most brilliant stars of the world-class talent galaxy, El Clasico: Messi is the top scorer of the match (26 goals) and the assistant (14), while Ronaldo holds the Clasicos' most consecutive record with one goal (six games, all in 2012).

So, how will Barca cope with the sudden absence of Messi? How will Real overcome his post-Ronaldo hangover? How will the absence of the pair affect the overall pattern of the game? We will take a look.

Where are Real's goals without Ronaldo?

To say that Real is struggling to accept the summer departure of Ronaldo and the equally legendary coach, Zinedine Zidane, says it nicely.

The Blancos have drawn and lost three of their last four league games, including defeats against Alaves and Levante, before falling to seventh place and leaving the new coach Julen Lopetegui suspended on a wire. .

The root of their problems is obvious: they scored only one goal in these four games, and this comes from left-back Marcelo in the 2-1 home defeat of the weekend. last end against Levante.

Even Viktoria Plzen's win in the Champions League midweek did not bring much comfort. While Karim Benzema scored for the first time in almost two months, but the 2-1 win, sealed by another goal from Marcelo, was far from convincing, especially in the kind of match that they would win regularly on a street when Ronaldo was around.

Striking a player who had scored at least 40 goals in each of the last eight seasons without replacing him adequately had consequences, all the more so since Ronaldo's departure was only a matter of time. part of a gradual but significant thinning of the team, which left an alarming lack of authentic scorers.

When Real won the double in the Champions League and Champions League in 2017, Ronaldo, Alvaro Morata and James Rodriguez scored 48 goals in the league. All are now gone, with only the unproven Mariano Diaz added.

The creative talents are still numerous in the team: any manager would like to be able to call upon Gareth Bale, Isco, Marco Asensio and Benzema. But none of these players is an absolute scorer, they are players who do the bulk of their work outside the penalty area, providing ammunition rather than shooting them.

One statistic that illustrates the dramatic decline in the team's firepower is that it tied a world record with 73 consecutive goals, while this season it has not scored four times.

This week, Isco is bristling at the suggestion that Real was missing Ronaldo a lot, stating, "We can not cry about someone who did not want to be here."

But the facts speak for themselves. Real has nothing of the same kind of goal threat since the Portuguese left.

Isco can be excused from the recent fall of form that has just returned after an operation for appendicitis, but unless his teammates dramatically improve their performance very soon, other tears will flow.

Mission impossible: replace Messi

Barca's director, Ernesto Valverde, had a simple answer to the question of how he intended to make up for Messi's loss following Argentina's injury last weekend, stating: "I do not do not know.

A few days later, defender Jordi Alba, who had a particularly fruitful relationship with his captain, was just as depressed. "No one can replace Messi," he lamented. "He is the best player in the world."

But, in the short term, the Barca must find a way to replace it and Valverde has at least many options.

The most obvious is Ousmane Dembele, the quick winger who signed a £ 135.5m contract with Borussia Dortmund following Neymar's departure before the start of last season.

But Dembele's time at the club was extremely inconsistent, with the Frenchman looking just as promising to face three opponents or carelessly concede possession of the ball as soon as he receives the ball, and regularly provoking Luis' anger. Suarez concluding a promising crossover or overly ambitious course.

Given the weaknesses of Dembele, the preferred option could be a more advanced role for the versatile Sergi Roberto, who was selected for this task the last time Messi missed a Clasico in 2015. On this occasion, it worked perfectly. . a 4-0 win at Bernabeu. (Messi appeared from the bench with his team already 3-0.)

Valverde could also turn to an unknown amount in the form of Brazilian winger Malcom, who has signed for more than £ 30 million in Bordeaux this summer, but has barely played up to now, only doing two brief appearances of substitution.

Another possibility is local midfielder Rafinha, who had only started twice this season before scoring in Wednesday's win over Inter Milan, the club he had loaned in ready the last term.

Valverde could instead choose to strengthen the center midfield by selecting veteran Arturo Vidal, who has also started twice since entering Bayern Munich and has struggled for using social media to express his dissatisfaction with this lack of playing time. It is also possible to adopt a more conventional training in 4-4-2 with Suarez, associated with the young striker Munir El Haddadi.

So, Barca has a lot of potential solutions to his Messi problem … but none of them looks particularly convincing.

Marcelo the main beneficiary?

Apart from the one who eventually replaces Messi, the player most directly concerned with the absence of Argentina should be Marcelo, the back left of Real.

The Brazilian dynamic is an extremely important element of Real's offensive approach, as evidenced by the fact that he has scored two of his last three goals.

However, in previous editions of Clasicos since Messi returned to the right after his role as "false nine", Marcelo has often – reluctantly – accepted the need to master his offensive instincts and give himself a better chance of being able to play. to chain his opponent.

This indirect but important consequence of Messi's presence was expressed by his former international teammate Pablo Zabaleta.

"The back can not go too far because, in this case, Messi will stand behind him, so he can not be exposed," said Zabaleta for my book.

"If you leave Messi with room, you will get in trouble and concede goals, so of course when you play against him, you do not try so much to go from there. "

This observation is corroborated by the following statistics: the average number of Marcelo passes per game over his career is 51.8, but in three of his last four appearances in Clasico at Camp Nou, that number has dropped to 41, except for the 2-2 draw of last season. , when Marcelo exerted his usual influence with 66 passes, but was punished by being taken out of position for both goals of Barca.

In this particular Clasico, Marcelo will be released from the burden of keeping Messi and will therefore have the freedom to play his natural game, to the benefit of the offensive game of Real.

But the Barca could still try to target the Brazilian's love for the top of the pitch, Dembele's pace being particularly suited to exploit the shortcomings that he leaves behind if Valverde dares to take an aggressive approach.

Anyway, it seems certain that the team that will adjust better to the absence of Messi will greatly increase their chances of victory.