What were Real Madrid lacking in El Clasico?

Although Messi was named in the squad having recovered from a knee injury he sustained eight weeks ago, Luis Enrique left the Argentinian on the bench at the start, while the in-form Sergi Roberto joined Neymar and Suarez in attack.

AS’ Alfredo Matilla also pointed to Barca’s team selection as a victory for their philosophy, with Luis Enrique naming five canterano (youth-team products) in his XI compared to none for Madrid.

An utterly dominant Barca could easily have added to their tally in the closing stages and Real’s humiliation was complete when substitute Isco was shown a straight red card for a wild lunge at Neymar six minutes from time.

“For now I’m with Castilla and if I stayed at the club it was to manage Castilla”.

However, for anyone that watched El Clasico last night, it was clear that tactically Benitez’s set-up failed to cope with Barcelona’s pace and dynamism in attack.

Two first half goals from Hernan Perez gave Espanyol a 2-0 home win over Malaga, who have only scored in two of their 12 games to date this season.

Benitez called for his side to react quickly to a second successive league defeat, this humiliation following the 3-2 reverse to Sevilla a fortnight ago. We gave them very few chances, we hardly lost the ball. “It hurts us a lot, to lose like this against Barcelona”.

“We’ll keep fighting in the way we have to fight”.

“We did start how we wanted to”. What they lacked was the intensity and capacity to do basic things well, the two things upon which rested Benitez’s plan for the game; you can’t press high up the pitch with a lack of intensity, and you will not have possession if you can’t pass the ball well.

“We did it on occasion, but at other moments we couldn’t and we were made to pay”.

Iniesta made his “Clasico” debut a year before Ronaldinho’s double and has featured in 32 Real-Barca games, the most of any active player from either side. “I won’t talk about a lack of desire in my team”. We must all be responsible for it not going well, now look for unity in the group, to try and sort this in our next game.