Bale and Madrid Must Improve Away Fortunes in Saturday's Clasico

It’s ironic that Barcelona’s first match following the passing of club legend Johan Cruyff will be El Clasico. The Dutchman is heavily credited with changing the fortunes of the club, helping them to domestic glory in his debut season at Camp Nou, before returning as manager in 1988 to oversee a period of domestic and continental dominance. 

As one expects, the Catalan side will pay homage to one of their famous sons in Saturday’s welcome of Real Madrid. Barcelona currently lead La Liga by a whopping nine points. The Blaugrana are expected to secure title glory once more this season in a manner befitting of Cruyff's own supremacy. While not quite the same style as Pep Guardiola’s version of Total Football, Luis Enrique’s adaptation has helped Barcelona sweep aside all those before them, both in Spain and Europe. 

This weekend, they have the opportunity to open up a 13-point gap between themselves and heated rivals Real Madrid. Los Blancos are in a period of transition. The appointment of Rafa Benitez in itself was bewildering to say the least and only resulted in Zinedine Zidane’s premature progression to first team manager.

The Frenchman may have his side figured out on home turf, where they breeze past the opposition, but away from home Madrid have struggled. Granted, they haven’t succumbed to defeat on the road since the 1-0 defeat to Villarreal back in December, but the performances have been far from satisfactory. Indeed, Real Madrid are expected to struggle when they turn up at Camp Nou on Saturday evening, particularly against a Barcelona side hell bent on giving Cruyff the send off he deserves. 

It will also be another chance to inflict further damage on their rivals and well and truly dump them out of the title race. As such Zidane needs his best performers to pull their weight in Barcelona this weekend if they are to come away with a positive result, though that is easier said than done given the talent running right through this Blaugrana side. One player who indeed needs to put in an impressive showing is Gareth Bale. 

Football’s most expensive player is enjoying perhaps his finest season to date, gaining a WhoScored rating of 8.11, the third best in Europe’s top five leagues. Zidane is supposedly prepared to sanction the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo and build his Madrid side around Bale and, when the Welshman has been available for selection, he has proven he can shoulder the pressure that comes with succeeding the Portugal international. 

Prior to the international break, Bale became the highest scoring British player in the history of La Liga, with his goal against Sevilla his 43rd since his big money move to the Bernabeu. A tally of 15 league goals this season has already matched his best return in a campaign since his move, while one would expect him to build on the nine assists he has accumulated, both of which are exceptional returns given Bale has made just 18 La Liga appearances this season. 

When fully fit and on top form, Bale is an unstoppable force, though his injury problems have limited his impact to an extent this campaign. Yet, on his travels, much like Real Madrid, Bale has floundered at times this season. Of the 15 goals he has netted, 13 have been scored at the Bernabeu, while six of his nine assists have also come on home turf. Indeed, his WhoScored rating at home (8.52) drops significantly away from home (7.59). 

While not a poor return by any means, it remains a substantial difference for a player of his calibre. It’s not for want of trying either. He averages marginally more shots per game at home (3.6) than he does away (3.3), while he actually averages more key passes on his travels (2.5) than he does at home (2.2). Nevertheless, his end product on the road this season has been lacking and it’s a concern coming into Saturday’s Clasico. While he has indeed performed to expectations this term, Bale’s away form has been somewhat underwhelming.

Bale has routinely struggled against Barcelona in the past, having scored just one goal in his five competitive appearances against the defending La Liga champions, that coming in the Copa Del Rey final in his debut campaign. In fact, in his five meetings with Barcelona, that victory in 2014 is his only one, with the other four all resulting in defeat for he and Real Madrid. 

Against an inspired Barcelona side that rightly come into this Clasico as favourites, Bale and his teammates need to improve their displays on the road if they are to upset the odds at Camp Nou this weekend. Should Los Blancos churn out another lazy away performance, as they have so regularly done under Zidane, Barcelona will likely come away with a big three points, heaping further misery upon Real Madrid in the process.

Bale has endured his fair share of critics from the Real Madrid faithful following his big money switch from Tottenham in 2013, but if he goes against the grain and performs at Camp Nou, supporters will be much more forgiving of the player expected to usurp Ronaldo as Los Blancos' poster boy.

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