:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/2685644/GYI0064653371.jpg)
Welcome to Bernabeu Bites where every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we take you around the world of Real Madrid, La Liga and European Football in tasty bite size form. So sit back, relax, grab a beverage and enjoy!
You could go with an alternate title for this: Unscheduled Naps In The Middle Of The Day Don't Get Your Writing Done. At least the transfer window is closed, and we can resume normal...oh wait, that's right, international duties this week. Don't worry there are still a lot of things to talk about it, most like how La Liga is or isn't crap--more on that later.
This one comes from Goal.com who took it from Marca, so to say this is concrete and totally truthful is on you the reader. I'm not sure I believe it, but then again an injury is an injury. But it looks like Nuri Sahin will be out until (at the least) November due to his knee injury. As someone who has horrible knees I feel for the guy, and I say don't rush it. But this also means that everyone who hates Real Madrid is going to prattle on about how Sahin was the the worst signing of the summer.
Tactics In Focus: Real Zaragoza 0 Real Madrid 6 | Spanishfootball.info
This is a great piece on our first fixture of the season and explains in pretty damn good detail how Fabio Coentrao changes the look of the midfield and how he differs from Khedria, for example.
"Coentrao is left-footed. This may seem obvious (it is) but I have a point. Coentrao has played most of his recent career as a left-back and this is perhaps why Mourinho picks him here. His ability to cover for Marcelo is vital as Marcelo is so often attacking down the left flank and neither Khedira or Alonso could provide the cover as effectively as Coentrao. So often Marcelo got forward and so often Coentrao was seen covering for him at left-back (this wasn’t that useful as Zaragoza are a poor side, but will be very handy against better-equipped teams)."
Kaka recently did an interview with RealMadrid.com, where they mostly centered on his time on the pitch versus Real Zaragoza, and what the goal meant to him and the like. Then it came down to talking about Mou, and the fact that Mou loves having Kaka around.
"He’s always had faith in me. He could have said he didn’t want me anymore, that the club should look for another team for me. He believes I can help the team considerably. The rest of the coaching staff does too. Rui Faria, Karanka, Morais, Louro and the rest of his staff help me and give me strength to keep improving".
Maybe that will quiet the rabid Kaka fans out there? Eh...probably not.
Recent Newcastle United transfer David Stanton thanked Jose Mourinho in a recent interview. Stanton played for the Special One at Inter Milan and had recently fallen out of favor at the Serie A side.
"I must say a big thank you to Mr Jose Mourinho. He has been really important for me," Stanton said.
"He has taught me to give 100 per cent out on the pitch and other important things. He has been really important to my career. I can only thank him."
And now we move to the hat trick portion of the program. No, not Cristiano Ronaldo's hat trick from the weekend but a trio of articles that center around Mesut Ozil, you know, the guy that gets starts ahead of Kaka..
Mesut Ozil: We are on Barcelona's level - ESPN Soccernet
"We lost the Supercopa in an unfortunate manner but both matches showed we are on Barcelona's level," Ozil told Bild.
"The playmaker is also pleased with Madrid's start to the La Liga season, after the club thrashed Zaragoza 6-0 in their opening game.
I am completely happy, it was a wonderful victory and also an important one. Starting the season well is something that gives us confidence."
He's right, and that's not my Real Madrid bias. This year's club seems to be a bit more of a cohesive unit, and look to be jelling as a team. Now if we could just get Nuri Sahin healthy, things will be even that much better.
This one deserves a hat tip to the guys over at KCKRS. Apparently while Ozil was on holiday, he was caught by the German Tabloid Bild smoking on a yacht. He was then asked what that was all about.
"I was on a yacht on vacation and didn’t notice I was being photographed," Ozil said. "It was because I lost a bet and therefore only a one-time thing. I assure you: I do not smoke."
Dear Mr. Ozil: You've got to realize that you're a football player, so they're going to try and catch you slipping up. Everyone has a camera in this day and age. I hardly think there is a phone out there that doesn't have one as well. So maybe you should be a tad bit more careful in the future when it comes to paying up on bets and other things.
And that concludes the Mesut Ozil portion of our program. We will now resume our regular broadcast already in progress. I'll try not to disappear like Mr. Ozil.
Racing Santander has signed 26-year-old defensive midfielder Alexandros Tziolis on loan for the rest of La Liga season. Tziolis comes from Italian side Siena where he only played in 13 games. The kid will most likely get more playing time since Serie A is in the middle of their strike.
It seems Sevilla Chairman Jose Maria de Nido seems to think La Liga is a complete joke, a "third world" football league. All of this over the fact that radio stations will pay for La Liga rights to broadcast. Now I'm not totally up on what's going on in Spain. But here in the states, that is a standard practice--trust me, I put 13 years in the radio industry and that's just the way it is. Nothing comes for free, mate.
"The reality is that they have chosen a terrible decision in order to continue widening the difference between the big clubs and the rest: to charge the radios," he fired to Radio Nacional de Espana on Tuesday."For the love of God, are there any fans not saying that the league is prostituted, adulterated, corrupted? The radio income will be another scrap to make the biggest clubs bigger and the rest even smaller.
Our tournament is not just the biggest joke in Europe, but in the world. It is a third-world league in which two clubs take the others' television money," he concluded.
On the other side of the coin, our very own Sergio Ramos pretty much tells Maria de Nido suck it up, or take his ball and go play some where else.
"If he doesn't like this one, why doesn't he look for another?" Ramos told reporters as he joined up for international duty with the Spain squad on Wednesday.