Posted by Stephen Kuzner

By Stephen Kuzner - WFD Fan Correspondent

If you were a player in La Liga, who would you rather want to exchange shirts with, Messi or Ronaldo? Keep that thought in mind.


I thought that it was presumptuous and arrogant to think, let alone, write in Tuesday's piece this week that many La Liga sides may feel it an honor to play versus beautiful Barcelona. While it would be a chore to play against a defensive Mourinho-mindgame-playing Real Madrid. The thing is, Joe Mourinho may think the same thing. Earlier this week Graham Hunter wrote on ESPNsoccernet that a friend confided in him that Mourinho feared that many small and medium-sized La Liga teams come to the Camp Nou with a defeatist frame of mind hoping to exchange shirts with Lionel Messi.

I never played professional soccer, but I did play amateur sports and remember the level of effort I gave playing teams I hated compared to the teams I was friends with. It may not be overt turning-in a less than 100% effort when a lesser team plays Barcelona, but at least on a subconscious-level something must take place? What is the frame of mind of a player taking-on a team that won La Liga last year, won six trophies the year before, and starts six of Spain's World Cup winning players? Intimidated? Star-struck? Fired-up to compete? All the above? We'll never know answers to these questions because players won't admit anything short of an attitude of total focus. Still, earlier this year, Sporting Gijon fought hard at the Camp Nou and Hercules beat Barcelona on the road. Perhaps Mourinho has nothing to fear about teams traveling to the Camp Nou.

However, his perception does not help Madrid. Labeling the team that Gijon boss Manolo Preciado fielded versus Barcelona as one that would get him "jailed" forged a fire in Gijon that nearly resulted in Madrid dropping points. So far this season, Mourinho has unified his players, but he also has unified other La Liga's teams in loathing him and thus Madrid. A siege mentality works in a situational sense like a tactic for a match or tie. As an overarching season-long strategy, it may wear on the team and rile your enemies and create ones where there weren't any before, much like Gijon. I remember reading a book by Bill Russell where he explained that he befriended and broke bread with Wilt Chamberlain to prevent the unstoppable wrath an angry Chamberlain would exert. Madrid doesn't want this sort of fury in every fixture.

By taking on the world Mourinho has the Madridistas on his side. But if they realize he has intensified the mettle and physicality in Madrid opponents and they subsequently start dropping points, it might be a feeding frenzy in the Madrid press. Porto, Chelsea, and Inter are big football clubs, but Madrid is the biggest sports-club, period, in the world. The siege mentality worked in Milan and Porto, but eventually imploded at Chelsea. This might not be the best strategy in Madrid.



So who are you going to trade jerseys with, Messi or Ronaldo? I'd trade with Puyol.



If you have feedback, email me at skuzner@gmail.com or Facebook me.