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Julen Lopetegui was sacked right after Real Madrid's 5-1 defeat against their bitter rivals FC Barcelona. He became the fastest Real Madrid manager to get sacked in the Florentino Perez era. He was sacked just after 14 games.
While everyone knew that he was probably never going to be as good as Zinedine Zidane who won three consecutive UEFA Champions League titles, no one expected such a pathetic start either. Los Blancos played 14 games under him, out of which he won 6, lost 6 and drew 2 matches. He has had the worst start for a Real Madrid manager under Florentino Perez.
Some may argue that his tactics and managerial ability were not to blame for Real Madrid's poor run, but it was rather the club president's fault, as he did not replace the club's all time top scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo, with a worthy player.
This incident may have been a factor in Los Blancos' poor start, but Julen Lopetegui himself played a huge role in the club's worst start since the 2001-2 season.
Julen Lopetegui is an ex Real Madrid player, and had managed the Real Madrid Castilla, Spanish national team, and FC Porto, as well as the Spanish youth teams. He had also already managed many of the current players in the Real Madrid squad.
This may get many people wondering what went wrong with his Real Madrid side. Perez chose him when more experienced and trusted club level coaches like Carlo Ancelloti and Maurizio Sarri were available.
Lets discuss some of the mistakes made by Lopetegui, which led to his sack in such a short time.
#1 Ineffective substitutions
This is where coaches earn their money. One of the main aspects of their job is to make the correct substitutions at the right moment, saving the day. Lopetegui made pointless substitutions, which were not able to affect games in any positive way.
Lets take El Clasico as an example. After Varane's injury in the first half, he brought in Lucas Vazquez who is a left winger, to play as a left wing back. This changed their defence into a three man defence, with Marcelo, Ramos, and Nacho. This change seemed to work at first, but later Barcelona were easily able to play long balls in, easily getting past the defence line.
When Marcelo got inured, he was replaced by Mariano, who is a striker. This forced Real Madrid to play with a two man defence, which led to FC Barcelona scoring the fifth goal, and it was like a nail in the coffin of Lopetegui's career as Los Blancos coach.
He also didn't substitute Marcelo in the game against Viktoria Plzen despite his injury, just a game before the clasico. The list goes on and on.
#2 High defensive line
Conceding goals had never been a major problem for Real Madrid, as they always managed to outscore opponents. Unfortunately, this has not been the case this season.
While keeping majority of the possession, the team's defensive line tended to go higher up the pitch. This made the team weaker when opponents counter-attacked. This was how most teams scored goals against Real Madrid.
Teams like CSKA Moscow and Levante dominated Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu. Their huge possessions led to nothing, and opponents patiently waited for the right moment to counter-attack and score.
Lopetegui made world class defenders like Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane look like Sunday league players. With continuous and clueless side passes, the opponents were easily able to counter-attack, again and again.
Every time a midfielder displaced the ball, the opponents were able to take advantage of that opportunity and create a chance of scoring.
#3 Lack of confidence in his own system
Despite all the criticism faced by Julen Lopetegui, he started the season well, and the fans were enjoying the attractive football. Real were scoring tons of goals, and playing eye catching football at the same time.
Lopetegui had defied the odds and started the season well after the departure of Zinedine Zidane, and the club's all time top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo. Lopetegui was playing a direct and possession based game, which helped him dominate opponents.
Lopetegui was creating a lot of chances through the midfield, unlike Zidane's Madrid which was mainly dependent upon crosses put in from either flank. This was working just fine.
When things started to seem bad for Los Blancos, Lopetegui switched to Zidane's style of football, which shows his lack of confidence in his own philosophy. A clear evidence of this is the fact that he didn't let Dani Ceballos play even a single minute against Barcelona. Dani shined in his system.
Needless to say, he failed to replicate the success of Zidane's system, as Zizou was a mastermind when it came to preparing the team for big matches. Zidane's 4-1-2-1-2 was clearly not suitable for Lopetegui, as he usually relies on a 4-3-3.
