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The last six months have been characterized by turmoil at Real Madrid. First record breaking manager Zinedine Zidane announced his departure unceremoniously after guiding the club to her third consecutive Champions League crown, and then legendary icon and talisman Cristiano Ronaldo departed for Juventus in a move which no one foresaw.
Real Madrid got rebuffed in their attempts to find a replacement for Zidane, with as many as five coaches turning them down, leading to them hiring former Spain coach Julen Lopetegui. They had less good fortune in replacing Ronaldo, and the summer window ended with only former player Mariano Diaz arriving at the club from Lyon despite being linked with a host of marquee names.
Both departures were expected to have an impact on the club’s fortunes, as they had created lasting legacies at the Bernabeu that might be impossible to replace, but even the harshest critic of the club could not have foreseen such a scenario unfolding.
Real’s start to this season has been nothing short of atrocious, and it led to the sack of Julen Lopetegui, with the players struggling for form and goals.
Following Lopetegui’s sack, the club turned to former player and youth team coach Santiago Solari to steady the ship on a caretaker basis, and the Argentine has started life well in the Bernabeu hotseat, winning his first three matches, with his team scoring 11 goals and conceding none, which is the best start to a managerial tenure at Real since 1957.
Karim Benzema seems to have found his scoring boots once more, netting three times in three games under Solari, having found the net just once in his previous eight matches, while Gareth Bale also scored his first goal since September in the 5-0 rout of Victoria Plzen.
Although it might be tempting to believe Solari has turned the tide at Real Madrid owing to his impressive results thus far, the reality is that it is too early to start blowing the praise trumpet just yet. Here are five reasons why we should not start Celebrating Real Madrid’s revival just yet.
#5 The matches were against inferior opposition
Even though football purists would like to tell you that there are no minnows in football, and that every team has 11 players apiece, the hard punching truth is that the gulf in class between some clubs and others is so great that anything other than a victory against such teams is considered a gargantuan upset.
Real Madrid’s three matches under Santiago Solari thus far have been against Real Valladollid who are more likely candidates for relegation in La Liga than anything else, then against Mellilla (based in the Segunda Division B – the third tier of Spanish Leeague football) in the Copa Del Rey and finally against Victoria Plzen in the Champions League.
With all due respect to the aforementioned teams, they are not exactly in the mold of a Barcelona or a Juventus who can genuinely trouble Real Madrid, and while victory against them was necessary to boost team spirit and morale, the sheer difference in class between Real Madrid and these clubs means that they are not an adequate check to gauge the effectiveness of Real Madrid under Solari.
#4 The victories masked underlying weaknesses
Real Madrid’s disastrous run under Lopetegui was characterized by poor finishing, lack of creativity, disorganization and defensive instability, and while the first two have been rectified somewhat in the three matches under Solari, the latter two have still been seen in shades.
Real Madrid posted 2-0 and 5-0 victories over Valladollid and Victoria Plzen respectively, and while they might seem like comfortable scorelines, it is not a true reflection of what went down in the matches.
Against Valladollid at the Bernabeu, the visitors gave as much as they got, and had Real Madrid pegged on the backfoot for much of the match, hitting the post on two occasions, and would have left the Bernabeu with something but for poor finishing. Real Madrid were uninspiring throughout the match, as they showed the signs of a team lacking in confidence, and needed two very late goals first from Vinicius Jr who forced an own goal from Kiko Olivas in the 83rd minute, and then an injury time Ramos penalty to see out the match, and end their winless run in La Liga.
Their first leg against Plzen on matchday 3 of the UCL was largely a close affair where Plzen could also have gotten something, so it is with that inspiration coupled with the knowledge that Real Madrid was there for the taking that made the Czechs come out in full force against the defending European champions.
For the first 15 minutes of the match, Real Madrid were rattled and could not get out of the blocks for the life of them, as Victoria Plzen dictated everything on the field, and pulled off some smart saves from Courtois, as well as hitting the post, before Real Madrid rallied, scoring four goals in 20 minutes to get their very convincing victory.
Sometimes victories conceal weaknesses, and Real Madrid’s three matches thus far have been examples of this, so it would be foolhardy to believe the club has turned the table on evidence of their results under Solari.
#3 Lopetegui began the same way
Even though things got so bad in the last month of Lopetegui’s reign that it was easy to believe there was ever any beight light, this is far from the truth as Lopetegui actually enjoyed a good start to life at the Bernabeu.
Just two months ago (seems more like ages), Real Madrid were highflying, and everything seemed to be going well and in the right direction.
After losing his first competitive fixture in the Super Cup to Atletico Madrid, Lopetegui marched on, and led his team to pick up four victories from their next five matches (the only blemish was a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao), including a convincing 3-0 victory over last season’s UCL semi-finalists AS Roma at the Bernabeu, scoring 14 goals and conceding just three.
Benzema was scoring (five in four matches), while Bale was performing well as the talisman of the team, and the praise singers began, and it was opined that this was the best Real Madrid team in years, as they now played with more freedom afforded by the departure of individualistic Ronaldo, and the players could now play to their abilities.
A 1-0 reversal to Espanyol changed the headlines however, and from then on it all started going downhill which culminated in Lopetegui’s sack.
As good as the victories are for Solari’s CV to boost his chances of getting the job permanently, fans would do well to abstain from the sycophancy just yet, as it could prove to be a very brutal case of déjà vu.
#2 There are still injury concerns
The impact and physical nature of football means that professional footballer’s bodies are always on the line to pick up one injury or the other, and while it is not an ideal situation for any club, injuries are a sad reality of the game and no club no matter how wealthy is immune from its treacherous reaches.
Real Madrid’s first team is currently plagued by injuries, and this was a factor which was responsible for Lopetegui’s travails, as it robbed him off his proven performers at a time when he needed them most, with the result being that Real Madrid struggled in the absence of their regulars. Isco, Bale, Marcelo and Carvajal were all out injured at one point or the other under Lopetegui, and it is a problem which has persisted.
Off the regular four defenders, Santiago Solari has only captain Sergio Ramos in a fit condition to play, with Marcelo, Carvajal and Varane all out with one form of knock or the other, while Jesus Vallejo and Mariano Diaz are also out, robbing him off quality introductions from the bench.
For all the brilliance of Real Madrdid’s first eleven, the squad lacks adequate squad depth which has been brutally exposed by Ronaldo’s departure and the injuries sustained to key players, and even though players like Sergio Reguilon, Odriozolla and Vinicius Jr have impressed thus far, Reasl Madrid would need their main players fit and ready to launch an assault on the crucial stage of the campaign.
#1 Luka Modric is still out of form
Luka Modric arrived Real Madrid in 2012 for a fee of £30m after four years of stellar performances for Tottenham in the Premier League, and since then the 33-year-old has gone on to cement himself as one of the best playmakers in the world, and the creative hub through which Real Madrid's attacks are built.
He became the long awaited player to break Ronaldo and Messi's duopoly of individual awards when he was named the FIFA Best Men's Player in September on the back of his impressive Golden Ball winning displays for Croatia at the World Cup, and it was expected that he would go on to silence critics who felt he did not deserve the awards with his performance this season.
Four months into the season however, and Luka Modric is at the worst point as he has ever been throughout his six year stay at the Bernabeu, struggling for form and failing to impact matches in the way that Madridistas have been accustomed to.
He was identified as one of the culprits responsible for Madrid's struggles and Lopetegui's sack, as Real Madrid's players struggled to reach their known heights and Modric was the embodiment of that.
Under Solari so far, he has started just one match (the 2-0 victory over Valladolid) where he was as ineffectual as ever, while he was left on the bench for the entirety of Real Madrid's 5-0 rout of Victoria Plzen.
Real Madrid may have won three matches on the bounce, but their play lacked the usual coodination and craetvity befitting a club of it's stature, and this in part largely down to Modric's struggles, and for as long as the Croat continues to suffer a slump in form, Real Madrid might find it hard to pick up victories.
