When Atletico Madrid won the Madrid Derby on Saturday, it destroyed the little bit of title aspirations that Real Madrid had. The loss means that Real Madrid are nine points behind Barcelona who still have a match in hand. So what is going wrong for a side which has a galaxy of superstars like CR7, Bale, Ramos etc.? Let's anlayse:
THE BEGINNING
When Carlo won the Champions League with the Real Madrid team, the team was very well-managed by him. In the start of his first season as manager, he had some tough results and the formation which they were using was giving the desired results. However, they were unable to make the transition from defence to attack quickly. So after some matches, he decided to change his tactics and the formation was changed to 4-3-3 with one of the wingers falling back for defence, making it 4-4-2 while defending. In this formation Real were able use the long ball skills of Xabi as he sat deep and it also helped Di Maria to thrive. So in the latter half of the season they were unstoppable as they won the Champions League.
THE MISTAKE
In the summer of 2014, the downfall began as Real (It was Perez who keen on the transfer) sold Di Mari and Xabi Alonso to bring in James and Kroos. Both James and Kroos are good players, but their skill sets were different that of the former players. So obviously the teams started to explore the weakness in the midfield, especially when Real was defending and they stared to lose matches and their season was bad by their standards, which eventually lead to the sacking of Carlo.
THE CURRENT SEASON
After the sacking of Carlo, Rafa Benitez was appointed as the manager at the start of this season. Rafa was never the stereotype of Real Madrid, as the team always wanted attacking football while he was more conservative in his approach. So when two contrasting styles met, the inevitable happened and Real Madrid were never convincing as they suffered defeats in crucial matches, especially they were ripped apart in the El Clasico. To add more troubles Rafa’s appointment did go down well with many as they wanted Carlo to stay. So the dressing room atmosphere was not good as well, which also reflected on the performance. Inevitably Rafa had to go in January 2016, but it was already too late as the damage has been already done.
ROAD AHEAD
From here on, this season is pretty done and dusted. The only thing they can do is to use the summer transfer window carefully and Perez needs to understand that managers should be given more control. If some changes doesn’t happen immediately, the next few years will be tough with the transfer ban coming into the scene.
