Real Madrid will end the Liga, Copa del Rey or Champions League, its favorite competition. A 2024/2025 exercise very far from the expectations of the start of the season therefore, and even if the troops of Carlo Ancelotti reached the Cup final and were in the race for the championship to the quasi-end, it is clearly insufficient for a club of the caliber of Real Madrid. While the Madrid press is already speculating on the workforce of next season, which will be led by Xabi Alonso, it is time for some to account, and there are obvious culprits.
Inevitably, the first face of Madrid's failure this season is that of Carlo Ancelotti. For many, it was too much season. The Italian has never succeeded in creating a real collective, and despite very few changes in the workforce compared to the previous season, we saw a less oiled, less united, more friable and much less dangerous team with the ball. Concretely, Real Madrid of Ancelotti has never been a team with a marked playing philosophy – and it was already criticized for that lately – but it was a team that although depending a lot of its individuals, was able to set foot on the ball and dominate the opponent. While being able to furnish collectively to defend, with an entire team that made efforts that we have seen very little this season.
Mbappé, guilty?
The transalpine tactician could also have done better in management and in the management of certain cases. The Spanish press also revealed that there was, for the first time in the Ancelotti era, friction with certain players and doubts of the Madrid wardrobe. Difficult also to understand why young people like Endick and Arda Güler have few opportunities despite having shown great things when they were on the lawn. It should still be noted that the Italian was not necessarily put in the best conditions to succeed this season, which leads us directly to the following culprits, namely the management of Real Madrid. Florentino Pérez is logically the emerging figure of this iceberg, but his right arm and managing director José Angel Sanchez and the Director of Juni Calafat recruitment are also to be pinned. In recent months, Ancelotti has thus asked for many things from his management, who has said no every time. This winter, during Dani Carvajal's injury, he had asked the management to bring a right side in January. But his superiors said no, preferring to wait for the summer to bring in the Exender-Arnold for free. In view of Lucas Vazquez's performances in the big games of the second part of the season, we can say that it was a bad decision.
The former PSG coach also asked to enlarge the team of analysts of the first team, and the answer was also negative. For example, Barça has 7 in its staff, against 2 for Madrid only. In general, the workforce was quite unbalanced, with obvious gaps in certain positions. The absence of a number 9 if only for a replacement role like Joselu was obviously difficult to understand. Likewise in the middle, where it is difficult to understand why Toni Kroos was not replaced. The closet and prudent Mercato policy of the club prejudices the team, clearly, and the fad of Pérez to wait for a player to be free to recruit it is expensive. Then comes the thorny Mbappé case, imposed on the staff of Real Madrid by Florentino Pérez. Difficult to point the French and consider him guilty of anything, since without being at an excellent level, he has already scored 39 goals for his first season in Madrid, which no one had done before him.
Stars not at the level, but not only
But there is an obvious observation: his presence has destabilized the team, especially in the defensive withdrawal. Statistics have also shown that he was the attacker of a large club who would run the least in the Champions League, with a fairly important gap on others, and necessarily, that prejudice to Madrid. Especially from him, Vinicius Jr has similar kilometers statistics … and the Brazilian, unlike French, was very far from his level. If it was necessary to report a player of the workforce who underperformed, it is clearly him. His ability to make differences and be decisive in big games has clearly failed in the team this season. Rodrygo Goes and Jude Bellingham, the other galactics of the team, were also below. It can be said, if these three players had been at their usual level, Real Madrid would probably have experienced a much better season, despite the shortcomings of the workforce and the absence of a background in the team.
Beyond the individuals generally not very inspired, there is another factor that has made a lot of talk this season and which perhaps explains why these stars have not always been at the level. It is physical preparation. For more than a decade already, Real Madrid used to arrive in an optimal form at the decisive moments of the season, and the endurance and resilience of the Merengues on the lawn has often made the difference, especially during many European evenings. This season, Madrid was on the contrary a team exceeded by the physical stake, often tired and not very explosive. All, without counting the many physical seeds that have disabled the workforce throughout the season. The work of Antonio Pintus, so effective in recent years, is therefore clearly to question too. Suffice to say that there is a need for change at all levels in Madrid …
