Real Madrid in crisis or just stupid?

I just had a weird two weeks or so where i suddenly faced a writers block so as to say. The work days were so long and stressful that my past time was not a passion anymore and i was finding it difficult to focus and write what i was feeling. Now all the news in the press has prompted me to touch upon the one thing that everyone is talking about. There is a crisis at Real Madrid and that the recent results are there to prove this point. Real Madrid lost at The Bernabeu in a long time when they lost to Juventus last week in the Champions League. The Italian club did the double on Madrid but unlike the game in Turin this was pretty one sided and which was in favor of Juventus. It was a clean game, with nothing to complain about but the players. Juventus outclassed the Madrid players in every department. I would rather not want to get into the details of this game, but would bring this back up in other parts of the post. Madrid followed this up with a 4-3 win at home over Malaga. This game though from a neutral point of view was a superb watch and personally for Higuain who smashed 4 goals, this for sure exposed the issues Madrid currently face. If this was not enough Madrid faced third division club Real Union in the return leg of the Spanish cup. The first leg ended in favor of Real Union at 3-2. The return leg in the Bernabeu though ended in a win for Real, the score line was 4-3 which meant that Real Union would progress on away goals.

I read numerous articles on what is going wrong in Madrid and whether there is a crisis or not right now. Here is my take on how we define the situation. Real Madrid are trailing Barcelona the league leaders in La liga by two points, considering the fact that this is after 10 rounds of games there is no concern of worry here. In the Champions League Madrid got off to a superb start in the group of death and now have had back to back defeats against Juventus. They could still top the group if they beat Bate away and Zenit at home. There are other teams who have had less than inspiring results in the Champions league, i will take the example of Chelsea who had a goalless draw against a nobody team and then lost to Roma. The Spanish super cup loss is not a big deal for the club. Though every year they come out and say that they consider this tournament very important, it is for sure just an opportunity to test some of the youngsters. Madrid almost every year have been knocked out early in the past few years. So if all is well, then what is everyone talking about? Here are my thoughts:

Can Casillas ever keep a clean sheet?

I have no intention in putting all the blame on someone who is widely regarded as one of the best keepers in the world now. A Goal Keeper who is in the prime running for the European player of the year and the winner of the best keeper trophy in Spain last season is someone who will go unnoticed amongst a flurry of mistakes by defenders. No doubt Casillas was phenomenal last season and was indeed a major contribution to the success of Madrid and Spain. The defenders have not changed this season. People under estimate Pepe, but it is he who makes others play better. Somehow there is a thought that Cannavaro is a leader and he organizes the defenders. If he claims one day in the press that he knows Del Pierro like the back of his hand and then becomes the reason for the same man scoring three goals, i dont think many younger lads would want to look up to him. Cannavaro was at fault for the first goal Del Pierro scored in Turin, the first goal at the Bernabeu was a repeat of the same event and then he conceded the free kick that led to the third goal Del Pierro scored. Another thing to notice in all three goals was, the first time around Casillas did not attempt a dive, same with the second and for the third the free kick he made the criminal mistake of organizing a poor wall. Chasing Christiano Ronaldo was not just the only bad move Madrid management made during the summer transfer window, they signed Esquel Garay from Racing Santander and let him go on loan. Gaby Heinze does not have the pace or positioning skills to be a LB, he can only play as a CB, but makes too many mistakes. At this age and experience, there is something wrong with this guy if he things that bundling over people is what you call a tackle. Sergio Ramos should never be played as a CB and Schuster knows this. He is one the best Right Backs in the world currently, but has lost the heart in the past few weeks with all the controversies. Schuster has the other genuine option in Metzelder who if not injured does not give any confidence to his Manager with his performance.

So is it all about the defenders or Casillas? When you look around most clubs in Europe they do not have the big names that Madrid can boast of defense. I will take Liverpool as an example a back four of Carragher, Agger, Arbeola and Aurelio is in no way comparable to what Madrid have. This is in paper, but collectively they are way more effective than the super star defenders. So there is something in the way they are organized? Well yes, for one there are far too many changes in the back 4 because of injuries or otherwise. This does not pass on any confidence between these defenders or between them and the keeper. Capello brought discipline to this Madrid team, now this does not come easy, he made them play compact and curbed the super attacking team into defending their half. With Capello fired for the reason that Madrid were playing unattractive brand of football, Schuster has advanced the line of defense, the whole team plays up the pitch. There is limited help from the midfielders and with one winger, one of the wings would be exposed when the wing back attacks. This was evident when all Nedved was doing was to keep Ramos back and Marcelo was having all the space but no imagination. The success of the Juventus backline was that they never even let the Madrid strikers make a turn. Chiellini for that matter was outstanding in both ties. The Madrid defenders don't have the strength or the skill to do this. This is where Schuster should know that he needs to play a layer of midfield closer to the defense. Again space marking or man marking needs to be thought about. As always "space" does not score goals, men do is the point. I was seeing the highlights of the Real Union match and the last goal the visitors scored in the dying minutes was from a header and who was in the middle of the penalty box jumping for the ball? Of all people Marcelo!

It is evident that Madrid defenders and goal keeper together are not functioning as a unit. Some lack confidence, and some just make poor mistakes. Schuster should thinking of going back a bit to the Capello plan. Real Madrid will for sure score goals, but you cannot have a beginning to a season where your team is struggling to keep a clean sheet and you have already played 3 games ending in 4-3 score line. I for one believe that Casillas has lost his Halo and now the only way out of this is to function as a group.

Midfield Circus

Now I can debate on this for years. Schuster just gives us one reason after the other. From 30 midfield combinations last season, to more this season, there is no plan in place. I believe that the squad formation should change with the players in hand and not to fit a player into a squad formation. Van der vaart is not a CF and the past few games this is where Schuster is playing him. He is the best player who can link well with Gago or Diarra and the defense and still go forward and score goals. The hat trick he scored against Sporting earlier this season was the classic example of it. I can understand the problem Schuster has-he has too many midfielders performing the same act in his circus. The answer to this is not to keep changing your formation and hope that the dice falls on the perfect "1". It is not difficult to figure out that Schuster cannot have all of these names on the team sheet at the same time. With Robben living up to his name of "Glass Man" the only wing option is in Drenthe. This leaves Sergio Ramos with the Herculean task of providing the attacking flair on the right and also falling back to support the cracks in defense.

Van Goal-less

Schuster has had his worst nightmare come true. Van Nistelrooy who is to undergo knee surgery is to be out of action for more than 9 months which will mean the remainder of the season. He has had recurrence of his knee injury he had in 2000 with PSV which almost canceled his move to Man Utd. With the Dutchman out Schuster knows what he has in hand. There is Raul who is way past his prime and has more games where he is invisible than the ones like Real Union where he scored a hat trick and in the process crossed 300 goals in the white shirt. Then the big positive of the season, Higuain who has now established himself this season as a clinical finisher. With a total of 9 goals in La liga, his 4 goals against Malaga, though 2 from penalties was just the best finishing i have seen in a while. With Saviola the only option on bench whom Schuster has no confidence in, Real would have to buy a striker come January transfer window.
Do they invest in some young talent from South America or Europe similar to the likes of Higuain, Gago or Marcelo, Hell Yes!. But is that the answer for this season- Hell NO! Madrid signed 16 year old Brazilian Alipio Duarte Brandao and is joining the Madrid B team. Brandao known as the "little Ronaldo" is for sure a talent to look out for the future.

When Madrid ventures into the January transfer market, the answer to their problems would come in strikers who are cup tied. You are not going to get the players of the quality of Podolski or Carlos Tevez free to play for them in the Champions league. The most feasible in this looks primarily Carlos Tevez and Andrei Arshavin. Man Utd's loan deal on the player is about to end and they are due 37M on the player. Would Sir Alex be able to convince the board to shell out this kind of money when another expensive signing this season Berbatov is keeping the Argentine away from the starting line up? Arshavin is unhappy and wants to go come January, but is he the right choice for Madrid? I don't think so, he is a CF with a lot of pace but is not an outright goal scorer. Tevez in the other hand can play second striker and still score. The only choice for Madrid board and Schuster is to go and buy a quality striker who may be cup tied but who can help to save the La liga. The latest news is that Madrid is following Inter striker Hernan Crespo who is bound to be headed out in January. The advantage in this case would be that the experienced Argentine is not cup tied as he was not picked by Mourinho for the Champions League.


I do not agree that the right term here is Crisis. Real Madrid are facing issues which everyone knew they would face right from the beginning. Sending Esquel Garay on a loan deal when you are facing problems in defense, the wild goose chase in Christiano Ronaldo, letting Robinho go without a proper replacement and not re-enforcing the striking department were reasons enough to think that this situation would arise. Schuster's neck is on the chopping board. If he wants to retain his position, not only does he need to win against Valladolid this weekend, they need to get back into the habit of maintaining clean sheets. If Schuster is not able to create a turn around, reports claim that former Inter coach Robert Mancini, former Tottenham coach Juande Ramos and former Getafe coach and Madrid player Michael Laudrup are supposedly in the Madrid shortlist. But if i am Schuster, there is a small but growing injury list that is worrying. Apart from Van Nistelrooy out for the season, Cannavaro and Metzelder picked up injuries mid week, Pepe is out for a month or so, De la Red and Diarra are out for a further week and Robben is out for a month or so. So should everyone be tagging this as a crisis or is it a result of some stupid decisions?

Tactical disaster at the Madrid white house

I have always heard that it is all about being better than the Champions. Being the Champion in the first place is not easy and now beating the Champions, it does not look that difficult right? Let us take the La Liga for an example. Real Madrid are going for their third successive title in as many years and it would indeed become a disgrace to the other 19 teams in the league, in one of the most volatile leagues in Europe. Since the turn of the new millennium Real have won the La Liga 4 times in this period, which is literally every other year, twice as much as Barca. Still press around the world except Madrid Marca maybe seemingly have a problem with Real Madrid. It is almost as though Madrid are followed by their own shadows. Inevitably there would be stats and other facts to prove that Real scrape through to their wins. Even when they win big games, there is hardly anything positive coming out of this.

I say this because what transpired on Sunday was by no means becoming of a Champion. Especially when Barca are steamrolling past opponents scoring at will, it does no good to your confidence when you have to settle for a draw against Almeria who were destroyed last week by Barca. Schuster is a very keen tactician, but he also makes some big mistakes in line ups and substitutions. He has been pretty consistent when it goes to good decisions almost the majority of last season, except maybe the home game against Valencia that come to my mind. Madrid had injury problems in attack with Van Nistelrooy injured after his suspension last weekend. But that was the only major player missing for the defending Champions. Schuster is in a difficult position, when every week he does not have the Dutch goal machine in his line up it reiterates the disastrous transfer summer for Madrid. The lack of a genuine replacement comes evident in each of these games. But a good Manager ought to work with what you have.


With all his first choice defenders starting, it was an unnecessarily defensive midfield, with both Gago and Diarra joining Sneijder in midfield. Higuain and Raul upfront and Robben on the wings indeed looked as though there would be some goals coming up. Much more than the formation, putting Diarra and Gago on the pitch together did not seem to be working. For one i hate when two defensive midfielders play together, second off Diarra was playing in a much advanced position than Gago, but in reality the Argentine is a better link man.

Higuain finally put in a precise cross in for Raul to score with a diving header. The Captain who was sure to be criticized if he did not score in this match in the absence of Van Nistelrooy, scored with Andy Gray's favorite diving header. 0-1 Madrid leading at half time.

Second period was interesting as Almeria came out and spread out on the pitch which ensured that their more illustrious opponents were pinned in their own half. Against a relatively lesser opponent why the hell would you not go for the kill and finish off the game? Schuster had to make a substitution by taking the injured Pepe out and introduce Metzelder in. Pepe and Cannavaro were doing well in the heart of defence, and i would not want to say that Metzelder dropped the ball. He did well and got some important tackles in, but he looks so old fashioned a CB, slowest of the slowest in pace. The big German does not attack balls, because if he is turned inside out by any striker with decent pace then its kiss goodbye.


With two more substitutions that Schuster could make and the signs of threat from Almeria, he had to bring flair into a bunch of players seemingly performing under par. The problem was both wing backs in Heinze- goofy, lunging into tackles and too clumsy and Sergio Ramos-reprimanded, consoled and questioned by many for his comments in the press last week. Robben was switching wings consistently, but how should i put it, i will take a leaf out of someone and say he was more like a chicken with no head. He was not the same threat in running at defenders, could not even take a decent shot at goal and not even a good ball in for the strikers.

What is puzzling is with this situation prevailing, Schuster brought in more midfielders in Guti and Van der Vaart. He did not take out any midfielders to bring these guys in, it was a replacement for Sneijder and Higuain. If Raul was left all on his own in the first half just imagine when you have a team plugged with midfielders and Raul as the lone striker. If Schuster did this with the intention to give some kind of playing time then this was the wrong game. Guti and VDV were seemingly no where to be found and hardly got any touches on the ball. With 9 minutes to go, Almeria equalized and Madrid came back losing 2 points rather than earning a point.

When Real Manager complaints that he does not have a striker, and almost everyone in the team gets playing time, if i was Saviola i would rather hang up my boots.