Real Madrid celebrating their 12th Champions League win in Cardiff.
5 trophies. Spanish, European and World champions. The first team from Europe to defend the Champions League and World title since AC Milan. Pipped Barca to a La Liga titele and humiliated them in the Spanish Super Cup 5-1 over two legs. Beat Manchester United to win the UEFA Super Cup 2-1. And despite a crisis of form Real vanquished Gremio 1-0. In terms of trophies this Real’s most successufl year ever, they had never won 5 titles in a calendar year. They also haven’t won both the league and Champions League double since 1958. Real’s destruction of Juventus in Cardiff represented their 12th Champions League triumph, which if Real were a seperate nation would make them the joint most succesful country in the tournament along with Italy and England! With that 4-1 victory it signaled the confirmation of a dynasty. Zidane’s side would seal their greatness as all-time great side, 3 Champions Leagues in 4 years would seal their place in football lore. In addition this team in January broke Barca’s Spanish recored of 39 games unbeaten by going 40 unbeaten after a 3-3 draw with Sevilla. This was indeed a golden year for Real, yet the poor start of the 2017-18 leaves a lot of questions to be answered.
Real Madrid celebrating their 4th UEFA Super Cup win
The first question would be why did the team change its transfer policy so dramatically and only pick young players? This is not to say that Theo, Ceballos, Vallejo, Mayoral won’t develop into great players. They have all great potential and may be crucial fixtures in the squad in the future. However they aren’t making the impact Perez and Zidane expected. Now this can be blamed on Zidane to an extent, he should give the youngsters more of a chance. However he has entrusted Asensio, Achraf with starts and has been rewarded. Some of these players like Ceballos, Theo, and Mayoral have not delivered the impact Zidane expected. The bench with the exception of Vasquez, Kovacic, and Bale (when fit) have very few players that can change a game. This is especially troubling when you consider just how off form most of the team has been. With the exception of Carvajal, Isco, Lucas Vasquez, and Navas the rest of the team has been well below the form of the double winning side last season. Cristiano Ronaldo has only 4 league goals, Benzema looks lost at times on the pitch, Modric has been oddly inconsistent, Kroos hasn’t set the world alight, Varane has been his usual up and down self, Bale has been injured a lot again, Casemiro after a solid start looks tired, Kovacic has been struggling with injuries, Marcelo’s just not defending well, Nacho has been really awful of late, Varane continues to make stupid mistakes, Ramos hasn’t been clutch, and the result is a 14 point gap between Real in 4th place in La Liga and Barca in first. The league is pretty much gone and the Champions League draw gave Real the daunting prospect of facing PSG. At the moment it doesn’t look likely Real will win any of the two major trophies this season. The players aren’t the only ones underperforming though.
Real Madrid celebrating another trophy. The Decima! Their 10th Spanish Super Cup.
A lot of the blame has to be put at the feet of Perez and Zidane for their transfer strategy in the last window. Instead if focusing on adding a few key players, they add too may young players without any experience at the highest level. While that can come off like Asensio did a year ago, it didn’t this year. In addition keeping the inconsistent Benzema over a young Morata may be a decision that will haunt Real in the future. In addtion Zidane’s tactical decisions have been off this season. His use of Kovacic in the Clasico while understandable was not the right one, as Kova was not fully fit for such a big game and ran out of energy in the second half. His substitutions which were spot on this season, have imbalanced the team this season, most notably at home to Betis where he played 4 forwards and Real lost 1-0 due to not having a proper shape in midfield. Despite Zidane’s failures at times this season, the players and president still back him. After in less than 2 years he has won 8 trophies. Which makes him the 2nd most successufl manager in Real’s history behind Miguel Munoz who won 14 trophies in 14 years. Zidane must begin to make hard decisions however to turn this season around. Integrating Bale back into the squad, finding the best formation for the team, rotating at the right times, and giving younger players more of a chance. If he does these things the season can still be salvaged.
Notice in this celebration that the players don’t have a trophy to celebrate! Yes the sheer ineptitude that is La Liga is so bad they can’t give the team that won the league the fucking trophy until 3 months after they won the league!!!!!!!! This is why Real will always value the Champions League more…
First off even if this current core of Real players are past their best, it is highly unlikely that they will continue their middling form for the entire season. The team has been decimated with injures and unlike last year where James, Pepe, Morata, Mariano could provide adequate cover, they don’t have that luxury this year. They should in theory have less injuries than they did in the first half of the season, which will help them. Secondly world-class players don’t remain off-form together for very long. At a certain point things will improve because Modric, Ramos, Benzema and Ronaldo will play better. There could be signings which could help the team especially if they are another striker or center-back. But the most important thing is that this team has Zidane and its core intact for maybe the last time, the squad will change a lot in the next summer. So these 6 months might be their last chance as a team to add to their dynasty. Ending the season with the Copa Del Rey isn’t too bad considering it is the longest trophy drought in recent Madrid history (since 2014 so long and painful lol). It is also the trophy that Zidane had never won as a player or coach so the players might be motivated to win that tournament. But the club’s desire is to win the 13th Champions League and there’s hope for that as well. In 9 of the previous 12 times Real won the CL, they have not won La Liga. In the last 3 times Real has won the competition they also lost to Barca at home, which Real did this season. Although the league position looks bad at the moment, Real have won the CL finishing 3rd, 4th, and even 5th place in the league. So there’s still a lot of time for this season to be salvaged.
Real celebrates become the first club or international side to win 6 world titles.
2017 despite its terrible ending was a fantasic year, 2018 might be the end of Real’s second golden era of the 21st century. It could end badly without a trophy, Zidane being gone, and changes galore in the summer. Or it could end with glory with Real winning a trophy or maybe even two. Regardless this Real team has given us madridistas a tremendous amount of joy over the years and maybe they will have a great run in 2018 as well. Hasta el final! Hala Madrid!
realtakesite 