Julen Lopetegui suffered a debut defeat as Real Madrid lost the UEFA Supercup 4-2 to Atletico Madrid in extra time. Here are three takeaways from the game.
Chill out
I am talking to you, the Madridista on Twitter who wants us to sack Lopetegui and hop in a time machine to grab peak Alfredo Di Stefano before the transfer window ends. Though this defeat is a bitter one to swallow being against our crosstown rivals and though this game is an official match, the “it’s just a friendly” excuse no longer works.
It is still way too early to draw conclusions about Julen Lopetegui or Real Madrid in general.
Los Blancos are still building up their fitness and Madrid players are still figuring out Lopetegui’s tactical scheme. In contrast, Real played an Atleti side that had 90 minutes more under their belts than Los Blancos and have been playing in the same system for the last four years.
Lopetegui will undoubtedly have learned plenty from this defeat and we will hopefully see a better showing for the La Liga opener against Getafe on Sunday.
Individual errors
The most annoying part of this was that Real Madrid actually played really well in the second half. They limited Atletico Madrid, created a couple of chances themselves and eventually put themselves in front through a Sergio Ramos penalty.
Even after going ahead, there seemed to be no lack of control from Lopetegui’s men and it seemed they were well on their way to a third consecutive Super Cup until Marcelo made an inexplicable error, kicking the ball back into play when it was running out for a throw-in.
Naturally, the ball fell at the feet of an Atleti attacker and before Marcelo had time to even consider the error he had made, Diego Costa had the ball in the back of the net for the equalizer.
Minutes into the first half of extra time, Real Madrid once again found themselves behind due to another individual error this time in the shape of a Raphael Varane slip. Rustiness such as this is going to happen, like I said before, the players are still searching for their full match fitness and they are also grappling with the concepts of a new system.
Nonetheless, it is frustrating and after the 2017/2018 season was littered with defensive miscues, slightly unnerving. One hopes that Lopetegui will be on top of his defenders for their errors when they review the game later this week to ensure that these moments of madness are left in the preseason.
Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale looked good
It’s not all doom and gloom, with plenty of things, particularly in the second half to look forward too. For long stretches of the second half, Madrid looked composed and well setup. There was some really nice linkup play between Bale and Benzema and both attackers look eager to silence their critics this season.
Of course, we have said this in season past and neither have really lived up to expectations. Without Ronaldo to bail the team out in their absence, it is crucial for Lopetegui to continue to get the best out of both forwards if he wants to succeed in the Spanish capital.
In other good news, Lucas Vazquez came on and though he couldn’t win the game for Los Blancos, he looked well prepared to tuck his spot kick away had Madrid been able to take the game to penalties. Expect big things from the finest winger in Madrid’s history this season.