Have Real Madrid shown any signs of improvement under Solari?
By Hasan Karim
It has been nearly three months since the ill-fated reign of Lopetegui ended and Solari took control. Despite the poor form under the former Spain coach, has Solari really improved this team?
The appointment of Santiago Solari was one that certainly divided the club fan-base. The reign of now former coach Lopetegui had been cut short following a poor run of form and a beating at the hands of Barcelona. Although he had a bright start, Madrid are now once again looking poor. Barely beating out opposition at the bottom end of the table and showing serious systematic issues on a daily basis – it is clear that Santi Solari has not shown any signs of progression.
This season was always going to be a struggle. The club had just seen the resignation of serial winning coach, Zinedine Zidane and the departure of all-time club goalscorer, Cristiano Ronaldo. Given that both parties have not been replaced, the club has found itself in a very precarious position.
The expectations of the board following Solari’s appointment are still not known – did they expect him to just be a temporary measure in what can be seen as a write-off season? Did they feel he’d come in and have a similar effect to Zinedine Zidane? Whatever the expectation – it doesn’t appear to be going to plan.
Despite a porous run – Julen Lopetegui showed that he was trying to implement a philosophy. You could clearly see it in the teams performances, however, this is Real Madrid and you cannot go on bad runs for long before seeing the axe of Perez. Whether it was a fair dismissal is another debate for another day. Following his dismissal, Madrid fans must have thought that surely it couldn’t be worse?
Solari did win his first few games with emphatic results. Goals were flying in and wins were returning to Madrid, however, the opposition was not exactly the best of the best. Melilla, Vallodolid, Plezn and Celta Vigo were all beaten. However, against Celta, the 4-2 result was hardly a display of the game. Celta broke through the weak press and exploited gaps consistently left. Following that game? The 3-0 loss away to Eibar, who have failed to win a game since beating Madrid. Since then, performances have continued to dip and weaknesses continue to show.
The team squeaked past the likes of Vallecano and Huesca, 1-0 wins in both games and then fell 3-0 at home to CSKA Moscow in the UEFA Champions League in a humiliating display. Once again, the same issues showed – the team couldn’t maintain a consistent press and were exposed for leaving gaps and not getting back into positions when being attacked.
With a 3-0 win over Leganes in midweek the team once again showed weaknesses in their performance which makes the scoreline deceiving, a common trend in Solari’s reign. Whilst he has brought debuts to youngsters during his time as manager, surely he cannot stay on as manager unless Madrid wins the UCL or La Liga – both of which seem incredibly unlikely in current form.