Real Madrid needed a strong performance on the road against Espanyol this Sunday in LaLiga after a fortunate draw with Villarreal and a humbling defeat at the hands of Sheriff in the Champions League. But instead of bouncing back, Real delivered their worst performance since the humiliating Copa del Rey loss to Alcoyano earlier this year.
Los Blancos lost 2-1 at the RCDE Stadium, with only a brilliant individual goal from Karim Benzema serving as any sort of consolation for the away side. It was a truly abysmal performance from Real, who were down 2-0 when Karim scored. They could have easily been down 3-0.
Here are five takeaways from Real Madrid’s latest embarrassing loss, with critical October fixtures still on the horizon after the upcoming international “break”.
It’s time to talk about Nacho
Most of these takeaways will be of the negative variety after such a defeat, and nobody has drawn more ire from Madridistas than Nacho Fernandez. Although the defender is a beloved figure among fans and was instrumental last season when Sergio Ramos was injured, Nacho has been the team’s biggest liability so far in 2021-2022.
Nacho had major issues at either fullback spot, but he got to start at center back against Espanyol with David Alaba on the left and Lucas Vazquez on the right. He ended up playing very poorly, culpable on the second goal by charging at Aleix Vidal and getting nutmegged in embarrassing fashion. Nacho has made this same mistake multiple times this season. The level he has shown so far this season is simply not good enough.
Perhaps he could even be ousted from the XI entirely. The ideal center back pairing is David Alaba and Eder Militao. Miguel Gutierrez is the best option on the left. Dani Carvajal and Lucas Vazquez are necessities on the right. (Well, Vazquez is more of a necessary evil in lieu of anyone else.) Serious questions must be asked of Nacho’s place in the lineup.
Carlo Ancelotti totally screwed up
We have seen Carlo Ancelotti deflect blame in a tongue-in-cheek manner before, but there is no time for games after this kind of a performance. The manager must step up to the plate and take responsibility for a tactical setup that was absolutely idiotic and had no chance of working.
Ancelotti wanted to rest Casemiro after a string of uncharacteristically woeful performances. Fair enough. He decided to start all four of Eduardo Camavinga, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, and Fede Valverde. Fine.
But then why start Fede and Camavinga as wide midfielders? Who on earth plays ball-winning center midfielders as wide midfielders? They got in the way of the fullbacks and could not find space inside, preventing Toni Kroos and Luka Modric from influencing the match like we know they can. The defensive cover they provided was non-existent, as their best strengths were sapped from them, in lieu of aimless crosses (from Valverde) and drifting (from Camavinga).
Ancelotti was too late to make adjustments in the second half when it was entirely obvious that his initial XI was inadequate both offensively and defensively. Not a single player was put in a position to succeed, as Ancelotti undermined several of his star players, most namely the titanic midfield duo of Modric and Kroos. It takes a special kind of awful formation to negate those two superstars.
If I type any more, I will devolve into profanity. I cannot believe the team selection I saw from Ancelotti. Maybe instead of trying to outsmart yourself and reinvent the wheel, do what you were hired to do and focus on allowing players to play to their strengths. That’s all you are here to do.
The same two bright spots
I guess I need to talk about a positive from this match, if not for my own sanity. The only thing I can come up with is to focus on the two men up top, who have both been so phenomenal this season and probably caused me to be less critical of Carlo Ancelotti than I should have been when things were going well.
Vinicius Junior is having the season of his life. He did not score or even assist today, but he did come close to assisting twice with spectacular backheel passes. The Brazilian winger was inventive, creative, and, most of all, smart with the ball at his feet. Vini could have done so much better if he weren’t so isolated, with Eduardo Camavinga behind him and Karim desperately trying to find space with no other forwards to draw out the low-lying Espanyol defense.
Per WhoScored.com, the former Flamengo man finished LaLiga’s Matchday 8 with three dribbles completed and two fouls drawn. By his standards this season, that reads like a more average performance. But Vini was quite good when you put into context how little help he had.
As for Karim Benzema, what more superlatives can we say? He scored a breathtaking goal all on his own to give Real Madrid some hope. He could have had a much better first half, but, again, Ancelotti did him no favors. Benzema came alive in the second and added to his goal tally. The Pichichi is his to lose.
The constant changes are wearing thin
Real Madrid keep trotting out new lineups and formations every other game. There is no cohesion in this team, which is already a team with a new manager and new faces like David Alaba and Eduardo Camavinga. That’s not even mentioning all the returning players, such as Toni Kroos from injury or even previously Gareth Bale from a loan to Tottenham.
I love that Carlo Ancelotti enjoys experimenting and trying to find solutions, but there is such thing as trying to outsmart yourself. To my earlier point, you don’t have to “try out” the idea of playing four center midfielders in a flat 4-4-2 with the ball winners out wide to realize that this is never, ever going to work.
More to the point, Ancelotti needs to remember his strength as a manager is dealing with the human side of the game, which is why he has done such a good job of getting more out of Vinicius Junior, Isco, Gareth Bale, and Eden Hazard. So why undermine that work by moving around your players like they can cope with so many changes and different instructions each week? It just doesn’t make sense, and it is a little disrespectful.
Ancelotti needs to stick with a few systems that work, that are sensible, and that fit the strengths of his players. What we saw on Sunday against Espanyol did not fall under any of those categories at all.
Let Miguel play
Miguel Gutierrez has to be Real Madrid’s best left back with Ferland Mendy still injured. Therefore, it baffles me that Carlo Ancelotti has not been calling upon the young Spanish left back as a starter in recent weeks, even though he started the season brightly, including with a strong performance against Real Betis.
He is a great passer of the ball and can influence the attack significantly, which is more than can be said about many of the other fullbacks. Miguel is no worse than the other options defensively either, not including the injured Mendy, so that makes little sense as well.
Ancelotti likes to change the XI every match, but it would behoove him to show more faith in the players, especially a promising young one like Miguel. Left backs are rare at the highest level, and Miguel is a 20-year-old prospect who has already shown he can hang with the best of them in LaLiga. I mean, how many left backs in this league are better than him? Certainly nobody else under the age of 23, right?
Miguel should get more opportunities to start. He has done nothing to have the rug pulled from underneath him, and these recent performances should be a strong sign to Ancelotti that he wronged the Castilla product.