Real Madrid lost to Atheltic Bilbao in the quarter-finals of Copa Del Rey 2021/22, by a scoreline of 1-0, with Bilbao’s Alex Berenguer netting the winner in the 89th minute of regulation time.
Well, the scoreline does make it look like a tight game, but it doesn’t talk enough about Real Madrid’s underwhelming performance yesterday.
I’m not exaggerating, but this game might actually be the worst game so far this season. We are used to Copa Del Rey eliminations, and sometimes those eliminations can be heartbreaking ones, like the 3-4 loss to Real Sociedad in 2019/20 or the loss to Celta Vigo in 2016/17, which was decided by an unfortunate own goal from Danilo. But this one is different. Real Madrid never looked to be in the game from the word go.
A lot of things went wrong in yesterday’s game, and let us have a look at three things that can be blamed for yesterday’s terrible result.
1. Carlo Ancelotti got his calls wrong this time
Whenever a team is outclassed by the opponents and eventually loses the game, the manager is expected to take responsibility for the loss. This game wasn’t any different, and Carlo Ancelotti got a lot of calls wrong at San Mames.
Starting with the line-up, Carlo Ancelotti couldn’t have tried anything different in midfield and defence, but he got it wrong in selecting his attacking line. Karim Benzema was unavailable due to an injury, and Jovic wasn’t really impressive in the role of a lone striker in his last two games, so it made sense to leave the Serbian on the bench. But his decision to start Asensio as a false-9 is definitely a questionable one.
Eden Hazard was decent in his last two appearances, and he is clearly a superior false-9 to Asensio, in terms of both quality and experience. But Ancelotti chose to start an Asensio who had just returned from injury. He did rectify his mistake at half-time by asking Asensio to drift to the wings, but in turn, Rodrygo had to stay central, and that decision didn’t help the team.
Another questionable call from Ancelotti was to start all three of Vini Jr, Casemiro and Rodrygo, who had just returned from Brazil, a day before the game. It is important to pick your best XI for games like these, but there are some factors like jet lag and recovery, and you’ve got to consider them.
Another aspect of the game that Ancelotti got terribly wrong is substitutions. Taking off Vini in the second half wasn’t a wrong decision, because the Brazilian was ineffective and he wasn’t even in the right condition to start the game. But the decision to keep Rodrygo and Asensio on the pitch, while both of them weren’t at their best, is another questionable call. He had players like Hazard, Bale and Jovic on the bench, and instead of waiting for an extra-time scenario and settling for a draw in the 90 minutes, he could’ve made the substitutions. In hindsight, we can say that subbing on Isco was a good decision because the Spaniard did look decent on the pitch, but apart from that, he got a lot of things wrong in the second half.
Personally, I feel that this was Real Madrid’s worst performance this season, considering the importance of the occasion and the level we got to witness yesterday. Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t think so, but such an underwhelming performance in a knockout game has to be the worst game for both the team and Ancelotti.
No one should judge Ancelotti on the basis of this one game, because he has done a good job this season, but it is what it is.
2. The players’ lack of seriousness in an important game
After our last game with Elche, I had praised the team’s fighting spirit and their nature of not giving up. But in yesterday’s game, which was held just 10 days after our last game, there was literally zero intent from the players on the pitch.
Carlo Ancelotti can take the decisions, can only trust the players to perform on the pitch and pass instructions from the sidelines. The rest is in the hands of the players, and the result will be dependent on their performance. And yesterday a lot of players failed to play well, including the seniors of the team.
In attack, Marco Asensio was invisible for major portions of the first half and wasn’t able to take advantage of getting to play as a false-9. Rodrygo was completely ineffective from both the wings, as he was easily bullied by the Athletic players. The overworked Vini looked exhausted throughout the match, and even the team’s best players like Luka Modric and Toni Kroos had a poor game by their lofty standards. And Casemiro’s weaknesses were easily exploited by Marcelino’s men, as he was forced to give away the ball for Athletic’s late winner.
Apart from the team’s saviour Thibaut Courtois, Eder Militao and captain Nacho Fernandez, the rest were disappointing, to say the least. I didn’t see this coming, with the European players having a break of around 10 days. And we’re used to a Real Madrid team that lives for big games like these, so it was definitely a shocking performance. We have the best midfield trio in Europe, but it was a shame that we couldn’t string more than two to three passes in most of the attacking moves.
Another topic that has to be talked about is the team’s overdependence on Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr in the attack. Both of them have bailed out the team a lot of times this season, but without them, they looked toothless in attack and were out of ideas. This is something the manager needs to work on because overdependence on just two players is never a good sign.
3. Improper workload management and ridiculous scheduling
Three of yesterday’s starters had just returned from Brazil, a day before the game, and six of the starters in yesterday’s game have already played over 2000 minutes this season. The exhaustion is somewhat expected because these players have been severely overworked this season. Yesterday’s fixture was an important game, so the best players had to start the game. But how can we expect them to play well in games like these if their workload hasn’t been managed properly?
Carlo Ancelotti and his coaching staff must be blamed for this because they have a talented squad at their disposal, but haven’t been able to make the best use of the squad depth. The squad might be imbalanced, but it is not so bad that only 14 players should be used throughout the season.
Another thing we need to talk about is the scheduling of this international break and the Copa Del Rey quarter-finals. Because this schedule is nothing but injustice to the top clubs. How can the organisations expect players to choose between national duty and club football? In a space of 42 hours, players had to play games on different continents, which is nothing but severe injustice to players and the clubs who have sent their players to international duty.
Talking about this might seem like an excuse at this time, but the schedule was always labelled as a ridiculous one before this game.