Real Madrid: Three things we learned from a terrible performance vs. PSG

That was just horrendous, wasn’t it? Real Madrid fell 1-0 to a great PSG side on Tuesday, with Kylian Mbappe – who is rightfully being labelled as the best player in the world – scoring in the last minutes of the game to take the win. It was PSG’s best performance of the season, and Real Madrid’s worst. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

What are the things that we learned from this dismal showing?

1) The game showed Real Madrid everything that’s wrong with them right now

Have I mentioned already that this game was an overall failure? Like, everything, from top to bottom, on and off the pitch, it showed everything that’s wrong with Real Madrid right now. Obviously, there’s a lot of good stuff happening with the team, but there’s also a lot of things that require changing. All of those bad things were on full display.

Dani Carvajal, who probably gave in the worst performance of his entire career, has practically no natural backup. So, it was either Mbappe flaming him on every single attack, or it was Mbappe flaming Lucas Vazquez on every single attack. That’s not a good example of squad building. I’ll go deep into Carvajal’s performance in another article, but this problem has been there for TWO YEARS now, it’s not something new.

Real Madrid sent Odriozola out on loan in the 2019-20 season and didn’t feel the need to sign a backup right-back. Last season, they knew Odriozola wasn’t going to be good enough but they ended up signing absolutely no one. When Vazquez performed well, they gave him a huge extension, rather than signing someone that can challenge Carvajal for a starting spot considering he’s been injured so much. I don’t know how long it took for the club to realise it was supposed to be a makeshift change, not permanent. I don’t know if the club has still realised that or not.

I read this tweet from Kiyan Sobhani, and I cannot relate more:

It was Real Madrid’s worst performance of the season, by quite some distance, and one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen from Real Madrid during my time as a fan. There were three good players, at max four, on the pitch: Thibaut Courtois, Eder Militao, David Alaba and Casemiro. Four defensive-minded players. It tells you what you need to know about how tragic this game was in every sense, because these players had to put in heroic shifts so that the game ends scoreless; there was absolutely no way Real Madrid were going to score.

Why did Karim Benzema get the start if he was going to play the way he played? If he wasn’t fit, why risk him in a game where the game plan is essentially out of the window from the get-go? He didn’t look fit, he didn’t feel involved in the game and because of that, Vinicius was completely isolated. Well, Vini was isolated simply because the rest of the team was in shambles. Vini couldn’t act as an outlet because PSG knew what Real’s game plan was right from the start. Truly a shambolic performance, my God.

Even Ferland Mendy didn’t look 100% fit, and the fact that he picked up an unnecessary yellow card that’ll keep him out of the second leg (as is the case with Casemiro) makes it ten times worse. I assumed Casemiro would get booked. I don’t know how Real Madrid will manage the second leg without two of their defensive juggernauts, with seemingly no proper replacement for any of them in the squad. If you even consider playing Marcelo in the return leg, the game’s already gone, no offense to Marcelo, of course, but you know why I’m saying this.

Ancelotti needs to adapt. He needs to change things up when the situation is practically begging for it. He needs to make changes when needed, so many of them. I don’t understand this man.

Real Madrid cannot play like this ever again. I know they won’t. They can’t, not without two of their best defensive players. Not only that, but also because this is rock bottom. I don’t know if it can get any worse.

They need to be a lot better than this, or else even Kylian Mbappe’s arrival wouldn’t get them a Champions League title.

Marco Asensio is not good enough for Real Madrid

How this man keeps getting these starts is just beyond me. Marco Asensio was very easily the worst player on the pitch, and there were so many bad performers, you’d think it’d be tougher to pick the worst one out of a bad lot. But no, Marco Asensio defies expectations yet again.

In a game where they needed a lot of energy and running through the press, Carlo Ancelotti chose to go with Marco Asensio, who doesn’t bring energy, and can’t run past defenders or through the press. He can’t defend properly, he can’t make the right decisions in the box. So, Carlo, why was he playing?

I think that if Fede Valverde – a midfielder – was chosen over Asensio to play on the right-wing, we would’ve at least seen some more output from the right. Carvajal was clearly struggling, Asensio didn’t help. Valverde would’ve at least tried to suffocate Mbappe. Valverde would’ve at least tried to come short as an outlet and run through the press as he has so many times in the past. Asensio was caught in no man’s land so many times, the man was as confused on the pitch as I was while watching the game.

It just leads me to believe that if a player can only perform well once in three or four games, then he simply isn’t good enough to be on the squad for Real Madrid, let alone be a full-fledged starter for the team.

How many times have we had this conversation? “Oh, Asensio is good off the bench when he has a point to prove, but he’s really bad when he starts.” He’s not consistent enough. I’ve been saying this for years now, Real Madrid need to let him go. Asensio will never become the player he promised everyone he would be in his first two seasons at the club. That will never happen.

He gets too comfortable when he becomes a starter and it shows that he’s not good enough to be doing half the things he used to do, week in week out. He’s only good in spurts, and that is simply not good enough for Real Madrid. The club needs a reliable third attacking option, and once Mbappe joins, or if Mbappe joins, there would be no room for Asensio in the squad. There still isn’t, but I don’t see why Real Madrid’s higher-ups don’t understand that. He’s not that good enough anymore, he hasn’t been since before his ACL injury. It’s time that everyone, including Asensio, realises that.

Thank the Lord for Thibaut Courtois

That’s literally the biggest positive from the game. Courtois, right from the first second, was Real Madrid’s best player, and he did everything he could to make sure that his team stayed in the game even after a performance like this.

Courtois was big. Crucial. He showed his importance to this team in every way imaginable. He tried his best to get the ball to the attackers because every single outfield player had completely forgotten how to do so. He had six crucial saves, most of them from Mbappe, and kept Real Madrid in the game – at least and at most on paper – till the final minute, quite literally. He saved Lionel Messi’s penalty, and had more touches than Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior and Marco Asensio. Yeah, you read that right.

It just goes to show two things: How incredible Thibaut Courtois is and how underappreciated he has been in the last few seasons, and how reliant Real Madrid are on their goalkeeper and centre-backs. Like, really think about it. How many times have we seen Courtois make a bunch of crucial saves to make sure the score doesn’t change or Real Madrid don’t lose? We’ve seen that so many times this season alone, and it’s a shame no one talks about it. No one’s talking about it right now, and no one would’ve mentioned it had Real Madrid won the game. That’s how underappreciated he is.

In my opinion, Courtois is the best goalkeeper in the world. He’s proved that time after time after time, and it’s a shame that no one will realise it or start watching him play, all because he had one mediocre season. Just one.