That was an embarrassing loss. And the fourth of this season against the same opponent. But I am not surprised. Nobody should be. We saw this coming, didn't we?
I would not have said the words above had Real Madrid lost by chance or by a small mistake like the Copa Del Rey final. This was a loss that resulted from carelessness and delusion that both the manager and the players have been living in for many months now. I am actually glad they got this reality check hard.
Why did Real Madrid lose the game again? Because of their own deeds. And I can sum these reasons in three big categories that are not only relevant to this game but to the entire shambolic season that Los Blancos have endured.
The lame starting XI
There are multiple reasons why Carlo Ancelotti is leaving Real Madrid and one is his inability to make a good starting XI. He always discovers in the middle of the game that his decisions prior to kickoff were insufficient.
Starting Lucas Vazquez in a game like this, knowing how terrible he has been this season, feels like an error to me. I refuse to accept that probably the greatest manager in football and Real Madrid's most decorated manager had no idea Vazquez was such a burden this season.
You cannot convince me that one of the right backs from La Fabrica could not have done better than Vazquez because to do better than him, one only had to make a few good passes.
Ancelotti has shown over the years that his experiments never turn out good. Remember this one time he decided to experiment with Modric as a 9 in a previous El Clasico? Yeah the one they lost by 4 goals.
He keeps experimenting players in awfully odd positions but seldom gives genuine chance to academy players. He took too long to trust Arda Guler and benched him in the second half because he didn't believe he was good enough.
Overconfidence in the first half
Real Madrid were able to build a comfortable two-goal lead by the 14th minute of the game, leaving their only duty to defend well and retain a clean sheet. But the mistake they made thereafter is out of this planet. However, it is nothing new.
In the classic Real Madrid style, every time they go up, they assume the job is done and relax. The opponent then sees a large gap to exploit and completely reverses the outcome. This is exactly what happened on Sunday.
I am tired of pointing this out via a keyboard on the internet from a remote country in the world but the team and the manager of the biggest club in the world are unable to understand this. At this point, I have ran out of different ways to say the same thing over and over again.
Real Madrid are too confident in their abilities when they should not be. Especially after this ruining season. The sooner they realize this the better.
Illogical substitutions
Please tell me it was not Carlo Ancelotti who decided those half time substitutions because I refuse to believe a manager with such a big name can take such decisions.
Arda Guler performed well in the first half. Certainly not at the peak of his abilities, but still the best midfielder beside Fede Valverde. But for some reason, he did not persuade Ancelotti, who replaced him in the second half with Brahim of all people.
Brahim, who already has one foot out of the club, was brought in to replace the guy that caused evident problems for Barcelona in the previous El Clasico. Make that make sense.
The additions of Endrick in the 84th minute and Victor Munoz in the 88th was merely a consolation appearance for the two. Ancelotti has a problem with leaning too heavily on his regular players, which explains Real Madrid's poor season and the fourth El Clasico defeat in a row.