Real Madrid were awful against Atletico Madrid, and a lot of it was because they simply did not try enough. The game plan was awful for Real Madrid to succeed, even when they had 11 men on the field, and some of the decisions that manager Jose Mourinho made were simply not good enough.
You can arrgue about the refereeing decisions all day long - it is something that Real Madrid are within their rights to complain about, but it is worth noting that there is so much more than that. Real Madrid players, as well as Mourinho, did not show a hint of accountability for the way they played even when they had 11 players on the pitch.
Refereeing decisions were out of their control, but the way they played in the first half was in their reach, and they played terribly. The lineup that Mourinho started the match with was under his control. So were the substitutions he made in the second half. Rather than just talking about the referee decisions, Mourinho should have talked about the things he got wrong, too.
Him saying that he is proud of his players for leaving it all out is not only ignoring the problem, but is also straight-up wrong. That was the problem. Real Madrid players did not leave their all out on the pitch, and you can talk about Dean Huijsen all you want - that is the truth.
Jose Mourinho got so much wrong vs Atletico Madrid
For starters, there is no reason for Vinicius Junior to be starting a game of this calibre when he is playing the worst football he has played since 2021. There is also no reason for Bernardo Silva to be on the bench when the team lacked control and creativity from deep.
There was not a single midfielder good enough to keep the ball and not be afraid of it until Silva was brought on in the 82nd minute, and that is why he should have started over Aurelien Tchouameni, who provided nothing to the team on the day.
Another mistake was to keep Trent Alexander-Arnold on the bench. No one in Real Madrid's team had any passing range in midfield, which is why starting Trent would have helped mitigate some of that. Not to mention that Denzel Dumfries was shockingly bad, and has been throughout the season. Not starting Trent over him makes no sense.
Lastly, yes, Mourinho had to use some of his substitutions on the red card, including one window, but not having Carlos Espi on the pitch in the last few minutes when the team desperately needed a goal did not make any sense. It was the most obvious thing Mourinho could have done.
How much better was Eduardo Camavinga than Tchouameni? Would it have mattered if Tchouameni had stayed on? Would it have made much difference? Instead, getting Espi on could have at least given Real Madrid some box presence and a chance to score a late equaliser, even if they did not deserve it.
You can talk and sulk about referees all you want, but the fact of the matter is that almost every single player, as well as Jose Mourinho, had an absolute howler against Atletico.
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