Never mind the three points they scraped on Wednesday, Rafael Benitez’s position at Real Madrid is looking increasingly untenable. Rarely can any manager have received such a negative reception after guiding his team to two consecutive home wins as Benitez following Madrid’s victories over Rayo Vallecano and Real Sociedad either side of Christmas.
– Premier League: January transfer window watch
The discord among fans was most starkly evident in the few minutes leading up to Cristiano Ronaldo’s crucial second goal. Rather than urging their team onto greater efforts in their quest to return to the top of the table – even if only for a few hours – there was a distinct sense of unease and discontent which came close to outright mutiny when Benitez opted to replace popular James Rodriguez with Mateo Kovacic.
Even for fans as famously demanding as Real Madrid, it was an unusually hostile atmosphere for a team very much in the thick of the title race. But Los Blancos faithful – or faithless would be more apt at the moment – are unhappy not just because of what they were seeing, when mid-table Sociedad were controlling long passages of play.
The atmosphere at the Bernabeu is explained by everything that has happened over the course of a horrible 12 months for Madrid.
It comes at the end of a year which has seen the team win no trophies and lose 4-0 against their biggest two rivals, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona. A year which has also seen them lose in the league against practically every major team in Spain: Valencia, Sevilla, Villarreal and Athletic Bilbao…they have all beaten Los Blancos in the last 12 months.
What’s more, 2015 also witnessed Madrid sack a popular manager in Carlo Ancelotti, who had the trust of the players, fans and the media, and replace him with an unpopular one who has the trust of pretty much nobody.
Oh, and let’s not forget the administrative shambles which saw Madrid fail to sign their long-term transfer target David De Gea because they couldn’t send a fax in time, and the similar debacle of their Copa del Rey expulsion for fielding an ineligible player.
What the Bernabeu think of Benitez right now [@izas_93] pic.twitter.com/c9pyf0Wd8A
— SPORT English (@Sport_EN) December 30, 2015
No wonder, given that mini-review of the year, that Madrid fans are a pretty upset bunch at the moment, and that they are ready to pounce upon any sign of negativity they can find – such as struggling to beat a mid-table side at home despite two soft penalties.
Not all those things are Benitez’s fault, of course, and it is only fair that president Florentino Perez is also feeling his share of the heat. But Perez is hardly likely to sack himself or his highly-paid and personally selected ‘Galactico’ superstars, and in these kind of situations the fall guy is the manager.
It is possible, of course, that Benitez will turn things around and get his team playing as a collective rather than a bunch of individuals. But he has not even come close to managing that task so far, and seems to be running out of time.
If he is surrounded by so much negativity when the team is winning, just imagine what will happen when they lose. If it comes anytime soon, his next defeat could well be his last.
