#360view: Carlo Ancelotti facing bleak Real Madrid future

Andy West 02:34 14/05/2015
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  • Under fire: Carlo Ancelotti will be front of the firing line after Real's defeat.

    Considering how they have played for much of 2015, Real Madrid’s exit from the Champions League on Wednesday night was far from surprising.

    But it will still be regarded as a matter of indignation for Los Blancos followers, and manager Carlo Ancelotti, who – along with Gareth Bale and Iker Casillas – will be at the front of the firing line.

    Ancelotti has endured a torrid few months – something he could never have anticipated at the end of 2014 when his team had compiled a 22-game winning run and been crowned Club World Cup champions.

    Since those dizzying heights, a string of mishaps have dragged down the standard of the team’s performances to the extent that their failure to beat Juventus in either of the two legs is no shock.

    Injuries have certainly played their part, with Luka Modric, Bale, James Rodriguez, Pepe, Sergio Ramos and Karim Benzema all missing significant chunks of action since January.

    Naturally, that has disrupted the team’s rhythm, with the constant changes preventing Ancelotti’s men from recapturing the confident fluidity they displayed earlier in the season – how they would have longed for Modric’s control and penetration as the game ebbed away last night.

    There has also been a loss of form at individual level, most notably from Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese has endured a season of two halves: unstoppable before Christmas, but often little more than ordinary since then.

    Ghost: Morata came back to haunt Real.

    True, he has still come up trumps with big performances on the odd occasion, but there have also been plenty more encounters when Ronaldo’s output has been next to negligible – and that, even though he scored from the penalty spot, includes last night.

    Another player to dramatically fade is Isco, who earned rave reviews during his team’s golden run in the autumn, but more recently he has been a marginal presence.

    Last night both Isco and Ronaldo were notably quiet in the latter stages, which ended with something of a whimper as Los Blancos failed to mount the expected late siege.

    Another unwelcome distraction has been the continuing circus surrounding Iker Casillas, who has become so unpopular with a section of fans that they are now clearly waiting for him to make even half a mistake so they can start whistling their disapproval.

    This, again, was evident against Juventus with criticism pouring in his direction after he failed to stop Alvaro Morata’s equaliser.

    Rather than being an error, it was a shot that Casillas would have done very well to save. But that’s not how the boo-boys will see it, and the great Casillas debate, which has raged for more than two years, will continue, and probably conclude, in the coming weeks.

    The big question, of course, is how much Ancelotti should be held responsible for all this. Injuries, after all, are hardly his fault – unless you blame his reluctance to rotate players, which could be perceived as physically over-burdening them.

    The loss of form experienced by key players isn’t a problem of Ancelotti’s causing, either – unless you believe Ronaldo, Isco and Bale would be playing better if their coach could devise a different system for them.

    Put it another way: depending upon your point of view, it’s equally easy to either blame Ancelotti for Madrid’s failures or absolve him of responsibility for matters that were beyond his control.

    Club president Florentino Perez, however, will have to come down on one side of the fence – and we can guess which.

    Perez is not a man to shy away from big decisions, and history suggests that Ancelotti will not be at the club next season. This is a president, after all, who once sacked Vicente Del Bosque even though he had just won the league title.

    Whether fairly or not, the buck stops with the manager and two major titles slipping away from Los Blancos in the space of four days – with both games at the Bernabeu – probably means that Ancelotti’s time is up.

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