Real Madrid were terrible in Wednesday night’s shocking Champions League collapse at Wembley, and they are now undoubtedly in crisis.
But relax. Calma, as they say in Spain. Zinedine Zidane has been here before, and he is perfectly capable of leading the team into calmer waters just as he did the last time.
The state of the Madrid team right now is strikingly similar to the mess that Zidane inherited from Rafa Benitez a couple of years ago. Not that bad, admittedly, but similar.
Wednesday’s defeat at Tottenham showed that Los Blancos’ collective team structure is broken. Look again at the English team’s goals, and the most notable thing is just how easily they were scored.
Firstly, Harry Winks has the ball in midfield and, under no pressure at all, picks out a diagonal pass into the run of Kieran Trippier, who is equally unmarked as he delivers a square ball for Dele Alli to convert.
Then Alli picks up the ball in midfield, drives towards goal without being challenged other than by Casemiro’s laughable falling over efforts, and without any further impediment unleashes a shot which deflects off Sergio Ramos and into the net.
And finally, a swift but uncomplicated counter attack allows Harry Kane to slip a simple pass into the stride of Christian Eriksen, who finishes with aplomb to send the disbelieving Wembley crowd into raptures.
Three goals for Spurs, and all of them were fashioned in a straightforward manner with little defensive resistance, indicating that Madrid’s problem is the team’s general lack of shape, balance and organisation rather than the loss of form being so obviously encountered by individuals such as Marcelo and Karim Benzema.
It’s all rather familiar for Zidane, because that was more or less the same situation when he suffered the first defeat of his reign against Atlético Madrid at the Bernabeu in February 2016.
A dejected Zidane after the defeat to Atletico in his first game in charge
Back then, Atlético strode through the middle of the pitch without a care in the world as Koke linked with Filipe Luis and Antoine Griezmann finished without any Los Blancos defender anywhere near him. Rather like Spurs at Wembley on Wednesday.
Zidane’s team were in a shocking state after that derby defeat nearly two years ago, and it looked like Zidane had a major task on his hands to turn them into contenders for any major honours.
But four months later, they lifted the Champions League trophy for the second time in three seasons after stringing together a run of 15 wins in 17 games which also ran Barcelona extremely close for the league title.
Zidane achieved that turnaround by making significant changes, notably strengthening his midfield by making Casemiro an unquestioned starter and placing a greater emphasis on attacking width.
It may well be the case that the French coach decides to make similarly drastic changes now, as well. Considering the squad at his disposal, the potential to do so is there.
I see the Twitter Hindsight Gang are out in full force again. "We always knew this would happen to Real Madrid." Urrr no you didn't. "It was obvious they had problems." No it wasn't.
— Andy West (@andywest01) November 2, 2017
What those changes are, it’s impossible to say. Describing what is wrong with the team is easy and obvious, but identifying how their problems can be rectified is another matter. And as football is not an exact science, it’s not the case that there is ‘a’ solution anyway – there could be several.
It won’t be easy because the team currently has an awful lot of room for improvement. But in Zidane, they have someone who has been there, done that and come out on the other side with winners medals galore.
They should trust him to put things right again, just like he did the last time his team was in crisis.
