First and
foremost this writer would love to say gracias to Carlo Ancelotti. He won us
four trophies. Gave me my happiest moment as a Madrid fan, with La decima. For
that I'll always be grateful.
When
Florentino Perez announced that Carlo Ancelotti had been relieved of his
duties. The Madrid fan base broke into chaos. You could feel the love towards
Carlo and hate towards Florentino. Why
it was surprising is strange knowing the way Madrid works.
I have
agreed with almost everything Perez has done during this second tenure as
president, and this is no different. Sacking of Ancelotti in the opinion of
this writer was the right thing. Many madridistas will rain abuse on this, but
when they look beyond la decima, they will see my point. This writer would like
to highlight some key points for my reasoning.
First of
all, the issue of lack of rotation. This was clearly a problem for this team.
Madrid suffered a lot due to Carlo constantly playing practically the same XI
every weekend or midweek when fit. Look at how rotation is about to lead Luis
Enrique to a treble at Barcelona. By rotating earlier in the season, he has
kept them fresh for the business end of the season. Tired bodies, equals tired
minds and sometimes even with mental inspiration the body just does not allow
you perform. All these could be seen with the players at the end of the
campaign. The 2nd leg against Juve or the Liga game at the Camp nou are prime
examples. Excessive playing also means that players are more susceptible to
getting injuries, and this was what happened to Madrid. 16 muscle injuries were
suffered over the course of the season, with fatal the losses of James, Ramos
& Modric desperately felt. Without them, we lacked leadership, drive, flow,
incision and penetration. The team looked dull, labored and in all honesty like
headless chickens at times. A prime example of this is the painful 4-0 derby
defeat to Atleti in February. Some would argue that the squad lacked quality
depth. This argument is a very valid one and one which Perez should share the
blame for, as our bench players (Isco, Navas & Varane aside) won't start at
Atleti, Villareal, Valencia, Sevilla or other top la liga sides. It's a poverty
situation for a club of Madrid's standards. However, following Carlo's history,
he has never been one to favour rotation, so it's hard to judge if it would
have been any different at Madrid.
Secondly,
the clear lack of tactical nous. Under Ancelotti Madrid played a 4-4-2 or a
4-3-3. Ancelotti is a master man manager, but he is tactically inept. Fair
enough, Madrid played some brilliant football over the past 2 years, but when
it was bad, it was really bad. No experiments in dead rubber games, and no
clear idea of what exactly to do when the team needs a goal. Baffling decisions
like the one to keep Kroos, can play the playmaker role, as the mediocentro
while playing Illara or Lucas Silva, recognised mediocentroes as part of the 2
further up when James got injured. Terry Gibson of Sky Sport's revista de la liga
show essentially pointed this out during their latest episode.
Madrid fans
would argue Illara isn’t Madrid quality. But this writer wholly disagrees.
Illara is Madrid quality. He just lacks confidence and is suffering from the
pressures of such big club. Either way, the decision to leave Kroos as the
mediocentro meant the attacking abilities of the team were diminished.
The games
were a point or a win was gotten, wasn't due to a master stroke from Carlo, it
was due to an individual piece of brilliance from Ronaldo or James or any of
the super stars. Example of this? The UCL 2nd leg quarter final against Atleti.
The goal was down to quick & incisive thinking from James and Ronaldo.
There are many examples of Madrid not having an actual plan to get back into
the game. The aimless crossing was particularly pathetic. I cannot tell you how
often it was easy to call how a game would pan out from a Madrid perspective.
The same way the team played over and over again. Even the substitutions were
easy to call. Some the ones that were not easy were otherwise surprising in a
negative way. His tactical ineptitude was also noted by Gibson.
With Carlo, this side
genuinely lacked identity or plan which made us easy to beat or play against
when faced with tactical coaches who had quality players to implement the right
method to stop Los blancos. This last
bit leads to my next point
Next point
is Carlo's pitiful big game record. Big games here are the knockout stage
matches and league matches against the big 7. Over the course of 2 years, the
record in UCL knockout is won 8, drew 2, and lost 3. Of the 8 wins, there were easy
wins against Schalke (thrice). A win against a deteriorating Dortmund side. A
win against a tired & depleted Atletico side (final), and a win against
10-man Atletico (UCL quarters). Looking at it, only both wins against Bayern
last year actually didn't carry an element of luck or something of that nature.
Madrid came close to bottling la decima twice. Against Dortmund, a disgraceful
first half meant the team were inexplicably 2-0 down at HT after winning the
first leg 3-0. If it wasn't for Casillas that night would have ended with UCL
exit. Same applies to the 3-4 defeat at Schalke at the Bernabeu this year.
Ronaldo dragged the team through that game and through the tie eventually. In
the league, the big games against the 7 toughest teams, Barcelona, Atletico,
Sevilla, Villareal, Sociedad, Valencia & Bilbao. In 2 years and 28 games.
The record is won 12, drawn 6 and lost 10. A win ratio of roughly 43%.
Failure to win these big matches are what
essentially cost Madrid the league in each of the last 2 years. In both years
Madrid were top of the league, 4 points clear coming into March. Both leads
blown away by the end of the month (two defeats within a week to Barca and
Sevilla in 13/14 and successive away defeats to Bilbao and Barca in 14/15).
Another
point would be the lack of inspiration or motivation Madrid sometimes show.
Self-motivation is vital, but motivation from your manager is key. Ultimately
managers are paid to do such. Madrid lacked that at times with Carlo. This was
particularly clear for all to see with the derby matches. After the 4-0 game,
Ancelotti came out and said we lacked motivation. That was infuriating.
Essentially the beginning of the end. How would there be a lack of motivation
towards a team that had knocked you out of two competitions and beaten you once
in the league already? An unbelievable statement that was from Mr
Ancelotti.
This writer
would also like to note that everything is not the manager's fault. The Madrid
players have a share of the blame. Silly and repeated mistakes cost the team
matches. Profligacy and poor form from the BBC also caused the team games. The
blame is on everyone, but the team manager is ultimately the one responsible
for correcting such things.
Fair play to
Carlo, the decision to play Ramos in midfield was brilliant and something this
writer had written on previously. Also, he did beat Atletico twice semi-final
in 13/14 (although got eliminated this year in the last 16 by them) and Barca
in the final of the Spanish cup. The team also benefited from his calm and
serenity which was the complete opposite to the total chaos the latter part of
Mourinho era was.
Its sad
Carlo has gone, but Florentino Perez has logical reasons. The faults were
repetitive, everything written in this article, has been written on extensively
at different stages of the season (both articles can be viewed here http://soccerbants.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/ancelotti-has-failed-this-team-real.html
and http://soccerbants.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/killing-it-softly-ancelottis.html ) by this writer.
All in all
this writer would like to thank Mr Ancelotti for several things. Credit had to
be given for turning making Luka Modric what he is. A different beast from the
player of pre-Ancelotti era. Also making James and Isco especially better
equipped in terms of their defensive abilities. Madridistas will forever be
grateful to Carlo for la decima. Many came and failed before him. He conquered.
This however, guarantees nothing especially at the biggest club in world
football. As this season has shown, failure to bring success to the table or at
least show little deficiencies would spell the end.
Once again,
Senor Florentino has made the right call.
