Real Madrid is burning – How did this happen?
Zidane
Much of this fault must lay at the feet of Zidane.
As we mentioned above to allow the team to rest on their laurels to such an extent is a failure. A failure mind you that begins and ends with the manager. Zidane hasn’t pushed his squad enough, he hasn’t kept them fit enough and he hasn’t frankly, scared them enough that the performances aren’t changing.
Now the manager cannot be held to blame for everything that has gone wrong with his team. They’ve been poor, at times unable to even control the ball. But what the French Legend can be blamed for is not adapting. Real Madrid have played the same 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 with the same poor players time and time again this season regardless of the results.
Zidane hasn’t been proactive enough and it’s hurt his squad. HIs loyalty is charming. That he has stuck by Benzema, Ronaldo and Bale will mean a lot to each of those players. The ex-footballer leaks out of Zidane so obviously in these scenarios that it’s impossible not to feel bad for him. But the truth is that he’s the manager now and not the fleet-footed attacking midfielder that everybody loves.
Whether or not he should even be in the position, however, is a different case.
Zidane is young as a manager and none of his mistakes are surprises. The thing is that most managers have to at least to a certain extent earn their position at the biggest club in the world. The truth is simply that Zidane was chosen to be the manager of Real Madrid by Florentino Perez long before anyone knew if he deserved the title.
Whereas Pep Guardiola had unbelievable success with Barcelona B Zidane was at best mediocre with Real Madrid’s equivalent Castillia team for one lone season before he was made the manager of Real Madrid halfway through the season.
Then he inherited a team that was already halfway through the season. The team had essentially been on autopilot since Carlo Ancelotti won the European cup a year earlier.
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Zidane never moved out of that. His success was predetermined by a team that was already formed, trained and organized. He simply watches them play and speaks in press conferences. As a coach Zidane is way out of his league at Real Madrid and it is beginning to show.
This though is the fault of Perez who clearly wanted to write a storybook ending for a player so beloved by Madrid fans that no one would argue that he has never even managed a professional before. Perez jumped the gun in appointing Zidane. It is not at all similar to the Barcelona model because Madrid are not academy based.
The players at the top-level would not have some sort of affinity for a coach from the academy. All of Barcelona’s players had a prior relationship with Pep. Madrid’s simply know how great a player Zidane was.
That, in the end, is the issue. This is a classic case of a great player being expected to be a great manager. Zidane isn’t and he never was. He never had to coach this Real Madrid team that was built, gassed and ready for lift-off long before he got there. Now that some actual managing is required an experienced coach would know the necessary move.