Real Madrid are a team who are a lot unlike their usual self under Julen Lopetegui. They should dismiss a coach who never suited their style from day one.
Zinedine Zidane departed Real Madrid in shocking and unexpected circumstances, just three days after handing them a third successive UEFA Champions League crown. The Whites were not in a state of crisis or there was not even a single sign of melancholic atmosphere in the dressing room that justified the Frenchman’s departure.
But the former Real Madrid player said in his final interview before leaving that he felt the club was in need of a change at the helm after two and a half years of seeing the same person manage things. Fair enough. There was a big void which he left, but that could certainly be filled up.
Unfortunately, Florentino Perez rushed things in the Spanish capital and against all odds appointed Spain coach Julen Lopetegui. It was a big shock that the president handed out to the fan community after rumors of him searching the market and contacting Carlo Ancelotti, Mauricio Pochettino and even Antonio Conte amongst others.
Well, Julen Lopetegui’s record with Spain was an absolutely stellar one. But one does fail to understand- how can one not be successful with a Spain team that had the minnows of Albania, Israel, Macedonia and Liechtenstein in their World Cup qualifying group? Only Italy posed a realistic threat, but they were not at their best either, and thus, certainly Spain were expected to qualify without facing much troubles.
He was Spain’s coach for 20 matches and boasted a 70% win record which is commendable, yet deceptive looking at a Spain side which has not lost in 27 matches over 90 minutes! Neither was Lopetegui having a good record at Porto, yes, he did have a win percentage of 68%, but failed to win a single trophy with them.
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His tactics definitely deserve credit though. They are useful for a team like a Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Manchester City who have the right kind of players to pass the ball around and hurt the opponent, but absolutely useless for Real Madrid who have a reputation of scoring tons of goals every season rather than maintaining long spells of possession.
Some would argue that he lacked the ‘goal scoring threat’, but I feel that is just an excuse. Real Madrid have the quality and the likes of Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale, who are certainly world class if not the best players in the world. The big failure is- there are no chances being created, so you cannot expect a target man to finish them!
His record at Real Madrid is abysmal, and most probably the worst of any manager at the club in recent memory. In his first 11 matches at the helm, Lopetegui has won only 5 and drawn 2, let aside the 4 losses which are hard to digest. A 45.45% winning rate it is for Los Blancos under Julen Lopetegui and they need to say goodbye to a coach sooner than later who was never really good enough for them.