Winter Champions Real Madrid armed to deal with choppy waters

Both Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho have managed to lead Real Madrid to top spot at the midway point of the La Liga campaign. Each coach had contrasting fortunes. 

While Ancelotti witnessed the wheels falling off for his Los Blancos’ outfit in the second half of the 2014/2015 season, with Barcelona taking the title, Mourinho did not relinquish his grasp on top spot after taking the winter crown in 2011/2012 - the year that Real Madrid won their last domestic championship. Zinedine Zidane will hope that his fortunates will align more closely with the love-him-or-hate-him Portuguese coach, than the Italian he played understudy to in the Santiago Bernabeu dugout. 

This campaign, a 2-1 win over Athletic Club on the 23rd October ensured that Zidane’s side went top, as they maintained a sensational unbeaten run in all competitions that had been a talking point since the conclusion of the previous campaign. Since then, Los Blancos have sat atop La Liga. 

The next few match days saw Cristiano Ronaldo briefly take the mantle of top goalscorer in the division, too, as Real Madrid rolled on, and on. The streak seemed unbreakable, but break it did in January, with Zidane throwing sand on the fire by saying it was “logical” for it to have eventually come to a close. 

It may have taken 41 games for Los Blancos to build up an image of immortality, helped in large by the huge performances from Sergio Ramos, but now that illusion has shattered. Real Madrid have put themselves in a fantastic position heading into the second half of the league campaign, but they have numerous issues, each of them as real as the next. 

Injury problems have plagued Zidane all season, with key man Gareth Bale, who boasts their joint-highest WhoScored average rating with a 7.84, spending a lengthy period on the sidelines, with the likes of Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Casemiro and Cristiano Ronaldo all spending their fair share of time out of the first-team picture. As the weeks cruise by and the pressure ramps up, further absentees become ever-harder to replace, and only two first-team players have stayed permanently fit. 

Marcelo limped off against Malaga after picking up a muscle problem, with Dani Carvajal already on the treatment table, leaving Los Blancos to play out a 2-1 victory with Nacho and Lucas Vazquez at full-back. Danilo has been an unmitigated disaster at the Santiago Bernabeu, save for his offensive contribution, with the much-fancied Brazilian right-back shifting from exciting purchase to untrusted flop in the matter of a year. 

Nacho was picked ahead of the ex-Porto defender after playing at right-back just once in his competitive career for Real Madrid, with Zidane opting to bring on Isco, drop Vazquez to right-back and shift Nacho to left-back after Marcelo’s early injury. The Frenchman knows who he can trust, who will do as he asks, and who the fans are happy to see make mistakes - if it was Achraf Hakimi or Alvaro Tejero blundering, no doubt the demanding home fans would be more understanding. 

Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, too, are struggling to find their feet of late. Against Malaga, the former tried his luck from four shots, with the Frenchman racking up three. Only Gonzalo Castro managed to compete with such figures, but despite peppering Carlos Kameni’s goal, both walked away from the game without getting on the scoresheet, instead relying on Sergio Ramos to grab both of the goals and much-needed three points. Five-goal Alvaro Morata waits in the wings. 

Ronaldo went on two dribbles, with Benzema managing just a solitary one, as Zidane continues to struggle to get the best out of a front two that were starved of service against Sevilla in the second-leg of the Copa del Rey and didn’t fare much better in a 4-3-3 either on the weekend. Against Malaga, too, Benzema turned in a pass completion rate of just 61.1%, highlighting both his lack of sharpness and a dearth of feasible options around him. 

To sum up the Frenchman’s woes, when it looked easier to score with a close-range side-foot, he instead attempted a back-heel flick that sailed wide of the target as both Benzema and Ronaldo snatch at their limited opportunities as they continue to overthink everything. After losing a long unbeaten run, perhaps Zidane and all of his players are doing the same thing. 

A grudge match with Celta Vigo is the next target in the crosshairs for Real Madrid, leaving Zidane with no choice but to fall back on the players who have benefitted most from his organic promotion into the Santiago Bernabeu hotseat.  

Nacho has played slightly more than a rotational role in the first-team squad this season, while Lucas Vazquez is prepared to work himself into the ground for a coach that has given him the opportunity to pull on the shirt that he loves. Marco Asensio has repaid the Frenchman’s faith with some wonder goals, while the likes of Alvaro Tejero and Enzo Zidane will jump at the chance to play alongside the first-team faces who they train with. 

Mateo Kovacic flourished in Toni Kroos’ previous absence, with the Croatian set to be asked to do the same again after the recent injury to his compatriot Luka Modric, and Casemiro has been a fundamental piece of the Zidane puzzle for the last year or so. 

It is nice, even comforting, to spend big and bring in Galacticos, but Zidane’s approach to squad building has equipped him well for what is set to be a turbulent month. The unbeaten run is over, his star players are dropping like flies, but the mentality, attitude and confidence that he has instilled from top-to-bottom in his group of players should stand Real Madrid in good stead to stay on the path trodden most recently by Jose Mourinho.