The Daily Merengue is a place where you can feel free to discuss all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name! Shoutout to the mods who do a fantastic job Kung_Fu_Zizou, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, Ezek Ix and yours truly, Valyrian Steel.
As fans we’re making excuses.
First off let me be very clear. Sacking Carlo was absolutely the right decision. Secondly hiring Xabi was also the right decision. He checked all the boxes. Performed miracles with Leverkusen, the football was beautiful to watch and he knows this club inside out. The best fit for the club post the Carlo debacle. Now this is where coaching Real Madrid is different from coaching any other club. Politics has always been a part of this institution and there is always some pressure from Florentino and Co but to try and steer the underperformance of this team in that direction is quite frankly laughable.
Every coach coming in knows they’ll have to deal with Flo one way or the other but is he calling Xabi and forcing him to play a certain lineup? Don’t be ridiculous. Xabi’s biggest problem is that the bench is underperforming massively and so he has no choice but to keep playing the starters. Either way he has to make a big call sooner or later. Either in terms of benching players or tactics or both. The logic that he’ll be sacked if he doesn’t play certain players makes little sense. He’ll be sacked anyway if he doesn’t win. If anything we had more of a reason to question Flo last year when Carlo had to “make do”. This year the squad has had defensive reinforcements and we’ve got the coach we wanted. When 1 or 2 players are having a bad season you can lay blame on them, but when several are, then that’s on the coach. When the tactics are bad then that’s on the coach too. When our strategy is individual brilliance well that’s on the coach again. If the players are unmotivated guess what? You’re right. On the coach once again.
The coach we all wanted just hasn’t worked out so far. That’s all there is to it. Not the refs, the weather, the Bernabeu grass, the scheduling and certainly not management. That being said I still have faith (or hope) that Xabi can turn things around and we can salvage something from this season. Sacking him at this juncture makes no sense. We’re still alive in all competitions. Real Madrid’s issue is very much a mental one. As always we are our own worst enemy. If Xabi can crack that mental barrier and get these players to buy in then there’s hope and we’re going to have a good rest of the season.
More fallout from the first home loss.
