Real Madrid has always been known to be one of the ultimate teams in the footballing world of today. Winning three Champions Leagues in three consecutive seasons is not a matter of joke and only two other clubs have done this before, Bayern Munich and Ajax. Coupled with the progress, the history involved and the powerful president in Florentino Perez, not many players turn them down when Real Madrid comes for them.
Real Madrid has always been notorious for signing the best of the best from other football teams and it’s the aura of Real Madrid that makes it happen. That was how the Galacticos team was made in the first decade of this century. The likes of Zinedine Zidane, Fabio Cannavaro, David Beckham, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo Luis Nazario, and Luis Figo, all the stalwarts of that time wanted to be a part of the squad.
This always led to players leaving the team and getting discontented with the manager and the team of how they were being treated. This led to the leaving of Claude Makelele and Fernando Hierro. Fast forward 16 seasons, where Madrid has achieved the unthinkable of winning the UCL three consecutive times.
Squad management:
After Cristiano Ronaldo left at the beginning of the 2018/19 season for Juventus and Zinedine Zidane left for a break, it left Madrid in an uncomfortable place with no probable replacements for them. That showed in the results of last season where Madrid only won the FIFA Club World Cup and failed in all other domestic or international competitions. Julian Lopetegui, followed by Santiago Solari was put in charge of the team. He brought in Vinicius Junior in the team but it was a big gap for the 18-year-old to fill and he fared satisfactorily.
At last, Zinedine Zidane was brought back into the team on March 11 of this year so as to end the suffering caused by the change of head coaches and he composed the team into getting a 3rd place in the La Liga.
Following the disastrous season in Real Madrid terms, Perez pushed the accelerator in the transfers and has already confirmed 5 big names for the 2019/20 season. Ferland Mendy for €48m from Olympique Lyon, Eder Militao for €50m from Porto, Eden Hazard for €100m from Chelsea, Rodrygo Goes for €45m from Santos and Luka Jovic for €60m from Eintracht Frankfurt. Even though all of the above-mentioned players were top players for their respective clubs Rodrygo Goes and Eder Militao would not be the go-to players in the upcoming season that’s for sure. There’s still a dilemma about Luka Jovic, whether he or Benzema will be the first choice.
There are 35 players on the Real Madrid squad listed as of now and as it stands Perez is still going for a top-level signing. That’s where the problem arises. Filled with top-level players, only a few get an average of 20 games or more, or enjoy their time on the bench or go out on loan.
The squad consists of Keylor Navas, Thibaut Courtois, Luca Zidane in the Goalkeeping section and Andriy Lunin has also returned from his loan spell. There are 2 right back options, 5 proper centre backs and 4 left backs who could play in the first team for any top league team. This is not even counting players who can play in varied positions.
There are 10 midfielders in the team with James Rodriguez coming back from his loan stint at Bayern Munich. Except for Odegaard, Llorente and Valverde, who are still growing and thought to have high potential, everyone else deserves regular first-team action, but only a few get it.
The forward section is worse with 10 other top players playing for the Los Blancos with most of them warming the bench throughout the season. Five top level left wingers in the team including Eden Hazard, Vinicius Junior, Marco Asensio (plays on both wings), Brahim Diaz and Rodrygo Goes. Luka Jovic, Mariano and Karim Benzema as strikers and a modest 2 players in the right wing.
It is always expected off a team that they in extra of having a World class first team, they would have depth in all the positions so as to avoid any problems during injuries or suspensions. What Real Madrid is doing is just another case of exploitation of their financial power and their records.
