5 reasons why Real Madrid failed in the El Clasico

#3 The Mateo Kovacic substitution

Kovacic was brought on for Casemiro, who was lucky to stay on the pitch

Real Madrid play with a gung-ho style of football, in which even the holding midfielder and the full backs push high up the pitch to attack. With the game poised on the knife edge at 1-1, Zidane chose to bring on Mateo Kovacic for Casemiro. Kovacic isn’t a holding midfielder and lacks the discipline required to perform the required role.

Casemiro himself was lucky to have survived till the 70th minute, after a couple of reckless tackles on Messi which went unpunished just before the interval.

Kovacic hasn’t really been successful at Madrid yet, and hardly helped Luka Modric exert any sort of control in midfield on Sunday. It won’t be a surprise if Madrid let go of the Croatian, and find a midfielder who can exert some control during the big games.