Nothing’s lost yet, but everything could be: 8 reasons why Real Madrid could end trophyless

No one would have ever thought back in December that by March of 2015, they would have to read an article like this. Things have changed for the Madrid club and they have changed quite fast – and at the worst possible time to boot.People who started watching football from January of this year wouldn’t believe it if they were told that this is the same Real Madrid team that went won 22 games in a row in the first half of the season. That team was like the extreme progressive death metal equivalent of football – they were quick, brutal, progressively got better in each match and brought death to the opposition teams.Los Blancos, on current form, don’t even look like a poor man’s version of that team. The Whites once looked like running away with the league title, but now find themselves sitting second with one point behind leaders Barcelona. They also made a mess of a seemingly easy second leg against Schalke and almost got themselves knocked out of the Champions League. Playing at home while leading 2-0 from the first leg, it should have been just a walk in the park – or the pitch – for 90 minutes for them to qualify. However, they lost 4-3 in front of their fans – who weren’t satisfied to say the least – and were just seconds away from getting knocked out after Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored in the 84th minute.Things aren’t looking very bright for the Merengues and with the El Clasico coming up, they could completely blow their chances in the league with a loss against their most bitter rivals. What was once unthinkable could happen: Real Madrid could end up trophyless this season. And here are eight reasons why:

#1 Injuries

This is the most obvious reason. Injuries have hampered the Whites to a scale greater than they – or anyone else – would have thought, given the size and quality of the squad.

The domino effect started with the fall of Luka Modric. After him, James Rodriguez, Sergio Ramos, Pepe and Sami Khedira went to the treatment table. While Pepe and the German are back – and both have been way below their standard since returning (especially the Portuguese; Khedira has been like that all season) – Rodriguez and Ramos are still not fit to play.

The way Real Madrid have played after the injuries of their key players, it wouldn’t be a stretch to claim that they would have been struggling to fight for even a Champions League spot – let alone the title – if they had as many injuries as Borussia Dortmund have had this season.

This wasn’t supposed to be a problem simply because the Galacticos had assembled their squad while keeping in mind the possibility of an injury epidemic. But the fact is that it has been a problem – and a huge one, which could very well cost them tremendously by the end of the season. Some blame here must go to Carlo Ancelotti for his...

#2 Lack of rotation

The reason why Carlo Ancelotti was successful at doing things that no other manager was able to post the Vincente del Bosque-era was his flexible nature. He wasn’t stubborn; he made tweaks quick and effectively – be it playing Angel di Maria in the centre or changing the system to 4-4-2.

Every coach who has been in charge of Madrid after del Bosque has tried implementing his own methods and tactics instead of just making slight tweaks and retaining the work done by the predecessor. And it has never worked – they all failed to win the trophy they coveted the most.

However, Ancelotti took over from Jose Mourinho and made small – but highly effective – changes which would have won Mourinho more trophies had he tried them instead (but his stubbornness never allowed him to).

And now, the former Milan boss is making – or has made – the same mistake that the self-proclaimed Special One did: being stubborn. The Italian was rigid when it came to making rotations and giving players rest which, by the looks of it, they so desperately needed.

A look at Toni Kroos would be sufficient to justify this argument. He is nowhere near as effective as he was earlier in the season. He looks tired and weary while making a pass – almost as if he is half-hearted about it. And now even Isco – who wasn’t getting enough minutes prior to Luka Modric’s injury – looks tired.

Ancelotti’s insistence on playing the same line-up in almost every game has also made Real Madrid...

#3 Predictable

During their 22-game winning streak, opponents couldn’t understand what to do to stop them. They were rampant and destroyed every team that came in their way. The Whites played a fluid brand of quick, attacking football.

Their playing style was neither counter-attacking nor possession-based tiki-taka – it was a combination of both. Ancelotti masterminded an interchanging 4-3-3-cum-4-4-2 that confused the wits out of their rivals.

If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it – so goes the saying. But the former PSG boss took that too seriously and is now having to pay for it.

Nothing about Real was broken, but some cracks were visible in the final few games of 2014. Then came the winter break and Ancelotti chose not to address them. He kept playing the same line-up in every game and that helped teams find out how to stop the raging bull.

A team can’t change a system in the middle of a season, but what it can do is play players with different skill-sets so that a new dimension is added.

The complete ignorance of Asier Illarramendi’s presence has been baffling. He is not among the best midfielders in the world, but he is certainly talented and has put in good shifts whenever he has played. His game is very different to Toni Kroos or Isco and adds more balance to the over-fluid midfield of Real Madrid.

Isco has improved his defending massively and the German is also decent at doing the dirty work. However, neither of them is close to the former La Real general in that aspect – especially when it comes to defensive positioning.

Positioning matters the most for a defender; just ask Paolo Maldini. Legend has it (technology wasn’t so prevalent at that time) that the Italian made only one tackle in every two games, and yet it was harder to go past him than it is to go past the Great Wall of China.

Maldini was a testament to the importance of good positioning. It is a subtle art and, as intriguing as it may sound to some, the Basque is the best in this aspect among all his midfielder team-mates.

Another starlet that has been shunned is Jese. At this point last year, Madridistas were wailing for him because he tore his cruciate ligament and was ruled out for 6 months. Now, however, he is there, but fans are still moaning – this time because he isn’t being played enough and is being benched in favour of an…

#4 Out-of-form Gareth Bale

How badly he must play to be benched, only God – or Carlo Ancelotti – knows. Since the turn of the year, the Welshman has been in terrible form, except for a couple of sparks here and there.

Signed for €91 million, the former Spurs man scored the winner in the final of the Copa del Rey and the goal that gave them the lead against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League final last season. It was a great first year – and all that despite not being able to participate in the pre-season.

Greater things were expected at the beginning of the current season as this time, he had a great pre-season and was the club’s best player in those friendlies. But he has disappointed the fans more than the sequels to The Hangover.

When the ‘BBC’ are on fire, there is no defense on this planet that can stop them. However, when one member of that trio has been as useful as chopsticks used for drinking a bowl of soup, the trio doesn’t click as a whole and fails to induce the fear that they naturally do. And yet, Ancelotti has been obstinate and has kept using Bale; perhaps the price tag on the former Southampton boy’s shoulders puts pressure on the Italian.

But taking aid of an old cliché, the team should always come first and it is for this reason that Bale should be benched in favour of Jese. In fact, benching Bale could give Ancelotti many options – like, for starters, tweaking the formation to make it more central oriented.

However, tweaking the formation at this point of the season is perhaps not advisable. especially because of Real Madrid’s…

#5 Drop in confidence

When wins flow in like the stream of the river Nile, the level of confidence increases like that of water during the monsoon. However, once a team starts losing, the confidence level falls at a steeper rate than Zimbabwean dollars.

And that is exactly what has happened with the Blancos.

With every loss, the eerie air of negativity shrouds the minds of players. It started with Valencia – the timing was also unfortunate given that their very next game was against Atletico Madrid, which they lost as well – and now Real have lost to the team they thrashed last season; and that too at home.

That speaks volumes about their self-belief level at this point of time. There is a saying which goes, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war – while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

Before 2015, Real Madrid players were like victorious warriors. Before even kicking the ball, they knew that they were going to leave the pitch with a win. Now, however, that belief has faded away from their faces and they themselves look skeptical of winning. This has also directly led to a…

#6 Lack of fear among rivals

While the men in white were assured of winning before even stepping on the pitch during their winning run, their opponents were equally certain of being the punching bags of Ancelotti’s men. The tides have now changed, however, as the opposition teams not only believe the once-unbelievable fact that Real Madrid players are a bunch of mere mortals, but also that they can be defeated with some effort.

Here, I’d like to borrow the tagline of The Shawshank Redemption, ‘Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free’. When there was fear and intimidation in the minds of their opponent, Real Madrid had already won the game before even playing because their adversaries had imprisoned themselves within the darkness of fear in their mind.

But now that there is the shining light of hope, opponents have shattered the self-made prison located in the mind and broken free. And once you believe that something is achievable, it indeed becomes that.

Obviously, the right tactics and effort are needed to make it a reality, but the first thing – the root – is to convince the mind. And that is what teams can easily do now because of Real Madrid’s current crucible. The worse news, however, is that they face their bitter Catalan rivals in two weeks’ time at a time when not only has the fear factor gone, but also...

#7 Barcelona are in tremendous form

When things were going fantastically for the Madrid club, everything was looking bleak for their arch-rivals. Poor performances in matches and reports of a rift between Lionel Messi and coach Luis Enrique, added to their transfer ban, left their fans in the chasm of hopelessness. Many Barca fans had given up on any sort of salvation and were mentally preparing themselves to embrace the possibility of seeing Real Madrid race away with every possible title.

Fast-forward a few months and the tables have turned. It is now Real Madrid that look like ending up trophy-less with Barca looking on course to win the league title.

Initially, the Messi-Suarez-Neymar trio struggled to click. Luis Suarez was looking like a shadow of his former self and the same could have been said of Lionel Messi. Only Neymar was playing to his potential – and that bailed Barca out of messy situations on quite a few occasions.

However, right now, this trio is clicking much better than Real Madrid’s BBC, and they are doing to opposition defences what the latter did during that exceptional run of 22 straight wins.

The Clasico up ahead could be labelled as the final of the La Liga. Even though there will be plenty of games remaining after the match, they won’t matter much given how things usually turn out in La Liga. Madrid already find themselves a point behind their nemesis and a loss would increase the cushion to four points – something that would further deepen the dent in confidence of the Real players, especially when their...

#8 Defence has been poor

Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles. This is the widely accepted principle in football, and it couldn’t be truer.

When Ramos and Pepe were in form and guarding the backline of Real Madrid with authority, it was harder to breach them than the security at Pentagon. The understanding that the quartet of Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos and Marcelo/Coentrao had was remarkable. Even though three out of the four defenders in that quartet are renowned for making attacking surges forward, they were a very tight and well-balanced unit.

However, with injuries to Pepe first and then Ramos, Real Madrid have somewhat lost that balance. Raphael Varane is a world class talent, but he hasn’t played to the level he is capable of and has made more errors in the past few games than in his entire playing career. Nacho is also a great defender, but a balanced backline is not about having individually great defenders – it is about the aforementioned level of communication. Unfortunately, both Varane and Nacho haven’t played enough to have the proper level of communication.

If a team doesn’t concede, it doesn’t lose. And right now, Real Madrid are conceding like there is no tomorrow. And losing.

What once didn’t even occur randomly in the minds of people looks like a real possibility now: after creating the record for the most consecutive wins for a European team, Real Madrid could end the same season without a single trophy added to their case.

Nothing has been lost yet, but everything could be lost if things don’t change soon for the Whites.