Julen Lopetegui was appointed in Zidane’s stead, and the 53-year-old’s reign was so ill-fated that it lasted all of four months and just 14 games.
The club turned to youth team manager and former player Santiago Solari to manage the club on a temporary basis, and the 44-year-old has discharged his duties with aplomb, winning his first four matches at the helm, with the club scoring eleven goals and conceding none in his first three to mark the best start to a managerial career at Real Madrid since 1957.
The club now finds itself in a bit of a conundrum, as Spanish football rules state that every club must announce a permanent manager within 14 days of the termination of a managerial contract, meaning that the Real Madrid has less than a week to make an announcement.
Speculations that first choice managers including Antonio Conte and Mauricio Pochetino have turned Perez down seem to put the caretaker manager in the prime position to get the job, but Solari’s relative inexperience at this level puts him at a slight disadvantage. However, it might serve Madrid’s best interests to give him the job permanently. Here we outline seven reasons why he should be named Real Madrid’s next manager.
#7 He doesn’t seem scared of taking the hard decisions
Real Madrid’s dressing room is littered with world-class players who are among the best in their respective positions and have won just about everything there is to win in the game of football at both club and international level.
Such amounts of success naturally come with a degree of pride, as footballers are very much as human as you and I (despite the media portrayals and stupendous display of wealth), subject to the same emotions as regular people.
It is arguable that there is no other dressing room in football littered with as many huge egos as those found in Real Madrid’s, and it is on this basis that most coaches struggle to keep them in check.
All footballers pass through bad spells in their career during which they lose form and nothing seems to go right for them (even Messi and Ronaldo have suffered a dip in form), and it is here that coaches have to make the gut-wrenching decisions of not naming them in the starting line-ups due to their drop in form, but most coaches bow to player power and stick with playing them despite proof to the contrary.
Julen Lopetegui did so to his own peril, but so far, Solari has shown to possess the requisite bravery to stick to making the hard choices.
Luka Modric is the current best player in the world, but at the moment, the 33-year-old is at the lowest point of his Real Madrid career, and it has been evident for all to see that he has been beneath his usual high standards which have been detrimental to Real Madrid whenever he plays, as he is constantly overrun in midfield.
Whereas Lopetegui inexplicably always named the Croat in his starting lineups, Solari thus far has not towed the same path.
He started Modric in his first game in charge from start to finish in the 2-0 victory over Real Valladolid, but after another subpar performance, Modric was left out of his starting lineups for the next two matches against Mellila in the Copa Del Rey and Victoria Plzen in the Champions League.
He also took the drastic decision of replacing Bale with Vinicius Jr after the Welshman’s ineffectual displays against Valladolid, and the change proved dividends, as the Brazilian was instrumental in getting Real’s opener, forcing an own goal from the Valladolid defence.
Real’s players have been comfortable on their perch for so long that complacency might have set in, and they needed a firm coach to shake them up with some hard changes, and Solari seems to be just the right man for that.
#6 His familiarity with the club
Real Madrid is undoubtedly the biggest club in the world, and it takes a higher level of maturity and experience to effectively play for or manage the club, as the history associated with Real means that more often than not, players and managers struggle to match expectations at the Bernabeu.
In this regard, Santi Solari has a distinct advantage, as he spent five highly successful years in the colours of Real Madrid, forming a part of the first Galactico between 2000-2005 before departing for Inter Milan.
His experience as a former player of Real Madrid means he is better positioned to relate with the current crop of Real players, as they would acknowledge him as one of them.
He has also been manager of the Real youth setup since 2013, and as such has been a familiar face within the coaching ranks, having intimate knowledge of players such as Reguillon and Javi Sanchez, and it is this innate knowledge of the inner workings of the club which puts him in good stead to succeed as Real Madrid’s coach.
#5 The previous appointment in such manner proved immensely successful
In late 2015, Real Madrid was in turmoil, battered 4-0 by Barcelona at the Bernabeu and dumped out of the Copa Del Rey in comical circumstances after fielding an ineligible player.
Rafa Benitez was relieved off his appointment barely six months into it, big money signings were struggling to perform and alarm bells had started ringing at a club who had three of the five most expensive players in history at that time barely one year on from winning the much sought after La Decima.
In step Zidane. The Frenchman had made a name for himself at the Bernabeu, with his legacy as one of the greatest players in history stamped at the club whom he represented with distinction for five success-laden years between 2001 and 2006, but his mettle as a coach had not been proven, as his only experience had come as assistant to Carlo Ancelotti and manager of the youth sides.
To put it succinctly, his appointment was an uninspiring one at the time, which was seen more as a stop-gap until the end of the season when Perez could make a marquee managerial appointment.
What followed was the most spectacular performance by a manager in the club’s recent history, as Zidane guided the club to three trophies in less than ten months in charge, becoming the first coach to win the successfully defend the Champions League, before extending the record to a third consecutive time in May. In total, his two and a half year tenure as Real Madrid coach yielded nine trophies.
Two years later, Solari finds himself in similar circumstances to his former teammate, and if Real Madrid can take a leap of faith on him like they did with Zidane, the club could end up being better for it.
#4 He has shown a distinct faith in young players
The core of Real Madrid’s squad has been together for the best part of the last six seasons, partaking in all of the club’s victories and triumphs in that time. They have won numerous titles together, including four Champions League titles, three FIFA Club World Cups, Three UEFA Super Cups and one La Liga title, and with most of them entering into the latter stages of their careers, the law of diminishing returns might have begun to take a toll on them.
Players like Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric and Benzema are all on the wrong side of thirty, and would need to gradually be replaced by younger players who would mark the future of Real Madrid, and unlike Julen Lopetegui who didn’t trust the youngsters at Real Madrid, such as when he fielded Lucas Vasquez at right-back when Carvajal was injured, rather than play the more natural Odriozolla, Santi Solari does not have to have such restrictions.
Under him, players such as Odriozolla, Reguilon and the highly rated Vinicius Jr have featured significantly.
No player or team no matter how good can last at the top forever, as age must begin to take a toll, and on the evidence we’ve seen so far, Solari is willing to give the future a chance by staking on the youngsters of today.
#3 He may help bring out the best of Vinicius Jr
Vinicius Jr had made headlines in his native Brazil with Flamengo, and was touted as the next big thing to come out from that never-ending supply chain of footballing talent called Brazil.
He was signed by Real Madrid on May 23 2017 for the hefty sum of €46 million (which is the highest amount ever paid for a club for a player under the age of 19), only ten days after making his professional debut for Flamengo, which was testament to the value the club saw in him, with the transfer stalled pending his 18th birthday.
He arrived at the Bernabeu in the summer of 2018, only to meet a coach who didn’t trust him at the helm of affairs.
Julen Lopetegui showed an immense distrust of the 18-year-old Brazilian, and afforded him just 12 minutes of action throughout his four-month tenure at the club, with Vinicius having to wait until September 29 to make his Madrid debut when he came on in the 87th minute of the goalless draw with Atletico Madrid.
All that has however changed since the arrival of Santiago Solari, as he has seen an improvement in his playing time on the pitch. In the four matches, Solari has been in charge of, Vinicius has seen action for a total of 148 minutes, which is twelve times more than he managed under Lopetegui in four months.
On his full debut for Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey against Mellila in the Copa Del Rey, he put up a man-of-the-match performance as he assisted both Marco Asensio and Alvaro Odriozola in the 4-0 victory.
He was introduced for Gareth Bale in Solari’s debut La Liga match in charge, and he scored his first goal for the club within seconds of his introduction, to break the deadlock and hand the initiative to Real Madrid in a tense match with Real Valladolid.
Vinicius has been identified as one of the brightest prospects of the future, and it is for this reason that the club bought him, as he would be crucial to the Real’s fortunes going forward, hence, he needs a coach who can help unlock his undoubted potential for Real to get a return on investment, and on evidence so far, Santi Solari is the right coach for that.
#2 Benzema has rediscovered his scoring boots
A much-maligned figure in recent years, Karim Benzema has fallen from the heights of previous years and has been the subject of constant criticism from media, pundits and fans alike due to his lethargic displays in front of goal.
He has seen his goalscoring numbers drop sharply in recent campaigns, and the departure of Ronaldo thrust him into the spotlight as the man to lead the club in the quest for goals, and many believed he couldn’t step up to the plate, so it came as a major surprise to many when the club decided to stick with him rather than seek a replacement goalscorer.
Benzema began the season on fire, scoring five goals in his first four matches, but endured a goal drought of eight matches, and scored just one goal in Lopetegui’s final ten matches in charge, but all that has changed since Solari’s arrival.
He got a goal in the victory over Mellila, before drawing blanks in the 2-0 win over Valladolid, but returned to scoring ways once more when he got a brace in the 5-0 trouncing of Victoria Plzen, and followed that up with another goal in the 4-2 defeat of Celta Vigo, also having a big hand in Real Madrid’s second goal, as his shot deflected off the keeper and the post before rebounding off Gustavo Cabral into the back of the net.
Goals win matches, as without them any team is bound to struggle, and since Benzema is the only senior recognized striker in the squad, he needs to keep scoring.
#1 The results speak for him
Beyond all the talk of aesthetics and an entertaining style of play, there is the only thing that really matters in football, which is the end result.
When results are poor, coaches are given the sack as Lopetegui found out, and when results are great, they get a stay of execution, as was the case with Zinedine Zidane last season in the Champions League.
Since Solari’s appointment, Real Madrid has seen a massive upturn in fortunes, winning all four matches that he has taken charge of, scoring 15 goals and conceding just two, coming on the back of just one victory in their previous seven managed under his predecessor Julen Lopetegui, where they scored just four and conceded 13.
Results are all that matters, more so at a club like Real Madrid where winning is already ingrained in the DNA of the club, and by virtue of the winning start he has made to his managerial tenure, he should be given the job permanently.
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