A wound that has not healed: Real Madrid exploit refereeing controversy to hide their biggest problem
The refereeing controversy following the Madrid derby conceals structural shortcomings in Real Madrid's performance. They still cannot find a maestro to orchestrate their play.
José Mourinho devoted a large part of his post-match press conference to complaining about the officiating.
The club joined in via their website. But while Real Madrid keep their eyes fixed on the referee, whether they are right to do so or not, a far deeper problem has slipped back into the shadows.
According to Sport newspaper, it is hard not to conclude that Real Madrid have spent more than two seasons hunting for a solution to their playmaker problem since Toni Kroos retired.
Kroos's departure left a wound that has not healed at the Bernabéu. The team still struggles to find a player who can organise the play, give them composure and dictate where each match is fought.
Failure to sign Rodri
The problem surfaced under Carlo Ancelotti, Xabi Alonso couldn't resolve it definitively either, and now Mourinho has arrived. Yet the Portuguese coach still leans on the same two holding midfielders: Tchouaméni and Fede Valverde.
Nobody is questioning their quality. The issue is whether their profiles suit what the team needs, because neither looks capable on his own of solving the very problem Real Madrid must address above all else.
Missing out on Rodri hurt Real Madrid badly in this regard. Worse still, the club then abandoned the hunt for a player of similar characteristics.
Atlético provided one of the first real tests of the season, and once again the flaw was laid bare. The opponent controlled long stretches of the match and held onto the ball with ease.
Mourinho plays with his cards on the table
On top of that, Mourinho appears to be playing with his cards on the table. His constant need to field three players such as Vinicius, Mbappe and Bellingham imposes limitations on his starting line-ups, while the weak defensive contribution of the first two forces the Portuguese coach to compensate. He does so by leaning on two players with a greater capacity to run and put in the effort, namely Tchouameni and Valverde.
The rest of the team, meanwhile, must find ways to achieve balance against the structural problems that arise from the presence of three players whose involvement cannot be touched.
A second major contradiction emerges with Mbappe. His numbers are exceptional, and it would be absurd to question his ability to score goals. Yet the French striker can be blamed for one thing at Real Madrid: he has not played the role of leader that fans expected of him in the big matches.
There is a difference between piling up numbers and being the star who decides the important matches, the one who leads the team with his personality and performance. On many occasions, the impression is that Mbappe is content to play his own match. When things go wrong, he is not the leader capable of lifting the team's morale and dragging it out of crisis.
Against Atletico Madrid, both Mbappe and Vinicius disappeared completely. Together they could not manage a single shot on target. They lost the ball 22 times and made only 21 accurate passes in the opponent's half, figures a world away from what is expected of them.
With the Brazilian, there is another factor that cannot be ignored: his contract renewal this summer for a large sum of money, especially as he has been absent from the scene for a long time.
Loss of competitiveness
The behaviour of some players offers little cause for optimism either. Talk has swirled in recent seasons about the loss of that competitive edge, the quality that once made Real Madrid a side capable of responding even from a losing position.
Mourinho arrived intending to restore that identity. Yet the derby once again served up the image of a team that struggles to react.
Pinning all the blame on the referees could prove dangerous for Mourinho's project. You can attack a decision you believe wronged your team and still ask hard questions about how the project has been planned.
Brought in to breathe life into a project showing clear signs of exhaustion, Mourinho instead finds himself with a Real Madrid that, so far, looks a lot like the one fans watched over the previous two seasons.
