Good to Be Back

By El Maestro

First off, my apologies for being out for such a long time. Work and others matters have kept me away from expressing my opinion in the past few months. Since I’ve been out for some time and a lot has happened, I’m going to dedicate this time to covering a few main points: La Undecima, Zidane, Benitez, and 15/16 Season.

La Undecima: YES!!! SI SI SI, LA UNDECIMA YA ESTA AQUI.

Zidane: Well done sir. I have to say I was not in favor of Zidane’s promotion when he was given the first team position, but he managed to steer the team well in the Champions League and brought our beloved trophy back to the Santiago Bernabeu. He concerned me at the beginning when he would start all the star players and play with no holding midfielder, but Casemiro’s inclusion was able to give the team the balance and stability in midfield that allowed the team to finish the season strong. I’ll probably write more about Zidane in the upcoming days to further give my opinion about him as a coach. However, in the meantime, I will repeat what I said earlier: WELL DONE SIR!

Benitez: Best of luck at Newcastle, but I personally feel betrayed. I was one of the few defenders of Rafa Benitez when he arrived (probably the only one). I knew he wasn’t the same won with Valencia and Liverpool, but he was still well known for bringing structure and discipline to his teams, which Madrid greatly lacked under Ancelotti. Madrid wasn’t playing well early on, but I could tell the team had a good tactical balance that would allow them to concede few goals and improve attacking wise as the season progressed. However, I found out that the Benitez we had known before was long gone the first Clasico in November when he gave in to the pressure to start all the start players and leave Casemiro (who arguable was the team’s best player at that point). With that, Benitez not just betrayed all his defenders, he betrayed himself. After that humiliating 0-4 defeat, his sacking was only a matter of time. On top of that, he had the nerve to call out Florentino and the club a month after being sacked when had previously said there was a clear campaign against everyone at the club just a few weeks earlier. Again, I wish him all the best at Newcastle and I hold no grudge against him. In fact, I hope he promotes Newcastle back to the Premier League and regains some of his old coaching credibility he had before, but his time with Real Madrid was far from what we all expected.    

15/16 Season: The Champions League turned out to be a great season, but I can’t say the same about La Liga and Copa del Rey. Yes, Madrid did finish a point behind Barcelona, but let’s not forget we were playing catch up the entire year. We dropped valuable points at crucial moments under Benitez (Malaga at home, Villarreal, and Valencia) and Zidane was not able to get wins at some important grounds, such as Betis and Malaga. Real Madrid have no one to blame but themselves. Barcelona were consistent the entire year and deserved to win it. In fact, the only reason Madrid finished second was because Atletico choked on the penultimate day against already relegated Levante. The Copa del Rey was a completely different story, which ended right when the referee blew start the game in Cadiz. Cheryshev, who was suppose to be suspended, started and Madrid was kicked out as a result. I still feel this matter was not handled correctly by the federation, but regardless the team was not able to be reinstated into the competition. Maybe I’ll write more about this issue in the upcoming days.

Keep an eye out for articles about Zidane, Benitez, the 16/17 season, Del Bosque-Casillas, and even Lopetegui coming up soon. IT’S GOOD TO BE BACK!

HALA MADRID Y NADA MAS!