Well Richard... the majority
Benitez been a dead man walking from day one.. his reputation isn't what the fans were looking for
Majority still think sacking Carlo was a big mistake , sure his second season had too many coaching mistakes like lack of rotations & proper subs for the attacking trio, the midfield was walking on thin ice ..losing Modric exposed that weakness & we throw away the league & the lead in few weeks after we lost him
but you want to comparison you just look at the first half of last season.. the football we played , the results (including the 3-1 of the clasico ) .. was superb
all started with Jan break and Milan friendly loss than Ateltico etc we never recovered properly
now you see the team playing like this
---------------DEF-------------------
---------------MID------------------
--------------Attack---------------
certainly Rafa proved his doubters right... Madridista take most games for granted .. it's mandatory to beat 17 out of 19 teams... allowed to maybe draw in 3-4 of them max
than you have Barca & Atletico ... so whatever Rafa did since he joined is nothing impressive by any standards
the Injuries didn't excuse his tactics but gave him a lifeline till he has everyone back however there are people like me who believe the injuries are Rafa fault... we never suffered that much injuries and the only new thing in the club is Rafa & his staff ...i expect 2-3-4 injuries but not 12 and most of them are now reoccurring injuries
.. As i said the last page , this team is not built to defend... sure you will "FEEL " defensive stability because the team is defending with 7 players and Navas is way better than Iker in his last season ... compare that to Carlo who had
1- Iker
2- 2 CB maybe 1-2 CM in front with Carvajal & Marcelo bombing forward ...
that explains the "defensive feeling " some are seeing.. truth is Seville exposed that Navas been saving Rafa , the individual talents been saving Rafa... and throwing numbers at the back .. but the truth is there no defensive improvement or stability
Ask any Madridista .. if he likes his team to go ahead with a goal and than sit back to defend the lead ? i know what the answer will be without exception
Rafa is actually playing like Emery in the last few seasons in big games.. when they used to defend once they go ahead
counting the days till he is sacked and probably the clasico is the final nail in the coffin if Perez is smart
The defensive feeling is not only because he throws more numbers at the back, it is because he concedes the ball so much, so we have wave after wave of attacks. Then Keylor steps in. It took 2 years for Carlo to teach Real Madrid how to retain the ball after 10 years of anxiety attacking football. The only team to attack with comfort was the team with Ronaldo Figo Zidane Raul before Beckham joined, and they were shit defensively anyway but had so much confidence going up and they retained it up front.
When you are under pressure both defensively and your under pressure to score, your team begins to fall apart, tactically and mechanically. Rafa doesn't realize that because he is trying to emulate Mourinho, who failed in his first season playing this tactic, won the league by going for goal, and trimmed the squad in his third season and reverted back to first year principles, and got fucked. And Rafa isn't as good as Mourinho who is having a breakdown.
Additionally, there is a huge gap between the player's liking and Rafa's wet dream, and any manager who wants the job at Real needs to know your best shot at winning anything is winning the players over.
Ancelotti's mistakes were recoverable, it was easy fixes, Perez's biggest mistake in sacking Ancelotti is hiring someone very different. Should've hired Klopp, even if he failed, he would've taught the players something good, Rafa undoes many advances Ancelotti made.
In short:
1.) Outdated tactics
2.) Lost the players tactically
3.) Lost the players to injury
4.) Hopefully he loses his job too
5.) Because if he doesn't, and wins something with Real, its only a few months from then on that wheels will fall off (Check Schuster, Mourinho).
