Reactions "It is disrespectful to talk about humiliation"
Chronicle Barça shakes an indolent Madrid and recovers stripes in the Desert Super Cup
Protagonist Gavi, the "competitive animal" that is crowned in Riyadh: "That it does not stop, that it has no ceiling"
"
No one is going to talk
."
In the mixed zone of
the King Fahd Stadium
in
Riyadh , silence fell after
Real Madrid
's defeat
in the
Super Cup
classic .
Less than 60 minutes have passed since the white team's squad left the pitch after seeing
Barça
lift the cup until the bus left for the airport in the Saudi capital.
And a while later, as if in a flash, the Madrid
charter flight
took off from the runways of
Rey Khalid
bound for
Barajas
.
After the obligatory words of
Fede Valverde
to the televisions with rights and those of
Carlo Ancelotti
in the press room, Madrid reflected on their January slope in the privacy of the plane.
Because although the Italian coach described the term "
humiliation
" as "
disrespectful
", the reality is that the performance of the whites in Riyadh and the shock that Barcelona produced have left Madrid in a
sea of doubts
: the
preparation physics, the calendar, the wardrobe
... All Real Madrid fans are now debating the ills and solutions for their team, but the main one, the one that perhaps turns around the most on the heads of Valdebebas, is how it is possible that Madrid, Ancelotti's Madrid,
has not competed in a final for a title
.
Ancelotti, 9 of 9 so far
It is the first final lost by
Carletto
since the
Community Shield
in the summer of 2010. Since then, the Italian had won the nine decisive fights he had played:
Cup, Champions League, European Super Cup
and 2014
Club World
Cup
with Madrid,
German Super Cup 2016 and 2017
with Bayern and the
Spanish Super Cup, the Champions League and the
2022 European Super Cup again with the whites.
If something has always characterized Ancelotti, it is his ability to
connect with his footballers
, so that
beyond physical and football
, they have the mental capacity to compete in the moments that decide the titles.
This was the case last year in the Champions League qualifiers.
In
Arabia
, however, his Madrid collapsed, prisoner of a worrying physical level and lacking the wardrobe to change the game script.
The tension in Madrid, fortunately or unfortunately, does not end in Riyadh.
In 48 hours he will play a life or death duel against
Villarreal
for staying alive in the
Cup
, on Sunday he flies to
San Mamés
to stay on his feet in the fight for the League, in
20 days
he will cross the strait to play the
Club World Cup in Rabat
and in a month Liverpool awaits him
in the round of 16
of the Champions League.
Can this Madrid withstand the downpour?
No signings
In Valdebebas they continue to insist on two things: physical preparation is planned to "
be at 100% from mid-February
" and there will be no transfers in the winter market.
The former has served him well in other seasons despite the
three cup eliminations
in January against Celta (2017), Leganés (2018) and Athletic (2022).
He compensated for the League and the European Cup, but the
shaking of Barça
in Riyadh hurts his fans more than a cupbearer KO against any other rival.
Once the physical has been justified, it is worrying about the few possibilities offered by the squad when its main players are not at their level.
In Chamartín they could imagine a difficult January for
Carvajal, Modric, Tchouaméni, Valverde, Vinicius or Rodrygo
after the World Cup, but the absence of options to replace them is something that despairs the fans and keeps the sports management on edge.
Rüdiger
has not finished adapting and his worst performance of the course has taken place,
Asensio
and
Ceballos
have not been revulsive this week and
Hazard, Mariano, Odriozola, Vallejo
have not even been an alternative on a list that
Luis López
,
Lunin
and the youth squad completed
Mario Martin
.
Too much space and salary spent on footballers that Ancelotti does not have in the middle of a situation that he only has one solution: that
their contracts end
because they do not want to leave.
Meanwhile,
the team drowns
.
The quarry could be a plugin, but it doesn't appear as a way to solve the problem either.
In short: "
Time
".
Ancelotti already asked for it in the preview of the semifinal to analyze how much the World Cup could have influenced and he dropped it again after losing against his greatest rival: "
Madrid will return
", repeats the Italian about a club that
has won 16 of the 19 finals from the Tenth
, losing only the 2014 and 2023 Spanish Super Cup and the 2018 European Cup. But while he returns, which he will, he suffers seeing his own chaos and the happiness of others.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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Real Madrid
Carlo Ancelotti