Real Madrid's Struggles: Lack of Effort and Team Cohesion
The knives are out in Madrid, and this time they’re not aimed at the dugout.
After a 2-1 derby defeat to Atletico that stung as much for the manner as for the scoreline, Real Madrid reach the international break in an uncomfortable place: fourth in La Liga, already six points behind a rampant Barcelona, and facing a wave of criticism that goes straight for the players’ pride.
“They did not even want to move forward”
On Cope’s flagship show “El Partidazo”, the verdict was ruthless and unanimous. The problem, callers and pundits agreed, is not Carlo Ancelotti. It is not Xabi Alonso. It is not Alvaro Arbeloa. It is the men on the pitch.
Spanish broadcaster Manolo Lama didn’t bother to sugar-coat it.
“Not with Carlo Ancelotti, not with Xabi Alonso, not with Alvaro Arbeloa,” he said. “The players continue not to put in the effort and not to show solidarity among themselves.”
For a club that has built its modern legend on heroic comebacks and impossible nights, the accusation cuts deep: Real Madrid, the shirt that never gives up, are being called out for not running.
Lama went further, zooming in on a sequence that, for him, summed up the malaise. When Atletico began circulating the ball calmly at the back, playing between the two centre-backs and the goalkeeper, Real Madrid simply watched.
“If Atletico Madrid start passing the ball around, specifically between the two centre-backs and the goalkeeper, Real Madrid would not push forward to press them,” he said. The conclusion was brutal in its simplicity: “They would wait, and they did not even want to move forward to confront them.”
In a derby where intensity is usually non-negotiable, Real were accused of standing off, of lacking the hunger to engage. For a fanbase that demands blood and thunder at the Metropolitano, that is close to heresy.
Talent, but no collective brain?
Journalist Paco Gonzalez picked up the theme and dragged it into another uncomfortable area: the structure of the team and the profile of the squad.
“This current Real Madrid does not have the players needed to play, with the exception of Guler,” he argued. “Who is able to carry out an organised collective attack at Real with this current line-up? Tchouameni, Bellingham, but the rest, all they offer are individual movements.”
In other words: there is quality, there is physicality, there are stars, but there is no orchestra. Just soloists.
Gonzalez’s assessment of the squad was as striking as Lama’s take on their attitude. On the one hand, he praised their physical dominance.
“Real Madrid get a 10 physically when you watch them, so physically they can beat anyone,” he said. The image is clear: a team of athletes who can outrun and overpower almost anyone in Europe.
Then came the sting.
“But in order to play football, there is only Guler.”
It is a damning line for a club that has built generations of sides around playmakers and organisers, from the classic No.10s to modern hybrid midfielders. In this reading, Real Madrid are a team of runners and dribblers, not thinkers and connectors.
A style problem, not just a bad night
The criticism did not stop at Real. Gonzalez pointed to a wider stylistic issue involving players such as Konate and Dumfries, arguing that they “do not have a good ability to bring the ball out from the back.” For him, that weakness is not incidental; it is “a huge problem relating to the style of play and the players.”
The message is clear: when your build-up is shaky and your defenders and wing-backs struggle to progress the ball, the entire system creaks. For Real Madrid, that complaint is sharpened by the expectation that every line of the team should be comfortable on the ball, brave in possession, and capable of initiating attacks.
Right now, the noise around the club says the opposite. The players are being accused of not pressing, not combining, not offering collective solutions. The debate has moved away from tactics on a whiteboard to something far more visceral: desire, identity, and the type of footballers wearing the shirt.
Seven games in, with Barcelona already six points clear, the table is unforgiving. The international break offers a pause, but not peace. When Real Madrid return, the question will be unavoidable: do this squad and this dressing room still have the will and the footballing brain to match the weight of that badge?
