Forget Cristiano Ronaldo’s already infamous birthday party and Iker Casillas’s embarrassing fumble.
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As eye-catching as those incidents might have been, they were not the reasons for Real Madrid’s humbling 4-0 derby defeat to rampant Atletico last Saturday.
Instead, the chief cause for the vast gulf between the teams was revealed by an alarming statistic following the game: Atletico’s players collectively ran eight kilometres more than their Real counterparts.
Such damning evidence that his players were simply outworked by their opponents is all the proof required to back up manager Carlo Ancelotti’s assertion that his team have suffered a drop in “intensity, attitude and concentration” since returning to action following the winter break.
To an extent, that was only inevitable after a gruelling December run which saw Los Blancos play nine times in less than a month, culminating in their whistle-stop trip to Morocco to compete in, and win, the Club World Cup.
A Christmas jaunt to Dubai to face AC Milan in a friendly, when all they really needed was to go home and rest, will not have helped ward off the mental and physical jadedness that had crept into the squad and became evident as soon as competitive action resumed and Los Blancos lost their first game of 2015 against Valencia.
In addition to – and perhaps as a consequence of – that physical tiredness there was also a clear mental relaxation as Madrid gave the air of a team who had achieved a major goal by becoming world champions, setting a new Spanish record by winning 22 consecutive games along the way, and were quite happy to revel in that status.
There is nothing wrong with this group of players: at the end of 2014, after all, many pundits were speculating whether Ancelotti’s side would go on to be recognised as the greatest team in history – that’s how good they were.
But it appears they have started to believe some of their own publicity, and take their eye off the ball, forgetting the fact that talent must be aligned with hard work in order to deliver success.
Following their Copa del Rey exit, Madrid have enjoyed a month-long break from midweek fixtures so there is no longer an excuse for physical tiredness.
Their lack of mental focus has persisted, however, resulting in last weekend’s lacklustre effort against Atletico, and has correctly been identified by Ancelotti as the issue they need to address.
The secret for success is no great secret at all. With the players at Ancelotti’s disposal, his team can quite easily start winning games and dominating their opponents once again. They just need to start working harder.
