4 hours ago
4
This is Real Madrid. We know this because Álvaro Arbeloa keeps saying so. At the start of another press conference, his 25th since being promoted from the B team two months ago and the last before facing Manchester City, the club man who became the club manager was reminded of something he had said after beating Monaco. That night, he was told, you claimed that Madrid are always favourites. So, came the inevitable follow-up, the “even” left unsaid but hanging heavy: “Now are you favourites?”
There was a familiar look, the hint of a smirk, and a familiar answer too. “If I said Madrid are always favourites, that’s what I think,” Arbeloa replied. “We are Real Madrid. We never feel less than anyone, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of who we have in front of us. We’re Real Madrid, we shouldn’t feel inferior. We know our opponents, how good City are – champions two years ago – and how difficult it will be, but we go into it with enthusiasm, looking them in the eyes.”
They may have to look themselves in the eye first, or look deeper still. That night that Arbeloa said they were always favourites, a line he is held to now, Madrid put six past Monaco and they had needed it. In Arbeloa’s first game Madrid had been knocked out of the Copa del Rey at second division Albacete. Although they then won his first at the Bernabéu, an uninspiring 2-0 against Levante, it had been marked by whistles and white hankies, protesting supporters turning on those considered responsible for Xabi Alonso’s sacking. Now at least a little optimism was let back in, a tentative step taken towards reconciliation, with Madrid destined to finish in the top eight and heading off in La Liga to third-placed Villarreal, where they won 2-0, something seeming to shift their way.
But then came Benfica, a 4-2 battering that flattered Madrid, and it started again. So much for the top eight, so much for the precious time needed to get the team fit again. And having edged past the same opponents in the playoff, Madrid face City in the last 16, just as they knew they would. “Let’s see what the hot balls have for us,” Arbeloa had said. Thibaut Courtois was “sure” they would get City, not Sporting. They always do: this is the fifth season in a row, which is what they, drivers of the super league, had always wanted, just not like this. “It’s curious that we play them every year,” said the director Emilio Butragueño.
If there was a hint of tedium in that, perhaps even paranoia, there was certainly a touch of pessimism. Or realism, perhaps, even if no one would say so openly. Sporting would have been preferred, and Madrid find themselves on what appears a considerably harder side of the draw. “This is Real Madrid,” Arbeloa’s go-to line, is a slogan but short on substance. “This is Real Madrid: fighting to the end.” “This is Real Madrid: there are no excuses.” “This is Real Madrid: no one gives up.” And on it goes, but watch them and, well, it isn’t Real Madrid, not the way Madrid are supposed to be.
That Arbeloa gets Madrid was one of his most significant qualities, central to his discourse on the first day and every day since. He was the president’s man and the players’ man too, promoted from inside, and his initial task was as much about the group as the game, but that in itself is not a solution, at least not a lasting one. It is not even a simple solution to the question of managerial authority, let alone the play. Still less when you arrive in January with damage done and little room for improvement.
“We haven’t had time to work: in 50 days we’ve had more games than training sessions,” Arbeloa said, but when cup elimination offered them that, little was gained either. Not even physically under the fitness coach Antonio Pintus, whose much-trumpeted return, imposed from above, was one of the reasons that Alonso’s time came to an end. Instead, injuries have continued – lots of them – and that can’t help. Few clubs have faced issues like this, the defence decimated. At Celta on Friday, they had 10 players out. Jude Bellingham, Rodrygo, Éder Militão and Álvaro Carreras will not play on Wednesday. Kylian Mbappé, scorer of half their goals this season, will not make it. The hope is he can be back for next week’s return leg.
Results haven’t improved, either. Alonso had been sacked having lost six of 34 games: 17.6%. Arbeloa has lost four of 12: 33.3%. Alonso’s six were Paris Saint-Germain at the Club World Cup, then Atlético, Liverpool, Celta, City and Barcelona; Arbeloa’s are Albacete, Benfica, Osasuna and Getafe. And this goes beyond results, beyond Mbappé even, to something at once more simple and more complex: the football.
After Madrid beat Celta on Friday, the game brought forward to give them extra rest, Arbeloa was asked a loaded question: did he actually like the performance? What exactly were Madrid playing at? “At winning, which is what Madrid play at and what we wanted to do,” he said. “There is no better way to celebrate the 124 anniversary of the best club in the world fighting against everyone and everything.” They had won 2-1 with a deflected fluke in the 94th minute, not long after Iago Aspas had hit the post at the other end.
Which is what the question had been getting at: where was the football? What’s the plan? Fight, never give up, against the odds and all that, sure. This is Real Madrid. (And, anyway, Real Madrid, against the odds?!) But what’s the idea? The lineup? The formation? The identity? Beyond just being Madrid. An example: when Arbeloa took over he demanded that the players give the ball to Vinícius Júnior; three weeks on he said they kept taking the “easy option” of giving the ball to Vinícius, the team becoming predictable. The surprise is not that they may not win anything this season; it is that they still could.
And that’s the thing. Somehow Madrid did win on Friday, momentarily climbing to within a point of Barcelona (now four again). They struggled against Benfica but are still in the Champions League and if that is City this is Real Madrid. And this is the moment when all else can be forgotten if somehow they can find something that hasn’t really been there this season. “Now is the time we see if we are worthy of this shirt,” Arbeloa said. Asked whether, given everything, he would consider a draw a good result, he gave that look again, that smile, and just before he got up to go said: “I consider that tomorrow we will go out to win”.
