Inside La Liga: Real Madrid fail to believe in Rafa Benitez

Few La Liga games have shown such contrasts as Real Madrid’s narrow 2-0 win at Eibar yesterday.

Going into the game, Eibar had lost two of their first 12 games this season — the same number as Madrid. But emotions around the clubs could not have been more different.

Blancos boss Rafa Benitez was still under fire following last weekend’s 0-4 Clasico defeat to Barca, while the experienced Jose Luis Mendilibar and his team of mostly unknowns were being widely praised as they went into the weekend in their highest ever La Liga position of sixth.

Benitez again surprised with his selection, leaving out specialist holding midfielder Casemiro and specialist number nine Karim Benzema. A disjointed start saw all of Madrid’s central trio Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic [twice] pass the ball straight out of play. Gareth Bale, playing as a roving centre-forward, was rarely in the game, but did put Madrid in front just before half-time by heading home a Modric cross.

Late in the second half, the side with an annual budget of over €500 million were being pressed back by the team whose record outlay was €300,000 for Japanese winger Takashi Inui.

The result was still in the balance until Cristiano Ronaldo, who had earlier missed two clear chances, converted a penalty with eight minutes left.

Even though there was no repeat of the late midweek stagger at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League, this was not a display to suggest Benitez’s problems are clearing up.

“From the very start, I had the feeling the players were not best disposed to work with the new coach,” former Spain goalkeeper Santi Cañizares this week told the El Larguero radio show. “The other day in the Clasico I did not see a ‘Benitez team’. Benitez is a coach who works very well on tactics and defence. The team did not defend at all — they were very weak on a tactical level.”

The feeling is that Madrid’s big stars have not accepted their new coach’s ideas. Canizares won two La Liga titles under Benitez at Valencia in 2002 and 2004, but said he and his teammates had often laughed at his need to control all the little details.

“It’s harder for top level players to accept Rafa’s methods,” he said. “At Valencia, we were humble, hard workers. Even we used to laugh sometimes... but we accepted his methods, so it worked.”

Good coaches can fail quickly if a squad takes against them immediately, said Canizares, giving the example of José Luis Mendilibar, who was sacked by Levante just eight weeks into the 2014/15 campaign, but whose methods have been quickly and successfully accepted by his Eibar squad this season.

“If you believe in the coach, your attitude is very good in every game,” Canizares said. “When you don’t believe in the coach, the opposite happens. At Levante, the players did not accept Mendilibar’s way of playing, didn’t think it possible. He had to leave. But at Eibar he’s been able to build a magnificent football team. It is about convincing the player, and the player must be ready to be convinced. None of that is happening [for Rafa at Madrid].”

Despite being beaten yesterday, Eibar did look like a team who believed what they were trying to do. Fans at their tiny 6,300 stadium enjoyed the occasion even if their team were ultimately outclassed.

Although Madrid won yesterday, and remain just six points behind in-form La Liga leaders Barcelona, the mood among Madrid’s fans and pundits remains glum.

Benitez has not yet won over his squad, and it already seems unlikely he ever will.