Real Madrid's Ongoing Issues: Alvaro Benito's Critique
Real Madrid’s season is barely out of the blocks, and already the questions are heavy, sharp, and aimed right at the heart of Florentino Pérez’s grand project.
Seven games in, Madrid sit fourth in La Liga, with 15 points and a cloud of doubt hanging over the team. The numbers are acceptable. The football, according to one former player, is anything but.
“The same problems for two and a half years”
Alvaro Benito, once a Real Madrid player and now a blunt, respected voice in Spanish media, did not bother with diplomacy when he spoke to Cadena SER, comments later carried by Sport.
“Here the thinking needs to be much deeper,” he warned. “If you have been seeing the same problems on the pitch for two and a half years, then the nature of these problems is exactly the same.”
Different coaches, same issues. That, for Benito, is the most damning part.
“We do not see any change with the coaches, despite the different nature of each of them. So the problem is much deeper. Isn’t it? That is what I am saying.”
The criticism cuts past individual results. Madrid may have beaten Elche in their previous outing, but Benito sees a pattern that no single win can disguise.
“The problems have persisted for two and a half years, and nothing has been solved. You can win. For example, you won the last match against Elche, but the impression the team leaves at a collective level is that the same problems keep recurring.”
Derby defeat exposes the fault lines
The 2-1 loss to Atletico in the derby has clearly sharpened the debate. Not so much because of the scoreline, but because of how predictable the performance felt to those who have watched Madrid closely.
“We could all have expected that, barring something exceptional, when you come to the Metropolitano stadium you would see what we in fact saw,” Benito said. “You could have won or lost, but I am not talking about losing or winning, because the road that leads to the result can take different paths.”
He even pointed to a key refereeing what-if.
“If Cuti Romero had been sent off in the first half, then you might even have been able to win the match. I am talking about the collective impression, about the idea of play, what you offer, and which players you will put in the starting line-up in most matches.”
The message is clear: this is not about a red card that didn’t come, or a bounce of the ball. It’s about identity, structure, and a game plan that, in his view, simply isn’t there.
A Mourinho team that doesn’t look like Mourinho
Benito then turned to the man on the touchline. For him, the disconnect is stark: the coach’s reputation on paper, and the team’s behaviour on the pitch.
He argued that José Mourinho is not applying his trademark philosophy at Real Madrid, a worrying sign for a squad seemingly built to thrive in a clear, counter-attacking system.
“Mourinho historically relies on a very strong medium defensive block, a team with compact lines, ferocious pressing, winning the ball back and then attacking directly and quickly. Excellent. This style would be ideal for Real Madrid, given the characteristics of the players they have, but the problem is that we do not see it.”
Compact lines? Ferocious pressing? Direct, ruthless transitions? Benito doesn’t see any of it with enough consistency to call this a true Mourinho side.
That is where the alarm really rings: if the squad is tailored to a style, and the coach is famous for that very style, how long can a giant like Real Madrid tolerate a version of themselves that looks so far from what it was built to be?
