Real Madrid's Struggles: Players' Effort and Squad Construction Under Fire
The noise around Real Madrid is growing louder than the football.
After the 2-1 derby defeat to Atletico Madrid, the criticism has turned from grumbling to a full-throated chorus. Seven games into La Liga, Real go into the international break in fourth place, already six points behind a rampant Barcelona. For a club that measures seasons in trophies, that gap feels bigger than the table shows.
On Spanish radio, patience has snapped.
"The players continue not to put in the effort"
Cope’s flagship programme "El Partidazo" became a trial of the current Real Madrid side, and the verdict was unanimous: blame the players.
Manolo Lama did not bother with diplomacy. "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."
The accusation cut straight to the heart of what Madrid fans demand first: work. Sweat. A team that hunts the ball. Lama’s example was damning.
"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. "They would wait, and they did not even want to move forward to confront them."
In a derby, that reads almost like a sin. Atletico circulating the ball at the back, untroubled, while white shirts stand off and watch. For a fanbase raised on relentless pressing in big games, that image stings.
A team of athletes, not creators?
Paco Gonzalez took the baton and pushed the debate into even more uncomfortable territory: the construction of the squad and the way this Real side tries to play.
"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."
It was a brutal assessment of a team often praised for its physical power and individual brilliance. Gonzalez’s point was clear: Real look like a side built to win duels, not to knit together a sustained, collective attacking game.
"Real Madrid get a 10 physically when you watch them, so physically they can beat anyone," he said. "But in order to play football, there is only Guler."
That line will resonate. In a squad packed with stars, he singled out Arda Guler as the only true organiser, the only one he sees as capable of giving Real a coherent attacking structure. For a club that once fielded Luka Modric and Toni Kroos at their metronomic peak, the contrast is stark.
A style problem, not just a bad night
The criticism did not stop with effort and creativity. Gonzalez pointed to a deeper structural flaw.
"Konate and Dumfries do not have a good ability to bring the ball out from the back," he said. "It is a huge problem relating to the style of play and the players."
In other words, the issue is not just attitude or form. It is the way the team is built and asked to play. If those tasked with starting attacks from deep are uncomfortable on the ball, the whole system creaks. Passing lanes close. The press becomes easier to beat. The front players receive the ball late, or not at all.
For Real Madrid, that kind of debate is unforgiving. This is a club where managers change, systems evolve, but the expectation remains the same: intensity, authority, and a sense that the team imposes itself on any pitch, in any stadium.
Right now, the phone-ins say the opposite. The players aren’t running. The structure doesn’t fit. The gap to Barcelona is already six points.
When the international break ends, the questions will not be about tactics on a whiteboard. They will be simpler, and far more ruthless: who is willing to run, who is willing to combine, and who is willing to drag Real Madrid back to where they believe they belong?
