Who is to blame for Real Madrid’s implosion this season?

Real Madrid are out of the Champions League and their season is all but over. Los Blancos’ implosion will leave many wondering who is to blame.

It’s finally happened. After three years and over 1000 days, Real Madrid have been dethroned as kings of Europe in an emphatic 4-1 loss to Ajax at the Santiago Bernabeu. It’s the earliest Los Blancos have exit the competition in over 10 years and means that in the space of a week, Santiago Solari’s side have thrown their entire season away, with back-to-back defeats to Barcelona in the leadup to this game knocking Madrid out of the Copa del Rey and league title race.

In truth, anyone who has watched Real Madrid this year would have expected this outcome. Barring a few games, they have been performing poorly for quite some time now. Undoubtedly, the flurry of postmortems will all be asking the same question: What went wrong Real Madrid to cause such an implosion?

Naturally, fans, pundits and analysts alike will, somewhat rightfully, look to the 11 players on the pitch for Real Madrid. With the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, many expected the leaders in Los Blancos dressing room to stand up and be counted for, and for the most part those players have failed to do that.

Raphael Varane and Luka Modric have only recently recovered from their World Cups while Toni Kroos still doesn’t look like the player he was before departing for Russia in June. Up front, only Karim Benzema  has truly stepped up to the plate in terms of goals, with Marco Asensio spending much of the season injured, looking lackluster even when he has played.

Lucas Vazquez has provided threat up front, but he’s limited in front of goal; the same can be said for the young Vinicius Junior, who is yet to develop the necessary composure needed in front of goal at the European top flight. One of the biggest disappointments of this season has been Gareth Bale, who failed to back up his performances towards the end of the season and has now contributed just three goals in his last 13 appearances in all competitions. The Welshman has, predictably, been plighted by injuries and inconsistency which have seen him end up firmly on the Bernabeu’s bad side, as demonstrated by the mixed reception he received when he came on as a sub during Tuesday’s match.

If you were to describe Real Madrid’s performance in one word, it would be jaded. That’s probably because they are jaded. Like his players, Solari must shoulder a portion of the blame for Real Madrid’s woes this season, especially due to his mismanagement of playing time. The starting XI Real Madrid rolled out versus Ajax on Tuesday was the same one they’d played for their three preceding games over the last eight days, and the team Solari’s selected for almost every game since the turn of the year.

With the occasional enforced exceptions due to injury, Solari hasn’t made any adjustment to his starting lineup. As a result, he lost two players early on to injury and is probably at fault for the burnout of Benzema, who is on course to play a record amount of minutes for the club this season.

Solari can also be criticized for his tactics over recent weeks; despite poor performances, no tweaks have been made. Instead of adjusting to his opponent beforehand, Solari much prefers to bring on substitutes in the hope they’ll change the game; which raises the question why he’s frozen out players as talented as Dani Ceballos, Marcelo, Isco and Mariano Diaz. It would be naive to believe these players couldn’t make an impact, especially when Real Madrid are lacking individual quality. Unlike his predecessor, Solari has been given plenty of time to figure out solutions to Real Madrid’s problems. He’s failed to do so.

The blame game, of course, doesn’t end there, as many of Solari’s weaknesses as a manger were known before he was given the job in the first place. Anyone who watched 90 minutes Solari’s Castilla side could point out the clear weaknesses that should have ruled him out of contention for the senior team job, yet he was still given the keys by the Real Madrid board.

Given the trouble Florentino Perez and co. went through to bring him to Madrid, it seems bizarre Solari’s predecessor, Julen Lopetegui was only be given 10 matches to figure things out. Many will point to the 5-1 Clasico loss, but Lopetegui’s fate had been sealed by the time that match had come around. Even then, one must wonder how Solari has been able to suffer equally heavy losses and survive.

To answer the question posed at the start of this article, everyone is to blame for Madrid’s dismal season. It’s been a comedy of errors  that has led Real Madrid to this point, and just how many of the current players and coaching staff will last until next season is up in the air. One thing is for certain: Solari’s head won’t be the only one to roll this summer.