Santiago Solari’s legacy at Real Madrid

Santiago Solari has left Real Madrid; despite managing the team for only a few months, the Argentine’s approach could leave a lasting impression.

Cojones, huevos, balls. It’s a strange term in the football lexicon; no one can be sure exactly what it means, to play with cojones. Some say courage, others intensity, others still speed.

Atletico Madrid’s Diego Simeone is probably the manager who embodies the term most. El Cholo has earned this reputation for his team’s uncompromising, backs-against-the-wall style of play and the fact that Atletico Madrid have been Europe’s favorite underdog story for the last four or five years. One could argue that this description doesn’t do Simeone justice; after all, hard work and intensity alone doesn’t beat Barcelona and Real Madrid to the Liga title.

But for all its limitations as a footballing philosophy, it seems to appeal to the fans and, more surprisingly, Real Madrid managers. Few managers have come to embody the contradictions, strengths and weaknesses of the approach as much as Santiago Solari, for whom the term often seemed like the be-all and end-all of his managerial philosophy.

From his first press conference, in which he told the Madrid media he wanted his side to play “con dos cojones” in his opening match, a cup tie against third division Melilla, to his gestures on the side-lines, which spoke for themselves about what Solari was demanding from his side, cojones were the defining feature of his approach.

It’s impossible to analyze Solari as Real Madrid manager without first acknowledging the strange concept of cojones. Many of both the positives and negatives of Solari’s time at Real Madrid can be found within this strange, contradictory concept. For evidence of this claim, one need only investigate Solari’s typical response when his side went down a goal.

As an intangible and largely player-focused approach to management, cojones doesn’t change formation or adapt its approach to counter the set up of the opponent. Rather, its faith lies in the players themselves, whether they’re on the pitch or coming off the bench.

Without context, this approach, especially at a club of Real Madrid’s pedigree, doesn’t sound like a bad idea. However, Solari’s reliance on the quality and mental strength of individuals was undermined by his decision to freeze out some of his most talented players.

Marcelo and Isco, who for years have been among Real Madrid’s most creative players, repeatedly failed to make matchday squads, let alone the subs bench. Other players such as Mariano Diaz and Dani Ceballos, who saw more game time under Solari than his predecessors, still never fully gained the trust of the manager, and either didn’t make the subs bench for big games or weren’t used.

In the end, Solari was left making substitutions just for the sake of it. One of his favorites, for instance, was Fede Valverde replacing his idol, Toni Kroos. Valverde is a talented young midfielder and did perform well when he came on, but too often the Uruguayan, not known for his goalscoring, came on with his side trailing.

Perhaps you see the first of many contradictions with the cojones concept: How can a manager who spouts such a player-focused philosophy also fail to recognize the potential usefulness of star players such as Marcelo and Isco?

In fairness, this contradiction isn’t entirely Solari’s fault. Isco had been struggling for form and starts since last season and has been struggling for fitness since September. Marcelo has been in a similar boat this season in terms of fitness and no one would argue that the Brazilian deserved to be benched given the form Sergio Reguilion. The manager is also entitled to his preferred personnel should they fit better into his tactical setup.

One of the main reasons Marcelo and Isco were dropped from the team was due to the style of football Solari wished to play. Barring one game in his entire managerial career, Solari’s philosophy has been clear. The Argentine lined up with either a rigid 4-3-3/ 4-2-3-1 formation, which asked each player to stay in their zones and everyone to work hard without the ball. This, of course, was just another contradiction. How did Solari expect his players to be brave when his tactics and selection were the opposite?

It’s clear from his coaching career so far that Solari has an idea of what he wants his team to be on the pitch and knows what type of player he needs to make that system function. However, it’s also clear that when his rather simple plan A fails, the Argentine’s only resort is to empty his bench and hope for the best.

Solari isn’t good enough to manage a team of Real Madrid’s calibre. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Listening to the comments of so many departing Barcelona and Real Madrid managers, many of whom don’t leave on their own terms, it’s clear these jobs take their toll; not everyone is cut out to make it. It would also be naive to pretend that Solari’s tenure as Real Madrid manager was a complete failure. In fact, should this current side pan out as expected, revisionist club historians might even declare Solari’s reign at the club a success in the long-term.

In keeping with his cojones approach and his Castilla roots, Solari has shown Madridistas something that other managers have never been brave enough to try. He showed Madrid fans that much of the talent they demand when things go wrong can often be found within the club’s youth ranks. Under Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid shifted from spending absurd amounts of money on established Galacticos to trusting young prospects both within the club and ones brought in.

Under Solari, that shift has been put into overdrive. The notable success stories are Reguilion and Vinicius Jr., both players who started the season out with the club’s B team and who now head into the new season as potential starters. Outside of those two, Marcos Llorente has been another winner from the Solari era with only injury interrupting his best run of first team football since his breakout season with Alaves in 2016-17. Ceballos, Valverde and even Castilla captain Javi Sanchez have all had a chance to show their quality and give Madrid fans something to cling to during an otherwise disastrous season.

Solari isn’t a good top-flight manager. That much has been quite clear for some time now. However, he deserves massive credit for being brave enough to take the job in the first place. And though it might not come in a ground-breaking new way to play the game or a golden era of success, Solari has left a legacy at Real Madrid in the players he was brave enough to trust when no else was.