Santiago Solari continued his winning start as Real Madrid’s interim manager at the Bernabeu on Saturday afternoon, but the result was far better than the performance as his side squeezed past unlucky Real Valladolid with two late goals.
The visiting team looked the more likely scorers for long passages of play, and the game did little to suggest that Solari will have his temporary status extended into a permanent appointment.
Or could this be the start of something? That’s the first question to be addressed in our analysis of the action.
On the face of it, a first victory and clean sheet in La Liga for more than a month suggests that Real Madrid are firmly back on track, and that interim coach Solari is making a strong case for being appointed permanently when his two weeks as a temporary boss expires.
However, that would be a very generous assessment after a poor performance which did not really merit the three points. Despite controlling most of the possession, Solari’s men did very little with it and Valladolid created most of the best chances in the game.
The visitors hit the crossbar twice in the second half and the contest appeared to be heading towards a goalless draw – at best for Real – before a hugely fortunate deflected opener with less than ten minutes remaining sent them on the way to an unmerited victory.
Solari could argue, with plenty of justification, that it would be unreasonable to immediately expect flowing football from a group of players who have suffered such a traumatic few weeks, and that he will start to build a more convincing team on the back of much-needed victories such as this one – however they arrive.
But few fans who watched the game will be enthused by the prospect of Solari being appointed beyond the next couple of fixtures, and president Florentino Perez must surely be hesitant to place his trust in such an inexperienced coach regardless of this victory.
One notable decision taken by Solari was to promote summer signing Vinicius Junior into the first team set-up, having worked with the teenage Br azilian in the club’s B team during the opening months of the campaign.
Vinicius arrived at the Bernabeu from Flamengo amid much hype, but the 18-year-old was clearly not fancied much by previous boss Julen Lopetegui, making just two brief substitute appearances during the opening ten league games.
Solari, however, had little hesitation in throwing the youngster into the action in place of struggling Marco Asensio with nearly 20 minutes remaining, and he was rewarded when Vinicius made the key – if unintentional – contribution to the opening goal by cutting inside to fire a badly mishit shot which took a huge deflection off Kiko Olivas and flew into the corner.
The shot was probably heading out for a throw-in before its path was diverted so it would be wrong to give Vinicius too much credit, but his positive intent and boundless confidence was a refreshing sight and there will now undoubtedly be pressure on the Real boss – whoever he is – to give the youngster more chances in the next few weeks.
The case for Vinicius to receive more playing time is strengthened by the fact that the men currently in possession of starting slots on the wing, Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio, are both desperately struggling for form and were rightly substituted by Solari.
Bale, in particular, looked lost, doing very little to contribute to his team’s efforts aside from providing an aerial threat from crosses. He came close with a couple of headers but did nothing else, and received loud whistles from the crowd when he was replaced by Lucas Vazquez – whose contribution was also minimal.
There was also whistles, perhaps for the first time from Real fans, towards the equally disappointing Asensio when he was taken off a couple of minutes later, and the Spain international is clearly failing to make the expected progress since being granted a more regular starting place this season.
There can be no doubt that both Bale and Asensio are hugely talented players who would walk into practically any team in the world, but it can also not be denied that both are consistently failing to deliver the goods. Maybe that’s largely due to the ineffective team they are playing in, but big players are supposed to produce big moments and neither are doing so right now.