![[FREE TO READ] Are Real Madrid’s big stars actually their biggest problem?](https://www.eucup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Ct-zlbLMEr7-5TYXyDL97s7oBKRyTvsMsFKPaYpEzks-1024x538.jpeg "[FREE TO READ] Are Real Madrid’s big stars actually their biggest problem?")
Circumstances have meant Alvaro Arbeloa has not yet been forced to deal with what has historically been the Real Madrid dugout’s biggest challenge — forming all the team’s expensive star players into a cohesive unit.
Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti managed to do it, and both led the team to multiple Champions League trophies. Rafa Benitez and Julen Lopetegui struggled, and only lasted half a season in the job.
Alonso was well aware of the importance of dealing with this issue when he was appointed last June. His struggle to do so was one major reason he lasted just seven months.
Many around the club have been waiting to see how Arbeloa deals with the situation – and they might not be waiting much longer.
The return of Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham ahead of the Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich now gives Arbeloa huge selection decisions.
Both featured in Saturday’s defeat against Mallorca – a display that lacked the intensity and collective spirit that had powered the recent upturn in performances and results.
by TheAthletic
7 Comments
Unbalanced team. I still have no idea why we signed that kid from Argentina for 60 million and kept playing him over Endrick for example.
Man why do these article writers never take into account how this team has always been straight trash and clueless throughout the season against la liga low blocks ? We were shit against them regardless of Mbappe playing or not playing. I can’t remember a single game from this season where we put up a convincing performance against low block teams in la liga.
It’s funny how the narrative has turned around now because 3 or 4 months ago when we were putting up the same kind of trash performances against these teams the main narrative was “mbappe is carrying this team” by scoring every match.
Stars were never the problem. It was always balance. In 2004, we had Raul,Ronaldo,Owen along with Beckham,Zidane, Guti and Figo with no proper CB or DMS, but Perez insisted to play the stars..nothing any manager could do.
We have a similar situation now..3 LW, 3LB, No striker, No creative mid, and 3 injury prone CB. At least, Arbeloa is playing the youth and Xabi almost started to find the balance when one of vini or Mbappe was injured.
What worked with Zidane was that he fought and started Casemiro benching James, Bale, or Isco. No other manager could have the authority or aura at Real.
We had bigger stars than them but we never faced such problems because the control wasn’t handed over to the players it always remained with the manager. Bale and Zidane had tensions, Ronaldo and Jose had some but they didn’t let that affect their performance.
In coming years people would appreciate Ramos more for his leadership and maturity.
I say are bigger issues are a Crippled Defense paired with an Unbalanced Attack and even more Unbalanced Midfield. The attack shows it quality by usually being able to overcome its defects.
Not to say Kroos and Modric are easy to replace but we got no replacements.
Some of them yes. For anyone that’s been a fan long enough we’ve come through this a few times. The end of the first galaticos was the trenches for madrid fans, I think 5 years in a row going out in the last 16 of the champions League, very little trophies. It only ended when pretty much all the galaticos left.
There was almost a similar thing at the end of ancelottis first term, we sold Alonso to Bayern and bought kroos and James, completely stopped playing a dm and had the league lost by January pretty much. It only turned around when Zidane came in, dropped James and made casemiro a guaranteed starter.
You can buy all the best players in the world but an unbalanced squad isn’t gonna win much if anything. We’re looking at a second season in a row without a trophy worth winning with “the best player in the world” and our biggest problem is no matter what manager is in there he’ll never be dropped, no matter how little he tries. Now again under Perez we’re back in the trenches and I don’t see us getting out for a while
Madrid had all these stars through 2 different CL wins and it was never a problem. Only difference in stars on our lineup from back then is Mbappe.