Chapter 649: Goalkeeper Crisis (I)
Between the two Champions League group games with Sint-Truiden, Real Madrid also played two league games and a Copa del Rey competition, and the form is relatively stable.
On October 18, they welcomed the challenge of their rival Sevilla at their home stadium, and as a result, with the buff bonus of the geographical advantage and the efficient play of the offensive end, they still won 3-1 against this opponent who is still very strong in overall strength, completing the fourth consecutive victory in La Liga.
Contributing to the team are Manuel Pellegri and Kylian Mbappe, with the former temporarily topping La Liga's scorer charts with seven goals after scoring a brace, and thanks to the rotation system that Li Mudi has been adopting, the Italian centre-forward has one of the highest goals in the entire league, making him the next Real Madrid player to win the title of La Liga's top scorer after Mbappe four seasons ago.
Three days later, the Galacticos set off for the Basque Country, where they once again visited the familiar San Mamés Stadium to meet Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals, which had been relegated last season.
As a result, Real Madrid, which used a group of rotation players and young people, even if it was better than the opponents who were forced to sell many of the original main players because of relegation, but they still lacked experience and mentality, and were seriously affected by the momentum of this terrifying home stadium, and conceded two goals in the first half and pushed themselves to the edge of the cliff.
Fortunately, after timely adjustment at halftime, he gradually regained his usual state in the second half and seized the initiative on the field.
Ferran Torres and Jorge Solsano scored for Real Madrid's equaliser, but Bediachar's stoppage-time mistake allowed the opponent to find the chance to make it 3-2. Fortunately, the two sides will have a second leg in a month's time, and the one-goal difference and two away goals give Li Mudi's team a great chance to turn the tables, otherwise it would be too embarrassing for the defending champions to be out at this stage.
However, the Real Madrid coaching staff still took this defeat very seriously, and deliberately held a group meeting in the morning of the second day to conduct a careful analysis, and finally came to a conclusion, that is, the team's third goalkeeper Lucas Nizales does not seem to be fully prepared to play for the first team, and needs to step up training in the coming days to make him feel as soon as possible.
The son of a former legend had a bit of a bad run at the San Mamés stadium. Judging by the feedback from the daily coaching staff and his performances on loan over the past two years, the young goalkeeper's composure is commendable, and you rarely see him in a situation where his mentality has fluctuated in times of crisis, which is indeed quite rare. On this merit alone, Canizares Jr. is very similar to Real Madrid's current second goalkeeper, Mohalamos, who started until Bruchtel recovered from injury.
But I don't know if the personality is a little too young and old, Lucas always seems to be not passionate enough when he is on the court, especially when he is commanding the defensive line, he is rarely able to show his domineering, and the voice of shouting is seriously lacking in momentum, and it is easy to be unable to let his teammates hear accurately in the noisy court environment, resulting in poor communication.
Two of Athletic Bilbao's three goals came due to a number of mismatches between the Real Madrid defender and goalkeeper, which provided good opportunities for the opposition to exploit.
In addition, the character of Canizares Jr. also makes his saves always seem particularly decent, although the ball that should not be conceded is basically not conceded, but it is rare to be able to make a flash of inspiration and block the opponent's high-quality goal. In other words, he is not the kind of super goalkeeper who can make frequent saves, which is obviously not at the level of qualification to play for a big club in a game where there are always all kinds of unexpected situations.
Of course, his double values of 136 and 145 are there, and he can't be too demanding of them. It's just that for the use of his No. 3 goalkeeper, Li Mudi and his colleagues will definitely treat it with a more cautious attitude. And in the daily training, the requirements for Canizares Jr. have also become more stringent, hoping to make him improve even more, and strive to make his strength more comprehensive, so as to lay a solid foundation for his future career.
In fact, similar problems exist in Moharamos, but the older and more experienced goalkeeper has corrected many of his previous shortcomings through years of training and actual combat lessons, and the shortcomings are not so obvious when the overall ability is at least one notch higher.
However, on October 25, in the tenth round of La Liga where Real Madrid challenged Real Sociedad away, the goalkeeper who has been very stable since the beginning of the season but rarely has the power to turn the tide, still continued his weakness of poor adaptability, and luck was not on his side on this day, and finally conceded two goals in a row, so that the good momentum of the winning streak was terminated.
Less than four minutes into the game, the home side's corner went to the back post and Skriniar, who had returned from injury, was near the scrum against the opposition centre-backs. Marcos Llorente, who was guarding there, was the first to grab the second spot, but his big kick was blocked by the rushing Real Sociedad striker Jose Merino and rebounded, hitting Jose Martinez's naturally outstretched arm on the way to the goal.
At this moment, it is estimated that more than 95% of the people on and off the field are chuckling in their hearts, first subconsciously analyzing whether this will be blown into a penalty by the referee, and then they can make a second reaction.
It's just that Moharamos's reflex arc seems to be a little too long, and it can also be said that the stress response is a little too slow, obviously the closest to the ball, he can directly use a save to confiscate the ball, and then wait for the referee's whistle to sound. However, at that moment, the stunned time far beyond the others put Real Madrid's goal in a situation where the gates were wide open, and it was the home team's other central defender, Andre Ramirez, who stabbed the ball into the goal line first, rewriting the score on the field.
Later, when Rodrygo and Mbappe finally scored two points in a row to overtake the score, Skriniar, who had been absent for a long time, made another big mistake in defense, which led to the team's failure to make an offside position, giving Jose Merino a golden opportunity to face his goalkeeper directly.
As a result, in this one-on-one offensive and defensive confrontation, Moharamos also failed to do his best, first of all, the timing of the attack was a little late, and the opponent obtained a great angle of attack. Then, although he did not make a hasty save when the home team's striker made a feint, he was still a little slow to react after the opponent made a real shot, and failed to block this not particularly tricky push, and declared the goal lost in this game for the second time.
In the end, the score was 2-2 until the end, and Real Madrid were unable to extend their winning streak at the Anoeta Stadium and missed the best opportunity to catch up with the top two of the table. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, who were previously tied for the top of the standings, drew in this round, and still led their common rivals with an unbeaten record of 8 wins and 2 draws, which made many Melinger feel very depressed, and their confidence in defending the league title was also reduced.
In this regard, Li Mudi said in an interview with reporters after the game that the team's state is developing in a good direction, especially after more than two months of running-in, the team's strong attack power has basically recovered to the peak of last season, so he is not worried about the results, and Real Madrid is also full of confidence in achieving good results in various competitions.
It's just that the success of a team is not measured by the ability to score goals alone, the performance on the defensive end is also crucial. And Moharamos has obviously suffered a big blow to morale and form after being scored two goals by Real Sociedad in that league game, but fortunately, his performance is still as steady as ever, and he will never make mistakes easily unless his ability is really unable to do it.
On the first day of November, the Galacticos hosted Espanyol, who had not been known for their attacking prowess for years, only to concede two goals after only four attempts and one shot on target in the game. In addition to an own goal accidentally scored by Bediachar when clearing the ball, Mohalamos also raised his hand in early surrender in the face of an unexpected long-range shot from the opponent, and was twice penetrated by the opponent in the second consecutive league game.
Thankfully, his team-mates up front had a collective burst on the day, with Manuel Pellegri and Kylian Mbappe scoring two goals each, while Herabert and Martin Calderón also scored to cover up the team's defensive deficiencies with a goalscoring feast.
It's just that the data doesn't lie, as of the end of the eleventh round of La Liga, Real Madrid's average of 1 goal per game is not particularly bad, but there is still a gap between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, which are in front of them, not to mention their super defensive ability in the previous two seasons.
So when the world football ushered in the last national team match day of the year, the Spanish media used the blank plate left when there was no big news to analyze what kind of problems went wrong in the defense of the Galaxy Battleship, and the conclusion was that in addition to the departure of Varane, the team's speed ability in the back direction has decreased to a certain extent, and the main reason is that the ability of the key position of the goalkeeper is a little too weak.
Without Courtois and Andre Luning, two world-class goalkeepers, Real Madrid's goal is starting to make everyone feel the same sense of security as before. The new German international Früchtl is still recovering from injury and does not know when he will be able to return, relying only on the seemingly mediocre Mohalamos and the seemingly unreliable Lucas Kanizares who are obviously unable to win any titles, and the reality seems to confirm this argument, Real Madrid's average number of goals per game is indeed the highest in the past three years.
As soon as these remarks came out, Li Mudi had to immediately come forward to defend his players, which was really tiring! The key is to avoid their own goalkeepers slapping the whole team in the face with their performance, the coaching staff had to end this small holiday in advance, and started a small stove for the players in the first team who were not selected for the current national team, hoping to use the two weeks to strengthen the run-in of the defensive line, which took up a lot of personal time, resulting in the Real Madrid coach spending less time with his son, which made him very unhappy.
Fortunately, this special training still brought some results, in the first round of competition after the return of the league on November 15, the Galaxy Battleship that was a guest at the Alfonso Pérez Stadium finally reached a complete seal after three games, defeating the little brother Getafe in the same city with a score of 2-0, which made the criticism of the team's goalkeeper a lot lower.
To the delight of Real Madrid and their supporters, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, the top two sides of the table, both lost points in this round, one at home to Valencia and the other away to Sevilla, allowing the defending champions, who had been chasing them hard, to close the gap.
However, the team's journey this season has been inexplicably not smooth, and less than three days after they saw hope of regaining a return to the top of the league table, they were unfortunately denied out of the top spot in the fifth round of the Champions League group stage against Eintracht Frankfurt.
After the heavy defeat at the Bernabeu, the Bundesliga side clearly learned their lesson, even if it was playing at home, they were resolute in their bus strategy, and they also put Lukajovic in the starting line-up. Because coach Schultz understands that it is necessary to limit the assists of Real Madrid's two full-backs, so that it is possible to retreat in the face of the opponent's super offensive firepower.
As a result, the visitors' side was also distracted by various problems in the weekend league and the players' own form, and failed to continue their previous invincible attacking power, and finally had to accept a 0-0 draw when all the statistics were superior.
And because on the other field that kicked off at the same time, Manchester United completed the double kill against Sint-Truiden, so the Red Devils, who won all five games, will not lose the first place in the group even if they lose to Real Madrid in the last ** score. The Galaxy Battleship, which is trying to defend its title in the Champions League, has to accept the fate of a strong opponent in the first round of the knockout round.