Real Madrid vs Real Oviedo I La Liga I Match Day 36 I Estadio Bernabéu I 20:30 CET

Flo set the tone.
Everyone else followed.

 

And now Flo will complete the Ultimate "us vs the world" collectible set by hiring Jose Mourinho.

 

He scored more goals because there was a structure and an idea of play. Exactly.

Not excusing anyone but Arbeloa basically shot himself there.

 

Given he’s taken “Yes man” to a whole new level I can believe it.

Given his mood the last week or two and starting to go against his own grain in press conferences, he’s been told he won’t be staying.

 

Or one could see it as a bitter and selfish comment. Thinking only of himself. We didnt have a better structure in the first half of the season because we were terrible but Mbappe scored more so he is obviously happy. He and Mou are going to fall out in the first month with his lack of workrate

 

But according to the Arbeloa enthusiasts, who are now criticising this situation, everything was fine; the vibe was good and the atmosphere friendly – that’s what Valverde told us – and, unlike Xabi, Arbeloa knew how to handle these players. Still the biggest mistake of the season to let Xabi go prematurely instead of giving him the full season

 

He's such a dickhead.

 

I think you've been right about this one all along. It's clear Mourinho is not being hired for coaching reasons. This whole negreira thing is a big thing for Florentino and Mourinho will now be the constant vocal voice against this. Week in week out.

I just hope he can at least get a liga title somehow with this "everyone against us" attitude. Sometimes that is a way you can build unity in a collective. Who knows.

 

I think the coach has been found out by the players (the big names) and he’s contributing nothing. Fickle yes man, no back bone and he laid all that on the table the very first press conference he did.

 

AA used the Carlo playbook where he defended every single player. But the me me me culture is so rife not even the buddy approach is working. Or you could chalk it down to players not respecting a newbie (same with Xabi). You'd never see this much vitriol when we had Carlo as a coach and he was the author of the "power of friendship" concept. In the end the players need an authoritarian and they have it now with Mou, the most toxic coach we've had.

I remember seasons ago when the players were threatened with Mou hire and they'd step up just to avoid having him back. This lot need him and his authoritarian approach. A match made in heaven for the players. Will be counting down the minutes until the publics barbs start when we go through a run of poor games.

 

I agree, this team needs a coach who is no nonsense and won't stand for the bullshit. This is one of the main reasons Jose is coming back (or no1 candidate at the moment). He'll bring the dressing room together imo.

As for AA using Carlo's playbook - that was his first mistake. Carlo used that and players respected him for what he's won as a coach. He could use that against the players. AA problem was that he came from the youth and hadn't done anything as a coach. Players looked him for what he was, a temp stand-in until the club figures their next permanent manager.

 

Arbeloa is obviously a lame duck, I don't really care if Mbappe is justifiably pissed off at the whole situation this season, where RM staff misdiagnosed him, told him to keep playing through his injury (i.e. through pain) until he simply couldn't any more, then he gets heavily criticized for getting a second opinion in France, heavily criticized whenever he rests it as he should have initially.

Every time he misses a match, haters still can't get their story straight whether he rests meaningless games for more important matches or whether he rests to dodge tough opponents in order to "pad stats" (as if he didn't score against Barca the last match he played against them), without ever considering that maybe he is ACTUALLY INJURED when he doesn't play.

Arbeloa is the bullshitter saying it's "only logical" to bench him, as if it is UNHEARD OF to ever need five more days of rest in order to play again. Clearly Mbappe told Arbeloa he was fine to play yesterday and Arbeloa decided instead to bench him as a punishment for being injured, which I would be pissed off as hell about too, particularly as it adds more fuel to the fire that he was feigning injury for some reason before the Clasico, rather than simply being more careful with his injury than RM staff was for months this season.

 

Mou is the king of thinly veiled digs in the media. He might bring it back together at the start but when the bad results start piling up, this season will feel like a professional one compared to what we'll see under Mou.

 

Yeah, but hopefully then, when it's time to get rid of him, the team should have grown a spine like last time.

It's up to the next coach to build on that foundation.

Edit: I don't think the embarassment of this season could be topped off in the near future.

 

Mou's last season easily tops this for the biggest circus. But by then we had a couple of season with some of the biggest achievements we had seen at the time and in some ways still. This season we havent won anything and would be the second time in a row we go trophyless. Mou went out with a bang being dragged out kicking and screaming. He was universally hated within the team, only a few fringe players could stand him and that sort of brought the dressing room back together because they had a common enemy. This bunch is divided, hopefully when we see the inevitable fall out the players will hold together and not be divided.