City win temporarily covers dressing room cracks

Major inconsistency has blighted a campaign which appeared destined to go one better than last season for Real Madrid. In spite of recent cup victories over Barcelona and Manchester City, Mourinho’s squad remains divided, rarely performing to the pinnacle of their combined abilities, especially in La Liga. Damaging defeats to teams who were once dominated by Ronaldo and co has plagued the beginning to their title defence.

Rumours of rows within the team appear on the front pages of Marca almost daily and post-match criticism from Mourinho fuels added animosity. Two weeks ago Cristiano Ronaldo announced that he was unhappy at Madrid and refused to celebrate his two goals against Granada as a result. Relations at the Santiago Bernabeu appear to be collapsing yet players who top the hierarchy such as Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos are the ones singled out by Mourinho.

The man-management tactics of the Portuguese boss have been highly praised in recent years and his success has been put down to this factor, but now fears of a revolution have arisen. A thrilling win over the English Champions on Tuesday can go some way to repairing these broken bonds but the arrogance must be left behind before walking out to a league match.

Coming together as a team in a game of high importance, such as these cup encounters, requires no motivation as footballers at the highest level strive to play in these sorts of games. Performing in the league, especially one they dominated with such ease last year, has to be lacking the arrogance Madrid have developed this season. Games aren’t pre-determined as a Madrid win and Los Blancos have come across as unaware of this.

As the Sevilla game proved, one morale boosting win doesn’t fix things. Continual effort from all of the players has to produce results. Starting from scratch now is the method Mourinho should adopt. One result at a time will produce a winning run and hopefully restore their damaged bid to retain the title. Prime targets Casillas and Ramos must be the ones to take charge and correct the petulant mistakes of their own doing, despite the omission of Ramos on Tuesday night. A united Madrid team is about as dangerous as a Ronaldo thunderbolt and will inevitable keep him happy concurrently.

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tomw