At a glance
- Real Madrid suffered a shock 2-1 loss to Mallorca in Son Moix on Saturday.
- Head coach Alvaro Arbeloa took the blame for the defeat.
- If FC Barcelona get past Atletico Madrid, the gap at the La Liga summit could be seven points.
Real Madrid head coach Alvaro Arbeloa tried to place the blame on himself on Saturday by saying that a shock 2-1 defeat to Mallorca is “mine”.
Los Blancos failed to lead at any point of the match in Son Moix, and fell behind to a Manu Moralnes strike on the stroke of half time.
Eder Militao’s return to action and equaliser after being out since December were bright sparks. Ultimately, however, they weren’t the main headline thanks to Vedat Muriqi’s 91st minute winner.
Speaking at a post-match press conference, Arbeloa owned the setback and revealed that he warned his players what could happen against a hungry foe fighting for La Liga survival.
“For me it’s easy to see the difficulty of the match, then the complicated thing is that the players [need to know] how to understand that today, without 200% effort, we weren’t going to win,” Arbeloa confessed.
Arbeloa criticised a lack of concentration from Real Madrid
Feeling that his side were superior in the first half, Arbeloa found that his men switched off for a second which paved the way for Monrales to pounce.
“Here you get distracted for a moment, you don’t adjust well, you lose the player you’re marking, you don’t follow him, and it costs you a goal,” he said.
“When you don’t have success in front of goal and the opponent does, in the end you end up paying for it, because this is the elite, it’s the First Division. Not having played a much better second half than we did is what hurts me the most of all”.
But still Arbeloa wanted to shoulder the blame himself
Asked if the loss was more for the players than the coach, Arbeloa tried to protect his troops by saying: “This defeat is mine, all of it. And absolutely mine.”
“What I need from them is that they are already thinking about Tuesday’s game. When they leave the dressing room this game is already over for them. I’m the one who makes the decisions, the one who makes the line-up, the one who makes the changes, the one who chooses how we have to play.
“This defeat is absolutely Real Madrid’s and I need my players to believe in winning Tuesday’s game, in that important match we have in the Champions League, a competition that is very important for us. So when they leave the dressing room they only have to think about Bayern [Munich],” Arbeloa concluded on this.
Real Madrid will have to be better against Bayern
The Tuesday that Arbeloa referenced was of course a Champions League quarterfinal first leg where 15-time winners Madrid will have to be a lot better switched on against the Bundesliga leaders.
Yet while Arbeloa can look to shield his stars all he wants, it’s them that will have to perform on the pitch and not be so pedestrian against an intense, pressing outfit that punishes lethargy.
Eduardo Camavinga in particular was picked out by Los Blancos fans for his no-show in Son Moix, and it remains to be seen if he again gets the nod against Bayern.
Arbeloa might have a mind to choose Thiago Pitarch instead, though the return of Jude Bellingham gives the manager something to think about in terms of maybe going for just one defensive sort of midfielder in Aurelien Tchouameni.
