'No gameplan, no ideas': Makelele savages Real Madrid after derby defeat exposes deep flaws
Claude Makelele has delivered a withering verdict on Real Madrid's derby display, insisting the team showed "no gameplan and no ideas" in Sunday's 2-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid — and making clear the referee was not the problem.
A derby defeat with alarming numbers
The loss was Madrid's second in their opening seven LaLiga games, leaving them already six points adrift of a Barcelona side still perfecting an unblemished start to the campaign. But it was the manner of the capitulation that truly alarmed observers.
Madrid managed just eight shots and a meagre 0.3 expected goals across the 90 minutes, against Atletico's 18 attempts and 2.35 xG — a figure boosted by the penalty from which Alejandro Grimaldo opened the scoring early in the second half. Dean Huijsen was sent off and conceded that spot-kick for denying Giuliano Simeone a clear goalscoring opportunity, yet Madrid had offered precious little in attack even before the dismissal, posting just 0.16 xG and a single shot on target in the first half.
At the other end, Atletico rubbed salt into the wounds by scoring their second through Jonathan David at the end of an 18-pass move — the longest build-up to any goal scored by either side in a Madrid derby in LaLiga since records began in 2005-06.
Makelele: 'Nothing, nothing, nothing... Absolutely nothing'
Makelele, who represented Madrid 145 times between 2000 and 2003 before working under Mourinho at Chelsea, was bemused by the disjointed, lifeless display from his former club.
"There is no understanding between the players, nor with the coach. Mourinho must talk to them," he told ESPN. "The team is weak, there is no gameplan and no clear ideas. There is nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing... Absolutely nothing. We must demand more from them."
The Frenchman's words stood in stark contrast to Mourinho's own post-match narrative, with the Madrid boss insisting the officials were to blame for the result.
Mourinho's referee row — and Atletico's retort
Mourinho claimed "the story of the game" was an inept refereeing performance from Ortiz Arias, arguing both Lee Kang-in and Cristian Romero should have been sent off — the former for a high challenge on Federico Valverde and the latter for treading on Jude Bellingham.
The Madrid coach went so far as to bring printed images of both incidents to his post-match press conference, prompting an angry response from Atletico on social media: "Stop referee harassment now."
Makelele, however, was having none of it.
"The problem is not the referee; there is an obvious deficiency in the team," he said.
What's next for Madrid
After the extended international break, Madrid host Villarreal in LaLiga on October 10, before travelling to Roma in the Champions League four days later — a testing fortnight that will do much to define the trajectory of Mourinho's troubled campaign.